Read on for news of DK’s Warhammer expansion, recent comics successes and new publishing ventures from Hasbro, a new title in HarperCollins’s Wow in the World series, shoe designer Kat Maconie’s new children’s book, and more.
'Avatar' Marks 20th Anniversary with New Publishing
As the classic animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender marks its 20th anniversary in 2025, Nickelodeon, Avatar Studios, and Paramount Consumer Products & Experiences are celebrating the milestone with a variety of initiatives, including a range of new publishing.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender is a unique show in that it has such wide and sustained appeal,” said Lauren Clauss, senior editor at Random House Children’s Books, which is publishing a new chapter book series based on the property this year. “Adults who grew up with [protagonist] Aang and his friends still watch and have become a big collector audience. The series is also appealing to kids today and will continue to be so since there is so much exciting new content on the horizon from Avatar Studios.”
Avatar: The Last Airbender debuted on February 21, 2005, and had a 61-episode run through 2008. The series spurred a spin-off show, The Legend of Korra, which ran from 2012 through 2014. The original series got a second life on Netflix in 2020, followed by a new live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series introduced on the streamer in 2024, now greenlit for two more seasons. Looking ahead, a new, as-yet-untitled animated theatrical film is scheduled for January 2026, while a new animated TV series, Avatar: Seven Havens, is in production, release date unknown.
“It all starts with great content,” Amy Jarashow, Paramount’s VP of global publishing, crafts, and celebrations, told PW. “We have a steady stream of content to feed the fans.”
Publishing has been part of the franchise since the beginning, with more than 200 titles published to date, extending to all price points and age groups. Most of the new books planned for the anniversary year are coming from long-time partners. Random House, for example, released titles based on the original series and revived the program in 2020 after its Netflix success. Its titles include character-focused Little Golden Books (e.g., I Am Aang), leveled readers, and graphic retellings of episodes using stills and dialogue, among other formats.
Random House’s 2025 chapter book series takes place long before the events of the original show and features themes of overcoming challenges and building friendships. “This felt like the perfect time to introduce a new chapter book series,” Clauss said. “It’s aimed at kids who are maybe a little young to dive into the original show but are interested in the property thanks to parents or older siblings who love it.” The company will also release an updated how-to-draw book and a sticker-activity book, as well as more Little Golden Books.
Meanwhile, in the second half of 2025, Abrams will publish a new YA novel series, Avatar: Legends, expanding an Avatar list that to date has sold more than 700,000 copies in print and audio. Dark Horse will release a comic mini-series and a new illustrated hardcover, as well as more titles in its ongoing graphic novel series, which has sold nearly three million copies. Insight Editions has released a furry journal and plans a baking book, a follow-up to its bestselling Avatar cookbook. “These were all early partners that extended the stories and supported the franchise,” Jarashow said. In addition, there will be more releases from Magpie Games, which has published a series of books and bundles for roleplaying games since 2021.
A new licensee is also coming on board: Printers Row Publishing Group’s Thunder Bay Press, focusing on activity books for adults. More publishing is planned for future seasons, likely including tie-ins to the new film and TV series. “We’ll be present for our fans,” Jarashow said.
Other initiatives supporting the anniversary include a continuation of a global live orchestra tour, short-form digital content on YouTube and Roblox, a rewatch podcast, a digital music album, live experiences at San Diego Comic-Con and Mall of America’s Nickelodeon Universe theme park, and new digital games. New consumer products are also on the way, including toys from master licensee Jazwares.
DK Expands Warhammer Publishing Program
DK published The Ultimate Guide to Warhammer 40,000, a visual compendium of the characters, factions, events, and miniatures tied to the tabletop game franchise, in October 2024. Tailored to fans who are deeply immersed in the world of Warhammer, it had a first printing of 50,000 copies and, with sales of more than 15,000 in the U.S. and 12,000 in the U.K. through the end of the year, was one of DK’s biggest books of the 2024 holiday season.
The Warhammer franchise debuted in the 1980s. IP owner Games Workshop designs and manufactures Warhammer games, miniatures, codices, fantasy novels (through its Black Library division), video games, and model kits, selling them through its 550-plus Warhammer and Games Workshop stores, its e-commerce site, and third-party retailers in more than 50 countries.
