Xeric Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Xeric Foundation is a private, nonprofit corporation based in Northampton, Massachusetts
, which for twenty years awarded self-publishing grants to comic book
creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations. The Xeric Foundation was established by Peter Laird
, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
.
or non-"mainstream" nature, reasoning that if a comic had strong commercial appeal, it would be picked up by one of the major publishers. The Foundation was an extremely valuable supporter of "art for art's sake" comics, and helped launch the careers of a number of "literary" cartoonists.
The Foundation assisted comic book creators with some of the costs in self-publishing their work; it was not the Foundation's intention to fully support an artist/writer through the entire process of self-publishing, but rather to encourage creators to experience the learning process involved in working towards such a goal.
The creative side of the Foundation involved the usual application process, but in addition, the Foundation began with "an advisory committee made up of three ... people working in the industry" whose input is sought on how best to proceed with each application. Submissions were evaluated prior to Laird's involvement, and then he made the ultimate decisions based on their recommendations.
game with [Laird's] brother Don," "Xeric" simply being "a word [he] like[d]," ostensibly meaning "dry and desertlike" — but which ultimately "has absolutely no direct connection with the foundation."
The Foundation's first grant cycle was in September 1992, with the first recipients being Robert Eaton, Michael Kasper, Jeff Nicholson, and Wayne Wise & Fred Wheaton.
In 1993 Laird discussed the Foundation's projected lifespan:
He hoped that ultimately the figure can be raised from "thousands of dollars" to "hundreds of thousands of dollars," to support an increasing number of large and small projects.
In July 2011, the Foundation announced it would no longer award publishing grants, instead, focusing on charitable work, including fostering environmentalism, literacy, and the arts. Citing the changing nature of the comics industry, and specifically the ability of cartoonists to publish their work online, founder Laird announced the shift. According to the organization's website, one round of final grants will be awarded in 2012, giving applicants until May of 2012 to complete their work. (The Foundation cancelled the scheduled November 2011 review.)
Altogether, the Xeric Foundation has awarded in excess of $2,500,000 since its first grant cycle.
(1993), David Lasky
(1993), Jason Lutes
(1993), Adrian Tomine
(1993), Tom Hart
(1994), Jessica Abel
(1995), James Sturm
(1996), Ellen Forney
(1997), Jim Ottaviani
(1997), Gene Yang
(1997), Jason Little
(1998), David Choe
(1999), Nick Bertozzi
(1999), Jason Shiga
(1999), Farel Dalrymple
(2000), Anders Nilsen
(2000), Leland Purvis
(2000), Jordan Crane
(2001), Brian Ralph
(2001), Hans Rickheit
(2001), Donna Barr
(2002), Derek Kirk Kim (2002), Sonny Liew
(2002), Lauren Weinstein
(2002), Josh Neufeld
(2004), Karl Stevens
(2004), David Heatley
(2005), and Jeff Lemire
(2005).
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
, which for twenty years awarded self-publishing grants to 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...
creators, as well as qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations. The Xeric Foundation was established by Peter Laird
Peter Laird
Peter Alan Laird is an American comic book writer and artist. He is best known for co-creating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with writer and artist Kevin Eastman.-Early life and career:...
, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
.
Mission and operation
Laird founded the Foundation after considerable thought, as "an appropriate way to give back something extra to the comics world," by providing grants for self-publishers. Laird stated that the Xeric Foundation is "actually two foundations in one. One half of it is for charitable organizations, and the other half is for creators who want to self-publish their comics." That latter half being what the foundation is best known for.Self-publishing grants
The Xeric Foundation supported work of an alternativeAlternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
or non-"mainstream" nature, reasoning that if a comic had strong commercial appeal, it would be picked up by one of the major publishers. The Foundation was an extremely valuable supporter of "art for art's sake" comics, and helped launch the careers of a number of "literary" cartoonists.
The Foundation assisted comic book creators with some of the costs in self-publishing their work; it was not the Foundation's intention to fully support an artist/writer through the entire process of self-publishing, but rather to encourage creators to experience the learning process involved in working towards such a goal.
The creative side of the Foundation involved the usual application process, but in addition, the Foundation began with "an advisory committee made up of three ... people working in the industry" whose input is sought on how best to proceed with each application. Submissions were evaluated prior to Laird's involvement, and then he made the ultimate decisions based on their recommendations.
History
Laird founded the Xeric Foundation in 1992, the name "originat[ing] out of a ScrabbleScrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
game with [Laird's] brother Don," "Xeric" simply being "a word [he] like[d]," ostensibly meaning "dry and desertlike" — but which ultimately "has absolutely no direct connection with the foundation."
The Foundation's first grant cycle was in September 1992, with the first recipients being Robert Eaton, Michael Kasper, Jeff Nicholson, and Wayne Wise & Fred Wheaton.
In 1993 Laird discussed the Foundation's projected lifespan:
He hoped that ultimately the figure can be raised from "thousands of dollars" to "hundreds of thousands of dollars," to support an increasing number of large and small projects.
In July 2011, the Foundation announced it would no longer award publishing grants, instead, focusing on charitable work, including fostering environmentalism, literacy, and the arts. Citing the changing nature of the comics industry, and specifically the ability of cartoonists to publish their work online, founder Laird announced the shift. According to the organization's website, one round of final grants will be awarded in 2012, giving applicants until May of 2012 to complete their work. (The Foundation cancelled the scheduled November 2011 review.)
Altogether, the Xeric Foundation has awarded in excess of $2,500,000 since its first grant cycle.
Notable Xeric Award recipients
Notable past winners of the Xeric Grant include Megan KelsoMegan 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...
