ComicBook: -30-

A few words on my day job.

Wednesday was my last day of work at ComicBook. I was the latest in a series of layoffs, but even before that happened, I was preparing for a fairly imminent departure. Here are some thoughts that I wrote up back in September (with minor edits to allow for my former coworkers who have since been let go).

For more than 13 years, I have been proud to be a part of building ComicBook up from a small, niche website to one of the biggest and best news websites in the entertainment space. I couldn’t be prouder of what we have done there, and I’ll always be thankful for Joe Blackmon, Sean Godier, and Jim Viscardi, who all helped us reach our full potential. Joe and Sean took a chance on me with absolutely no real evidence that it was going to work out, and the life-changing adventure that came out of it is something I will always treasure.

Over the last 13 years, Joe, Jim, Jamie Lovett, Brandon Davis, and myself have worked with some of the most incredible talent in the entertainment press. The number of absolutely top-tier writers who came through our little site was pretty remarkable, and the camaraderie that I felt with the vast majority of my coworkers for over a decade is the kind of thing I would be foolish to take for granted. The odds are not good I will ever have another working experience like this one. This next step is a big one, in part because of the warmth and safety that I’m stepping away from.

I have said for years that if I won the lottery tomorrow, I wouldn’t do anything different – I would just buy ComicBook and continue to work there...with a little bit more Booster Gold coverage. That lottery win never came – I don’t actually play – but at this point, it’s academic anyway. ComicBook doesn’t have Joe, Jim, or Brandon. In recent weeks we lost several of my other friends and respected colleagues like Joe Schmidt, Jamie Jirak, Chase Magnett, Christian Hoffer, Liam Crowley, and Adam Barnhardt. ComicBook without all of those people, isn’t really ComicBook at all. I was laid off today, but even before then, I had decided that it was finally time for me to go and start the new year fresh.

For a few months now, it has been clear that it was time for a new challenge. After more than a decade in one place, it’s easy to feel stagnant, to fall into bad habits, and to feel like your potential is being wasted. Some of that is on management, and some of that is on me. I hold absolutely no ill will toward anyone I’m leaving behind. In the end, I wasn’t getting what I needed from ComicBook, and ComicBook hasn’t been getting my best work.

I love the place, and I love the people who are still there. I love the millions of people who read our work every month, and make it feasible to keep our families fed. Those readers, those colleagues, that place – they all deserve my best. Staying on past the point where I feel like I can give it would be an insult to everything we have built.

The site will go on without me, and they will continue to be the best damn comics news site in the business. You can’t possibly employ Matt Aguilar, Charlie Ridgley, Megan Peters, Nicole Drum, Chris Killian, Marc Deschamps, and Tim Adams, and NOT kick everybody else’s asses.

Every one of those people has enriched my life in ways large and small, and I’m proud to have worked alongside them, and called them my friends. When you work toward a common goal, shoulder to shoulder with the absolute best and brightest in an industry you love, it feels like anything is possible.

Jamie Lovett – you know I’d walk through fire for you, brother. It was a genuine pleasure working alongside you for so many years, and I hope one day we can do it again. I am not the same person I was back when you, Jim, Brandon and I became friends – but whenever I share a space with any of you, a little part of me feels like that person again. I can’t bring that part with me on my next journey. That part has to stay with you.

Thank you for everything, ComicBook Nation. Take care of that little piece of my heart that will always be there with you.