An oft-sidelined medium that sells big dreams for private pleasure, comics is largely populated by faces you almost never see and voices you almost never hear.

However, not everyone who works in comics is shy of the spotlight. Since the first 'Excelsior' ever saw four-colour print, the art of the big sell has been a vital thread through the history of the industry. The showmen are as important a part of comics as the withdrawn and wary artists, and it's perhaps in the interests of the industry's survival for there to be a Stan Lee for every Steve Ditko.

Fortunately, the internet has provided an incredibly effective outlet for these comic book Barnums. New publishers can now emerge from nowhere to become recognisable names in the pages of Previews. One of the loudest and most unmissable of these new publishers is AiT/PlanetLar [www.ait-planetlar.com], led by founder, publisher and raconteur Larry Young.

Larry Young believes in the power of hype.

"'Promoting by showmanship' will beat 'promoting by dry rote' every time, if only because it's more interesting," says Young from his office in San Francisco. "Witness the illegitimate Children of Stan running rampant across the comics landscape: Bill Jemas' wild antics, Kevin Smith's cult of personality... even my own 21st Century True Believer patter. Showmanship will get you attention; you just have to make sure you're walking the walk as well as talking the talk when people come to check out what you're going on about."

Larry Young certainly seems to know how to grab people's attention. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and bumped from state to state for much of his youth, Young first entered into the world of publishing as a paste-up artist at an advertising firm.

Thereafter, he worked as a production co-ordinator for a tabloid newspaper, and as art director for a department store's in-house advertising department. These days, though, he's a publisher of "high quality trade paperbacks and original graphic novels for the discerning reader," working with his wife and business partner Mimi Rosenheim, and recently appointed production coordinator Ryan Yount, the latest member of the PlanetLar family.

"We started out concentrating on science fiction and what Mimi calls 'action-adventure-with-a-twist'," explains Young, "although we've been at it long enough to branch out into more than a few genres, including horror, comedy, historical fiction, and prose."

An effective brand-builder, Young is aware that a publisher can't get by on hype alone - but he also insists that the hype is important. "You could be a consummate marketer and not have a very good comic; that wouldn't get you anywhere," he notes. "Conversely, you could produce The Best Comic Book Ever Made, and if it sells 300 copies through the direct market because you haven't got out and beaten the bushes, no one is going to know about it.

"Making comic books is both 'creation of art' and 'selling an entertainment'. That's where most folks, who talk to me at comics shops and conventions, slip the rails. They either are focused on 'moving product' or 'making Art'.

"The most valuable talent would be the ability to do both."

Being such a forceful publicist can earn a man a reputation, of course, and as Stan Lee and Bill Jemas both discovered, not everyone appreciates the barker's cries.

"When we were still in early days, there were a few unpleasant folks who would spout on about how distasteful my 'self-promotion' was to them," remembers Young. "I had to laugh a bit at that, as we had spent US$50,000 on ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE: LIVE FROM THE MOON before anyone had seen a printed copy of the first issue. If anyone thought I was going to go crawl under a rock after spending that kind of scratch without doing every single thing I possibly could to not only recover that investment but to make a tidy sum as well, they were sadly friggin' mistaken.

"I don't think we can hype too much," he insists. "For every person who gets disgusted at the constant reminders or dismisses a look at our section of Previews, there are many more new converts and folks on our side. So, we must be doing something right."

So is Young's brash and outspoken online persona just part of an act to draw attention to his company? Young won't say. "There's a great quote by George Orwell: 'Man wears a mask; his face then grows to fit it'. There's a rich amount of meaning there, in that one sentence. Let's leave it that I chose the publisher mask I wear very purposefully. Whether or not the mask actually conceals anything I'll leave for others to debate."

If it is an act, it seems to have done the trick - but AiT/PlanetLar was no overnight success story. It took Young years to gather the funds together to go into business. He first came into the public eye as the author of action adventure mini-series ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE, published by Gun Dog Comics and illustrated by Matt Smith and Charlie Adlard.

