![]() | |
Status | Active |
---|---|
Founded | 1993 |
Founder | Jeff Mason |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Gainesville, Florida (1993–2012) Cupertino, California (2012–present) |
Distribution | Consortium Book Sales and Distribution [1] |
Key people | Marc Arsenault |
Publication types | Comic books, graphic novels |
Fiction genres | Alternative |
Imprints | Sparkplug Books, Manx Media |
Official website | www |
Alternative Comics is an American independent graphic novel and comic book publisher currently based in Cupertino, California. In addition to publishing creator-owned titles, Alternative Comics is also a noted publisher of anthologies such as 9-11: Emergency Relief , Hi-Horse, Hickee, Rosetta, and True Porn.
Alternative Press was founded in 1993 by Jeff Mason — while he was still a law student at the University of Florida [2] — in order to publish Indy Magazine, a magazine devoted to small-label music and comics. [3] (Indy was published in print form with Founder Dan DeBono from 1993 to 1997 and revived as a digital magazine from 2004 to 2005). [4]
In 1996, Mason made the decision to publish comics, specifically to give up-and-coming creators their first break in the industry. [5] The company changed its name to Alternative Comics and began publishing such cartoonists as Steven Weissman, Ed Brubaker, and Sam Henderson. At this point, the company established its policy of giving creators "complete artistic and legal control of their work." [6]
In 1999, Alternative Comics published Monica's Story, by James Kochalka and Tom Hart, which satirized the Starr Report's coverage of President Bill Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Proceeds from Monica's Story benefitted the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. [7] The publisher also received mainstream notice for publishing 2001's Titans of Finance: True Tales of Money and Business, by R. Walker and Josh Neufeld; [8] and 2002's 9-11: Emergency Relief , a post-9/11 benefit anthology. [9] [10] [11]
In 2003–2004, the company expanded its offerings, debuting new ongoing titles by such cartoonists as Graham Annable, Scott Campbell, Damon Hurd, Nick Bertozzi, and Josh Neufeld, as well as a number of one-shots and graphic novels. Alternative faced a major financial challenge in 2004 as a result of the 2002 bankruptcy of the distributor LPC. The company scaled back its publication schedule and was forced to cancel a few titles. [5]
Mason operated Alternative Comics from 1993 to 2008, when the company went defunct.
In July 2012, it was announced that Alternative Comics was resuming operations under the new general manager Marc Arsenault, and moving to Cupertino, California. [12] [13]
Cartoonists who have published with Alternative include Graham Annable, Gabrielle Bell, Nick Bertozzi, Brandon Graham, Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka, Tom Hart, Dean Haspiel, Sam Henderson, James Kochalka, David Lasky, Jon Lewis, Matt Madden, Josh Neufeld, Dash Shaw, Jen Sorensen, and Sara Varon.
The company is also known as a distributor for Xeric Foundation award-winners, such as Leela Corman, Derek Kirk Kim, Neufeld, Bishakh Som, Sorensen, Karl Stevens, Lauren Weinstein, and many others.
James Kochalka is an American comic book artist, writer, animator, and rock musician. His comics are noted for their blending of the real and the surreal. Largely autobiographical, Kochalka's cartoon expression of the world around him includes such real-life characters as his wife, children, cat, friends and colleagues, but always filtered through his own observations and flights of whimsy. In March 2011 he was declared the cartoonist laureate of Vermont, serving a term of three years.
Modern Tales was a webcomics publisher active from 2002 to 2012, best known for being one of the first profitable subscription models for digital content. Joey Manley was the website's publisher and original editor. The site featured a roster of approximately 30 professional webcomic artists. Shaenon Garrity, one of the site's original artists, took over as the publication's editor in 2006. Other Modern Tales artists included Gene Luen Yang, James Kochalka, Dorothy Gambrell, Harvey Pekar and Will Eisner.
Serializer.net was a webcomic subscription service and artist collective published by Joey Manley and edited by Tom Hart and Eric Millikin that existed from 2002 to 2013. Designed to showcase artistic alternative webcomics using the unique nature of the medium, the works on Serializer.net were described by critics as "high art" and "avant-garde". The project became mostly inactive in 2007 and closed alongside Manley's other websites in 2013.
