By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/21/2016
Sometimes it’s better to just give yourself to something rather than to seek out its meaning. Not everything has to have one clear meaning, and in some cases, to bring concrete meaning to a work might mean imposing clarity on something that was not meant to have any. That imposition might actually come off as […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/13/2016
In 2010 Grand Prize winner at the Angoulême Comics Festival in France and the Lucca Comics Festival in Italy 5,000 Km Per Second, Italian cartoonist Maneuele Fioe utilizes his strong watercolor skills to offer not the whole of a relationship, but slices, and leaves it up to the readers to fill in the spaces with the parts he […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/10/2016
Somewhere deep in the bowels of the Internet, unbeknownst to all but the initiated, there’s an organisation that calls itself the Really Very Serious Alan Moore Scholars’ Group. Occasionally they get to actually communicate with the object of their adoration, The Great Moore himself. The most recent manifestation was in December 2015, when The Master […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/24/2016
Quiet and brooding, while still warm and with a great delicacy, Barbara Yelin’s Irmina takes the author’s own discovery of her grandmother’s World War II era diaries and letters, and applies the resulting biography to higher philosophical heights that really concern the way any of us encounter the world. Irmina is a young German girl […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/12/2016
Taking the idea of awareness and screwing with it from multiple vantage points — self-awareness, awareness of the space around you, familial awareness, scientific awareness, societal awareness — Aama addresses, among other things, the notion of a hive mind and presents mankind as a damaged entity, one in which each part is out of sync […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/5/2016
Millennials are often portrayed by the older generation – my own, to be clear – as a generation of victims. Like most cross-generational proclamations, this is a self-righteous pile of bull built from Gen Xers’ and Boomers’ stumbling reading of Millennial discourse, as well as some resentment for our own repression and the ability of […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/30/2016
It was a fantastic day for artful, intelligent comics when the New York Review of Books added comics to its publishing line. The focus so far is on making obscure graphic novels available again, and the March 22 release of Mark Beyer’s riotous Agony sets an interesting tone for the line. Beyer’s work, which is about the size […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/15/2016
Immensely talented Russian illustrator Roman Muradov has quickly established himself as one of the most complex cartoonists around, both visually and narratively. In Muradov’s hands, the simplest fable can become a massively abstracted exercise that is usually part giddy, part confounding. If you’ve been alienated from his previous work because of this, The End Of […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/23/2016
Finnish cartoonist Tommi Musturi’s The Book Of Hope is as mysterious and elusive as the human being it examines. Set in a family cottage following retirement, Musturi settles into his narrator position calmly in order to scribe, without judgment or even much push for clarity, the experience of one man as he inhabits the time […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/16/2016
Nick Drnaso’s fictional world is a particularly joyless one where even coming together doesn’t much help the human condition. It might even make things worse. As depicted in the Drnasoverse, each human has their own internal monologue that other humans are shut out from, and this creates distance, alienation, and confusion. Since one of us […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/9/2016
You can go for years reading comics and come upon plenty of bizarre works, but at least understand where these are coming from. It’s more rare to hit on one that are more confounding, the ones that make you ask questions like “Where did this come from?” and “Who would do this?” So it is […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/2/2016
In Meags Fitzgerald’s previous book, Photobooth: A Biography, which documented just about anything you ever wondered about photo booths, she went far beyond her central subject, wrapping in segments of autobiography, making it a work about a wider swathe that her more intimate moments exist within. For Long Red Hair she does the exact opposite, focusing […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/1/2016
Nobrow Press’ 17 x 23 series highlights accomplished smaller works in a pleasing package that speaks to graphic novel consumers who might not seek out short comics stories. Two recent releases are particularly success in the way they take story forms of old and present them through a modern lens, making traditional lessons applicable to […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 1/21/2016
The Balkan comics anthology š! from kuš! is one of the more challenging delights of the comics world, grafting the sensibility of a contemporary art gallery onto the comics page. It regularly presents challenging and edgy work, often abstract, but with enough show of personality that you can see these are the works of real humans, and it comes in a striking mini-digest format that evokes Little Big Books, adding to its appeal as an object to display.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 11/5/2015
This weekend it's Comic Arts Brooklyn in Williamsburg and here's a look at the books that will be debuting. Thanks to all the contributing publishers and cartoonists for supplying the info and lightening our wallets. Because there were so many new and exciting books I'm splitting this into two parts. Look for part two tomorrow!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 9/22/2015
And yet more awesome comics are on the way from Koyama Press, with a particularly fresh line-up of indie comics up and comers. Patrick Kyle is known for his oddball fantasies while Aidan Koch has already gotten attention for her evocative experimental comics. Cathy G. Johnson is a fast rising star with a book coming out from First Second next year and an Ignatz under her belt; while Ben Sears name came up constantly when I asked about emerging male cartoonists. In addition, Koyama Press will put out its first translated comics: What is Obscenity? The Story of a Good For Nothing Artist and her Pussy, the story of Japanese artist Rokudenashiko (“good-for-nothing girl” or “bad girl”) whose work achives being truly transgressive; the Massive duo of Anne Ishii and Graham Kolbeins bring this one to English. PLease note, this comic is not about cats. And here's the complete lineup:
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/21/2015
If I were in London I would DEFINITELY be going to the Safari Festival, the one day CAF run by Breakdown Press and devoted to “the new wave of alternative and art comics from the UK and beyond. Taking place over one Saturday at the end of August, the festival is an opportunity for […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/9/2015
It’s time for our annual look at some of the comics coming out for this weekend’s MoCCA Festival, being held this year at Center 548, is located at 548 W. 22nd Street, just off the Westside Highway, with programming at the High Line Hotel on West 20th Street and 10th Avenue.
