Story House Egmont, Europe’s leading children’s publisher, has announced the PEPPA PIG Official magazine and the brand-new PEPPA PIG Play Pack magazine in the UK, the official magazine on sale now. Under license by leading toy and game company Hasbro, the new magazines bring two distinct PEPPA PIG products to the newsstand.
For those unfamiliar, PEPPA PIG is a British preschool animated television series that has been airing for almost 20 years, across nine seasons in over 180 territories as of 2023. The series follows Peppa Pig, a cheeky little piggy who lives with her family –– younger brother George, Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig –– as well as her diverse community of friends.
Globally successful, the brand connects with consumers across every touchpoint, from TV to theme parks to retail. As a lifelong friend, Peppa Pig encourages kids to jump in together and explore the world around them, while giving kids the confidence to treat every first step as a new adventure, from the everyday to the epic.
PEPPA PIG Official magazine will be a three-weekly title, including an exciting story based on an episode from the popular pre-school television series.
Like much of PEPPA’s storytelling, the content will focus on first experiences – bringing a joyful and enjoyable soft learning experience for the child, accompanied by helpful ‘Let’s Jump In’ notes to offer ways for grown-ups to continue the play and learning with PEPPA beyond the page.
PEPPA PIG Official magazine – on sale across all good retailers and online from the Story House Egmont shop – will have a regular cover price of £5.99 and come with a quality, content-linked covermount designed to be used on and off the page.
PEPPA PIG Play Pack magazine is a brand-new offering for the pre-school category. The magazine content and covermounts will focus on imaginary play with popular pre-school themes that draw inspiration from a range of related PEPPA PIG episodes, delivering an exciting, playful experience for young fans.
PEPPA PIG Play Pack magazine will have a monthly frequency, priced at £6.99, and packaged in a sustainable card envelope with a cut out and play activity every issue. The first issue goes on-sale Wednesday 17th January and will be available at all good supermarkets and newsagents, and online from the Story House Egmont shop.
The new and refreshed titles launch as the franchise celebrates its 20th anniversary with a series of special events and supported by instore activity across a range of key retailers. Story House Egmont will support the magazine launches with significant trade marketing investment, as well as key tactical marketing activity in close collaboration with Hasbro.
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome the iconic PEPPA PIG brand into our portfolio of market-leading magazines,” said Siobhan Galvin, Story House Egmont’s Commercial Director. “We are particularly pleased to be launching the titles in such a momentous year for the brand.
“It’s been a brilliant collaboration and both magazines will offer a truly engaging and playful experience for our young readers.’
“For 20 years, the PEPPA PIG franchise has been rooted in relatable storytelling that reflects the real first experiences of preschoolers around the world and encourages a confidence to treat every first step like a new adventure,” notes Marianne James, Vice President, Global Licensed Consumer Products. “We’re honoured to grow our close partnership with Story House Egmont and share this content with eye-catching and fun magazines for fans in PEPPA’s home market.”
Story House Egmont is a market-leading publisher of children’s magazines creating licensed and own brand titles for all ages and stages. Their licensed portfolio also includes much-loved evergreen brands including Disney Princess, Paw Patrol, My Little Pony and Thomas & Friends.
Through its own brand titles, Toxic and Go Girl, the publisher brings together the very best and most desirable content for pre-teen boys and girls.
The publisher feels magazines are a valuable and affordable “treat with benefits”, which play a vital role in learning, and we are committed to creating product that is loved by children and valued by parents. They’re not alone – the sector is a busy one on the newsstand, with plenty of titles aimed at younger readers vying for sales.
Story House Egmont is part of Egmont, a leading Danish media group, with activities in 30 countries and 6,600 employees. Their media world includes Nordisk Film, TV2 in Norway, cinemas, book publishers, educational publishers and PlayStation, as well as a number of partly owned film companies, including Zentropa.
• PEPPA PIG Official magazine is on sale now across all good retailers and online from the Story House Egmont shop
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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Great! Yet another infentile licensed title covered with plastic tat to add to the multitude of other infentile licensed tiles with plastic tat hogging up the so called ‘children’s comic’s section in supermarkets and smiths?
Looking at that display in the so called children’s section just saddens me? Barely a title that is not based on some toy,kids programme or franchise and practically all covered with some plastic cheap tat!
None of them can be classed as comics as barely any of them will have any comic content but rather just pictures and puzzles?
The UK comic industry is certainly dead on the British newsstand!
A little harsh methinks. Peppa and her friends are loved by their little fans easily as much as we older comic fans loved our heroes back in the day. My own 5 year old son is a case in point and he loves the puzzles pictures. For children who have yet to master reading, this is a very important outlet.
Mark Essex,
Having written comic strips regularly for a number of these titles, I have to tell you that the comic stories are crafted with care by all involved, and the editors know their audience very well.
