By Maritza Ruiz-Kim
INTRODUCTION
A few months ago, I sat down for a zoom conversation with Kids Comics Unite founder, Janna Morishima, about the KCU Studio Anthology Project-—how it came to be and how it’s becoming a reality.
It was a hot summer day when we spoke. Today, there’s an autumn chill outside and I’m dressed in layers. Lots has progressed in anthology happenings since then. This interview, which we’ll be sharing with you in two parts, covers perspectives on the publishing industry, this project’s origins, and potential for charting new paths.
Janna has been bringing an early love of comics (Asterix and Tintin!) to all her work in children’s publishing since the beginning, first by co-founding Graphix at Scholastic (the first U.S. trade publisher imprint to specialize in children’s graphic novels), later becoming the Director of Diamond Book Distributors’ Kids Group, then running the NYC Department of Education’s “NYC Reads 365” literacy initiative.
Get insight into Janna’s early years in the graphic-novels-for-kids space at Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s podcast ORIGIN STORIES WITH JJK and his interview with Raina Telgemeier. The Nov. 26th episode touches on Janna’s discovery of Raina’s comics in… (drumroll please)…. a comics anthology which led to Raina’s eventual publishing the newly-formed Graphix imprint at Scholastic co-founded by Janna.
What follows is an interview script that has been condensed and edited for readability. ~MRK
How An Idea Takes Root
Maritza (MRK): I think people are curious about how this came about, your idea to bring people together in KCU Studio to publish an anthology. We started our anthology project in the spring, and you had a meetup with KCU members this summer in Maryland, right? How was that?
Janna (JM): Really, really great! There were about fifteen people, from beginners to veteran comic creators. One of the most experienced people, a seasoned graphic novelist, said this would be a good opportunity to give back, to share what he learned.
MRK: I’ve been wondering— what are you excited to see when creatives gather together?
JM: In both in-person meetings and online meetings, it’s sometimes so magical and such an amazing vibe. You can feel people’s connection and sense of being on the edge of your seat and so excited.
MRK: I’ve been thinking about how you take such an interest in developing creators. What motivated you—as an agent— to decide to do a project to gather KCU Studio authors and artists to go down the self publishing route as opposed to something traditional?
JM: That’s a great question. I’m super excited to be working on a self-publishing project because although I think that traditional publishing is a valid way to go, it is getting increasingly competitive. It’s always been competitive but now it’s gotten even more competitive.
There are people whose work doesn’t fit into certain slots that the traditional publishing industry is looking for. Even if their work might eventually fit into traditional publishing, I think self-publishing is such an amazing way for people to get started and get their work out there! I am so excited to be giving it a try with everybody putting together this anthology.
I’m learning as much as everybody else is. I have a background that is very helpful I think because I know the whole traditional publishing process. There are a lot of parallels between traditional and self-publishing.
MRK: And I have no experience in publishing at all, so that’s what brought me here!
What makes this project stand out from the experiences you’ve had in publishing before this?
JM: Well, this project is huge, to put out a comics anthology. There’s another agent I know who runs a course to help people publish really tiny things like a 32 or 80 page book or something like that, to just get it done and available for sale in a very short amount of time. That model is really interesting.
We are following a little bit more of a traditional schedule, though, in the sense that this whole project is taking a year and a half from start to finish. Add in crowdfunding, so that adds to it right? So, I hope I’m not crazy!
MRK: T-B-D!
“It’s a green shoots time, like seedlings!”
-Janna Morishima
JM: Yeah maybe we will all be crazy together! It’s a green shoots time, like seedlings! Seeing people come up with new ways to do things. I’m interested in how to make the publishing ecosystem healthier.
Fundamentally a healthy publishing ecosystem will start with positive relationships between human beings. The more I can facilitate that, the more I can help there be more opportunity and more sustainable publishing.
How it’s Growing
MRK: I’m hearing you express this as something we discover while it’s happening, like first it’s the initial green sprout. Although we don’t see the fruit of it yet, something IS happening. Like when we have our Kids Comics Studio meetups, you see the ideas bouncing around, you see inspiration happening.
Even though we’d all love a solid measurable achievement like “Hundreds of books sold today in our zoom meeting!” what’s happening is we’re seeing the beginnings of things, a forward momentum that comes over time because things take time.
JM: I think the publishing industry is in a time of transition, and it’s a good time to try new things. I see working on this anthology project and sharing the development as it’s happening (like you interviewing me and people making comics about the process).
If we share that information publicly, we are not only getting people’s work published, but we’re also providing a template for others who might want to publish an anthology, even a group of like three or four creators.
And so, helping the KCU Studio community come together to publish an anthology, contributing my experience, and helping creators get their work published— it’s helping us build a template for others to do the same, which I think is great for the larger community on the whole!
Come back for Part 2 to read about the highs and lows of the anthology team’s creative collaboration and how discomfort is part of the process of growth and learning!
Maritza Ruiz-Kim is a San Francisco Bay Area artist and writer and is a co-editor of the Anthology Newsletter and blog. After spending 15 years as an exhibiting artist and art teacher, she now draws and writes for kids. She serves as an SCBWI Co-Illustrator Coordinator in the SF North & East Bay Region, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and two smoosh-faced dogs
Website: https://maritzaruizkim.com
⭐ Special Announcement ⭐
We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We’re excited to share the Kids Comics Studio Anthology title… and it is [drumroll]… LET’S GO! Coming up with a title was quite the effort, as shared in our previous newsletter and blog. But we’re pleased as pie with the result and we’ll let you in on WHY in an upcoming issue. Look out for more details on our middle-grade anthology, LET’S GO!, in the coming weeks. Sign-up for the Anthology Newsletter here.
Cheers,
The Kids Comics Studio Anthology Team