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by Zachary Clemente

This past weekend, the 20th annual Small Press Expo (SPX) brought an explosion of independent and small press comics to the Marriott hotel in Bethesda, MD. Literally overflowing with an abundance of talent, the weekend was filled with amazing creators, signings, panels, even a wedding and a prom. One of the panels, Micro-Press and Beyond, discussed the findings of a study on micro-press comics publishers by moderator Robyn Chapman, who runs mini-comics publisher Paper Rocket, as well as posing the study’s questions to the panel participants. From left to right, the publishers are Chuck Forsman (Oily Comics), Keenan Marshall Keller (Drippy Bone Books), Anne Koyama (Koyama Press), and Raighne Hogan & Justin Skarhus (2D Cloud).

Chapman kicked off the panel by showing her findings, collected in The Tiny Report, a mini-comic she published, based on questions she sent to 52 micro-press publishers, which she defines as being “one-person publishing houses”. The purpose of the Tiny Report is to be a “micropress yearbook”, serving to be an aid in understanding and chronicling the comics micro-press movement. One by one, she took the panel through some of the questions she posed for the report, seeing how they affect each representing publisher. While the responses for Forsman, Keller, Hogan, and Skarhus were fairly uniform; Koyama, as a more established publisher had slightly different answers. Although all agreed the major challenge of publishing was funding, seeing it as the root of any other discussed challenges, such as distribution or marketing.

Data Collected by Robyn Chapman

The majority of the panel was an informative and lengthy discussion about how micro-publishing is in essence a massive clustercuss. Selling books to comic stores often requires very precise book-keeping, dealing with printing and shipping costs is a measured act of a madness, running the convention circuit can be emotionally and physically punishing, and even trying managing an online store or crowd-funding campaigns can be a full-time job. Despite all these hurdles, micro-press publishers have been springing up left and right to print minis and floppies, filling the void left by publishers left by publishers like Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly, who now focus more on graphics novels, collections, or art books. Ultimately, the issues voiced come from a lack of steady funding as it’s not uncommon for an independent publisher to see a check for books sent to a store 6 months after the fact.

During the audience Q&A portion, a question I’ve been curious about was raised about artist contracts and compensation. Most of the publishers pay in copies or small royalties, depending from artist to artist and many don’t really bother with formal contracts. Only Koyama utilizes formal, customized contracts and pays a lump sum up front to each artist she works with.

“You’re an angel from Heaven.” – Forsman to Koyama

Data Collected by Robyn Chapman

Lastly, on the word of submitting, all but Koyama takes submissions through email or convention drop-offs – all stating that finished or nearly finished work is ideal. Koyama bemoaned the fact that she often cannot find the names of people on their websites or tumblr pages and won’t be able to contact them. Koyama press rarely takes submissions, only publishing 10 books a year, all handpicked by Anne herself. Everyone agreed that the best possible policy for getting published is just “make a good comic.” When asked about the “Beyond” of micro-publishing, all wished for a climate where sustainable and local printing was a more affordable option, but for now, overseas printing is the most economical option.

This was my first time at SPX and it was an exceptional experience. I’ll be back next year and (hopefully) continuing small press coverage!

by Zachary Clemente

On Sunday of the 20th annual Small Press Expo (SPX), The Beat grabbed a strange, backless hotel couch surrounded by vacated folding tables with Annie Koyama, the past, current, and future Publisher at Koyama Press, the renown Toronto-based small-press publisher dedicated to promoting and supporting a wide range of emerging and established artists. Their published work including comics, graphic novels, art books, and zines such as Safari Honeymoon, 100 Crushes, Very Casual, and Grey Supreme.

Comics Beat: As someone who has only recently been paying attention to Koayama Press, I’m curious what the “mission of Koyama Press” is and how it has evolved or changed over the years?

Annie Koyama: My mission is to help primarily emerging artists and get their work out there. But after seven years, I’m not only working with emerging artists anymore. [...] I’ve got Renee French and Julia Wertz here [at SPX], so that’s how it’s evolved. However, it hasn’t changed. I still choose to work with primarily emerging artists – it’s very satisfying to get their work out there.

CB: You originally came from producing films and commercials before jumping whole-hog into comics. What things came with you?

AK: Only that as a producer, I was organizing and managing stuff. Those skills are transferable to anything for the rest of life. I know how to organize stuff from events to tours – I can organize anything! I just transfer [those skills] to production schedules for going through a book, working with artists, that sort of thing. It’s all relatable.

Lose #3 by Michael DeForge

CB: When working on your 10 books a year, do you consider the influence that the name Koyama Press carries on the independent comics scene?

AK: No…I choose what I like. I hope that what I put out influences the scene because someone who didn’t hear about Victor Kerlow will now know about Victor Kerlow or now they know about John Martz – so hopefully it’s influential in that way. I have to stand behind the work [I publish] for a good 10 years, so why would I publish anything I don’t love? I only do 10 books a year and work way too hard, so I have to love every single one of them.

CB: It is literally your name on the book.

AK: Yes, but it’s their [the artist's] name too, so I owe it to them to work my hardest to get their book out there. Some of the people who work with me could go to other publishers, but they choose not to – so I work hard for them because of that.

CB: On the panel about Micro-Press, you talked about the ethics of making comics, especially when printing overseas. What is your “ideal” comics-making world like?

AK: For comics printing? That everyone had enough money to print locally and employ local people. It’s very simple but it’s never going to happen so we make the best of it. I have that choice: I can print locally and [publish] far fewer books or I can choose to print more books and get more artists out there. So for now and since day one, I choose to get more artists out there.

