Can you believe it? Two years have gone by since we launched CO2 Comics hoping it would become a unique cooperative of comic talent featuring a collective of great comic features. Naturally we initially turned to our long time friends and allies that have had ties with us since our days as founding publishers of Comico the Comic Company.
Comico The Comic Company owners, Top: Dennis LaSorta, Phil Lasorda, Bottom: Gerry Giovinco, Bill Cucinotta
Chris Kalnick, Joe Williams, Andrew C. Murphy, Reggie Byers, Bernie Mirealut, Bill Anderson, Rich Rankin and Neil Vokes all contributed to the early success of the realization of our goals for CO2 Comics. The faith that they all had in our ability to present their work while respecting their rights as creators, supporting their complete ownership and actively promoting their features and services as artists was a complete and humbling honor.
It became our duty to surround their works with with other great features and talent. CO2 Comics was always intended to be a place where readers could come to enjoy one feature and discover other comic treasures that they may not have found if those works had stood by themselves.
In just two years the list of contributers has grown to include twenty-two talented creators and two dozen exciting comic features. The impressive list of talent yields a number of nominated and award winning creators along with brilliant new talent that will deserve recognition for their mastery of the medium.
Take a look at the roster of creators here at CO2 Comics and you are bound to be amazed at the comic book pedigree and variety that exists on our site:
Bill Anderson – Skrog
Kevin Atkinson – Eaten by Planet 29
Mike Baron – The World of Ginger Fox
Reggie Byers – Crescent
Bill Cucinotta – Death for a Dollar
- Skrog
Tina Garceau – Hot Topics
- There’s No Escape From A Deadline
Gerry Giovinco – Slaughterman
Robert Jackson, Jr. – The Amazing Liberteens
Chris Kalnick – Depth Charge
- Non
Onrie Kompan – Yi Soon Shin
Steve Lafler – Dog Boy
- El Vocho
Mike Leeke – The Amazing Liberteens
Liberteens Update
Don Lomax – Captain Obese
Bernie Mireault – Cable
- The Jam Lives (a motion comic)
Andrew C. Murphy – Pressed for Time
- Victor
Mitch O’Connell – The World of Ginger Fox
Rich Rankin – Gauntlet
Raine Szramski – Heaven and the Dead City
Frank Thorne – Ribit
Giovanni Paolo Timpano – Yi Soon Shin
Neil Vokes – Gauntlet
Joe Williams – Hot Topics
- There’s No Escape From A Deadline
Besides having published over 800 pages of comic art in the last two years we have also taken on the monumental task of publishing David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection. The first of the eleven volume set had 680 pages that were painstakingly cleaned and reproduced in both paperback and hardback editions. Volume two is currently in the works. This project is the testimony to our love of the comics medium and its rich history.
COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection
Our commitment to the history of comics and the current state of the industry is also highlighted weekly on our CO2 Comics Blog where we feature a weekly article covering everything from our Comico history, production techniques, creator’s rights and frequent editorializing on the state of the market have drawn a lot of attention industry wide.
As if publishing a ton of great comic related material on the web and in print is not enough for two guys, we needed to create a new imprint, CO2 Publications so we could publish a 372 page literary book, FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT A Memoir of Veteran discharged from the Navy for being Gay written by George Richard Phillip Zimmerman, Jr. which was just released over Memorial Day Weekend.
For The Convenience Of The Government
Over our first two years we have published nearly 2,000 pages of material and maintained a rigorous schedule on an exciting site that has attracted over 4.6 million hits to date.
The best part is, WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED! Last year, as we celebrated our first anniversary, we compared our accomplishments to our early publishing days with Comico and noted that we were far out front and we still are, thanks to the support of all the great talent that joins us and allows us to present new work daily.
We also need to thank our readers who continue to grow in numbers. Thanks for stopping by and for sharing with your friends. We became comic publishers nearly thirty years ago because we believed our comics were not finished works until they were experienced by the readers. We recognized early on that as publishers we played a significant role in the realization of a comic as a completed work and we intend to continue to be that conduit. CO2 Comic’s mission is to get great comics in front of as many eyes as possible. Please help us with your enthusiasm by continuing to share the comics you enjoy here with your friends and by returning often.
Finally, it is no mistake that we celebrate our anniversary over the Fourth of July weekend. As publishers we have always been motivated by the spirit of the Independent movement with our emphasis being on creator’s rights. Comics, for us, are a medium of freedom. Free thought, free speech, free enterprise.
We want to turn Independence Day into Independents Day for comic fans and make it a time to celebrate the diversity that all of the Independent comics publishers have brought to the world. There are a lot of great comics out there that are not brought to you by the usual pair of suspects and we hope hat you will continue to find some of the best of them right here at CO2 Comics.
Making Comics Because We Want To
Bill Cucinotta and Gerry Giovinco
