New Publisher BAD IDEA Looks To Shake Up Comics Industry

The comics space has become quite competitive over the past few years, but there will soon be a new challenger in the mix, and their name is BAD IDEA. BAD IDEA is the brainchild of the same crew that rebuilt Valiant Entertainment, and it includes Dinesh Shamdasani (Co-CEO/Co-CCO), Warren Simons (Co-CEO/Co-CCO), Hunter Gorinson (Publisher), Joshua Johns (Director of Marketing), and Atom Freeman (Sales Consultant). This team isn’t content to follow convention, so BAD IDEA will be shaking up things in the comics industry by doing a number of things differently, including only releasing one to two single issues per month with no variants, and those will not include any variants.

BAD IDEA isn’t stopping there though, as the issues will not be available digitally either, and you will only be able to purchase one physical copy of each book. That’s why BAD IDEA’s titles will only be available to a select few comic shops, 20 to be specific at launch, and those shops were picked based on a unique system of criteria. That number will increase to 50 by the end of the year.

BAD IDEA is also not collecting its series into trade paperbacks, hardcovers, or other formats, and will only produce single issue comics. Each of those comics will come in a prestige format package, and some will also come loaded with pages beyond the standard 22, but regardless of how many pages each one will be priced at $3.99.

BAD IDEA wants to make seeing one of their books on a shelf a big deal, and it also helps comic shops by making their locations the only place to get it.

So, what about the actual books? BAD IDEA did offer up a look at the cover to Megalith #1, a series by Lewis LaRosa, and there are plenty of other books in the pipeline. The comic publisher will launch with a new series called ENIAC from writer Matt Kindt and artist Doug Braithwaite, and will launch in May.

They are also working with creators like Mae Catt (Young Justice), Joshua Dysart (Unknown Soldier), Tomas Giorello (X-O Manowar), Adam Pollina (X-Force), Robert Venditti (Justice League), Marguerite Bennett (Batwoman), Eric Heisserer (Bird Box), Jody Houser (Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy), Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer), Peter Milligan (X-Statix), and Zeb Wells (Amazing Spider-Man).

It’s certainly an interesting premise for a comic publisher, and a lot of these approaches have the potential to make big waves.

So what do you think of BAD IDEA? Let us know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all things comics!