And here’s the books we got information on. This is just a teeny tiny smattering of the new stuff available — but scroll down for signings from Fantagraphics, NBM and more. And scroll around Tumblr for more more more, especially the MoCCA Festival tumblr.
I’m debuting a 20 page collection of my webcomic “Stranger Than Bushwick”, which is currently being serialized on Bushwick Daily. This collection explores a lot of New York by way of Brooklyn, millennial lifestyles, and hot-button issues like catcalling and gentrification.
What may also be of note is that I’ll be giving away limited “Gentrify White” crayons with purchase of the book. The crayons have been featured on Bedford and Bowery here.
Drew Brockington
BEACON, Five
The epic conclusion to the serialized graphic novel by Drew Brockington.
In the fall of 1903, when the new lighthouse keeper arrives on the shores of the small New England fishing village with the promise of a better future the town grows uneasy.
Fishermen are superstitious lot, and don’t take kindly to change. The local police soon find their hands full playing mediator between the locals and the government as well as solving the mystery of an unidentified corpse found on their shores.
Drew will debut the book at Mocca 2015 at table 224B, along with plenty of back issues for those who want to start at the beginning.
The first chapter of the series can be read at www.beaconcomic.com
Jamie TannerTHE CONSUMPTIVE #1, the first issue in a new ongoing mini-comics series. A sort of throwback one-man anthology grab-bag thing. Like a smaller, cheaper, lesser Eightball or something.
Uncivilized Books
Borb tells the story an urban Candide who’s misfortunes pile high at an alarming rate. It stings with bits of black humor, yet challenges the reader with the day-to-day details facing the urban homeless. Calling upon the depression-era imagery of Harold Gray (Little Orphan Annie) and Frank King (Gasoline Alley), Borb follows the tradition of the comic strip slapstick vagabond, weaving a well-crafted narrative through elegant four-panel gag strips.
Incidents in the Night follows a fictional version of the author who’s obsessed with a mysterious literary journal and its occult editor. This second book entangles David B.’s previous, autobiographical work Epileptic with that of this series’ fantastical, adventurous tone. The questions posed by the first volume grow more complicated as the lines between dream and reality further blur. This edition is translated by novelist Brian Evenson (Immobility, The Wavering Knife, Fugue State) and Sarah Evenson.
Travelogue collects the first strips from http://traveloguecomic.com. The comic follows a group of nomadic friends as they travel a fantasy world, and focuses heavily on quiet, introspective moments and world-building.
NBMOn April 11th & 12th, NBM Publishing (Tables 401, 402) once again heads to the MoCCA Arts Festival and we are happy to have attending both cartoonist Annie Goetzinger, who will be appearing to promote the debut of her luscious new book, GIRL IN DIOR and writer Julian Voloj who will be signing copies of his book, the powerful GHETTO BROTHER: WARRIOR TO PEACEMAKER along with the colorful subject of the book, Benjy Melendez.
