Chris Staros

Staros never read comics as a child, thinking that books with pictures were for children. Later, he learned guitar and spent years playing in rock bands. As an adult, Staros spent a decade in the high-tech software industry. One day in 1990, Staros stepped inside a Marietta, Georgia, comic book store. Uninterested in superhero comics, Staros was directed to Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta. That chance encounter led to Staros making comics his career.[1]

Staros spent the next four years studying all forms of comics, from the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics to contemporary alternative titles.[2] He officially entered the comics field in 1994 with The Staros Report, an annual fanzine dedicated to promoting "the most intelligent and innovative" graphic novels in the business. In addition to ranked reviews, each issue of The Staros Report featured interviews, comics, bibliographies, character guides, letters, and more. He published four editions of The Staros Report, during which time he also became the American art and distribution agent for cartoonists Eddie Campbell and Gary Spencer Millidge.[3]

At the 1997 Small Press Expo, Staros joined forces with Brett Warnock as publisher of Top Shelf Productions.[4] Staros and Warnock have aimed to give their imprint a style "that is quite hip, but also quite endearing", and Staros regularly signs correspondence with the tagline "Your friend thru comics." Staros & Warnock envisioned Top Shelf — together with Fantagraphics Books, Drawn & Quarterly and the now defunct Highwater Books — as an attempt to "change the public perception and face of comics altogether".[5]

In 2000 Staros delivered the keynote speech at the Ignatz Awards, arguing that the industry must focus more on content, and that more works of the merit of Moore and Campbell's From Hell and Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan would help the public re-evaluate their perceptions of the medium.[6]

Yearbook Stories: 1976-1978 (published in 2007) features two autobiographical tales from Staros's formative years: "The Willful Death of a Stereotype," illustrated by Bo Hampton, and "The Worst Gig I Ever Had," illustrated by Rich Tommaso. "The Willful Death of a Stereotype" originally appeared in the 2001 Small Press Expo Anthology and was nominated for the 2002 Eisner Award for Best Short Story of the Year. "The Worst Gig I Ever Had" (which originally appeared in the 1999 Small Press Expo Anthology) tells the story of Staros's very first hard rock band, and one of its more memorable gigs.

In late 2002, Staros joined the board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund,[3] a non-profit organization founded in 1986 whose charter is to protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community. He became president of the CBLDF in 2004,[7] serving in that capacity until 2009. [8]

Chris Staros is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Top Shelf Productions (www.topshelfcomix.com), one of the leading independent publishers of literary graphic novels. In the recent past, he was also a part-time professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) [2012-2017] teaching Sequential Art classes to the next generation of industry professionals, and served as Chairman of the Board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) [2004-2009], where he oversaw the non-profit organization’s charter to protect the First Amendment rights of the comic book industry. Since co-founding Top Shelf in 1997, Top Shelf has published over 400 graphic novels that have helped the medium of comics thrive as a well-rounded and literary art form. Most notably: Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell's MARCH TRILOGY; George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker’s THEY CALLED US ENEMY, Alan Moore's FROM HELL (with Eddie Campbell), LOST GIRLS (with Melinda Gebbie), and THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (with Kevin O'Neill); Craig Thompson’s BLANKETS; Jeff Lemire’s ESSEX COUNTY and THE UNDERWATER WELDER; Kim Dwinell’s SURFSIDE GIRLS; Jeffrey Brown's CLUMSY and UNLIKELY; Jennifer Hayden’s THE STORY OF MY TITS; and Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler’s GOD IS DISAPPOINTED IN YOU -- all of which have garnered accolades from the likes of CNN, NPR, Time, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Times (and two have been made into major motion pictures).

If you want to make him happy, talk to him about Elvis, as he loves the King more than anything.

Chris Staros currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

• Chris Staros at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• Contino, Jennifer M. "Take It From The Top," Sequential Tart vol. 5, issue 2 (Feb. 2002).
• Douresseau, L.J. "Interview with Chris Staros," Comic Book Bin (Nov. 1, 2003).
• Weiland, Jonah. "Gauging Lost Girls Reaction with Chris Staros", Comic Book Resources (September 15, 2006).
• Comic Book Club (June 19, 2007).
• Holman, Curt. "Speakeasy with Chris Staros: Marietta's Top Shelf comic-book publisher," Creative Loafing (June 20, 2007).
• Express Night Out video interview (Oct. 2007).
• St-Louis, Hervé. "Interview With Chris Staros of Top Shelf Comix," Comic Book Bin (Jan. 6, 2008).
• Waterhouse, Jon. "Top Shelf Works to Upgrade — and Defend — the Comic Genre," Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Nov. 23, 2008).
• Staros' guide to "The Top 192 Best Comics in the Industry"