Having made a name for themselves with books like Rok of The Reds, Killtopia, Freedom Bound and Full Colour, Scottish indie publishers BHP Comics are set to have an even more exciting 2019 thanks to acquiring the rights to publish two of our favourite small press titles along with a new international publishing deals.

Joining the ranks of BHP Comics’ increasingly awesome line up are two of our very favourite small press titles, from some of the most exciting Scottish creators around.

First up is Chris Baldie’s Rolled A One, which we reviewed back in the Spring and absolutely loved. Baldie has been one of our favourite creators ever since we discovered the excellent Space Captain and so finding out this wonderful book is getting a new release is great news in our book!

Baldie himself seemed pretty pleased with the deal too and told us: ‘It’s an honour to be asked to join the BHP Comics family. Whenever possible I like to promote and buy from Scottish artists and makers, so to be part of a team that is actively doing the same is a wonderful thing.’ Rolled A One is scheduled for a Summer 2019 release.

Joining Baldie as part of the BHP Comics family is Fun Mudlifter, or more precisely Colin Bell and Neil Slorance and their award-winning book Dungeon Fun. Another books which we raved about earlier in the year, it has also been the winner of several SICBA awards including Best Writer, Best Artist and Best Comic.

Colin told us: ‘We’re delighted to be signing with BHP Comics – it’s a treat to be showcased alongside some of our favourite creators and have Dungeon Fun become label-buddies with worthwhile books, such as Full Colour and We Shall Fight Until We Win. The great work BHP is doing in putting out diverse works made it a very easy decision when we were asked to come along.’

Sha Nazir, director at BHP Comics explained her thoughts on these exciting additions: ‘We’re pleased to be able to bring Dungeon Fun and Rolled a One to BHP, both really colourful, family friendly and enjoyable reads. They’re both perfect books for sending into the US and Canadian book market, to help spearhead the export of books from Scotland. Roll on 2019!’ Dungeon Fun will be released in May 2019.

That promotional deal which Sha mentions is that BHP Comics will be represented in North America by SCB, a California based book trade distributor responsible for over 200 publishers. SCB will take delivery of hundreds of BHP books early next year, ready to send them off into new territories. BHP signed with Turnaround UK in early 2018 and continue to send books to bookshops all over the UK through them.

They are also making international strides on digital platforms, signing with Izneo to create specialised comics for their platform. Izneo, originally created for Franco-Belgian comics online has diversified, looking to bring in high quality international content in English and translation. From next year our titles will be available to buy and read via their app all over the world across smart devices and Nintendo Switch.

Sha Nazir, BHP ‘s Director explained further: ‘We’ve made big strides at BHP, coming from a small cooperative to publishing quality books. This is the next important step for our growth and we’re very excited to take it and take BHP ‘s books further and to new audiences who haven’t seen what we’re up to yet.’

As you can see, there are some exciting times ahead for BHP Comics and for more information and to check out their current roster of titles then visit bhpcomics.squarespace.com