Magnetic Press is having an impressive first year. Not only was the publisher nominated for an Eisner, but it has announced an imprint partnership with Darby Pop Publishing, a creator-owned comic book studio founded by multiple-Emmy Award winning writer/producer Jeff Kline.  Kline, best known for such fan-favorite series as Transformers Prime, G.I. Joe: Renegades, and Jackie Chan Adventures, will bring a line-up of original graphic novels and series to comic shops and book stores worldwide via the Darby Pop imprint distributed under the Magnetic Press banner.

The first title to be released through the new partnership will be Side-Kicked, dropping in October 2015. Written by Russell Brettholtz and illustrated by Miguel Mendonca, this 96 page trade paperback collects the first arc of the independently published comic series about a group of superhero sidekicks who decide it’s high-time they received the respect they deserve.

Before joining Magnetic Press, Darby Pop was IDW’s first creator-owned imprint, under which they published five original series, with nearly 40 individual issues and trade paperbacks released to date. Published titles include City: The Mind in the Machine by novelist/screenwriter Eric Garcia, The 7th Sword by screenwriter John Raffo, Doberman by movie/TV writers Scott Marder, Rob Rosell, and Jack Lambert, Dead Squad by multi-hyphenates Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia, and Indestructible by Kline himself.