PRIDE MONTH 2026! Co-founded by Tyler and Wendy Chin-Tanner in 2005, publisher A Wave Blue World has for over two decades been publishing graphic novels and comics anthologies, with a socially conscious ethos at the heart of their operation. (Longer-term Broken Frontier readers may recognise Tyler’s name from his time on the BF team as an interviewer and events reporter.) They’re GLAAD Media and Ringo Award winners (and multiple BF Award nominees) and their focus on LGBTQIA+ anthologies over the years makes them a very apt subject for review as part of our Pride Month coverage.
I chat with Tyler and Wendy today about the origins of AWBW, the connective power of comics, and the importance of publishing with a social purpose…
To begin can you elaborate on the origins of A Wave Blue World, your publishing ethos and where the name came from?
TYLER CHIN-TANNER: Wendy and I met early into my first year of art school at The Joe Kubert School. At the end of that first year, the final assignment was to draw our own mini-comic. I wanted to put a logo on it to make it feel real, and that’s when I came up with A Wave Blue World. I wasn’t necessarily thinking long term, but I like the idea of combining the ocean with the kind of futuristic allegory that you find in books like Brave New World or Fahrenheit 451. I wanted to capture the theme of regenerative evolution; show the world as we want it to be.
WENDY CHIN-TANNER: Our publishing ethos has always been closely tied to and reflective of our own commitment to progressive social values. It’s a way for us to contribute not only our own voices, but to pass the mic to others as well. As for our name, it’s definitely a mouthful! I can neither confirm nor deny what we were doing when we came up with it…
Art by Hazel Newlevant
AO: Who makes up the AWBW team?
TYLER: Wendy and I are the co-founders and co-publishers. Pete Carlsson, a fellow Kubert School alum, is the art director and production coordinator. Diana Kou is our marketing and web coordinator. Jesse Post is our publicist. Not to mention, our older daughter Maddy is a huge help in community outreach and running convention booths. And our younger daughter Lucy is contributing to social media.
AO: Tell us about the publishing history of A Wave Blue World over the last two decades. What are the lessons you’ve learnt along the way, the projects that have particularly resonated with readers, and how as a publisher you feel you have evolved in that time?
TYLER: It started off as a way to do my own creator-owned projects, working with artists to bring them to life. But that soon developed into doing anthologies, most of them crowdfunded. This was a great way to incorporate more talent in a larger project than we could with just the one or two in a single storyline. It also allowed us to tell more diverse stories and give a platform to a variety of creators with different backgrounds. This gave us the ability to tackle so many more important topics that we wouldn’t have been able to do without bringing in the proper perspective.
Art by Kevin Wada
WENDY: We were a young couple when we founded AWBW and the company has grown up along with us. The more we’ve become impacted by and engaged in the social changes, both good and bad, that have happened over the last two decades, the more our books have reflected that growth.
AO: In recent years your LGBTQIA+ output – including books like The Color of Always, Becoming Who We Are: Real Stories About Growing Up Trans and Young Men in Love – has met with constant acclaim. What have been some of the most rewarding reactions to those projects?
TYLER: By far, the most rewarding reactions have been hearing people say how they finally felt seen. This was the first time they saw themselves truly represented in the pages of a comic.
WENDY: What’s moved me the most is hearing from the parents of queer and trans kids that our books helped normalize their experience and create a space for them to talk about it together as a family.
Cover by Elisa Romboli
AO: Following on from that what is it about comics in particular for you that makes them such an empathetic platform for communicating lived experiences, queer or otherwise?
TYLER: I feel like it’s the combination of art and narrative. Life imitates art and the comics medium gives us a way to not only depict the intense diversity of life all around us, but to show us a way towards what could be.
WENDY: The combination of visual and textual storytelling in comics requires us to actively participate in meaning making. When our brains switched on and lit up, we can more fully experience the emotions and perspectives of the characters in the stories we read.
Art by Chris Shehan
AO: As mentioned, there’s obviously a rich vein of social commentary/relevance running through your publishing output. What are some of the current projects and upcoming ones in that regard that we should be looking out for?
TYLER: Even though we only have one project planned for 2026, it’s right on brand. Our latest anthology, Civil Disobedience: Stories of Resistance, will be funding on Kickstarter from June 9 to July 4, with a planned fall ‘26 release. This anthology combines historical accounts of protest movements with modern and futuristic tales of resistance. It also includes many usefully resources and practical guides for getting involved, staying safe, and making a difference!
Art by Liana Kangas, Simon Bisley and DJ Chavis
AO: And, finally, given the world around us how important is publishing with a social purpose in 2026?
TYLER: I’ll simply end with a quote by civil rights activist Toni Cade Bambara that we’re going to place at the beginning of Civil Disobedience, “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”
WENDY: With the proliferation of generative AI noise and the systemic erasure of knowledge that we’ve seen in the past couple of years, purpose-driven publishing is more important than ever for preserving complex ideas, challenging the status quo, and building empathy. In order to create societal change, we have to first imagine it.
Visit the A Wave Blue World store here
Back the Civil Disobedience Kickstarter here
Interview by Andy Oliver
