Slave Labor Graphics - Company History

Company History

Slave Labor Graphics was started in 1986 by Dan Vado, who remains the company's president and publisher.

The first book Slave Labor Graphics published was Shadow Star #3, a female superhero character previously published independently by some of Vado's friends. Slave Labor Graphics's first major success was Samurai Penguin #1 by Dan and Mark Buck, which sold 58,000 copies in the summer of 1986. The first few titles, such as Hero Sandwich and It's Science With Dr. Radium, were all created by friends of Vado's from high school. Other successes were Milk & Cheese, a comic about mean-spirited anthropomorphic dairy products by Evan Dorkin and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, a comic about the adventures of a serial killer by Jhonen Vasquez. In this time period, comic book speculation was rampant, so Slave Labor Graphics was able to sell its entire print run of many titles. However, at the end of the speculation bubble, some distributors went out of business without paying Slave Labor Graphics.

In 1995, Slave Labor Graphics added an imprint called "Amaze Ink" intended to be for all audiences and more genre-oriented; the "stranger, more adult, and more difficult to categorize material" would still be published under the "Slave Labor" imprint.

In 2005, Slave Labor Graphics entered into a partnership with The Walt Disney Company to produce comic book series based on some of its properties: Haunted Mansion, Wonderland, Tron, and Gargoyles. Its own creations, such as Little Gloomy (1999–2005), Kid Gravity (2003–present) and The Super Scary Monster Show: Featuring Little Gloomy (2005–present), appear/have appeared regularly in Disney Adventures Magazine.

In late 2010, Slave Labor Graphics established an independent record label entitled Slab Yard Sound Company.

In January 2012, editor-in-chief Jennifer de Guzman, who had been with the company since 2001, left to become to become the PR and Marketing Director at Image Comics.