The place: Montreal, Canada, the year: 1989, a young man along with his live-in partner decided to launch an English comics magazine in a French majority neighbourhood. Despite being a part of the editorial board of an ill-fated comics magazine, his experience in comics editing, publishing, and distribution was close to nothing. In addition, he had only a healthy appetite for comics.
So, why did Chris Oliveros start Drawn and Quarterly (D+Q) in his apartment? Didn’t he know the world of Anglophone comics, especially in North America, was dominated by testosterone dripping superheroes with a mandate of saving the world from Nazis, Commies and weird baddies? Didn’t he know the underground comix experiment, with an odd exception of Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly edited RAW or Robert Crumb’s Weirdo had degenerated into a dirty, mindless filth-ridden rag that nobody cared for?
He knew this but wanted to change it.
Cartoonists are kings, and queens too
When Oliveros started D+Q, he took two important decisions, one, cartoonists were first citizens in his publishing venture and two, allow women to gatecrash into the boys’ private comics club. Looking back these two editorial decisions along with some astute business calls were instrumental in establishing D+Q as an A-list long-form comics (D+Q prefers to use the term “graphic novels” instead of long-form comics) publisher.
Starting with the very first issue (Drawn and Quarterly #1) of the magazine, Oliveros established himself as a discerning editor with an eye for stories that were humane, autobiographical and a narrative structure that did not interrupt a sombre storytelling session. He was also careful not to let his magazine become a sentimental, art-school pastiche. Soon, the soft notes of D+Q stories often challenged loud, neon-lighted headlines of the superhero world of Marvel and DC Comics.
When he started, Oliveros believed there is a readership for his kind of moody, nuanced, quiet and deeply personal stories. His belief was not based on fanciful thinking; the underground movement in comics did create a dedicated readership but that got fizzled out.
In 1992, one of the prominent players of the movement Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize for his autobiographical work Maus; things changed drastically for the alternative long-form comics scene after Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth were publish at the beginning of the new millennium. These events helped D+Q and its ilk create shelf-space for their comics in bookstores. The print media played its part and the cartoonists were suddenly visible everywhere.
After 25 years D+Q (and not forgetting Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, Marjane Satrapi, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes and others) can safely claim that they played a big hand in helping cartoonists become authors. Oliveros knew this victory belonged to the creators of these amazing stories and the publishing house was only a catalyst.
What’s in the book?
When D+Q as part of their 25-year celebrations decided to create the anthology Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels, they described it as a “seven hundred and seventy-six page thank-you letter to the cartoonists whose steadfast belief in a Canadian micro-publisher never wavered.”
The cartoonists have been effusive in their praise for D+Q Chief Chris Oliveros and his steadfast publishing ethics. The anthology is also full of glowing testimonials from writers, critics and editors. The massive book also gives a lot of space to Oliveros’s passionate colleagues. These write-ups are bit tiring at times; there is often a sameness to them.
However, there is valuable information in there for readers, researchers and students of comic history. It is not just a story of a comics publisher, but a living journal of the devastating bust of the mid-1990s when many independent comics publishers downed their shutters, and the euphoria of the 21st Century.
It is a story of the struggle of a Canadian company that hase been accused, unfairly though, of publishing self-indulgent stories of Canadian cartoonists who never had chance to get their work published. True, the artists from the initial years of D+Q – Seth, Chester Brown, and Julie Doucet – are all Canadian, but these people were highly rated then. After their years with Oliveros they are first among equals today. Also, with time D+Q has gone international in their author list with Japanese maestro Yoshiro Tatsumi, Jacques Tardi, Rutu Modan, Tove Jansson of the famous Moomin strip fame, and many more.
The stories, interviews and testimonials fill only a small fraction of the 776 pages. The rest belonged to the artists. The very idea of putting cartoonists first has paid rich dividends to the publisher. This is visible from the return gifts, in the form they know it best – cartoons published in the anthology. The wonderful illustration of Oliveros by Seth is a shining example of this mutual love and respect.
The new and old works of the best in comics are all here: Art Spiegelman, Seth, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Chester Brown, Rutu Modan, Joe Matt, Lynda Barry, Lisa Hanawalt, Kate Beaton, Jason Lutes, Adrian Tomine, Mimi Pond, Vanessa Davis, Jillian Tamaki and many more. Also, anthology editor Tom Devlin deserves lavish praise for production and design.
There has been another anthology of note: the 2004 McSweeney’s Quarterly Concerns, issue number 13: An Assorted Sampler of North American Comic Drawings, Strips, and Illustrated Stories etc. with Chris Ware as the guest editor. However, this work is unique: it chronicles the growth of the graphic novel in North America through the works of the storytellers. That it is the 25th year of D+Q is incidental.
Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels, Edited by Tom Devlin, Drawn & Quarterly.
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So, why did Chris Oliveros start Drawn and Quarterly (D+Q) in his apartment? Didn’t he know the world of Anglophone comics, especially in North America, was dominated by testosterone dripping superheroes with a mandate of saving the world from Nazis, Commies and weird baddies? Didn’t he know the underground comix experiment, with an odd exception of Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly edited RAW or Robert Crumb’s Weirdo had degenerated into a dirty, mindless filth-ridden rag that nobody cared for?
He knew this but wanted to change it.
Cartoonists are kings, and queens too
When Oliveros started D+Q, he took two important decisions, one, cartoonists were first citizens in his publishing venture and two, allow women to gatecrash into the boys’ private comics club. Looking back these two editorial decisions along with some astute business calls were instrumental in establishing D+Q as an A-list long-form comics (D+Q prefers to use the term “graphic novels” instead of long-form comics) publisher.
Starting with the very first issue (Drawn and Quarterly #1) of the magazine, Oliveros established himself as a discerning editor with an eye for stories that were humane, autobiographical and a narrative structure that did not interrupt a sombre storytelling session. He was also careful not to let his magazine become a sentimental, art-school pastiche. Soon, the soft notes of D+Q stories often challenged loud, neon-lighted headlines of the superhero world of Marvel and DC Comics.
When he started, Oliveros believed there is a readership for his kind of moody, nuanced, quiet and deeply personal stories. His belief was not based on fanciful thinking; the underground movement in comics did create a dedicated readership but that got fizzled out.
In 1992, one of the prominent players of the movement Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize for his autobiographical work Maus; things changed drastically for the alternative long-form comics scene after Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth were publish at the beginning of the new millennium. These events helped D+Q and its ilk create shelf-space for their comics in bookstores. The print media played its part and the cartoonists were suddenly visible everywhere.
After 25 years D+Q (and not forgetting Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, Marjane Satrapi, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes and others) can safely claim that they played a big hand in helping cartoonists become authors. Oliveros knew this victory belonged to the creators of these amazing stories and the publishing house was only a catalyst.
What’s in the book?
When D+Q as part of their 25-year celebrations decided to create the anthology Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels, they described it as a “seven hundred and seventy-six page thank-you letter to the cartoonists whose steadfast belief in a Canadian micro-publisher never wavered.”
The cartoonists have been effusive in their praise for D+Q Chief Chris Oliveros and his steadfast publishing ethics. The anthology is also full of glowing testimonials from writers, critics and editors. The massive book also gives a lot of space to Oliveros’s passionate colleagues. These write-ups are bit tiring at times; there is often a sameness to them.
However, there is valuable information in there for readers, researchers and students of comic history. It is not just a story of a comics publisher, but a living journal of the devastating bust of the mid-1990s when many independent comics publishers downed their shutters, and the euphoria of the 21st Century.
It is a story of the struggle of a Canadian company that hase been accused, unfairly though, of publishing self-indulgent stories of Canadian cartoonists who never had chance to get their work published. True, the artists from the initial years of D+Q – Seth, Chester Brown, and Julie Doucet – are all Canadian, but these people were highly rated then. After their years with Oliveros they are first among equals today. Also, with time D+Q has gone international in their author list with Japanese maestro Yoshiro Tatsumi, Jacques Tardi, Rutu Modan, Tove Jansson of the famous Moomin strip fame, and many more.
The stories, interviews and testimonials fill only a small fraction of the 776 pages. The rest belonged to the artists. The very idea of putting cartoonists first has paid rich dividends to the publisher. This is visible from the return gifts, in the form they know it best – cartoons published in the anthology. The wonderful illustration of Oliveros by Seth is a shining example of this mutual love and respect.
The new and old works of the best in comics are all here: Art Spiegelman, Seth, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Chester Brown, Rutu Modan, Joe Matt, Lynda Barry, Lisa Hanawalt, Kate Beaton, Jason Lutes, Adrian Tomine, Mimi Pond, Vanessa Davis, Jillian Tamaki and many more. Also, anthology editor Tom Devlin deserves lavish praise for production and design.
There has been another anthology of note: the 2004 McSweeney’s Quarterly Concerns, issue number 13: An Assorted Sampler of North American Comic Drawings, Strips, and Illustrated Stories etc. with Chris Ware as the guest editor. However, this work is unique: it chronicles the growth of the graphic novel in North America through the works of the storytellers. That it is the 25th year of D+Q is incidental.
Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels, Edited by Tom Devlin, Drawn & Quarterly.