Funko has cut about half the staff — including the co-founders — of Mondo, Funko’s Austin, Texas-based collectible company Purchased less than a year agoaccording to two reports and additional sources.
The layoffs mark the end of a nearly two-decade run by founders Rob Jones and Mitch Putnam, whose company was best known for alternative movie posters, vinyl music albums, and other collectibles that tapped into some of pop culture’s deepest fandoms. The wrap And gizmodo both reported the layoffs Friday afternoon; Sources close to the matter confirmed details of both reports to Polygon.
Mondo was founded in 2004 as the T-Shirt subsidiary of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain. It became known for its stylized reinterpretations of movie posters, beginning with screenings of several classics at the Alamo Drafthouse. A decade later, licensing deals with Lucasfilm and Disney helped propel Mondo to the forefront of poster makers; Numerous top artists came to work with Mondo.
Many of these artists were outraged by the summons termination of Mondo’s leadership and vowed not to work with what remains of Funko.
That Funko effectively decimated MONDO by firing the creative old guard of Rob Jones, Mitch Putnam and Eric Garza, among others, is a fucking farce and sheer idiocracy. The end of an era, but I’m with them on whatever they choose to do next and I think every Mondo artist will follow.
— Daniel Danger (@tinymediaempire) March 24, 2023
The Wrap reported that Funko “killed” Mondo’s poster division, leaving its toy and vinyl divisions behind. And those two could still be in danger, The Wrap said.
At the beginning of the month, Funko reported severe losses in its quarterly report to investors. This included the write-off of about $30 million (retail value) of Big Head figures that could not be sold send them to the landfill.
