Stephen Christy is an American film and television producer, entertainment executive, and former graphic novel editor. He is the President of Development at graphic novel publisher Boom! Studios, where he oversees Boom!'s first look deals with Disney/20th Century Fox and Netflix. He was formerly editor-in-chief at Archaia Entertainment, where he won two Eisner Awards, as the editor of Jim Henson's Tale of Sand and Return of the Dapper Men.
Following graduation, Christy briefly worked in reality television, and then at Devil's Due Publishing, opening a Los Angeles office for the Chicago-based small press publisher. He then moved to Archaia Entertainment, serving as Director of Development for about a year, before being named editor-in-chief of Archaia Entertainment in April 2010, when he was 24 years old. Christy also handled film and television development for the company, overseeing the sale of the film rights for four graphic novels, two each to Fox and Warner Brothers. Christy served as editor-in-chief at Archaia until 2013, with notable successes including Tumor, a collaboration with Amazon.com that was released serially on the Kindle prior to its hardcover publication, and was the first graphic novel created specifically for the Kindle; the American English-language re-launch of Shotaro Ishinomori's classic manga Cyborg 009; and the publication of Jim Henson's A Tale of Sand, a graphic novel adaptation by Ramon Perez, based on an unproduced screenplay by Jim Henson. In a publishing partnership with The Jim Henson Company, which Christy helped negotiate in 2009, Archaia published numerous graphic novels based on Henson properties, including The Storyteller, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow and Fraggle Rock. During Christy's tenure, Archaia won five Eisner Awards. In 2011, won for Best Anthology, while Return of the Dapper Men won for Best Graphic Album: New. In 2012, Tale of Sand won three Eisner Awards, for Best Graphic Album: New, Best Publication Design and Best Penciller/Inker. The graphic novel also won two Harvey Awards and a Joe Shuster Award.
Boom! Studios and film/TV producing
In June 2013, comic book and graphic novel publisher Boom! Studios acquired Archaia Entertainment, creating the largest library of comic book IP outside of Marvel and DC. After the acquisition of Archaia, Christy was named president of development of Boom! Studios, overseeing all film, television, web and animation projects in development at the company's four brands: Boom!, Archaia, KaBoom! And Boom! Box. In October 2013, Boom! Studios signed a first-look feature film deal with 20th Century Fox Studios for all Boom! Imprints, with Christy acting as a producer on the projects. In September 2014, Boom! signed a separate broadcast and cable first look television deal with 20th Century Fox TV, with Christy serving as an executive producer on any project developed with the studio. In 2017, 20th Century Fox acquired a significant minority stake in Boom! Studios. The stake was absorbed by the Walt Disney Company as part of their acquisition of the 20th Century Fox assets. That first-look deal runs through January 2021. Christy was set to produce Mouse Guard with Matt Reeves, a $170 million CGI motion-capture fantasy film based on the graphic novels. The film was greenlit by 20th Century Fox and was to be directed by Wes Ball and set to star Idris Elba, Andy Serkis, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster. With over $25 million spent by Fox, production was halted by Disney two weeks before its scheduled start in April 2019, as a result of Fox’s merger with Disney a month earlier. A number of other Fox features were cancelled during the same period. Christy has sold over 20 film and television projects as a producer, including The Unsound to Netflix with David F. Sandberg producing, Memetic to Lionsgate with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg producing and Mattson Tomlin writing, Irredeemable to 20th Century Fox with Adam McKay producing, Imagine Agents to 20th Century Fox with Shawn Levy and Michael Keaton producing, Goldie Vance to 20th Century Fox with Rashida Jones writing and directing and Kerry Washington producing, and Malignant Man to 20th Century Fox with James Wan producing. As of April 2020, Christy also has projects in development with Amazon, HBO Max, Peacock, CBS All Access, and Disney+. In April 2020, it was reported that Boom! Studios signed a first-look deal with Netflix for live-action and animated series. Christy will executive produce all shows developed through the agreement.
