An imprint of a publisher is a trade name under which it publishes a work. A single publishing company may have multiple imprints, often using the different names as brands to market works to various demographic consumer segments .
5-583: Epic Comics (also known as the Epic Comics Group ) was an imprint of American publishing company Marvel Comics , active from 1982 to 1996. A spin-off of the publisher's Epic Illustrated magazine, it published creator-owned work unconnected to Marvel's superhero universe, and without the restrictions of the Comics Code . The name was revived by Marvel in the mid-2000s for a short-lived program inviting new writers to pitch series proposals to
10-438: Is seen as "a game holding company with autonomous game publishing and development subsidiaries". Independently-owned game publishers like Devolver Digital also use the word "label" to describe itself. A single publishing company may have multiple imprints, with the different imprints often used by the publisher to market works to different demographic consumer segments . For example, the objective of Viking —an imprint of
15-407: The direct market . Source: Imprint (trade name) An imprint of a publisher is a trade name —a name that a business uses for trading commercial products or services—under which a work is published . Imprints typically have a defining character or mission . In some cases, the diversity results from the takeover of smaller publishers (or parts of their business) by a larger company. In
20-763: The case of Barnes & Noble , imprints have been used to facilitate the venture of a bookseller into publishing. In the video game industry, some game companies operate various publishing labels with Take-Two Interactive credited as "the father of label" in their case the labels are wholly owned incorporated entities with their own publishing and distributing, sales and marketing infrastructure and management teams and their own respective subsidiaries also incorporated (Rockstar North Limited, 2K Vegas, Inc.). This model has influenced rivals including Activision Blizzard , ZeniMax , Electronic Arts from 2008 to 2018, Warner Bros. Interactive , Embracer Group , and Koei Tecmo . Take-Two have had such models in place since 1997–1998, and
25-571: The publisher. Launched by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter as a spin-off of the successful Epic Illustrated magazine, the Epic imprint allowed creators to retain control and ownership of their properties. Co-edited by Al Milgrom and Archie Goodwin , the imprint also allowed Marvel to publish more objectionable content (sometimes explicit) without needing to comply with the stringent Comics Code Authority . Epic titles were printed on higher quality paper than typical Marvel comics, and were only available via
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