...but perhaps a good day for your wallet.
Young American Comics, a very fine little indie publishing house that brought you cool stuff like Snakepit as well as my students' favorite iteration of Comic-Con Bingo, is closing its doors:
Dear Fans and Friends of Young American Comics,
A lot has happened in the last couple of years. One piece of great
news is that our son, Jonah was born in late March of 2008. He is a
complete joy and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing his first
crayon scrawls on paper.
As you of course already know, many people in this country have
struggled with the economy over the last few years. Small businesses
have been especially at risk, and YAC was no exception.
The rising costs of gas and air travel hit us hard, making it
increasingly difficult to travel to conventions. When the airlines
decided to start charging for luggage, it was the final nail in the
coffin. If we could no longer travel to conventions, we were losing a
large part of our sales and promotion.
Comic shops across the country have also been hurting, of course, and
that directly translates to them buying less. In general, most comic
shops don't carry a lot of independent books (and minicomics even less
so), so our sales to shops dwindled to nearly nothing.
And of course, you the fans have had less money in your own pockets
as well. We would much rather you spend your money on food and rent
than comics, though, so no hurt feelings. :)
What you may not know is that YAC was always funded out of our own
pockets. We didn't pay ourselves a paycheck and often took a loss,
especially on minis and group projects. When we found out we were
pregnant, we knew that we needed to adjust some priorities: it was
foolish of us to continue to invest in what seemed like an already
sinking ship.
We dragged our feet for quite some time, like a long-term
relationship going sour. We were hesitant to quit on YAC, but had no
capital to work with, and were beginning to feel burnt out on comics
in general. We decided to use the New Year to "officially" go out of
business.
Visit the YAC Store for our Going Out of Business Sale!
All of our leftover stock has been drastically reduced in our store:
All trades are $5, all minis are $0.50 and all T-shirts are $5. Get
them now, because when they're gone they're gone. Nothing will be
reprinted. We're also offering free shipping (to the US, via media
mail) for all orders over $20. This sale is good for one week, until
Monday, January 19, and at that time, the YAC store will be closed for
good.
We also would like to take this opportunity to thank you all. Our
years running Young American Comics were ones we will always look back
fondly on. Thank you for all of your endless support. Thank you to
everyone who visited us at a convention, purchased something from the
store, told a friend about us, or submitted something to a group
project. It's a cliche but true to say we absolutely could not have
done it without you.
We've always relied on you to spread the word: about our books, our
projects, about indie comics in general. And now we ask you one final
time: if you know of anyone else who would like to take advantage of
this sale, please point them to the site. If you know any shops or
distros who would like copies of Snakepit Quarterly or the BIZMAR
Trade in bulk, let me know by email (coreymarie@gmail.com) and we can
work out further discounts.
One more time, let us say thank you to all of you for your continued
support over the years. To our fans, we hope that you'll continue to
support independent comics. To our contributors, we hope that you'll
find even more new and innovative ways to bring creativity and fresh
ideas to comics.
Sincerely,
Tod and Corey Marie Parkhill
Young American Comics
*
We first enountered Young American when they were our neighbors at the Emerald City show, where Julie fell in love with their collection of buttons ("Support Indie Comics, You Dope!")
Thereafter we would see the Parkhills around at different shows over the years, and they were always a delight. The sheer love of comics they brought to their endeavors made all things seem possible.
Anyway, the least I can do is spread the word for them a little. Check out the sale, there are some amazing deals there on some really good comics. In the meantime, we wish them the very best, and want them to know that if nothing else... we'll always have Bingo.
