Podcast appearances and mentions of annie koyama

Publisher Annie Koyama checks in from Toronto. We talk about whether the pandemic has affected her plans to close down Koyama Press in 2021, and the big farewell she had planned for this year's Toronto Comic Arts Festival. We get into her guerrilla charity/grant-program to help cartoonists and other creative people, her concerns for her 92-year-old mom, the increasing racism toward people of Asian descent, how "being good in emergencies" gets tested when the emergency never ends, why she delayed her dive into Animal Crossing, and the ongoing lesson of appreciating the mundane. Follow Annie & Koyama Press on Twitter and Instagram, and pick up some of their books • Listen to our full-length podcast • More info at our site • Find all our COVID Check-In episodes • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

Small press comics publisher Annie Koyama joins the show to talk about her decision to shut down Koyama Press after 13 years, her thoughts on how artists should be treated (and how they should treat themselves), and how to make the most out of life after getting a terminal diagnosis. We get into what comes next in her support for the arts, how the publishing business has changed and what risks she can and can't take, the near-death experience that led her to launch Koyama Press (and the accidental naming of the company), and the most surprising success in her backlist. We also discuss how her artists took the news, what she'll miss the most, the importance of supporting artists throughout all stages of their careers, how not even her previous careers in film and advertising could prepared her for the world of art comics publishing, and more! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

It’s next week’s episode of Contest of Challengers six days early! Another midnight release event? Um, pass. Koyama Press is ceasing publication in 2021, but Annie Koyama will still be an important patron of the comic book arts. Bongo Comics is also ceasing publication, in October. Watching new-to-comic-shops customers discover Challengers is pure joy. Comedian Jim Jefferies went to San Diego and filmed a piece about diversity… American white people don’t like being called “White people.” There’s yet another new comic-con in Chicago, ACE, in October. We announce a new Ryan Browne event here, first! For more information (or to maybe donate) about the Alzheimer’s 5K Patrick is participating in in September, go to http://rememberingfrances.com

In this episode of Graphic Novel TK, we're delighted to talk to the amazing Annie Koyama, the publisher of Koyama Press. If you don't know Koyama Press, you'll get to hear about just how cool they (and their publisher) are as you listen. And if you've always been a little bit mystified about what a publisher actually does, this is the episode for you! You'll get to hear about Annie Koyama's process of becoming a publisher, what she does in her day-to-day job, and more.

A near-fatal health condition put Annie Koyama out of commission for over a decade. One day, while taking her pain medication, she had an epiphany—someone was making a lot of money selling those meds. Soon, Annie was playing the stock market, turning her savings into a small fortune.    Once she was on the mend, Annie sought out exciting emerging comic artists and gave them money to publish their first books. Her passion project became a small publishing house, and over the course of 10 years, Koyama Press became one of the most well-respected publishers in indie comics today.    The concept of "no strings attached" may seem too good to be true, but so is Annie.   Look at 126 different artist interpretations of Koyama Press' Kickass Annie logo. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[This interview was conducted via Skype, so there may be some audio variation.] Jenn spoke with founder and publisher of Koyama Press (which is celebrating their 10-year anniversary), Annie Koyama on how she got into publishing, the pursuit of doing what you love, the Con circuit, and the work involved behind small presses focusing on art books and visual stories. 

