Tag Archives: penguin random house publisher services

Oni Press shifts to Penguin Random House Publisher Services for Distribution

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Oni Press

Oni Press has announced a multi-year worldwide sales and distribution agreement with Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS). The publisher was previously distributed by Lunar Distribution. The deal begins August 1, 2026.

PRHPS will sell and distribute Oni Press’ frontlist and backlist trade books, as well as single issue comics, for Oni Press and the company’s Magnetic Press imprint exclusively across all sales channels worldwide.

The deal comes ahead of numerous anticipated releases from Oni including Matt Kindt and Brian Hurtt’s Fort Psycho from his Flux House imprint as well as the launch of Oni’s partnership with Archie Comics and Archie #1 which arrives in September. That issue is by writer W. Maxwell Prince and art by Fábio Moon. 

Ignition Press and Penguin Random House Publisher Services announce a Multi-Year Worldwide Sales and Distribution Agreement

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Ignition Press

Ignition Press and Penguin Random House Publisher Services have announced a multi-year sales and distribution deal. The agreement begins September 2025.

Ignition Press was co-founded by Eric Gitter (CEO), Filip Sablik (Publisher), Jamie S. Rich (Editor-in-Chief), and Jeremy Haun (Creative Director). The company’s initial slate includes projects from creators such as Haun, Cullen Bunn, Simon Spurrier, Leah Williams, Stephanie Williams, Jim McCann, Jason A. Hurley, the Miranda Brothers, Mike Tisserand, Marika Cresta, David Baldeon, Letizia Cadonici, and Joe Eisma, with more to be announced in the coming months.

The publisher also already has a television series in production with The Beauty, created by Haun and Hurley, at FX with showrunner Ryan Murphy at the helm and a cast that includes Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Ashton Kutcher, Jeremy Pope, Rebecca Hall, and Isabella Rossellini.

Diamond releases a Statement regarding Penguin Random House Ending its Distribution Partnership with Diamond Comic Distributors

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Diamond Comic Distributors

Earlier today, news broke that Penguin Random House would be ending its distribution partnership with Diamond Comic Distributors. It effectively cutting off shops’ access to Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, and more unless they opened an account with Penguin Random House.

Diamond has confirmed the change with the arrangement ending June 25, 2025.

A Diamond spokesperson issued the following statement regarding Penguin Random House’s decision:

It’s disappointing that after years of collaboration, Penguin Random House has abruptly cut off access to product for our loyal retailers and fans. We’re focused on actively working with other publishers to remedy the situation and minimize disruption.

Diamond will continue to fulfill all orders from PRH through June 25, 2025.

Penguin Random House Cuts Off Diamond

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Penguin Random House logo

Penguin Random House has sent out a notification that all Penguin Random House sales into the US Direct Market for comics will be handled by their in-house sales team. That means comic stores will no longer be able to order product from Diamond Comic Distributors from publishers that are currently exclusively serviced by Penguin Random House. That might make it difficult for stores to order comics from Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse, IDW Publishing, and more.

In court filings in April, it was revealed that Diamond Comic Distributors owed Penguin Random House $9,171,798.97. Who knows how that’s changed in the month since that revelation. Between that and continued unease about the direction of the distributor, Penguin Random House decided a change was needed.

The transition plan mentioned by Penguin Random House is basically just final dates for order product from Diamond and a last on sale date. That’s it. Those who have accounts through Penguin Random House can order comics from those publishers and those that don’t better hustle and open one if you want to continue carrying them as you have about a week to get things in order and a month to continue getting those comics through Diamond.

Since COVID, there’s been a splintering of distribution for the comic book direct market with multiple new distributors taking over accounts that had been held by Diamond Comic Distributors, often with exclusive deals. This has increased costs for stores in hours having to juggle multiple distributors but also shipping costs for some. Now there’s a minimum of at least 3 distributors stores would need to deal with to carry most of the market. DC Comics and Image Comics are exclusive with Lunar Distribution, and Marvel, Dark Horse and IDW are exclusive with Penguin Random House. If you want them and the other publishers/comics Diamond handles, that’s at least three distributors.

With Diamond’s Chapter 11 filing this year and its subsequent purchase by Ad Populum, and the losing of accounts, further questions have been raised about an “authority” for stores and customers to know what’s coming out each week.

In 2024, Penguin Random House bought BOOM! Studios and recently it was announced BOOM! Studios’ digital comics would no longer be available on the Comics Plus digital app that is used by libraries.

Remember when a judge blocked the sale of Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House? Maybe that was a really good thing and exclusives and consolidation are a bad thing for the comic industry…

Penguin Random House would like to thank Diamond for their partnership and for their contributions to the marketplace.

Going forward, all Penguin Random House sales into the US Direct Market will be handled by our in-house sales team. We are announcing the following transition plan for US Direct Market retailers serviced by Diamond Comics:

  • Diamond’s last FOC for all Penguin Random House product to US retailers will be May 26th.
  • The last on sale date for new product shipping through Diamond to US retailers will be June 25th.

Retailers with questions about an existing Diamond order should reach out to Diamond directly. Existing accounts can continue to order directly from Penguin Random House. Retailers interested in opening a new account can contact us at ComicMarketUS@penguinrandomhouse.com.

