Top Shelf Productions recently announced a deal with two new partners, who have purchased 33% of the company. The main players are John S. Johnson and film producer Andrew Bregman. Johnson is now serving on the board of Top Shelf and Bregman's film production company has first crack at Top Shelf's titles. The main reason for this is, as stated by co-owner Chris Staros, "Two years ago, I casually mentioned that while I loved every aspect of running Top Shelf, Brett and I were starting to get worn out with being the 'personal banks' for the company, and by the stress that this brought during the rocky periods that publishing undergoes."

Some might say this is just Top Shelf jumping on the film production bandwagon, but really I see this as getting Staros and Warnock out of the production arena and firmly back into publishing. Any wise publisher will seek to get their products as much exposure as possible, and the film and tv world have deep pockets that can greatly help smaller publishers. Any small business has to massage new revenue streams and putting all their eggs in one stream as it were is just bad business. I've met Warnock on more than one occasion, being from the Portland area, and it is really cool to see this young company go through so many hurdles and accomplishments. From partnering with Alan Moore, to publishing edgy independent comics, to this deal, these guys have really seemed to navigate the troubling waters of the comics business.

Top Shelf Nabs Capital Investment Deal originally appeared on About.com Comic Books on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 23:49:15.

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