Highwater Books was a small but influential independent comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 publisher based in Somerville, Massachusetts

Somerville, Massachusetts

Somerville is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located just north of Boston. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 75,754 and was the most densely populated municipality in New England. It is also the 17th most densely populated incorporated place in...

, noted for its arty editorial direction and production values under publisher Tom Devlin

Tom Devlin

James Thomas S. "Tom" Devlin was a Scottish professional footballer who made 17 appearances in the Football League playing for Birmingham, Preston North End, Swindon Town, Walsall and Oldham Athletic. He played as an inside forward.Devlin was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire...

. Highwater began in 1997 and folded in November 2004 due to financial pressure.

Artists published

• Marc Bell
• Mat Brinkman
  Mat Brinkman
  Mat Brinkman is an artist and electronic musician from Texas. He was a creator of the Fort Thunder artist live-work space in Providence, RI. He recorded with the bands Mindflayer and Forcefield, who performed at the 2002 Whitney Biennial...
  
  
• Greg Cook
  Greg Cook (comic book artist)
  Greg Cook is an underground cartoonist and comic book artist who has been published in Nickelodeon Magazine, Pulse magazine, The Believer magazine, New Art Examiner, Arthur, NON, and L'Association's Comix 2000. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, graduated at the Art Institute in 1995, and now works...
  
  
• Megan Kelso
  Megan Kelso
  Megan Kelso is an American comic book artist and writer.Kelso started working in the 1990s, with the minicomic Girlhero, which won her a Xeric Foundation grant in 1993. She has since published several other projects including Queen of the Black Black and The Squirrel Mother...
  
  
• James Kochalka
  James Kochalka
  James Kochalka is an American comic book artist and writer, and rock musician. His comics are noted for their blending of the real and the surreal...
  
  
• Matt Madden
  Matt Madden
  Matt Madden is a U.S. comic book writer and artist. He is best known for original alternative comics, for his coloring work in traditional comics, and for the experimental work 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, which is based on the idea of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style...
  
  
• John Porcellino
  John Porcellino
  John Porcellino is a popular creator of minicomics. Porcellino's self-published, photocopied, mostly autobiographical series King-Cat Comics is among the best-known and longest-running minicomics produced today, begun when Porcellino was a teenager and still going strong.Porcellino's work consists...
  
  
• Brian Ralph
  Brian Ralph
  Brian Ralph is a U.S. alternative cartoonist. His illustrations have appeared in Wired and the New York Post. His debut graphic novel Cave-In was nominated for three Harvey Awards, one Eisner Award, and listed as one of the Comics Journals "five best comics of 1999". His second graphic novel...
  
  
• Ron Rege, Jr.

The press was also known for its ironically themed "Marvel Comics Benefit" anthology Coober Skeber, a prolific output of silkscreened posters and promotional materials, a loose association with Fort Thunder

Fort Thunder

Fort Thunder was a warehouse on the second floor of a pre-Civil War former textile factory in the Olneyville district of Providence, Rhode Island. From 1995 through 2001, the space was used as a venue for underground music and events, as well as a living and working space for the artists...

 (where a number of Highwater artists resided) and Jordan Crane

Jordan Crane

Jordan Crane is an American comics creator.Crane first emerged in 1996 with the anthology NON, which he edited, contributed to, and published. This anthology combines influences from Art Spiegelman’s RAW and newer comics artists...

 (publisher of NON), distribution of Jef Czekaj's Hypertruck (née R2D2 Is an Indie Rocker), and a few non-comic works of fiction, including a trio of books by Camden Joy.

Quotes

Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter:

Sources consulted

• Arnold, Andrew D. "The Complex Simplicity of John Porcellino," Time.com (Jul. 13, 2001).
• Dean, Michael. "Shrinking Alternatives: Is It Just Jeff Mason's Company or Is the Alternative Comic Book Format in Trouble?" The Comics Journal #263 (Oct. 14th, 2004).http://www.tcj.com/263/n_shrinking.html
• Koepke, Melora. "Bell's Ringing," Hour (Jan. 22nd, 2004).
• O'Neil, Tim. "Teratoid Heights: The comics of Mat Brinkman defy easy explanation.," PopCultureShock.
• Spurgeon, Tom. "Highwater Books — An Appreciation," The Comics Reporter (Nov. 21, 2004).

Endnotes