Radiator Comics

Radiator Comics distributes, produces, and promotes hand-made, self-published and small-press comics that focus on self-expression and storytelling. At the core of our mission is a commitment to increasing the population of comic book readers, providing support to comic book makers to create the best work they possibly can, and to fairly compensate those creators for their work.

Founded in Chicago in July of 2014, Radiator Comics’ primary focus is distributing minicomics created by excellent comics makers who are passionate about telling sincere stories (both fictional and nonfictional) that speak to our society and humanity.

Our secondary focus is publishing comics by emerging cartoonists who excite us. In April of 2017, Radiator Comics published our first book, The Chronicles of Fortune, by Coco Picard.

We started publishing Whit Taylor’s minicomic series, Fizzle in June 2019. In 2020 Fizzle won an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series, and was nominated again in 2023!

In the Spring of 2021, we published three issues of Spiny Orb Weaver, an arts journal about cartooning in South Florida highlighting the work of Miss Jaws, Drew Lerman, and Jamila Rowser. The first three issues were funded with a 2019 Ellies Award, Miami’s visual arts award, presented by Oolite Arts!

In March 2022, we published Días de Consuelo by Dave Ortega, which was a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Award, an Overfloweth Title for the Virginia Library Association’s Graphic Novel Diversity Award, and the Silver Medal Winner for The International Latino Book Awards, Best Young Adult Nonfiction Book!

In September of 2022 we took over publishing responsibilities of Viewotron: Comics and Stories by Sam Sharpe & Peach S. Goodrich from AdHouse Books. Viewotron: Comics and Stories was nominated for the 2023 Outstanding Series Ignatz Award!

In April 2023 we published Escape from the Great American Novel by Drew Lerman, part of his Snake Creek series, which won the 2023 Outstanding Series Ignatz Award! (For those keeping track, yes, we were involved with 3 out of the 5 nominees in that category in 2023, nbd)!

In September 2024 we will be publishing UM Volume One by buttercup, a magical girl comic about Eugenée, a Black nonbinary aspiring birthworker who finds themself mixed up in a millennia-old conflict between the powers that be and a faction of cosmic, shamanic midwives! We were thrilled to have Jamila Rowser and Steenz edit the book!

In August of 2017, we moved to Miami, where we’ve had the opportunity to run a few pop-up shops at local galleries, including EXILE Books and Locust Projects. In addition to running a comic book store, we ran a series of workshops and readings, which we found really rewarding.

In order to continue the programming, we applied for a Knight Arts Challenge Grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to create a physical work and meeting space for cartoonists. Originally scheduled to open in the spring of 2020, Radiator Comics Studio had to switch to a series of online programming because of the COVID-19 pandemic!

Radiator Comics Studio’s programming led to an online community of cartoonists who encourage and support each other through a discord and peer-to-peer activities. When Radiator Comics Studio’s programming concluded in September of 2021, the group renamed itself the Heatsink Comics Collective, and is a thriving community, which you are welcome to join!

In the Fall of 2020, the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo invited us to partner with them to offer distribution to recipients of their MICE Mini-Grant (which they were expanding to support cartoonists during the Pandemic). Through this program, we’ve added over 70 new Mini-Grant titles to our distro, and been introduced to some amazing cartoonists!

We started out in 2014 distributing 25 cartoonists’ titles. Now, as Radiator Comics starts its second decade, we represent over 200 self-publishers and small presses!

We are constantly looking for new artists to represent, and new venues to sell those artists’ comics to. We are also passionately invested in enriching the self-published and small-press comics community, and are interested in supporting others’ hard work for our community as well.

If you want to get in touch with us about any of those concerns, please use our Contact Form.

Radiator Comics is owned and operated by Neil Brideau, a maker of all-ages comics in Miami, FL. Neil worked at Quimby’s Bookstore (an epicenter of minicomics and zines) from 2009 – 2015. From 2010 to 2012, Neil was a founding co-organizer of the Chicago Zine Fest, and then helped found the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo in 2012, which he organized through 2017. Neil was a juror for the Ignatz Awards in 2017, and the Kinnard Awards in 2023. He’s been making minicomics since 2006, and loves photocopying & binding his comics.

All physical correspondence should be sent to
Radiator Comics
PO Box 530054
Miami Shores, FL 33153-0054