Three editors from DC Comics’
Vertigo
imprint have been laid off as part of the company’s restructuring, The Beat
reports: Joan Hilty, Pornsak Pichetshote and Jonathan Vankin.
Announced
last Tuesday, the reorganization leaves DC’s comics-publishing division in
New York City while moving the company’s administrative and digital and multimedia operations — including, presumably, the WildStorm offices now based in La Jolla, Calif. — to a Warner Bros.-managed property in Burbank, Calif. As many as 80 of DC’s estimated 250 employees
are expected to be fired or relocated.
A cartoonist and veteran editor, Hilty began working for DC in 1995 in the Trading Cards department before moving to the DC Universe and Vertigo imprints, where she gave writer Brian K. Vaughan his break on
Swamp Thing. During her tenure Hilty oversaw a variety of books, from
Blue Beetle to
Manhunter to the animation-based titles. In 2008 she and Vankin began focusing on Vertigo’s graphic-novel acquisitions, which included G. Willow Wilson’s
Cairo and Matt Kindt’s
Revolver.
Pichetshote, frequently cited as a rising star at the company, edited such titles as
The Unwritten,
Sweet Tooth and
Joe the Barbarian. He’s rumored to be targeted for recruitment by Marvel.
A journalist turned author and comics writer, Vankin penned titles like
The Witching,
Vertigo Pop! Tokyo and
Vertigo Pop! Bangkok before becoming an editor for the imprint in 2004. He oversaw such books as
Hellblazer and
The Quitter, as well as some of the Vertigo Crime line.
