NEWS

Penguin Random House partners with Rebellion to bring its science fiction portfolio to the audiobook space

Published on: 19th March 2020

The iconic comic book law-enforcer, Judge Dredd is making his way to the audiobook sector.

Penguin Random House UK has detailed a new partnership between its audio division and the comic book , fiction and video games publisher, Rebellion to produce more science fiction audio for fans.

Under the partnership, Penguin Random House will produce and distribute audio version’s of Rebellion’s latest fiction titles, alongside classic graphic novels from its popular 2000 AD imprint.

According to The Bookseller, Penguin Random House has cited new research from Harris Interactive that has shown science fiction to be one of the leading genres across modern audiobooks, with a share of 30 per cent of audiobook listeners opting for science fiction titles over the past year.

Richard Lennon, audio publisher at PRH, said: “This is a really exciting new partnership which helps us reach even more listeners in this hugely popular and ever-growing section of the audiobook market. We’re looking forward to helping tell some of Rebellion’s incredible stories and to creating some truly groundbreaking recordings, particularly as we explore turning some of British comic book history’s true greats – Judge Dredd, Slaine and Rogue Trooper, to name but a few – into audiobooks for the first time.”

Ben Smith, Rebellion’s head of Film, TV & Publishing, added: “Rebellion is the UK’s leading comic book publisher and home to Hugo and Nebula Award-winning fiction from our Solaris and Abaddon imprints, and as such we’re delighted to partner with Penguin’s forward-looking audio team.

“Their appetite to bring both our fiction and our landmark graphic novels to the audiobook market is tremendously exciting. We can’t wait for the public to listen to the incredible stories in the works.”

Penguin will produce and distribute audio versions of around 30 titles a year from the Rebellion frontlist, which covers genres including science fiction, fantasy and horror, and will include works from authors such as Chuck Wendig, Katherine Addison, Derek Künsken and Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The audiobooks, published from March 2020, will draw on Penguin Random House’s “roster of top narrator talent”. PRH’s audio bestsellers include titles such as The Handmaid’s Tale narrated by Elisabeth Moss, The Secret Commonwealth narrated by Michael Sheen, and Becoming narrated by Michelle Obama.

The partnership will also see PRH record and produce adaptations of five new graphic novels in the 2000 AD series, which will feature multi-voice narration, sound design and original music to bring the stories to life.

Available from Thursday (19th March), the first title to be published under the new partnership will be Chuck Wendig’s apocalyptic epic, Wanderers, read by Dominic Hoffman and Xe Sands.

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