The Energon Pub

Courtesy of IDW Publishing's official site, we are happy to bring you the following news. The following is an excerpt from an IDW press release.

IDW Becomes Premier Publisher

Thursday, Mar 18th, 2010
First publisher to achieve higher status with Diamond since 1996;

Diamond and IDW strengthen their exclusive distribution relationship with new agreement and initiatives

(BALTIMORE, MD) - (March 18, 2010) - Diamond Comic Distributors and IDW Publishing announced today that IDW has become the first publisher to advance to "premier" status since the classification was implemented in 1996. Diamond and IDW have signed a new, multi-year agreement that features a number of fresh initiatives, including premier status, in recognition of IDW's success as a top tier comic book and graphic novel publisher. Under the agreement, Diamond will continue to be the exclusive distributor of IDW comic books and graphic novels to the comic book specialty market, and to the bookstore market through its Diamond Book Distributors division.

"This change recognizes the growth and importance of IDW Publishing," said Diamond President and CEO, Steve Geppi, "and we look forward to working with them for many years to come."


Diamond VP Purchasing Bill Schanes added, "Since IDW began publishing, they have grown consistently each and every year, while at the same time establishing one of the best editorial, marketing, and business teams in our industry. They're easy to work with, understand our market, and are forging ahead with new strategies and plans to grow the consumer appetite for comics and graphic novels."

IDW is of course the publisher of Transformers comics here in the US, not to mention other popular titles like G.I. Joe, Star Trek, Dr. Who and CSI. To read the entire press release, click here.

Seibertron.com - The Ultimate Transformers Resource!

Probably won't affect us in any way, but congratulations to them. I suppose if anything, their steady growth means IDW and TF comics will be here for a long while.

This means all their continuity issues will be solved! Like magic!

I'm actually surprised it took this long for them to become a premiere status company. When I worked at a comic shop a lot of their titles outsold Image and Darkhorses books on a regular basis. It will be good for retailers to be finally able to adjust their F.O.C.s on IDW books but, I hope in exchange it means that their graphic novels will be easier to get restocks of. TF titles constantly sold out and you couldn't get any reorders. I hope this improves things.

kirbenvost wrote:Probably won't affect us in any way, but congratulations to them. I suppose if anything, their steady growth means IDW and TF comics will be here for a long while.

IIRC The "Premier Publishers" (which I think are Dark Horse, DC, Image, Marvel, and Wizard) get their ads published in the front portion of Diamond's Previews catalog and order booklet each month.

mechabooks wrote:I'm actually surprised it took this long for them to become a premiere status company. When I worked at a comic shop a lot of their titles outsold Image and Darkhorses books on a regular basis. It will be good for retailers to be finally able to adjust their F.O.C.s on IDW books but, I hope in exchange it means that their graphic novels will be easier to get restocks of. TF titles constantly sold out and you couldn't get any reorders. I hope this improves things.

Especially when you consider that a while back they were considered the third biggest company in comics just behind Marvel and DC.

Congratulations to IDW! Great news.

Well, it was about time, I don't know of others, but I started buying american comics when IDW announced they take over TF.
Since then, I bought some Dark Horse and Marvel comics, but seriously, those have advertisements every five page or so, and it is very iritating to read them.

Take away IDW's licensed titles and you're left with ... a lot of bloody good titles!

I'm absoloutely loving their "Weekly World News" series (seriously, go out and get it) and their "Zombie's -vs- Robots Adventures" is a pretty good read.

Next time you're in a comic shop, just pick up one of the non-licensed IDW titles, they're well worth the read.

I can't recommend The Fallen Angel enough.