U.K. comics mainstay Time Bomb has announced two new creator-led imprints, WestWords and Comic Scene. WesterNoir creator and Time Bomb codirector Dave West will head up the former, with fellow codirector and publisher Steve Tanner leading the latter in partnership with Tony Foster, founder of the comics news and promotional site Comic Scene.
Together, the imprints are predicted to put out four to six graphic novels annually, doubling Time Bomb’s present trade paperback output. The press’s titles are distributed globally via Marketforce and to the U.K. via Diamond UK, as well as being sold directly to customers.
Founded in 2007, Time Bomb publishes standalone paperbacks and paperback series in the action-adventure, horror, and sci-fi genres in a style that Tanner, despite his artistic roots in Old West–related pop culture, calls distinctly British. “The American market still tends to focus mainly on superheroes,” he said, whereas the U.K. comics business got its start in the 1930s with weekly humor comics, and has seen few homegrown superheroes since.
West’s WestWords imprint will include stories from his popular weird-west/horror universe, WesterNoir, as well as more of his steampunk Stephenson’s Robot and urban fantasy Kia Wordsmith series. At Comic Scene, Tanner will publish both his own new series and the work of other creators as he continues publishing his Major Rakhana sci-fi action series in Quantum, Time Bomb’s monthly anthology.
In addition to Britishness, Tanner attributes Time Bomb’s flourishing to a path of slow-and-steady growth that has remained adaptable to changing market conditions. “Every year since 2007 we’ve been able to evolve a little bit more into something which is now kind of professional,” he told PW. Time Bomb comics are some of the only floppies still available on U.K. newsstands, which Tanner said boosts their visibility and draws in new readers—as do the press’s 14-15 trips per year to comic cons around the country and presence on social media.
Though Time Bomb has recently reported difficulties consistently stocking at newsstands and booksellers—especially in the wake of WH Smith’s sale of its bookstore division—Tanner said a devoted readership is the real backbone of their press. He added that the new imprints come in direct response to reader feedback. “Because we have a wide range of titles, people were sometimes struggling to find what type of books they wanted,” he said, explaining that the imprints will allow readers to follow particular creators and their editorial visions.
The growth at Time Bomb appears likely to continue, for several reasons. In May, Time Bomb joined Comic Book UK, a new trade association aiming to consolidate British indie comics into a global force. And the press’s third codirector, David Morris, is also working on his own imprint, Tanner said. “I’ve seen so many publishers come in with a big splash, big announcement, big plans, and it’s just not sustainable,” he said. “But now, we’re at a time when we can actually look at releasing [a larger volume] of new content.”
