Comic fans who wondered what impact Disney’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment would have on Boom! Studios and its licensed Disney and Pixar properties, weren’t completely alone. At the time, Boom! executives only reinforced their enjoyment at working with the properties, but issued no formal comment on the merger.
This week, though, the Disney Insider e-mail newsletter was delivered to fans’ e-mail boxes, with the headline “Are You a Disney Comic Book Fan?” and a feature story attached that introduced fans to Boom! and even linked to the Boom! site. Featuring an interview with Boom! CEO Ross Richie, discussing his publishing philosophy and the approach to the Disney characters. The Marvel merger was not mentioned.
Whether or not I’m reading too much into it might be a question, but I do wonder if this was a strategically-timed story, to reassure fans that everything’s still cool. What say you, ‘Rama readers?
January 28th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
I hope so! It’d be a real shame to move all of the properties yet again when Boom is still finding their footing. Plus I’m still waiting on a Don Rosa’s Scrooge omnibus!
January 29th, 2010 at 11:14 am
I think the Disney/Marvel deal means Marvel publishing Disney comics is an inevitability. I mean, if you’re Disney, why license your characters to a smaller, third party publisher when you can have them published by your own in-house publisher–who also happens to be the largest publisher in the industry? Marvel-produced books would be cheaper and probably better marketed, as well. Seems much more profitable overall than the royalties they would get from Boom!
That being said, the Boom! deal probably has a couple of years left to it before it runs out, and I kinda doubt Disney would rush to buy out the contract just to get comics made in-house more quickly, so it will probably be awhile before anything changes. But yeah, I think Boom!/Disney’s days are numbered.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
It is conceivable, however, that Disney makes more pure profit from the licensing fees than it could make selling the same material through Marvel, with its (undoubtedly) higher overhead.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
@Darth_Board
“why license your characters to a smaller, third party publisher when you can have them published by your own in-house publisher–who also happens to be the largest publisher in the industry?”
well, because Booom!’s Newsstand deal is better is the obvious answer.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Well, we know that comics themselves aren’t that profitable compared to movies, etc, so I doubt that Disney is even concerned about whether Marvel is publishing Disney comics. Marvel probably doesn’t care either, as they may not want to have to put resources toward Disney-related comics.
January 17th, 2011 at 11:44 am
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January 17th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
But who to say otherwise because based on the comments above everyone seems to have there own personal opinion on how things work.