Yen Press

Kurt Hassler
Co-Publishing Director

Kurt Hassler has been in the bookselling industry for sixteen years, six of which as the Graphic Novel buyer for Borders Group Inc., the nation's second-largest retail bookselling chain with approximately 1,200 stores worldwide. Under his direction, the Graphic Novel category has consistently been the fastest growing publishing market segment in the industry, and Hassler facilitated the expansion of the manga market in the states well ahead of his competitors to make Borders Group the preferred destination for the product and accounting for over 50% of the total domestic sales. He has established himself as the uncontested market leader in the Graphic Novel category, is a bestselling manga author, and is widely considered to be the foremost authority on the manga market in the U.S. In 2006 Kurt was named the “#1 Most Powerful Person In American Manga Publishing”.

Rich Johnson
Co-Publishing Director

Rich Johnson has been in just about all aspects of bookselling – from store management to wholesale buying, from field sales to national accounts. Most recently, Johnson served as Vice President of Book Trade Sales for DC Comics where he took the forefront in establishing graphic novels in the bookstore market. Under his watch, DC Comics achieved their first New York Times Bestseller with Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: Endless Nights. Johnson has also been a driving force in institutionalizing graphic novels in the library market, partnering with the American Library Association to create READ posters of DC Comics properties as well as initiating talks with the OCLC to create a Dewey Decimal number specifically for graphic novels. Johnson, who recently was referred to as “the most popular man in comics”, is considered a pioneer in the graphic novel Renaissance of the mainstream.