Hollow Press has been at the forefront of the underground comic scene, offering stylized releases of the works of such iconic names as Mat Brinkman, Shintaro Kago (“Princess of the Never Ending Castle“), Tetsunori Tawaraya (“Tetsupendium Tawarapedia“) Daisuki Ichiba (“Hospital Train“) and David Genchi, to name a few. We got a chance to speak to Michele Nitri, owner and sole proprietor of Hollow Press, about the history of the publisher, future plans and (of course) underground comics.
For a full catalogue of current releases and art pieces for sale, you can head over to the Hollow Press website.
How did you first become interested in publishing?
I think since always, or since I started to read comics seriously; not so early, I was about 17 years old. When I was 20, I worked in a detergent shop for about 5 years, and all the while I was an active collector in the underground comic world. What really pushed me to start to publish was the difficulty I had to read something that I really wanted and liked. I thought there was something missing in underground comic publishing; few experimentation, several almost forsaken legendary underground artists etc.
So I started with the U.D.W.F.G. anthology while I was still working in the detergent shop, but I freaked out abruptly, closing my detergent shop and founding the Hollow Press in 2015 just after a couple of self-published issues of U.D.W.F.G. That wasn't my best period, many money problems, personal dissatisfaction, my wife was pregnant and in waiting of my amazing boy etc. I remember I had just 2500€ from last U.D.W.F.G. in my bank account when I did it. That was crazy, but considering where I am right now I think it was a hard risk paid by passion. But this is another story.
When did you first become aware of ‘underground' comics, and what are some of the titles that inspired you to start Hollow Press?
Two different things: I became aware of underground comics thanks to the reading of some of my favorite underground artists like Charles Burns, Paolo Bacilieri, Miguel Angel Martin, Hideshi Hino and many others. They started my cathartic artistic process, and were the key to understand and appreciate underground comics. Instead, the only title that inspired me to start Hollow Press was Multiforce by Mat Brinkman. It was a book that brought me back to my youth, reading fantasy stuff with an adult awareness and an underground vibe. (I loved the fantasy genre as a kid)
This was something present in other media yet, like in movies, videogames, novels, but it was the first time I saw so much weird and dark power in a fantasy comic. From there came up the under-dark-weird-fantasy-grounds genre idea. So of course, it's been the spark that let everything begin. It's amusing that I finally published my favorite comic ever only after 3 years of Hollow Press activity!
Hollow Press releases issues in Japanese, Italian, and English. What was the greatest challenge in publishing in multiple languages?
Printing cost! It's an incredible effort since there is the “law” that you print more and receive less pay. To make multiple versions of a book requires multiple printings, multiple graphic work, multiple translations etc. Another difficulty is the language when we translate from a language to English. Since it is not my mother language, I'm not able to check the translation work. Our next books will be proof-read by the great Paul Gravett, so I think I chose one of the best to solve this problem!
I personally want to apologize to Hollow Press readers if some of our translated productions did not feature the best English. I hope they are still enjoyable, we are a pretty young press and we always want and try to improve ourselves. This is something I'm working hard at right now.
Presentation is something that feels integral to Hollow Press, not just in high quality but experimentation in design and options to purchase original art. How are these creative choices decided upon between publisher and creator?
Yes, one of my first goals is to give the best form to each production, always experimenting new ways and innovative graphic and paper choices. Most publishers, in my opinion, see a book as a product of their publishing house; in my case it is the publishing house at the service of the book.
The original artworks sale idea came up naturally since I'm a collector, and the main motivation is that it is too hard for artists to live with just the royalties. Buying their original artworks in advance, I let them earn a lot of extra money, helping in giving them that professional dignity that is too often overlooked in the underground comic world. Collecting comic pages is something that's really in a developing status generally, a constantly growing market, so I just think it's clever to invest and trust in this side of the art world.
I'm pretty satisfied with the results I'm getting to do that. There are a lot of collectors investing in Hollow Press, our artists quotes always rise up in time and this means that the request is greater than the offer, you know, the main requirement to make a healthy business! Actually, Hollow Press sells an average of almost one original artwork per day, selling about 300 original artworks each year, so I can definitely say that it's one of our strongest and main business aspect.