The Girl in Dior is Clara, a freshly hired chronicler, fan of fashion and our guide in the busy corridors of the brand new house of Christian Dior. It’s February 12, 1947 and the crème de la crème of Paris Haute Couture is flocking to the momentous event of Dior’s first show. In a flurry of corolla shaped skirts, the parade of models file down the runway. The audience is mesmerized: it’s a triumph! Carmel Snow of Harper’s Bazaar cries out: “It’s quite a revolution, your dresses have such a new look!“ Dior’s career is launched and Clara’s story begins. Soon, she is picked by Dior himself to be his model…
A biography docudrama marrying fiction and the story of one of the greatest couturier in history, it is also a breathless and stunning presentation of his best designs such as Lauren Bacall wore, rendered by bestselling artist Annie Goetzinger, seen for the first time on this side of the Atlantic.
Ghetto Brother
An engrossing and counter view of one of the most dangerous elements of American urban history, this graphic novel tells the true story of Benjy Melendez, son of Puerto-Rican immigrants, who founded, at the end of the 1960s, the notorious Ghetto Brothers gang. From the seemingly bombed-out ravages of his neighborhood, wracked by drugs, poverty, and violence, he managed to extract an incredibly positive energy from this riot ridden era: his multiracial gang promoted peace rather than violence. After initiating a gang truce, the Ghetto Brothers held weekly concerts on the streets or in abandoned buildings, which fostered the emergence of hip-hop. Melendez also began to reclaim his Jewish roots after learning about his family’s dramatic crypto-Jewish background.
Signing Schedule, Tables 401, 402
Annie will be appearing on the panel, Biography: The Lives of Artists on Sunday April 12 at 12:30pm alongside cartoonists James Romberger, Marguerite Van Cook and Barbara Stok.
Annie, Julian and Benjy will be appearing at the NBM Table throughout the weekend.
SATURDAY
11:30 – 12:30 Annie Goetzinger
1:30 – 3:00 Julian Voloj and Benjy Melendez
3:30 – 5:00 Annie Goetzinger
5:00 – 6:00 Julian Voloj
SUNDAY
12:00-1:00 Julian Voloj
1:30-3:00 Annie Goetzinger (immediately following her panel)
3:30-5:00 Julian Voloj and Benjy Melendez
Annie, Julian and Benjy are available for select media interviews. So come on by, meet some cool folks and celebrate comics!
My new Billy Dogma comic, HEART-SHAPED HOLE, published by Hang Dai Editions, debuting at MoCCA. Described as “Billy Dogma and Jane Legit punch the apocalypse right in the kisser as their eternal war of woo breaks a Trip City-wide hymen.”
28-pages. Full color. Magazine size. Only available for sale directly from me, Dean Haspiel, or from Hang Dai Editions:
Origami Comics, table 222 will be debuting “Bonetti’s Defense: I Know Something You Don’t Know About Swordplay in The Princess Bride.” Wong, a former fencer, has definitely studied his Agrippa and his analysis provides history and context of the many fencing terms and actual fencing masters referenced in The Princess Bride movie and book. Who were they? What does it all mean? And does Thibault really cancel Capo Ferro?
This is a standard, 20-page, saddle-stitched comic; this is NOT one of my folded-shape origami comics (but those will also be available for purchase at my table).
Independent comics publisher 2d Cloud is debuting their Spring Collection books en force at MoCCA this weekend. All of the collection authors will be attending the festival and participating in a special signing event at Bergen Street Comics, Saturday night at 8 PM, with fellow publishers Koyama Press and Fantagraphics Books.
2dc author Blaise Larmee will also be participating in a MoCCA panel discussion, “Plagiarism as Practice,” also Saturday, at 3:30 PM in the Rusack Room at the Highline Hotel.
The Spring Collection books – 3 Books by Blaise Larmee, Qviet by Andy Burkholder, and Salz and Pfeffer by Émilie Gleason – are now available for pre-orders at 2dcloud.com/shop.
Blaise Larmee’s 3 Books, the much anticipated follow-up to his critically-acclaimed Young Lions, and his first graphic novel in four years, intertwines three separate narratives on sex and love, revealing Larmee at his most vulnerable and his most arrogant.
Andy Burkholder’s Qviet is the sum total of a multiyear series that focuses on the abstractions sex and of seeing, and the fluid relations between the two, available for the first time as a collected edition.
French author Émilie Gleason’s first English language graphic novel, Salz and Pfeffer, is an absurdist tale of magical kingdoms, alien abduction, and fart jail, evoking amusement and disturbed thoughts in equal measure. See more on the spring collection books at 2dcloud.com/shop. For more information
This weekend, Youth in Decline will be exhibiting on Floor 3 at Table 319B.
