IDW VP of Sales Alan Payne stepped down on Friday. Payne initiated IDW’s push into the highly competitive bookstore market when he joined the company in 2007 (see “Alan Payne Ankles Tokyopop”), and helped the company achieve significant growth during his tenure in sales.

“Alan has been a big part of our success in recent years,” said IDW CEO & Publisher Ted Adams. “We truly appreciate all of his efforts during his time here, and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”

Dark Horse announced four new staff members, including three editorial additions and a new executive assistant. Hannah Means-Shannon was named associate editor, Bekah Caden and Rachel Roberts were added as assistant editors, and Judy Khuu was named executive assistant to Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson. 

“We’re extremely proud of and confident in our new staff members. They each bring with them unique talents and new skill sets,” said Dave Marshall, Dark Horse’s editor in chief. “We’re committed to being the leader in independent comics and entertainment, and our editors play a key role in shaping the direction of our publishing line and delivering quality books to our fans. We’re lucky to have editors of this caliber.”

Means-Shannon is the former editor in chief of Bleeding Cool and Bleeding Cool magazine, and had previously contributed to The Comics Beat and Trip City. She has published scholarly essays on comics and contributed to several academic books about comics.

Roberts joined Dark Horse as Mike Richardson’s executive assistant in 2013 and now has made the jump to editorial.

Caden’s industry experience includes in internship at Top Shelf Productions.