In August, Filip Sablik, Jamie S. Rich, Eric Gitter, and Jeremy Haun announced a new publishing venture but didn’t name it. Today at The Beat‘s 20th anniversary panel New York Comic Con, its name was revealed: Ignition Press.
Sablik left Boom! Studios in June after a long tenure overseeing acclaimed books including Lumberjanes and Something is Killing the Children. Rich similarly left IDW Publishing in June following a tumultuous year. Now, Sablik will be the publisher at Ignition Press, with Rich as editor-in-chief, Gitter as CEO, and Haun as creative director.
“A lot of what we’re going to be trying to do is going to be invisible depending on what part of the market you’re in. If we’re doing our job right, then over time you’ll become a fan,” said Sablik during the panel. “In independent comic book publishing, in the North American single issue market at least, the last real innovation took place in 1992 when Image Comics was founded. Prior to that, the last real business model innovation was in 1986, when the black and white indie explosion of and Dark Horse happened.”
When tasked with talking about how Ignition Press would be different, he said, “By and large, every indie publisher since has followed a variation of one of those two playbooks. Mixed licensing and original publishing. It seemed bizarre to us as the markets today don’t exist how they did in ’85 and ’92.
“So we’re taking a go-to-market strategy that takes into account for all the different channels available now. We see them as equally important in our approach and how they holistically fit with each other. Instead of fighting for a tiny piece of the existing pie… we make a bigger pie.”
Ignition Press already has profiles on Instagram, Twitter/X, and Bluesky, all featuring its logo, which has a key for the “o” in Ignition (seen above).
Stay tuned for more NYCC ’24 coverage from The Beat.
This article includes reporting by Christian Angeles.
Editor’s note: his post has been updated to correct spellings and quotes.