BOOM! bids to 'Prove Bill Wrong'

BOOM! Studios has launched a campaign to become a top five comic book publisher by 2010, according to Comic Book Resources.

Speaking at last month's Diamond Retailer Summit in Baltimore, studio exec Ross Richie announced the 'Prove Bill Wrong' promotion, a strategy to increase the firm's presence in the sales chart.

The name of the scheme is a reference to Diamond vice president Bill Schanes, who reportedly made a 'Diamond Dollar Bet' against the publisher.

"What a Diamond Dollar Bet is is that you take a dollar and write why the bet was made on the dollar. The person who loses signs the dollar, and the winner takes it and pins it up behind their desk," Richie told CBR.

"Now, if Phil Boyle made a Diamond Dollar Bet because he thought we were going to be a top five publisher, that would mean that Diamond had to bet against me."

BOOM! handed out over 500 T-shirts bearing the slogan at the Baltimore summit. The next phase of its ongoing campaign is extensive networking with retailers as well as the launch of a high-profile project featuring "greatest superhero brand names in the history of comics".

"We're going to be doing a huge summer publishing programme around that, and frankly I expect it to be bigger than anything BOOM! has ever published," Richie added. "I know that sounds like publisher hyperbole, but for us... while this was a big year, it was just prelude to what will be a much bigger year next year."

BOOM! Studios currently holds the comic book rights to Die Hard and Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, as well as several major Disney properties.