According to Bleeding Cool, and seemingly confirmed in a tweet by Jeff Lemire, it appears that their longtime Valiant Editor-in-Chief Warren Simons has resigned from the company. This comes on the heels of various other Valiant staffers, most recently Vice President of Marketing Hunter Gorinson, that have followed the sale of Valiant Entertainment to Chinese entertainment company DMG.
Simons has a reputation for being of the best editors in comics, and had been with the company since 2011, and EiC since 2014. Simons has been credited with not just organizing one of the most interconnected universes in comics, but giving creators space to do their own thing, while keeping the line tight and feeling unified. The fact that Simons was able to lure both Lemire and Matt Kindt, two of the most in-demand creators in all of comics, to the fledgling line early on in its relaunch is a testament to the reputation that Simons commands in the industry.
It can be easy to read a serious change in tone in the behind the scenes leadership at Valiant after DMG entered the picture. Speaking personally, I’ve had a fair amount of interaction with the folks at Valiant, and it appeared to be one of the most in sync publishers I’ve ever dealt with. The team of Simons, CCO/CEO Dinesh Shamdasani, and Publisher Fred Pierce seemed to be on the same page, stressing a smaller line based around quality talent and publishing the absolute best comics possible. Shamadasani, in particular, seemed to eat, sleep, and breathe Valiant, and he left his position as a condition of the sale (though he reportedly remains a consultant). When I conducted this interview, it would have seemed insane to me that 2/3 of this crew would be gone some 14 months later.
This has not been officially addressed by Valiant as of yet, nor has a replacement been named.
