Although Comic-Con International doesn’t kick off until later today, three companies got a jump on things yesterday with some fairly big publishing announcements:
• IDT Internet Mobile Group (IMG), a division of the telecommunications company IDT Corporation, has acquired a controlling interest in IDW Publishing, which publishes 30 Days of Night and numerous licensed books, such as Transformers, 24, CSI and Star Trek. IMG also announced it has formed Zedge Studios to develop and license content for the Internet and mobile platforms.
“IDW Publishing’s stellar reputation in the comics and graphic novel arenas and its emphasis on original intellectual properties in the action and horror genres are a perfect fit for Zedge Studios,” says IDT’s Moshe Berger.
• Via PW Comics Week comes word that Hachette Book Group’s new graphic novel imprint, Yen Press, will absorb all the titles planned for ICE Kunion, the manhwa publishing partnership that seemed to fade away over the past few months.
Kurt Hassler, Yen’s co-director of publishing, says the publisher plans to pick up all the existing ICE Kunion titles, and expects to release 30 to 40 volumes of manhwa next year.
Yen Press also has hired former ICE Kunion editorial director Ju-Youn Lee as senior editor.
• Oni Press and best-selling author Karin Slaughter have partnered on an imprint called Slaughterhouse Graphic Novels that will launch in April 2009 with Slaughter’s The Recidivists.
The graphic novel line, described as “the first of its kind,” will be devoted exclusively to works by established writers of prose fiction.
More details are promised in February at New York Comic-Con.
July 25th, 2007 at 10:02 am
I did an analysis on the purchase of IDW on my website, WhyILoveComics.com. It’s a strange purchase.