RAW Books

Raw Books & Graphics is an American publishing company specializing in comics and graphic novels. Operating since 1978, it is owned and operated by Françoise Mouly. The company first came to prominence publishing '' Raw'' magazine, co-edited by Mouly and her husband, cartoonist Art Spiegelman. In the 1980s the company published graphic novels, and with the formation of Raw Junior in 1999, branched into children's comics with Little Lit and Toon Books.

History

Origins

In 1978 Mouly founded Raw Books and Graphics, a name settled on in part because of its small-operation feel, and part because it was reminiscent of '' Mad'' magazine. Mouly worked from an aesthetic inspired in part by the Russian Constructivists, who brought a design sense to everyday objects. Raw Books began by publishing postcards and prints by artists such as underground cartoonist Bill Griffith and Dutch cartoonist Joost Swarte. More ambitious projects included art objects such as the Zippy-Scope, a cardboard device with to watch a comic strip rolled up on a film spool, featuring Griffth's character Zippy the Pinhead. Some projects were more commercial, such as the annual ''Streets of SoHo Map and Guide'', whose advertising revenue financed much of Raw Books.

''Raw''

Having in this way honed her publishing skills, Mouly's ambition turned to magazine publication with '' Raw''. In the midst of a commercial and artistic fallow period in the American comics industry, the lavishly-printed, first issue of ''Raw'' appeared in July 1980. The best-known work to run in ''Raw'' was a serialization of Spiegelman's graphic novel ''Maus'', which ran as an insert for the duration of the magazine from the December 1980 second issue.

''Raw'' had a strong critical reception, and also sold surprisingly well. Raw Books published six ''One Shot'' books from 1981 to 1986 by cartoonists such as Gary Panter, Sue Coe, and Jerry Moriarty. Mouly brought a similar production sensibility to these books to what she brought to ''Raw'': the cover to Panter's ''Jimbo'' was corrugated cardboard pasted with stickers of the book's main character.

By the end of the decade, Pantheon Books had begun co-publishing Raw Books' output, and Penguin Books had picked up publishing of ''Raw'' itself.

In 1991, Mouly and Spiegelman published the final issue of ''Raw'', which was no longer a small, hands-on operation, nor was it something they still thought necessary, as the artists then had a range of publishing outlets that had not existed when ''Raw'' first saw the light of day.

''Little Lit''

Mouly founded Raw Junior 1999 and the company's next ongoing project was ''Little Lit'', a comic book anthology series created expressly for children, authored by major cartoonists and literary figures. Contributors include writers such as Paul Auster, Neil Gaiman, and David Sedaris; cartoonists such as Daniel Clowes, Tony Millionaire, and Chris Ware; and children's writers such as William Joyce, Barbara McClintock and Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler).

Little Lit series began publication in 2000 with the 64-page hardcover book, ''Little Lit: Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies''. This was followed by two subsequent volumes, ''Strange Stories for Strange Kids'' (2001), and ''It Was a Dark and Silly Night...'', published in 2003.

Toon Books

In 2008, the children's comics publisher Toon Books debuted with eight hardcover early reader titles. Featuring such creators as Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch, Dean Haspiel, Eleanor Davis, and Spiegelman, Toon Books claimed to provide "the first high-quality comics designed for children ages four and up".

Upon Toon's debut, ''Publishers Weekly'' characterized the line as having the potential to revitalize the field of comics for kids: "Françoise Mouly is at it again. After transforming American comics with the seminal 1980s comics anthology '' RAW'', Mouly is now out to teach kids to read by using comics".

When it first launched, Toon Books was distributed by Diamond Books, a unit of Diamond Comic Distributors dedicated to getting comics and graphic novels into the book trade. In 2010, Toon Books entered into a distribution partnership with Candlewick Press. In late summer/early fall of 2014, Toon Books launched the new line TOON Graphics, an imprint for readers 8 and up. It is distributed by Consortium, a unit of Perseus, a move that reflects Toon's true status as a small but expanding independent publisher.

Titles published

Raw Books

* ''Manhattan'' by Mark Beyer (1978)
* ''Streets of SoHo Map and Guide'' (1978–c. 1982)
* ''Work and Turn'' (1979)
* '' Raw'' magazine (8 issues, July 1980–1986)
* '' Agony'' by Mark Beyer (1987; co-published with Pantheon Books)
* ''Hard-Boiled Defective Stories'' by Charles BurnsEl Borbah / ''Hard-Boiled Defective Stories''
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on December 2, 2015. (1988; co-published with Pantheon Books)
* '' Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay'' by Ben Katchor (1991; co-published with Penguin Books)
* '' The Narrative Corpse'', edited by Art Spiegelman (1995; co-published with Gates of Heck)
* ''Resist!'' #2 (2017)

Raw one-shots

# ''Jimbo'' by Gary Panter (1981)
# ''How to Commit Suicide in South Africa'' by Holly Metz and Sue Coe (1982)
# ''Jack Survives'' by Jerry Moriarty (1984)
# ''Invasion of the Elvis Zombies'' by Gary Panter (1984)
# ''Big Baby: Curse of the Molemen'' by Charles Burns (1985)
# ''X'' by Sue Coe (1986)

Raw Junior

Little Lit

* ''Little Lit: Folklore & Fairy Tale Funnies'' (2000)
* ''Strange Stories for Strange Kids'' (2001)
* ''It Was a Dark and Silly Night...'' (2003)

Toon Books

* Toon Books bibliography

References

Citations

Works cited

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External links

Little Lit website

Toon Books website
* {{gcdb publisher, id= 3691 , title=Raw Books

Raw (magazine)
Book publishing companies based in New York City
Comic book publishing companies of the United States
Publishers of adult comics
American companies established in 1978
Publishing companies established in 1978
Fantagraphics Books