NBM Publishing

Last updated

NBM Publishing
NBMlogo.png
StatusActive
Founded
  • 1976;48 years ago (1976) as Flying Buttress Publications
  • 1984;40 years ago (1984) as NBM
Founders
  • Terry Nantier
  • Chris Beall
  • Marc Minoustchine
Headquarters location New York City, U.S.
Distribution Independent Publishers Group (US) [1]
Turnaround Publisher Services (UK) [2]
Diamond Book Distributors (international) [3]
Publication types
  • Graphic novels
  • Comic books and magazines
Imprints
  • ComicsLit
  • Eurotica
  • Amerotica
  • Flying Buttress Classics Library [4]
Official website nbmpub.com

Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc. (or NBM Publishing) is an American graphic novel publisher. Founded by Terry Nantier in 1976 as Flying Buttress Publications, NBM is one of the oldest graphic novel publishers in North America. The company publishes English adaptations and translations of popular European comics, compilations of classic comic strips, and original fiction and nonfiction graphic novels. [5] In addition to NBM Graphic Novels, the company has several imprints including ComicsLit for literary graphic fiction, [6] [7] and Eurotica and Amerotica for adult comics. [8] [9]

Contents

According to NBM, it is "the second largest indie comics press after Fantagraphics with close to $3MM in yearly retail sales on over 200,000 graphic novels sold a year plus tens of thousands of comic books and magazines". [10] The company says their "editorial choices [...] take [their] cue from the large and well-respected European comics scene". [11] [ failed verification ]

History

Flying Buttress Publications

Terry Nantier (born 1957) spent his teenage years living in Paris, [12] developing an interest in European comics. [12] Returning to the U.S., Nantier attended the Newhouse School of Communications division of Syracuse University. In 1976, while still a Newhouse student, and using his Lawrinson Hall dorm room as headquarters, [13] he teamed with Chris Beall and Marc Minoustchine [12] to found Flying Buttress Publications with an initial investment of $2,100. [14] (Their tagline, referencing the architectural element of the flying buttress, was "the support of a new medium.") [14]

Flying Buttress was among the first to introduce the concept of the European graphic novel to American audiences. Among their first titles was Racket Rumba (1977), a 50-page spoof of the noir-detective genre, written and drawn by the French artist Loro. The company followed this with Enki Bilal's The Call of the Stars (1978). In 1979, the company published Gene Day's Future Day, a collection of science fiction works reprinted from comics anthologies including Star*Reach . Flying Buttress marketed these works as "graphic albums".

In 1982, the company created the Flying Buttress Classics Library imprint to reprint classic newspaper comic strips in both hardcover and paperback, beginning with Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates , followed by Tarzan strips by Hal Foster and Burne Hogarth.

NBM Publishing

Nantier moved to New York City in 1983 to study at New York University, where he received his MBA in marketing in 1985. At that point NBM incorporated as Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine (NBM Publishing). [12] Nantier was co-owner and publisher, a title he still holds. [15]

NBM found success with such series as Vicente Segrelles's The Mercenary and Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese . NBM also became known for its reprints of classic newspaper comic strips. Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy reprinted the entire 1924–43 run of Roy Crane’s strip in an 18-volume series with biographical and historical commentary by Bill Blackbeard. With production and design by Bhob Stewart, this series was published by NBM on a quarterly schedule from 1987 to 1992.

In 1991, NBM created the Eurotica erotic comics imprint, following that in 1995 with the Amerotica line. Leading off the Amerotica titles were Skin Tight Orbit, volumes 1 and 2, erotic science fiction anthologies written by Elaine Lee. In 1994, NBM created ComicsLit, its showcase literary imprint, [16] [17] which introduced ComicsLit Magazine in 1995. [18] Rick Geary's long-running "Murder" series, A Treasury of Victorian Murder and A Treasury of XXth Century Murder, have both been published through ComicsLit.

All through the 1990s NBM published translations of Franco-Belgian comics as well as works by Geary, Ted Rall, and other American authors.

