WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?
And what it tells us about where this is all going.
Since launching Open Gardens earlier this year, the convergence between legacy media and the creator economy hasn’t just continued—it’s gone into overdrive.
So fast, in fact, I can’t even keep up with the deals.
Case in point: a few weeks ago, I met up with my friend David Alpert.
Alpert is the co-founder of Skybound, the company he built with comic book creator, Robert Kirkman. Together, they turned The Walking Dead into a global franchise—but what made Skybound different was how early they understood that you don’t just make content. You build worlds. Around that comic was a full ecosystem: games, merch, live events, fandom strategy. They called it the “Wheel of Awesome.”
So over lunch, when Alpert casually mentioned that Skybound had acquired Nine Four—a digital creator management company—I was caught flat-footed.
I hadn’t seen the headline. A company I admire. A space I live in. A friend I talk to. And I st…
