It looks like Polarity is slashing Oni Press to the bare minimum as today news broke that there were four more layoffs at the publisher. This is the latest round as two top staffers, James Lucas Jones and Charlie Chu, were laid off two weeks ago. Senior VP of sales and marketing Alex Segura, sales manager Henry Barajas, senior editor Amanda Meadows, and editor Jasmine Amiri were all let go today.

With less than a week to go before San Diego Comic-Con, the layoffs make no sense and are sure to further fuel discussion as to what’s going at the publisher. Creators with projects unannounced and already published are in the dark as to what’s going on based on comments on Twitter. Many have talked about regaining their rights and pulling their projects from the publisher as well as questionable sales/payment reporting.

We’ve heard through the rumormill the parent company Polarity is focused on their animation division and cutting Oni to focus on licensed IP after the publisher was hit hard during the pandemic. Rumors have swirled about a sale as well.

With the publisher celebrating 25 years, it has canceled two panels at San Diego Comic-Con celebrating that achievement.

Oni Press was purchased and merged with Lion Forge in May of 2019. Soon after the announcement, Oni staff were laid off eclipsing the news of the acquisition. With SDCC coming, it looks like Polarity again fumbles putting itself even more in the spotlight with negative news and with a timing that it’ll be dragged out.