“We’re looking for things people are fans of and passionate about,” Mark Searle, managing director for DK licensing, told PW. “The game has been around for so long. As the fans have grown up, it has grown massively as a property, and there are a lot of secret Warhammer fans everywhere.” That includes booksellers and DK employees, he said.
DK is now expanding its Warhammer program with two new titles in 2025. The Warhammer 40,000 Character Encyclopedia, set for an October release, includes profiles of more than 120 heroes and villains and is meant to give fans a greater understanding of the brand. “It’s more for young fans that are new to the property,” said Searle.
Despite the franchise’s tagline—“In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war”—fans start to get into the game as young as age 12 and a lot of teens play, Searle said, noting that the audience is also gender-balanced.
Next up, in November, comes The Art of Warhammer Video Games, which celebrates the concept art, promo pieces, and other assets of the franchise’s more than three decades of interactive game titles, along with commentary. It includes both classic Warhammer games such as the Dawn of War series and newer titles such as Space Marine 2, one of 2024’s most popular games with more than six million players.
Games Workshop and DK, both headquartered in the U.K., worked closely together on the development of the books, with the DK team visiting Games Workshop’s Nottingham office to examine its vast library of painted models and other assets. More Warhammer titles are in the works for 2026 and beyond.
Hasbro Looks Ahead as Skybound Deal Breaks Comic Book Records
As Hasbro’s global sales and creative teams get ready to head to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, they are celebrating the success of the first full year of Skybound’s comic book programs for G.I. Joe, Transformers, and the Robert Kirkman-created Energon Universe, which combines the two. The program launched in November 2023.
Sales in North America have been record-setting, according to Hasbro: more than five million units have been sold, including more than three million collectively for the Energon Universe and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series; Transformers #1 has gone into an 11th printing, with more to come; G.I. Joe #1 saw orders of 225,000 from comic book shops; and a Kickstarter campaign for The G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero compendiums raised more than $4 million from more than 10,000 backers. Meanwhile, Transformers won two Eisner Awards in 2024.
“It’s not often you get both commercial and critical success,” Marie-cécile Bourdillon, Hasbro’s global publishing director, told PW. “I’m not a big comic book reader, but I read these comics and loved them. They were one of the best things I’ve ever read in my life.” Hasbro is now bringing the series into global markets.
Skybound will introduce a new middle-grade graphic novel series, Transformers: Worst Bot Ever, this summer, when Dark Horse’s new publishing programs tied to Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons—both from Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast division and announced at San Diego Comic-Con last July—will also debut.
Beyond comic books, the big news for Peppa Pig publishing in 2025 is the upcoming pregnancy of Mummy Pig, which North American master licensee Scholastic and other book and audiobook publishers will feature in a range of new titles later this year and into 2026. “When we talked to booksellers and publishers, we understood quickly how big this would be,” Bourdillon said.
My Little Pony will also see more publishing globally in 2025, spurred by very strong sales for My Little Pony trading cards in China through a deal with Kayou. The success of the line created demand for My Little Pony publishing for kids and adults in that market, and a number of titles are currently in the pipeline. The program is expected to expand globally, including to North America, later this year.
Another area of growth for Hasbro is its gaming business, which has recently attracted increased interest from publishers. Initiatives across books, audiobooks, and partworks are in development. “Our entertainment brands have a lot of content to work with, but with Monopoly or Clue you have the flexibility to create new content,” Bourdillon said. Random House brought Candyland into its Little Golden Books program this past January, for example, with Clue to follow in July and more to come.
The company is also releasing new storytelling formats. “Our licensees are getting more and more innovative in creating stories that engage with readers,” Bourdillon said, citing a deal with Yoto, announced on March 13, as an example. Dungeons & Dragons: Forge Your Quest is an interactive audio quest format for ages eight and up that allows users to shape the story throughout. It is being released globally in English.
HarperCollins Helps Young Readers Discover the ‘Wow’ Around Them
Wow in the World is the top-rated science podcast for kids and families, with weekly episodes focusing on the latest news in science and technology, infused with lots of humor. It launched in 2017 and is now in its 10th season, with the 250th episode coming up and almost 250 million episodes downloaded to date. It has also inspired two spin-offs: a game show format called Two Whats?! and a Wow! and an interactive audience-participation format called WeWow.
