Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 17:22:46 -0400 From: [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FTP 555 - Marvelcution ==== FIT TO PRINT by catherine yronwode for the week of January 8, 1996 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 555: Marvelcution: On Wednesday, January 4th, 40 Marvel employees were laid off, including 17 editors and editorial assistants, all of them given until Friday to clean out their desks. Among them were Carl Potts, Bob Budiansky, Nel Yomtov, Marc McLaurin, Joey Cavalieri, Chris Cooper, Mike Lackey, Eric Fein, Sarra Mossoff, and Mariano Nicieza. Of the 17, nine had contracts (Cavalieri's runs through Oct. 1996, for instance) and they will be paid for not working. Thursday a larger wave of layoff notices went out for Fleer, Skybox, Toy Biz, the Marvel marketing dept., the Marvel advertising dept., and the Marvel licensing dept. According to one source, the ad dept. was cut back to "one single guy" and so was the licensing dept. The production dept. remained relatively unscathed, but - 10 workstations for colouring were recently bought and the workers have been given an ultimatum: learn to do computer colouring by June or take a hike. Fleer actually dismantled its returnable sales program without any provision for dealing with the product now in stores, leaving stores with unreturnable "returnable" product - and no customer service representatives to complain to. The entire Malibu line - 9-10 titles per month - was cancelled and the staff was all fired, except for the colouring dept., which was retained. The editors let go at Malibu were Hank Kanalz, Roland Mann, and their assistants. The last Malibu books will ship in March; Editor Mark Paniccia and his assistant Dan Sheehan will stay on as a skeleton crew only to oversee production of the final issues, then they too will be laid off. According to one eyewitness report, the Malibu firings were "ugly" and security guards were stationed at the doors. The X-Men office is intact; no lay-offs there. Two people in the Spider-Man office were kept on. There are plans to increase the number of X-books and Spider-books. The 2099 books were cancelled; but Spider-Man 2099 and X-Men 2099 will be "folded into continuity" with their parent-lines. Thor was cancelled. The Hulk was not cancelled. Titles whose status is unknown to my informants: Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange, What If? Marvel's entire line of licensed books was cancelled. The licensed titles include Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Beavis and Butthead, Disney, Ren and Stimpy, Conan, Conan the Savage (yes, Conan is a licensed character), MCA Saturday Morning Cartoons, Dr. Who, Gargoyles, Masked Rider, Muppet Treasure Island (limited series) Nightmare Circus, V. R. Troopers, and Casper. Hildy Mesnick, the Barbie editor, "may stay until the inventory runs out and the licensing contract is completed." Anna Maria Cool, a Barbie artist, will be doing an Elvira back-up for Claypool a.s.a.p. Peter Sanderson, Marvel historian, was fired. Editors and assistants NOT fired were: Bob Harras plus one assistant, Mark Gruenwald plus one assistant, Bobbie Chase plus one assistant, Ralph Macchio plus one assistant, Tom Breevort plus one assistant, Kelly Corvese plus one assistant, Suzanne Gaffney, Jaye Gardener, James Felder, and Mark Powers. Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio have virtually no titles in the old "classic Marvel" line to edit, since folks from Image will be packaging them, so they will be "reassigned," although it is rumoured (unconfirmed) that DC is trying to recruit Gruenwald. (A side note on the Image-Marvel deal: sources say that Jim Lee and Rob Liefield have been given a lateness ultimatum and and sales quotas on the books they will be producing and Marvel will brook no violations of the rather stringent terms; failure to meet either the deadline or sales goals will result in immediate termination of the contract.) Rumour has it that all remaining Marvel staff will now be moved into the Malibu offices. Total number laid off: circa 275, or 40% of the company's employees. Total number of comocs editors and assistant editors laid off: 17, which is a little more than 50%, as 16 remain). Total number of books cancelled: circa 35. This diminishes the Marvel/Malibu total of circa 70 titles per month by 50%. I just finished typing the above when a fax came in from Diamond Distributors: They are abandoning their trucking line and closing 2/3 of their warehouses effective February 1st. Eight warehouses will remain. What's next? Do you really want to know? ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Back issues are available. FTP to nspace.cts.com and look in the Comics/About Comics/Comics News/Fit to Print directory. FtP is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~91mithra AND http://www2.csn.net/~searls. Responses are welcome and should be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] Fit to Print is Copyright Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.