Press Release

Starburns Industries, the production studio that brought you Rick and Morty, Anomalisa, and Harmonquest, has expanded beyond film and television development with Starburns Industries Press (SBI Press), a publisher of books, comics and specialty cassette tapes.

SBI Press expands Starburns’ commitment to funny and imaginative original ideas into comics and will feature contributions from SBI-affiliated talent Dan Harmon (Community, Rick and Morty), Dino Stamatopoulos (Moral Orel, Community, Mr. Show), and the vast network of comedians, writers, and podcasters affiliated with Starburns Audio. 

Set to hit the ground running, the new imprint has signed an agreement with Diamond Comic Distributors the world's largest distributor of English-language comic books, graphic novels, and pop culture products, and its book trade division, Diamond Book Distributors.

The new division is founded and headed by Starburns production executive Simon Oré, who will serve as President of SBI Press. “We are a creator driven studio and we are always looking for new voices and storytellers to work with and create things that maybe wouldn’t have existed if we didn’t take a chance on them. We are working with a lot of incredible artists and writers and musicians, it’s mostly about building a playground where people we love to work with can create anything they want. Our driving force is we want to make things we want to own ourselves.”

Joining Oré to build the division are new hires Brendan Wright, formerly of Dark Horse Comics and New Arab Media, who comes on board as SBI Press VP and Executive Editor, and Trevor Richardson, formerly of Diamond Comics Distributors, who fills the role of SBI Press VP of Acquisitions. The staff is rounded out by Editorial & Production Assistants Ross Clark and Paige Dowling, and PR and Marketing Manager Cassandra Church, with Starburns Producer Casey Rup (VICELAND’s Party Legends, Ricking Morty) serving as producer and consulting editor.

SBI Press becomes the first publisher to debut through the comics industry’s annual Free Comic Book Day event with the showcase Starburns Presents on the first Saturday of May. The anthology title will preview the SBI Press’s 2018 slate, headlined by a short story from comedian and writer Patton Oswalt, artist Troy Nixey, and colorist Michelle Madsen.

“Launching on Free Comic Book Day lets us put our best foot forward,” Wright said. “The lineup the SBI Press team has assembled have a variety of voices and styles but share a unity of vision that make for a truly satisfying issue, with a mix of complete stories and excerpts from upcoming books. Readers looking for something fun and original on FCBD will find at least one — and hopefully several — things to love in Starburns Presents.”

Coinciding with Free Comic Book Day, the May edition of Diamond’s Previews catalog will include the company’s first launches: Dan Harmon’s biting take on supervillainy, Gregory Graves, cowritten with Eric M. Esquivel and illustrated by Brent Schoonover, Ted Naifeh, and Rebecca Nalty; Dino Stamatopolous and Leah Triscione’s graphic novel Trent, “a lighthearted tragedy with music”; and the company’s first series, Hellicious, a family comedy set in Hell, written by Alan C. Medina and Mina Elwell and illustrated by Kit Wallis and Jio Butler.

From there, the first wave of titles in 2018 continues with Comics Comics, teaming fan-favorite stand-up comedians with leading comic industry talent in an anthology series, Oddwell: The Frog of War, a fantasy-adventure comic series from writers David A. Clarke and Walter A. Bryant III and artist Acacia T. Rodarte; and The Crawling King, an illustrated dark fantasy novel by award-winning filmmaker and animator Einar Baldvin.

These properties and the creators behind them, along with the support of Starburns Industries and Starburns Audio, have a following that number in the millions globally. As a multimedia company reaching into film/television, print, and audio productions, Starburns Industries aims to actively create new intellectual properties and develop those properties into other media such as movies, games, television, novels, toys, and more, through direct production and licensing agreements.