Drawn and Quarterly

Drawn and Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, as well as the quality of printing and design. The name of the company is a pun on "drawing", "quarterly", and the practice of hanging, drawing and quartering. Initially it specialized in underground and alternative comics, but has since expanded into classic reprints and translations of foreign works. Drawn and Quarterly was the company's flagship quarterly anthology during the 1990s.

It is currently the most successful and prominent comics publisher in Canada, publishing well-known comic artists such as Lynda Barry, Kate Beaton, Marc Bell, Chester Brown, Daniel Clowes, Guy Delisle, Julie Doucet, Joe Matt, Shigeru Mizuki, Rutu Modan, Joe Sacco, Seth, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Adrian Tomine and Chris Ware. In 2006, Drawn and Quarterly began publishing the Moomin comic strips of Finnish writer and artist Tove Jansson, in book format, in the series Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip. Drawn & Quarterly has a strong reputation in the comics community and its anthologies have won a number of Harvey Awards.

Overview
Drawn and Quarterly has become one of the most influential alternative comics publishers, along with Fantagraphics Books of Seattle, WA. The publisher has a reputation for the quality of the books it publishes, both in terms of content as well as the books' paper, binding and design. The publisher's owner, Chris Oliveros, has a hands-off relationship with the artists he publishes.

History
Drawn and Quarterly was founded in 1990 by Montrealer Chris Oliveros, aged 23 at the time.

Oliveros was inspired by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly's Raw to publish an arts comics periodical. He borrowed $2000 from his father to fund starting the magazine Drawn and Quarterly, which debuted in April, 1990. It was intended to be published four times a year, containing short arts comics. Soon, Oliveros realized there were arts comics which were too long to be contained in his magazine, and began publishing stand-alone comic books and graphic novels, beginning with Julie Doucet's comic book Dirty Plotte.

Amongst the earliest cartoonists to become associated with Drawn and Quarterly were the Toronto-based Chester Brown and Seth. In the early 2000s, Brown had a surprise bestseller with Louis Riel. In 2003, A Drawn and Quarterly Manifesto was released, describing to booksellers how to stock and sell graphic novels.

As graphic novels became more popular with the public, Oliveros found the need for a publicist. He asked Peggy Burns, who was doing such work at DC Comics, if she knew someone who could fill the job. Burns offered herself, and moved from New York City to Montreal. She was the company's third employee, and soon signed a distribution deal for the publisher with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, which greatly expanded the company's exposure, while giving it a literary air. Drawn and Quarterly reduced the number of serialized titles it published, focusing on book-form comics such as collections and graphic novels. Business expanded over the next decade to the extent that the publisher employed nine people. In November, 2012 the Canadian radio program The Sunday Edition aired a documentary portrait of Drawn and Quarterly the contains interviews with cartoonist Lynda Barry, teenage blogger Tavi Gevinson founder Chris Oliveros and associate publisher Peggy Burns. Barry is very emotional when she describes how Drawn and Quarterly helped save her career.

Librarie Drawn & Quarterly
In 2008, Drawn and Quarterly opened an English-language bookshop on Bernard Street in Mile End, Montreal, selling mostly comics. The shop also hosts book launches and signings, and has a stage for live music.

Showcase
From 2003 to 2008, Drawn and Quarterly published Showcase, an anthology magazine which offered greater visibility to lesser known authors. The magazine presented up to 3 authors in each of its five issues.

Imprints
in 2004, Drawn and Quarterly began an imprint for non-comics art books called Petit Livre. The publisher also has an imprint for children called Enfant, with which they have published the Moomin works of Tove Jansson and Pippi Longstocking comics by Astrid Lindgren and Ingrid Vang Nyman.