Our Story
Kingstone CEO Art Ayris with veteran Kingstone artist Danny Bulanadi and his agent Frank Baldervarona
Sometimes God provides a dream or a task or a vision that you just know is has to be done. It is the proverbial unquenchable fire in your bones. But sometimes, for whatever divine reasoning that will only be understood in another time and place, God also sovereignly allows daunting challenges in the fulfilling of that task and vision. That is the Kingstone story.
If a case could be made that dark forces wanted to prevent something from happening, Kingstone CEO Art Ayris and the Kingstone company might be a living proof text for such an occurrence.
Ayris and his mother Dr. Beulah “Boots” Ayris.
At the age of four his father did not know Ayris was walking behind him as he was using a mower and a piece of metal exploded out of the mower penetrating Ayris’s stomach and intestines. He was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery but as he was losing blood the hospital realized it did not have enough blood to save him. They sent out a call to the local prison who brought in prisoners to donate blood so the little boy would live. Ayris’s mother remarked she would never look at prisoners the same way again. This is one of the reasons Kingstone discounts and subsidizes their products to prisons and juvenile centers.
But complications from the accident became even more threatening as the boy’s temperature rose to fatal heights and the hospital could not get it lowered. In a last-ditch effort, the doctors began packing the little boy in ice to try to bring down the temperature. Even though his lips turned blue, the freezing procedure worked, and Ayris lived.
At the age of nineteen the after results of that surgery came calling again as Ayris was diagnosed with intestinal gangrene generated by complications of the previous surgery. A seven-day hospital stay extended into a twenty-eight day stay with a final procedure to try to save his life. Ayris emerged from the hospital at 135 pounds but with an entirely different outlook on life – and faith.
As Ayris began sharing the idea of launching a new media company the financial challenges were daunting and the unbelievers abundant. After numerous presentations to venture capital and investment groups one New York VC offered to get in involved if Ayris would change the Kingstone logo because “It looked too much like a cross.” Ayris declined and returned to his small central Florida town and quietly began sharing the vision and raising capital.
Two key events began to change the direction of the company. A Tampa investment banker aligned with the vision and came on the board to begin helping with strategic planning and introduced the company to a successful Tampa CEO and one his board members who made significant strategic investments that allowed the company to go forward significantly in its goal of producing the most complete graphic adaptation of the Bible ever done.
But the challenges were just warming up.
As Kingstone began making traction they received, like the rest of CBA market, the stunning news that Family Christian Stores was going bankrupt and withholding payments due plus inventory. With the 700-store chain being 30% of the company’s revenue it was a shattering event. On the heels of that, another major book distributor went bankrupt sending a double capital hit to the fledgling company.
After that, new challenges headed in the direction of the CEO.
Though Ayris was (and is) an avid runner, his doctor was concerned about abnormal EKGs and a heart catheterization soon revealed Ayris had been born with an artery routed the wrong way. The cardiologist had just diagnosed another man with the same condition who had just dropped dead suddenly and recommended immediate open-heart surgery to save his life.
Almost exactly a year later the CEO was hospitalized again for serious abdominal surgery related to the earlier accident. Then while in the hospital he developed an infection that resulted in the wound having to be reopened. Ayris recounts, “This was an especially dark and difficult time because I was totally incapacitated, in pain and nothing to grow the company, raise capital or keep things moving forward. But during the time in the hospital, I continued to sing praise to the Lord. One afternoon I said out loud, ‘I guess this is it, Lord, we need to go ahead and sell the company and let someone else carry the football across the line. I have done all I can do but I trust you.’ Then two days before being released from the hospital, the CEO received word of their largest contract to date, enough to finish the 2,000-page graphic Bible they had been laboring on for seven years.
After completion the Kingstone Bible was a Finalist for Christian Book of the Year in the Children’s Category in 2017. Thanks to a significant relationship with Voice of the Martyrs the comic Bible is now in over 90 countries and 70 languages.
But soon after the Bible being translated into multiple languages the CEO received news he had melanoma which would need immediate facial surgery and a skin graft.
The business challenges returned with a vengeance when, after having their highest sales year, the company found themselves in the crosshairs of the cancel culture and culture wars.
A brutal months-long running battle with one of the social platforms cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost sales after the social media company banned Kingstone ads and then totally wiped out Kingstone’s advertising platform. The matter was only settled after a local Congressman intervened and Kingstone was restored to the platform.
With the support of its shareholders and First Baptist Church of Leesburg, Kingstone produced the true-story motion picture, “No Vacancy”. After the successful 2021 theatrical release of the film, the weekend that streaming on the major platforms began, one of the major tech companies stopped their ads because it contained the word ‘church’ in the movie ads.
But neither the gale force winds of adversity nor the torpedoes of life stopped the greater purposes of God. The company persevered by keeping costs low, executives foregoing cash salaries and Kingstone shareholders continuously supporting the company. Through every major storm that threatened to sink the Kingstone battleship the Board of Directors provided invaluable insight, steadfastness, and guidance at the helm.
After emerging from these “hurricanes” Kingstone now finds itself in a new, exciting phase:
1) In early 2024 Kingstone signed a development deal with NBC Universal on an iconic animated property, Larry Boy, from the Veggie Tales franchise.
2) The company is releasing its new U.S. Comics imprint June 2024 as well as the U.S. Constitution as a graphic novel.
3) Kingstone is now beginning a new line of 2D animation.
4) Kingstone continues to develop and produce new family friendly, faith-friendly entertainment properties to bring to audiences worldwide.
Through normal start-up risks (90% of start-ups fail), severe business hurricanes and physical challenges the company experienced the degrees of God’s grace needed for each moment. The words of Psalm 145:11-12 echo throughout the halls of the company…“They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.” the company through every challenge, every calamity, roadblock, and hurricane.
CEO Art Ayris plainly states, “God is faithful. Kingstone in its purest form is simply a testimony to his faithfulness and watch care.”