Comic Industry Death Watch: BOOM! Studios Cutting Their Production: "We're Going To Be Publishing Fewer New Series In 2025"

BOOM! Studios is slashing its single issue comic book output in another sign that the comic industry is in massive trouble after the Diamond Comics Distribution bankruptcy.

Last year, reports came out that BOOM! Studios was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy before Penguin Random House bought the comic book company, saving them from oblivion. However, with the Diamond Comics Distribution Bankruptcy, we learned that Penguin Random House was one of its top creditors, putting a pinch on its comic operations as Diamond failed to pay out their debts.

BOOM! Studios is caught in the crossfire and is going to be cutting their comic line production in 2025 as a result.

At a ComicsPRO event in Glendale, CA reported by Bleeding Cool, where retailers gather to meet with publishers, the new publisher of BOOM! Studios, Michael Kelley introduced himself this week after the former publisher left at the beginning of last year with IDW Publishing’s Jamie S. Rich to form their own company, as both seemed to see the writing on the wall for the places they worked.

Josh Hayes, the Vice President of Sales was supposd to give the talk, according to Kelly, and began giving his talk on the state of BOOM! Studios talking about chaos and confusion in the industry, leading the audience to brace for bad news.

Kelly addressed the Diamond situation saying, “This time last year, we were looking at the distribution landscape, and it was unfolding, and we were evaluating what changes we could make. Just a few months later, we were acquired by PRH, and that set out course. We had plenty of time. We were moving our business in July, tons of time, but there it is, time again, messing around with things; almost exactly one month later, the event that shook our industry, and just five years ago would've seemed utterly impossible, happened. Diamond had filed for bankruptcy. We found ourselves with less time, and that meant our time to make the change was going to be much faster than expected.”

He continued saying, “What are we publishing? Boom is still Boom? We're working with the most talented creators in the industry, keep bringing you the books that your customers will want, horror, action, licenses that you love, books for all ages and spectrums. Those are still going to be our bread and butter. Our launch lineup for this year features bold stories from names you know and love, and some you don't know yet. We're adding to our legacy of incredible Power Rangers crossovers with a new chapter and launching the VR Troopers in their first-ever solo series.”

This is where he dropped the news that they’d be severely reducing their output, saying, “One area that we were able to change, as part of PRH, is our focus and what that means is, how much we were publishing. We're going to be publishing fewer new series in 2025, because we are committed to presenting you with books that have all of the ingredients you need to make them a success. Think quality over quantity."

It's quite the spin on the situation as it either implies the quality wasn’t in what they were publishing before, or that he’s covering for how dire the market is—which given his opening with talking about Diamond’s problems, one can easily infer that the latter is a large part of the reasoning behind these cuts.

We’ve also seen reports of trouble for other small publishers. Antarctic Press’s Ben Dunn has said the Diamond situation would be hurting small press. IDW Publishing is rumored to be going out of business. Valiant Comics laid off their editor-in-chief and is delaying putting out new comics.

The result is the smaller companies that relied on Diamond Comics Distribution are getting torpedoed. They’re going to have to investigate other forms of revenue to survive, which leads one to wonder how long the comic shop model will last in this environment?

What do you think of BOOM! Studios cutting their production output of comic books? Leave a comment and let us know.

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