A sad day for comics

I accidentally happened to come across this article in Publishers Weekly about Virgin comics being shut down. Just to make sure its not a rumour, I did a bit of searching and found that many other sources - including the New York Times and Wikipedia had reported the same. According to CEO Sharad Devarajan, the company was “restructuring” and would relocate to new and as yet unspecified offices in Los Angeles. But in fact all the 8 employees at its New York office had been laid off, which is giving rise to escalating fears of dissolution of the venture. The reason for this step is unclear. In case you're not too familiar with Virgin comics, here's the Wikipedia link. And here's the link to the official website, which, however is still online and running.
This is definitely a sad time for the comics industry, and specially, the Indian comics industry. With quality titles like Devi, Ramayan 3392 A.D., its sequel Ramayan Reloaded, Snake Woman, and its regular mythology series - India Authentic along with mainstream comics like Voodoo child, 7 brothers, Gamekeeper, and of late, a revamped version of UK superhero Dan Dare and Nowhere Man with a stunning aray of contributors including everyone from spiritual guru Deepak Chopra to movie industry veterans Shekhar Kapoor, John Woo, and Nicholas Cage to comic book heavyweights like Garth Ennis, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin entertainment had almost succeeded in their mission of bringing stories rooted in Indian cultutre and the best talent from the Indian subcontinent to mainstream comics. With a huge fanbase, it was doing the kind of business Manga does all over the world. Too bad things had to end like this. All we can do is hope that Virgin recovers and wont be remembered as just another flash in the pan.