Small Presses

I’ve spent most of my time talking about the two biggest American publishers, Marvel and DC Comics. They do primarily superhero comics. But that’s far from all that’s out there. The other publishers that have been growing over the past decade are IDW Publishing, BOOM! Studios, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics and Oni Press. They offer unique comics with different spins on characters and genres. They all have websites and are worth looking into. You may find better success at one of them than the largest companies.

Beyond even those, it’s great to look at even smaller publishers like Antarctic Press, Th3rd World Studios and many, many others. It’s okay not to make a huge splash with your first published work, and it’s probably for the best. You’ll be learning so many new things about your art, telling a story, how to work with publishers and printers, that you’ll look back on your first efforts with a sense of pride. But also it’s good to cut your teeth on smaller projects instead of big ones. If you get too much exposure too soon, it can actually work against you. Often, what happens is the comics reading public doesn’t think an artist has paid his dues and becomes unusually harsh on that artist’s work. You can’t predict when that’s going to happen, but it’s good to avoid that if you can.

The thing to remember about smaller press publishers is that they are in almost all cases having a difficult time making a living and a profit. So if you own your own idea or story, you’ll want to be aware that you will most likely have to give up some of the rights for licensing. The number of people trying to rip you off is quite small, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful. But be aware that the publishers will need to cover their costs somehow, and that probably means some sort of deal beyond just printing the comic.

Search on Google or even Wikipedia for comic book publishers to find out all the different ones out there. New publishers crop up and others shut their doors all the time, so be alert and stay on top of the publishers.