| Founded | 1976 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Terry Nantier |
| Headquarters location | Syracuse, New York, then Endicott, New York, then New York City |
| Imprints | Flying Buttress Classics Library Amerotica Eurotica ComicsLit |
| Official website | www.NBMpub.com |
NBM Publishing (aka Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc.) is an American publisher of graphic novels. The company specializes in non-superhero comic genres and has translated and published over 150 graphic novels from Europe and Canada, as well as several works by Americans. NBM publishes materials for all ages, and it also publishes erotic materials under its Eurotica and Amerotica lines.
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Terry Nantier (born 1957) spent his teenage years living in Paris, developing an interest in European comics. Returning to the U.S., Nantier attended the Newhouse School of Communications division of Syracuse University. In 1976, while still a Newhouse student, he founded Flying Buttress Publications, later to incorporate as Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine (NBM Publishing).
The company was among the first to introduce the concept of the European graphic novel to American audiences.[1] Among their first titles was Racket Rumba, a 50-page spoof of the noir-detective genre, written and drawn by the French artist Loro. NBM followed this with Enki Bilal's The Call of the Stars. The company marketed these works as "graphic albums".[2]
It took until the mid-1980s for the company to find success with such series as Vicente Segrelles's The Mercenary and Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese. NBM also became known for its reprints of classic newspaper comic strips. All through the 1990s NBM published translations of Franco-Belgian comics. It was not until 1997 that NBM published their first actual comic books—in a magazine format—when they reprinted issues of Pratt's Corto Maltese in a seven-issue limited series.[3] In 1986, NBM created the Flying Buttress Classics Library imprint to reprint classic newspaper comic strips in both hardcover and paperback, beginning with Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates, followed by Tarzan strips by Hal Foster and Burne Hogarth. Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy reprinted the entire 1924-43 run of Roy Crane’s strip in an 18-volume series with biographical and historical commentary by Bill Blackbeard. With production and design by Bhob Stewart, this series was published by NBM on a quarterly schedule from 1987 to 1992.
In 1991, NBM created the Eurotica erotic comics imprint, following that in 1995 with the Amerotica line. Leading off the Amerotica titles were "Skin Tight Orbit, Volumes 1 and 2", erotic Science Fiction anthologies written by Elaine Lee (Starstruck). In 1994, NBM created ComicsLit, its showcase literary imprint;[4][5] in 1995, they introduced ComicsLit Magazine.[6]
NBM's website offered an outline of its approach:
| “ | From humble beginnings, NBM has grown to become the second largest indie comics press after Fantagraphics, with close to $3M in yearly retail sales on over 200,000 graphic novels sold a year, plus tens of thousands of comic books and magazines... Ironically considered an 'alternative' publisher in comics simply because it does not publish superheroes, NBM is in fact a general interest publisher in its field. Uninterested in 'niches,' outre margins or otherwise alienated side voices which appeal to just as narrow an audience of fans as superheroes, NBM has always sought as wide an audience as any good novel or movie may reach. Its editorial choices are always motivated by that one single goal. In this, it takes its cue from the large and well-respected European comics scene... It also attracts way more than its fair share of press and media acclaim for its widely recognized very high level of quality.[7] | ” |
NBM pioneered general bookstore distribution as early as 1980. In 1986, it was the first comics publisher to get a book distributor when it signed with Publishers Group West. In 1988, NMB took over its own distribution, along the way becoming Dark Horse Comics's graphic novels distributor.[7] In 1994, they officially joined the Association of Comic Store Suppliers.[8]