It was not until 1997 that NBM published their first actual comic books—in a magazine format—when they reprinted issues of Pratt's Corto Maltese in a seven-issue limited series. [19]

In 2005, Nantier founded the companion publisher Papercutz, which is devoted to family-friendly comic books and graphic novels. [20] Mad Cave Studios acquired Papercutz in 2022. [21]

In 2020 NBM began publishing a new American translation of the Asterix series. [22]

Distribution

Early on, NBM was distributed to the direct market through outfits like Sea Gate Distributors, Bud Plant Inc., Last Gasp, and Krupp Comic Works. [12] NBM pioneered general bookstore distribution as early as 1980, [12] with Caroline House. [23] In 1986, it was the first comics publisher to get a book distributor when it signed with Publishers Group West. In 1988, NBM took over its own distribution, along the way becoming Dark Horse Comics's graphic novels distributor. [11] In 1994, they officially joined the Association of Comic Store Suppliers. [24]

Selected titles

Related Research Articles

A graphic novel is a long-form work of sequential art. The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals. It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book, which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks.

Webcomics are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantagraphics</span> American publisher

Fantagraphics is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the erotic Eros Comix imprint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternative comics</span> Independent comic publications

Alternative comics or independent comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which in the past have dominated the American comic book industry. Alternative comic books span a wide range of genres, artistic styles, and subjects.

<i>"Omaha" the Cat Dancer</i> Erotic comic strip/book by Reed Waller and Kate Worley

"Omaha" the Cat Dancer is an erotic comic strip and later comic book created by artist Reed Waller and writer Kate Worley. Set in fictional Mipple City, Minnesota in a universe populated by anthropomorphic animal characters, the strip is a soap opera focusing on Omaha, a feline exotic dancer, and her lover, Chuck, the son of a business tycoon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Manning (fetish artist)</span> American comic book artist, writer and fetish artist

Michael Manning is an American comic book artist and writer, fine art illustrator, and traditionally trained animator currently based in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his graphic novel series, The Spider Garden and Tranceptor, which combine elements of pan-sexual fetishism and BDSM culture with complex characters in science fiction and fantasy settings. He is also active in the supernatural horror and fantasy genres, drawing adaptations of the work of authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alexandre Dumas for the Graphic Classics comics anthology series, as well as illustrating an anachronistic version of the German folk epic, The Nibelungen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Trondheim</span> French cartoonist

Lewis Trondheim is a French cartoonist and one of the founders of the independent publisher L'Association. Both his silent comic La Mouche and Kaput and Zösky have been made into animated cartoons. He explained his choice of pseudonym after the Norwegian city of Trondheim as follows: "As a last name I wanted to use a city's name, but Lewis Bordeaux or Lewis Toulouse didn't sound so good. Then I thought about this city, Trondheim… Maybe someday I will publish a book under my real name, in order to remain anonymous."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kitchen Sink Press</span> American comic book publisher

Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hardcover and softcover volumes. One of their best-known products was the first full reprint of Will Eisner's The Spirit—first in magazine format, then in standard comic book format. The company closed in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Geary</span> American cartoonist and illustrator (born 1946)

Rick Geary is an American cartoonist and illustrator. He is known for works such as A Treasury of Victorian Murder and graphic novel biographies of Leon Trotsky and J. Edgar Hoover.

<i>Wash Tubbs</i> American comic strip (1924–1949)

Wash Tubbs is an American daily comic strip created by Roy Crane that ran from April 14, 1924 to 1949, when it merged into Crane's related Sunday page, Captain Easy. Crane left both strips in 1943 to begin Buz Sawyer, but a series of assistants, beginning with Leslie Turner, kept the combined Captain Easy daily and Sunday strips going until October 1, 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adult comics</span> Comics intended primarily or strictly for adult readers

The catch-all term adult comics typically denotes comic books, comic magazines, comic strips or graphic novels that are marketed either mainly or strictly towards adult readers. This can be because they contain material that could be considered thematically inappropriate for children, including vulgarity, morally questionable actions, disturbing imagery, and sexually explicit material.

Catalan Communications was a New York City publishing company that existed from 1983 to 1991. Operated by Bernd Metz, it mainly focused on English-language translations of European graphic novels presented in a series of high-quality trade paperbacks, or rather comic albums, a European book format American comic book readers were at the time not accustomed to, neither for their physical dimensions nor for their contents aimed at a mature readership, and who at the time had the tendency to use the diminutive term "Euro-comics" to refer to the then-unfamiliar format.

Notable events of 1984 in comics.

