As of last Thursday, Virgin Comics’ New York office has been shut down and operations suspended.  According to an announcement today, the company “will be reorganizing its operations and closing its New York office to consolidate in an LA base.”   CEO Sharad 

Devarajan said the company is “working towards a restructuring that properly takes the business forward.”  Devarajan blamed "the current macro-economic downturn" for the restructuring. 

The company was formed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Books, author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and Gotham Entertainment, Marvel’s licensee for south Asia (see “Virgin Comics”).  Management, including Devarajan, is trying to put together a new ownership group (which could include some elements of current ownership) to revive the company. 

The company’s product line was eclectic to say the least, with properties that ranged from porn star Jenna Jameson’s Shadow Hunter to The Stranded, produced in conjunction with Sci Fi Channel.  Most recently, Virgin had announced new projects with Grant Morrison (see “Grant Morrison’s ‘MBX’”) and Stan Lee (see “Stan Lee To Create New Universe”).  

Virgin has several intellectual property co-development deals with companies including Perspective (see “Virgin Comics Inks Deal with Perspective”), Studio 18 (see “Virgin Comics and Studio 18 Team Up”) and Sci Fi Channel (see “Sci Fi Channel Teams Up with Virgin Comics”).  

Virgin had been quite successful in getting TV and film development deals for its properties and had a number in the pipe, including The Leaves (see “Summit Bags ‘The Leaves’”), The Megas (see “Mostow Developing ‘The Megas’ Movie”), Virulents (see ‘Virgin Catches a Movie Deal’), Gamekeeper (see ‘Ritchie to Direct Gamekeeper’), and Secret of the Seven Sands (see ‘Virgin Comics Lands Movie Deal’).