Promotional Information

Budget: A portion of $4,300.00 marketing and publicity budget.

Galleys: PDF galleys are available.

National Advertising: Prominent, year-round advertising in The Comics Reporter, one of the most visited comics-focused websites.

National Print/Online Media Campaign: We work tirelessly to market and promote our titles; we have a large media and opinion maker contact list, to which we send our press releases and select review copies. We also have a smaller selection of reviewers who receive hard copies of our titles. This has resulted in reviews, interviews and coverage in a variety of media outlets including Avoid the Future, Boing Boing, The Chicago Tribune, Comic Book Resources, The Comics Beat, The Comics Journal, The Comics Reporter, The Globe and Mail, Newsarama, Paste Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Quill and Quire, The National Post, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, VICE Magazine, The Washington Post and many more.

Online/Social Media Campaign: We have a strong presence on the Internet with our recently redesigned website (koyamapress.com with over 4,000 unique visits per month), Facebook (facebook.com/KoyamaPress with over 5,430 likes), Twitter (@AnnieKoyama with over 10,100 followers), Flickr (flickr.com/photos/koyamapress), and Tumblr (koyamapress.tumblr.com with over 15,370 followers) pages.

Promotion on the Author's Website: Ben Sears has established a strong following online. This is demonstrated by their website (freebensears.com) and their Twitter (@bensears).

General Tour Info: Koyama Press and Ben Sears will be launching Volcano Trash at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) a week long celebration of comics and graphic novels and their creators, which culminates in a two-day exhibition and vendor fair featuring hundreds of comics creators from around the world. This year's festival takes place May 13-14.

Publicity and Promotion in Conjunction with the Author's Speaking Engagements: Koyama Press has a number of branded items including tote bags, notebooks, buttons, postcards, stickers, and activity books that accompany artists at shows and events. These include items utilizing the art from the book itself.

About the Author

Ben Sears is a cartoonist, illustrator and musician born and raised in Louisville, KY where he continues to live and work. His Double+ character has appeared in a number of zines, online anthologies and the all-ages adventure comic Night Air, where he has been perpetually in over his head.

Reviews

“The action sequences are rendered in excellent detail, combining elements of video games, European comics, and manga conventions. The technology and character designs are first-rate, and this book is a joy to read, behold, and revisit. It’s just plain fun.” — Stergios Botzakis, Graphic Novel Resources

“Telling the tale with gleeful, off-kilter gusto, Sears borrows parts of many a fantasy masterpiece—the blocky, futuristic aesthetic of Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky; the central relationship and world-invention of Adventure Time; the clear line verve of Tintin—and combines them into something wonderfully distinctive.” — Jesse Karp, Booklist

“The artwork is fantastic. The linework is clean; the style is fresh and full of life. The art puts you in a good mood just by looking at it” — Dustin Cabeal, Comic Bastards

“Sears is an American comics creator with decidedly global influences, and that makes his work a lot of fun to read.” — Elle Collins, ComicsAlliance

"Reading Ben's work is so much fun. I love his use of color and his characters. It reads like he had a blast making it." - Brandon Graham, King City, Multiple Warheads, Prophet, ISLAND Magazine

“Night Air and Volcano Trash — Ben Sears’ stories about Plus Man and his robot, Hank — aren’t really mysteries, but there’s a weird noir feel to them, mashed up with sci-fi, action movies, comic strips and everything that’s cool. For older kids, these would be fun reads.” — Erik Missio, CBC Parents

“From castles and haunted beings in Night Air (think Waluigi with more one liners) to a ‘Mission Impossible’ type labyrinth in Volcano Trash, the hero and robot brigade continue to impress as they do things their own way through a medley of shenanigans.“ — Ben Niespodziany, Neonpajamas