COVID Check-In with Annie Koyama

Virtual Memories Show
COVID Check-In: Annie Koyama

Publisher Annie Koyama checks in from Toronto. We talk about whether the pandemic has affected her plans to close down Koyama Press in 2021, and the big farewell she had planned for this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. We get into her guerrilla charity/grant-program to help cartoonists and other creative people, her concerns for her 92-year-old mom, the increasing racism toward people of Asian descent, how “being good in emergencies” gets tested when the emergency never ends, why she delayed her dive into Animal Crossing, and the ongoing lesson of appreciating the mundane. Give it a listen! And go pick up some Koyama Press books!

You can listen to all these COVID Check-In episodes at The COVID-19 Sessions.

Listen to the conversation! Then check out the archives for more conversations from The Before Times.

There are plenty of ways to follow The Virtual Memories Show: iTunes, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TuneIn, Tumblr, and RSS

About our Guest

Annie Koyama is the publisher and founder of the Toronto-based Koyama Press. After working in graphic arts, set painting, and film, she found herself in advertising, making commercials. After a surviving a terminal diagnosis, she decided to dedicate her time and resources to supporting primarily emerging artists. In 2007, she published Koyama Press’s first book, Trio Magnus: Equally Superior, by the Trio Magnus collective. Koyama Press will close down in 2021; Annie will focus on supporting the arts via charitable grants.

Follow Annie & Koyama Press on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to our full-length podcast.

Credits: The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Cloudlifter CL-1 and a Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2×2 USB Recording Interface. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Annie by someone else. It’s on my instagram.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.