Country of origin United Kingdom Publication types Books Founded 2008 | Headquarters location Edinburgh, Scotland Official website www.obversebooks.com | |
Distribution United Kingdom, Australia, United States Fiction genres Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Adventure Founders Paul Magrs, Stuart Douglas | ||
Obverse Books is a British publisher known for publishing books relating to the character Iris Wildthyme. The company also owns publishing rights for stories based on Faction Paradox and Sexton Blake and had an e-book only imprint named Manleigh Books between 2012 and 2016.
History
The company was founded in 2008 in Edinburgh by Stuart Douglas. Obverse's first book was a 2009 collection of short stories featuring the character Iris Wildthyme, first seen in the Doctor Who universe. Further volumes of Iris Wildthyme short stories have followed annually.
In 2010 the company expanded their line to include story collections from single authors and collections that did not focus primarily on science-fiction. That same year the company also acquired the rights to publish short story collections based on Faction Paradox.
In 2011 Obverse launched The Obverse Quarterly, a series of paperback books aimed at genre fans. The series contains stories by authors such as Conrad Williams and Michael Moorcock, and new stories featuring Zenith the Albino, Sherlock Holmes and The City of the Saved, amongst others. That same year Obverse began publishing a series of tete-beche collections as part of the resurgence of such books in the speculative fiction market. The following year Obverse launched an ebook-only imprint, Manleigh Books.
Obverse obtained the rights to the character of Sexton Blake in 2013 and relaunched the Sexton Blake Library in 2014 with Mark Hodder's 'The Silent Thunder Caper'.
In 2015 Obverse announced The Black Archive, a series of book-length critical studies of individual Doctor Who stories, launched in March 2016. The series is edited by Philip Purser-Hallard, and features contributions from Simon Bucher-Jones, James Cooray Smith, Simon Guerrier, Kate Orman and others.