SLG Publishing celebrates 25th anniversary, starts new digital initiative

San Jose, Calif.-based comics publisher SLG Publishing celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2011. SLG has published diverse works from “Milk and Cheese” to “Halo and Sprocket” to “Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.”

The company recently announced it plans to publish single issues in a digital-first publication strategy.

“The market has been pushing us away from serialized comics and more towards books and graphic novels for some time,” said SLG President and publisher Dan Vado in a news release. “However, it is difficult to publish a 200 page graphic novel from an unknown artist without having some sort of lower-cost entry point like a comic book series to help build an audience, so going digital first seems like a good way to introduce readers to new creators and build an audience which we can build on for potential book releases.”

Vado talked to The Oklahoman about how SLG started, and what’s ahead for the publisher.

“There really isn’t one overriding philosophy here, that being a function of sort of coming into this accidentally while I was trying to figure out what to do with myself,” Vado said. “If there were one, it is probably to find honest, sincere voices who are doing work that people find entertaining.”

Vado began publishing because he had always wanted to write comics, and wanted to see if he could do it. That led to cartoonists and writers approaching him asking if he’d be willing to publish their work.

“Most of the first few years were on-the-job training as I had to figure out everything on my own,” Vado said. “Having worked in a family business my entire life and (running) a comic shop gave me a decent grasp of what running a business was like, but the rest, like learning about pre-press, sourcing materials, marketing, learning how to write a press release, I had to pick that all up as I went along.”

Over the years, creators like Evan Dorkin, Jhonen Vasquez and Andi Watson made their way to the publisher.

Vado continued to be aggressive about where his comics were sold, including a successful run with the retailer Hot Topic.

“But beyond that we had our stuff in a lot of places well ahead of everyone else,” Vado said. “We had comics on Tower Records, Virgin Megastores, and in lots of small bookstores and records stores before the rest of comics industry even thought about being there.”

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