Neil Kleid is an American cartoonist who received a 2003 Xeric Award grant for his graphic novella Ninety Candles (2004). Raised in Oak Park, Michigan, he lives in New Jersey

The Silent Invasion was an American series of black and white comic books written by Larry Hancock and drawn by Michael Cherkas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Malloy</span>

John Malloy, known professionally as FLuX, is an American contemporary artist, illustrator, and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Mullaney</span> American editor, publisher, and designer (born 1954)

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.

Papercutz Graphic Novels is an American publisher of family-friendly comic books and graphic novels, mostly based on licensed properties such as Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Lego Ninjago. Papercutz has also published new volumes of the Golden Age-era comics series Classics Illustrated and Tales from the Crypt. In recent years they have begun publishing English translations of European all-ages comics, including The Smurfs and Asterix. They publish several titles through their imprint Super Genius.

Library of American Comics is an American publisher of classic American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007.

Asterix Omnibus is a book series collecting the complete run of the Franco-Belgian bande dessinée comic Asterix, created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. The series is available in both softcover trade paperbacks and in hardcover volumes, in conjunction with digital distribution. The publisher behind the project is Papercutz, which released the first volume of the series in July 2020.

References

  1. ↑ NBM Publishing
  2. ↑ "NBM" . Retrieved February 12, 2018.
  3. ↑ Our Publishers
  4. ↑ "Visiting Faculty Spring 2011". Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS). Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  5. ↑ St-Louis, Hervé (June 14, 2010), "Interview with Terry Nantier - Publisher and Founder of NBM", Comic Book Bin, retrieved December 17, 2016
  6. ↑ Kulesa, William (February 24, 2016), "Take a walk through the Louvre with this graphic novel—Comic Box", Jersey Journal, retrieved December 17, 2016
  7. ↑ St-Louis, Hervé (June 1, 2010). "It's NBM Month at The Comic Book Bin". Comic Book Bin. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  8. ↑ Arrant, Chris, ed. (January 13, 2016). "NBM Publishing Celebrates 40 Year Anniversary with Name Change & New Logo". Newsarama. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  9. ↑ Booker, M. Keith, ed. (2010). "Underground and Adult Comics". Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels. Vol. 2: M–Z. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 653. ISBN   978-0-313-35747-3.
  10. ↑ CBR Staff (August 25, 2016), "NBM Publishing Announces Comic-Con International Debuts and Exclusives—Official Press Release", CBR.com, retrieved December 17, 2016
  11. 1 2 "About Us". NBM Graphic Novels. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Contino , Jennifer M. "NBM's So Graphic!," Sequential Tart vol. 5, #5 (May 2002).
  13. ↑ Griffin, Sarah (February 17, 2020). "A Pioneer in Comics Publishing". University of Syracuse. Retrieved May 31, 2023. In his second year at Syracuse, with his Lawrinson Hall dorm room as headquarters, Nantier started his first publishing company.
  14. 1 2 "America’s First Graphic Novel Publisher," NBM website. Accessed February 22, 2014.
  15. ↑ NBM entry, Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. Accessed January 8, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Newswatch: NBM Launches New ComicsLit Imprint," The Comics Journal #168 (May 1994), p. 39.
  17. ↑ "Newswatch: NBM Launches New Format, Hires Publicist," The Comics Journal #175 (March 1995), p. 29.
  18. ↑ "Newswatch: NBM Launches ComicsLit Magazine," The Comics Journal #176 (April 1995), p. 32.
  19. ↑ "News Watch: NBM Leaps into Comic Book Publishing with Corto Maltese," The Comics Journal #194 (March 1997), p. 24-25.
  20. ↑ "Papercutz Makes Big Splash with Kids' Graphic Novels," Publishers Weekly (November 2, 2010).
  21. ↑ "Mad Cave Acquires Kids' Graphic Novel House Papercutz".
  22. ↑ Gustines, George (November 10, 2019). "Asterix and the New Translated Editions". The New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  23. ↑ "In September 1976, NBM became America’s first graphic novel publisher," NBM website. Accessed February 24, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Newswatch: New Member Added to ACSS," The Comics Journal #171 (September 1994), p. 40.
  25. ↑ Kit, Borys; AP (August 15, 2008), "Alcon picks up 'Cryptozoo", Hollywood Reporter, retrieved December 17, 2016
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.