Transcription of interview conducted by telephone on 21 November 2014. Parts of this interview were used in Farthing, A. & Priego, E., (2016). ÔGraphic MedicineÕ as a Mental Health Information Resource: Insights from Comics Producers. The Comics Grid. 6(0), p.3. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/cg.74


SAM ARTHUR, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF NOBROW PRESS

COULD YOU GIVE A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODUCTION PROCESSES AROUND NEUROCOMIC AND FREUD, AND WHAT NOBROW NEEDED TO CONTRIBUTE IN TERMS OF EDITING AND CHECKING?
Actually we acquired both titles when they were more or less completed. Freud was a rights buy from Dargaud a French publisher and Neurocomic was originally funded by the Wellcome Trust, so we didnÕt need to do too much editing. Most of the editing in Neurocomic related to narrative and not to factual information. We relied on the authors and their professional colleagues to proof and fact check as it is their area of expertise.

COULD YOU DESCRIBE HOW YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH PUBLISHERS GROUP UK WORKS WITH YOUR DISTRIBUTION AND THE RETAILERS YOU REACH, AND HOW MUCH EMPHASIS YOU PLACE ON SELLING DIRECTLY THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE OR AT FAIRS AND CONVENTIONS?
PGUK are a sales and distribution company and as such they work with quite a few publishers Ð us being one of them. Via them we reach the trade, so most independent book stores and also larger chains like Waterstones and Daunt. They also negotiate deals with Amazon and wholesalers such as Baker & Taylor and Gardners. We do many events and fairs throughout the year both in the UK and internationally. This is an important way to market ourselves!

HAVE YOU HAD ANY CONTACT WITH UNIVERSITIES OR OTHER TEACHING INSTITUTIONS OVER USING ANY OF YOUR BOOKS IN AN EDUCATIONAL SETTING?
Not directly Ð although we have sold various books into schools, but this tends to be our childrenÕs books published via our imprint Flying Eye Books.

DO YOUR BOOKS GET REVIEWS OR INTEREST FROM ACADEMIC JOURNALS, OTHER THAN THOSE JOURNALS PRIMARILY CONCERNED WITH COMICS AS A FIELD OF STUDY? DO YOU EVER APPROACH ACADEMIC JOURNALS TO GET MORE COVERAGE?
I think we had a mention in Nature and also The Lancet. We have had quite a bit of interest from scientific and academic publishers around the world and Neurocomic is now available in around 10 languages,

FREUD AND NEUROCOMIC ARE BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED AND DESIRABLE AS ARTWORKS, IS THAT FUNDAMENTAL TO PRODUCING ANY NOBROW GRAPHIC WORK, OR WOULD YOU FEEL YOUÕD NEED A DIFFERENT APPROACH IF YOU WERE TO PUBLISH A WORK WITH A PURE ACADEMIC FOCUS?
As a publisher we are interested in where aesthetics meet the academic. Anything with an academic focus would need to have some design or artistic quality in order for us to be interested in it. We are a publishing company with a bias on the visual and so purely academic research would not be something weÕd be drawn to publish unless it was accompanied by illustration or graphic narrative.

ENDS