Barbra Dillon Editor-in-Chief of Fanbase Press Interview - Women In Comics Feature

As I was setting up the round of interviews that would be our first Women In Comics Feature to celebrate Women’s History Month on the podcast, I wanted to get a variety of voices included to represent different facets of the medium. That lead me to reaching out to Barbra Dillon, Editor-In-Chief of Fanbase Press, a GLAAD Winning and Eisner and Harvey Nominated publisher and geek culture website. Who better than Barbra to cover the angle from both the vantage point of a small indy comics publisher as well as comics journalism. Two birds, one stone and I’ve been meaning to catch up with her since last Fall when their anthology Ripple Effects was crowdfunding which was of considerable interest to me as its focus is to increase awareness of and highlight people with incurable non-visible diseases like myself. I don’t know of another comics journalism outlet that shares such a strongly aligned set of core values like Fanbase does so it was a pleasure to finally get a chance to catch up with her and chat about representation in the medium. Fanbase are celebrating their 15th Anniversary in 2025 and provide a range of unique and diverse programming to support creators in the medium. Please take a moment to check them out if you haven’t already. Mission Statement Fanbase Press celebrates fandoms and creates new ones! As a GLAAD Media Award-winning and an Eisner and Harvey Awards-nominated comic book publisher and geek culture website, Fanbase Press produces new and distinctive works, as well as daily reviews, interviews, and podcasts, that span the pop culture spectrum and give voice to the themes, ideals, and people that make geekdom so exceptional. Fanbase Press believes that #StoriesMatter. Acknowledging the importance of stories and the impact of storytelling is at the core of the organization. Universal communication through stories allows us to examine the essentials of human existence, to understand ourselves better and to grow and/or heal, to pass on important values, knowledge, and lessons to the next generation, and to connect with one another through empathy and compassion. Fanbase Press holds a commitment to looking beyond the simple entertainment factor of pop culture storytelling in order to find the value that each story offers to us as individuals, our world, and/or the human condition. The company was founded in 2010 (originally under the name Fanboy Comics) rebranded to Fanbase Press in May 2016 by co-founders Barbra and Bryant Dillon. Fanbase Press’ graphic novels, including the 2024 GLAAD Media Award-winning Four-Color Heroes, 2023 Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated Ripple Effects, 2018 Eisner Award-nominated Quince, the 2020 IPPY Award-winning Quince: The Definitive Bilingual Edition hardcover, the 2022 International Latino Book Award-winning Nuclear Power, the 2019 IPPY Award-winning A Geek’s Guide to Cross-Stitch: Journeys in Space, the 2014 Bram Stoker Award-nominated Fearworms: Selected Poems, The Sequels, The Margins, The Gamma Gals, Something Animal, Identity Thief, The Arcs, and Penguins vs. Possums, are available online at www.fanbasepress.com. Here’s the link for GeeksOut that I talk about in the show. PATREON We have a new Patreon, CryptidCreatorCornerpod. If you like what we do, please consider supporting us. We got two simple tiers, $1 and $3. Want to know more, you know what to do. ARKENFORGE Play TTRPG games? Make sure to check out our partner Arkenforge. Use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off your order. THE LANTERN CATALOG Created on the premise of creating light in the dark, this is the the go to resource to keep you up to date on the indy projects and the creators you love. You can find them at https://www.thelanterncatalog.com/. Make sure to check out our sponsor 2000AD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices