IDW Entertainment copublisher Mark Doyle and Top Shelf marketing manager Holly Atchison were among four employees let got at the comics publisher last week, including one person in production and one in shipping. Tara McCrillis remains as president of publishing operations.
Doyle joined IDW as editorial director in 2021 to oversee the IDW Originals line of creator driven periodicals and graphic novels. The line was relatively short lived, with new development shut down last year. Doyle was named copublisher alongside McCrillis following the 2023 reorganization.
The departures mark just the latest round of workforce downsizing at IDW over the past two years. In April 2023, the publisher reorganized after laying off 39% of its staff and delisting itself from the NYSE. And Doyle’s exit was only the latest in a steady stream of them at the top of the company—a number of them voluntary—leaving industry observers wondering who will run IDW's editorial department. (IDW declined to comment for this story.)
In June, Jamie S. Rich, left the company to join an as-yet unnamed start-up comics publisher alongside producer Eric Gitter, former Boom! Studios publisher Filip Sablik, and artist Jeremy Haun. Editor Scott Dunbier left the company in April after 16 years running special projects, where he oversaw the multi-award winning Artist’s Editions reprint line, and he has since announced his own publishing company, Act 4, which will produce similar volumes. And chief digital officer Josh Frankel left this June, according to his Linkedin page, and has since launched his own custom publishing company.
Still, all is not bleak at IDW. Company financial filings show that IDW has cut its losses, posting a $237,000 loss in the first quarter of 2024 compared to a nearly $2 million loss in 2023. And in June, parent company IDW Media Holdings announced a private placement of shares to existing shareholders to raise $2.3–$3 million. According to a report in ICv2, publishing revenue was down in the first quarter of 2024 compared to 2023 in most segments excepting the book market, where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles boosted sales by $1.2 million, and direct-to-consumer sales were up $115,000.
The red-hot Turtles franchise remains the biggest bright spot at the publisher. IDW reupped its publishing license for the franchise with Paramount earlier this year in time for the Turtles’ 40th anniversary, which will be the focus of IDW’s efforts at New York Comic Con. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, based on a long-lost story by series creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, has sold more than 800,000 copies; a sequel came out earlier this year.
Patrick Horvath’s Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, an Originals title, has been another success. Described as “Dexter meets Richard Scarry,” the periodical version was a hit in comics shops, and the collected edition is out this month.
