Soaring Penguin Press

An Eisner- and Ignatz-nominated graphic novel publisher. Tweets moderated by @John__Anderson
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[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

This November, we'll be publishing The Best of Meanwhile..., a collection of your favourite stories from the first 12 issues/volumes of Meanwhile...

To make certain they're _your_ favourites, we invite everyone to vote for your favourite stories: https://t.co/1Tjo4m2PyN

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

@nicholasmuelle7 Sturgeon's Law applies.

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

Let's talk about anthologies - https://t.co/RepksILb4q

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

@Markosia Cover letter wouldn't go amiss, telling me the number of pages and whether the book is complete or not. Also a synopsis and an outline. I would greatly prefer a low res pdf to a folder of individual images.

[Sam Kieth Art @SamKiethArt]

Adding on to the Readcomiconline discourse to no one:
Most if not all of Sam's work is not available commercially. If i was to just start uploading Maxx and other creator owned stuff to some sort of archive who would take legal action? Been thinking about this for few months now.

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

@RAD_pencils @nicholasmuelle7 Do it. There are other platforms.

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

@nicholasmuelle7 Why do I feel this sudden need to publish more "not allowed" material?

[Ram V @therightram]

Ha, the comic book piracy discourse has made it to my doorstep. Was discussing with a comics-adjacent friend who wanted my thoughts on piracy in comics. Specifically mine.

And weirdly, though I have thought about it. I'd never articulated up until today. But first...

[Rich Johnston @richjohnston]

It strikes me as odd how meta-fiction is considered post-modern when the first novel in the Western canon, Don Quixote, includes part two, published years after part one, and has the characters meet and challenge versions of themselves as published in an unofficial sequel (1/2)

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

@comicartistchat The first title I published was Meanwhile, an anthology title. I wanted a space for creators to see their stories in print; and I wanted the title to have a minimum quality. Comic storytelling can take such astonishing forms. I want to celebrate its diversity.

[Rich Johnston @richjohnston]

Hey @ForbiddenPlanet @GoshComics @Cartoonmuseumuk @Waterstones @WaterstonesPicc @MCMComicCon @Reed_POP @ReedExpro @ComicsPiranha @RaygunComics @therightram @Aoife_Dooley @joelmeadows1 @claricetudor_ @riffreality @jackdraws @comicbooktimmy you make the London comics scene great!

[Richard Mercado @richard_mercz]

Hello! Made a comic about how I failed to come out to my family (or that they still pretend it never happened) (1/14)

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

@comicartistchat I'm trying to build a list of early readers, i.e. people willing to read and mention a book before it's come out. DM me if you're interested.

[Comics Experience @ComicExperience]

Master comic creation from start to finish! Take Andy Schmidt’s Editing & Project Management Course and learn how to build a successful comic book. Register today: https://t.co/7jAucPJwtN #ComicCreation #ProjectManagement #ComicsExperience

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

@comicartistchat I have a friend who is Ksing a comic. It's made its goal but every dollar helps: Passing in the Night: A Queer Romance Fantasy Graphic Novel, via @Kickstarter https://t.co/HkiMxcZzoD

[Comics Experience @ComicExperience]

Comic writing is problem-solving. Greg Pak shows you how he actually does it, 475+ scripts later.

https://t.co/pSRcoiBfTD

[Matt Hawkins @topcowmatt]

