Jamie S. Rich Moves from Tapas to IDW
IDW Publishing has hired industry veteran Jamie S. Rich as Executive Editorial Director and brought in two new hires as Senior Editors as well.
Rich’s responsibilities will include developing licensed comics and graphic novels for IDW Publishing as well as managing the editorial staff. “IDW has a tremendous legacy for bringing people’s favorite characters from across genres and media to life in new and exciting ways,” Rich said in a statement accompanying the announcement, adding, “The editorial team has been doing some phenomenal work, and I look forward to innovating with them further.”
Rich began his comics career at Dark Horse Comics, then moved on to Oni Press, where he was Editor in Chief until 2004. He was a Group Editor at DC, moved to Tapas Media, which has hired a number of former DC editors (see “Tapas Hires Former Vertigo Editor”). Rich is also the writer of Lady Killer, 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and You Have Killed Me, collaborating with artist Joelle Jones on all three, and co-editor (with Sarah Gaydos) of the Eisner Award-winning anthology Love Is Love.
Senior Editor Charles Beacham will be responsible for IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. Beacham was an Assistant Editor at Marvel for three years, where he worked on a number of properties, including Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Star Wars. After that, he moved to Activision, where he oversaw the development of the comic based on their Destiny 2 sci-fi shooter game.
The third new hire, Russ Busse, will be Senior Editor in the Originals Division, focusing on developing new middle-grade and young adult graphic novels. Busse has worked at Abrams Books and Little Brown Books for Young Readers as well as doing a wide range of freelance work, editing books for Marvel, Warner Bros., Hasbro, and others.
Meanwhile, Jeff Boison left his position as Director of Sales and Publishing Planning at Image Comics last week, according to The Beat. Boison came to Image in 2016; he had previously been Vice President – Publishing Planning and Collected Editions at DC, but declined to move to California when the publisher relocated (see “Dark Horse VP Michael Martens Leaving the Company”).
Source: ICv2
