Best Independent Comics Publisher: Secret Acres
“It can be hard making your way in the big city, and life as an independent comics publisher is no different. But even the presence of such monopolistic entities hasn’t deterred the efforts of Barry Matthews and Leon Avelino. This Queensbased publishing house came seemingly out of nowhere in 2006, and has been producing vibrant and essential works by
the likes of Ken Dahl, Minty Lewis, Theo Ellsworth and Eamon Espey, ever since. Suck it, Batman.”
- NY PRESS Best of Manhattan 2010: Arts & Entertainment
“Not so secret anymore” (Douglas Wolk, Publisher’s Weekly), Secret Acres is a comics publishing company, founded in 2006. Currently, the company publishes story collections and original graphic novels. Secret Acres sells and distributes its creators’ mini-comics and other self-published works. Secret Acres can be seen exhibiting at better comics conventions. Secret Acres’ titles include:
- The multiple Ingatz Award winning and Eisner Award nominated Monsters by Ken Dahl
- Theo Ellsoworth’s Capacity, now in its second printins, listed among the best comics of the year by The Village Voice, The Huffington Post (small press) and the Comics Reporter
- Wormdye by Eamon Espey, counted among the best 25 comics of the decade by The Comics Journal
Secret Acres was made by Barry Matthews and Leon Avelino. Barry Matthews claims rural Vermont as his place of origin. He pursued and captured an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Cornell University and was named a Best New American Voice. He has worked for a large dot com ever since. Leon Avelino was born in the Philippines and raised on New York’s upper west side. Also possessed of fairly useless degrees, he has been working in comics companies large and small for the better part of his life. Says Comics Now:
“They look for talent that's spurred by love of the medium; SA was created to support that talent. Content is the priority; SA simply publishes books that its owners think people should be reading… In the end, they want to be the publishing house with which their creators most want to work, a very laudable goal. a publisher that exists to enable further works by creators it admires? That, perhaps, could be the definition of ‘independent sensibilities.’”
Secret Acres comics are available for purchase on the Secret Acres website, at comics conventions in which the company exhibits, from amazon.com and at the finest comics retailers and booksellers.
