Dynamite Entertainment is jumping its output of book format products from a recent four or five a month to 13 in October (including three limited editions), led by its biggest dollar book release ever, The Art of Atari (see “’The Art of Atari’ Video Game Retrospective”), with a 75,000 copy print run (also available as limited edition).  While Dynamite has had bigger book format piece sales in the past (see “Dynamite Plans Big Numbers for Second ‘Grumpy Cat’ Collection”), the high MSRP of the Atari book makes it the largest dollar print run for a book format product in Dynamite history, by our calculations.

Dynamite also expects its next hardcover Dresden Files collection, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files:  Wild Card (also available in limited edition), to be among its top releases for the month.  Historically the Dresden Files collections are “one of the best-selling series at Dynamite,” Dynamite Vice President Sales and Marketing Alan Payne told ICv2.  Now original content not based on the novels, they are finding an audience of new and old fans of the property, especially in bookstores, Payne said.

Another book with a long-running fan base is the David Gonzalez monograph Homies: A David Gonzales Retrospective.  The IP, which was given its first wide exposure in Lowrider magazine beginning in 1978, is most famous as the source material for over 150 million capsule toys first available in the mid-1990s (see “’Homies’ Come to Publishing”).  The art book launch coincides with the first issue of the comic in October (see “’Homies Comic and Art Book”).  Lowrider will feature Gonzalez and the new books in the magazine this fall.  With over 40 years of history, this property has the potential to catch on for Dynamite, if it finds its market.

Like the Butcher hardcover, Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Storm Surge, an OGN set in the Dean Koontz Frankenstein universe, will skew more book channel, or, more generally, to stores with an audience of Koontz readers.  Dynamite is also offering both as limited editions for $39.99.

Dynamite expects the latest collection of Shadow stories, The Shadow: The Death of Margo Lane, by Matt Wagner, to do well in comic stores, where Wagner fans congregate, Payne said.  While they’re there, they can also pick up the new Spirit volume by Wagner, Will Eisner’s The Spirit:  Who Killed the Spirit?, also due out in October.

Other October book format releases include collections of Army of Darkness, Red Sonja, Twilight Zone/ The Shadow, and Raise the Dead.

The addition of Payne earlier this year (see “Dynamite Hires Alan Payne”) upgrades Dynamite’s sales and marketing for book format products, particularly in the book channel.  Time will tell whether the greater emphasis evinced by his hiring and the increased title roster come together to produce a new book publishing force from the comics business.