The acclaimed independent comic book and illustrative art publisher, AdHouse Books, will soon be ceasing the publication of new material, as revealed by company owner and publisher Chris Pitzer in a recent blog post on the company's website.
The sad announcement also came with some happy news about the company's 100th release, which will be Stuart and Kathryn Immonen's Grass of Parnassus (Pitzer joked, "There might have even been a little joy in Kathryn’s voice when she said 'We’re the book that killed AdHouse!'”). There will also be one last release in October (Grass of Parnassus will come out a month earlier) and that will be it for new material for the award-winning boutique publishing company.
Pitzer gave some candid insights into why he is choosing the company's 20th year as its last for new material, listing out a number of reasons:
Sales. Yes, Virginia, not every comic or book can be as successful as Mtsyry: Octobriana 1976. And I get that. If every publisher knew what projects to publish and how many to print, we’d all be swimming in it. It’s really no one’s fault but my own. It just seems like fewer and fewer books are getting ordered by our distributor, Diamond Comics, which means even fewer stores are ordering them. That’s not a sustainable business model. And if we had the energy, we’d probably even look into…
Kickstarter. The NEW Direct Market. (It doesn’t get much more direct than person-to-person patronage, along with the feel goods of helping a project happen.) But for some reason, I could never make the switch. It always felt like my putting my hand out and asking for alms. I know it’s splitting hairs, but when a publisher is supposed to bring the finances to the table, I always went old school. Hell, I took out a second mortgage… TWICE to make certain projects happen.
Covid? Sure, I guess that might be part of it. Hell, I haven’t seen my convention buddies in over a year, and that lack of friendship and finances might have taken a mental toll. I mean, if I REALLY wanted to keep doing this, I could probably power through?
Pitzer noted, though, that if anyone was interested in buying AdHouse, "Finally, if there are any serious offers out there to purchase AdHouse, I’ll entertain them. It might not be much, but damn if it didn’t take a lot of work, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t try and capitalize on that work."
We've been major AdHouse fans here at CBR since the early Augusts, so this is certainly sad news.
Source: AdHouse Books