Cartoon Studies on Twitter
Cartoon Studies on Flickr
Get the latest newsOne week a year, comic book publishers, critics and a journalist or two fill the trains, planes and automobile to White River Junction. Industry Day gives both the students a chance to have their portfolios looked at by the best in the business (maybe arrange an internship) while the publishers get a chance to see the future of the comics industry and know what talent to look out for.
Photo of Groth by Jonas Seaman
Gary Groth wears many hats as a publisher, comic book writer and critic. In 1976, Groth co-founded of Fantagraphics Books and with Michael Catron took over the The Nostalgia Journal, now famously known as The Comics Journal. The work they feature is largely independent creators (as opposed to superhero or Big Two-based) and TCJ boasts a large number of interviews with comic creators. In 2009 with issue #300, TCJ made a large jump to the internet with new daily content and switched from creating eight magazines a year to a semi-annual publication. TCJ has also won numerous Harvey, Eisner and Eagle awards during its lengthy publication.
Book by one of Hansen’s clients
Judith Hansen is one of the most widely regarded literary agents in the world. Hensen represents many of the greatest cartoonists and graphic novelists today like Gene Yang (book pictured above), Hope Larson, Kazu Kibuishi, Scott McCloud, and Robert Crumb. Hansen is the founder of the Hansen Literary Agency, the former deputy publisher of Kitchen Sink Press and attorney. Her past clients in her twenty-plus year career include Simon & Schuster, NAL, and the Crown and Doubleday divisions of Random House.
Matt Forsythe drawing of Kickass Annie logo for Koyama Press
Annie Koyama is the publisher and creator of Koyama Press. A former film producer, in 2007, Koyama began finding local Canadian cartoonists and artists she admired and funding their projects. Koyama Press creates not only comics but zines and artbooks made by emerging indie creators like Steve Wolfhard, Michael DeForge, and our own, Colleen Frakes and Joe Lambert (CCS ’08).
Chris Duffy has been in comics forever! A cartoonist from birth, a former associate editor at DC Comics after college Duffy wrote a significant portion of the Bizarro Comics anthology and worked on titles like Scooby-Doo and Batman. While the Nickelodeon Comics editor, Duffy has worked with amazing talent like Jesse Reklaw, Sam Henderson, and even serialized Jeff Czekaj’s Grandpa and Julie: Shark Hunters! Since the closure of Nickelodeon Magazine (RIP), Duffy has been stretching his editorial muscles at Macmillan and First Second, editing the recent hit Nursery Rhyme Comics.
Cover of a popular NBM book
Terry Nantier is the publisher of NBM Publishing, a non-superhero centric comics publishing company. NBM has published such titles such as A Home for Mr. Easter and Joe and Azat of the States as well as many European books like reprints of Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt, Ordinary Victories by Manu Larcenet and the Dungeon series by Trondheim and Sfar.
Terry Nantier at MoCCA. Photo by Jody Culkin.
We look forward to the upcoming publisher lectures and the possible collaborations or triumvirates of terror that blossom in the wake of Industry Day.
