A start-up in a collapsing market. The loss of a founding, respected editor to a large, corporate entity. No super-heroes. It sounds like a recipe for four-color recession, but Portland, Oregon-based Oni Press has proven to be one of the more durable publisher launches in the last several years based on a stellar cocktail of buzzworthy media properties and street-credible indy fare which understands all genre ideals yet owes allegiance to none.

Oni Press ("Oni" means "demon" in Japanese folklore) is currently comprised of publisher and co-founder Joe Nozemack and editor in chief Jamie Rich. Oni was formerly the domain of longtime Dark Horse and Comico guru Bob Schreck who left the company for DC Comics in the summer of '99. "I left because Joe and Jamie are at a better (younger) stage in their lives to continue with Oni than I was/am, and the opportunities and challenges that DC offered are better suited for me, both personally and professionally," Schreck comments. "I left Oni on excellent terms, and with Joe & Jamie's blessings."

"Bob's departure was a big shadow to step out from under and it gave us something to prove," remembers Nozemack. "Bob has such a history in the industry that there were some major expectations placed on Oni. Those were kind of hard to live up to and achieve, especially with the industry where it is. Now when we do something right, people are surprised."

And it's doing the the right thing that continues to drive Oni's publishing philosopy, which can in a sense be boiled down to "if it feels good, do it." "The goal always was and always will be to just do books we want to do, books we like," says Rich. "We're trying to keep it that simple. It sounds like wide-eyed, innocent idealism - and we may have our teeth cynically kicked out as we discover corporate schlock is the only way to go - but it's what we are working with right now."

"The goal always was and always will be to just do books we want to do, books we like.."

That creator-friendly mindset has produced a bevy of wildly different books from a stable of vastly unique creators, including such notables as Kevin Smith, Paul Dini, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Brian Michael Bendis, Jim Mahfood, Greg Rucka, and Steve Lieber. There are humor books such as Smith' s CLERKS releases and Dini's JINGLE BELLE; crime books by the likes of Scott Morse (VOLCANIC REVOLVER) and Rucka and Lieber (WHITEOUTand its sequel, WHITEOUT: MELT); autobiography such as Bendis' FORTUNE AND GLORY; horror tomes as in the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT film tie-in (one of the few media tie-in comics to ever actually expand and enrich the story of the source material) and the first two issues of Mike Mignola and Troy Nixley's JENNY FINN; and the late, lamented anthology title ONI DOUBLE FEATURE.

"There is no Oni style or typical Oni book," Rich continues. "We want to be a home for people with strong creative visions, and we want to see those visions realized in a form that is as close to what the creator had in mind as possible."

Those creators themselves are pleased not only with the creative freedom allowed them, but by the company's attempts to market outside the bread-and-butter direct distribution superhero meat market. "Oni appeals to that cool crowd of open-minded but not genre-snobby comic book readers," claims Bendis. "Do you ever notice how anti-everything some indy comic readers can be? It gets so bad that the so-called open-minded won't read anything but Dan Clowes. Which is fine, but it ain't open-minded."

"I am very spoiled over at Image, and was sort of jumping into untested waters with Oni on what has ended up being the most personal book I have ever done. They have held to every promise they made plus a little more. I was actually flattered that they would even consider publishing me," Bendis concludes.

More than marketing, Oni tries to foster a closeness between creator and publisher that would often be impossible in a larger, publicly-owned company with dividends and stockholders and the like.

"There's something very satisfying about working with a company within which the right and left hands are always communicating well," says Jen Van Meter, writer of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT comic book and the upcoming BLAIR WITCH CHRONICLES mini-series. "Joe and Jamie both read almost everything that passes through the office and that means there's a real consistency to their treatment of a project. The guys both believe in what they're doing, and bring real personal enthusiasm to everything they publish."

