Titan Entertainment Group

Titan Entertainment Group (TEG) is a British retailing, publishing and merchandise company — owner of the Forbidden Planet London bookstores, Titan Merchandise, and Titan Publishing Group (which comprises Titan Books, Titan Magazines, and Titan Comics). TEG is owned by Nick Landau and Vivian Cheung.

This article is about the UK entertainment company. For other companies, see Titan (disambiguation).
Titan Entertainment Group
TypeRetailer
Publisher
IndustryComic books
Retail
Publishing
Founded1993 (1993)
FoundersNick Landau
HeadquartersLondon, England, United Kingdom
Key people
Nick Landau
Vivian Cheung
Leigh Baulch
Chris Teather
Andrew Sumner
Laura Price
DivisionsForbidden Planet London
Titan Publishing Group
Titan Merchandise

History

Titan Distributors / Forbidden Planet

Up through the mid-1970s, only a small range of American comic books were available in British newsagents. In 1973, Landau saw the distribution opportunity and formed Comic Media Distributors.[1]

In 1978, along with Mike Lake and Mike Luckman, Landau reorganized Comic Media Distributors to become Titan Distributors.

Early on, the partners were "forced" into retail by the closure of one of their leading customers; needing to take a radical step to avoid going out of business themselves, they opened the first Forbidden Planet bookstore, on Denmark Street in London.[2]

Titan Books

In 1981, Landau, Lake, and Luckman started Titan Books, publishers of both new and licensed graphic novels and film and TV tie-ins. Titan Books' first title was a trade paperback collection of Brian Bolland's Judge Dredd stories from 2000 AD. This was one of the earliest high-quality, book-format publications of comic material in the UK, and Titan Books followed the first title with numerous other 2000 A.D. reprints. Subsequently, Titan Books expanded operations, putting out its first original title in 1987 and taking over publishing Escape magazine (although the title was canceled in 1989).[3] Titan Books continues to publish both new and licensed graphic novels, as well as film and television tie-ins.

Goodbye Titan Distributors, hello TEG

In 1992, Landau, Luckman, and Lake dissolved their partnership and traded their company shares: Landau became sole owner of Titan Books and Forbidden Planet London; Luckman became sole owner of Forbidden Planet's New York stores,[2] and Lake became sole owner of Titan Distributors[4] (which he almost immediately sold to the U.S.-based Diamond Comic Distributors).[5]

In 1993, Landau established Titan Entertainment Group (TEG),[2] through which he and partner Vivian Cheung ran Forbidden Planet London and started Titan Publishing Group. Although TEG has made some attempts to establish Forbidden Planet abroad, there are no longer any TEG-owned FP stores outside the UK.

Titan Magazines
Main article: Titan Magazines

Titan Magazines, officially launched in 1995, originally published Star Trek Magazine, the Wallace and Gromit comic, UK editions of Simpsons Comics, and many other titles. In the mid-2000s, TEG started Titan Comics, a division of Titan Magazines which publishes trade paperbacks and graphic novels in the UK and United States. (Titan Comics took over publication of comics previously overseen by Titan Magazines, such as the Wallace and Gromit comic, and the UK edition of Simpsons Comics.)

Titan Merchandise

Titan Merchandise (launched in 2011) produces licensed merchandise for global properties, including Marvel Comics, Star Wars, Doctor Who, The Beatles, Star Trek, Alien, Breaking Bad, Ghostbusters, and Hammer Horror.[6][7]

References
  1. Burton, Richard. "Meditorial," Comic Media News #15 (Sept. 1974).
  2. Barnett, David. "How cult comic book shop Forbidden Planet changed the way we consume geek culture: Four decades on, the institution is still enjoying a position both at the top of the market and in the hearts of nerds across the land," The Independent (07 September 2018).
  3. Plowright, Frank. Opening Shots: And As Ye Reap, So Shall Ye Sow," The Comics Journal #122 (June 1988), p. 11.
  4. "NewsWatch: Diamond Acquires Titan Distributors," The Comics Journal #154 (November 1992), p. 14.
  5. "Newswatch: Diamond Acquires Titan Distributors [part II]," The Comics Journal #162 (Oct. 1993), pp. 35-36.
  6. "Titan Gets Its Teeth Into Hammer Films!" Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine Hammer Films. 1 April 2010.
  7. "Titan partners with Apple Corps to launch Beatles Yellow Submarine collectibles". Retrieved 30 April 2020
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