A RENOWNED Scottish publishing house is winding down business due to the financial impact of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Black Hearted Press (BHP) was set up in 2011 and grew to become Scotland’s leading publisher of comics and graphic novels. It was nominated in the publisher of the year category in the prestigious Saltire Society Awards in 2022.
Over the years the company was praised for a variety of projects, including its women in politics anthology We Shall Fight Until We Win co-published with 404 Ink.
It also published Freedom Bound, a graphic novel which tells the stories of three enslaved people living in Scotland before slavery became illegal.
Created in conjunction with the University of Glasgow with the aim of educating young people about slavery in Scotland, a copy was distributed to every secondary school in the country.
However, in a statement released on Monday, bosses said that despite expanding into the US market in 2019, shrinking profit margins and escalating costs “exacerbated by the complexities of Brexit” had made the international side of the business unfeasible.
Challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic also contributed to the decision to close the business.
Publisher Sha Nazir said: “I've loved working with everyone at BHP Comics and I'm really proud of all we’ve achieved. It’s been a tough decision to wind the company down but we feel it’s the right one.
“Over the course of the next few months we’ll be selling off all remaining BHP stock. If you've got a gap in your collection, now’s the time to grab it.
“BHP has been instrumental in opening numerous doors, and I take immense pride in its profound impact on both Scottish and UK comics publishing.
“We broke many barriers, getting wider acceptance of comics in UK publishing, increasing representation and being the only person of colour publisher in Scotland for far too long.
“BHP’s legacy lives on through the many lives it has touched. It will be around for the next few years in schools because of Freedom Bound and our titles will live on in the shelves of our readers and no doubt pop up in charity shops for years to come.”
Nazir said he would not be stepping away from the world of comics and vowed to continue his freelance publishing consultancy role for the Terry Pratchett estate.
