As part of the effort to revive National Lampoon, the comedy company has signed a co-publishing deal with Rugged Land, the New York startup co-founded by Shawn Coyne.
The press said it will work on a number of reprints and also publish new work, with several Lampoon alumni contributing. The first book, scheduled for next spring, will be a re-release of the company's well-known 1964 High School Yearbook. The house plans one Lampoon title per year.
Coyne said the partnership would be informal, because "we're [both] small shops." He added that when it comes to rereleasing older material, he did not simply want to repackage "Best of" books but preferred to cherry-pick material and organize it in "a more thematic presentation." Rugged Land will create the projects and Lampoon will serve in an advisory role.
Lampoon has made efforts to revive itself in the last six months, as a group led by shareholder Dan Laikin has bought a controlling stake in the company from Jim Jimirro, who mostly ran it as a licensing clearinghouse in the 1990s. Laikin said he wanted "to identify major players in every area of media" and work with them to develop ideas bearing the Lampoon brand. The company has also bought the assets of the on-campus network Burly Bear and has hired Macmillan and iUniverse publishing veteran Doug Bennett as a senior executive.
