Checker Book Publishing Group

Checker Book Publishing Group was an independent publisher of comics reprints, from newspaper strips to modern out-of-print titles and collections from defunct publishers. However, as of 2012, Checker BPG itself seems to be defunct.

History

Based in Miamisburg near Dayton, Ohio, CheckerBPG was established in 2000 by Mark Thompson, Paul Dubuc and Ben Rangel in order to bring back into print "dormant, unpublished, and under-published serial comics and cartooning."

Checker Comics

CheckerBPG's publisher, Mark Thompson, (b. 1967/68) graduated from Miami University with a business degree, and worked for a newspaper before starting his first comics company - Checker Comics - in 1997. Based in the Oregon District, Checker Comics published original works including Danger Ranger and Mutator before becoming one of many victim of the collapse of the comics speculator bubble in the late-1990s.

CheckerBPG, Inc.

Checker Book Publishing was incorporated in 2001, and set to work collecting individual comics' content into single collections, which are printed at an outside press, but shipped in-house after difficulties with outside distribution. Over the next five years, Checker published 43 titles. Sales between 2003 and 2004 doubled as Checker's output increased. Between 2004 and 2005, two of Checker's co-founders departed the company, and in 2010, Thompson decided to team up with Josh Blaylock of Devils Due Publishing to create Devil's Due Digital Inc.

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature, music, or information — the activity of making information available to the general public. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers, meaning originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver and display the content for the same. Also, the word publisher can refer to the individual who leads a publishing company or an imprint or to a person who owns/heads a magazine.

Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books (the "book trade") and newspapers. With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include electronic resources such as the electronic versions of books and periodicals, as well as micropublishing, websites, blogs, video game publishers, and the like.

Publishing includes the following stages of development: acquisition, copy editing, production, printing (and its electronic equivalents), and marketing and distribution.