As Small Press Month draws to a close, it’s time to look back and evaluate the experience. The introduction laid out the goals for the series, namely to raise awareness of the this facet of the industry.
When some readers saw Mulitversity was celebrating the Small Press this month, they expected to be slammed with reviews. Hopefully, they weren’t disappointed when I took a different track and talked about indie comics as a group instead of individually.
Like with anything else, context is important. The history pieces were intended to give you a better perspective of an indie book’s origin and help you evaluate it accordingly. If they piqued your interest, there are several good books out there that explore the different eras in far more detail than I did. The article on the difficulty of gaining new readers was meant to highlight how hard the small press works for your attention, and to leave you more inclined to give them a chance. If you’re already open to them, the rundown of conventions devoted to small press may help you find one nearby to check out.
Now that we have a solid foundation of articles about the small press side of business, the Small Press Spotlight will continue to focus on individual publishers and titles that warrant the attention. In addition to the regular review material, they’ll also include behind-the-scenes looks at how the book came together, how it’s doing, and where it’s going. Since not all of the books covered will be readily available in your local comic shop, the overall purpose of the column will be to leave you as knowledgeable as possible about the comic so you can make a truly informed decision on whether or not to invest time and money into it. I already have a list of comics to include in this series, but feel free to submit your suggestions by email or by commenting below.
I hope you enjoyed Small Press Month. Thanks for reading.
