Industry Shifts: Sarah Gaydos To Oni, Joe Illidge To Valiant

While, thankfully, the massive industry shifts we’ve been witnessing lately, with executives, editors, and PR folks moving from one company to another, or even leaving comics, has slowed down a little, that hasn’t stopped a couple more fairly seismic events from taking place, and still pivoting on two publishers who have been enduring great change lately: IDW and Valiant.
Longtime editor at IDW, Sarah Gaydos, previously at Wildstorm, has made a move to oversee licensed comics at Oni Press as Editorial Director of Licensed Publishing. Gaydos has a sterling reputation in her field, and is a big win for Oni, and a substantial loss for IDW, who already saw the departure of Chris Ryall as EIC and Steven Scott as head of PR. We look forward to seeing what positive developments she will bring to Oni Press.

Formerly a Senior Editor at Lion Forge, where he oversaw the Catalyst Prime universe, Joe Illidge has joined Valiant Entertainment as Executive Editor. Illidge was also formerly with Milestone and DC Comics, and as Lion Forge has been gathering momentum under his watch, they will no doubt feel this move keenly. Illidge brings a great deal of experience, particularly in shared universe hero comics, to Valiant.
However, the hire of Illidge to Valiant follows on the heels of strong rumors that Valiant EIC Warren Simons will soon be departing the publisher as part of the exodus prompted by the takeover by DMG that resulted in the departure of former CEO Dinesh Shamdasani and former VP of Marketing and Communications, Hunter Gorinson.

Big changes at Valiant, however, have also resulted in the hire of Mel Caylo, formerly of Boom! Studios, to the position of Director of Marketing, and the promotion of several staff members, including Atom! Freeman to VP of Sales, Peter Stern to Director of International Publishing & Merchandising, Victoria McNally to Senior Marketing & Communications Manager, and Annie Rosa to Sales Operations Manager.
No doubt there will be hiring announcements from IDW in due course to fill out their staff positions, and we’ll see yet more changes in comics. 2018 is becoming  a record year for shifts in the industry.