Dark Horse Senior Managing Editor Scott Allie revealed during the Comics and the Web panel at the ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference at New York Comic Con that Sam Humphries, the architect of the highly successfully MySpace comics program, has been laid off. 

Under Humphries’ leadership, MySpace had grown into a potent force for promoting comics, with MySpace Comics having over 240,000 friends.  Companies such as Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Top Cow, Boom, and others have used MySpace to communicate with fans and put up previews of new work.   With Humphries gone, it’s unclear to what degree the area will continue to be updated.  Humphries’ layoff is part of a broader effort by Fox to get profitable at MySpace.