Award-Winning Publisher Introduces First Worldwide Initiative to Support
The Reopening of Comic Shops

LOS ANGELES, CA (April 29, 2020) – BOOM! Studios today announced the new DAY ONE RETAILER SUPPORT SERVICES PROGRAM, an industry-first plan to immediately support comic shops and their communities worldwide.  Every comic shop will have their own “Day One” – the date they reopen their doors to their communities and engage with new customers. BOOM! Studios has committed to arm their retail partners with clear advance information in support of every comic book store having a successful Day One. In that spirit, the groundbreaking program from BOOM! Studios was announced alongside the award-winning publisher’s new single issue comics release schedule beginning May 20th (a full release schedule through the end of June can be found here).

“We know that comic shops will reopen their doors soon on the schedule that’s right for them, so our DAY ONE RETAILER SUPPORT SERVICES PROGRAM is built to provide each one with everything they need to make that first day incredibly successful,” said Filip Sablik, President of Publishing & Marketing, BOOM! Studios. “This new program allows retailers to not only receive the new comics they need to drive much needed business every week beginning May 20th, but also arms them to stock up on their best-selling books right now in advance of their Day One at industry best discount levels with absolutely no risk and begin generating revenue before they reopen.”

The DAY ONE RETAILER SUPPORT SERVICES PROGRAM brings comic shops an unrivaled slate of discounts, returnability and sales tools including extensions and expansions of previously announced benefits, as part of their commitment to ensuring comic shops remaining a thriving part of every community:

• Full Returnability Through August: BOOM! Studios will extend the industry’s best returnability program, the BOOM! Guarantee, by making all items that ship between May 20th through August 26th fully returnable via affidavit in order to allow retailers to order with confidence. Any retailer not already enrolled in the BOOM! Guarantee can sign up for free right here.

• Rare Variant Cover Gift Set: BOOM! Studios will offer retailers a direct cash infusion by providing previously released rare and popular variant covers for free to qualifying Diamond accounts in June. These gifts will create an opportunity for retailers to generate additional revenue and promotion at no cost. For retailers who do not normally sell variant covers at an increased price, these can be used to reward loyal pull-box subscribers or used to further incentivize customer engagement as prizes or purchasing rewards.

• Monthly 1-Per Store Variant Covers: BOOM! Studios will provide new, previously unannounced 1-per-store variant every month through December 2020 free to qualifying Diamond accounts. This program will begin with a new 1-per store variant for in June.

• Deep Discounts on OGNs & Collections: BOOM! Studios is offering an additional 15% discount on OGNs & Collections through Simon & Schuster, which are fully returnable. This covers all releases through April 2020 and is in effect until May 15th, marking the highest discount level of any graphic novel publisher for accounts in the US, Canada and the UK.
  • Please note: For accounts distributed by Simon & Schuster UK, any account signing up will receive the same discount off their OGN & Collections. BOOM! Studios is extending promotional discounts to ALL Simon & Schuster UK accounts, and existing UK accounts should check with their sales representatives for available offers.

• Deep Discounts on Top-Selling Titles: Beginning on April 27th and running until May 11th, select top-selling BOOM! Studios backlist titles will be an additional 25% off to encourage stocking up on key titles in preparation of customers returning to your stores.  This includes recent releases such as All My Friends Are Ghosts and Something is Killing the Children along with popular series like Fence and Jim Henson’s Power of the Dark Crystal.

• Affiliate Sales Opportunities: BOOM! Studios is the first comic and graphic novel publisher to work with Simon & Schuster, Ingram and Bookshop.org to bring comic shop retailers new affiliate sales opportunities. These opportunities allow retailers to drive additional revenue through online sales opportunities even when they’re not able to reopen their doors for their new Day One. Once stores are open, they can lower their inventory exposure by offering a wider selection of graphic novels and collections to their communities.

• Curated Retailer Support Tools: BOOM! Studios will continue their weekly communications to retailers every week with information on the tools to benefit them like bookstores through Simon & Schuster, the ABA (American Booksellers Association) and more.

• #BoostYourLCS Paid Promotion: BOOM! Studios will increase targeted advertising and promotion around comic shops, and specifically spotlight stores offering Safe Services (like curbside and mail order options), using the #BoostYourLCS hashtag to reach over 361,000 fans worldwide. A full list of BOOM! Guarantee and Safe Service retailers (with regular updates) can be found right here.

