About
BOOM! Studios, part of the Random House Worlds portfolio of imprints at The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, is the home of world-class comic book and graphic novel storytelling for all audiences. Through four distinct imprints—BOOM! Studios, BOOM! Box, KaBOOM!, and Archaia— the team has produced bestselling, award-winning original work, including Keanu Reeves’ BRZRKR, Something is Killing the Children, and Lumberjanes, while also breaking new ground with established licenses such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Dune, The Expanse, and The Jim Henson Company properties. BOOM! brings their original series to life through a first-look relationship with Netflix including the animated series Mech Cadets.
MEET THE TEAM
Jen Harned
President, Executive Director of Business Management and Publishing Operations
Jennifer Harned is a C-suite global operations and finance executive with extensive leadership experience in consumer products. She brings both large and small scale experience to the role, which enables her to contribute an entrepreneurial mindset and vision to establishing foundations for exponential, sustainable growth. In 2019, Jennifer was President and General Manager for the Bell, Giro, Blackburn, Raskullz, Krash, and Copilot businesses, a subsidiary of Vista Outdoor, where she ran global sales. Prior to Vista Outdoor, she was COO and CFO at Action Sports for BRG Sports, Inc., a leading designer, developer and marketer of branded athletic equipment. In her time as an executive, Jennifer completed seven domestic and international acquisitions/divestitures, representing over $750M in value to multiple organizations, and is recognized for her vision in creating enterprise value through portfolio optimization, revenue growth, risk mitigation, and calculated new business opportunity assessment. Most recently, Jennifer has acted in an executive or advisory role for a variety of early stage environments in the beauty, consumer electronics, sporting goods, tech, and apparel industries. Jennifer has an MBA, Honor Society from the University of California Los Angeles, and she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accountancy & Computer Applications, with a concentration in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics, cum laude from the University of Notre Dame.
PUBLISHING
Michael Kelly
Publisher
Michael Kelly began his career unpacking boxes in the receiving room of his local Barnes & Noble and has been hooked on the book business ever since. With an English degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University, he has developed a unique skill set of bringing both creativity and business acumen to the industry of storytelling.
From children’s books to adult non-fiction, Michael worked in a variety of publishing positions and categories prior to joining Hasbro in 2006. In his 18 years at Hasbro, Michael rose to the position of Vice President, Global Publishing, where he transformed a small, regional business into a global content-generating powerhouse. He delivered 12 consecutive years of revenue growth and profitability from 2011 to 2023, which were among the most challenging years in the industry’s history. Michael joined BOOM! Studios as Publisher after the acquisition by Penguin Random House in 2024, and now oversees all operations involved in the development and execution of BOOM!’s publishing strategy.
Bryce Carlson
Deputy Publisher
After graduating from Chapman University, Bryce joined BOOM! Studios in 2008 as a temp in the mailroom. He was quickly hired as the Executive Assistant and in 2009, he transitioned to the role of Editor. From 2010 to 2018, Bryce served as Managing Editor where he helped shape and grow the Editorial department while overseeing the development of large-scale publishing programs for properties such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and editing select projects, including the graphic novelization of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Roger Langridge’s Snarked, which was the first original series from BOOM! Studios to win an Eisner Award (Best Publication for Kids, 2012).
In his role of Vice President, Editorial & Creative Strategy from 2018-2024, Bryce was instrumental in managing key partnerships and high-level creative relationships, such as developing and curating the hit creator-owned anthology series Hello Darkness, and acquiring world rights to R.L. Stine’s The Graveyard Club, Stuff of Nightmares, and the Just Beyond graphic novel series, which was adapted into BOOM!’s first ever television series, debuting on Disney+. As Deputy Publisher, he currently oversees the Editorial and Production Design departments with a focus on curating content and driving creative publishing initiatives that feed directly into the development and execution of the BOOM! Studios publishing strategy.
Josh Hayes
Vice President, Consumer Sales and Marketing
Josh Hayes joined BOOM! Studios after a combined 15+ years at Diamond Comics, during which he led the Diamond Book Distributors business segment managing sales to book market and specialty customers all around the world. During that time Josh worked on the sales efforts for such book market hits as The Walking Dead, The Boys, Saga, Critical Role, and Pathfinder/Starfinder. Josh oversees every aspect of BOOM!’s sales support, marketing, and publicity teams, ensuring that each book has an opportunity to shine and succeed in the marketplace.
MEDIA
STEPHEN CHRISTY
President of Development
Stephen Christy came to BOOM! through the company’s acquisition of Archaia Entertainment, where Stephen served as Editor-in-Chief and oversaw the company’s film/tv operations. At Archaia he became the only editor in the industry to win back-to-back Eisner Awards for Best Original Graphic Album two years in a row, for Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand and Return of the Dapper Men. When BOOM! acquired Archaia, Stephen was put in charge of the company’s film and TV division, and was instrumental in brokering the company’s first look film deal with 20th Century Fox and first look TV deal with 20th Television. He currently oversees BOOM!’s entire multimedia development slate and is based out of BOOM!’s satellite office on the Fox lot. He is a graduate of Emerson College.
Adam Yoelin
Senior Vice President, Film
Adam Yoelin is an experienced executive in the film industry who began his career at one of the leading talent agencies and quickly forged a path into producing. Over the course of his career as a development and production executive, he’s collaborated with top talent and shepherded a vast number of projects for various production companies, studios and financiers. Upon joining BOOM! in 2014, Yoelin has headed up the film division under the company’s first-look deal at 20th Century Fox, where he’s helped assemble an extensive slate of projects and produced the upcoming adaptation of the BOOM! graphic novel, The Empty Man.