Publishing was the first brand extension beyond audio. “Books are very important because they give a new entry point,” Meredith Halpern-Ranzer, chief executive at Tinkercast, told PW. “And kids’ experience is similar when reading and listening. There’s no screen and there’s imagination and creativity.”
HarperCollins is introducing its eighth Wow in the World title this year with Dinosaurs Are Wow: A Roaring Thunder of Prehistoric Wonder. The middle-grade book series is authored by hosts Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas and has more than 300,000 copies in print across all the titles to date. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt signed the property in 2019, when it aired on National Public Radio, and introduced the first book in 2020 under its Clarion imprint. The books came to HarperCollins with the purchase of HMH Books & Media in 2021 and are now found under the new Storytide imprint for middle grade and teen readers.
“It was the best nonfiction proposal I’ve ever seen,” executive editor Amy Cloud, who acquired the books, told PW. “The Tinkercast team really knows how kids think and how to engage them in science. And I liked their mission to inspire kids to go beyond the podcast or the books and seek the wows and wonders of their own world. It’s fun, engaging, and interactive, and it’s real science.” The series also had a strong consumer following. “They had an amazing fan base, and our sales and marketing teams were excited about it.”
Dinosaurs Are Wow is the latest title in the property’s flagship book series, which also includes The How and Wow of the Human Body, From Your Tongue to Your Toes and All the Guts in Between (2021); Wow in the Wild, The Amazing World of Animals (2022); and Wow in the World: Wow in Space, A Galactic Guide to the Universe and Beyond (2023). The 180- to 200-page books are full of facts, quizzes, and the wacky sense of humor for which the podcast is known.
Two 200-page, 7x7 fact books have also been published, including What in the Wow!!, 250 Bonkerballs Facts (2023) and What in the Wow?! 2, 250 More Bonkerballs Facts (2024). Cloud noted that the fact books, which are sold at a lower price point, have generated an especially positive response. The very first Wow book—rushed to market to give kids something to do at home as the pandemic hit during the books’ development process—was a 92-page workbook called Two Whats?! And a Wow! Think & Tinker Playbook (2020).
The editorial process is collaborative. “They have a very specific sense of humor and point of view, and these really big ideas,” said Cloud, who notes that the digital podcast format gives Tinkercast a strong sense what its audience wants. “It’s so interesting that we can get that information,” she added. “In publishing we don’t usually have that direct line to the audience.” The Tinkercast team selects the illustrators to ensure they captured the brand’s sense of humor, offers ideas for illustrations, and reviews them for scientific accuracy. It also supplies bibliographies and source notes, and the podcast’s fact checkers go over the books as well.
HarperCollins has seen sales, marketing, and distribution benefits from the relationship with Tinkercast, which recently renewed its deal with Wondery, first forged in 2021, for podcast distribution and consumer products licensing representation. Some of HarperCollins’s books were highlighted on the Amazon Wondery page during the holiday season, for example, and books are sold at the brand’s Make It Wow! live game show tour.
In addition to publishing, the Wow in the World franchise has extended beyond audio into educational programs for schools; experiences such as travel, the live tour, and a new geocaching program; growing toy lines from Thames & Kosmos, Goliath, and Tonies; and more. “We’re the first podcast brand to have toys, and it’s really exciting,” said Halpern-Ranzer, who noted that the toys come with a QR code for bonus educational content. “We want to push the boundaries of STEM but make it super playful and repeatable to keep the creativity going.”
“I have such admiration for Wow in the World as a brand,” Cloud said. “They’re so smart about how they’re reaching their audience.”
“We continue to grow and to seek out new ways to wow,” Halpern-Ranzer said. “We want to be anywhere and everywhere families are.”
Shoe Designer Kat Maconie Steps into Publishing
British footwear designer Kat Maconie is entering the children’s publishing space with her first book, What Kind of Shoes Does a Hippopotamus Choose?, set for publication in the U.S. by Penguin Young Readers’ Flamingo imprint, known for its celebrity-penned children’s books, on August 5. The new title will be supported by a licensing program, including a collection of Maconie-designed print-on-demand apparel from Brand Kandi’s Spread Love Digital platform, timed to the book’s launch.