At the show, we’ll be debuting the new issue of our ongoing monograph series, FRONTIER #7: JILLIAN TAMAKI. This issue features Jillian’s new comic “SexCoven” – a 32 pg color story about IRL and online relationships, the seductive and secret world of early internet file-sharing, and life inside a commune (cult?).
Jillian will signing books on Saturday from 12-1pm, and on Sunday from 1-2pm.
In addition to the new Frontier issue, we’ll also have copies of previous Frontier issues, RAV 1ST COLLECTION by Mickey Zacchilli, Snackies by Nick Sumida, Wacky Wacko Magazine #1 by Seth Bogart, Love Songs for Monsters by Anthony Ha, and our stickers and patches!
Seth Kushner’s SECRET SAUCE Comix #! published by Hang Dai Editions, debuting at MoCCA Fest on April 11:
36-pages. Full color. Standard comic book size. For now, only available for sale directly from me, Seth Kushner, or from Hang Dai Editions: http://hangdaieditions.com/
VAGABONDS #4, published by Hang Dai Editions (HDE), which will be debuting at this year’s MoCCA Arts Festival.
“Josh Neufeld’s The Vagabonds #4 serves up a spicy blend of journalism, social commentary, memoir, and literary fiction. This issue features Neufeld’s story of racial profiling at the U.S./Canadian border and three collaborations with Neufeld’s wife, writer Sari Wilson. Throw in a couple of light-hearted travel tips, and The Vagabonds #4 is chock-full of the thought-provoking and witty comics Neufeld is known for.”
24 pages. Full color. Only available for sale directly from me, Josh Neufeld, or from Hang Dai Editions.
It’s been wonderful to be able to revive The Vagabonds (previously published by Alternative Comics) after an eight-year “hiatus.” It’s really nice to have a place to collect assorted pieces of mine from the last few years, as well as have a venue for new work. I’ve spent the last half-decade or so in the trade books graphic novel arena (publishing A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge with Pantheon and The Influencing Machine with W.W. Norton) and pursuing comics journalism (including winning a Knight-Wallace journalism fellowship). As wonderful as it was to work with those major publishers, I really missed the world of alternative comic books and indy shows. What draws me to Hang Dai is the emphasis on creator-owned publications and personal interactions with readers. There was a great quote from an interview with the HDE guys that went like this: “You’ll get the books made by hand from the hands of their creators, which puts the ‘artist’ back in ‘comic arts,’ and puts you, the reader, in a position to engage directly with creators.” I cut my teeth in this business through self-publishing, and it’s refreshing to go back to my DIY days.
I’ll be with the rest of the HDE gang at table 314, Third Floor (Yellow Zone), at the new location, Center 548, 548 W. 22nd St., NYC.
Nobrow is thrilled to be exhibiting again, and this year’s MoCCA is extra exciting because not only will it be held at a brand new venue, but we will also be debuting three amazing titles from Flying Eye Books!
The latest from our Dahlov Ipcar collection of reprints, Black and White, will make its debut at MoCCA alongside Rilla Alexander’s inspiring Her Idea, and David Lucas’ hilarious This Is My Rock. We’ll also be carrying some of your old favorites like Luke Pearson’s Hilda series, Society of Illustrators Gold Medal winner Bianca Bagnarelli’s Fish, our handsome line of Leporellos, and plenty, plenty more. Don’t forget to mark your calendars, this is going to be a big weekend! The Nobrow team will be in attendance at tables 208 – 211 on both days of MoCCA, April 11th & 12th, at its new location Center548, 548 West 22nd St. in New York City. We can’t wait to see you there!
These will be debuting at MoCCA Fest 2015 in NYC on April 11 & 12, but are available for pre-order now.
Also in the works is the first issue of Jamie Vayda & Alan King’s “Left Empty” in which Alan relates the aftermath of losing his wife to cancer.
• Angry Youth Comix by Johnny Ryan Now, for the first time, all fourteen issues of Ryan’s career-defining comic book series Angry Youth Comix (2000-2008) are collected in one place. All the comics, the covers, and even the contentious letters pages, in one toilet-ready brick shithouse, taking full advantage of the medium’s absurdist potential for maximum laughs. Out in Stores: April 2015 $49.99
• Violent Girls by Richard Sala (FU Press) A limited edition portfolio featuring 44 action portraits lovingly inspired by the kind of dangerous females who have populated pulp fiction and B-movies throughout the history of pop culture-blazing their way through every kind of genre, potboiler, cliffhanger, and fever dream imaginable. Available exclusively at comic conventions and at the Fantagraphics online store, $35.00
First Second will be exhibiting at this year’s MoCCA Art Festival! You can find us at table 404.