What inspired the “Underground Dark Weird Fantasy Grounds” issues which highlights various creators, and is this something you hope to expand on to bring in more artists?
Partially I have replied to this question above. Anyway, we can say that Hollow Press is itself an extension of the U.D.W.F.G. anthology, the dark anthology was active mainly when Hollow Press didn't exist yet, so It's like an evolution. However, the U.D.W.F.G. acronym is still alive, sometimes we publish an “U.D.W.F.G. presents” book, presenting a new famous international artist.
We did that with Shintaro Kago, Paolo Bacilieri, Jesse Jacobs and Daisuke Ichiba. Also, I want to add to the topic that U.D.W.F.G. main series is not stopped and canceled, we mind to publish a fourth and last issue, much bigger that the other ones, concluding all the stories. What has held us back so far is that Mat Brinkman pages are huge, 60x40cm each, and that requires a lot of time for him to project and draw them. However, he always assured me that he will do it soon, so even this yet historical underground project will find its special end.
For those unfamiliar with underground comics but interested, what titles would you recommend for them to further explore the darker side of graphic fiction?
I really don't know, fortunately I publish almost every dark weird fantasy comic I like. So I would suggest our Mat Brinkman books to see deeply what is the genre and his main artistic goals. If I need to recommend something outside Hollow Press I will say a novel, a video game, and a movie. I prefer to recommend something pretty unknown, not saying the usual big names.
About the novel, “The Night Land” by William Hope Hodgson, everything started from there, the greatest influence of Lovecraft too. About the video game, there are so many old games I could recommend but I will name a game I played recently that is incredible and from a relatively small indie team, “Darkwood”. About the movie, I want to say a movie considered crap by many people probably, pretty recent and unknown, “Rising Star”, that kind of shit that let me think a lot instead, with a true dark weird fantasy attitude.
For fans of manga and comics that largely remained unpublished, do you have any advice for readers to help garner more interests in these titles so they see proper releases?
Don't buy what majors want you to buy, spend your time researching hidden gems, once discovered they will be priceless, because what is of greatest value in our odd existence is time, and coolest things require time to be found.
Who are some of your favorite artists/writers and titles (Comics and/or literature)? Is there anyone in particular you would like to work with in the future?
Too many, so thinking instantly I would say the banner of underground writers William Burroughs, the artist Francisco Goya and one that is both, the incomparable Alfred Kubin. Yes, there is one comic artist I dream to work with since ever, Charles Burns! One day I will, I can see that.
What would you like to see for the future of Hollow-Press? Anything currently in the works you can discuss?
I don't know really, I don't know if I will have the right positive motivations forever and ever. Right now, I can say that my schedule is settled for at least two years on, and there are plenty of cool things I am working on to put out.
For this autumn/winter, I will publish a kind of manga that you never seen before, an old long manga by Daisuke Ichiba; a new short big and very experimental work by David Genchi in the size of a newspaper; the incredible re-edition of the legendary underground comic artist Al Columbia “Biologic Show” and the new long comic by Spugna “Fingerless”. In December, we will reprint all the Shintaro Kago books that always sell out, including a reprinting surprise for his masterpiece “The Princess of the Never-ending Castle”.
For next year instead, we will go on with our policy, the right mix between famous artists and emergent ones and I can announce a new comic book by the master Shintaro Kago, about his new world of never-ending castles, that seems ever expanding
Given the limited printing of editions, what is the best way for readers to keep up with news and future releases or reprints?
We don't have a real press office, we like to do things in the old/best way, word of mouth. Anyway, we are active in socials, I suggest to follow us through Instagram, that at the moment I think is the best way, put the priority option on our Instagram page and you will never miss a post, 2-3 posts per week. The other main way is to subscribe to our newsletter, we send just 5-6 emails per year with important news, it's a way to let me keep direct contact with the most loyal Hollow Press customers, I need it since I personally write each newsletter.
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