• Diamond Summit Variant: BOOM! Studios will deliver our promised free Diamond Summit retailer variant cover for Faithless II #1 to all qualifying stores in June so that retailers don’t miss out on this new Must-Read series.

• Exclusive Convention Variant Opportunities: BOOM! Studios will offer select variant covers and other items previously planned for 2020 conventions direct to retailers through Diamond, as long as supplies last. Since fans can’t go to conventions, we’re bringing the conventions to the fans!

Diamond Comic Distributors and BOOM! Studios will be sharing more information directly with retailers as soon as it is finalized to clearly outline how to receive benefits from the  DAY ONE RETAILER SUPPORT SERVICES PROGRAM.

For continuing news on the  DAY ONE RETAILER SUPPORT SERVICES PROGRAM stay tuned to www.boom-studios.com and follow @boomstudios on Twitter.

SAN DIEGO, CA (April 27, 2020) – Springing from a lost 1987 storyline by TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the much-anticipated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin will be available this summer from IDW Publishing (OTCQX: IDWM) in an epic oversized five-issue miniseries!

In a future New York City far different from the one we know today, a lone surviving Turtle goes on a seemingly hopeless mission to obtain justice for his fallen family and friends. Kinetic layouts from Eastman, atmospheric inks from Andy Kuhn, and a thrilling script full of surprises from longtime TMNT scribe Tom Waltz all combine to make this one of the most memorable TMNT stories that fans will ever read.

In his own words, Kevin Eastman reflects on the conception of this important TMNT milestone:

“About ten years ago, I re-discovered a twenty page outline for a TMNT story that Peter and I wrote together back in 1987. The story was set thirty years in the future, which (as written then) was set in 2017. Reading through it again, I drifted back to a very different time in TMNT history — back when it was all about the comics, mostly just Peter and I writing and drawing the issues, pre-everything the world would soon come to know about these characters that we’d created and called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“It has been an INCREDIBLE thirty-six year journey, thanks to the brilliant talents of so many that brought new visions and TMNT stories to life, and especially the fans who supported all of them. Nine years ago, I was invited back into the TMNT comic universe, via my friends at IDW Publishing. Aside from the original run with my friend and co-creator Peter Laird, working on the IDW TMNT universe has been the best time I have had with the Turtles for a very, VERY long time.

“A little over a year ago, as the ongoing series headed towards issue one hundred, I showed a rough revised and updated version of the story outline (now set in the year 2040) to Tom Waltz, who equally fell in love with the possibilities of it. The Last Ronin is a heartfelt love poem to all the TMNT universes of the past, and offers up an intense look at one possible future — firmly based on and adapted from an original thirty-three year-old idea, from the original creators.

“Trust me — Tom, Andy, and I have just started on a two-hundred page journey… and it IS going to be one HELL of a ride…”

Series co-writer Tom Waltz says, “When Kevin first showed me the outline that he and Peter had created back in the ’80s, I was gobsmacked. Beyond Peter Laird’s eerily prescient technological and sociological predictions, the story idea itself was exciting and versatile, designed in a way that it could be easily modified to fit into the many different TMNT iterations that have existed over the years, without losing any of the core elements injected into it by both Kevin and Peter. I have the absolute honor to join these legendary creators to craft a TMNT story set in a chaotic future, rife with revenge, honor, tragedy, hope, and over-the-top ninja-action sequences that’ll blow any Turtles fan’s mind, no matter what version of the beloved franchise is their favorite.”

“After hitting TMNT #100 last year, we were interested in doing something even larger in scope and also something that really plays to everyone’s strengths,” says editor Bobby Curnow. “The Last Ronin is that project: the future New York we’re building is a perfect place for Tom’s immersive world-building and characterization, and Andy’s art is more innovative and engaging than we’ve ever seen. This is Kevin and Peter’s vision, but the entire team is making it their own and that’s really exciting to see.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #1 will be available with multiple cover variants for retailers and fans to enjoy, including Cover A by Kevin Eastman and two Retailer Incentive editions by Eastman and Mateus Santolouco (TMNT: Shredder in Hell), respectively. Each issue is a blockbuster 48 pages and 7.5×11 trim size!

For information on how to acquire copies of TMNT: The Last Ronin comic books, please contact your local comic shop or visit www.comicshoplocator.com to find a store near you.

