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Ted Adams
President
Adams is one of the founding partners of IDW and the company's Co-President. Since its start in 1999, the company has had annual increases in both gross sales and market share in the comic book direct market. Adams has managed the company's growth from a small creative services shop (which only employed the company's four initial founders) to a company with 10 full-time employees and 100+ freelancers.
Adams negotiates the company's film and video game deals, including 30 Days of Night (Mandate Pictures/Sony), Hyde (Dimension), Wake the Dead (Dimension), Aleister Arcane (Paramount) and CVO (Konami). He's a Co-Producer or Executive Producer on all of those projects. He's also the Executive Producer on the feature film Siren (based on the Sony video game) which is currently in development at Mandate Pictures.
Adams has negotiated dozens of comic book licenses including CSI, 24, Angel, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, Silent Hill, GrimJack, Sable, The Shield, Underworld, The Transformers, and many others. He also established a strong line of creator drive titles, including a number of books by Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith. IDW was named 'Publisher of the Year' in 2004, 2005, and 2006.
Adams has also written dozens of comic books (among them are: Resident Evil, the NFL's Two-Minute Warning, Mortal Kombat 4, Vigilante 8, Spawn Movie Adaptation) and has designed a variety of trading card games (among them are: NASCAR, Survivor, Bionicle, and Digimon).
Adams has a BA in Business from Southern Oregon University and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.
Robbie Robbins
EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist
Robbins is one of the founding partners of IDW and the company's Co-President. He previously served as Senior Graphic Designer and since IDW's start in 1999, the company has set a high standard for design within the comic book direct market, as well as the book market's growing graphic novel genre. Robbins created, and helps maintain, those high standards.
Robbins oversees the design and production of all IDW titles. He works closely with the company's editorial department and outside vendors to ensure that IDW's high production standards are consistently met.
Robbins also works closely with the company's other Co-President, Ted Adams, and assists with running the day-to-day operations at IDW.
Robbins was previously at Wildstorm Productions from 1995 until 1999 where he was responsible for the design and layout of advertising for the company's entire line of comic books. Robbins has also held the title of Art Director for newspaper and magazine publications.
Robbins has a BA degree in Communications from California State University, Sacramento.
Kris Oprisko
Editor/Foreign Lic. Rep
One of the founders of IDW, Kris Oprisko currently wears many hats for the company—managing various creative service projects for diverse clients such as Sony Pictures, Fox Atomic, and Marlon Wayans' 5-D Comics; editing comics including Metal Gear Solid, CVO, & Zombies: Eclipse of the Undead; localizing and editing Bandai Collectible Card Games such as Gundam M.S. War, One Piece, Naruto & Ben10; scripting videogames including ATV Offroad Fury & Warhawk; writing and creating material for style guides, story bibles, and movie pitches; and writing numerous comics such as Underworld, CSI, Clive Barker's The Thief of Always, Turistas, Metal Gear Solid, and Transformers: Prime Directive.
Oprisko was previously employed by Wildstorm Productions from 1995 until 1999 where he was Project Manager and Senior Project Manager and later ran Wildstorm's creative services division. Oprisko has a BA in political science from Franklin and Marshall College.
Chris Ryall
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Chris Ryall is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of IDW Publishing. He is responsible for developing content, assigning creative teams, overseeing all editorial, and assisting in production of the entire publishing line, as well as developing press releases, solicitation copy, letters pages and editorial pages for all comic books and graphic novels.
Ryall joined IDW as Editor-in-Chief in July 2004. In his time with the company, he has been involved in the acquisition of major comic book licenses for THE TRANSFORMERS with Hasbro, Shaun of the Dead and Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show for Universal, and other properties currently in development. He took over as the company's Publisher in October 2005.
