Devil's Due Publishing has announced that its comics will be published under its own brand beginning in January; Image will continue to publish Devil's Due titles until then.  Diamond Comic Distributors will be DDP's exclusive distributor to the comic and book store channels.  The discount for retailers will be 'similar to CrossGen and Dreamwave,' which would make Devil's Due titles an 'E' in Diamond's system, taking them from a max 55% to a max 50%. 

There will also be a transition to Devil's Due Publishing for trade paperbacks.  DDP honcho Josh Blaylock told us that Image will continue to sell the existing trade paperbacks 'for a short amount of time.'  Reprints of out-of-print titles (such as the G.I. Joe Vol. 2 trade paperback) will be done under the new label, and all trade paperbacks will move over to Devil's Due 'sooner rather than later.'

We asked Blaylock why the company was leaving Image and going out on its own.  He responded:

DDP has matured to a level that Image can't contain without giving us more than 'studio status.' We are producing a very large amount of comics, but still need to be able to make decisions and take action quickly to stay on the pulse of the industry, and do what's best for us. This gets very difficult to do with a third party.

It's also a matter of branding. Over the past three years, DDP has grown in popularity tremendously, but not as much as it could have. We want our name brand to be as strong as possible. When you see one of our books, I want you to know that you're buying a DEVIL'S DUE book. It's going to have the quality and edge to it that you expect; it's going to come out consistently and reliably.

If DDP launches a new property, we can promote it as much as we want to, layout the catalog space how we want to, release press releases when we want to, and we control every aspect of the book's outcome. That's something that you just can't do when you're publishing through someone else. You have to play by their rules, which is understandable, but you also have to be included with everything else that the company is producing that month, which at the end of the day, can negate the whole point of having premier placement in the catalog.

DDP is a very well run company, and a very STRONG name in comics right now, and I want to make sure that we're even stronger five years from now. It's like we've built this huge ship, but up until now someone else was steering it, and I'm itching to take the wheel. The deal we've had with Image for the past three years has been very beneficial for both us AND them, but now it's time for this bird to leave the nest, because it's getting bigger than its mama.

I and the rest of the DDP crew look forward to kicking some serious ass in comics next year. I hope everyone joins us :)