"It's kinda like a family," states Nozemack. We're pretty close with the majority of the people we work with. Also, since it's just me and Jamie, you don't get that corporate runaround. I also think that since the company is owned by just Jamie and I, we have more incentive to succeed. When you have a large company I don't think people always put out 100% because in the end, it doesn't really affect them. We sell more books and it goes into our pockets as well as the artists'. There's really not much of a better incentive than that."

The turn of the calendar brings several new projects which Oni is excited about publishing throughout 2000:

• Scott Morse's five-volume SOULWIND series
• THE ADVENTURES OF BARRY WEEN, BOY GENIUS 2.0 by new GREEN LANTERN scribe Judd Winick
• BLUE MONDAY by Chynna Clugston-Major, with covers by Adam Warren, Evan Dorkin, and J. Scott Campbell
• THE BLAIR WITCH CHRONICLES, reuniting the creators from the one-shot
• THE MARQUIS by Guy Davis
• THE COFFIN by Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston
• VOODOOM by Scott Morse and Jim Mahfood
• GEISHA one-shot and a six-issue mini, BREAKFAST AFTER NOON by Andi Watson
• A new series by Martin Ontiveros (artist of CRASH METRO)
• A color summer one-shot, full of short stories by most of the Oni regulars
• Possible new projects from Paul Dini and Greg Rucka
• More Kevin Smith

Oni is also garnering its fair share of attention from other media hungry for new properties to adapt. WHITEOUT has been optioned for the screen by director Wolfgang Peterson's Radiant Productions and Columbia Pictures, BARRY WEEN is being targeted for animation by Platinum Studios, JENNY FINN has been optioned, and Scott Morse is developing VOLCANIC REVOLVER for online animation. Kevin Smith's upcoming CLERKS animated series on ABC, while not directly tied to its comic book counterpart, did draw inspiration from the character designs on the printed page.

"We want to be a home for people with strong creative visions, and we want to see those visions realized in a form that is as close to what the creator had in mind as possible."

With its eye on this synergy between media outlets and comic titles, Nozemack has branched beyond Oni to create a new company called Big Blast Entertainment with Bob Chapman of Graphitti Designs. "Big Blash will be our vehicle to take properties from comics and wherever else we find strong material and translate them to film, television, and other media," announces Nozemack. " It's the next logical step now that Oni is getting up to stride."

"It's important to remember, though, that any outside media is somewhat secondary," counters Rich. "While we would love to do nothing but comics, expanding into other forms of entertainment is a sort of necessary evil if you want to make the comic book audience grow. Again, our hope is to go out and do it on our terms so that people can get a more accurate view of what our comics are about."

Nozemack finishes, "I think our blip has just entered the radar screen. After three years of operations and two of putting books on the shelf, I think it's becoming evident that we're going to be here for a while. People are starting to take notice that something's going on at Oni that's special and different."

PS---Yes, they do accept solicitations. Guidelines are available at the website, www.onipress.com

Demon in the Details: Oni's Awards and Nominations

Like an internet IPO, Oni Press is getting a lot of attention from several quarters of the industry. Unlike an internet IPO, Oni has actually shown savvy beyond a surface sheen and has had more than its share of accolades. To wit:

• 1997 Diamond Gem Award, Best New Publisher
• 1998 Diamond Gem Award, Best Publisher Under 5%
• 1998 Harvey Award , Best Anthology: ONI DOUBLE FEATURE
• 1998 Eisner Award nomination, Best Anthology: ONI DOUBLE FEATURE
• 1998 Eisner Award nomination, Best Short Story: Judd Winick's "Road Trip" from ONI DOUBLE FEATURE
• 1998 Eisner nomination: best writer, Steve Seagle, (for work including "Drive-by" from ONI DOUBLE FEATURE)
• Three 1999 Eisner Award nominations for WHITEOUT: Best Limited Series, Best Writer (Greg Rucka), and Best Penciler/Inker (Steve Lieber)

Paul Lewis is soon-to-be an Oni creator himself, helming the upcoming View Askew-themed magazine VULGARITIES.

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