How do you break into comics as a writer? I get this question more than any other. I wrote a post a couple of months ago on how to pitch, and a lot of people then "pitched" me and asked me for advice. We publish a small boutique line, and we have broken a LOT of artists, but very few writers. The ones we have were primarily through the Talent Hunt. It is incredibly hard to even break even on publishing a new writer. Why is this? Think about your own reading habits. You need a reason to try a new book... and most of our reading dollars are already spoken for in advance. Lots of great books get published all the time that people don't read.
Publishers want to work with writers who do good, timely work that we can make a little bit of money on. This is hard for established writers and creative teams, and new books come and go all the time. So how do you break in? Forgive me for repeating some of my prior post, but the two main ways (in my opinion) are:
1) Self-publish at a loss until you build a small audience that a publisher can then scale up. You can do this by publishing online for free via social media, LINE WEBTOON, or whatever... or by attending conventions/events and hand-selling or giving it away directly to readers. Some very successful creators, like Brian Pulido at Coffin Comics, built this model from zero to huge, ongoing, thriving businesses. Meaning, for some, you don't need publishers at all; you become the publisher. When you have an audience, publishers will come to you. As I mentioned in that last post, we pay attention to crowdfunding. If you run a successful Kickstarter for even a modest amount, it shows your commitment, professionalism, and your built-in audience.
2) Find an established writer to co-write with you and build awareness that way. This "mentoring" works, but is harder and harder to find. I have mentored a few writers over my career and would love to do more in the future, but at the moment, I don't have the time, sadly (so that's not an invitation). There are countless examples of how this has worked. You see a new book by established writer X and co-writer Y. Since you trust X, as a reader, you're more likely to give this book a chance. Eventually, Y starts writing their own books without X.
And there are probably other methods, newer ones that I'm not even aware of, but these are the two I've seen work for decades. Please share your thoughts and ideas if you have them. I enjoy the discourse. I also don't assume I'm correct; these are merely my own experiential observations from my thirty-three (and counting!) year career.

[Rutger Bregman @rcbregman]

The BBC just released a new adaptation of Lord of the Flies, the classic novel by William Golding. It's beautifully made, but it's still telling the wrong story.

A few years ago, I went looking for the *real* Lord of the Flies. I wanted to know: has it ever actually happened? Have kids ever been shipwrecked on a deserted island?

It took me a year of research, but I found it. In 1965, six boys from a boarding school in Tonga stole a boat, got caught in a storm, and drifted for eight days without food or water. They washed up on 'Ata, a remote, uninhabited island in the Pacific. They stayed there for 15 months, and what happened on that island was the exact opposite of William Golding's novel.

These boys set up a small commune. They built a food garden, stored rainwater in hollowed-out tree trunks, created a gym with improvised weights, and built a badminton court. One of them, Stephen (who would later become an engineer) managed to start a fire using two sticks. They kept it burning the entire time.

Of course they fought too. But then they argued, they had a rule: go to opposite ends of the island, cool down, then come back and apologize. As one of them told me: ‘That's how we stayed friends.’

Back home, everyone assumed that the boys – Luke, Stephen, Sione, David, Kolo and Mano — were dead. When they were finally discovered by an Australian captain named Peter Warner, he radioed their names to Tonga. After twenty minutes, a tearful response came back: ‘You found them! These boys have been given up for dead. Funerals have been held. If it's them, this is a miracle!’

Peter commissioned a new ship, hired all six boys as his crew, and named the boat the Ata, after the island where he found them. They remained friends for the rest of their lives – Peter and Mano even became soulmates. I tracked them down, and it became one of the central chapters of my book Humankind.

Here's what struck me most: William Golding (the author of Lord of the Flies) was a troubled man, an alcoholic who once said ‘I have always understood the Nazis, because I am of that sort by nature.’ I think he was projecting his own darkness onto children. And we turned it into a lesson about human nature that we teach to millions of kids around the world.

I think the real lesson is the opposite. When real children found themselves alone on a real island, they didn't descend into savagery. They cooperated, they took care of each other, they survived.

I'm not saying that the Tongan castaways were representative of all kids everywhere. But I am saying that every kid who has to read or watch the fictional Lord of the Flies also deserves to know what actually happened when it played out in real life.

Stories are never just stories. We become the stories that we tell ourselves.

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

Our official poster, courtesy of @bethanypardoeart. Isn't it gorgeous!

New West Comic Fest
13 September from 11am to 5pm
Sapperton Community Hall
318 Keary St,
New Westminster,
BC
V3L 3L2

Admission: $5 – children under 13 get in free!
https://t.co/vF86dTwycT

[Soaring Penguin Press @spenguin]

Save the date!

New West Comic Fest
Autumn 2025

Over 70 creators, traders and publishers in one jam-packed day.

New West Comic Fest
13 September from 11am to 5pm
Sapperton Community Hall
318 Keary St,
New Westminster,
BC
V3L 3L2

Admission: $5 – children under 13 get in free!

[NewWestComicFest @NewWestComicFst]

Who will you meet at New West Comic Fest?
Matthew J. R. Nielsen (also known as @NuclearJackal ) is a comic artist currently working on ‘The Big Soup: Growing up Autistic’, an autobiography. He has illustrated Monstercat’s ‘8 Year Anniversary’ comic,