We’ll be there with amazing authors Box Brown (Andre the Giant), Jillian Tamaki (This One Summer), and MoCCA Art Festival Guest of Honor Scott McCloud (The Sculptor)!
Here’s our signing schedule:
Saturday
12:30pm — Scott McCloud In Conversation (at the High Line Hotel)
2:00pm — Jillian Tamaki (This One Summer) signing
2:30pm — Scott McCloud (The Sculptor) signing with the CBLDF
Sunday
12:00pm — Scott McCloud (The Sculptor) signing
2:00pm — Box Brown (Andre the Giant) signing
Rebus will be exhibiting along with Domino Books andSpider’s Pee-Paw. They’ll have a bunch of VERY LIMITED QUANTITY of imported international books, including Yuichi Yokoyama Baby Boom (above) the first edition of Olivier Schrauwen’s My Boy and much more. Go to the above link for details, but if the names Yokoyama and Schrauwen for you excited, I’d make a beeline if I were you.
Rebus Books will also host Ilan Manouach and Gea Philes. Manouach will have with him a sample board from Shapereader, his 57-plate graphic novel for the blind and visually impaired.

Copies of books by Manouach will also be available, including his book Écologie Forcée, the détourned comic Riki Fermier, and MetaKatz, chronicling the publication of Katz. A privately owned copy of Katz will also be available for on-site viewing.

Gea Philes is a Chilean-born, multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Her work encompasses drawing, painting, illustration, comics, photography, and film, including music videos for Momus and Jeffrey Bützer. Philes’s new zines, including I Sold My Soul to the Devil, will preview her forthcoming art book from Toulouse-based publisher Timeless Editions.

Finally, submissions for The Best American Comics 2016 will be accepted at the Rebus Books table. Any new, North American work published between September 1, 2014 and August 31, 2015 is eligible for The Best American Comics 2016. If Series Editor Bill Kartalopoulos is not present at the table, material can be given to anyone working Table 226 and it will be included with BAC 2016 submissions.
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By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/27/2015
Last week Titan Comics announced it had hired Lizzie Kaye, formerly of SelfMadeHero, to the position of editor for their European graphic novel line. We talked with Kaye within a week of her jumping on-board the Titan Comics team about her new gig and Titan’s expansion into the bande dessinée market.
Edie Nugent: Congrats on your new position as editor for Titan’s European graphic novel line. How does it feel to step into those shoes after many years with indie publisher SelfMadeHero?
Lizzie Kaye: Thanks, it’s wonderful to have joined Titan, it’s a company that’s doing really interesting things and moving in a great direction. Obviously, it’s a bit of a change from SelfMadeHero, in terms of the kinds of books each company puts out, but I’m excited by so many of the titles we have coming up and can’t wait to see other people getting excited by them too!
Nugent: You have a background in literature. How you feel you’ll be able to draw on that knowledge in bringing bande dessinée to Titan readers?
Kaye: I think it’s most useful in that studying literature results in you being well-read, which leads to a good understanding of pacing, character, and plot.
This is something that the European market deals with differently than the US/UK market, as the standard length of an album is normally 48 pages. When they have the luxury of that page count, creators can take their time building characters and revealing the plot at a slightly slower pace. A lot of, though by no means all, BD series are designed from the outset to be at least three volumes, so you could almost consider them as neat, three-act plays.
It also helps in that the European market operates within a slightly different outlook, and BD are often filled with literary references, even if the subject matter itself may not explicitly be so. For example, the series The Chronicles of Legion, the first three volumes of which are out now, with the fourth coming soon, is ostensibly a vampire story. But it’s also more than that. It draws heavily on the origins of gothic literature (before vampires could sparkle!) as well as using devices traditionally found in that literature, such as a story within a story and a layering of narratives. Form my perspective, a literary background helps in that I can see the references, and therefore am able to judge the tone and direction of the story, and consider how that may translate to a market less familiar with seeing those devices used in a sequential art format.
Nugent: Three-act play, it sounds almost like a more Manga way of telling a story. Do you think the BD market exists in that place between monthly single-issue sequential storytelling and the more fast-paced, multi-volume format of Manga?
Kaye: That is one way of looking at it. BD readers can sometimes have to wait a long time for the next volume of a series they are following. It’s important from the outset that the narrative is tightly constructed, and that the characters are memorable, in order to retain the reader. I don’t necessarily think it exists in a place between monthly single-issue releases and manga, more that it uses the medium of sequential art for a different kind of story-telling that is less episodic in nature.
