Brenner turning down adult comics?

This is a pretty big bombshell, at least for those of us who work in adult comics… according to Elin Winkler, publisher of Radio Comix, San Antonio-based offset printer Brenner Printing Company will no longer accept adult publications as of March 31st.  This is significant news because Brenner handles production for a significant number of adult comics publishers in the United States (including, at one time, Icarus Publishing), as well as some yaoi publishers.  No reason for the policy change has been given, but there are some speculations in the comments section of Ms. Winkler’s livejournal.

The true extent of Brenner’s decision (just what is allowed and what is not) is unclear, but in the worst-case scenario, this effectively narrows down available printers for explicit ero and yaoi publishers to ones based in Canada, and more specifically, Lebonfon Printing.  Perhaps for some smaller publishers without distribution deals with Diamond (who can pick books up directly from Lebonfon, thereby alleviating shipping costs), this development may mean something much, much worse.

(Thanks to GGY for the heads up.)

Edit: … and GGY confirms that the decision applies only to so-called “hardcore” titles, which I assume would spare most BL/yaoi books.

We just get no love… (;_;)/

Edit 2: The Comics Reporter picks up on the story, and gets a thorough explanation of the situation from Kim Thompson, co-publisher of Fantagraphics and its Eros imprint.  This is me stealing the choice bit:

What happened at Brenner is actually what has happened at a number of Bible-Belt or Midwestern printers, which is that although the owners and managers have no problem with printing X-rated material (the accusation I’ve seen that “the owners must have found religion” is actually false), a certain proportion of their employees do, and at some point it becomes such a hassle to organize shifts so that the anti-porn employees don’t have to deal with it, or reverberating community disapproval becomes so strong (I could tell you stories about one of our former X-rated printers that would curl your hair), that it’s just not worth it.

If only it weren’t for my shoddy memory, I’d swear I heard about a television writer who filed suit against a sitcom because she was “exposed” to sex jokes, although said jokes was essentially what the show was about.  (She lost, I believe.)

And another personal anecdote… at every single printer we’ve worked with at Icarus, including Brenner, our production contacts were women.  I have no clue why this is.  And I’m sure this has absolutely nothing to do with this news, though, as the ladies at Brenner were all very nice when we printed there, and it was I who had trouble working with them… the thought of describing edits in a porno comic over the phone to someone who sounds like your mom is kind of embarrassing, you know?

Anyway, go read.