When Penguin Random House acquired Boom! Studios last year, many in the comics industry wondered how the world’s biggest publishing house would go about integrating the independent comics publisher into its business. Overseeing the process is Michael Kelly, the former VP of global publishing at Hasbro who was hired as Boom! publisher last September.
Kelly considers himself more of a publishing exec than a comics guy, with his resume including time working at a Barnes & Noble and stints at Charlesbridge and Adams Media. Still, he’s got a history in comics as well, having worked on the G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and Transformers comics licenses with IDW and, in 2024, the wildly successful Energon Universe program at Skybound.
Boom! recently made a few big hires, bringing on Andy Schmidt as editor-in-chief, Lily Kessinger as editor, and Olivia Dontsov as managing editor—all reporting to deputy publisher Bryce Carlson. With a full team in place, Kelly sat down with PW for his first interview as Boom! Studios publisher. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your first thought on taking over as publisher of this brand?
My first thought was, Wow, what a dream come true for someone who's always been in the book business, and really made a career out of the comic book business in particular. I’m very excited to be in the publisher role here. I always wanted to be a publisher when I was in college. So to be publisher at Boom! Studios as part of Penguin Random House? It doesn't get much better than that.
You’ve been at Boom! for seven months, and the whole comics world is still wondering, how is it being integrated into PRH? Obviously, PRH has acquired many imprints over the years, and it has robust comics publishing programs elsewhere. How does Boom! fit in?
PRH certainly has a lot of graphic storytelling publishing imprints, but they did not, until Boom!, have direct market monthly comics. So I think in that respect, we are a unique imprint, insofar as we specifically target the direct market and the monthly comic book fan alongside, obviously, readers of graphic novels and trade paperbacks. From my perspective, the integration has been great. We're part of Random House Worlds, so we have colleagues at Del Rey, InkLore, and Random House Worlds. There's really a great opportunity for us to work together across different platforms, as well as for Boom! to play a unique role within the market,
It is obviously a very tumultuous time for the direct market, particularly in the face of the Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy. And of course, Boom! moved from Diamond to PRH for distribution on April 1. Did you ever think, while dreaming of becoming a publisher, that you would be dealing with all of these in-the-weeds concerns? Not to mention 2,000 comic shops, each with their own individual needs.
Actually, I did! Certainly not specifically these things, because a lot of them are not necessarily predictable. I'm as fascinated with the business side as I am with the creative side—and if you look at the history of book publishing, it's always something, right? There's always an existential threat coming down our way. These are things that happen, and we need to be reactive and flexible to figure out how to move forward. But you know, it's not the first major disruption that the industry has faced, nor will it be the last.
You’ve just hired an editor-in-chief and more editorial staff. What's next for Boom! in 2025?
For 2025, it's going to be a lot of onboarding new people and reestablishing ourselves in terms of the culture and direction at Boom! One really great opportunity we have is to emphasize our own four imprints. We have Boom! Studios, for our creator-owned and licensed properties. We have Archaia, which is primarily literary adaptations. We have Boombox, which is for YA and underrepresented voices. And then we have KaBoom!, which is for young readers and middle grade.
There's a great opportunity right now to make sure that each of these imprints has a very distinctive voice and vision, and that they each have a leader who's passionate about the direction they want to pursue. Both internally and externally, people can say, “Well, this is the type of book I'm either a creator of or a consumer of,” and they know exactly where to go within Boom! So I think that's a big part of it—restructuring ourselves to emphasize the strengths of each of those imprints.
Can you talk about the vision for each imprint, and how you see them fitting in within the publishing structure?
Absolutely. On the Boom! Studios side, our primary creator-owned line, I think you'll see an expansion of the same kind of comics, and will probably see us looking for some pertinent licenses to add to our roster. You'll see new creator-owned projects coming out from Archaia as well.
I think Archaia is particularly exciting, because obviously, the PRH relationship opens up a world of literary adaptations. Archaia speaks to my own passion for literacy and spreading reading around the world. There are so many studies that show that reluctant readers, and people who have challenges with reading, gravitate towards graphic storytelling. If we can bring some of the classics back in a graphic novel format, we can really spread a passion for reading them to a whole new audience.
I'm particularly excited about Boombox too, because I think now more than ever, it's important for us to be finding voices that have not had the opportunity to shine in the past and need to be elevated and heard. And KaBoom! is in another area where our relationship with PRH is really going to come through—there's so many opportunities, in terms of children's books and adaptations and brands, that both companies can participate in.
What will be the mix of licensed titles and creator owned titles?
I think we’re targeting somewhere in the 30–40% licensed properties versus 60–70% creator owned. That's a rough rule of thumb.
Do you have any metrics of how many books Boom! will put out in 2025? Are you aiming for the same amount of product that the publisher put out before it was acquired?
For 2025, we are stepping back a little bit in terms of quantity—about a 10% reduction in title count. Primarily that's because we want to make sure that we are focusing on quality over quantity, and that we're making sure that, whether it's during the editorial process or the sales process, we can really focus and give our titles the attention that they need. I think you will see improved quality and more support for retailers and outreach to consumers. All of that will be allowed by cutting back a little.
Boom! has brought a number of innovations to its retail relationships, including returnability—a very rare thing in the direct market—and special retailer programs. PRH is the biggest book distributor in North America. How much will you be able to continue such initiatives moving forward?
I believe we'll have pretty broad latitude, certainly from a creative standpoint. PRH has made it clear that we need to maintain our identity. What makes Boom! strong will continue to be what makes Boom! strong. I'm certain that there will be some changes that need to be made, simply for logistical reasons and processes. But by and large, my expectation is that we will continue to operate as Boom! always has.
ComicsPro, which was held in February, marked your first comics retailer meeting as Boom! publisher. What did you learn there?
I was pleasantly surprised by how energetic and optimistic the audience was. I've been to a lot of different retailer experiences over my career, and a lot of times, they're more focused on what's not going right and what the challenges are. Of course, it's important to face those things, but it's impressive to see how the industry as a whole is rallying together during a difficult time. It just felt optimistic to me.
What excites you the most about what's going on at Boom! right now?
It’s hard to find one thing. Honestly, I think there's just a remarkable foundation to build on. When I look back at my predecessors and the foundation that they built, in talent and creative execution and retailer relationships—it's an amazing thing to come in and be able to build upon something as strong as that. It's a little intimidating to some extent, because you certainly don't want to break anything that's working. At the same time, it gives you this opportunity to reach even greater heights by standing on their shoulders.
I'm excited about the opportunity with Penguin Random House. The support that they've given so far has been better than anything I could have hoped for. To bring comic books to a broader audience, to reach more potential readers, to emphasize the literacy opportunity within graphic storytelling—all of those things excite me.
Comics are obviously a huge source of IP in today's giant global media ecosystem. How do you see the integration between storytelling and comics as IP?
I think that's where my experience at Hasbro is really going to be beneficial, because, more than anything, I learned the value of storytelling to expand intellectual property and bring in new audiences. When we look particularly at our creator-owned storytelling, we have the opportunity for those to evolve from a single story into something much bigger. Just looking at Something is Killing the Children, where it started out as a single book and has now spun off into The House of Slaughter and The Book of Cutter. There are always opportunities for these worlds to expand, if the storytelling is there and the audience is excited about it. From an IP development perspective, Boom! is in a fantastic position.
