SLG Publishing was conceived of and founded by Dan Vado in 1986 when he had the sudden realization that comics were merely "paper, ink, and staples." We will overlook the fact that this epiphany arrived after many years in the comics business, including two retail stores (separated by five years, but miraculously in the same location) and organizing several conventions.

The first book Slave Labor Graphics actually published was called Shadow Star #3 (the first two were published independently by two of Dan's friends). But the book that put the company on the map was Samurai Penguin #1 by Dan and Mark Buck, which sold a staggering 58,000 copies in the summer of 1986. Back then, speculation was rampant in the industry, and everything we put out sold with inflated numbers. This would have been really cool if some distributors hadn't gone out of business without paying us, but regardless soon after the numbers dropped back to more realistic levels.

Our early line-up featured titles like Barabbas, Hero Sandwich, It's Science with Dr. Radium, and Suburban High Life. All these books were by guys Dan had been friends with in San Jose, like Gino Attanasio, Chuck Austen, Scott Saavedra, and Frank Cirocco. Within a short time, however, they all seemed to go in different directions, and only Scott Saavedra stayed and provided the young company with its look as the art director. 

Dan responded to all these changes inside and outside the company by finding new books to publish like Pirate Corp$! by Evan Dorkin and Tales from the Heart, the story of a Peace Corps worker in Africa. Pirate Corp$! led to Milk & Cheese and our first big success following the heady early days of the company. Also during this time, other future notables published their early work with us, including Mike Allred, Ed Brubaker, Jeff LeVine, Troy Nixey and many more.

In 1995, Dan launched the imprint Amaze Ink, which is dedicated to publishing all-ages humor and adventure comics. The first title to be published under the Amaze Ink banner was Skeleton Key, by Andi Watson, whose first comic book, Samurai Jam, was published by SLG in 1993. Amaze Ink continues to publish comics and graphic novels that are fun reading for kids and adults alike, such as Patty-Cake and Friends by Scott Roberts, Bombaby by Antony Mazzotta, Halo and Sprocket by Kerry Callen, The Super-Scary Monster Show by Landry Walker and Eric Jones and Jet Pack Pets by Michael Stewart and Garry Black.

Also in 1995, a kid named Jhonen Vasquez came walking into our office with a little book called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and Dan knew he was destined for success. Around the same time, Dan met Roman Dirge, who was self-publishing a magazine called Xenophobe and developing a character named Lenore. These two guys helped push our company into new markets and to new audiences, and the attention brought new creators to the company, such as Serena Valentino and Ted Naifeh, creators of GloomCookie.

Valentino remains one of the company's most prolific creators, writing both GloomCookie and Nightmares and Fairy Tales. The two series continue to be consistently strong sellers, with GloomCookie reaching its twenty-fifth issue and Nightmares its reaching its fifteenth in 2005. The two books are among the "goth" or "spooky" books that SLG is known for, among them Tommy Kovac's comics Stitch and Autumn, Landry Walker and Eric Jones's Little Gloomy comics, Little Scrowlie by Todd Meister and Jennifer Feinberg and Outlook: Grim by Black Olive.

However, SLG continues to remain true to our roots as a publisher of great diversity. Besides continuing to publish the work artists who have been with the company since its early years, such as Evan Dorkin and Andi Watson, we're proud to be a company known for taking chances on new talent and many types of comics. Among many new artists to have their first published comic work come through SLG are Jamie Smart (Bear), Christy Lijewski (Next Exit) and James Turner (Nil: A Land Beyond Belief and Rex Libris).