UPDATED: Virgin Comics Shuts Down New York Office
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Virgin Comics Shuts Down New York Office CREDIT: |
Confirming reports that have been running through the grapevine for the past few days, Publisher’s Weekly reports that Virgin Comics has shut down its publishing unit in New York, which oversaw its comic book publishing arm. It is unclear if the shuttering will affect Virgin Comics’ other media projects, which include movie adaptations, video games, and most notably in recent weeks, a joint web-based animation project with Grant Morrison, MBX. According to PW, the closing of the New York branch does not affect Gotham Entertainment, the partner in the enterprise based in Bangalore, India.
According to sources speaking with Newsarama, Virgin will continue to own the rights for the properties that were published under its banner, either outright, or a percentage of the rights shared with celebrity creators who were involved with development. Virgin Comics was formed in 2006 by Virgin Group’s Sir Richard Branson, author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and Gotham Entertainment Group. Chopra’s son, Gotham, along with Sharad Devarajan saw to the day to day activities of the company. Virgin Comics launched three lines of titles: Shakti, which was heroic characters based on Indian and Hindu mythology; Director’s Cut, which was designed to be an imprint to showcase the works of film directors; and Virgin Voices, the company’s most experimental line, which was home to projects that were originated by actors and musicians and written by othersVirgin Comics announced today that it will be reorganizing its operations and closing its New York office to consolidate in an LA base.
The Company is currently working with management to restructure the business and will release its future plans in the next few weeks.
Sharad Devarajan, CEO, said, “We remain excited about the business and partnerships we have built through Virgin Comics and are working towards a restructuring that properly takes the business forward. The decision to scale down the New York operations and concentrate on core activities is due to the current macro-economic downturn and is in no way a reflection on the dedicated and valuable employees we have had the privilege to work with.”