IDW Publishing, which publishes comic books, graphic novels and art books, and Penguin Random House Publisher Services have expanded their distribution agreement so that effective June 1, 2022, PRHPS will sell and distribute exclusively worldwide IDW's new and backlist comic book periodicals, trade collections, and graphic novels to the direct market comic shops. PRHPS already sells and distributes IDW trade-book frontlist and backlist to bookstores.
Among IDW titles and series are Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez; Hasbro's Transformers, G.I. Joe, and My Little Pony; Paramount/CBS's Star Trek; Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog; Lucasfilm's Star Wars; Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo; The Beauty of Horror by Alan Robert; Wynonna Earp by Beau Smith; and more. In addition, IDW's Top Shelf Productions imprint has published such trade titles as George Takei's They Called Us Enemy; the March trilogy by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell; and Surfside Girls by Kim Dwinell.
IDW publisher Nachie Marsham commented: "IDW succeeds when the direct market succeeds. No matter how amazing our comics and graphic novels may be, it's the retailers that are connecting readers with our stories. Because of that, I couldn't be more excited about our future with Penguin Random House and I have the utmost confidence that every store, no matter the size, will see the benefits of the high levels of care and service that PRHPS brings."
Jeff Abraham, president of Penguin Random House Publisher Services, said, "IDW have been wonderful partners these past five years, and it's been thrilling to see the evolution of its publishing program and to support the phenomenal growth of their graphic novels into the book trade. With PRHPS's expansion in the direct market, we see this as a natural extension of that partnership and look forward to putting the expertise of PRH's supply chain, customer knowledgeability and sales know-how, and solutions-centered customer service to help bring IDW comics and graphic novels to even more fans throughout the world."