Boom! Studios Acquires Archaia

In a stunning move that consolidates two revered indie comics publishers, Deadline reports that BOOM! Studios have finalized a deal to buy Archaia Entertainment. The entertainment site reports that the Archaia brand will live on as an imprint of BOOM! "We are thrilled and excited to join with BOOM!," Archaia President and Chief Operating Officer Jack Cummins, who will continue in the same role, said. "BOOM! is very committed to maintaining the brand we've worked so hard to build and preserving our relationship with our creators, fans, and retailers. They're fans of Archaia first and foremost, and are avidly working behind the scenes to expand our market penetration and carry our catalog deeper into retail channels. Archaia readers can expect the same editorial approach that has garnered industry-wide awards but we will have a much stronger platform to deliver our content in all forms and channels. I am personally looking forward to bringing our team together with the fantastic team Ross has built." BOOM! CEO and founder Ross Richie added, "Archaia has a terrific track record for creating award-winning, beautiful books with high production values. Jack Cummins, Stephen Christy, Mark Smylie, and the entire Archaia team have built an amazing publisher. With BOOM!'s resources, Archaia fans will see more of the books they love, while retailers will enjoy better business through stronger trade terms." The companies also plan to put key items from the Archaia catalog back into print. BOOM! Executive Chairman Scott Lenet of the venture capital firm DFJ Frontier noted, "We are excited to be investors in a profitable, growing company with a fantastic early track record of creating, curating, and marketing properties that audiences genuinely love. We have ambitious plans to continue to fund the company's expansion in comics, graphic novels, and other media." BOOM! is working on bringing Jeremiah Harm, based on the comic book by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, and John Mueller, to a film which Timo Vuourensola will direct. Archaia also has a number of titles in development including Rust, Lucid, Bolivar, and Feeding Ground. You can read our interview with Rust creator Royden Lepp here, and an update on the Rust movie here. Here, you can read the story of taking Feeding Ground from graphic novel to film script, written exclusively for ComicBook.com by Feeding Ground co-writer Swifty Lang.