In addition to his duties guiding the publishing line, Ryall has also written the comic book adaptations of Shaun of the Dead and George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" for Masters of Horror and has adapted short stories from famous horror writers like Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch for Doomed magazine. He is also more than halfway through a 12-part adaptation of Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show. His two-part creator-owned title, Zombies vs. Robots (co-created with artist Ashley Wood) debuted in November 2006. Also in '06, Ryall was nominated for two awards for his writing: he received a 2006 Eisner Award nomination for Best Short Story for his adaptation of Richard Matheson's "Blood Son" (also with artist Ashley Wood), and was nominated by Spike-TV for their inaugural 2006 Scream Awards, Best Film-to-Comics (he received two nominations, one for Shaun of the Dead and one for Land of the Dead.
Prior to joining IDW, Ryall was responsible for turning filmmaker Kevin Smith's Web site, Movie Poop Shoot.com, into a legitimate pop culture venture. Mr. Ryall served as Editor-in-Chief on that site for forty-four months, and has had his work on the site featured on CNN Headline News, Variety, USA Today, and the Hollywood Reporter, among other venues.
Ryall is also a former advertising copywriter and speech writer for American Honda Motor Corporation. He also wrote proposals for Dick Clark Communications, working with Stan Lee Media, among other ventures. His creative background is balanced with a tenure as a marketing executive with American Suzuki Motor Corporation, and his education at Cal State Fullerton, where he majored in Business with an emphasis in marketing.
Neil Uyetake
Art Director
Originally a native of East Los Angeles, Neil Uyetake moved to San Diego where he received his Bachelor's Degree of Art in Graphic Design from San Diego State. Shortly after graduating, Uyetake began honing his skills as a graphic designer while working for a beach community newspaper. After two years, he made the transition into the corporate world where he spent the next eight years as Art Director for three international biotech companies. In 2005, Uyetake joined IDW as Art Director, shedding his dress shirt and tie for the world of comics and publishing.
Justin Eisinger
Editor
As an Editor at IDW, Justin Eisinger finds himself juggling a wide array of responsibilities, the most prominent being his involvement bringing the company's line of trade paperbacks to market. Additionally, he handles web updates for idwpublishing.com and simmonscomics.com, maintenance of IDW's online store, and creative service trafficking. A relative "newbie" in terms of comics and graphic novels, Eisinger got started in publishing while writing news in North Carolina before relocating to San Diego where he spent nearly three years as Editor for the action sports magazine Daily Bread. Originally hailing from Ohio, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Business and Organizational Communication from The University of Akron, Eisinger was also rewarded with Undergraduate Honors by The Central States Communication Association for excellence in Public Relations.
Chris Mowry
Graphic Artist
Chris Mowry joined IDW Publishing in 2006. While working as a Production Assistant, Mowry is responsible for preparing books for lettering and printing, but can also be found doing occasional design work. Having helped work on everything from Zombies to Transformers, odds are the IDW book you're holding was on his desk at some point (amidst the various monster and Transformers toys).
Before joining IDW Publishing, Mowry spent several years in the video game industry working for Midway Games and Sega of America where he spent the majority of his time working on their creative services projects. Mowry is a graduate from the Art Institute of California, a Navy veteran, a San Diego native, and can't seem to get enough of zombies or giant monsters.
Matthew Ruzicka
Controller
When he's not meticulously counting beans in the basement or rolling around in a pile of Monopoly money, Matt Ruzicka is responsible for the financial health of IDW. He overseas all the revenue and expense transactions, prepares financial statements and assists with the day-to-day operations of the business.
Prior to joining IDW, Ruzicka worked in the public accounting field for nearly nine years where he was responsible for the planning and supervision of financial statement audits and reviews, in addition to the preparation of individual and business tax returns.
Ruzicka graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration – Accounting, and is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Alonzo Simon
Shipping Manager
Before joining IDW in July 2006, Alonzo Simon was the shipping manager at the I AM Foundation, a non-profit that donated books to children and schools around the country. As the shipping manager at IDW, Alonzo oversees management of the online store as well as handling all inventory that is processed through the office. Alonzo graduated from the University of California San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literatures in English.
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