Having said all that, there are of course a number of series that go into much longer runs, Samurai, the first four volumes of which will be released by Titan as an omnibus later in the year, being one of them.
Nugent: Titan has released BD’s of Snowpiercer, which was a French graphic novel-turned-movie starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton, Elric, which is based on Michael Moorcock stories, and now Void. How does Titan decide which BD’s to put on the publishing slate?
Kaye: A lot of factors come into play when we’re choosing which titles to put out. There are certain books that we’d love to see in the English speaking market that we specifically seek out based on our own love of the stories or creators, such as the upcoming Lone Sloane series by Philippe Druillet, and my own personal favourite, The Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal.
For others with creators that might not have had as much exposure in the English speaking market, we take a lot of time to consider the artwork, the story, the length of the series, and how we feel readers might react to it. There are a lot of incredible BD series out there, luckily, so we have a rich seam to mine, and we want readers to really love what we offer them.
Nugent: What series would you recommend to readers just starting to explore what BD’s have to offer?
Kaye: That’s a tough one, as there are so many great stories out there! It depends on each reader’s specific interests, and that’s the beauty of the BD market, it caters for all readers.
I think Elric is a great starting point, because it is so incredibly beautiful, each page is a joy to look at. It’s a good introduction to the more European artwork style, which tends to be a little looser and fluid with a more painterly aesthetic. Titan also has a wonderful new series coming out now called Masked, which is a European take on the Superhero genre, and would be a great entry point, too, and the artwork in that would probably be a little more familiar.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/10/2015
Anyone familiar with Spike TV Scream Award Winner and New York Times Bestselling Artist/Writer Ben Templesmith’s work knows he is profoundly influenced by HP Lovecraft. Even a cursorary glance at his art makes this apparent. Lovecraft’s influence is most directly on display in Templesmith’s most recent graphic novel Squidder. A tale of a one time warrior doing battle and eluding the common place acolytes who’ve accepted the Dark Cephlopod Gods as their own.
But now, the marriage is official!
Templesmith will be tackling Lovecraft himself, the horror master who has influenced creators for nearly a century, including Mike Mignola, Nic Pizzolatto (“True Detective”) and GRR Martin.
In an e-mail yesterday, Templesmith, announced he is temporarily forgoing a sequel to Squidder, for an adaption of HP Lovecraft’s “DAGON.” “A proto-Chuthullu story,” as the Kickstarter page calls it.
As Templesmith tells it:
“‘DAGON’ is the first Lovecraft story I ever read… and is just oozing in mood and fear [sic]…so I figured I’d turn the visuals it gives me in to a deluxe graphic novella. I finally get to handle some of the unspeakable horrors of Lovecraft, especially because it’s the 125th anniversary of his birth.”
Templesmith also says he will be working on Fell, and is in talks with Warren Ellis for more issues of Wormwood.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/4/2015
If there’s such a thing as “a big micro press” Retrofit Comics might just apply. With a monthly schedule of small, attractive books by the premiere cartoonists working, they’ve put out some of the most notable comics of the past few years, including Wicked Chicken Queen by Sam Alden, Tom Hart’s Daddy Lightning, and Flocks by L. Nichols.
And now you can subscribe to the whole 2015 lineup, which is a stunner, including:
Olivier Schrauwen – Mowgli’s Mirror
Matt Madden – Drawn Out
Laura Knetzger – Sea Urchin
Laura Lannes
Box Brown – An Entity Observes All Things
Kate Leth
Yumi Sakugawa
Steven Weissman
Sophie Franz
Future Shock anthology – edited by Josh Burggraf
Andrew Lorenzi
Maré Odomo
Subscriptions for all 12 books are $75 and include PDF versions of each comic and TWO BONUS GIFTS AND a free 2014 Retrofit comic to give to a pal. PLUS, sign up before February 20th with codeword “earlybird” to get $10 off.
You can also buy a digital-only sub for $35. Shipping is free within the United States and discounted shipping is available to Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and the UK, for only $12. Shipping internationally otherwise is $36.
