LARRY YOUNG ON LARRY YOUNG

[MattBrady]

by Chris Arrant

In an industry replete with marketing persons, self-marketing creators and overzealous fans looking to draw attention to their favorite books, it's a heady task to make your work known in a unique and convincing way. But AiT-PlanetLar's Larry Young makes it all look easy.

He has unabashedly placed himself as the point man for the books under the AiT/PlanetLar publishing banner, which he co-founded with his wife Mimi Rosenheim in 2000. Hailed by some as the "Johnny Appleseed of Comics", veteran comic journalist Tom Spurgeon has said that vigor of Larry's magnitude "hasn't been seen since Stan Lee [was] in his prime." He wears many hats in the realm of comics, from writer to publisher to fan.

Newsarama sat down with Young to get past the mystique, navigate through the rumors, and sidestep any assumptions made of the man himself.

Newsarama: In your role at AiT/Planet Lar, you work on all sides of comics publishing; from deciding on which titles to publish, to shepherding a book to the finish line, and marketing those books to the public. When you first get your eyes on a proposal for a would-be AiT/Planet Lar book, do the gears start turning about marketing ideas as you read about it?

Larry Young: Sure, absolutely; but that's more of a result of how I look at comics as a whole. I see it all as a commercial art, where I have the privilege of putting good comic book stories into people's hands. I mean, comics aren't oil cans, yeah? So you can't market them the same way. I absolutely hate it when people talk about their comics as "the product" or "the franchise" or whatever. Comics are stories you're telling to your friends, and the warmth implicit in that metaphor should extend to how you promote and market your books. That's what I try to do. That's a part of the whole "Making Comics Better" mantra.

NRAMA: You've said on several occasions that you admire the marketing work of Paul Levitz, Bob Wayne and Patty Jeres. Can you toss out two or three particular things that you think DC has done well in the recent time?

LY: Recently? I have to admit I haven't been following them very recently... but in a general sense, I very much admire the attention to detail that DC slathers on at all steps of the production process, from concept to completion. But I could say the same thing for my pals at Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, and everyone else doing high-quality, entertaining comics.

NRAMA: You originally got to know Patty Jeres prior to AiT/Planet Lar when you did marketing and promotions at Comix Experience in San Francisco. Let's explore the pre-AiT Larry Young; the origin of Uncle Lar, if you will. Can you give us a rundown of your career prior to publishing?

LY: I was born at a very young age in Cleveland, Ohio. I lived in Texas, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Georgia before I was 20 years old. The first comic I ever read was Superboy #145, and, after reading comics my entire life, clerking in comic stores for a while, working for an orthodontist, as a supervisor on a granite-cutting crew, as an old-school paste-up grunt, as an art director, a print manager, and as an events-and-promotions guy (as well as getting a BA in English and the American Literary Renaissance), I decided to start publishing comic books.

NRAMA: What do Vertigo Editor and Badlands introductionist Jonathan Vankin and you have in common?

LY: We both worked at Worcester Magazine, in the second-largest city in New England, at around the same time. I think I missed him by eight or nine months or so. Sci-fi author Alan Steele was there around then, but all three of us worked for editor Tom Mudd, as far as I remember.

NRAMA:Looking at your accomplishments, you had a real firm foundation in starting a publishing company. From the production standpoint of being a print manager and paste-up grunt, to the college path with a BA in English and the American Literary Renaissance. But what about the people in your life; who are some of the people who have helped fashion the way you look at running a publishing company, and making it in comics?

LY: Well, this is going to sound like a cliche, but the main two with the most influence on my professional life were my mom and dad. My mother is an excellent writer, and imbued in me the structure of good storytelling, and my dad was an accomplished sales-and-marketing guy in his field. So that's a pretty good foundation for a publishing house, right there. Retailers Paul Howley, Brian Hibbs, and James Sime were all invaluable resources for preventing me from making some rookie mistakes in the beginning. My high school English teacher, Virginia Cameron and my undergrad advisor, Professor John Conron, were seminal influences on my worldview. Mimi Rosenheim, of course. I dunno; there're tons more influences: editor Tom Mudd and adman Gene Albrizio... I mean, I could go on, but I sound like I'm thanking the Academy...

NRAMA: In marketing your books, you aim at everyone in the food chain of comics retailing. From the news sites, to the retail stores, and even fan by fan as seen at conventions and the Isotope comic store from time to time. From your online presence, you have no qualms about dealing with prospective readers on a one-on-one basis about your titles. What do you say to those that might think you go "above and beyond the call of duty"?

LY: I'd say I'm just doing my job.

NRAMA: In the press release announcement of Josh Richardson coming on-board as a Creative Executive, it reads as if part of his job is to handle some of your previous workload so you can focus more on your "fiction writing and new talent development". Focusing on the fiction writing aspect first, you've often said that you got into publishing to make your fiction writing, in this case Astronauts in Trouble, happen. Now that you've reached a comfortable level that you can transfer some of the responsibilities of publishing to someone else, have you been able to devote that extra time to fiction work?

LY: Not just yet, but that's the plan. Josh and I are spending the next couple weeks getting Electric Girl Volume Three, Colonia Volume Two, and Sunset City ready to go to the printer, so given that and some of our other gigs, I expect to double or triple my available time for writing in the next month or so. Honestly, I'm really looking forward to that.

NRAMA: Now that things are slowly coming full circle and you're able to devote more time to writing in the near future, has the experiences over the past 5 years in the publishing industry colored the way you approach writing?

LY: Naw, not really. Creativity and business are two different areas of my brain.

