IDW Publishing has announced the promotion of Jerry Bennington from Director of Business Development to Vice President of New Product Development. Bennington’s primary role will be to further develop IDW’s emerging business units to include IDW Games, IDW Limited, and impulse pack product lines.
“Having known and worked with Jerry for over 20 years, it hasn’t surprised me what he’s been able to achieve since arriving at IDW,” said CEO & Publisher Ted Adams. “IDW continues to grow and expand rapidly, and with this new role, Jerry will be an even bigger part of what we do.”
“It’s been a pleasure to be a part of IDW’s expansion over the past few years. Everyday IDW raises the bar on quality and innovation and I look forward to continue leading my team to even greater results.” said Bennington.
A long-standing industry executive, Bennington previously served as Vice President of Marketing for Upper Deck Entertainment from 1999-2006. Under Bennington’s tenure, he established Upper Deck’s tabletop gaming division and generated over $2 billion in retail sales fueled by the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game brand.
Since joining IDW in 2012, Bennington has quickly helped establish several key platforms for company growth including IDW Games, which publishes the best-selling Machi Koro card game, IDW Limited, and impulse micro comics featuring My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Star Wars brands with over 1 million packs produced to date.
About IDW
IDW Publishing is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The TRANSFORMERS, G.I. JOE, MY LITTLE PONY and JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS; Paramount/CBS’s Star Trek; Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Toho’s Godzilla; Twentieth Century Fox’s The X-Files; Sony’s Ghostbusters, Temple Street Productions’ Orphan Black; multiple monthly DISNEY titles; and many more licensed and creator-driven titles.
IDW Publishing is also home to acclaimed imprints such as; The Library of American Comics, which publishes classic comic reprints; Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studio; and the multiple award-winning IDW Artist’s Edition line. In 2015, IDW acquired Top Shelf Productions, an award-winning publisher of graphic novels. Top Shelf is known for publishing works of literary sophistication, including the #1 New York Times and Washington Post Best Seller March by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell and the authorized graphic-novel adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
IDW Games publishes both creator-owned and licensed tabletop games. The division was launched in 2014 and has quickly found success with one of the top-selling card games of the year with the Award-Winning Japanese import card game, Machi Koro.
IDW Entertainment was started in 2013 to fund, develop, and produce television series based on IDW properties. IDW Entertainment is currently in development with a slate of properties for television including Wynonna Earp, licensed to Syfy and premiering in early 2016; Brooklyn Animal Control, sold to USA Network with executive producers David Goyer (DaVinci’s Demons, Dark Knight Rises) and Circle of Confusion (Walking Dead); and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, sold to BBC America with writer/executive producer Max Landis (Chronicle).
IDW Entertainment also has several active theatrical projects in development, including Zombies vs. Robots, which is in development as a major motion picture with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes and Sony.
