Tag: Bedside Press

Bedside Press shuts down

The Canadian publisher shuts down operations after publisher Hope Nicholson admits to sexual misconduct.

Hope Nicholson, the publisher behind Winnipeg-based Bedside Press, has announced she’s shut down the graphic novel imprint. The closure came a few days after she admitted to sexual misconduct involving unwanted kissing against another creator.

According to the Twitter post, Bedside Press publications currently in distribution will remain so for the near future. “I will try my best to find publishers to take on future reprints of these titles,” Nicholson said in her statement. Books in production “will be assigned to new publishers before print.”

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Bedside Press to launch mentorship and publishing programs for new comics creators

Innovative small press publisher Hope Nicholson is making big waves to shake up the Canadian comics industry

Bedside Press, the Winnipeg-based small publisher, made a big announcement in the Hollywood Reporter today introducing a collaborative project to boost books and comics that have strong potential but no current access to the market.

Publisher Hope Nicholson formed Bedside Press in 2014 and spent the last five years navigating the comics publishing world and beyond, using already established publishers, Canadian arts grants and internet crowdfunding sites to help bring her books to print. Bedside Press is responsible for many books coming to print, including Margaret Atwood’s Angel Catbird, The Secret Loves of Geek Girls, and two Eisner Award-nominated anthologies: Enough Space for Everyone Else and Trina Robbins’ A Bunch of Jews (and other stuff) with various artists.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Amanda Deibert

Deibert to adapt cult classic Lesbian mystery into graphic novel

Work for a Million is a cult classic novel by Eve Zaremba. The 1986 novel was one of a series of mysteries starring the openly lesbian private eye Helen Keremos. Bedside Press is running a kickstarter to reprint the novel and publish an original graphic novel adaptation written by Amanda Deibert and drawn by Selena Goulding.

Amanda Deibert has written a number of comics including Wonder Woman ’77 and Teen Titans Go!, she’s contributed to the anthologies Womanthology and Secret Loves of Geeks, and wrote the webcomic Hot Mess. As a TV and film writer she’s worked on OWN Tonight, 24 Hours of Reality, SyFy Presents Live from Comic-Con, Take Part Live, The Morning After, and other shows, and she was kind enough to take a few minutes to talk about the project.

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SPX, TCJ, OMG: A Hot Take

Brigid Alverson responds to a recent opinion piece on TCJ.com and shares her thoughts on comiXology/Amazon’s presence at this weekend’s Small Press Expo.

I know that contentious commentary is part of the The Comics Journal brand, but maybe it’s time to drop it. Especially because the latest article isn’t just mean-spirited, it’s straight-up wrong.

I am referring, of course, to RJ Casey’s recent post, ominously titled “A Plague Comes to SPX,” in which he warns that Amazon is poised to ruin comics.

I’m at SPX, and I went to the exhibitors’ reception last night, where, like everyone else, I got a copy of Hit Reblog, the book he disparages:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Pan S. on ‘Loving Iran, Loving Me’

The comics creator discusses her contribution to ‘Habibi,’ an anthology featuring Muslim women telling stories about love.

Habibi is a new anthology of comics and prose from Bedside Press. Edited by Hadeel al-Massari and Nyala Ali, the book collects the work of Muslim women telling stories about love.

One of those creators is Sugarpun, or Pan, as she goes by. Her contribution to the anthology “Loving Iran, Loving Me,” a beautifully drawn and beautifully designed comic. She admitted that comics are something she’s only gotten back into doing recently. Primarily an illustrator, she answered a few questions about the anthology and her own work.

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Comics Lowdown: Off to a roaring start

Zunar sues his persecutors, Bosch Fawstin is booted (temporarily) from Twitter, and the Best of the Year lists keep rolling in.

Legal: A Malaysian High Court judge has set aside five days in April to hear the cartoonist Zunar’s lawsuit against the Inspector-General of Police and 19 other defendants. Zunar, who has been charged with sedition and is currently prohibited from leaving the country, is suing for damages and wrongful arrest. In December 2016, police stormed the venue where a “Tea with Zunar” event was about to take place and arrested the cartoonist and several other people; they also confiscated books and T-shirts. In the lawsuit, Zunar is asking for monetary damages for wrongful arrest, the return of his merchandise, and a declaration that the defendants had violated his rights.

Twitter: Cartoonist Bosch Fawstin was suspended from Twitter for “hate speech” after one of his Tweets was reported by another user. At first Twitter refused to tell him why, but then they told him his account would be unlocked if he deleted a Tweet reply that read “@NyaDnart1 There are degrees. Muslims who follow in Mohammad’s footsteps mass murder. Christians who follow in Jesus’s footsteps?” They subsequently reinstated his account with a statement that it had accidentally been caught in a spam filter.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Hope Nicholson on ‘Gothic Tales of Haunted Love’ and more

The Canadian writer, editor and publisher discusses her work on Prairie Comics Festival, Bedside Press, Secret Loves of Geeks and her latest Kickstarter.

Hope Nicholson is one of those people working behind the scenes who make the comics industry function. The Canadian writer, editor and publisher is the founder and publisher of Bedside Press, which is responsible for books both new (Window Horses, A Minyen Yidn) and reprints (Fashion in Action, Polka Dot Pirate). She runs the Prairie Comics Festival in Winnipeg, Canada. She wrote the new book The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen about female comics characters. She’s the woman behind The Secret Loves of Geek Girls, is a Kickstarter Thought Leader, and was one of the people selected to be part of Kickstarter Gold, in the company’s words, “for their creativity and ingenuity.”

Nicholson first received notice for spearheading the republication of Canadian comics like Nelvana of the Northern Lights and Brok Windsor. She’s a consulting editor on Margaret Atwood’s Angel Catbird graphic novel series, which is being published by Dark Horse. Nicholson also edits and publishes a wide range of anthologies including Moonshot, Enough Space for Everyone Else, and her current project, Gothic Tales of Haunted Love.

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