BOOM! Studios Announces Tom Fassbender new VP of Publishing
For Immediate Release
BOOM! Studios Announces Tom Fassbender new VP of Publishing 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 ingood 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 andgraphic novels license with Epic Games’ mega-selling GEARS OF WAR
video game. This fall will see a huge launch for this exciting new property.
