About

Written by Kristine Chester |

The content that follows was originally published on the Darby Pop Publishing website at https://www.darbypop.com/about/

Darby Pop Publishing was founded in 2013 by multiple Emmy Award winning writer/producer Jeff Kline (TRANSFORMERS: PRIME, G.I. JOE RENEGADES, JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES) as an outlet for high-concept, high-quality visual storytelling. Kline recruited talent from a small circle of friends — writers and artists with whom he’d worked in both live-action and animation — by asking: “Have you ever had an idea you were convinced would make a killer comic book?”

Darby Pop began as IDW’s first creator-owned imprint. Sixteen original series and 100+ issues/TPs have been published to date. Creators have included Eric Garcia (CITY: THE MIND IN THE MACHINE), John Raffo (THE 7TH SWORD), Scott Marder/Rob Rosell/Jack Lambert (DOBERMAN), Matthew Federman & Stephen Scaia (DEAD SQUAD), and Kline himself (INDESTRUCTIBLE).

In July 2015, Darby Pop partnered with Magnetic Press and released SIDE-KICKED by Russell Brettholtz, DEAD MAN’S PARTY by Jeff Marsick, FAKE EMPIRE by Eric Palicki, THE LIVING FINGER by Garth Matthams, and SWEET LULLABY by A.J. Scherkenbach. In 2017, Darby Pop Publishing went independent and released THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T REMEMBER by Luis Roldan, BASTARD’S WALTZ by Mark Bertolini, SANTA CLAUS: PRIVATE EYE by Jeremy Bernstein, and FRANK N. STEIN: PRIVATE EYE by Keith Champagne.

In October 2015, Darby Pop announced a collaboration with Bruce Lee Entertainment to produce BRUCE LEE: THE DRAGON RISES, which chronicles the return of the beloved actor, philosopher, teacher, and — of course — martial artist in a present-day, all-ages comedy/action/adventure. In January 2018, Darby Pop announced another collaboration with Bruce Lee Entertainment: BRUCE LEE: THE WALK OF THE DRAGON by Nicole Dubuc (Star Wars: Rebels, My Little Pony, Transformers: Rescue Bots).

Comics legend Howard Chaykin, Eisner Award winner Andrew Robinson, Emmy Award winners Jose Lopez, David Hartman, and Walter Gatus, Bernard Chang, Tony Fleecs and many others have delivered cover art. And interiors have been laid out and/or drawn by a number of TRANSFORMERS series veterans (among many other talented artists) including Brandon McKinney, Kirk Van Wormer, Kevin Altieri, and Matthew Humphreys.

Former Marvel and Top Cow editor David Wohl helped with the company’s start-up; industry veteran Renae Geerlings is Darby Pop Publishing’s current Managing Editor.

As Kline has been quoted as saying: “It seems like a lot of people currently working in the comic book industry are hoping to use the experience as a stepping stone to movies or television. At Darby Pop Publishing, most of our talent is already well-established in those fields; they desperately WANT to be making comics!”

Questions and inquiries can be directed to Info@DarbyPop.com.