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Today, Marvel Staff Decide To Move From New York To Los Angeles Or Not
Humberto Ramosposts on X, “Today is a crucial day for everyone at @MarvelComicsHQ , my love and respect to everyone you who wear these colors with joy, professionalism and pride. I love you all. #thehouseofideas”
Today is the day Marvel Comics employees in New York have had to decide whether to accept the deal to move coasts and relocate to Los Angeles at Marvel and Disney’s Burbank offices, or to take the redundancy package offered to them. I understand that while the deal to move is considered attractive to younger staff members without specific ties to New York, for those with families and kids, it is considerably less attractive. There are also staff members who have no interest in living on the West Coast rather than the East Coast.
Two months after the company informed staff at a Midtown town hall, the relocation of Marvel’s Comics and Franchise division from Manhattan to Burbank, California, remains on track to be completed by July next year. More than 100 New York-based employees have been asked to move or face the end of their roles at the publisher. The shift ends nearly 90 years of Marvel’s publishing operations in the city where the company was founded and was preceded by a cleaning out of executives across the company.
The decision was driven by the upcoming expiration of Marvel’s lease on its Avenue of the Americas offices and a deliberate push to place the comics team under the same roof as Marvel Studios and parent company Disney. In the internal memo circulated after the July town hall, executives Brad Winderbaum, Head of Television, Animation, Comics, and Franchise, and David Abdo, General Manager: Comics And Franchise, stated the move “will position the team beside our broader creative organisation and create opportunities for collaboration across both Marvel and Disney.” Their stated goal is “to continue to make the best comic books in the business.” Stephen Wacker is now Editor-in-Chief, and C.B. Cebulskihas relocated to Japan in his new position as Editor of Asia Originals (briefly stopping by Korea to take the stage with prime ministers and presidents), focusing on Marvel’s original graphic fiction and manga projects.
Orientation sessions for relocating staff and their families began shortly after the announcement. Marvel has emphasised support for affected employees throughout the year-long transition, though the practical reality remains stark: stay and move to LA, or leave the company. It has, as you might gather, been a stressful day for many. Good luck, everyone. I hope it goes as well as it can, and if anyone fancies setting up a New York-based comics publisher in, say, a year and the end of certain non-compete agreements, you might have your pick of some people with an awful lot of experience.
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