Scott Dunbier’s Act 4 imprint heads to Skybound with new Connoisseur Editions. Dark Horse has laid off a significant number of employees. TwoMorrows Publishing signs with Lunar.
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Episode Transcript:
Skybound snags Scott Dunbier’s Act 4.
Dark Horse goes through layoffs.
TwoMorrows Publishing signs with Lunar.
This is Comic Book Club News for February 6, 2025.
Skybound Will Publish Scott Dunbier’s Act 4 Connoisseur Editions:
Last year, the legendary Scott Dunbier announced he was leaving IDW to start his own imprint, now called Act 4 Publishing. And in a bit of a coup, Skybound has signed a multi-year, worldwide distribution deal starting this Fall.
Why is this a big deal? Dunbier is the guy behind the Artist’s Edition format, which started at DC and then moved with Dunbier to IDW. And he’s innovating again with Connoisseur Editions, a new format through Skybound and Image Comics. They feature a slipcase and premium finishing, and collect a complete comics series in an oversized, readable format.
They’re also starting with two biggies: Jim Aparo’s DC Classics Artist’s Edition and Darwyn Cooke’s The Complete Spirit Connoisseur Edition, which will arrive in September and October 2025, respectively. Future releases include J. Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl Artist Edition, Dave Stevens’ Covers and Stories’ Connoisseur Edition, Jason Pearson’s Body Bags Artist’s Edition, Paul Smith’s Leave It to Chance Artist’s Edition, and EC Comics Artist’s Editions.
Dark Horse Comics Lays Off Multiple Employees:
The latest bit of bad news from the comic book industry? Dark Horse has laid of multiple employees from the company.
While the number of employees and names have not been released, The Beat reports they hear it’s possibly more than a dozen employees. Those do include associate editor Konner Knudsen, who worked on the Black Hammer line, who announced they had been laid off on BlueSky.
In a statement provided to ICv2, Dark Horse confirmed the layoffs, explaining that, “On February 3, Dark Horse made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce staff. After experiencing a period of significant growth, we find ourselves needing to take steps in response to increasing overhead, changing market conditions, and external economic factors, We have begun to streamline all areas of the company in order to continue producing the quality content and products that have been our trademark since day one. Again, this has been an extremely hard decision and not one taken lightly. We appreciate the dedication, commitment, and hard work of our colleagues, and wish everyone affected success in their future endeavors.”
At least part of the cause is likely that parent company Embracer, an equity firm, has seen significant losses particularly on the gaming side of the company. Our thoughts are with those from Dark Horse impacted by the layoffs.
TwoMorrows Signs With Lunar:
TwoMorrows Publishing is the latest comic book to jump shop from Diamond, and they’ve signed an exclusive agreement with Lunar Distribution.
Said publisher John Morrow on the move, For over 30 years, weve had a wonderfully devoted fan base for our publications, and have enjoyed a great working relationship with Diamond Comic Distributors during that time. But due to their bankruptcy, weve had to absorb substantial losses for payments owed on our late 2024 and early 2025 releases. While I fervently hope Diamond can recover from this, our new agreement with Lunar is not just our most secure option to keep producing and getting our products into customers hands, its also ripe with new opportunities to better service comics retailers, and market our products more effectively.”
The partnership is effective immediately, and starts with issues hitting stores next week. TwoMorrows joins Lunar as an exclusive client alongside DC Comics, Image Comics, and more.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And boy this has become sort of a business pages podcast, huh? Fun times!
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