When John Morrow learned of Jack Kirby’s death in February 1994, he wanted to pay tribute with a fanzine devoted to the legendary comic book artist’s many contributions to the sequential arts. The result was the Jack Kirby Collector, a labor of love photocopied at a local drug store and mailed gratis to 125 like-minded fans.
Morrow initially assumed the zine would be a short-lived diversion from his daily advertising and design work. Then letters started pouring in requesting more. By the eighth issue, the Jack Kirby Collector could be found in comic book shops around the country, and in 1996 TwoMorrows Publishing was officially born.
“I wouldn’t publish the Jack Kirby Collector without the approval of Kirby’s widow, Rosalind,” Morrow says. “I didn’t want to produce something the family didn’t approve of, or for them to think I was profiting from Jack’s name.” He was delighted when Rosalind expressed support, sharing contacts who proved invaluable to the project, including a former Kirby assistant, Mark Evanier.
The Jack Kirby Collector is still going strong, alongside six other TwoMorrows magazines devoted to various aspects of comic book and pop culture history: Alter Ego, Back Issue, Brick Journal (for Lego aficionados), Comic Book Creator, Cryptology, and RetroFan. The press branched out into book publishing in 2004 with The All-Star Companion by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas. The company currently releases six to 10 new books annually.
Like its magazines, TwoMorrows’ books are devoted to comic book history, creators, publishers, and more. The American Comic Book Chronicles, for example, is a deeply researched eight-volume set of hardcovers, each recounting a specific era in comic book history. Upcoming book projects include Marshall Rogers: Brightest Days and Darkest Knights; American Movie Comic Books (1930s–1970s); Futuristic, a look at how the space age influenced pop culture; and The First Comics Companion, a retrospective of the ’80s indie publisher.
Despite a prodigious output, TwoMorrows has just three full-time employees: Morrow, his wife and partner Pam Morrow, and production assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington. Each magazine is edited and designed by freelance employees; in a given month, Morrow says, he works with 20–50 freelancers from all over the world.
Most TwoMorrows editors are former comics professionals; as an example, Morrow cites Michael Eury, the recently retired editor of Back Issue and RetroFan, who edited at DC Comics and Dark Horse before joining TwoMorrows in 2003. As for the press’s readers, Morrow says they tend to skew older, and are predominantly male. They’re also typically fans of the golden, silver, and bronze ages of comics—a period spanning the ’30s to the ’80s—and rarely purchase new comic books.
Until January, the publisher’s primary distributor had been Diamond Comic Distributors, whose sudden bankruptcy left TwoMorrows owed more than $65,000, nearly bringing the press to its knees. TwoMorrows is now distributed to comic shops through Lunar Distribution and the mainstream retail market through SCB Distributors.
“I could see the writing on the wall with Diamond, and for the last few years, I’d been trying to make inroads with other distributors,” Morrow says. “They weren’t interested in a smaller publisher like us. But when Diamond went bankrupt, it was do-or-die.”
Signing with Lunar and SCB saved TwoMorrows, but Diamond’s bankruptcy still delayed shipping of many of its titles for months, forcing Morrow to ask customers to buy directly from the TwoMorrows website. “Our readers really came through for us,” he says. “That kept us afloat.”
Morrow sees his press as a preserver of comics history. “Our mission from the beginning has been to create a lasting record of a unique American art form,” he explains. “Even after our print books sell out, the digital editions should remain indefinitely, so researchers 100 years from now will see what comic book creators were doing during their era. It’s important the we document their careers and accomplishments while we’re able.”