Best,
– Your PRH Direct Market Sales Team

Penguin Random House would like to thank Diamond for their partnership and for their contributions to the marketplace. Going forward, all Penguin Random House sales into the US Direct Market will be handled by our in-house sales team. We are announcing the following transition plan for US Direct Market retailers serviced by Diamond Comics: Diamond's last FOC for all Penguin Random House product to US retailers will be May 26th. The last on sale date for new product shipping through Diamond to US retailers will be June 25th. Retailers with questions about an existing Diamond order should reach out to Diamond directly. Existing accounts can continue to order directly from Penguin Random House. Retailers interested in opening a new account can contact us at ComicMarketUS@penguinrandomhouse.com. Best, – Your PRH Direct Market Sales Team

DSTLRY and Penguin Random House Publisher Services announce a multi-year distribution agreement

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DSTLRY

Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS) has announced a multi-year sales and distribution agreement with DSTLRY beginning June 2025.

Founded in 2023 by former comiXology executives David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, DSTLRY launched a creator-owned publishing model that prioritized artistic independence and fair compensation for creators. The company has quickly gained recognition for its innovative print and digital publishing strategies, as well as for assembling a powerhouse roster of Founding Creators including Mirka Andolfo, Brian Azzarello, Marc Bernardin, Elsa Charretier, Becky Cloonan, Lee Garbett, Jock, Joëlle Jones, Tula Lotay, Jamie McKelvie, Junko Mizuno, Stephanie Phillips, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Ram V, alongside Founding Editor Will Dennis. 

DSTRLY’s Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay won the Eisner for Best New Series in 2024, marking the first time a debut publisher has won that award in the history of the Eisner Awards.

In July 2024, DSTLRY announced an exclusive multi-year distribution agreement with Diamond Comic Distributors after having previously been distributed by Lunar Distribution as well as Diamond. Since then, Diamond has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is currently in the process of possibly being bought out.

Tokyopop and Penguin Random House Publisher Services forge a worldwide distribution agreement

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Tokyopop

Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS) has announced a multi-year sales and distribution agreement with Tokyopop. Beginning January 1, 2025, PRHPS will sell and distribute the entire Tokyopop frontlist and backlist across all sales channels worldwide.

Founded in 1997 by entrepreneur Stu Levy, Tokyopop delivers Asian pop culture across the globe. From bestselling licensed titles like Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for Pumpkin King to the celebrated LoveLove imprint’s Fangs and On or Off, to Tokyopop Classics like Dramacon, the entire catalogue continues to grow across both children’s and adult titles.

Penguin Random House takes on Dark Horse’s single-issue distribution

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Dark Horse logo

Dark Horse Comics and Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS) have announced an exclusive worldwide multi-year agreement for the sales and distribution of Dark Horse’s newly published and backlist comic book periodicals, graphic novels, and manga to the Direct Market comic shops. The new agreement, which begins June 1, 2023 expands its current partnership, in which PRHPS sells and distributes Dark Horse’s trade-book frontlist and backlist to bookstores.

Direct Market retailers can choose to order Dark Horse products direct from PRH, or alternatively, through Diamond, as a wholesaler, under terms established by Diamond in the US and the UK. These retailers now have 24/7 access to online ordering and can also visit www.prhcomics.com, a website for comics, graphic novels, manga, and more, designed specifically for US Direct Market comic shop retailers and consumers.

Penguin Random House Publisher Services continues to consolidate its control over distribution with publishers shifting from Diamond to PRHPS. One mega company to another. It’s hard to not see this as another blow against Diamond as it has lost many of the major publishers to PRHPS and other distributors. Marvel, IDW, and more have switched their primary distribution to Penguin Random House and others. But, federal sights have turned towards Penguin Random House as it attempts to merge with Simon & Schuster consolidating the book market. While distribution doesn’t seem to be the primary reason the federal government is opposing the merger, it is absolutely a factor as the publisher would control not just a large portion of the book market (what gets published, terms of those deals, etc.) but with a greater control of the market it could then abuse its power when it comes to distribution.

Marvel and Penguin Random House Publisher Services Announced an Exclusive Worldwide Sales and Distribution Agreement

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This week, Marvel Publishing and Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS), a division of Penguin Random House, announced an exclusive worldwide multi-year sales and distribution agreement for Marvel’s newly published and backlist collected editions and graphic novels to bookstores and major retailers across the Book Market. PRHPS officially begins its distribution to Book Market retailers for all Marvel titles beginning in Spring 2023.

Following the transition of Marvel’s Direct Market distribution to PRHPS in 2021, Marvel’s book distribution will now continue with PRHPS in the Book Market. PRHPS will begin distribution for books going on sale beginning April 1, 2023. Up to that date, books will continue to be distributed by Hachette Book Group.

April books will be available to order beginning later this summer.

Marvel

Around the Tubes

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Superman: Action Comics Vol. 5 The House of Kent

It was new comic book day yesterday! What did you all get? What are you excited for? Sound off in the comments below! While you think about that, here’s some comic news and a review from around the web.

Kotaku – Report: Twitch Is Hacked And Its Source Code Is In The Wild [Update] – Wow!

Kotaku – Only Three Percent Of Twitch’s Top-Earning Streamers Are Women, Apparently – A lot of potentially interesting things coming out of this hack.

Deadline – ‘Moon Lake’: Heavy Metal Developing TV Adaptation Of Dan Fogler Graphic Novel Series, ‘Rick And Morty’ Studio Bardel Entertainment To Animate & Co-Produce – Any comics not being adapted?

ICv2 – The Harvey Awards Will Induct Five into its Hall of Fame – Congrats to all!

SKTCHD – Penguin Random House Swings and Misses in Week One at Marvel – Looks like the grass isn’t greener.

Review

Collected Editions – Superman: Action Comics Vol. 5: The House of Kent

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