 Staros & Warnock envisioned Top Shelf — together with Fantagraphics Books, Drawn and Quarterly and the now defunct Highwater Books — as an attempt to "change the public perception and face of comics altogether".In 2000 Staros delivered the keynote speech at the Ignatz Awards, arguing that the industry must focus more on content, and that more works of the merit of Moore and Campbell's "From Hell" and Chris Ware's "Jimmy Corrigan" would help the public re-evaluate their perceptions of the medium.