Yesterday, Joe Pruett announced on the Desperado website that his company would be parting ways with Image this summer after a partnership of 2½ years. Black Mist #4, solicited for May, will be their final co-publishing venture, and other titles like Common Foe and Paul Jenkins Sidekicks will finish out their run at Image.  Pruett’s company Desperado Publishing will begin publishing under its own banner with eight solicited titles this coming July.  The website itself will be redesigned throughout this month.

Pruett admitted, "Some people may feel that we’re being overly aggressive with our upcoming publishing schedule (8 -10 titles per month), but the fact is that we’re not really a new company — we’ve been publishing for over two years now — but rather an existing company that is expanding by just a few titles per month. We’re just not going to be listed under the Image banner any longer."

Pruett said the company would continue to "focus on diversity. The market needs to be diverse if it is to grow in all of the exciting new avenues that are presenting themselves to our industry. We plan to a part of that movement by allowing our creators to be as diverse with their projects as they need to be, as long as the quality remains high."

Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, has emailed industry professionals an update on their efforts to help Dina Babbitt, a survivor of Auschwitz whose portraits of fellow concentration camp victims (which commandants forced her to paint) are currently in the possession of  (and on display at) the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland.  Mrs. Babbitt, a retired animator and ex-wife of legendary Disney animator Art Babbitt, has been struggling to have her original artwork returned to her for three decades, and last fall Dr. Medoff enlisted the help of fellow animators, cartoonists and comic book creators – an effort  spearheaded by comics legend Joe Kubert.

Dr. Medoff’s latest letter states that "In recent weeks, the Wyman Institute has been circulating a petition among attorneys and legal scholars, supporting Mrs. Babbitt’s struggle.  It will be sent shortly to the Polish authorities, and released to the public and media."

The Wyman Institute is organizing an auction of comic and cartoon artwork to support Mrs. Babbitt’s struggle.  I The auction will include artwork donated from Ralph Bakshi, John Romita Sr. and John Romita, Jr., "Butch" Guice, Walter Simonson, Don Perlin, Lynn Johnston, Drew Geraci, Dave Simons, Sal Amendola, Jon Bogdanove, James E. Lyle, Jim Keefe, Guy Gilchrist, Mike Vosberg, Rob Stolzer, John Cassaday and Greg Theakston, with many others pledging to contribute. 

ComicMix will bring you auction details as the date approaches.