Hello faithful readers! Kate here, back again to provide a review of the past week’s comics news for people like me, who log in to Twitter once a week and have no idea what people are talking about most of the time. This week, it’s all about publishing and specifically, what NOT to do, because Oni Press is at it again.
So, some backstory with Oni Press. A little over three years ago, back in May 2019 Oni Press and Lion Forge merged with disastrous results.
It was spun Wednesday morning by the New York Times as a bold step for the future, but the actual reality of it is that a predominantly Black-owned company is merging into a company owned and operated out of Portland, Oregon, a city and state with a nothing-less-than notorious reputation for anti-Black racism. Oni’s first move was then to fire its only Black editor employee, Desiree Wilson, and Lion Forge, not to be outdone, proceeded to immediately axe Steenz, also an editor, also Black, and incidentally one of the creators of Archival Quality, which was an award-winning book published by Oni.
Fast forward three years and, oops, they did it again. Not the merger, but firing more prominent employees who are people of color. Steenz, who would know better than anyone, posted this tweet in response.
As a creator, honestly and truly fuck Oni Press. But mostly fuck Polarity for ruining the lives of so many once again. Talented creatives getting laid off once the company realizes they need to pay royalties and that running a publishing company is expensive? Seems familiar.
— Steenz! (@oheysteenz) July 14, 2022
But wait! There’s more! And they’re going a step further by pretty much ending all of their creator-owned IP. Desiree had something to say about that, also presumably speaking from experience and offering advice.
I have it on pretty good authority that Oni is dropping all their creator-owned stuff next and keeping IP only. I'm serious, creators, protect yourselves and if you need help figuring out how to get outstanding payments, ensuring you get your rights back, etc, my inbox is open.
— desiree — queries closed, updates only (@swindlesoiree) July 14, 2022
Obviously, creators who have had or were supposed to have books with Oni are wondering what is up, and they’re being very public with their inquiries. To the point where Oni rushed to post this poorly worded statement:
— Oni Press (@OniPress) July 15, 2022
It’s precisely the kind of quality statement that you’d expect from a company whose PR person left last month. For more tea, check out this article on The Popverse for more of the story and I’m sure this will not be the last we hear about it, especially if Polarity will be selling Oni sometime soon, as people are speculating.
And that is honestly quite enough car crash to watch this week. Someday, I hope someone writes the unauthorized oral history of this whole Oni Press, Lion Forge, and Polarity debacle and I will read it with as much horror and awe as I do with all the brand scandal documentaries on Hulu. Speaking of, it’s time to go back to watching the one on Victoria’s Secret.
