Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Agent, graphic novel. mg, Simian Reflux

Simian Reflux Gets A Graphic Novel Deal About Penguins

Simian Reflux gets a graphic novel deal about penguins, with POWER! (Penguins of Wrestling Epic Rumble!)

Published Sun, 30 Nov 2025 10:57:04 -0600

Article Summary

Simian Reflux lands a graphic novel deal with Simon & Schuster for POWER! starring wrestling-obsessed penguins.
The series follows Skip and Noodle, two penguin superfans who start their own underground wrestling league.
Simian Reflux is a viral animator and artist with over 8 billion Giphy views for unique, humorous artwork.
Children's graphic novels are booming, and Simian Reflux could help bring new readers to the comics industry.

POWER! (Penguins of Wrestling Epic Rumble!) is a new middle-grade graphic novel series by viral Instagram and GIPHY creator Simian Reflux, following the "high-energy antics of Skip and Noodle, two silly small-town penguins wrestling superfans with big dreams and even bigger hearts, who create their own underground wrestling league."

Celia Lee at Simon & Schuster has acquired world publication rights and the first of three graphic novels is planned for the summer of 2027. Simian Reflux's agent Lenny Herbert at Maximum Orbit negotiated the deal.

Simian Reflux is an animator and artist with a unique point of view and distinctive art style with the goal of bringing joy and humour to people's lives, Simian Reflux has had over 8 billion Giphy views for their original artwork.

Simon & Schuster is a subsidiary of Paramount Global, founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster and became the third-largest publisher in the United States. In 2020, Paramount Global announced it would sell Simon & Schuster to Bertelsmann subsidiary Penguin Random House for $2.175 billion, making it the largest publisher in the world, but it was blocked by the US courts. And so in 2023, they were bought by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Maximum Orbit also has clients such as Dungeon Crawler, Angry Birds, and the Andrew Gold Estate.

The expansion of children's graphic novels is fuelling all manner of publishers extending into the comics medium. Currently, it appears to be an infinite market that is being tapped into, creating longstanding comic book readers for decades to come. It is not for nothing that kids' graphic novels in bookstores are being referred to as the newsstand of the twenty-first century. What comes next? Well, that will always be interesting to see. But maybe someone like Simian Reflux can bring their audience to the medium and industry as a whole.

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