Comic and Book Publishing Veteran Brings Firm Hand to Explosive Growth

September 18th, 2007

Los Angeles -BOOM! Studios announced today that Tom Fassbender has taken the role of VP of Publishing for the company. Fassbender will provide a steady hand and a veteran's expertise to all aspects of the comic book publishing concern. Coming on the heels of the appointment of Mark Waid as Editor-in-Chief and Chip Mosher as Marketing and Sales Director, the addition of Fassbender completes a round of expansion in personnel catapulting BOOM! Studios into its next phase of growth.

Fassbender began work at BOOM! Studios this past August. "Tom is a multi-hyphenate. He's published comics. He's written comics. He's published books. He's written books. He's worked in comic distribution. He's managed a retail comic store. Hell, he's even been an Eisner judge. You just can't find experience this in one place. And now he's working at BOOM!" said Ross Richie. "Tom's a great guy, with gut-level business instincts that are as good as any I've seen. He's got the nuts and bolts of this industry down. I love working with him. We make a great team. He's got his eye on the clock and is making sure the trains make it out of the station on time," said Mark Waid. Fassbender started his career in comics as manager of the retail store Capital City Comics in Madison, Wisconsin. Later, he quickly earned the status of Product Management Specialist for Capital City Distribution (no relation to the retail operation) in the early nineties. In charge of solicited materials in Advanced Comics, Tom was the final arbiter over what Capital City Distribution offered to stores, and he built a reputation for championing works by such talents as Paul Pope, David Lapham, Rick Veitch and many, many others. During his time at Capital City Distribution, Fassbender was chosen as a judge for the 1995 Eisner Awards and Heroes Illustrated named him on of the top 100 most influential people in comics. Subsequently, Fassbender did a brief stint at the short-lived Motown Comics before starting UglyTown, a mystery-novel publisher he co-founded with Jim Pascoe. UglyTown rapidly gained a reputation for dynamic packaging and cutting-edge fiction from authors like Victor Gischler, Sean Doolittle, Eddie Muller, and Gary Phillips.

Fassbender has also worked on such hit comics like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, HELLBOY, and STAR WARS with co-writer Jim Pascoe. His creative work experience on licensed properties will serve him in good stead at BOOM! as the company expands into its licensed comics, having most recently announced the acquisition of THE GODFATHER license at San Diego Comic-Con International this summer. THE GODFATHER will be one of the many titles Fassbender will shepherd in his new position when it launches early in 2008. BOOM! has gone through a growth spurt like no other publisher this past year. At the 2007 Book Expo in New York, BOOM! announced its new mass-market book distribution deal via Perseus, a unique relationship for a comic book publisher that positions BOOM! alongside one of the market leaders in book retailing. Perseus recently acquired Publisher's Group West and continues to grow and expand its reach into the mass market. By the end of this summer, BOOM! will be offering through Perseus a line of trade paperback graphic novels collecting their popular series, including TALENT, HERO SQUARED, TAG, DEATH VALLEY, and X ISLE. In the last twelve months, BOOM! has sold three of its comic book series to Hollywood: THE FOUNDATION was purchased in a preemptive pre-publication bid by Paramount Pictures, while Universal Studios bought TALENT and TAG last year. Last December's launch of WARHAMMER 40,000: DAMNATION CRUSADE initiated a new, successful series of comic books and graphic novels followed up with the summer's launch of WARHAMMER: FORGE OF WAR. BOOM! enjoys the unique position of being one of only four licensors of Games Workshop material and will continue to grow and expand its line of WARHAMMER 40,000 and WARHAMMER series. Capitalizing on that success, BOOM! announced a comic book and graphic novels license with Epic Games' mega-selling GEARS OF WAR video game. This fall will see a huge launch for this exciting new property. ABOUT BOOM! STUDIOS Winner of Wizard Magazine's "Best New Publisher," BOOM! Studios is a unique new publishing house specializing in high-profile projects from some of the industry's biggest talents. Founded by the creator of the TV show EUREKA, Andrew Cosby, and his partner Ross Richie, BOOM! Studios continues to be on the leading edge of comic and graphic novel publishing.

BOOM! Studios co-founder Andrew Cosby's television series, EUREKA, currently in its second season at the Sci-Fi Channel, launched to impressive ratings this summer and has consistently won several key demographics on basic cable. EUREKA is the highest-rated series in the Sci-Fi Channel's history.