| Industry | Publishing |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction/fantasy |
| Founder(s) | Chris Roberson Allison Baker |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas, United States |
| Products | Books |
| Website | Official website |
MonkeyBrain Books (MonkeyBrain, Inc.) is an independent American publishing house based in Austin, Texas, specialising in books comprising both new content and reprinting online, international or out-of-print content, which show "an academic interest," but which "reach a popular audience as well."[1]
Contents |
Founded by science-fiction author Chris Roberson with his business partner and spouse Allison Baker, MonkeyBrain Books specializes in "genre fiction and nonfiction genre studies" after two years focusing solely on non-fiction.[2]
After dabbling in self-publication and Print On Demand, Roberson said he wanted to ensure that his books were distributed widely.[3]
The first project MonkeyBrain Books published was a collection of companion notes to Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's 1999 comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume I compiled by Texas-native Jess Nevins.[4] Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen sold well, and continues to be one of MonkeyBrains best-selling titles several years after its first publication. It was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and favorably reviewed in both Locus and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, among other publications.[5] The companion to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II followed in 2004, and in 2006, Titan Books published the UK versions of both titles. In 2008, the guide to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier was released.
Continuing his self-imposed remit to publish works of non-fiction genre studies, MonkeyBrain's debut titles (in December, 2003) also included a collection of short essays by Matthew Rossi, comprising a wide-ranging guide to numerous weird, odd, imaginary and mythical places and things: Things That Never Were: Fantasies, Lunacies & Entertaining Lies, and a collection of articles/essays by Rick Klaw (many of which had appeared on his "Geeks with Books" column at SF Site) ruminating on everything from book-selling & signings, comics & science fiction and censorship: Geek Confidential: Echoes from the 21st Century. In 2004, MonkeyBrain's output included a substantially updated (around 25% new material[1]) printing of Michael Moorcock's guide to Epic Fantasy, and The Discontinuity Guide, author and writer Paul Cornell (with Martin Day & Keith Topping)'s attempt to form a coherent narrative from decades of Doctor Who continuity. In 2005, alongside Philip Jose Farmer commentator Win Scott Eckert's guide to the Wold Newton Universe, the Locus award-nominated Myths for the Modern Age (whose contributors include Philip Jose Farmer and Jess Nevins, among others), Chris Roberson edited the first volume in a projected annual series of Adventure anthologies, comprising "original fiction in the spirit of early twentieth-century pulp fiction magazines" across the genres, featuring contributions from (among others) Lou Anders, Paul Di Filippo, Mark Finn, Michael Moorcock and Kim Newman.
2005 also saw MonkeyBrain publish Jess Nevins' World Fantasy Award-nominated Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, the first comprehensive reference encyclopedia to the fantastic literature of the nineteenth century, while 2006 debuted MonkeyBrain's first art book, covering the work of John Picacio, MonkeyBrain's primary cover artist. Cementing MonkeyBrain's leap from non-fiction and reference genre works to include fiction, 2006 also saw publication of a collection of science fiction author Kim Newman's Richard Jeperson stories (a distillation of British spy-fi television) in The Man from the Diogenes Club, with a follow-up published the following year alongside Paul Cornell's imaginative science fiction novel British Summertime.
Robert E. Howard scholar Mark Finn's 2006 biography, The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, met with considerable critical praise, and not only won the 2007 Cimmerian Award, The Atlantean, but was also nominated for Locus and World Fantasy Awards.[6]