As we recently announced, Sam Kusek has left his role as Senior Outreach Lead for Comics at Kickstarter, but he hinted at a new job in comics. And now we know where he ended up: at Oni Press as business development director.
In this new role, Mr. Kusek will oversee Oni’s programming and operational strategy for crowdfunding platforms including Kickstarter, the growth of Oni’s e-commerce footprint, and the further development of Oni’s inbound and outbound licensing programs across comics and graphic novels, tabletop and video games, merchandise and collectibles, and more.
This is another significant hire for Oni’s management team. Prior to joining Kickstarter, Kusek was a special projects manager at Boom!, where he oversaw some of the largest crowdfunding campaigns. He also worked as Operations Manager for Tiny Onion. We’ve also helped launch over 1,200 comic and graphic novel campaigns on Kickstarter. All of this while running my own company, Cave of Monsters Games, a publisher of boutique tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs).
Like most comcis publishers, Oni is also moving more towards crowdfunding. Last year, the Murder Drones graphic novel campaign grossed over $1.8 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing Kickstarter of all time.
“I’ve worked with Sam professionally many times over the past few years, and I can safely say he shares the same great passion that drives everyone at Oni: collaborating with the most talented creators in the industry to tell impactful stories that reach the widest possible audience,” Hunter Golinson, president and publisher of Oni, said in a statement. “With a proven track record of reaching fans and readers around the world, Sam is the perfect addition to our formidable and growing team as Oni prepares to break even more new ground in the coming months and years.”
“2025 has been a truly exciting year for comics. I can’t think of a publisher pushing the boundaries of comics more than Oni Press,” Kusek said in his statement. “Given our many recent successes, we’re excited about the opportunity to help one of the industry’s most important independent publishers define even bigger and unexpected frontiers. We have big plans, so stay tuned!”
Those big plans include Oni’s reimagining of Archie Comics, the acquisition of the rights to Matt Kindt’s Flux House, and a number of high-profile projects including Patrick Horvath’s Free for All. “First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth” by Angelique Rocher, Alvin Epps, Bex Glendining, and Millicent Monroe. and Gender Queer: An Annotated Edition by Maia Kobabe.
And there will definitely be many surprises. Some of them will be shown at ComicsPRO in February.
Something like this:
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