INTRODUCING A NEW SERIES FROM THE WRITER OF CRIMINAL

AND THE ARTIST OF THE PRIVATE EYE, AVAILABLE NOW ON PANEL SYNDICATE

“This book feels like Lovecraft’s New England is colliding with Edward Gorey’s.”

—Writer Ed Brubaker

April 15, 2020) Award-winning writer Ed Brubaker, acclaimed artist Marcos Martin, and colorist Muntsa Vicente have surprised readers with the debut of FRIDAY, a previously unannounced comic on Panel Syndicate. In the series, Friday Fitzhugh—girl detective—and Lancelot Jones—her best friend and also the smartest boy in the world—spent their childhoods solving crimes and digging up occult secrets. But that was years ago. And now Friday is in college and starting a new life on her own. She’s moved on. Until she returns home for the holidays and is immediately pulled back into Lance’s orbit. This is literally the Christmas vacation from Hell and neither of them may survive to see the New Year. FRIDAY Chapter One, “The Girl in the Trees,” is available now on Panel Syndicate in English and Spanish, with fans paying what they want to read the story.

“One of the first things I said to Marcos was that this book feels like Lovecraft’s New England is colliding with Edward Gorey’s,” said Brubaker. “And I like to describe FRIDAY as post-YA, which is a genre that doesn’t really exist. It’s an idea I’ve been circling for a long time, that lets me tap into my own nostalgia for my youth and the YA books I loved back in the 70s and 80s – stuff like The Great Brain, or John Belliars books, or Harriet the Spy, or Encyclopedia Brown. I want to take that concept of the teen detective and those supernatural mysteries aimed at kids, but then let the protagonists grow up, so they have all the same problems we all do… and they encounter a much more dangerous world.”

FRIDAY marks the first major collaboration between Brubaker and Martin.

“Ed Brubaker has always been one of my favorite comic book writers,” said Martin. “There’s a unique quality to his writing, like a sober sadness that permeates all his work and always shines through, whether it’s on his crime noir stories with artist extraordinaire Sean Phillips or on his superhero projects at Marvel or DC. We had the chance to collaborate briefly on a Captain America Annual almost 15 years ago and I remembered the experience fondly, so when the time came last year to start thinking about what creator owned project I wanted to tackle next, I was hoping he’d had a similar positive memory of our past work together. But most importantly, I had his email address.”

“When Marcos wrote to me last summer asking if I wanted to work with him on his next big thing for Panel Syndicate, I think I wrote back within a minute to say yes,” said Brubaker. “I’ve been a longtime fan and watching his style evolve over the years has been amazing, and I was also really interested in what he and Brian K Vaughan created when they released The Private Eye on Panel Syndicate. For a while now a lot of cartoonists I follow—like Emily Carroll and Tillie Walden—have been publishing their work digitally as they complete it, and then putting out these gorgeous collections in print, and I’ve been curious to try something like that… to serialize a graphic novel in chapters, then put out the book in print (and knowing me, with all sorts of extras) when it’s done.”

“I had been wanting to experiment a bit with my drawing style and get away from my comfort zone for a while now, contemplating the possibility of cross-hatching, a technique I’ve never really looked into,” said Martin. “So when Ed pitched me the idea for FRIDAY with its mixture of Edward Gorey and Lovecraft set in a New England-ish town in the late 60s/early 70s, I was surprised to find the concept fit perfectly with what I was hoping to develop.”

FRIDAY will be released on Panel Syndicate in two formats: one for computers and laptops where it’s a double-page spread, and one for iPad, where it’s a single page view. In 2013, Marcos Martin founded the online platform Panel Syndicate with writer Brian K. Vaughan and illustrator/colorist Muntsa Vicente, in order to distribute their creator-owned comic, The Private Eye.

“Panel Syndicate was born as an example of a distribution model I felt was fair to both readers and creators, and eventually, comic publishers and retailers who can make more informed decisions with the books they were publishing and stocking on their shelves,” said Martin. “Our payment model also establishes a direct relationship between readers and creators. As creators, we’re responsible for creating quality comics to the best of our abilities, and the reader then gets to decide the value they think those comics have, according to their own perception and personal circumstances.”

“When we started work on the series last summer, we had no idea our surprise drop would come during a global pandemic, with a comic market that’s completely shut down,” said Brubaker. “But I know that my level of reading comics and books, and marathoning everything on Netflix, has gone through the roof the last month, so hopefully FRIDAY will be a nice surprise for comic readers today, and maybe a small escape from the real world right now.”