That was enough of a hit that he was willing to take the plunge and go into business for himself with the collected edition of the series. AiT/PlanetLar followed up with the script collection and reprints of uncollected Image and Oni books CHANNEL ZERO and NOBODY. As Young is never reticent to point out, those books and every book published by AiT/PlanetLar remain in print - as does TRUE FACTS, a collection of Young's columns offering advice on self-publishing, originally published on Savant.

Young believes that anyone can publish a comic if they really want to - but isn't it necessary to build up the bank balance first?

"Well, yes, in the sense that you need money to accomplish anything," says Young, "But you don't have to take the path I did by hiring artists and production folks and working in advertising, marketing and promotions for eighteen years before you begin.

"You can very literally produce a 24-page black and white comic book for pocket change. Find a way to make marks on paper, draw, ink, letter it up professionally, and mail it to a printer. Diamond will pay you in ten days for a two percent discount; your printer will have you on net thirty. By the time the printer comes looking for its payment, you'll have been enjoying your Diamond check for a fortnight. Yes, you need to be savvy about it; yes, all the dominoes need to fall correctly. But not having 'money' isn't the obstacle some folks say it is."

So if it comes to it, a would-be publisher should be willing to hock a kidney?

"If they want to make comics badly enough, nothing will stop them."

The AiT backlist is expanding at a rate of at least one book a month. When asked to pick the one book on the coming slate that he's the most excited about, the consummate salesman is careful to mention as many as he can.

"I can't pick just one. I'm psyched Charlie Adlard is able to return to ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE with CITIZEN DAVE this spring, as there hasn't been an AiT book since September of 2000. I'm very much looking forward to Warren Ellis and Brandon McKinney's SWITCHBLADE HONEY, because it's the sort of science fiction adventure I want to read as a fan of comics.

"Brian Wood and Rob G's THE COURIERS and Bri and Becky Cloonan's CHANNEL ZERO: JENNIE ONE are a vindication of my belief that Brian is a seminal if under-appreciated force in comics. Matt Fraction's got a couple books coming that are going to be sweet; I discovered an excellent artist who'll be painting a book for us, and I don't know who's happier about it - me, or him...

"I can't choose just one. They are all our children, and we love them all differently. Had you asked Mimi this question, you'd have gotten a completely different list, I assure you."

Young has a tendency to treat his creators as friends, to the extent where you'd be forgiven for thinking he conducts all his business in a bar over a few beers.

"I wish we were able to do things that way," he admits. "But it must seem like it to the outside observer, and, metaphorically, I suppose it is. Because we publish only one book a month - we're slowly ramping up to two a month - it is a vital component of our marketing strategy that I love each book as if I wrote it myself. Just publishing something for the sake of putting a book out is just an exercise in tree killing.

"And with the administrative hassles and paperwork and contracts and ad building and scheduling and production challenges and whatnot, I would be a very frustrated man indeed if I didn't believe in what I was doing and who I was doing it for. And it makes for a very pleasant sense of accomplishment every three months when I write out the accountings and the royalty checks that I know we have put out quality books that have added to the scene in some way, and that the money we've made with our hard work and talent is going to folks who I respect as artists and as people, well... well, it's quite gratifying.

"And since having us publish a book is very much like inviting someone to join our family, I suppose if they're not friends of mine before we publish, they're friends of mine after. Putting out comics is like fighting a war, every month. You really appreciate the folks in the trenches with you; the guys who watch your back.

"So, yeah: beers between friends."

Young is clearly deeply passionate about his work - but is his passion rewarded? "I think passion is its own reward, honestly," he says. "Producing a comic book is a bit of a trial. People get ill, tempers flare, balls of all sorts get dropped; you muddle through as best you can, regardless.

"But when it's over and you have a printed copy of a book with your name on the spine up on the shelf you can take down and read and hold in your hand and be proud of your work and give it a heft and marvel that through cleverness and sweat and toil you gave this thing existence, well, to tell you the truth, that's a fine reward, indeed."

Andrew Wheeler is a London-based entertainment journalist.

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