IDW Becomes Premier Publisher

Congratulations to IDW Publishing, which today was announced as a Diamond Comic Distributors Premier Publisher. What does that mean? They get to be in the front half of the Previews catalog, which has always been rumored to get a company more eyeballs and sales. (Speculation has it that some retailers stop reading after the premier section.) IDW products are also able to be featured on the catalog cover, in rotation with the other premier publishers (DC, Marvel, Image, and Dark Horse).

Most interesting about this report, I think, is the statement “last year [IDW] was the No. 4 publisher, behind Dark Horse”. I read that to mean that IDW now sells more than Image does. Which makes sense, when I stop to think about it. IDW has lots of recognized franchise titles of interest to the male customers of the direct market — G.I. Joe, Transformers, Star Trek — while Image has … Walking Dead? Spawn? IDW has also been expanding into works for kids and classic comic strip reprints to diversify their line.