Pokémon in print: As the 30th anniversary countdown begins, we chat to Farshore’s John Packard

Thanks for making time, John. So! Farshore publishes books for countless brands… What are some of your upcoming licensed ranges?
Farshore, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers UK, publishes around 130 titles a year on the brands and licensing list. We publish across 20 different properties. These include an especially strong presence in gaming with Pokémon, Minecraft, and Sonic the Hedgehog in our stable. We’re very fortunate to have such great partners!

Tell me a little more about Pokémon…
For Pokémon, we’ve got over 20 new titles across readers, fiction, activity, annuals and gift over the next 12 months as we ramp up towards the 30th anniversary. And of course, this year we’re thrilled to be celebrating World Book Day™ with a very special title: Pokémon: The Epic Pocket Guide. Children in the UK and Ireland will be able to access this special title FREE when exchanged with their £1/€1.50 World Book Day book token.

Excellent. You mention gearing up for Pokémon’s 30th anniversary next year… What, in your opinion, is the secret of its appeal?
In my opinion, Pokémon has managed to gain cross-generational appeal by engaging with fans across gaming, trading cards and anime. Each of these are equally core parts of the property – which is quite unusual when you think about it. Of course, we’ve also gone full circle with first-generation fans now passing on their love for Pikachu and friends to their children. This – coupled with collectability and great narrative depth – makes Pokémon ideal for long-term publishing.

Great answer! And what kind of challenges does a book publisher face when extending this kind of property to the page?
Pokémon has been around a long time, and there’s been extensive publishing through the decades. Pretty much every format and idea has been tried at one stage or another. To find fresh new formats, make each book stand out, and ensure they deserve a place in a fan’s collection is an engaging challenge for the team. Fortunately, with 26 series and over 1,200 episodes, we’ve never run out of new adventures to explore in our books.

And why is that, John? What’s the creative process behind these products?
Over the years, we’ve developed an in-house team who specialise in gaming… They’re gaming enthusiasts themselves, and they work across a number of the biggest brands in this space. As far as I’m aware, this is unique in the publishing industry. They’re experts in their area and love getting to grips with all the ins and outs of multifaceted brands like Pokémon.

From your perspective, what’s next for the Pokémon brand?
We’re fortunate in that Pokémon always has new stories and characters appearing in the anime series which we can then bring to our books. The most recent series, Pokémon Horizons, saw us move to a new region and a new cast of Pokémon Trainers…

That’s given us a rich source of inspiration over the next few years for our books. As mentioned, we’ve also got Pokémon’s 30th anniversary coming up in 2026… I’m excited to see what The Pokémon Company do for this big milestone. I mean, the 25th was huge!

And on that, you’ve been in books a long time, John…
Yes, I’ve been in books for close to 20 years now!

How did that happen? What’s your background?
It wasn’t at all planned: I started working in bookshops, then moved across to working for the head office for a book-chain specialising in non-fiction and children’s categories. After that, I skipped across to publishing. It’s been a very happy accident as I’ve always been a book lover.

Lovely! Thank you for that. And to finish things off, what’s the one question I could’ve asked you today but didn’t?
Hmmm… What are my favourite Pokémon titles?!

Perfect! And what are your favourite Pokémon titles?!
I would say Where’s Pikachu? is a firm favourite, and I think the search and find format works especially well for this brand… So much so that we’re extending the series. I also reckon the Pokémon Encyclopedia is a fantastic gift for any fan, taking you through everything you need to know about the anime series.