According to publisher Box Brown, “2015 is our most ambitious year to date. We’ve got 12 artists on the schedule and all kinds of surprises coming too. The first two books of our 2015 schedule are Mowgli’s Mirror by Olivier Schrauwen and Drawn Onward by Matt Madden. Both books are exceptional comics by masters of the craft. We’re planning this year to create books of all sizes as well. Steven Weissman’s book, coming out at San Diego Comic Con, will be over 100 pages. The rest of the 2015 artists are all extremely talented personal favorites: Laura Lannes, Kate Leth, Laura Knetzger, Yumi Sakugawa, Sophie Franz, Maré Odomo, Andrew Lorenzi, and a special collection of Future Shock anthology; edited by Josh Burggraf. Oh yeah! Also, we’re releasing a collection of my sci-fi comics (reprints and new work) called An Entity Observes All Things.”
Jared Smith, co-publisher of Retrofit Comics, said, “This is a big experiment for us, we are hoping we will get more subscribers by dropping the cost of the subscription and shipping. For it to work, we need to get lots of subscribers! One of the biggest problems with mailing so many print comics each year is how expensive shipping has become, especially internationally. We were able to get some great help with shipping from Matt Emery of Pikitia Press and Simon Moreton.”
If you have even the slightest interest in alternative comics, this is a great deal—and it enables retrofit to keep putting out important new works by some of the best cartoonists around.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 11/7/2014
Exhibitors at Comic Arts Brooklyn this weekend were kind enough to send me listings of their books—as usual there is something for everyone. I received so many listing I’m dividing this into two parts. Many thanks to the creators who took the time to send me news of their work. It looks to be a very exciting show. Enjoy!
Ley Lines: “Unholy Shapes”
by Matt Seneca
DEATH COMIX presents three new horror stories by Matt Seneca, plus a scattering of choice extras. On these pages the color-seared seances of psychedelic horror movie maestros Mario Bava and Dario Argento meet the disturbing banality of modern “torture porn” flicks and the fantastic visions of extremity chased down by manga master Suehiro Maruo. Through a storm of nuclear fallout both physical and psychological, readers are given three different views into an apocalyptic world where serial murder, domestic violence, and the abuse of power are not just constant, but the only things left happening at all. And if you squint, you can discern the real horror: that the world of this comic bears more than a few similarities to our own. 56 pages | Full color | $7
SEEDS #1-5 Collected Print Set
Uncontested Spaces
Keren Katz
The Understanding Monster – Book Two
Theo Ellsworth
Secret Acres
Continuing where Book One left off, The Understanding Monster – Book Two follows Pharoah Tellitome, Inspector Gimble, Turtletree, Master Sponko and Minnow on their collective quest to awaken Izadore and re-establish his identity and memory. Constructed with the same lush, intricate visuals as the first volume, the story returns readers to the world of time crystals, “home bodies,” afterlife quests, thought projection resurrection and the ever-majestic Toy Mountain. The Understanding Monster – Book Two delves even deeper into the nature of creativity and imagination, and the tenuous relationship between reality and the subconscious.
Jeans 3
Harris Smith (editor) Adria Mercuri (cover) Laura Callaghan, Pete Toms, Victor Kerlow, Paul Arscott, Laurie Pina, Amy Searles, Josh Burggraf, Anthony Meloro, Zach Mason, Jason Murphy, G.W. Duncanson, Ken Johnson, Gregory Kirkorian (artists/writers)
Jeans is a yearly anthology showcasing new narrative visions from up-and-coming graphic storytellers. Previous issues have included works by Benjamin Marra, Lale Westvind, Alex Degen, Leah Wishnia, Alabaster and other rising stars of the indie/art comics scene. Issue 3 is the first to be printed entirely in color and features exciting and innovative comics by artists from the US and UK.
Impressions
Wendy
Walter Scott
WEBSITE: http://wwalterscott.com/
Wendy is a sardonic look at the art world and its attendant creatives and creeps.
Wendy is trendy, and has dreams of art stardom — but our young urban protagonist is perpetually derailed by the temptations of punk music, drugs, alcohol, parties, and boys. Hegemonies and hearts are broken in this droll and iconoclastic look at the worlds of art and twentysomethings.
6.5 x 9 inches, 216 pages, b&w interior, colour softcover
Photos by Jes Fortner
Now and Here #3, Trial One
A man discovers the diabolical plans of a race of reptilian monsters. Handmade comic with 5-color silkscreen wraparound cover, signed & numbered edition of 20, $20. Table D9
Title: Teach me how to be a God
By: Meghan Turbitt, cover by Holly Simple
Website:
Rap God Kanye West teaches Meghan Turbitt how to become a god and get free damn croissants
Printed by Eyeball Comix for CAB 2014!
