The name "Epic Wayne" originates from the famous Twitter poster dril's friend who is definitely real. Epic Wayne's association with independent comics began when the cartoonist Teo Suzuki invented a fake publisher to make the presentation of his first printed book look more professional. Epic Wayne Press wasn't fully realized as a project until Cyd Levine, Suzuki's then art school classmate now long-time collaborator, asked to put the name and signature sweating sun on her comics as well, acting as a co-founder. Over the next year or two, the Epic Wayne Press roster was solidified with Suzuki and Cyd's inner circle, who all had a fervor for making original and exciting comics and zines. In the time since graduation, the group has kept in touch, frequently offering feedback, improving craft, and being catty.

  It is not fully clear how to define Epic Wayne Press as an operation. In the humble beginnings, it was hard for the founders to describe it as anything beyond a "collective." After all, each member was responsible for printing their own work, and got 100% of the profits, so the concept of calling it a business of any sort seemed absurd. However, Epic Wayne Press acted as a "distributor" for its members, traveling to comic shops and indie shows to sell the artists' books on their behalf. The fact that Epic Wayne Quarterly, an anthology magazine containing work from the group and outsiders, existed didn't seem significant until Epic Wayne Press began to be offered "publisher" tables at conventions. With that, any chance of pinning down categorization vanished. Are we a big-time comics publisher now? Small Press Expo seems to think so!

  Anyone involved in the scene will tell you how small the world of independent comics is. Nobody is really famous, nobody is really rich, everyone kinda knows each-other, and everyone is putting everything they can into their work. Epic Wayne Press' quasi-professional doubly-invested approach to self-publishing reflects those truths well, and Suzuki and Levine remain proud of their little corner of sequential art. It helps that we have the best working cartoonists under our belt, but that's just the cherry on top.