Let Creators Create: Introducing Comics Experience Publishing
Comics Experience, a leader in comics education and creator rights, launches a new imprint for creator-owned comics. It all starts with an amazing three-month line-up of all-new releases.
Creator-Owned, Creator-Friendly, and Creator-Focused. After more than a decade of championing new creators through online education and a unique publishing program, Comics Experience evolves once more. Comics Experience Publishing (CEX) launches this July with all-new creator-owned comics by the next generation of up-and-coming creators. Retailers and readers can place their pre-orders starting RIGHT NOW with Diamond and through our store page.
Founded by former Marvel and IDW editor and current writer of Crime Syndicate for DC Comics, Andy Schmidt, the focus for CEX is on comics first. But how are we different? Here are a few of our guiding principles:
- Prioritize great comics storytelling and storytellers over IP farming
- Target marketing efforts to each book’s unique audience
- 100% creator-owned. 100% creator-controlled.
“It really just came down to the industry needing a publisher like this. That’s not any knock against a lot of other great publishers, but we need something simple and straightforward that takes a long-term approach to the health of creators and the market overall,” says President and Publisher Andy Schmidt (founder of Comics Experience, the online comic school). “We’re not in the IP business, we’re in the comics-making business. The simplicity of: ‘Treat people the way you’d want to be treated if you were in their shoes’ should be more common than it is. That’s the backbone of CEX.”
We are bringing opportunities to new and seasoned creators with a commitment to building our line with diverse content for all audiences and ages.
“Letting creators create shouldn’t be a radical idea,” says Publishing Director Bon Alimagno (formerly of Marvel Entertainment, Amazon, and Harris Comics). “Bringing the best ideas to market shouldn’t come at the expense of creator ownership and control. And in 2021, every tool available, whether online or offline, should be embraced to connect creators with retailers and readers. We’re not going to be afraid to challenge the old ways of doing things. That’s the only way to drive the comic book industry towards what it always strives to be: more surprising, more diverse, and more global than any other.”
It all begins this July with Stud and the BloodBlade #1, a Kickstarter-backed new limited series by Perry Crowe and Jed Dougherty! Check Previews (Cover A: MAY211362 & Cover B: MAY211363) and our store page for more details and pre-ordering.
In the coming months, we’ll be introducing the world to exciting new work by David Ramirez Ramos and Ensoul (Howling Snow), and Gannon Beck and Bryan Richmond (Space Corps)!
Retailers, please reach out to us at marketing@cexpublishing.com for a preview PDF of selected pages of our first titles! You’re going to love ‘em!
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CEX will also be accepting open submissions starting later in May — more details to come!
For more information:
Press: marketing@cexpublishing.com
Comic Stores: retailers@cexpublishing.com