Archaia is one I’ve been digging recently (The Killer).
And of course, Image, though that’s on a creator basis based on how Image works (King City, Orc Stain, Chew, The Walking Dead, Invincible, Transhuman, Nightly News, Proof). I don’t how something so awesome came out of such crap (the 90’s thing).
And I must say, I’m worried for Vertigo. The canceling of a China Mieville Swamp Thing just for the Swamp Thing to come back to the DCU (which apparently can’t coexist), shows how much DC cares about their star line. And you know the last three ongoings Vertigo launched are a zombie book, a vampire book, and a post apocalyptic book (I for the most part still like these books though). Where’s the next American Virgin or Unknown Soldier? And where is the next Vertigo ongoing anyway? I haven’t heard of anything coming.
]]>I would never ask (tacky, like i said) but the curiosity is more pragmatic— How do people make a fair and interesting publishing thing work? And is there a lesson/model here I can take/steal/adapt to follow in their footsteps? Buenaventura, Tugboat, Sparkplug, PictureBox, etc… great presses that do great work, but how do they pay the bills?
I’ve heard anecdotally a lot of random things: super slim margins and folks running it just for the love of it with no money year after year, or old money/trust funds/success in a preview career paying to do things at a loss, or also one breakout hit book that pays for other weirder projects (the Pokemoney-begets-Pulp, Narutollars-begets-Ikki), etc. The first and third example are teachable lessons for otheres, whereas the 2nd one doesn’t really provide a model to follow in the general case.
For me personally, in the context of wanting to continue to self-publish what is essentially an expensive vanity zine project with friends, and in a sorta-coming-out-of-the-recession(OR-ARE-WE?) world full of Kickstarter pleas, weird Manga magazine ideas with half-baked business plans, and fantastic art comics pubs having $$$ trouble, I always want more information on how this stuff really works.
For now I’ll settle for “learning-by-doing” and mourn the passing of Alvin’s fantastic press/distribution monster.
Also: Who is publishing the next issue of I WANT YOU by Lisa Hanawalt? FB or D&Q or someone has already stepped up to the plate and snapped her up, right?
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