Rosarium Publishing is a small Washington, DC-based indie publisher that’s been putting out some fine graphic novels, including Keef Cross’s
DayBlack, Jennifer Crute’s Jennifer’s Journal amd Micheline Hess’s Malice in Ovenland. As discussed in this Publishers Weekly profile last year, its very much focused on projects by and about POC creators.
What I didn’t know until I read this Indiegogo campaign is that Rosarium is funded mostly via publisher Bill Campbell’s day job and run as print on demand basis. That’s real passion and commitment.
Given the quality of the work they publish (prose as well as comics) and ambitious plans, the $40,000 campaign they’re running seems like a good cause. The money will go towards the 2016 publishing slate: The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria, The Little Black Fish, American Candide, Malice in Ovenland, Vol. 1, Blue Hand Mojo, Vol. 1, The Adventures of Wally Fresh, Vol. 1, Chadhiyana, Vol. 1, The Voices of Martyrs, Manticore, and DayBlack, Vol. 2.
Rosarium Publishing was started in 2013 with one goal: to bring true diversity to publishing so that the books and comics we enjoy actually reflect the fascinating, multicultural world we truly live in today.
With the help of some amazingly talented artists and writers as well as many of you out there through Indiegogo, social media and word-of-mouth, we’ve been able to produce quality work and many critically-acclaimed projects such as Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany, The SEA Is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia, and APB: Artists against Police Brutality; many of our projects have entered high school and college classrooms across the country; we’ve been mentioned, reviewed, and featured in Publishers Weekly, Chicago Tribune, Library Journal, Locus, Boston Globe, Washington Post, countless websites and blogs, and The New York Times; and projects such as the comic DayBlack, the crime novel Making Wolf have won literary awards. We’ve been able to accomplish all this through hard work, your support, and print-on-demand.
Over at the Outhouse, Greg Anderson-Elysee has a passionate discussion of what Rosarium’s slate has meant to him:
This finally brings me back to Rosarium Publishing. Rosarium Publishing was started and founded by writer, Bill Campbell, who, as stated above, sought out to create a business that would showcase the type of racial based content that other companies refused to sponsor or give a chance to. Originally selling his books from the back of his car, Campbell has fought a long fight and has come a long way and has built such a solid platform to showcase other creators and content of color that presents just how strong, engaging, and diverse characters of color can be. And dare I say, content that can definitely challenge how you look at People of Color based content.
I realize people are on a budget for their comics, but supporting publishers and creators of color with a dollar is still the most powerful vote of all.
Here are some of the books in the upcoming list; a $20 pledge gets one or more of these titles. The campaing has 7 days and $25K to go, so I’d sure any pledged would be appreciated.
