‘We’re making inclusive comics:’ Port Orchard-based queer comic book publisher gets nationwide grant – Kitsap Sun
PORT ORCHARD — Jordaan Arledge’s hobby turned into their career, and now their business, Arledge Comics, is receiving a national grant for businesses that support LGBTQ people of color.
The local comic book business is a recipient of the Human Rights Campaign and Showtime “Queer to Stay” small business grant, announced earlier this month. The goal of the grant is to ensure that the small businesses that represent and serve the LGBTQ community continue to stay afloat during the pandemic, according to a press release.
Jordaan Arledge is the founder of Arledge Comics, which has an administration of three, including Arledge’s sister, Sharron. The siblings are from the Chickasaw Nation and grew up in Port Orchard, graduating from South Kitsap High School. Zach Sherwood, the director of operations, also grew up in the South Kitsap area.
Arledge said the comic business began unofficially during their last year at Central Washington University. They thought they wanted to be an English teacher, but once finding an interest in writing, they combined it with something they’ve always had an interest in — comic books.
When getting started, Arledge began writing stories and began connecting with other artists online.
“It started as a hobby and quickly turned into a profitable hobby and then evolved into a small business with the right help,” Arledge said.
Arledge says the comics the company creates can be enjoyed and shared by the whole family. They said a lot of comic media has begun skewing toward older audiences, but the team all grew up enjoying comics.
“It’s almost a recapture of that feeling, reading this as a 13-year-old or being read it as a 6-year-old. You don’t get a lot of that in mainstream comics anymore,” Arledge said.
In addition to making comics that market to a wider age group, the company curates comics that have a diverse set of protagonists. For example, one character is a genderqueer blue-collar vampire hunter.
“I grew up in a time when anything that was queer or even looked a little bit gay was not acceptable for children,” Arledge said.
“We’re making inclusive comics,” they added.
Arledge said those comics with queer characters or people of color have that same representation on the team creating them.
“It’s coming from our own experiences,” Arledge said.
Arledge Comics is a publisher, so the focus is on the development and publication of graphic novels. The collection can be found on the website arledgecomics.com, at comic shops around the Pacific Northwest, and at comic conventions. Avalon Comics and Games in Silverdale has been carrying Arledge Comics since day one, Arledge said.
The library is pretty diverse, Arledge said, with comics that include musicals, time travel, and paranormal pseudo-romance to start. Arledge Comics has also produced a number of anthologies, they said.
There is no office building, as the team decided to work remotely from the beginning, saving on overhead costs and giving better opportunities to some who may struggle with a 9-to-5 type of job, such as someone with disabilities, Arledge said. A warehouse is used to fulfill orders.
Arledge wouldn’t disclose how much the company received through the “Queer to Stay” business grant, only that it was a substantial amount that will help keep the business on solid footing. The Human Rights Campaign did not respond to a query about the size of the grant by press time.
“Pre-pandemic, we were aggressively expanding,” Arledge said. But once the pandemic hit, Arledge and their team had to make some hard choices about whether to stock the inventory or support new titles to diversify the library, with in-store shopping being limited and no convention revenue.
“This funding will allow us to re-expand where we were forced to cut back. This means new projects, debuting brand-new graphic novels and paying queer content creators to do what they love.”
Money from the grant made it possible to pay artists to work on new titles, as well as get reprints of almost all current titles. The administration team was also able to get paid for the first time in a long time, Arledge said.
The “Queer to Stay” initiative was created during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020 and awarded money to 10 businesses across the United States. This year, 20 businesses were supported by HRC and Showtime to further help LGBTQ businesses who may still be undergoing hardships from COVID-19.
“In addition to financially supporting a diverse mix of LGBTQ+ establishments across the nation — including a clinic, restaurants, bars, salons and shops — we’re expanding into educational resources to help business owners surmount overwhelming obstacles and flourish during the disruption of the pandemic,” said Michael Engleman, chief marketing officer of Showtime Networks Inc.
Arledge said they were grateful for the funding opportunity directed at the LGBTQ community.
“It’s really important to us to highlight that we’re still here queer to stay and Natives are still here and making art,” Arledge said. “It’s been a labor of love for a long time and we’re the smallest of small businesses.”