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a year in 2001 due to the show's cancellation after the September 11 attacks. As of 2014 SPX has been held in either Bethesda, North Bethesda, or Silver Spring, Maryland.
Jen Sorensen is an American cartoonist and illustrator who creates a weekly comic strip that often focuses on current events from a liberal perspective. Her work has appeared on the websites Daily Kos, Splinter, The Nib, Politico, AlterNet, and Truthout; and has appeared in Ms. Magazine, The Progressive, and The Nation. It also appears in over 20 alternative newsweeklies throughout America. In 2014 she became the first woman to win the Herblock Prize, and in 2017 she was named a Pulitzer Finalist in Editorial Cartooning.
Top Shelf Productions is an American publishing company founded in 1997, originally owned and operated by Chris Staros and Brett Warnock and a small staff. Now an imprint of IDW Publishing, Top Shelf is based in Marietta, Georgia.
Tomer Hanuka is an Israeli illustrator and cartoonist.
The Comics Interpreter (TCI) was a zine of comics criticism, published and edited by Robert Young. Published from 1999 to 2004, it focused on alternative comics, and was characterized by interviews and reviews of greater length and detail than most comics-oriented publications (resembling the long-running The Comics Journal in that regard). Although The Comics Interpreter generally had low production values, well-known artists contributed cover art.
Dean Edmund Haspiel is an American comic book artist, writer, and playwright. He is known for creating Billy Dogma, The Red Hook, and for his collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar on his American Splendor series as well as the graphic novel The Quitter, and for his collaborations with Jonathan Ames on The Alcoholic and HBO's Bored to Death. He has been nominated for numerous Eisner Awards, and won a 2010 Emmy Award for TV design work.
Josh Neufeld is an alternative cartoonist known for his comics journalism work on subjects like graphic medicine, equity, and technology; as well as his collaborations with writers like Harvey Pekar and Brooke Gladstone. He is the writer/artist of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and the illustrator of The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media.
The Xeric Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation based in Northampton, Massachusetts, which for twenty years awarded self-publishing grants to comic book creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations. The Xeric Foundation was established by Peter Laird, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Asaf Hanuka is an Israeli illustrator and comic book artist, notable for his autobiographical comic The Realist. He is twin brother of illustrator Tomer Hanuka.
Jason Lutes is an American comics creator. His work is mainly historical fiction, but he also works in traditional fiction. He is best-known for his Berlin series, which he wrote and drew over 22 years. He has also written a handful of other graphic novels, as well as many short pieces for anthologies and compilations. He now teaches comics at the Center for Cartoon Studies.
Nick Bertozzi is an American comic book writer and artist, as well as a commercial illustrator and teacher of cartooning. His series Rubber Necker from Alternative Comics won the 2003 Harvey Awards for best new talent and best new series. His project, The Salon, examines the creation of cubism in 1907 Paris in the context of a fictional murder mystery.
ACT-I-VATE was an American webcomics collective based on an original idea by Dean Haspiel and founded by Haspiel and seven other cartoonists. It started out on the blogging platform Livejournal, and then moved to its own dedicated website.
Notable events of 2002 in comics.
Graham Annable is a Canadian cartoonist and animator. He is the creator of Grickle, published by Alternative Comics, and one of the founders of the Hickee humor anthology. Annable has created works for the television, film, video game, and comic book industries.
Keyhole is a black-and-white alternative comic book published from 1996 to 1998. A two-man anthology by cartoonists Dean Haspiel and Josh Neufeld, Keyhole was published by two different publishers, starting with Millennium Publications and ending up at Top Shelf Productions. In 2021, Haspiel and Neufeld released a 25th-anniversary issue of Keyhole, with new material from both creators.
Upstart Associates, sometimes known as Upstart Studios, was the name of an artists' studio on West 29th Street in New York City formed in late 1978 by four comic book creators. Those artists were Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, Val Mayerik, and Jim Starlin. The membership of the studio changed over time, eventually adding James Sherman, Frank Miller, and Gary Hallgren as previous members left. In addition, future comics professionals Peter Kuper and Dean Haspiel worked as assistants at Upstart before they began doing professional work.