TopatoCo
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Online retail |
| Founded | Oklahoma, US (2004) |
| Founder | Jeffrey Rowland |
| Headquarters | , US |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Clothing, stickers, books |
| Website | topatoco |
The Topato Corporation (styled as TopatoCo) is a widely recognized online retailer of webcomics and related merchandise. It was established around 2004 by artist Jeffrey Rowland.
History
[edit]After Jeffrey Rowland[1] lost his job in 2004,[2] he started TopatoCo to help sell shirts, stickers, and other merchandise linked to his webcomics. When the 2004 presidential election was won by George W. Bush, Rowland designed a satirical T-shirt and sold 1000 of them in one month.[2]
Rowland later expanded the business to ship products ordered from friends' websites, who in 2007 moved their retailing to TopatoCo.[3] While Rowland founded the company while living in Oklahoma, by June of 2005 he had moved to Easthampton, Massachusetts.[4] In 2006, he began working with his partner Holly. The two were married in 2012, and still run the company together.
The company has been described as "perhaps the largest and most recognizable E-tailer of webcomic merchandise" by Caleb Goellner in ComicsAlliance[2] and takes its name from the Topato Potato character in Rowland's Wigu Adventures.[3] Rowland has described the company's business philosophy as being "give digital stuff away for free, sell real stuff".[2]
In 2013, Holly started Make That Thing, a Kickstarter management and fulfillment service.[5] Make That Thing originally served as a sister company to TopatoCo. Now Jeffrey and Holly manage and fulfill crowdfunding campaigns as part of TopatoCo's daily operations using the nickname TopatoGO.
Clients
[edit]Some cartoonists involved from the early days of the company are Jonathan Rosenberg, Richard Stevens, John Allison and Meredith Gran.[2] In a 2008 interview, Rowland stated that the "big guys" in terms of clients were Dinosaur Comics and Dr. McNinja.[1] Other clients include Questionable Content,[6] MS Paint Adventures,[7] and Girl Genius.[8] The company found in 2009 that it was growing too quickly, and reluctantly turned down some potential clients.[2]
List of creators
[edit]| Creator[9] | Notable Title(s) | Additional Note(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Abby Howard, Black Tabby Games | Scarlet Hollow | |
| Slay the Princess | ||
| Alex Schmidt | Secretly Incredibly Fascinating | |
| Andrew Hussie | MS Paint Adventures | |
| Anthony Clark | Beartato | |
| A. Senna Diaz | Dresden Codak | |
| Asymmetric Publications | Kingdom of Loathing | |
| Becky Dreistadt, Frank Gibson | Becky & Frank! | |
| Brandon Bird | ||
| Chris Hastings | The Adventures of Dr. McNinja | |
| Cohen Edenfield | Skulltenders | Features KC Green, Jess O’Brien, and Amber Carr |
| Dave Kellett | Sheldon | |
| David Malki | Wondermark | |
| Dorothy Gambrell | Cat and Girl | |
| Erin McKeown | ||
| Evan Dahm | ||
| Gene Ambaum | Library Comic | Illustrated by Willow Payne |
| Unshelved | Illustrated by Bill Barnes | |
| Ian McConville, Matthew Boyd | Three Panel Soul | |
| Ian Worthington | Worthikids | |
| Jeffrey Rowland | Topatoco Founder | |
| Jeph Jacques | Questionable Content | |
| Jessica Hayworth | ||
| Jess Fink | ||
| John Allison | ||
| John Hodgman | ||
| Jon Rosenberg | Scenes from a Multiverse | |
| Goats | ||
| Jonathan Coulton | ||
| Joey Comeau | A Softer World | Illustrated by Emily Horne |
| Julia Wertz | ||
| Kate Beaton | Hark! A Vagrant | |
| Kate Leth | Affiliated with Night Vale Presents | |
| KC Green | Gunshow | |
| KoiBeat | ||
| Kory Bing | Skin Deep | |
| Lucy Knisley | ||
| Machine of Death | Anthology edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki | |
| Mattie Lubchansky | ||
| MC Frontalot | ||
| Michael Kupperman | ||
| Niel Cicierega | ||
| New Leaf Literary | Cassandra Clare | |
| Holly Black | ||
| Leigh Bardugo | ||
| Liz Climo | ||
| Night Vale Presents | Alice Isn't Dead | |
| The Orbiting Human Circus | Written by Julian Koster | |
| Welcome to Night Vale | ||
| Within the Wires | ||
| Oh Joy Sex Toy! | Originally created by Erika Moen | |
| Olive Rae Brinker | Rae the Doe | |
| Olivia Jaimes | Nancy | Continuation of the 1938 Ernie Bushmiller comic of the same name |
| Phil & Kaja Foglio | Girl Genius | |
| Post Everything Productions | The Story Must Be Told | |
| Richard Stevens | Diesel Sweeties | |
| Rosemary Mosco | Bird and Moon | |
| Ryan North | Dinosaur Comics | |
| Sarah Jolley | The Property of Hate | |
| Sam Logan | Sam & Fuzzy | |
| Shen (Andrew Tsyaston) | Shen Comix | |
| Smallbu Animation | Co-created by Lindsay and Alex Small-Butera | |
| This Modern World | Tom Tomorrow | |
| Tom Siddell | Gunnerkrigg Court | |
| Trudy Cooper, Doug Bayne | Oglaf | |
| twistCMYK | ||
| Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre | Mission to Zyxx | |
| Ursula Vernon | Red Wombat | |
| Will Flanary | Dr. Glaucommflecken |
References
[edit]- ^ a b Marshall, Rick (21 March 2008). "Interview: Jeffrey Rowland on TopatoCo and 'Overcompensating'". ComicMix. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f Goellner, Caleb (5 October 2009). "TopatoCo's Jeffrey Rowland On 'Overcompensating' and the Wild West of Webcomics". ComicsAlliance. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
- ^ a b "What is This Whole Thing About Anyway". TopatoCo website. TopatoCo. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ McHenry, Sarah (2017-08-28). "Wizards and Comics and Dinosaurs! Oh My!". Take Magazine. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
- ^ Macdonald, Heidi (2013-03-14). "More details on Make That Thing, TopatoCo's Kickstarter Fulfillment House". ComicsBeat.
- ^ Braff, Mike (29 November 2009). "The FUNN-e-PAGES: Overcompensating". Suvudu. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
- ^ Chen, Jialu (2 August 2011). "See you in the funny pages". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
- ^ MacDonald, Heidi (12 October 2012). "Girl Genius hands over retail business to TopatoCo". The Beat. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
- ^ "Topatoco". Topatoco. 8 November 2024. Archived from the original on 7 November 2024. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
