This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy. Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article's deletion discussion page. |
![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
![]() | |
Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Publishers of Comics Reprints |
Founded | 2000 by Mark Thompson & Paul Dubuc |
Headquarters | 217 Byers Rd., Miamisburg, Ohio 45342 |
Key people | Mark Thompson, Publisher Jason Drury, Art Director Sylvia Maye, Associate Editor/Publicity Dir. |
Website | CheckerBPG.com |
Checker Book Publishing Group was an independent publisher of comics reprints, from newspaper strips to contemporary out-of-print titles and collections from defunct publishers. In 2012, they seemingly disappeared from the market. A few years later, they re-emerged as a presumptive publisher of projected role-playing super-hero board games. However, none of this seems to have materialised, and no more news of the company has been heard since 2017, which was the last time their company website was updated.
Based in Miamisburg near Dayton, Ohio, CheckerBPG was established in 2000 by Mark Thompson and Paul Dubuc with the intent to bring back into print "dormant, unpublished, and under-published serial comics and cartooning." [1]
CheckerBPG's publisher, Mark Thompson, graduated from Miami University with a business degree, and worked for a newspaper before starting his first comics company - Checker Comics - in 1997. Based in the Oregon District, Checker Comics published original works including Danger Ranger and Mutator before becoming one of many victims of the collapse of the comics speculator bubble in the late 1990s.
Checker Book Publishing was incorporated in 2001. Over the next five years, Checker published 43 titles. Between 2004 and 2005, two of Checker's co-founders departed the company, and in 2010, Thompson joined with Josh Blaylock of Devils Due Publishing to create Devil's Due Digital Inc. The present state of the company is uncertain—it seems to again be defunct (the company webpage has not been updated since 2017).
As well as publishing over a dozen volumes showcasing the works of Little Nemo in Slumberland -creator Winsor McCay, Checker also published Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon .
Other reprint rights of older material secured by Checker included Dick Tracy , Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon , the Gold Key Star Trek comics, and Johnny Hart's B.C. as well as works by Theodor Seuss Geisel.
CheckerBPG launched with its November, 2001 release of Chuck Dixon's Alien Legion: Force Nomad. Other early titles included Clive Barker's Hellraiser and his Eisner Award-nominated anthology Tapping the Vein .
CheckerBPG began reprinting out-of-print material in November, 2003 with their first collection of Winsor McCay's Early Works, Max Allan Collins' Dick Tracy work, and the first volume of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon (1947). By Summer, 2007, eight volumes of each were in print. [2] Further volumes of McCay's works - including Dream Of The Rarebit Fiend and his Editorial Works were also published, alongside the first (of two) collection of his Little Nemo in Slumberland strips.
CheckerBPG released their first "of several" volume of Max Allan Collins' Dick Tracy works in November 2003 as Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles Volume 1, and a second and third volume followed within a year. Reprinted in the 'regular' trade paperback format, Checker's volumes print three daily strips per page, with the Sunday strips (in the first volume) "chopped up", losing the logo and "Rogues Gallery" headers (some of these were subsequently included as separate extras in Volume 2). [3]
Between June 2004 and January 2007, Checker reprinted the complete Flash Gordon Sunday strips of Alex Raymond. These strips had been previously collected in colour by Kitchen Sink Press, but had been out-of-print for several years.
In Summer 2007, Checker announced a two-volume hardback edition of Winsor McCay's landmark strip Little Nemo in Slumberland , claiming it to "provide the most comprehensive collection of the series ever produced". [4]
CheckerBPG did not only publish old works. In addition to producing a collection of Johnny Hart's B.C. and two volumes of early works by Theodor Seuss Geisel, Checker also published (and re-published) works from defunct companies such as Awesome Comics, Epic Comics, Gold Key Comics, Malibu Comics, and Topps Comics.
Little Nemo is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, before receiving his own spin-off series, Little Nemo in Slumberland. The full-page weekly strip depicted Nemo having fantastic dreams that were interrupted by his awakening in the final panel. The strip is considered McCay's masterpiece for its experiments with the form of the comics page, its use of color and perspective, its timing and pacing, the size and shape of its panels, and its architectural and other details.
Max Allan Collins is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic novels. His work has been published in several formats and his Road to Perdition series was the basis for a film of the same name. He wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for many years and has produced numerous novels featuring the character as well.
