Marco Davanzo Quits Executive Director Of ComicsPRO After Twelve Years

Posted in: Comics, Conventions, Events, Pop Culture, san diego comic con | Tagged: comicspro, Marco Davanzo, Shannon Live

Marco Davanzo Quits Executive Director Of ComicsPRO After Twelve Years

Marco Davanzo quits as the Executive Director of ComicsPRO after Twelve Years... who will replace him?

Published Sat, 25 Jul 2026 09:57:12 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Marco Davanzo is stepping down as ComicsPRO Executive Director after 12 years, with a board search now underway.
• Davanzo says the timing is right to focus on growing his store, after helping lay the groundwork for February’s event.
• ComicsPRO president Joe Murray praised Davanzo’s steady leadership and his role building the annual conference.
• Under Davanzo, ComicsPRO grew into a key comics retail force, boosting education, community outreach, and market strength.

I don't know about you, but I am totally going to blame Dennis Barger for this. I mean, I usually do, at some point, I'll be right. At the ComicsPRO retailer event held yesterday at San Diego Comic-Con, Marco Davanzo, Executive Director of ComicsPRO for the last twelve years, announced he is quitting. The transition is expected to take a couple of months, and the ComicsPRO board has launched a search for their next Executive Director. No, Dennis, not you.

"It's been my absolute pleasure to be Executive Director for ComicsPRO for these last 12 years, but it's time for me to step back and let someone else lead the organisation so that I can spend more time growing my store," said Marco Davanzo. "We've laid the groundwork for the February Annual Conference, and with the current board's level of involvement, I feel comfortable passing the baton. There is a strength when retailers get together, and ComicsPRO will always have a special place in my heart."

"Marco has been a steady, guiding hand for ComicsPro through some incredibly challenging times," said Joe Murray, President of the ComicsPRO Board of Directors. "In addition to his skilled leadership, Marco has turned the ComicsPRO Annual Conference into the must-attend industry event of the year!"

In his period as Executive Director is unquestionable that he has led the retailer activist group from a small grouop of moaning retailers with a grudge against Diamond, to one of the most important groups in American comic books, with publisher executives flying from one coast to the other to bribe pitch comic book retailers with their latest comic book lines in which everything you knew was wrong and nothing will be the same again. But also, and more importantly, increasing education amongst comic book retailers about who their comic shop could be, how it could prosper, how it might expand, how it might work with their local community and foster new readers, especially in the light of the appeal of manga, Dog Man and Absolute Batman. And while the bankruptcy of Diamond Comic Distributors hit hard, ComicsPRO held bring manyh retailers out of it. Right now, we are looking at a healthy, profitable, growing comic book market in the USA, with more stores opening than closing. While there are many who will claim this success, ComicsPRO should be one of them, and Marco Davanzo should be the one who helped make all that happen. By the way, can I say that you could save yourself two months looking, Shannon Live is right there…

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