BOOM! Studios has announced that Mark Smylie, the founder of their award-winning imprint Archaia, is returning to develop the fictional world that was in part responsible for Archaia’s creation.
In 2002, Mark Smylie founded Archaia Studios Press to serve as the home for his creator-owned series Artesia, and soon the new publishing house was launching third party series such as David Petersen’s Mouse Guard and translations of Matz and Luc Jacamon’s The Killer. Since then, the company was sold in 2008, and then sold again in 2013 to BOOM! Studios, while Smylie stayed on as an acting principal. Last year, Smylie’s first novel, The Barrow, set in the world of Artesia, was published by Pyr, an imprint of Prometheus Books, and this November the sequel, Black Heart, appears. The first book earned high praise from fantasy authors such as John R. Fultz and Django Wexler.
“I’m excited by this next stage,” said Smylie. “I continue to love comics and publishing, and am thrilled to see titles we had worked on acquiring for Archaia hitting shelves this year, including Asaf Hanuka’s The Realist, the upcoming Freaks’ Squeele from the amazing French artist Florent Maudoux, and the hardcover collection of The Last Broadcast from André Sirangelo and Gabriel Iumazark, which former Archaia editor Rebecca Taylor had found and shepherded, beginning almost five years ago. But getting a chance to return to the setting and characters of Artesia in writing The Barrow was a welcome shift, and reminded me of why I had started all this to begin with.”
In addition to focusing on his writing career, Smylie will continue to develop Archaia books into film projects with the production company Aegis & Gorgon. During the past two years, he has already been working as a producer on projects such as Killing Pickman, Black Fire, Black Charity, Starkweather, The Grave Doug Freshley, and Mumbai Confidential.
“It’s been a labor of love helping these creators try to realize their work on-screen. They’re rich creative worlds and stories with what I think is great potential,” said Smylie. “We’ve always approached the comics-to-film market from a couple of perspectives, both the traditional option/studio-sale model and the indie-financing model, and the indie side was the part that interested me most. Thankfully, when BOOM! came in, [Founder and CEO] Ross [Richie] and the rest of the team continued to encourage my work on the internal development line. I’m excited to be able to dedicate more time to pursue these projects, and getting them past the development stage and into production—as challenging as I know that will be.”
“It all comes back down to that original San Diego Comic-Con 10 years ago when I set up a booth next to Mark’s newly launched Archaia publishing effort,” said BOOM! Studios Founder and CEO Ross Richie. “Smylie is so smart, so intensely creative. I have such a fondness for him given both of us have founded our own publishing companies and seen them grow into something more than ourselves. I’ll be doing nothing but cheering him on from here on out.”
