Last year, comic book publisher Lion Forge Comics of St Louis, Missouri was expanding. In October they added 4 new editors then acquired comic book website The Beat. And in December, hired Greg Tumbarello from Legendary in editorial, Jeremy Atkins as Senior Publicist, junior staffers Grace Bornhoft as assistant editor,Madeline Roy as marketing associate, and more besides. Recently they hired Gail Simone as showrunner for their Catalyst Prime line.

Earlier today, Bleeding Cool heard rumours that things were going in the other direction, with editor Greg Tumbarello confirmed as being laid off by the publisher, as well as other unnamed individuals.

UPDATE: Bleeding Cool has confirmed that twelve people have been laid off by Lion Forge today.

Tumbarello worked on the Voltron and Catalyst Prime books at Lion Forge, and also brought in a number of creator-owned projects. Most significantly, perhaps, he is thought to be the person who was instrumental in bringing Gail Simone to the company to help guide their shared-universe books.

We got in touch with Jeremy (who still had his job) and, while he didn't confirm names, issued the following statement to Bleeding Cool.

Lion Forge has experienced a tremendous amount of growth over the last three years. While the company remains healthy, we have taken a hard look at how best to focus our efforts for continued success. As part of this process, we have made some difficult decisions, and none more difficult than in the case of personnel. We are thankful for the contributions made by everyone within the organization as we have grown from spirited start up to one of the most talked about publishers in graphic literature. As we move forward, we are working to continue to best position the company for both critical and sales success in a changing market. We are restructuring from the top down, and across departments to ensure that our organization's size and structure remains in line with our sales, as well as providing support for future increase in title output.

Expect to hear more, including Lion Forge's publishing plans for 2019, very soon.