Tag Archives: alex hargett

Skybound announces multiple staffing additions and changes including Ben Abernathy as Executive Editor; Arune Singh Upped to VP, Brand

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Skybound Entertainment has announced the onboarding of three new hires joining its editorial staff—Ben Abernathy (DC Comics), Blake Kobashigawa (IDW Publishing), and Alex Hargett (IDW Publishing), alongside the promotion of Arune Singh.

Ben Abernathy joins as Executive Editor, overseeing the Energon Universe, as well as a developing a new slate of original projects from comics’ top creators. Prior to joining Skybound, Abernathy was an Executive Editor at DC Comics, overseeing the entire Batman family line of titles as well as assembling their 2024 Elseworlds imprint relaunch. Skybound is the latest step in a career spanning over two decades, with stops at Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and more. 

Blake Kobashigawa joins as Senior Director, Business Development, where he’ll be growing Skybound’s footprint outside traditional distribution channels. Blake will be creating new strategic partnerships, as well as managing licensor relations, retailer exclusive variant cover programs, foreign licensing, and more. Prior to joining Skybound, Kobashigawa has worked in sales, marketing, content strategy, operations and business development at comics publishers such as DC Comics and IDW Publishing, as well as music merchandise platform Merchbar. 

Alex Hargett joins Skybound as Director, Brand, Editorial, leading day-to-day Sales & Marketing strategy around publishing lines of business. She will be focused on further developing bookseller and librarian relationships, with a focus on growing comics readership across audiences. Hargett comes to Skybound with over twelve years of experience in publishing, focusing on sales, marketing, and publicity at various publishers including IDW Publishing, DC Comics, and Penguin Press. 

Arune Singh has been promoted to VP, Brand, Editorial. Previously Director, Brand, Editorial, Singh joined Skybound in January 2021 and has been instrumental in its marketing and sales successes. Singh has cracked open the Book Market, paving the way for the launch of Skybound Comet and expanding Skybound’s footprint with bookstores, libraries, Scholastic, and more, which has been recognized with a 2022 Publishers Weekly Star Watch honoree distinguishment. He’s also coordinated the launch of the Energon Universe, an unqualified commercial success in the Direct Market, and leveraged his relationships with comic book influencers to create buzz in the collectors’ market. In his new role as VP, Brand, Editorial, Arune will be leading the rapidly expanding Brand team to continue to create and execute innovative marketing and sales plans for a rapidly expanding publishing line. Prior to joining Skybound, Singh was instrumental in historic publicity and marketing campaigns with Marvel Entertainment, Syfy, and BOOM! Studios. 

Skybound’s Editorial leadership team is rounded out by Editorial Director Alex Antone. Also a 2022 Publishers Weekly Star Watch honoree, Antone has led tremendous growth for the company across licensed comics with Creepshow, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and the Universal Monsters line, Kickstarter campaigns including Extra Fabulous, Mr. Lovenstein, and Extremity: Signature Edition, and the young readers imprint Skybound Comet, whose releases include the acclaimed Clementine and Ava’s Demon graphic novels.  

These hirings join a handful of recent strategic executive moves at Skybound, who has been steadily fortifying its senior executive team with key hires across the company’s verticals. New additions include Jeff Chaiken as SVP, Head of Corporate Development and Strategy and Chris Paulson as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Games Publishing, as well as key executives across film, television and video games to be announced.  

IDW Expands with Six New Hires

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IDW announced today that it has added six new members to its team. IDW Publishing onboards industry veteran Alex Hargett as Book Trade and Mass Market Sales Director;  Pat O’Connell was tapped as Direct Market Sales Manager; Julia Borden signs on as Foreign Licensing Sales Manager; Lauren LePera is named the new Managing Editor, and Topher Alford joins as Senior Digital Marketing Manager. IDW also announced that they have appointed Alison Quin as the company-wide Senior Director of IT/IS.

  • Topher Alford
  • Pat O’Connell
  • Lauren LePera
  • Julia Borden
  • Alison Quin
  • Alex Hargett

As IDWP’s Book Trade and Mass Market Sales Director, Hargett will be responsible for developing, implementing and managing the sales strategy in both the national and international book trade and mass markets.

Prior to joining IDW, Hargett worked as the Trade Marketing Manager at COTY where she led the company’s business strategy and analysis, innovation launches, brand positioning and promotions. Before that, she was the Sales & Trade Marketing Manager at DC Comics, and also spent a couple of years at both Public Affairs Books and Penguin Press.

O’Connell, appointed Direct Market Sales Manager of IDWP, will be responsible for acting as the direct liaison between IDW Publishing and the Direct Market comic book retailer accounts. He will also be responsible for supporting and assisting the Sales and Marketing Department (both the Direct Market and Book Market teams), and for developing, implementing and managing the exclusive cover variant sales program, including assisting the Book Market team with exclusive book editions. Additionally, O’Connell will help coordinate IDW’s convention exclusive offerings by working directly with the editorial, production, design and management divisions of the company. He will also be responsible for relaying direct market retailer insights and concerns to the other divisions of the company.

Before coming to IDWP, O’Connell worked as a Sales Manager at Dynamite Entertainment where he curated, scheduled and recorded all digital sales, digital bundle promotions and physical backlist and frontlist direct marketing sales. Prior to that, he was a Sales Representative at DC Comics.

Borden will oversee all aspects of Foreign Licensing with international publishers, as well as assist Hargett and Penguin Random House on international English-language product distribution.

Previously, Borden managed foreign rights and sales at No Starch Press, directing D2C business through the in-house e-commerce site, book trade and mass market sales through PRHPS, as well as translation licensing for 150+ titles across 30 countries. 

LePera has joined the IDWP team as the company’s new Managing Editor where she will support the Editor-in-Chief and Director of Design & Production in overseeing the planning of production schedules for comics, books and special projects. She will also be responsible for facilitating communications between the Editorial, Design & Production, Sales & Marketing, Manufacturing and other internal departments.  

LePera previously served as the Managing Editor and Production Editor at Insight Editions, and before that worked as the Senior Production Editor at Bridgepoint Education. 

As Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Alford will oversee all digital initiatives for Publishing including social media strategy, email marketing, SEO, website content strategy, vendor account management, virtual events, direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns and special projects. Prior to joining IDW, Alford was the Marketing Strategy Manager at DC Entertainment, and previously served as the Senior Marketing Manager at Dark Horse Comics.

IDW also announced today that they have named Quin as the company-wide Senior Director of IT/IS where she will be charged with spearheading a complete assessment of the company’s existing and future technical needs, and implementing and launching new processes and policies.

Quin comes to IDW bearing more than 30 years of experience in the IT/IS field. Before joining IDW, she served as the Senior Implementation Project Manager at Xenial, Inc., the Director of IT at LEP Inc., and has also served at AWear Limited, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Virgin Entertainment Group, Drake Computer Training and Soft Tech Computers.