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| Founded | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Chris Oliveros |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Headquarters location | Montreal, Quebec |
| Distribution | Macmillan (US) Raincoast Books (Canada) Publishers Group UK (UK) |
| Publication types | Books,Comic books |
| Official website | www |
Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q) is a publishing company based inMontreal,Quebec, Canada, specializing incomics. It publishes primarilycomic books,graphic novels andcomic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, as well as the quality of printing and design. The name of the company is a pun on "drawing", "quarterly", and the practice ofhanging, drawing and quartering.Initially it specialized inunderground andalternative comics, but has since expanded into classic reprints and translations of foreign works.Drawn & Quarterly was the company's flagship quarterlyanthology during the 1990s.
It is currently the most successful and prominent comics publisher in Canada, publishing well-known comic artists such asLynda Barry,Kate Beaton,Marc Bell,Chester Brown,Daniel Clowes,Michael DeForge,Guy Delisle,Julie Doucet,Mary Fleener,Joe Matt,Shigeru Mizuki,Rutu Modan,Joe Sacco,Seth,Elise Gravel,Yoshihiro Tatsumi,Adrian Tomine andChris Ware. In 2006, Drawn & Quarterly began publishing theMoomin comic strips of Finnish writer and artistTove Jansson, in book format, in the seriesMoomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip. Drawn & Quarterly has a strong reputation in the comics community[1] and its anthologies have won a number ofHarvey Awards.[2]
Drawn & Quarterly has become one of the most influential alternative comics publishers,[3] along withFantagraphics Books of Seattle, Washington.[4] The publisher has a reputation for the quality of the books it publishes, both in terms of content as well as the books' paper, binding and design. The publisher's founder, Chris Oliveros, had a hands-off relationship with the artists he published.
Drawn & Quarterly was founded in 1990 by Montrealer Chris Oliveros,[5] age 23 at the time.[6]
Oliveros was inspired byArt Spiegelman andFrançoise Mouly'sRaw to publish an arts comics periodical.[7] He borrowed $2,000 from his father[8] to publish the first issue of the anthology magazineDrawn & Quarterly, which debuted in April 1990.[9] It was intended to be published four times a year, containing short arts comics. Soon, Oliveros realized there were arts comics which were too long to be contained in his magazine, and began publishing stand-alonecomic books andgraphic novels,[7] beginning withJulie Doucet's comic bookDirty Plotte.[9]Seth,Joe Matt, andChester Brown,[10]Toronto-based cartoonists who soon became associated with the publisher. In the early 2000s, Brown had a surprise bestseller withLouis Riel.[7] In 2003,A Drawn & Quarterly Manifesto was released, describing to booksellers how to stock and sell graphic novels.[11]
As graphic novels became more popular with the public, Oliveros found the need for a publicist. He asked Peggy Burns, who was doing such work atDC Comics, if she knew someone who could fill the job. Burns offered herself, and moved from New York City to Montreal. She was the company's third employee, and soon signed a distribution deal for the publisher withFarrar, Straus and Giroux, which greatly expanded the company's exposure, while giving it a literary air. Drawn & Quarterly reduced the number of serialized titles it published, focusing on book-form comics such as collections and graphic novels. The company now employs 16 people.[8]
While at first publishing mainly Canadian and American artists, during the 2000s the publisher expanded its catalogue with European artists likePhilippe Dupuy andCharles Berbérian,Lewis Trondheim, andGuy Delisle, as well as exploring the Japanesegekiga movement. It also began publishing the works ofShigeru Mizuki,Susumu Katsumata,Yoshihiro Tatsumi,Oji Suzuki, andSeiichi Hayashi for the first time in English.
In 2015, the publisher produced a collection titledDrawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics and Graphic Novels, featuring of out-of-print work, remembrances, and essays by well-known writers such asMargaret Atwood. The same year, Oliveros stepped down as publisher to focus on his own cartooning, intending to self-publish the graphic novelThe Envelope Manufacturer. In his place, Burns took over as publisher and creative director Tom Devlin became executive editor.[10] In the summer of 2023, it was announced that Oliveros had sold Drawn & Quarterly to Burns, Devlin, VP Editorial Tracy Hurren, and VP Marketing & Sales Julia Pohl-Miranda.[12]
In November 2023, employees of Drawn & Quarterly formed a union with the Fédération du Commerce under the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux, with certification from the Administrative Labor Tribunal of Quebec.[13]
In 2007, Drawn & Quarterly opened an English-language bookshop on Bernard Street inMile End, Montreal, selling graphic novels, prose literature, non-fiction, poetry and fine art book. In 2017, the store expanded and opened La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, a children's bookshop during the day and event space at night.
Over the years, Librairie D+Q has become one of the leading stores in Canada and North America. The store has hosted events with their own cartoonists such as Lynda Barry, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, Leanne Shapton, Seth, Chester Brown as well as novelists including Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Junot Diaz, Paul Auster, Sheila Heti, Miranda July, David Byrne, Gloria Steinem, Roxane Gay, Carrie Brownstein, Alison Bechdel and many more.[8]
From 2003 to 2008, Drawn & Quarterly publishedShowcase, an anthology magazine which offered greater visibility to lesser known authors. The magazine presented up to 3 authors in each of its five issues.[citation needed]
In 2004, Drawn & Quarterly began an imprint for non-comics art books called Petit Livre.[14] The publisher also has an imprint for children called Enfant, with which they have published theMoomin works ofTove Jansson andPippi Longstocking comics byAstrid Lindgren andIngrid Vang Nyman, and contemporary kids books by Elise Gravel, Leanne Shapton and Anouk Ricard.[15]
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