(1993), David Lasky
David Lasky
David Lasky is an alternative cartoonist based in Seattle, Washington.After spending the bulk of his life in Virginia, and graduating from the College of William & Mary, Lasky moved to Seattle in 1992...
(1993), Jason Lutes
Jason Lutes
Jason Lutes is an American comics creator. His work is mainly historical fiction, but he also works in traditional fiction...
(1993), Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine , a popular contemporary cartoonist, is best known for his ongoing comic book series Optic Nerve and his periodical illustrations in The New Yorker.- Biography :...
(1993), Tom Hart
Tom Hart (comics)
Tom Hart is an American comics creator best known for his Hutch Owen series of comics.-Career:Tom Hart began making mini-comics while living in Seattle in the early 1990s...
(1994), Jessica Abel
Jessica Abel
Jessica Abel is an American comic book writer and artist, known as the creator of such works as Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, Soundtrack, La Perdida, Mirror, Window, Radio: An Illustrated Guide , and the omnibus series Artbabe.Abel has stated that her major work is not...
(1995), James Sturm
James Sturm
James Sturm is an American cartoonist, Xeric Award-winner, and co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont...
(1996), Ellen Forney
Ellen Forney
Ellen Forney is a cartoonist and teacher based in Seattle, Washington, whose work has been published by Fantagraphics Books and The Stranger , among other publications. Her most recent collection is called Lust...
(1997), Jim Ottaviani
Jim Ottaviani
Jim Ottaviani is the author of several comic books about the history of science. His best-known work, Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists, features biographical stories about Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Niels Bohr, and several stories about physicist Richard Feynman...
(1997), Gene Yang
Gene Yang
Gene Luen Yang is an American comics artist whose graphic novel American Born Chinese was named a 2006 finalist for the National Book Award in the young people's literature category and was awarded the 2007 Members' Choice Award from the Asian American Literary Awards...
(1997), Jason Little
Jason Little (cartoonist)
Jason Palmer Little is an American cartoonist.He grew up in Binghamton, New York, studied photography at Oberlin College, and now lives in Brooklyn with writer Myla Goldberg and their two daughters....
(1998), David Choe
David Choe
David Choe is an American painter, muralist, graffiti artist and graphic novelist of Korean descent. He achieved art world success with his "dirty style" figure paintings—raw, frenetic works which combine themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation...
(1999), Nick Bertozzi
Nick Bertozzi
Nick Bertozzi is an American comic book writer and artist, as well as a commercial illustrator and teacher of cartooning. His series Rubber Necker from Alternative Comics won the 2003 Harvey Awards for best new talent and best new series. His project, The Salon Nick Bertozzi (born May 26, 1970)...
(1999), Jason Shiga
Jason Shiga
Jason Shiga is an Asian American cartoonist who incorporates puzzles, mysteries and unconventional narrative techniques into his work.-Early life:...
(1999), Farel Dalrymple
Farel Dalrymple
Farel Dalrymple is an American artist and alternative comics creator. He is best known for his award-winning comics series Pop Gun War.-Career:...
(2000), Anders Nilsen
Anders Nilsen
Anders Nilsen is a popular artist and graphic novelist who grew up in Minneapolis and lives in Chicago, IL.He works on an ongoing comic series, Big Questions , which has been nominated several times for the Ignatz Award. In addition, his comics have appeared in the anthologies Kramers Ergot and Mome...
(2000), Leland Purvis
Leland Purvis
Leland Purvis is a comic book writer and artist, best known for his black and white series Vóx and Pubo.-Awards:Purvis was nominated for the 2004 Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent for his work on Suspended in Language...
(2000), 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...
(2001), 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...
(2001), Hans Rickheit
Hans Rickheit
-Profile:Rickheit was originally a resident of Ashburnham, Massachusetts. He originally self-published minicomics which presented dark vignettes and short stories, many of them directly inspired by dreams. He also produced short films....
(2001), Donna Barr
Donna Barr
Donna Barr is an American comic book author and cartoonist.She was born in Everett, Washington, the second child in a family of six siblings....
(2002), Derek Kirk Kim (2002), Sonny Liew
Sonny Liew
Sonny Liew is a Malaysian-born comic artist/illustrator based in Singapore. He is best known for his work on Vertigo Comics' My Faith in Frankie together with Mike Carey and Marc Hempel, and Marvel Comics' "Sense and Sensibility" adaptation....
(2002), Lauren Weinstein
Lauren Weinstein (comic book artist)
Lauren R. Weinstein is an American comic book artist. Her surrealist alternative comics detail a complex world where a pall of mystery, sexual intrigue and violent death hangs over the animal kingdom, outer space and suburban America alike...
(2002), Josh Neufeld
Josh Neufeld
Josh Neufeld is an alternative cartoonist known for his nonfiction comics on subjects like Hurricane Katrina, international travel, and finance, as well as his collaborations with writers like Harvey Pekar and Brooke Gladstone...
(2004), Karl Stevens
Karl Stevens
Karl Stevens is a graphic novelist and painter. His first book, Guilty, was published in 2004 with a grant from the Xeric Foundation. He is also the author of Whatever and The Lodger...
(2004), David Heatley
David Heatley
David Heatley is an American cartoonist, illustrator, graphic designer and musician.- Education :Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, Heatley graduated from Teaneck High School in 1993. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000.-Comics:Though he studied painting and filmmaking at Oberlin,...
(2005), and Jeff Lemire
Jeff Lemire
Jeff Lemire is a Canadian comics artist and writer. He is the author of the Essex County Trilogy, Sweet Tooth and The Nobody. Lemire is known for a his moody, humanistic stories and sketchy, cinematic, black-and-white art....
(2005).