Archaia founder Mark Smylie will be leaving the company to devote more time to writing, with the development slate he’s been working on spun out to a separate company, the company announced.  Smylie was the author of the Artesia graphic novel and roleplaying game, and more recently of The Barrow, a novel set in the Artesia world. 

Smylie has been developing a slate of lower-budgeted features based on Archaia titles Killing Pickman, Black Fire, Black Charity, Starkweather, the Grave Doug Freshley, and Mumbai Confidential.  The development slate will be spun out in a separate company Aegis & Gorgon.

Smylie’s company was acquired by BOOM! Studios in 2013 (see “Boom!, Archaia Merge”).