*You* may not be able to see past the “plastic tat” or the puzzle pages but don’t belittle the craft that goes into these titles.
– Rik Hoskin (Dragon Award winner, Best Graphic Novel, etc.)
My great nieces love the Peppa Pig TV show and spin-off items, all designed to encourage learning through fun, which is always welcome. The whole category has been dominated by licensed tie-ins for decades, from the 1990s onwards, this is nothing new.
I would love to document comic strip and fiction items in these titles in a more detailed way – as, I believe would Richard Sheaf at the Boys Adventure Comic blog. The plastic wrap is a barrier to that, so we’re only aware of creators like yourself, Rik, and JD Savage, for example who kindly take time out of busy schedules to let us know what you’re up to in this arena.
David Roach, Lew Stringer and I have all lamented the fact that the creators working hard to help create these younger titles will, unlike previous generations, go largely undocumented because of the format of the publications they work on.
I’m sorry but there is very little craft going on in these bland,identikit licenced titles? The comics of yesteryear? Now they had craft involved which is why the Treasury of British Comics are preserving them in beautiful collections? I hardly think we’ll see Peppa pig and other licenced titles getting the same treatment?
This came out from Fantagraphics last year reprinting UK Disney Comics from a little over 20 years ago in a lovely hardcover …
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683966481
How do you judge craft? These titles sell individually far more than something like 2000ad (by far more, frequently 5x or 10x the sales figures). Someone’s enjoying them, and these titles are not cheap in the way the titles of 40 or 50 years ago were, they’re not 10p-throwaway-items because the stockists won’t carry something with such a low profit margin–John here has spoken at length about that on this very website, I believe.
If you judge by reprint value, these titles get reprinted all the time right around the world, I know my Disney and young readers Spider-Man stories have been reprinted in Europe, USA, South America, Asia, and the same for other titles I’ve written aimed at this audience.
You mentioned specifically Treasury of British Comics. As far as I know, Treasury of British Comics don’t collect material aimed at pre-schoolers/under 7s which is who these comics are aimed at, that’s not a “nostalgia market”. I’ve never seen a collection of a comparable tie-in title like See-Saw or Toby (both 1970s), say, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t well-made comics.
Are all comics created equal? Should we compare Peppa Pig to Watchmen? No, of course not. We appreciate that these are different markets.
The real story here is that Peppa Pig (and Disney Princess also) can support two titles on newsagents shelves every few weeks. That’s no mean feat.
Marc, you don’t appear to have much understanding of how difficult it is to create stories for this market, and you’re most certainly, I suspect, not comparing like for like. If you’re after modern versions of the comics of yesteryear I suspect you’re hankering for, 2000AD, The Beano, Commando, Monster Fun, Quantum, SHIFT and Spectrum, to name a few, are all on sale in WHSmith or available to order. Equally, many towns are well served by Local Comic Shops (despite battling increased rents, utility costs, rates etc) and there’s a bigger range in those than any WHSmith could ever stock. Plus, head to Waterstones, where there are shelves of great graphic novels, including Treasury of British Comics collections. If you’re reading this web site, we regularly promote reprints from Hibernia Comics and The Book Palace of “classic material”, too.
Finally – encouraging reading from a young age is a good thing. Hopefully those reading the titles aimed at younger children will go on to read comics, just like we did. As long as they can find them – which seems increasingly hard to do when many WHSSmith are consigning their magazines to the back of their stores in favour of birthday cards and the like. A far more annoying development than a new children’s title!
Shift hasn’t been seen since in Whsmiths since December 2022? Another casualty on the newsstands and one which I notice hasn’t been covered on here? I’m sorry but nothing you or Rik can say will persuade me that the British comic industry is practically dead on the newsstands and what is crammed into the children’s ‘comics’ section of supermarkets and Smiths are a plastic tat mounted abomination!
GetMyComics, publisher of SHIFT, has been hit hard by events behind the scenes impacting its team, but it’s our understanding new issues of SHIFT are in the pipeline for 2024
Quote Marc Essex: “nothing you or Rik can say will persuade me that the British comic industry is practically dead” (You probably mean “is *not* dead”, judging by the tone of your comments)
In which case, there’s no point having a discussion.
Enjoy what you enjoy and ignore the rest, for these things do you no harm by their existence.
If you consider the infantile nursery titles with their plastic mounted tat cluttering up the shelves (and I daresay destroying and killing animal life when the tat is thrown away) an actual British comics industry then you are clearly deluded? there is no craft in putting these titles together no matter how much you argue there is? I hardly think scraping together the simplistic ‘scrips’ these titles have is on par with say the scrips people like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison have produced?
As I said above, we can’t compare Peppa Pig to Watchmen and nor should we. You seem to be trolling, which is redundant.
You’ve made your point.