Tundra Publishing

Tundra Publishing was a Northampton, Massachusetts-based comic book publisher founded by Kevin Eastman in 1990.^[1]

Overview

Tundra was meant to provide a venue for high-quality work by talented cartoonists and illustrators. Its publications were noted in the trade for their high production values, including glossy paper stock, full-color printing, and square binding. Notable works published by Tundra include:

• Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics
• Dave McKean's Cages
• Steve Bissette's horror anthology Taboo, where portions of Alan Moore's From Hell (with Eddie Campbell) and Lost Girls (with Melinda Gebbie), as well as Neil Gaiman's unfinished Sweeney Todd (with Michael Zulli), were first serialised
• Mark Martin and Jim Woodring's children's comic Tantalizing Stories, where most of Woodring's early Frank stories appeared
• Mike Allred's Madman Adventures
• Mark Bodé and Larry Todd's continuation of Vaughn Bodé's Cobalt 60
• Al Columbia's first solo comic book, Doghead
• Rick Veitch' The Maximortal under his own King Hell imprint

Tundra UK

In 1991 a British arm of the company, Tundra UK, opened in London. Led by Dave Elliott, an editor at Deadline and a founder of Atomeka Press, the UK branch worked with creators already on board with Tundra in the US as well as developing new projects. Tundra UK's titles included:

• Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy's controversial graphic novel Skin
• White Trash by Gordon Rennie and the late New Zealand artist Martin Emond
• Lazarus Churchyard by Warren Ellis and D'Israeli
• The Lords of Misrule by John Tomlinson and Gary Erskine. The Lords of Misrule had also been completed as a mini-series that was published by Dark Horse in black and white. Both the graphic novel and mini-series was recently collected by Dave Elliott for Radical in full colour.
• The anthology Monster Massacre, featuring work by Simon Bisley, Dave Gibbons, James O'Barr, Henry Flint, Dave Elliott, Doug Braithwaite and Kevin O'Neill
• Pale Horses by Dan Abnett, Steve White and Gary Erskine completed but published by Dark Horse as Hypersonic
• Kingdom of the Wicked by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli eventually published by Caliber in black and white then in colour by Dark Horse.
• Hotwire by Steve Pugh and Warren Ellis was eventually published by Dave Elliott for Radical.
• Mister Monster: Worlds War Two by Michael T. Gilbert was eventually published by Dave Elliott for Penthouse Comix and again at Atomeka Press.
• Strange Embrace by David Hine was collected and colored by Image Comics.

Closure

Despite its ambitious start, Tundra never became a profitable enterprise. It closed its doors in 1993 after burning through $14 million in three years.^[2] Kitchen Sink Press acquired its holdings^[3]; it reprinted popular Tundra publications such as Understanding Comics and continued to publish some Tundra series such as Taboo.

Notes

References