Don Bartletti / Los Angeles TimesTed Adams, CEO and publisher of IDW Publishing, holds a hardbound volume of graphic novels in the company’s headquarters in San Diego. IDW is one of the world’s largest publishers of comic books and graphic novels.

Ted Adams never set out to be a comic book kingmaker.

He started his company, Idea & Design Works, as a San Diego graphic design firm in 1999. The company evolved into a publisher of its own books, and now is one of the top four comic book publishers in the world. IDW sold more than 1 million graphic novels last year, and it competes against superhero stalwarts Marvel and DC, both at least five times its age.

So at the annual Comic-Con International, hosted last weekend in San Diego, Adams was in high demand. He talked about his vision during several panel presentations as IDW pushes into new areas such as movies and television.

“My approach with our publishing business has always been to be as diverse as possible,” said Adams, who as chief executive and publisher oversees IDW’s monthly comics, art books, Eisner Award-winning archival lines and the new tabletop games and television divisions.

IDW has published original horror hits “30 Days of Night” and “Locke & Key.” But, it also has crossed over into more mainstream brands such as “The X-Files” and “My Little Pony” — and saw a “Transformers” character created in its books featured in this summer’s blockbuster film. The titles have helped propel the company for the last 15 years, and IDW will have two booths at the convention to showcase its varied ventures old and new.

Industry observers have noticed.

“To me, IDW is most interesting because they are relentlessly focused on expanding the comics market in ways that most publishers aren’t,” said Rob Salkowitz, author of “Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture” and a teacher of digital strategy at the University of Washington’s Communication Leadership graduate program.

“Every weekend, my local comic store is crowded with little girls picking up their ‘My Little Pony’ issues while their parents browse the graphic novel shelf,” Salkowitz said. “That’s astonishing — and brilliant. Young girls are not an audience that’s been served by an American comics publisher in decades. In terms of playing catch-up — at least on this front — I’m not sure most other companies would know where to start.”

IDW’s publishing success is nothing that it could have anticipated at the start.

IDW didn’t publish its first book, an art volume by Ashley Wood, until 2001. It got a space at that year’s Comic-Con to sell “Uno Fanta,” and the experience helped push the company into comics.

IDW’s arrival was heralded by an eye-opening original vampire story and a licensed forensic phenomenon.

Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s 2002 bloodsuckers-in-Alaska shocker “30 Days of Night” (later a film) and a 2003 “CSI” series had quality that “propelled (IDW) from ‘another interesting publisher’ to one of the leading independent comics companies,” Salkowitz said.

The metamorphosis into a major independent player was complete when IDW began publishing “Transformers” comics.

“It sounds very trite to say it this way, but the one that really feels transformative to the company is when we started doing ‘Transformers,’” said Chris Ryall, IDW Publishing’s chief creative officer and editor in chief, who joined the company in 2004 and helped land the license the next year.

“People were going: Wait a second, who is this little company in San Diego that was suddenly awarded this giant licensed property?” Ryall said, noting that IDW won franchise creator Hasbro’s bidding process over larger and older publishers.

He has helped lead the company to produce 60 to 70 titles a month compared with about 10 a month just a decade ago. It also licenses franchises such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Godzilla” and “Star Trek.”

What Ryall calls “the flagship” of IDW’s originals in recent years is Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s Eisner Award-winning “Locke & Key,” which concluded this year. The tale of a family beset by a mysterious evil has in part inspired a move into developing television series in-house after a promising pilot based on the comic was produced in 2011 but not picked up.

The company last year launched an entertainment unit to develop TV shows, and it has about 10 projects in various stages. IDW Entertainment hopes to begin selling the projects in fall and winter.

“Instead of going to a studio and saying, ‘Will you option our material?’ we’re going to go to a studio and saying, ‘Do you want to buy this show?’” Adams said.

IDW headed into Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards ceremony with nine nominations, including a combined five for its Library of American Comics and Artist’s Editions archival lines. But the company is also pushing into the future.

Salkowitz credits IDW with expanding the comics market beyond comic shops, including with its early and continuing digital efforts.

Digital ventures are bringing people who rediscover comics on iPads and smartphones back into comic book stores, Adams said, citing anecdotal evidence and financial statements from IDW and other publishers that show print and digital revenues growing together.

The company also is reaching out to children in stores such as Target and Toys R Us with its Micro Comic Fun Packs for titles such as “My Little Pony” and “Transformers” that include sticker sheets and the like.

So, what might IDW look like in 15 years?

Its CEO hopes it remains a diverse publisher, that it has had some TV shows on the air, and that it has new ventures to pursue.

“I’m hopeful that we’ll have continued to take lots of risks,” Adams said.