DC's YA leader (and long-time company vet) Jim Chadwick is retiring

One of DC's longest-serving employees, Jim Chadwick, is retiring this year at the age of 66. Chadwick, who for the past four years has been head of DC's YA and middle-grade comics line, is retiring - and retiring on his own terms.

Why? Because it's time, and it's time to live life.

"No one if forcing me to retire. All things being equal, I could probably hold on for a few more years," Chadwick writes on LinkedIn. "I’m fit, I’m healthy, I watch what I eat, I exercise every day, and I probably have as much energy as I did 20 or 30 years ago. Plus, I work in comic books! Isn’t that fun? Wouldn’t you want to do that forever?

"Maybe so. But here’s the thing. There’s something more precious than money and a career. And that’s time."

Chadwick, like many who work in comics, had a childhood ambition of becoming a comic artist. That ended up leading him into graphic design, and by 1990 to the role of DC's design services director. After three years there, he jumped to Malibu Comics as their art director - and got to live out his childhood dreams, moonlighting as artist for the series The Liberator. Chadwick was part of the deal when Marvel Comics acquired Malibu, but in 1996 as the company began to shut down, he moved on - and moved out of the industry, doing design work for companies such as Gold's Gym International, Applause Toy Company, and High Noon Studios (formerly Sammy Games).

In 2005 Chadwick returned to DC - not as a designer, but as an editor. He was hired in 2005 to edit DC's foray into manga with the CMX line (under the auspicies of its Wildstorm division). In 2010 following the closure of the WildStorm division, Chadwick moved over to DC Comics itself to work on special projects - such as overseeing DC's first ongoing, weekly digital comic Batman: Arkham City, and working on licensed comics such as Django Unchained, Fringe, Smallville, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Batman Meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Gears of War.

After joining DC proper, Chadwick rose to the ranks to senior editor and ultimately group editor. In 2019, he took over as as group editor of DC's young readers titles, overseeing all of the company's YA and middle-grade graphic novels for the past four years.

"I’m truly grateful for the time I’ve had with DC Comics the past 18 years. And for the three-and-a-half years I spent with them in New York in the early 90s," Chadwick continued, "And all the other jobs I had before and in between. But mostly for DC, a company that has treated me exceedingly well and has given me opportunities I never imagined I would ever have. And for enabling me to meet and make friends with so many wonderful people all around the world."