OFFICIAL STATEMENTS
5 Year Anniversary
Writing a statement about WildStar Press’ 5 Year Anniversary is a lot harder than I thought it’d be! There’s a lot of thank you's I want to dole out because this press wouldn’t be where it is now without so many people’s help and support. So thanks to every creative that’s trusted me to publish their work. Thanks to Seth and Caitlin, the former building the foundation of the brand and the latter expanding on it. (If you were around for the OG yellow and purple era you’re a real one lol). And thanks to everyone who has supported WildStar Press in all of its endeavors whether it has been buying books or sharing the press around with others. Everyone of you has aided in the press’ growth and I can’t thank you enough for it. Of course, I can always wish that you continue to support for the years to come because I don't plan to stop any time soon.
Running this press is a genuine labor of love and passion for the comics industry and wanting to uplift the voices of diverse creatives as the mission statement goes. And as it stands now, we’ve been doing just that through anthologies and through publishing comics that needed a home. And as that begins to have its reach, it’s my pleasure to formally introduce you to the WildStar Press expansion. As you may have noticed, we’ve implemented three online publications into WildStar Press, spearheaded by Caitlin. They said it perfectly in their statement about how these three publications ‘will truly help its (WSP) mission in mind, to let unrepresented voices have a place to be published’. Not only do we hope these publications motivate you to create, but we hope to give more opportunities for voices to be heard. Sometime in the future, ideally next year, we’ll be reaching out to more writers for Review Starlight, Morning Dew, and even Curiosity’s Corner so keep an eye out for that!
When Caitlin deposited these three ideas on my metaphorical desk, it got me thinking. What makes WildStar Press different? How can I best support creatives within my means? What stars have we not reached for? And then it hit me. I started my comic journey with and because of a love of writing prose and I still do love the medium. There are plenty of writers out there, same as comic creators, trying to make that first step into publishing. Why wouldn’t I incorporate that into the press as well? So it's with the utmost pleasure that I get to announce that with the addition of prose to the WildStar Press Universe, we're no longer an indie comics publisher but just an indie publisher!
As we bring in this new star into the WSP Universe, the prose side will focus first on short stories, flash fiction, and poetry that can be published on our site. It’ll later expand into print mediums like anthologies much like its comic sibling. Then, into printing novellas, mirroring how our comics prioritize contained, shorter stories. Of course novels, epics, and even larger graphic novels can be in our future, it just takes time and your support!
And speaking the comic sibling, we have a new mascot that will be joining Orion in marketing and morale, catering to the prose side of things. Meet Eridanus! (Eri for short)
At the end of the day, there are writers and artists out there itching to “make it” into the industry whether comic or prose and WildStar Press’ goal is to be that foundational first step, to help people dream bigger, and to publish those books that “don’t quite fit” in other places. And we’re going to continue to do just that through Comics, Online Publications, and Prose. So keep an eye out for all of these future developments because you too could be apart of the WildStar Press Universe.
Happy 5 year anniversary and see you in the stars
~ Akira B.
