History
In August 2004, Speakeasy Comics (based in Toronto) was founded by Adam Fortier. Previously, Fortier had worked for comics publishers Dreamwave Productions (where he revived the Transformers licence in comics), Devil's Due Publishing, UDON, and IDW Publishing.
In March 2005, the company published its first titles, the debut issues of Atomika and The Grimoire.
In November 2005, it was announced that Speakeasy had concluded a financing deal with Los Angeles-based Ardustry Entertainment, for a stated two-way purpose: Speakeasy would now also develop comics based on licenses brought by Ardustry, while Ardustry would represent Speakeasy's comics properties in the entertainment industry (movies, videogames, etc.)
However, it was learned later (according to Ardustry's Wayne Williams, who handles Business Affairs for the company) that the deal was only an option to buy Speakeasy, which expired without materialization. Cash flow problems led to Speakeasy's demise before they could materialize various lucrative licensing deals, such as with HBO (The Sopranos or Deadwood).
At 3:30pm EST February 27, 2006 Vito Delsante (who had been handling public relations for Speakeasy Comics) announced by email the immediate closure of Speakeasy, with all March-solicited books still shipping, April and May's being tentative, and June's being cancelled. The company, however, didn't file for bankruptcy, officially in order to try to pay people owed money.
In March 2006, only Beowulf #7 was published. In May 2006, Diamond Comic Distributors's monthly list of cancelled comics listed all the remaining unpublished Speakeasy comics, with the terminal cancel code 10 ("Supplier Out of Business").
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