Months after leaving Valiant Entertainment, the company’s former executive editor Joe Illidge — whose resume also includes Milestone Media, DC’s Batman group and a senior editor position at Lion Forge Comics — has signed up with independent publisher A Wave Blue World, in a new role as the company’s editorial director.
The indie publisher debuted in 2005, created by Tyler & Wendy Chin-Tanner. Under the tagline “Making Stories Matter,” AWBW has gained attention with a number of releases highlighting diversity in terms of both content and talent base, including All We Ever Wanted: Stories of A Better World and This Nightmare Kills Fascists, both of which illustrate the publisher’s stated intent to use comic books as a “medium for change.”
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“We’re in a renaissance of entertainment,” Illidge, who is said to be working to develop projects celebrating heroism and inclusion at the publisher, said in a statement. “I’m excited to work as a member of A Wave Blue World’s team to continue the company’s mission, of providing a home where writers and artists create personal and imaginative books that collectively serve as the road map for a better world.”
Joining A Wave Blue World simultaneously with Illidge is former director of retailer relations at AfterShock Comics Lisa Y. Wu, who’ll serve as the company’s new vice president of sales and marketing. “A Wave Blue World addresses the needs of an evolving market with engaging and resonant stories,” Wu added. “I have enormous respect for the team and look forward to bringing more awareness to a publisher that fits my core values in being a retailer and fan advocate.”
“Bringing Lisa and Joe on board the AWBW team represents a new era of growth for our company,” executive director/co-publisher, Wendy Chin-Tanner explained about the new hires. “Their gifts are precisely what we need for marshaling our collective resources towards a future where we can each do what we do best to create visionary comics and graphic novels of exceptional quality and deliver them to new audiences.”
“Joe and Lisa have proven themselves as leaders in their respective fields, and they’ve done it all with a genuine love of comics,” president/co-publisher Tyler Chin-Tanner went on. “We’re lucky to have them work for AWBW as we make the next step forward.”
