In a deal brokered by The Joester Loria Group, DEFY Media’s YouTube sensation SMOSH has licensed with Dynamite Entertainment to develop a series of comics and graphic novels. SMOSH, the powerhouse digital comedy brand with more than 30 million subscribers across multiple YouTube channels and over 20 million social media followers, launched in 2005 as the brainchild of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. Founded in 20045, Dynamite Entertainment has become a leading comic publisher focusing on creating adaptations of top entertainment properties.
The SMOSH graphic novels and comics will hit retail shelves Holiday 2015 and will retail for $3.99-$4.99 for comic books, $14.99-$19.99 for soft cover graphic novels and $24.99-$49.99 for hard covers.
Demonstrating the popularity of their brand, SMOSH creators Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla were the highest ranking public figures among teens 13-18 years old, according to a 2014 survey commissioned by Variety. Business Insider has also profiled the duo and the powerful brand they have created based on their YouTube channels.
This new addition to the Smosh licensing program will target the growing community of graphic novel and comic book enthusiasts in the young millennial demographic. According to estimates by Comichron’s John Jackson Miller and ICv2’s Milton Griepp, domestic sales of comics and graphic novels topped $870 million in 2013; a significant increase from $265 million in 2000.
An extension of DEFY Media’s SMOSH comedy brand, which includes multiple YouTube channels, a highly trafficked website, mobile, OTT and gaming apps as well as merchandising, the comic and graphic novel series will give Hecox and Padilla a new platform for their distinct brand of humor, and will provide SMOSH fans with another way to connect with their favorite digital brand.
