Award-winning cartoonist Peter Kuper has teamed up with L.A. advertising agency Bemis Balkind to publish a new e-book-only collection documenting his comics and illustration work for the U.S market. Drawn to New York, an artbook collecting work from Kuper’s 30 years working in New York as well as original works done for this collection, is available through the iTunes store for $15.99.
In a phone interview with Kuper he said that the book is being released only in e-book format in the U.S. although a hardcover Spanish language edition has been released in Mexico. The book includes works—from comics, paintings and sketchbooks to illustration work—from his years living and working in New York City as well as some works, “done just for this book.” The earliest work dates from 1983 and the book also includes works from World War III, the long running political comics periodical founded by Kuper and Seth Tobocman.
The publisher turns out to be, well, not your average publisher. Bemis Balkind is a high profile Hollywood based advertising and creative consulting agency, far more likely to be creating campaigns for big budget Hollywood films than indie comics artists. The agency has worked on advertising campaigns for such films as Fatal Attraction, Forrest Gump, Slumdog Millionaire and Black Swam. In this case there turns out to be a connection and great timing. .
Curt Doty, general manager, executive director, digital at Bemis Balkind, happens to be both a former New Yorker and a former illustrator, and knew Kuper from his own days as a freelance illustrator. Since then Doty has worked in digital publishing, before joining BB to launch its digital publishing business.
“The idea is to open up the digital side of business here at Bemis Balkind,” Doty told PW Comics World in a phone interview. “I knew Peter 20 years ago in New York and he’s one of the best comics artists and illustrators out there,” said Doty. "We’ve created conversion tools and my team has digitally converted more than 200 books. So Peter’s book is a very strategic effort. We want to help publishers deal with disruptive change. We have a big legacy on the entertainment side, but we want to show the publishing industry that we can help them on a strategic level with digital publishing opportunities,” he said. “We’re out to create a few really cool books that are focused on quality and innovation to help us attract publishers to our program,” Doty said.
The book itself is a fixed layout art e-book optimized for the Apple iBooks format. In addition to Drawn to New York, Kuper’s graphic novel adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and his artbook/graphic journal Diario de Oaxaca are also available through the iBooks Store.
