Story of a BOOM!: interview with Ross Richie

Since its creation, BOOM! Studios has brought great energy to the world of U.S. comics publishing. Over the past decade, the publisher has strengthened and consolidated its position as one of the most important, dynamic, and creative independent entities in the U.S. by diversifying its offerings with children’s and teen series, creator-owned, and licensed stories. Major hits include, among the originals, Lumberjanes, Giant Days to recent big hits such as Something is Killing the Children and BRZRKR, which stars and was co-created by Keanu Reeves, while licensed stories range from Planet of the Apes to Buffy, from Firefly to Power Rangers, Gumball, Steven Universe and Adventure Time. The news of the purchase by the large and powerful publisher Penguin Random House marks a new turning point in the history of BOOM!Studios, with new perspectives to explore. To talk about BOOM! and trace its history, we caught up with now former CEO Ross Richie.

Let’s start from the beginning: how did BOOM! Studios come to life and what do you remember about those early years when you started in the US Comics industry as a publisher?
Writer-artist Keith Giffen asked me to write a series for him to draw at Image Comics called Dominion. Dave Elliott inked the second issue. Dave called me up and asked if I knew anyone who would be interested in reviving his old publishing company from the late 1980s-early 1990s called Atomeka and I told him I would revive it.  That’s how I moved from writing an Image series to publishing comics. I worked with Atomeka for a brief moment and then took my Atomeka projects, like Giffen and DeMatteis’ Hero Squared, and left to form BOOM!. It was Keith’s idea for me to spin out of Atomeka. He had to talk me into it. I was skeptical it would work. This was back in 2004-2005.

What were the first moves to position yourselves in this very competitive market?
I had worked marketing at Malibu Comics in the early 1990s so I understood the distribution system and how the industry worked from retailers to creators in a way most don’t. So I leveraged the creators I knew and positioned my early releases to get attention and launched with hits with Hero Squared and Zombie Tales that put me in the fortunate position that I got some attention from the first releases.

You then slowly established yourselves in the world of U.S. comics and also achieved remarkable sales results. What was the turning point that made you realize you had taken a relevant position in the market?
We had just successfully launched Farscape well enough that we could do a second monthly based on the license and then we launched Disney — Pixar comics, The Muppets, and Mickey and Donald. That was a big step up, while we were doing stuff like Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which is what Bladerunner is based on. Those more high profile projects really turned heads and make some fans and retailers take notice.

How important was it to decide to focus on children and teen comics as well?
It was an important differentiator and we did kids’ comics before it was cool. In fact, there were folks at Diamond who told me directly, “Kids don’t buy comics” in an effort to dissuade me from doing it. There was a big reaction and afterwards a big push from the direct market and the book market to do kids’ comics and it positioned us as a leader in the space. We didn’t bring kids’ comics back single-handedly, but we were definitely a pioneer in that movement at that moment.

What were the most difficult moments in this journey, and what were the ones that made you most proud?
Back in 2007 I overshipped a book I believed in to retailers and the sales didn’t improve. It was a big moment because financially it cost me more money and I lost big time. I sat at the airport and thought about hanging it up. I’m glad I didn’t.
I’m probably the most proud of BRZRKR, that we got to the point that a superstar like Keanu Reeves saw us as worthy of his project and then did such an excellent job promoting it. We embraced Kickstarter in a big way, and that’s now pretty standard, so we really changed the model.

If you had to choose three series that you think have marked the history of BOOM!Studios, what would they be?
Hero Squared marks the genesis of the company, so that’s important, and is the first comic from Keith Giffen who pushed me to publish solo. So there’s no BOOM! without Keith and I am forever grateful to J.M. DeMatteis who agreed to come along and without him participating there’s no Hero Squared and BOOM! might not be here. Warhammer 40,000 is probably the next most important book because we did that license correctly and had Dan Abnett writing it, who had written the best-selling Warhammer 40k novels. It was a big moment for becoming someone who was seen as doing licenses right. We got Rockne O’Bannon, creator of the show Farscape, to write Farscape and that was doing it right. We won awards for our Muppets comics. That leads to doing Power Rangers which is a big moment for selling millions of comics. It’s a commitment to doing licenses right and not as cash-ins which is a hallmark of the company. The final has to be BRZRKR, for all the obvious reasons. These three moments really have a nice beginning, middle, and end for my tenure at the company.

It had been in the air for some time that something was changing for BOOM!Studios, and It’s news just a few weeks ago that it was sold to Penguin Random House, one of the publishing and distribution giants in the US. How did this decision mature?
PRH approached us about buying the company and we were excited. The deal took a long time, but it’s so exciting to see it finished and we’re proud of the outcome. the best is yet to come!

What will change at this point for BOOM!Studios?
I have no idea. that’s up to Penguin Random House now. For me right now I need to spend time with my two little girls and make a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. When you’re a CEO and Chairman of a fast-growing thriving company for 19 years you don’t get a lot of time at home, so now it’s time for me to stay home.