TopatoCo

Last updated
The Topato Corporation
Company type Private
Industry Online retail
Founded Oklahoma, US (2004 (2004))
Founder Jeffrey Rowland
Headquarters,
US
Area served
Worldwide
Products Clothing, stickers, books
Website topatoco.com

The Topato Corporation (styled as TopatoCo) is a widely recognized online retailer of webcomics and related merchandise. It was established around 2004 by artist Jeffrey Rowland.

Contents

History

After Jeffrey Rowland [1] lost his job in 2004, [2] he started TopatoCo to help sell shirts, stickers, and other merchandise linked to his webcomics. When the 2004 presidential election was won by George W. Bush, Rowland designed a satirical T-shirt and sold 1000 of them in one month. [2]

Rowland later expanded the business to ship products ordered from friends' websites, who in 2007 moved their retailing to TopatoCo. [3] While Rowland founded the company while living in Oklahoma, by June of 2005 he had moved to Easthampton, Massachusetts. [4] In 2006, he began working with his partner Holly. The two were married in 2012, and still run the company together.

The company has been described as "perhaps the largest and most recognizable E-tailer of webcomic merchandise" by Caleb Goellner in ComicsAlliance [2] and takes its name from the Topato Potato character in Rowland's Wigu Adventures . [3] Rowland has described the company's business philosophy as being "give digital stuff away for free, sell real stuff". [2]

In 2013, Holly started Make That Thing, a Kickstarter management and fulfillment service. [5] Make That Thing originally served as a sister company to TopatoCo. Now Jeffrey and Holly manage and fulfill crowdfunding campaigns as part of TopatoCo's daily operations using the nickname TopatoGO.

Clients

Some cartoonists involved from the early days of the company are Jonathan Rosenberg, Richard Stevens, John Allison and Meredith Gran. [2] In a 2008 interview, Rowland stated that the "big guys" in terms of clients were Dinosaur Comics and Dr. McNinja . [1] Other clients include Questionable Content, [6] MS Paint Adventures , [7] and Girl Genius. [8] The company found in 2009 that it was growing too quickly, and reluctantly turned down some potential clients. [2]

List of creators

Creator [9] Notable Title(s)Additional Note(s)
Abby Howard, Black Tabby Games Scarlet Hollow
Slay the Princess
Alex SchmidtSecretly Incredibly Fascinating
Andrew Hussie MS Paint Adventures
Anthony ClarkBeartato
A. Senna Diaz Dresden Codak
Asymmetric Publications Kingdom of Loathing
Becky Dreistadt, Frank GibsonBecky & Frank!
Brandon Bird
Chris Hastings The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
Cohen EdenfieldSkulltendersFeatures KC Green, Jess O’Brien, and Amber Carr
Dave Kellett Sheldon
David Malki Wondermark
Dorothy Gambrell Cat and Girl
Erin McKeown
Evan Dahm
Gene AmbaumLibrary ComicIllustrated by Willow Payne
Unshelved Illustrated by Bill Barnes
Ian McConville, Matthew BoydThree Panel Soul
Ian WorthingtonWorthikids
Jeffrey Rowland Topatoco Founder
Jeph Jacques Questionable Content
Jessica Hayworth
Jess Fink
John Allison
John Hodgman
Jon Rosenberg Scenes from a Multiverse
Goats
Jonathan Coulton
Joey Comeau A Softer World Illustrated by Emily Horne
Julia Wertz
Kate Beaton Hark! A Vagrant
Kate Leth Affiliated with Night Vale Presents
KC Green Gunshow
KoiBeat
Kory Bing Skin Deep
Lucy Knisley
Machine of Death Anthology edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki
Mattie Lubchansky
MC Frontalot
Michael Kupperman
Neil Cicierega
New Leaf Literary Cassandra Clare
Holly Black
Leigh Bardugo
Liz Climo
Night Vale Presents Alice Isn't Dead
The Orbiting Human Circus Written by Julian Koster
Welcome to Night Vale
Within the Wires
Oh Joy Sex Toy!Originally created by Erika Moen
Olive Rae BrinkerRae the Doe
Olivia Jaimes Nancy Continuation of the 1938 Ernie Bushmiller comic of the same name
Phil & Kaja Foglio Girl Genius
Post Everything ProductionsThe Story Must Be Told
Richard Stevens Diesel Sweeties
Rosemary Mosco Bird and Moon
Ryan North Dinosaur Comics
Sarah JolleyThe Property of Hate
Sam LoganSam & Fuzzy
Shen (Andrew Tsyaston) Shen Comix
Smallbu AnimationCo-created by Lindsay and Alex Small-Butera
This Modern World Tom Tomorrow
Tom Siddell Gunnerkrigg Court
Trudy Cooper, Doug Bayne Oglaf
twistCMYK
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Mission to Zyxx
Ursula Vernon Red Wombat
Will Flanary Dr. Glaucommflecken

References

  1. 1 2 Marshall, Rick (21 March 2008). "Interview: Jeffrey Rowland on TopatoCo and 'Overcompensating'". ComicMix . Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Goellner, Caleb (5 October 2009). "TopatoCo's Jeffrey Rowland On 'Overcompensating' and the Wild West of Webcomics". ComicsAlliance . Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  3. 1 2 "What is This Whole Thing About Anyway". TopatoCo website. TopatoCo. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  4. McHenry, Sarah (2017-08-28). "Wizards and Comics and Dinosaurs! Oh My!". Take Magazine. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  5. Macdonald, Heidi (2013-03-14). "More details on Make That Thing, TopatoCo's Kickstarter Fulfillment House". ComicsBeat .
  6. Braff, Mike (29 November 2009). "The FUNN-e-PAGES: Overcompensating". Suvudu . Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  7. Chen, Jialu (2 August 2011). "See you in the funny pages". The Boston Globe . Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  8. MacDonald, Heidi (12 October 2012). "Girl Genius hands over retail business to TopatoCo". The Beat. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
  9. "Topatoco". Topatoco. 8 November 2024. Archived from the original on 7 November 2024. Retrieved 8 November 2024.