Tag Archives: jesse jacobs

Funko Gets a $236 million investment from Chernin Group, Bob Iger and Rich Paul

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Funko

The toy business must be booming. A group of individuals is investing $263 million into Funko, the pop culture/toy/apparel brand. That will provide them with a 25% stake.

The investment is being led by The Chernin Group, with eBay and Rich Paul. Also involved are Jesse Jacobs who will get a seat on Funko’s board and former Disney CEO Bob Iger. Iger and Paul will serve as advisors to the board. Paul will help Funko expand further into music and sports.

Chernin said in a statement:

We believe Funko is significantly undervalued in the public markets and at this highly attractive entry price provides a runway of opportunity and growth potential. There are many areas of identifiable growth across content, commerce, marketplaces, consumer products and technology that should drive substantial increases to Funko’s performance.

Funko has expanded heavily in popculture and what once was “bobbleheads” of comic characters has expanded further into sports, music, anime, movies, and more including clothing and board games. The company’s first manufactured bobblehead was of the well-known restaurant icon, the Big Boy mascot.

Funko was founded in 1998 by Mike Becker and went public in 2017. Its revenue was $653 million in 2020.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

Mat Brinkman’s Multiforce and Teratoid Heights Return to Print in Deluxe Hardcover Museum Editions

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Founded in 2015 by Michele Nitri, Hollow Press has published underground comics featuring dark fantasy and macabre artwork. He has worked with an influential roster of artists including Mat Brinkman, Tetsunori Tawaraya, Shintaro Kago, and Jesse Jacobs. Hollow Press books are produced with no expense spared, with limited print runs, funded by the purchase and sale of original artwork from each book. By publishing simultaneously in Italian and English, their books have been able to reach an international market.

Floating World is excited to partner as exclusive distributor of Hollow Press books to the United States. Starting with the new editions of Mat Brinkman’s influential comics Multiforce and Teratoid Heights and books by Tetsunori Tawaraya and Shintaro Kago. More books will become available in coming weeks with the entirety of Hollow Press’ catalog to follow.

Finally back in print, all of Mat Brinkman’s 2000-2005 comic strip serial Multiforce is collected in a deluxe volume at its original printed size. Deeply personal, extravagantly visual, often hilarious: Multiforce is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Museum edition limited to 1500 copies
November 2018 first printing – published by Hollow Press

Museum Edition extra contents:
– Comic review by Frank Santoro “Mat Brinkman the Spiral Architect”
– Multiforce Art Gallery “Real Size Original Pictures”

Multiforce

Teratoid Heights realistically depicts the lifecycles of various species found in the tide location’s cave-riddled terrain, down to the most painstakingly detailed behavioral patterns. It matters not that both Teratoid Heights and its inhabitants are entirely fictional. Brinkman taps into the zeitgeist of modern suburban America with what seems to be a mixture of J.R.R. Tolkein-style adventure, video-game inspired syncopation and an endless barrage of cable-television nature films all filtered through the reddened eyes of a marijuana-addled teenager. A book that reveals levels of humor and humanity no matter what age the reader.

November 2018 first printing – published by Hollow Press

Museum Edition extra contents:
– Foreword by Ratigher
– Unpublished Teratoid Heights comic SNOOT

Teratoid Heights

Small Press Expo Announces the Ignatz Award Nominees for SPX 2011

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Official Press Release

Small Press Expo Announces the Ignatz Award Nominees for SPX 2011

Bethesda, Maryland; August 18, 2011 – The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce nominees for the fifteenth annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz Awards are a festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry.

The nominees for the ballot were determined by a panel of five of the best of today’s comic artists, Rina Ayuyang, Mike Dawson, Kris Dresen, Theo Ellsworth, and John Porcellino, with the votes cast for the awards by the attendees during SPX. The Ignatz Awards will be presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 9:00 PM.

Additional information on the nominees and previews (as available) can be found at http://www.spxpo.com/ignatz-awards.

SPX will be held Saturday, September 10 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, September 11, noon-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center  in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days.

For further information on the Ignatz Awards, the nominees or to request an interview, please contact Warren Bernard at warren@spxpo.com.

For more information on the Small Press Expo, please visit http://www.spxpo.com.

Outstanding Artist
Michael DeForge, Lose #3 (Koyama Press)
Edie Fake, Gaylord Phoenix (Secret Acres)
Renee French, H-Day (Picturebox)
Joseph Lambert, I Will Bite You (Secret Acres)
Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know, Vol 2: Collateral Damage (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Black Eye, edited by Ryan Standfest (Rotland Press)
Gay Genius, edited by Annie Murphy (Sparkplug)
I Will Bite You, Joseph Lambert (Secret Acres)
Make Me a Woman, Vanessa Davis (Drawn & Quarterly)
Three #1, edited by Robert Kirby (Rob Kirby Comics)

Outstanding Graphic Novel
Gaylord Phoenix, Edie Fake (Secret Acres)
The Heavy Hand, Chris Cilla (Sparkplug)
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Barry Deutsch (Amulet Books)
Special Exits, Joyce Farmer (Fantagraphics)
You’ll Never Know, Vol 2: Collateral Damage, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Story
“Blood of the Virgin,” Crickets #3, Sammy Harkham (self-published)
“Browntown,” Love and Rockets: New Stories No. 3, Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
“LINT,” Acme Novelty Library #20, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
“The most gripping mind-exploding triumphantly electric of our time,” Papercutter #15, Jonas Madden-Conner (Tugboat Press)
“Weekends Abroad,” Three #1, Eric Orner (Rob Kirby Comics)

Promising New Talent
Darryl Ayo Brathwaite, House of Twelve Monthly #3 (Comixology)
Tony Breed, Finn and Charlie are Hitched (www.hitchedcomic.com)
Jesse Jacobs, Even the Giants (AdHouse)
Jon McNaught, Birchfield Close (Nobrow)
Jesse Moynihan, Forming (Nobrow)

Outstanding Series
Crickets, Sammy Harkham
Dungeon Quest, Joe Daly (Fantagraphics)
Everything Dies, Box Brown (self-published)
Lose, Michael DeForge (Koyama Books)
Reich, Elijah Brubaker (Sparkplug Comic Books)

Outstanding Comic
Crickets #3, Sammy Harkham (self-published)
Danger Country #1, Levon Jihanian (self-published)
Habitat #2, Dunja Jankovic (Sparkplug Comic Books)
Lose #3, Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
The Magic Hedge, Marian Runk (self-published)

Outstanding Mini-Comic
Ben Died of a Train, Box Brown (self-published)
Danger Country #1, Levon Jihanian (self-published)
Gaylord Phoenix #5, Edie Fake (self-published)
Morning Song, Laura Terry (self-published)
Trans-Utopia, Tom Kaczynski (Uncivilized Books)

Outstanding Online Comic
Alphabet Horror, Nate Marsh: www.alphabethorror.com
A Cartoonist’s Diary, Pascal Girard: www.tcj.com/author/pascal-girard/
Finn and Charlie are Hitched,Tony Breed: www.hitchedcomic.com
Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton: www.harkavagrant.com
Lucky, Gabrielle Bell: www.gabriellebell.com