NRAMA: And on a tangent, the wording "fiction writing" lends itself to possibilities outside the world of comics. With AiT-PlanetLar's recent forays into novel publishing with Tales From Fish Camp and Surviving Grady, are we looking for the emergence of "Larry Young, novelist" in the not-so-distant future?

LY: Naw, I can't picture a novel coming out any time soon, but I've been doing beat sheets and screenplays and pitches, and I'm in the very early stages of doing a follow-up to True Facts that will concentrate on next-steps in terms of promotions and marketing.

NRAMA: The press release also states that you would be devoting more time to "new talent development". AiT's been known for publishing breakout books from talents such as Brian Wood, Becky Cloonan, Matt Fraction and others. Without going into specifics, what does "new talent development" involve?

LY: Honestly, I'm the biggest fan of comics, so I enjoy looking for the new stuff that people are doing, and helping them get a foot in the door. Nothing makes me happier than seeing creators we've brought attention to spreading their wings and telling their stories.

NRAMA: You're widely known in the comic industry to be a fearless champion of the books AiT publishes, with a genuine belief in each title you publish. AiT-PlanetLar has always seemed to have it's own plan from the start, not jumping onto any of the bandwagons or hot trends that run through the industry; even turning down the opportunity to be apart of Mark Millar's Millarworld cross-company book launches for the fact that it wasn't what AiT-PlanetLar was about. Has the brand identity of AiT-PlanetLar been with you from the start, or has it evolved as the years go by?

LY: Both, and neither. Of course Mimi and I strategized quite a bit there in the beginning to coalesce a vision, but comics in an industry in flux. You have to adapt or die, man. Even though some observers of the scene think I make absolute pronouncements about doctrine and dogma and whatnot, I think that's just a reaction to my passion and focus. Honestly, the one bit of dogma anyone could accuse me of and be correct is that we zig when you think we're gonna zag.

Look at the history: think we're self-publishers? Astronauts In Trouble: Live From The Moon, was published by the Snell Brothers' Gun Dog Comics. Think we only do graphic novels? Enjoy AiT: Space: 1959, DEMO, and The Black Diamond. Getting used to us pitching our editorial slate the week before San Diego? Not this year; we're rolling out things individually. What can I tell you? I'm just not one of those guys who enjoys the familiar. I like the new thing, around the corner. I like to innovate or trail-blaze. I'm not going to repeat myself or do something again, because it's familiar. That's a good way to get stale.

NRAMA: Over the years you've been an active proponent for making a multi-faceted, always available backlist. While this may seem foreign in the comic industry which has a history of limited availability and collector's frenzy, it's a standard tenant in the wider world of book publishing. You have even played with that with a press release announcing the complete sell-out of an issue of Demo, only to reveal that more copies were being printed at the time.

LY: Yeah, I like to have fun with the press releases.

NRAMA: Yes, you can say that. While the idea of limited quantities and "chase" books have made more than a few dollars for retailers, there is also major advantages to stocking books that seem to have a longer shelf-life and promised re-order capabilities. What has the response from comic store retailers been to this strategy over the years?

LY: Smart retailers know that slow and steady wins the race. Sure, the latest Spider-man trade will sell 6000 out of the gate, and Electric Girl Volume Three sells 1000 on its initals. But at the end of the year, you've still only sold 6000 Spidey trades, because it's out of print, but you've sold 10,000 Electric Girls because they're in print and available. We're here for you.

NRAMA: You've said that you became a publisher because Astronauts in Trouble wasn't picked up by other publishers at the time. As you've said on your website, you were able to turn the success of that book into cultivating future works under the AiT banner. What are your thoughts on the effect that Astronauts in Trouble has done for yourself, for the creators at AiT-PlanetLar and for the comic industry?

LY: Well, of course it's very flattering to have our first book do so well that it anchored the company in its early years. Brian Wood has said he wouldn't be doing comics if it wasn't for Mimi's and my belief in him. We've developed tons of creators who've gone on to do excellent work after launching their first projects with us... I dunno... this seems like one of those questions it'd be better to answer: "let's let history decide." You know? I'm just a dude making comics, man.

[BrotherI]

This guy is great, and deserves tons of success. Definitely picking up some of his stuff.

[SD Johnny]

Larry Young sounds like an interesting fellow and I understand he's a huge Red Sox fan so I may have to check out some of their offerings.

[Santiago Casares]

Originally posted by SD Johnny
Larry Young sounds like an interesting fellow and I understand he's a huge Red Sox fan so I may have to check out some of their offerings.

If you're a Red Sox fan, you should check out Surviving Grady, a book published by Larry about the Red Sox's winning season!

[R. Woode]

Larry Young is the Jonathan Antin of comics.

[rodolfo leon]

first Image, now AiT/Planet Lar ...

next up? Mike Richardson?

nice to see the 'Rama spreading the love!

[Coke & Comics]

Sure he's an awesome writer, has an ear for good talent, and is established as a great publisher... but I just don't find him that good looking

[c_andrew_s]

Thanks for this interview... he seems like a great guy.

[JimmyKitty]

I also want to give praise to 'Rama for "spreading the love".

It's easy to push a press release/ fluffy piece - but these interviews are giving new insight and adding some good notches on the old belt for Newsarama. Glad to see a wider range of diversity (not saying there hasn't been - just saying it's nice to see it, upfront and center)

[Jun Kim]

All-around, one of the nicest guy anyone encounters in this field!

Be proud of the work you're doing, Larry... and good luck on your continued success!