Conundrum Press celebrates 30 years! Help us celebrate 30 more.

Conundrum started in post-referendum Montreal putting out chapbooks and zines by hand. Since moving to the province of Nova Scotia on Canada’s East Coast in 2010 we’ve grown to being one of the most respected publishers of literary graphic novels in North America. 

But we need your help. 

Recently the provincial government severely cut their arts funding and thus our provincial funding has been obliterated. We’re fortunate to continue operating business as usual! But we’re looking to secure funding from other avenues, which lead us to Crowdfundr.

Because Conundrum Press has been publishing for three decades, we’re sitting on an impressive backlist of diverse titles and we want to get those books into your hands! We’ve gone digging and have compiled a selection of themed Conundrum Press backlist bundles and are offering them as reward tiers at a 50% discount.

And, of course in celebration of our 30 year anniversary, we’re launching our anthology 30x30: Thirty Years of Conundrum Press , which collects all the stories from the CONUNDRUM 25 series of pocketbooks. These pocketbooks can also be obtained in a beautiful, limited-edition boxset, with both  available as reward tier options.

So please consider supporting Conundrum’s Crowdfundr campaign and helping us navigate this tough time,
Andy Brown

“Based in Nova Scotia, Andy Brown’s Conundrum Press has quietly become a major force in alt-comics publishing.” – The Comics Journal

“One of the most respected and acclaimed graphic novel publishers in the country.” – Quill & Quire

“One of the things I have come to admire so much about Canadian publisher Conundrum Press is that they have no easily categorised brand identity. If you sift through our recent Broken Frontier coverage of their output you will see a sequential art publishing list that doesn’t so much embrace eclecticism but redefines it.” – Broken Frontier

The Rewards

Limited Edition Conundrum 25 Boxset

30x30: Thirty Years of Conundrum Press anthology // PHYSICAL EDITION

An anthology of graphic shorts from 25 Canadian artists. Featuring a preface by Andy Brown on thirty years of publishing activity at Conundrum, 30×30 collects all the books in the CONUNDRUM 25 pocketbook series in celebration of the 30th anniversary of this highly acclaimed publishing company. Featuring veteran cartoonists, archival work, and fresh new talents this anthology expands what a graphic short can be.

Edited by Andy Brown
Front cover by Adam de Souza
Back cover by Seth
Introduction by Zsuzsi Gartner
Biographical portraits by Jonathan Dyck

8 x 11.5 inches,
360 pages
2 colour
trade paper

30x30: Thirty Years of Conundrum Press anthology // DIGITAL EDITION

The same, but digital!

Make a Pledge Without a Reward

The loss of our provincial funding has impacted Conundrum's ability to secure printing fees. Support the campaign because you value the press, and get regular updates on the campaign's progress. Thank you!

The Backlist Bundles

Nova Scotia Bundle #1

Now based in the province for 15 years we are going local with this bundle! It includes the presale edition of Borderline by debut Mi'kmaw artist Zeta Paul. This book of her comics and art (which has been compared to Tank Girl) will not be released until the Fall but we are making a preview edition for the Crowdfundr. Also included is the first book in the EMANATA Imprint for YA Canadian graphic novels Call Me Bill. Lynette Richards tells the story of the wreck of the SS Atlantic through the complicated lens of gender. Also available is Kyle Vingoe-Cram's queer romance Kettle Harbour set in a theater company in fictional Parrsboro.

Nova Scotia Bundle #2

In keeping with the local theme are two artists from Halifax. I discovered Veronica Post through her godfather who designs stamps in my small town. She had a graphic novel about her travels in Eastern Europe from the POV of a doughy homeless man and his dog. The plot thickens when he flees to the USA and rides the rails with his Russian friend in Hot to Trot. Sofia Alarcon made mini comics about the climate crisis and was nominated for Doug Wright Awards. We collected the stories as Endsickness.

BDANG Bundle #1

Because we started in Montreal in the 1990s discovering the French underground comix community was mind blowing. I formed an imprint to translate and release some works from Quebec into North America. Twenty-one titles have been released so far. One of the first artists to come to me was the legendary Michel Rabagliati. He was already well established in English and French and it was my honour to take over his English releases for three titles, including Paul Up North about his autobiographical stand in's teenage years. Also from La Pasteque in French is one of the artists from the 90s I admired, Siris. The Vagabond Valise is his epic autobiography about growing up in a series of foster homes. One of my favourite cartoonists is Pascal Girard who drew Fanny & Romeo written by sitcom writer Yves Pelletier. It's either him or the cat! She picks the cat. 

