Swedish-based Peow Studios has announced plans to shut down operations, the small press publisher said in a statement.
Olle Forsslöf and Patrick Crotty, two of the co-founders of Peow, said they plan to release “a few final books” in 2021, and they’ll leave their webstore open through 2022.
“It’s something that we have been thinking about for a long time, and while at first, saying those words ‘ending Peow’ feels really hard and sad (Peow has been our life the past 10 years, so it’s so strange to ‘break up’), but the more we start thinking about it, the more we have realized it’s the right decision,” they said in the statement. “It’s bittersweet, but we look ahead of us and things are going to be OK.”
The statement goes on to explain why they made this decision:
Over the past few years, we’ve had less and less time for Peow, and it has required more time from us than ever. The good stuff was being outweighed by stressful things, logistics, website stuff, legal stuff bc we sell things internationally from Sweden, and all this we do on (all) evenings and weekends.. It starts to take a toll on you when you don’t get to take a real vacation for 10 years, and you kinda ask “why”.. Why have I chosen to continue doing this thing in my free time that is giving me mental health problems. Are we just making Peow because it’s what we’re expected to do? But the funny thing is that, nobody was forcing us to do this, it was just we were afraid to stop.
The announcement brought reactions from the comics community on social media:
Thank you so much for making comics experimental and fun again. Every book you published were so inspiring and beautiful, seriously y'all made such a huge impact in the comics community. Thanks sm for you hard work & I hope you get the rest you deserve! ❤️
Originally tweeted by Kat Fajardo! (@katfcomix) on June 5, 2021.
Peow will certainly be missed but I understand your reasons perhaps more than most, and applaud you!
Originally tweeted by Annie Koyama (@AnnieKoyama) on June 5, 2021.
PEOW has always been such a beacon for incredible work and creativity in the industry. Thank you for your work all these years and I hope you have time to rest 💖
Originally tweeted by Nadia Shammas 🇵🇸 (@Nadia_Shammas_) on June 5, 2021.
Thank you for all of the amazing books, a catalog of inspiration! Couldn’t have been an easy decision— but Comics are better off because of the hard work, passion and dedication you put into each release!! 💕
Originally tweeted by Becky Cloonan 🔮 (@beckycloonan) on June 6, 2021.
Peow Studios was founded about 10 years ago, as they began releasing riso-printed minicomics and anthologies, and their publishing line steadily grew to include creators and comics from around the world. Their books have been nominated for and won several Ignatz, Doug Wright and other awards. Some of the creators whose work they published include Freddy Carrasco, Mathilde Van Gheluwe, Jean Wei, Jules Naleb and Disa Wallander, among many others.
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