Zenas Winsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip Little Nemo and the animated film Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). For contractual reasons, he worked under the pen name Silas on the comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend is a newspaper comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay, begun September 10, 1904. It was McCay's second successful strip, after Little Sammy Sneeze secured him a position on the cartoon staff of the New York Herald. Rarebit Fiend appeared in the Evening Telegram, a newspaper published by the Herald. For contractual reasons, McCay signed the strip with the pen name "Silas".
Steve Canyon is an American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947, until June 4, 1988. It ended shortly after Caniff's death. Caniff won the Reuben Award for the strip in 1971.
Luciano Bottaro was an Italian comic book artist.
Nemo, the Classic Comics Library was a magazine devoted to the history and creators of vintage comic strips. Created by comics historian Rick Marschall, it was published between 1983 and 1990 by Fantagraphics.
Professor Genius is a character, who originated in the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay and other subsequent media. He is the right-hand man to King Morpheus, the ruler of Slumberland. His main jobs are to look after the Princess, Little Nemo, and make sure the King's things are in order.
The Imp may refer to:
Woodrow Gelman was a publisher, cartoonist, novelist and an artist-writer for both animation and comic books. As the publisher of Nostalgia Press, he pioneered the reprinting of vintage comic strips in quality hardcovers and trade paperbacks. As an editor and art director for two-and-a-half decades at Topps Chewing Gum, he introduced many innovations in trading cards and humor products.
How a Mosquito Operates is a 1912 silent animated film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. The six-minute short depicts a giant mosquito tormenting a sleeping man. The film is one of the earliest works of animation, and its technical quality is considered far ahead of its time. It is also known under the titles The Story of a Mosquito and Winsor McCay and his Jersey Skeeters.
Sheldon "Shel" Dorf was an American comic book enthusiast and the founder of San Diego Comic-Con International. Dorf was also a freelance artist and graphic designer, who lettered the Steve Canyon comic strip for the last 12 to 14 years of the strip's run.
Notable events of 1934 in comics. See also List of years in comics.
Dean Mullaney is an American editor, publisher, and designer whose Eclipse Enterprises, founded in 1977, was one of the earliest independent comic-book companies. Eclipse published some of the first graphic novels and was one of the first comics publishers to champion creators' rights. In the 2000s, he established the imprint The Library of American Comics of IDW Publishing to publish hardcover collections of comic strips. Mullaney and his work have received seven Eisner Awards.
The Sunday Funnies is a publication reprinting vintage Sunday comic strips at a large size (16"x22") in color. The format is similar to that traditionally used by newspapers to publish color comics, yet instead of newsprint, it is printed on a quality, non-glossy, 60 pound offset stock for clarity and longevity. Featured are classic American comic strips from the late 19th century to the 1930s. The publication's title is taken from the generic label often used for the color comics sections of Sunday newspapers.
Little Sammy Sneeze was a comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. In each episode the titular Sammy sneezed himself into an awkward or disastrous predicament. The strip ran from July 24, 1904 until December 9, 1906 in the New York Herald, where McCay was on the staff. It was McCay's first successful comic strip; he followed it with Dream of the Rarebit Fiend later in 1904, and his best-known strip Little Nemo in Slumberland in 1905.
Winsor McCay: The Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics, more commonly known as Little Nemo, is a 1911 silent animated short film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. One of the earliest animated films, it was McCay's first, and featured characters from McCay's comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland. Its expressive character animation distinguished the film from the experiments of earlier animators.
The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy is a series of 29 hardcover books published by The Library of American Comics, an imprint of IDW Publishing, that bring together every Dick Tracy comic strip in chronological order, both black-and-white dailies and Sunday strips, written and drawn by Chester Gould from its premiere on October 4, 1931, until December 25, 1977.
Sunday Press Books is an American publisher of comic strip reprint collections founded in 2005 by Peter Maresca. The company is known as a respected reprinter of comic strips and has to date won three Eisner Awards and two Harvey Awards. Since 2022 the company is partnered with Fantagraphics in distribution and marketing.
Slumberland is a 2022 American fantasy adventure film directed by Francis Lawrence and written by David Guion and Michael Handelman. Based on the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay, the film stars Jason Momoa, Marlow Barkley, Chris O'Dowd, Kyle Chandler, and Weruche Opia. It tells the story of a young girl who goes to live with her uncle after her father is lost at sea. In her dreams she enters Slumberland and befriends a renegade character who is involved in a plot to get to the Sea of Nightmares and obtain a special pearl. The pearl may have the power to reunite her with her father.