READERSVOICE.COM: Do you have a big collection of mini comics and how many? Do you find yourself re-reading particular ones and which ones?

BOB CORBY: I do have a large minicomics collection. Unfortunately I haven’t re-read many. I haven’t even read some of them yet. Doing the SPACE Prize every year makes me make time to read a lot of them.

RV: Do you need an event to shape an anthology around?, like the Oh, Comics! anthology in 1988 was said to be based on the Mid-Ohio Con?

BC: The Mid-Ohio Con back in ’88 was just a great opportunity to get an anthology started. I already knew all of the contributors to the first issue through the mail before I meet any of them at the con. I don’t think a con is required to do one especially now with the internet. Cons are good for setting deadlines.

RV: How was Tim Corrigan important to you when you were first starting out in comics?

BC: Tim Corrigan was very encouraging and without his Small Press Comics Explosion I probably would not have had the stage to get started in the minicomics. Which lead to other comics, which lead to SPACE.

RV: How did you set up Back Porch publishing in 1987? Did you have to learn basic book-keeping as well as the printing side of things?

BC: BPC has always been a hobby for me. I never expected to make any money just not lose a lot. When I started most of the books were just traded. If you did make money you put it in the war chest for future printings. To this day I couldn’t tell you if I actually make a profit on the books. When I started SPACE there was a little more money involved so I got official and became a licensed business in Ohio with a business checking account and pay taxes on everything. For SPACE I do all my book keeping with Excel.

RV: How soon after SPACE will the anthology come out?

BC: We won’t be producing a SPACE Anthology this year. The interest in it started to wan. It seemed to be diluting the talent pool. There are a lot of anthologies showing up at SPACE every year so everybody had to make choices about what books they had time to do. I’m still producing my annual anthology, Oh,Comics! It will be available at Extra SPACE on April 11 and also at SPACE in July and on-line right after.

– Visit backporchcomics.com for info on SPACE, the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo.
– copyright Simon Sandall