Com.x, an independent comic publisher operating out of London, England and Venice, California, launched in England in 2002 with the beautifully designed and drawn comics Cla$$War and Razorjack. But then a long operational hiatus set in. Now armed with new investors and new projects, they’ve had an extremely busy 2009: both Cla$$war and Razorjack have been reissued as graphic novels and a number of new titles (including 45 by creator Andi Ewington and forty-five different artists) are due out soon.
Further good news materialized for Com.x recently, with Mandeville Films optioning Cla$$War (written by Rob Williams and illustrated by Trevor Hairsine and Travel Foreman), a book originally published between 2002-2004. Com.x publishers Eddie Deighton and Ben M. Shahrabani took the time to speak to PW Comics Week about Com.x and its recent developments.
PWCW: Com.x launched at the Bristol Comic Con several years ago. How different would you say your business model is now to what it was then?
Eddie Deighton: Well, we're certainly a lot wiser and more realistic about our limitations as a small publisher! I guess you could say that we learnt "on the job", so to speak. Especially balancing the financial commitment side. That being said, the enthusiasm certainly hasn't waned, and in fact, we're probably more excited than ever about the new books we have planned. Add to that the way the industry is evolving and going through regeneration, and I would say this is a great time to be involved in comic publishing.
PWCW: Your latest books, Cla$$War, Razorjack and Path, look great. Are you pleased with how these new titles have been received?
Ben M. Shahrabani: Yeah, we’ve been working pretty much non-stop on promoting these books before they even hit the ground, and the response has been great. The positive reviews have kept trickling in, even a few months after release, which is extremely gratifying to us. There seems to have been an appetite for Cla$$war—people were always asking for a collected edition of the series—and we certainly didn’t want to disappoint, so we went all out on that one, creating a definitive collected edition in hardback. Path has gotten acclaim across the board, and was nominated for the Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the San Diego Comic Con this year. Creator Greg Baldwin created a wonderful book, but it has to be said that it’s been a bit more of a slow burn with that one. Sometimes it takes a while for the book to find its audience, and we’re continuing to push it. The reaction to John Higgins’ Razorjack has been pretty strong too. It’s hard to classify what genre Razorjack is—maybe it is genre-defying, but readers seem to like a good sci-fi-horror-thriller!
ED: I'm very pleased with the reaction to our new books. Especially being involved in the design of most of the packages. It's great that we still have the support out there in the industry and that people still remember our company and its titles. That's not to say that we've been away that long, but it's great that the readers have been receptive to us releasing the collected editions and the overall press reaction has been awesome. We're very grateful to you guys and gals for keeping the faith.
PWCW: It's been a difficult time for publishers lately, with everyone from small press to corporate giants feeling the pinch. Is the financial climate impacting your plans?
BMS: A lot has changed in the past couple of years for sure. I think we’ve always had a good head on our shoulders, and always been able to do a lot with a little. A lot of people don’t realize but Com.x is essentially a very small company: writers and artists aside, it’s pretty much just Eddie and myself. Consequently we are responsible for all the backend decisions that go into making comic books, from additional design to marketing and promotions, but we’re also able to keep overhead down, thankfully.
ED: As Ben said, ultimately, we both maintain a tight control over the purse strings, so it's highly unlikely that we're going to overspend when our budgets are tight and restricted anyway. That being said, I don't think our business model requires too much monetary investment at present, and we're very fortunate that we have design, production, PR and marketing skills in-house. That means a substantial part of the normal outlay for a publisher can be kept to an absolute minimum. When we relaunched, we stated that we would only release titles if the budget allowed. That still holds true, so even if our releases are few and far between, you'll still see us releasing books, and with the same level of originality and quality, even if the financial climate is suffering. Our retail sales don't appear to have been affected, so it's business as usual back here at Com.x HQ.
PWCW: Was it always your intention to start publishing again?