BDANG Bundle #2

Simon Bossé was silkscreening a lot of the mini comics in the 90s. But he is also a master cartoonist. He released three books (mostly silent) with L'Oie de Cravan, including Loiterers, and I got the privilege of collecting them into one package for the English market. 100 Days in Uranium City is a gorgeous poetic story of Ariane Dénommé's parents in a northern work camp in the 1970s. It won the Doug Wright Award. BDQ : Essays and Interviews on Quebec Comics is the non-fiction companion to the Imprint featuring essays and interviews on Quebec Comics.

BDANG Bundle #3

We can't keep up with the output of Philippe Girard. It seems as if he puts out a book a year in French. We have translated 3 titles for the series including the novella Obituary Man, released in 2013. The most recent title, and a crossover with our YA imprint Emanata, When the Lake Burns is by rising star Geneviève Bigué and tells the story of a group of teens who set out to solve the mystery of the lake on fire. When I first read The Shiatsung Project I was unsure how to feel. It was creepy and strange but so good. I couldn't believe this was Brigitte Archambault's debut title. In the end we chose to publish it and it went on to win the Doug Wright Award for best book, beating some real heavyweights!

The David Collier Bundle

Canadian national treasure Collier needs no introduction by me. Hamilton's own has published 4 books with Conundrum Press. Chimo is his memoir of joining the army. Morton is his memoir of travelling by rail across the country (which also features the story of the publication of Chimo), and Topp is his biography of legendary Toronto music promoter Gary Topp.

International Bundle #1

After attending the Angouleme Comics Festival in France in 2012 we discovered literally an entire world of comics not translated into English. To rectify the situation we founded our International Imprint. The first title was in 2013 by Hong Kong artist, Chihoi, called The Library. We went all in with a hardcover! Nina Bunjevac introduced us to the work of Croatian artist Igor Hofbauer, and even helped translate his book Mister Morgen into English for us. We waited for his next book and discovered an Italian publisher had released his novella Crimson Quays (written by Jonathan Bousfield) in an English edition so we bought up most of the copies and offer it here. Dharma Punks is the collected North American edition of New Zealand artist Ant Sang. It features the ghost of Kurt Cobain who had just died when it was being drawn.

International Bundle #2

When Aimée de Jongh saw our 20th anniversary anthology 20x20 she wanted to submit something to Conundrum. When she sent me Taxi! she noted it was her most personal project yet and that it would come out in English even before her native Dutch. Aimée has recently released the Lord of The Flies adaptation. I am so proud to have her on the backlist. Again at Angouleme I was approached by her Dutch publisher Scratch Books who was looking for English distribution for their anthology Scratches. It was edited by one of my heros Joost Swarte, so of course I said yes. I feel it is like a modern version of RAW, mixing high art and comics from both Europe and North America (including another hero, Charles Burns!). Selling here at a big discount. Anna Sommer's The Unknown is her only book in English. I discovered her work in German at the Erlangen festival. This was unfortunately released during the pandemic and was the last of the imprint.

Old School Fiction Bundle

This bundle goes way back to the origins of Conundrum! Before switching exclusively to graphic novels we published a lot of fiction. Conundrum started off in 1996 with everything I need to know about love I learned from taxidermy by my roommate at the time, Catherine Kidd. It came with a cassette of her spoken word performances. A few years later I was honoured to publish her epic novel Missing the Ark. I discovered Maya Merrick working as a waitress at the local drinking hole. She had written the novel Sextant. Her follow up was this hefty tome, The Hole Show. Our first perfect bound "real" book was Lance Blomgren's Walkups, which featured vignettes of the interior lives in various Montreal apartments, including mine. This follow up, Corner Pieces, focused on the exterior spaces.

Old School Art Books Bundle

Also going back in the archives. Now an internationally recognized artist, I discovered Shary Boyle's zines (or bookworks as she called them) at the turn of the millenium. She came to my grungy 5-plex and lived for a week in one of the apartments making Witness My Shame, collecting the bookworks. The first edition sold out quickly so this is the reprint. Around the same time I discovered Sonja Ahlers who was making zines that were in book form. Her 1997 Temper Temper was an influence on the direction Conundrum would take. Swan Song is the culmination of her life's work in this medium. Dwelling for Intervals was a travelling residency curated by Dutch artist Yvette Poorter. She started with a room in her apartment (where I stayed for 3 days) and expanded it globally with a tent that also came to my backyard! This book is a collection of work from the artists who stayed in the residency.