As many of our regular readers will know our own Kenny Penman has been heavily involved in not only selling and promoting good new comics material, he’s now involved in actually publishing them through the new Blank Slate imprint, starting with Oliver East’s Trains Are Mint and a translation of German cartoonist Mawil’s work We Can Still be Friends (both having previously appeared in the comics inserts we sometimes have in the FPI catalogue). Matthew Badham who devours interviews like Homer eats donuts talked to Kenny about bringing a new graphic novel publisher to life:
“Matthew: What made you decide that there was a need for Blank Slate?
Kenny: In truth, I’m not sure there is. I think the small press has shown it is capable of getting a lot of good material to consumers on its own – look at the likes of Dave Sim, Sam Hiti, Eleanor Davis in the US – Bob Byrne, David Hitchcock, Simone Lia and many more in the UK. They are all producing excellent comics and producing their own books through self-publishing. I think if you want to do it and can find the financial wherewithal to print it, you can produce great work without a publisher.
I guess Blank Slate is here for those who don’t want to go down that route and for some foreign comics unlikely to be translated otherwise. Ultimately though it is really because both James and myself have been comics fans since we were about five, have spent a lot of our adult life around comics, are still big comics readers and fancied having a go at publishing stuff we liked which we hoped others would as well.”
Wed, Apr 23, 2008
Comics and cartoons, Interviews, Matthew's interviews