The title came about after Maconie was approached by Story Giants, an IP development and production company that collaborates with artists and designers, to see if she had ever thought of doing a children’s book. “We were chatting about concepts and ideas, and they asked me what sort of animal would wear my shoes,” Maconie told PW. “I said, a hippo, of course!
The result was a rhyming poem about animals who wear different kinds of shoes—crocodiles in stilettos, donkeys in mules, cats in ballet flats, bears in boat shoes, etc.—along with fashionable hats and accessories, as they head to a party. The main character is a confident hippo with a vast shoe collection. The book is illustrated by Sebastien Braun, whom Flamingo brought to the project. “Sebastien is brilliant,” Maconie said. “He created this beautiful and classic world that looks like it’s influenced by the Parisian streets. From a licensing perspective, the illustrations are really strong.”
In addition to the apparel, an announcement about an animated series from a major studio is expected soon, with toys and other children’s products to follow. Maconie is represented for licensing by British agency Licensing Management International (which was founded by her uncle, Andrew Maconie).
“We’re going big,” she said. “We’re building out the entire world.” She noted that products will be design-led and emphasize the key elements of the brand, namely creativity and dressing up. “The book is very much the catalyst for the brand. I want to make it a really beautiful classic.” Ancillary publishing categories, such as coloring and activity books, are also a possibility.
The initial 40-piece apparel line, which launches in April, is for children up to age seven and consists of everything from baby tracksuits to raincoats. Footwear is planned for the future.
Maconie has led her shoe label for 15 years. She sold the brand to the Timeless Group of Companies last October and is working with the new owners as they expand the Kat Maconie brand globally. To support her new venture, meanwhile, Maconie will be in the U.S. for an author tour in July and August of this year.
In Brief
IDW is launching new Godzilla comic books that all take place in a connected universe during the Kai-Sei Era. They include the first ongoing Godzilla series in a decade, as well as Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone, a series with the first half-human, half kaiju (monster) character, and Starship Godzilla, marking the first time a human crew travels to kaiju planets rather than the kaiju visiting Earth. The company says the titles are intended for comics readers who have never bought a Godzilla title and Godzilla fans who have never read a comic. Limited series outside the connected universe will also continue.... Highlights Press signed Danish toy brand Plus-Plus for new activity kits, starting with Christmas Fun: Build, Puzzle, Play, which will release in September 2025. It pairs 40 of Highlights’ Hidden Pictures puzzles with 100 eco-friendly holiday-colored building pieces for hands-on puzzle-solving and imaginative play. More titles are in the works for 2026.... Dynamite Kids, the juvenile imprint of Dynamite Entertainment, is publishing two books tied to Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues & You! TV series: It’s Puppet Time with Blue! in May and Blue’s Beach Bonanza in August.... Fanhome is publishing a subscription series of collectible The Legend of Batman graphic novels under license from DC Comics. The 120-page hardcover books include original storytelling and artwork from DC Comics writers and includes recaps of all the key moments in the character’s life. Bonus gifts are also included as part of the collection.... Jakks Pacific is launching a toy line tied to the Dog Man movie, released on January 31, from DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures. The Joester-Loria Group represents Dog Man for licensing.... Science kit maker Thames & Kosmos is coming out with two new Harry Potter craft kits in the fall, Magic Letters & Seals and Magic Wands.... Yottoy has licensed Penguin’s The Little Engine That Could, introducing a plush train with sound (taken from the audiobook), timed to the book’s 95th anniversary. It has also expanded its bestselling Frog & Toad line, adding a picnic set.... Penguin Random House division Out of Print is releasing a collection of shirts, sweatshirts, socks, tote bags, pouches, bookmarks, stickers, and coffee mugs tied to The Hunger Games franchise. There will also be items celebrating the new title in the series, Sunrise on the Reaping, which Scholastic Press published on March 18.... Magic Light Pictures has signed BBC Studios for international distribution and U.S. consumer products and licensing rights for its TV series Zog. The British series is based on the books by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.... In February, FAO Schwarz in New York City hosted a Paddington pop-up featuring toys, plush, stationery, apparel, and accessories. The initiative promoted the film Paddington in Peru.
