Getting Graphic
with William S. Dean

The Future in Words and Pictures

In 1976, NBM (Nantier Beall Minoustchine) became America's first graphic novels publisher. Since the humble beginning by Terry Nantier while still a university student, NBM has racked up the most impressive record of firsts in the genre:

• First to publish in Graphic Novels starting with Racket Rumba a European spoof of hard-boiled detective novels (months before the launch of Heavy Metal), followed by Enki Bilal's The Call of the Stars.
• First to publish European Graphic Novels in the United States, helping to inspire American artists onto greater personal expression.
• First to get general bookstore distribution as early as 1980 (distribution by Caroline House).
• First to publish library-worthy sets of hardcover reprints of classic comic strips with the very successful Terry & The Pirates reprint program of 12 quarterly volumes in 1983.
• First to publish fully painted graphic novels with the sell-out launch of The Mercenary by Spaniard Vicente Segrelles in1985.

ERWA spoke with publisher/owner Terry Nantier as their spring lineup of books is prepared to hit the shelves …

ERWA:  We're seeing that the whole realm of graphic novels, erotic art presentation books, adult comics, and even anthologies is the major "mover and shaker" in the publishing and media world. What do you think are the main strengths of this format and why now is it so hot?
 
Terry Nantier (TN): Graphic novels, as shown from decades of history in Europe, present a format in which artists can really expand, tell the story in the length they need and with the quality needed. It encourages creativity and personal voices, in other words a true author status which hadn't been afforded to comics authors before. Then the only limit is the imagination of the author and his/her talent at rendering it on paper. A lot of things can be done in comics with a personal voice of 1 or 2 people in comics that can't be done with staff heavy and budget burdened movies and such.
 
ERWA:  Your company is a real forerunner in publishing these kinds of varied works. Can you take us step-by-step in how you go about putting a project together, i.e. putting an artist with an author, planning the story and storyboards, and then promoting the book to the buying public?
 
TN: I can only do so briefly but mostly the authors come to us with their concept and we accept or reject it. With new authors I do work with them more closely on the editorial side to get them in the right direction of what they want to acomplish although less so with adult comics per se where we look for 1 or 2 of the following qualities: really very good art, Christian Zanier (Banana Games) is a good example and/or a really real, intelligent story that's true to our sexual experience in life, such as in our Shadow & Light series or in carefully thought out fantasy as Michael Manning creates.

Promotion is going increasingly the way of the web and that's where we're concentrating our efforts more and more. We do come from an excellent situation in the media where our books get a much larger than fair share of attention. We've always been pretty aggressive at pursuing press. Of course, publishing good stuff to begin with doesn't hurt!
 
ERWA:  Of course there are always "the big names" in both graphic art and writing, but what about newcomers? Who are some of the newbies coming out that readers should be aware of and what projects are they putting together for you?
 
TN: In erotica, we recently launched—very successfully—Zanier with Banana Games, Mensink with Kristina the Vampire. We're also excited about Brandon Graham's work, latest is his Pillow Fight. It's funky and lotsa fun.
 
ERWA: How does the company go about tracking down or recruiting artists and writers for projects? Is it a matter of sifting through the submissions until "something clicks" or do you aggressively seek out new and impressive talents?
 
TN: We do go through submissions mostly and have established artists come to us with their projects.

ERWA: If you could imagine the ideal erotic-content graphic novel, what
would it be like?
 
TN: Very erotic but most of all really exploring our every day experience and how our sexuality colors our entire life, on the surface but also underneath, affects our mood, etc. ... how we interact with each other. Not enough of that exploration being done right now. Just plain fun fucking is great but something that also expresses how our libido affects us would be very engaging.

ERWA: Thank you, Terry.
 

BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR: In March, NBM introduces Metronome. Just when you thought that nobody could create something new in the comic medium, here comes Metronome - a 64-page graphic novel by Véronique Tanaka: a "silent", erotically-charged visual poem, an experimental non-linear story using a palette of iconic ligne clair images. Symbolism, visual puns and trompe l'oeil conspire in a visual mantra that could be described as "existential manga" if it wasn't for the fact that there is a very human and elegantly-structured tale providing a solid foundation to the cutting-edge storytelling.

Visit NBMs website: www.nbmpub.com
ERWA Recommended Graphic Novels

William S. Dean
March 2008

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