AHOY Comics is sort of like your weird, lovable uncle. Sure, they may crack an endless stream of jokes, but they’re generally their to uplift and entertain. (And maybe steal your nose.) And just like that wacky family member, it’s only right that we celebrate the publishers of such titles as Captain Ginger and Justice Warriors as they commemorate five whole years in business. To do so, we caught up with editor-in-chief Tom Peyer and editor/”operations guy” Stuart Moore, who seemed to be in an especially festive mood.
In our brief, but entertaining chat, we discuss AHOY’s best books, their strategies for success, new projects (including one with the Grant Morrison), and the future of the publisher, among other topics and tidbits. (Also, candy.) It’s an interview as a snapshot of why AHOY has been a compelling industry presence this whole time, and why their brand of wackiness and heart remains more essential than ever. Hey, AHOY, here’s to many more!
AIPT: Happy birthday, AHOY! How’s it feel to have made it to the ripe old age of 5?
Stuart Moore: My back hurts and I want some candy!
Tom Peyer: You’re not getting any more candy. I don’t want you running wild.
AIPT: What were the original goals when you launched way back in 2018? Have you accomplished those?
SM: A publisher never fully accomplishes its goals, I think, but AHOY has published a lot of fun, quality work. Personally, in 2018 I was thrilled to find a home for my series Captain Ginger, and now we’re just finishing off a cycle of stories in that series.
TP: Stuart’s take notwithstanding, we have fully accomplished our goals. We wanted to do good, larger-than-life, adult-ish comics with some measure of humor and high standards of art and production. And we wanted to add prose features — fiction, columns, verse, puzzles — to round out the reading experience and add value. And we wanted to examine what it would be like if cats ran a starship.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
AIPT: Similarly, how do you think AHOY’s evolved in 5 years in terms of goals, outlook, books released, ways of doing business, etc.?
SM: The business end of it has gotten more complicated, largely because AHOY now has three distributors instead of one. That brings up some challenges for managing inventory—especially when you have a book like Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson’s Justice Warriors, which has sold much faster through the book market than we expected. But that’s a good problem to have.
TP: When we started, I edited everything, except for Stuart’s titles, which he ran himself. Then Sarah Litt came along and took on a big editorial workload. Like Stuart and me, Sarah is a Vertigo alum, so our sensibilities are nicely compatible. Most recently, Sarah conceived and put together our new anthology, Project: Cryptid, one of the most fun books we’ve ever published.
AIPT: Are there any standout books and/or issues from this 5-year span?
SM: I don’t like to play favorites, but I like some of the ones that didn’t reach as big an audience, like Tom’s Hashtag: Danger and my own Bronze Age Boogie. Recently, I think Black’s Myth is a terrific book that’s flown a little lower under the radar than I hoped.
TP: Thanks for liking Hashtag, Stuart! I loved Boogie! But I don’t like to play favorites; everything we publish has something special to offer. But I will say that Con & On by Paul Cornell and Marika Cresta, which follows a diverse cast through the decades of a major comics convention, is unlike any comic I’ve ever read. It’s nearing the end of its run now, with a collected edition coming in March.
The cover to issue #4 of Hashtag: Danger. Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
AIPT: To what do you attribute to the success and relevance so far of AHOY?
SM: Uh, Tom?
TP: Page numbers! I don’t know how we’re supposed to talk about comics that don’t have numbered pages. “I really liked the coloring in the third panel of the page where they’re standing near the science fiction machines and talking. No, not that one. The other one with the machines.” It’s nice to be able to say, “I really liked the coloring on page 12, panel three.”
AIPT: What lessons do you think you’ve collectively learned over the years?
TP: Not to publish Hashtag: Danger and Bronze Age Boogie.
SM: This might sound weird, but…AHOY has a diverse staff, most of whom — like me — operate on a freelance or part-time basis. A lot of them are crazy-talented people who’ve cycled through the big corporate comics companies at one time or another and wound up deciding that wasn’t for them. There’s a great network of people out there who know comics inside and out, love the medium and the industry, and are chronically underused. AHOY has really benefited from that.
AIPT: What’s it been like maneuvering the already-tenuous comics industry amid some noticeable shifts over the last few years?
SM: It’s been a ride! The pandemic threw everything on its side, leading to the rise of multiple distributors. This year has seen some alarming dips in sales industry-wide; fortunately they don’t seem to be permanent drops. We try to take it one book at a time, one month at a time.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
TP: You have to take a long view. The industry has been dying for 50 years that I know of. I’m pretty sure it’ll be around for my funeral. It had better show up, and be crying.
AIPT: There’s a few big books helping to celebrate the b-day, including The Wrong Earth: We Could Be Heroes and Captain Ginger: The Last Feeder. What do these titles represent in terms of bridging the gap between past and future for AHOY?
TP: I think we’re being sentimental here. The launch five years ago was such an exciting time. We threw a big party here in Syracuse. Superfan Promotions, the public relations firm we work with, had snagged a big Hollywood Reporter article to announce our existence. There was no pandemic yet, so some of us got to meet face-to-face at NYCC. Life was all fulfilling work and a lot of fun. Wrong Earth and Captain Ginger were both in our first wave of titles, so putting them out again brought some really good feelings back. Five years doesn’t seem like that long a stretch, maybe, but the world changed a lot during this particular five years.
AIPT: Another big project is “Partially Naked Came the Corpse!” from Grant Morrison. How big of a nab is that, and what’s it represent for AHOY at-large at this point?
SM: Grant actually helped launch AHOY — they wrote some of the company’s first stand-alone backup features. I just shot them an email, crossed my fingers, and performed the old Invisibles ritual for success. It worked in 1995 and it works today.
What really amazed me was how well the whole project came together. There are thirteen writers, but the whole thing has a voice. And it all comes together—largely due to the efforts of Hanna Bahedry (part 11) and Kek-w, who wrote the mind-blowing conclusion. That’ll be in Captain Ginger: The Last Feeder #2.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
TP: This is all Stuart’s baby, and he has done a magnificent job.
AIPT: What comes next in terms of big titles, projects, initiatives, etc.?
SM: We’ve got several new books coming in 2024, by both familiar names and people new to the comics industry.
TP: Sorry to be vague, but we don’t give out too many specifics in advance. Superfan is expert at doling out information at a pace that yields maximum attention. That’s especially important when you’re publishing four titles in a given month and someone else is publishing 40.
AIPT: What do you hope AHOY might look like after 10/15/20 years in business?
SM: I hope it’ll be vital, changing with the times, and still publishing Captain Ginger.
TP: We’ll have a skyscraper with a huge marble lobby, and in the center of that lobby will be a giant statue of me, holding up the world.
AIPT: Finally, what’s the best birthday present fans/readers could ever give AHOY?
SM: Buy an AHOY book. Buy any indy book! I promise you’ll feel welcome.
TP: Whatever you do, don’t buy Stuart candy.
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