The merger between AT&T and Time Warner into another monolingual media megacorporation has seen a massive wave of layoffs aimed primarily at Warner Bros. this week. One area that was the hardest overnight was DC Entertainment, with reports of huge swathes of staff at DC Comics and DC Universe offset.
The Hollywood Reporter has said that a shocking third of DC Comics’ editorial staff were part of about 600 layoffs at WarnerMedia on Monday, including editors such as Brian Cunningham, Mark Doyle, and Andy Khouri, the latter of which formed a large part of DC’s complete rebranding and organization of their strip transport in the establishment of the Black Label line a few years ago. Senior members of DC’s editorial operations were also not spared. THR notes that senior VP of publishing strategy and support services Hank Kanalz, VP of marketing and creative services Jonah Weiland (the founder of the comics book site Comic Book Resources, which was only at DC in 2019), and VP global publishing initiatives and digital strategy Bobbie Chase, who helped spearhead DC Comics’ very successful pressure in YA and child-oriented graphic novels in recent years, were all released.
Editor in Chief Bob Harras – who has been in control for years (together with others) for his proven protection of employees such as accused sexual harassment Eddie Berganza and permitted sexual harassment Scott Lobdell– was another big departure as part of the dismissals. However, Jim Lee, DC’s chief commercial officer, remains in place. Comicbook.com reports that AT&T, for reasons inexplicably unknown, is looking to bring in a general manager “from the world of esports” to replace this lost editorial talent, indicating a grim outlook for the publisher, even if it is its decades of work remains for new film and TV features.
DC Comics was not the only part of the broader DC Entertainment umbrella that was hit hard by the layoffs. DC Collectibles, DC’s merchandising arm that creates action figures, statues and other collector’s memorabilia based on DC properties that have been part of the company for more than two decades, has been completely cut back. As part of WarnerMedia’s shifting focus to capitalize on the success of HBO Max, a large majority of the employees working on the DC Universe streaming platform were also released. This was something expected and lang bang like previous DC Universe exclusive streaming like Harley Quinn en Doompatrol despite Max’s continued by chance relationship with access to Warner’s back catalog of DC comics.
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Batter in the best of times—often motivated by the misunderstanding of the upper echelon about what is going on in a company today –are destructive. During a global pandemic? Immediately cruel. Not to mention that these are coming while DC Entertainment has to do its job: in just two weeks, the company is set to announce DC FanDome, a 24-hour livestream event that will give fans a peek into the future of DC in films like Wonder Woman 1984 and the Zack Snyder cut again fan Justice League, their previously mentioned streaming successes, games like the long-awaited Rocksteady Suicide Squad title, and, yes, his comics. It’s hard to understand the excitement for such an event at the moment – a transmedia cavalcade that could only exist because of the hard work and legacy of a publisher who has just decimated his staff.
But with the compounding factors of the new coronavirus pandemic on the comic strip in general – a shakeup that was DC itself a large part of, ending his long-running relationship with monopolistic distributor Diamond Comics trying their own way to distribution as comic book stores began slowly reopening—On top of that, the sector is facing an unusual moment of crisis and loss.
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