Michael Hobson

Michael Hobson (born 8 December 1936)^[1] is the former publisher of both Marvel Comics^[2] and Scholastic Books.

Career

Hobson spent his almost fifty-year career working in almost every area of publishing. A graduate of Harvard College, he began his career at Little Brown in Boston, Massachusetts. After stints at Publishers Weekly and as a literary agent at William Morris, Hobson joined Scholastic, the global children's publishing and media company. He spent over thirteen years in various positions at Scholastic, the majority of that time as publisher of its paperback book clubs, where he was responsible for all aspects of the business, including acquisitions, editorial, marketing and distribution.

Hobson then joined Marvel Comics as publisher—a post that he held for over fifteen years. During that time, he was directly responsible for all editorial, marketing, distribution and production of Marvel's comics, magazines and graphic novels. Following his tenure as publisher, Hobson went on to run Marvel's international business as managing director of Marvel Europe, including its companies in the United Kingdom and Italy, as well as its publishing and licensing operations throughout the rest of Europe. Hobson then returned to the U.S., where he became president of Parachute Publishing, a major packager of fiction and non-fiction book series for teens and preteens, most notably R. L. Stine's immensely popular Fear Street and Goosebumps series and the popular series of books featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

In 2005, he was named a Senior Advisor to Cracked, a national humor magazine.

References