Time Codes: 00:00:26 - Introduction 00:02:17 - Listener tweets! 00:08:18 - Interview with Annie Koyama 00:31:51 - You & a Bike & a Road 00:50:09 - Sunburning 01:07:19 - Crawl Space 01:24:45 - Condo Heartbreak Disco 01:38:05 - Volcano Trash 01:50:13 - So Pretty/Very Rotten 02:03:14 - Wrap up 02:04:18 - Contact us For this week's review episode the Two Guys with PhDs turn a critical spotlight on Koyama Press and its spring 2017 releases. They devoted an entire episode to Koyama a couple of years ago, but this season there are just so many great titles coming out from the press that the guys wanted to look at all of their releases and not just two or three scheduled across several weeks. First, though, they share a brief conversation with the press' founder and publisher, Annie Koyama, who provides an overview and history of the Canadian publishing house. Then the guys start discussing the new releases, beginning with Eleanor Davis's You & a Bike & a Road, a diary comic of her time biking from Arizona to Georgia and the various experiences and encounters she had along the way. Reading this book has even gotten Derek back exercising on his bike, although Andy wasn't inspired in quite the same way. After that they look at another autobiographical work in diary form, Keiler Roberts's Sunburning. The Two Guys have discussed Roberts's work on the podcast previously, but this is the first time the both of them have focused on one of her entire books, her first Koyama Press release. Next, they turn to Crawl Space, the latest from Koyama creator Jesse Jacobs. This is a visually unique work, combining Jacobs's geometric abstractions with a straightforward, yet self-reflexibly revealing, storyline. Another experimental work is Eric Kostiuk Williams's Condo Heartbreak Disco. At the center of this narrative are Komio and The Willendorf Braid, two figures whose stories are part of Williams's Hungry Bottom Comics series, of which neither of the guys are familiar (unfortunately). Then it's on to Volcano Trash, the follow up to Ben Sears's Night Air which was leased last year. This all-age adventure featuring Plus Man and Hank is one of the highlights of the week, and the guys hope Sears continues developing this series. And finally, Andy and Derek wrap up with Jane Mai and An Nguyen's hybrid text, So Pretty/Very Rotten: Comics and Essays on Lolita Fashion and Cute Culture. This is a fascinating exploration of a cultural trend that neither of the guys really knew much about -- at least in detail -- and one that caters to their scholarly sensibilities.

Occasionally, Derek and Andy like to devote an episode to a particular publisher, looking at the recent or seasonal releases and providing a snapshot of the kind of books they publish. So for this week, the Two Guys discuss the spring publications from Koyama Press, a Toronto-based small press founded in 2007 by Annie Koyama. This is a publisher that the guys deeply appreciate but have discussed little on the show. (They reviewed Renee French's Baby Bjornstrand in November of last year, and there have been a few reviews of Koyama books on the blog.) The conversation begins with Alex Schubert's Blobby Boys 2, a minimalist collection of stories with a punk aesthetic and a great sense of humor. This is a follow up to the first Blobby Boys book, which came out in fall of 2013. The guys discuss the book's wild and violent comedy, and while they enjoy the strips devoted to the titular characters, they particularly like the two stories focusing on Fashion Cat, a hip, powerful, yet ill-fated celebrity of the fashion world. After that, Andy and Derek look at Ginette Lapalme's Confetti. This is not really comic -- although there is a little sequential narrative in the opening pages of the book -- but more of an art book. Lapalme's illustrations, paintings, and object art are featured throughout, and the guys try to find several iconic themes that link the pieces together, such as melting heads, bodily fluids, butts with eyes on them, and the obvious prevalence of cats. Next, they turn to an unequivocal comic, A. Degen's Mighty Star and the Castle of the Cancatervater. This is special kind of superhero story, one that is largely silent. (There is text that introduces each chapter's dramatic personae, and there are vague sounds, represented by Ns and Hs, that are sprinkled throughout.) Degen's unique take on the hero or adventure genres is both compelling and metaphorical. But when it comes to thought-provoking texts, there is perhaps no book discussed this week more philosophical than Dustin Harbin's Diary Comics. This project began as an online illustrated journal that Harbin kept beginning in January 2010, where he would try to represent each of his days with at least one comics panel. He continued this experiment off-and-on until September 2012, eventually releasing hardcopy issues of this work in four short installments. Now, all of those life stories are collected in a single volume, and one of the pleasures of reading Diary Comics is seeing the development of Harbin as an writer and how his art, as well as his understanding of himself as an artist, progresses over time. Indeed, the highlight of the text is its opening and closing sections, where Harbin introduces his project and provides a interpretive context that is much more than mere navel gazing. This is the kind of meticulously crafted and experimental work, much like that other books discussed on the episode, that represents Koyama's mission and deserves far more attention from comics readers.

This one’s going to be a bit different, as you’ve no doubt gathered from the title. It’s a bit of an, as the Who so eloquently put it, odds and sods — interviews that never got their own standalone episodes for a number of reasons, which will be detailed below. Those of you out there who are looking for a place to start in amongst our nearly 100 episodes, I strongly suggest you turn back now. That said, I think there’s something in each of these worth posting. I’m a big fan of everyone featured here, and am happy that these are finally seeing the light of day, in some cases several months after first being recorded.

Annie Koyama of Koyama Press and Dan Berry get together to talk about how publishing works, the life of a book, how Annie became a publisher accidentally, trusting taste and taking risks. Consider supporting the show with as little as $1 per episode through Patreon.