How The Big Bang Theory Affected BOOM! Studios' Archaia Announcement

Last month at San Diego Comic Con International, ComicBook.com was lucky enough to sit down with BOOM! Studios CEO and co-founder Ross Richie; while the full interview will be coming on Saturday, one thing that stuck out to us was the candid approach he took to BOOM!'s biggest announcement. After all, it was shortly before Comic Con that BOOM! had announced they had acquired Archaia. Why not wait for the convention? Well, Richie said it's something that they talked about. "Well, you know there's a lot going on at the convention and my Vice President of Publishing and Marketing Filip Sablik likes to say that the year The Big Bang Theory, at the panel, gave away a trip into space was the year that the comic book publishers understood that doing announcements at Comic Con can be counterproductive," Richie explained. "Because everyone's paying attention to the trip into space. I don't know if I mentioned: there was a trip into space." So, the publisher said, it simply made more sense to roll it out a little earlier when the marriage of the two publishers could get a dialogue going. With 2 Guns (and now Day Men) already optioned for film on the BOOM! side and things like Rust and Feeding Ground generating interest from other media at Archaia, though, the day may come when Richie gets to play in the film and TV side of things. "The other piece for us was that if we did it earlier, we would have the opportunity to bring the Archaia team into BOOM! and work with them, and then when we went to the show, the team had been together for three weeks," Richie added. "Becuase the frist thing their creators and their staff and all of their relationships were going to say was, 'What the hell is BOOM! like?' and then they can say because they've been in the trenches with us."