BMS: Even while we restructured, I don’t think the enthusiasm ever ebbed to return to publishing. When the restructuring was complete Gregory had just completed Path, and so the time felt right to us in 2008 that now was now a good a time as any. Also, we were kind of getting a lot of "...I didn’t know you guys were still around..." and the best way to have an answer for that was to return to the thing that brought us the initial recognition on the first place. It was a bit of a bummer that we didn’t have anything to immediately follow up with Path, but these things take time. I think now we’re making a more concerted effort to continually have things in the pipeline for release throughout the year.
PWCW: Ben, how did you come to be involved in the new wave of Com.x?
BMS: I’ve actually been involved with Com.x for a while now. I met the original incarnation of Com.x (Eddie Deighton, Neil Googe, and Russ Uttley) in 2003 which seems a long, long time ago. They had just made the jump across the pond to set up a design studio in the USA, and we became friends. I loved what they were doing at the time, and felt I could help introduce them to some folks out here that could help advance their cause in transitioning some of their properties into film, and TV. Over the course of time, and as the company restructured (Russ and Neil left the company in 2006) Eddie brought me in as a partner in the company.
PWCW:45 is your latest project due out in December and it has a very innovative structure. How did it come about and the creative process involved in such an inventive title.
ED: You may or may not know, but Andi Ewington (45's creator) works for me as Creative Director for my design agency: http://www.anxagency.com/. We've been working together for two years now and I've known him for about fifteen years. I've always been aware that he was passionate about writing, so when he joined the company and expressed an interest in publishing something through Com.x, we discussed what that title could potentially be. Andi was fully aware that we're committed to pushing boundaries and trying something innovative, so when he came to me with the synopsis for 45, Ben and myself thought it had a lot of potential. Andi had hit upon the concept of having his main character, who is a journalist, interviewing forty-five different superheroes. We liked the idea but I wanted to push the concept further. I felt that, with having so many different characters with so many different abilities, it would be great to have a different artist for each interview and have them interpret the character in their own inimitable way.
Andi loved the idea and, although he knew it was a major task to secure so many artists for one project, he went about it with gusto and to his credit, he succeeded in procuring all the talent for the book. [Artists include Jock, Sean Phillips, John Higgins, Liam Sharp and more.]
PWCW: Are you looking to keep your titles as stylistically varied as possible, or are there certain genres you prefer to stick with?
BMS: I think historically our mantra has been to search out and find content that is unique and original. That has also worked in the reverse where creators have searched us out because they know we can be a publisher for projects that might have trouble finding a home elsewhere. We’ve definitely had opportunities where you just read or see something, and there’s a gut reaction that you’re looking at something that is exceptional. We’re patient, open-minded people, and I don’t think we’ve ever had a discussion where we said we wouldn’t do a certain type of project. Let the chips fall where they may I suppose.
ED: Pretty much what Ben said! Our current business model means that we can't commission projects that are 'work-for-hire' - we can only accept creator-owned projects, or work with someone on our own ideas. Although we're aware that the whole superhero-genre sells better than most other areas, we won't reject a project if it doesn't have a "cape" attached. Maybe we'll draw a line at zombies (we receive about three subs a week which have a zombie theme!), although we both recently read something that was zombie-related and it was extremely funny, so we might make an exception!
PWCW: How many books can we expect to see from Com.x in 2010?
BMS: You can certainly expect to see at least five more books from us in the next twelve months, but the important thing is, as opposed to before, we now make no empty promises on delivery until the book is very close to being finished. Once we’re confident that an upcoming project is on track we'll certainly want all you guys to know about it as soon as possible. That being said, first up is Andi Ewington's 45, out in December, which is a pretty unique project; we're in the final stages of editing right now. We‘ll also be putting out Cla$$war in a softcover trade paperback at the same time. 2010 is when you‘ll start seeing a wave of all-new, original titles from us.
ED: The new projects are all very unique and very different, not only from the previous books we've published, but from each other. One has a historical slant, two have quite an 'urban' feel to them and the other has a supernatural edge, so we're hoping that we're keeping the readers interested by the variety of genres that we're releasing.