CB: I would think a lot of people would say that a good way to accomplish that goal without the problems of physical printing would be a digital route. Has this been something you’ve considered?

AK: Yup! I’m moving into that in a month or so, it’ll be announced properly soon. I waited a long time because I didn’t like the resolution on some tablets and that sort of thing, but I think that it’s changed a lot. So soon, very soon.

CB: Would it be through ComiXology or something like that?

AK: It will be through one of those places initially, but it won’t be an exclusive thing.

CB: Have you seen The Private Eye? It’s a pay what you want digital comic formatted wide-screen hosted by the creators themselves. It’s an interesting that options like this are possible.

AK: Any of my artists could also do something like that, but there are people who would prefer to read their work in a certain format or through app so we hope people will buy from where we’re going. Though, some of my artists prefer to put their work up for free, so it’s up to them.

CB: Also that kind of method requires an already-existing base of followers that’s strong enough to support it.

AK: That’s right.

Attack From Space by Jon Vermilyea

CB: That’s something I feel Koyama Press has become. Someone enjoying work published by you will likely get some satisfaction out of other Koyama-published works.

AK: I’m hoping so, but it’s a pretty diverse catalog so I’m sure you won’t like every single book I do. But if you read Jesse Jacobs you might like something else [...] it’s not too much of a stretch to go to Renee French from Jessie. There are connections.

CB: I love that some publishers, behind their bigger name, just have one person picking the work. The same sort of thing happens with Eric Stephenson at Image Comics. Different scale, but the same idea.

Another thing mentioned at the panel was the vacuum left in the comics scene that was filled by you and other micro-publishers. What would you say your relationship is with the rest of the comics industry?

AK: I think that in our alternative part [of the comics industry], it’s so small that we are, whether you like it or not, in the same boat. For the record, I don’t consider Koyama a micro-publisher anymore. When you have a large distributor and you’re doing a certain number of titles and paying out [to artists] in the traditional way [...] these things make you not “micro” anymore. I’m sure my runs are a lot higher the other people at the panel. But yeah, I think we’re in the same boat together – I love all the other micro-publishers, I think more people should sprout up and do it as long as they know they’re doing it for love mostly and not for money. There’s room for more people to do what they love – don’t wait for a publisher to ask. There’s just not enough of us to publish all the great work I see out there.

Annie Koyama is the Publisher at Koyama Press. She kicks ass, takes names, and publishes 10 amazing books every year. It was an honor and delight to sit down and chat with her at SPX this year.

Annie-mation by David Huyck.

What a great idea for a comic programming focus: this year’s Small PressE Expo, to be held September 13-14 in Bethesda, MD, will spotlight the history of alt-weekly comics, a powerful if now vanished, platform that saw creators such as Jules Feiffer, Matt Groening and Lynda Barry emerge along with dozens of other.

And to kick things off, two of those Feiffer and Barry—and Onion/Stranger co founder James Sturm are the first three announced guests.

For decades, alt.weekly newspapers such as the Village Voice and the LA Weekly showcased alternative cartoonists, many of them political, such as Ruben Bolling and Tom Tomorrow. But other strips that flourished in this venue include Maakies by Tony Millionaire, Kaz’s Underworld, and more more. But as the internet destroyed the advertising base that supported these papers, these cartoonists adapted to the web or other mediums. BUt the importance of the work and careers developed in this venue is well worthy of festival examination.

Guest bios:

Nearly seventy years ago, a teenage Jules Feiffer entered the comics world as an assistant to the famous Will Eisner. He soon made a name for himself via his ground-breaking comic strip Feiffer, which ran weekly in the Village Voice for over forty years. Mr. Feiffer and his eponymous strip is considered the Godfather of the alt-weekly newspaper comic.

Active as a cartoonist, playwright, novelist, children’s book author, screenwriter and professor, Mr. Feiffer’s incredible career has included an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters & the Comic Book Hall of Fame, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the National Cartoonists Society. He will be at SPX 2014 to sign his latest graphic novel, Kill My Mother, which will be released this summer from the Liveright Division of W.W. Norton.

In 1979, Lynda Barry’s seminal Ernie Pook’s Comeek began appearing in the alt-weekly The Chicago Reader. For nearly two decades, her comics — which appeared in over seventy newspapers nationwide —  inspired several generations of independent cartoonists who saw themselves in her characters, and recognized their struggles in her stories.

Since retiring the strip in 2008, Ms. Barry has been active as a teacher running workshops for hundreds of students a year and doing her best to show people that everybody can be creative. She is now an assistant professor at the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Advance copies of her book, due out in October of this year from Drawn & Quarterly, Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor about teaching art to all skill levels, will be available at SPX 2014.

Co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies James Sturm has an amazing resume. In addition to the ground-breaking school he started, Sturm co-founded The Onion as well as The Stranger, Seattle’s legendary alt-weekly newspaper, where he served as the comics editor. Mr. Sturm worked with Art Spiegleman on ‘Raw’ in the 90’s, and was a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Mr. Sturm also found time to put out graphic novels such as Market Day from Drawn & Quarterly, and The Golem’s Mighty Swing on his own imprint, Bear Bones Press. A true champion of comics, Mr. Sturm has won both an Eisner Award, and a Xeric grant. In addition, his writings and works have been published in The New York Times and The New Yorker.

via Small Press Expo Announces Guests Jules Feiffer, Lynda Barry and James Sturm – [email protected] – Gmail.