King Features Syndicate, a unit of Hearst, and its local agents, announced new agents and licensing deals for the video game property Cuphead. Ahead of the 2021 debut of The Cuphead Show! with Netflix Animation, the brand is expanding its domestic and international presence with new products across apparel, accessories, novelties, publishing, and more.
Studio MDHR’s video game was released in 2017, featuring arcade-action gameplay, original art designm, and award-winning soundtrack, featuring almost three hours of original jazz, early big band, and ragtime music. Fans of Cuphead and Mugman in Asia will soon see their favorite characters come to life with new accessories, apparel, houseware, novelties, toys, and games from both Ensky and Elsonic this year, along with a collection of apparel and accessories inspired by the game from GZ Fanthful, which includes t-shirts, backpacks, bags, keychain, pins, mugs, umbrellas, and more.
Cuphead will grow its presence globally with King Features’ appointments of new international licensing agents for the brand — Caravanserai in Spain and Portugal and Vertical Licensing in Brazil. These agents will manage the property’s licensing programs to further increase fans’ accessibility to Cuphead products in the new territories.
“Cuphead is a true gaming and pop culture sensation, with its popularity continuing to grow as it is discovered in new territories around the globe,” said King Features Vice President and General Manager, Global Head of Licensing, Carla Silva. “With the new animated series set to debut on Netflix later this year, we expect the demand for the property to skyrocket and we are thrilled to be expanding our licensing programs with new partnerships and renewed deals to continue bringing fans around the world products inspired by Cuphead, Mugman, and their adventures.”
King Features is also growing Cuphead’s publishing program with additional graphic novels from Dark Horse Comics, which has renewed their worldwide deal to further expand their existing lineup of Cuphead books. Dark Horse has also expanded their publishing program internationally on behalf of the “Art of Cuphead” and the graphic novels, with Pix ‘N Love in France, Editoriale Cosmo in Italy, Norma in Spain, Comme il faut in Russia, and Sebundo/G Novels in Japan. Meanwhile, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, who released two Middle Grade novels inspired by the video game in 2020, is expanding their program into Russia with the Exmo Publishing Group in 2021 and releasing a new “How To Draw” format in late 2022 to inspire fans, cartoonists and enthusiasts in the game’s hand-drawn style. Furthermore, Running Press (a subsidiary of Hachette) is joining the roster of new partners with plans to release a Cuphead “Mini Kit” in Spring 2022, consisting of a mini book and a Cuphead character figure.
Cuphead and Mugman will continue to jump off the screen and into homes with expanded licensing deals from current global partners. Cuphead-inspired apparel, accessories, art, toys, and novelty items are available from partners including Fifth Sun, PowerA, YouTooz, Forbidden Planet, Insert Coin Limited, Bell House Co., Increws, Artovision, 1000Toys and more who are set to debut new products throughout 2021.
In addition the new product releases and upcoming debut of The Cuphead Show!, fans can look forward to the next chapter of the video game, with the release of The Delicious Last Course.