IDW Publishing has hired Blake Kobashigawa as Vice President of Sales, the company announced. Kobashigawa spent seven years at DC, including his final two years, ending in 2018, as Manager- Mass, Book Sales & Trade Marketing. In that role he worked with Penguin Random House Publisher Services, also IDW’s distributor to the book channel. He also had over a year as Marketing Manager – Mass Channel.
Kobashigawa’s hiring continues a shift in emphasis for IDW, whose sales efforts were previously led by a former comic retailer, Jud Meyers, who recently left the company after a days-long stint as Publisher (see "IDW Ends Jud Meyers’ Short Tenure as Publisher").
IDW’s move to emphasizing its book format products was also evident in its recent hire of a former Disney Publishing executive as Publisher (see "IDW Hires Disney Publishing Exec as Publisher").
Kobashigawa also has extensive experience in the direct-to-consumer channel. For the last two years he was Head of Industry Operations at MerchBar, the world’s largest direct-to-consumer marketplace for music merchandise, and also spent nearly two years at DC as Marketing Representative – Digital prior to his move to what DC called Mass, but also included specialty retailers such as Barnes & Noble.

Continues Increasing Emphasis on Book Channel
Posted by Milton Griepp on September 10, 2020 @ 4:05 pm CT

MORE COMICS
In One of Several 'Tough Decisions'
April 2, 2025
Dark Horse Media is shutting down its Things From Another World e-commerce site, one of several “tough decisions” the company is making as it reacts to changes in the business.
From Marvel Comics
April 2, 2025
Jonathan Hickman teams up with artists Federico Vicentini and Iban Coello to shatter and redesign the Marvel cosmos in Imperial, a four-issue event series launching in June.
MORE NEWS
From Steamforged Games
April 2, 2025
Steamforged Games placed P3 Paints: Dropper Bottle Starter Set , a new paint set, onto preorder.
'Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex Box'
April 2, 2025
The Pokemon Company International will release Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex Box, a new boxed set for Pokemon TCG, into retail.