28 pages of risograph monsters and evil deities by Pete Sharp, Anna Haifisch, Barry Cook, Sam Bell, Russell Taysom, Takayo Akiyama, Paul Arscott, Robscenity, James Turek, Tim Ryan, Andrew Walter, Brigid Deacon, Aidan Cook, Joey Fourr and Vincent Fritz.
Tales To Behold 6
The Worst of Eerie Publications
by Mike Howell
IDW/Yoe Books
The Eerie Publications line of horror comics pushed the envelope like no other! Publisher Myron Fass and Editor Carl Burgos (creator of The Human Torch) gleefully stole the pocket change from kids in the 60s and 70s with these over the top monstrosities. The 21 tales within The Worst of Eerie Publications are designed to trouble you, to unnerve you and they just very well might make you queasy.
Shunned by “serious” collectors for years, these low brow terrors have generated much interest in recent years. Comic fans have come to realize that despite the cheap, pulpy paper that they were printed on, the Eerie Pubs contained work by many wonderful artists with many different styles and visions.
With stories pilfered from the banned Pre-Code horror comics of the 50s, these magazines were a treasure trove of alluring artwork by talented draftsmen like Dick Ayers and Chic Stone who never got their due. The stories chosen for this deluxe edition have been meticulously remastered for your appreciation or should we say disgust?
DOMINO BOOKS returns after a one and a half year publishing hiatus with an anthology of brand new work. Roughly translated from Swedish as ‘a thousand strong hearts,’ our flagship anthology is as utopian and ambitious as the phrase suggests. TUSEN continues our attempt to present difficult, uncompromising work in a cheap and accessible edition. All too often, the most experimental or obscure work is presented in price prohibitive editions.Each contributor is given 6 to 9 pages to work with. Anthologies—in my view—suffer from short unfocused contributions. A 50 page anthology full of one page strips often never rises above being a sampler. Our format allows for the reader to enter any artist’s world and stay there for a solid amount of time. As with issue #1, this anthology features 3 artists with radically different approaches—the reader is allowed to move from one aesthetic to another, with just enough time in each to feel and think.
SANTO SHOES
by Marlene Frontera
Published by Sonatina Comics
Available at DOMINO BOOKS
Saint Francis of Assisi is one of the most celebrated religious figures in history. Known for his endless compassion toward animals and the environment, our man is an icon of divine benevolence. But all fame aside, I bet you’ve never caught him on a beach day.
Santo Shoes is a collection of over 50 images that bring new energy to the legacy of Saint Francis. From the hills of Umbria to the shores of Puerto Rico, Marlene Frontera’s imagery pulses with the same gentle spirit that the saint so graciously strove for in life.
In a Succulent Universe
A riso printed zine combining succulents and space!
by A. Degen
A comic book inquiry into ‘The Philosopher’, a mysterious and possibly malevolent entity who appears at pivotal moments in human history. A narrative in two chapters: the first known appearance of the Philosopher in prehistory and the most recent first person account by Professor M.E. Rayonant.
This comic is a ‘side story’ to Mighty Star in the Castle of the Cancatervater (Koyama Press, Spring 2015) and also reads as a standalone work.
It is the future. Civilization has crumbled from the ravages of human exploitation and war. Earth is a radioactive wasteland populated by vicious punks, insane mutants, bloodthirsty cults and corporate mercenaries. The Zone Tripper must navigate this terrain on his courier mission to The Hills, the last bastion of civilization in a brutal post-apocalyptic world.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/13/2014
On International Workers’ Day, the 1st of May, Jonathan Cape published Sally Heathcote, Suffragette, the second graphic novel written by Mary Talbot
, a semi-fictionalised history of the Women’s Suffrage movement in Britain, and a really well researched and gripping piece of work, in my opinion, and should be read by everyone, everywhere, as it is still hugely relevant to the times we’re in right now. On her previous book, Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, the artwork was all done by her husband, Bryan Talbot, but he was committed elsewhere this time ’round, so they needed an artist who they could work with, and who would understand what they were trying to do. They chose Kate Charlseworth, a Scottish cartoonist who had cut her teeth in the heady days of the British gay rights struggle, back in the 1970s and 1980s. So, when I got the chance to interview her – having previously interviewed both the Talbots [Bryan here, but Mary not online, I'm afraid] – I jumped at it.
Pádraig Ó Méalóid: how did you become involved with the Sally Heathcote project?
Kate Charlesworth: In 2011, Bryan told me that Mary was working on the script of her second graphic novel – with a Suffragette theme – and would I be interested in drawing the pages, as he was committed to his Grandeville series, and just didn’t have the time.
And yes, I was interested!
PÓM: have you know the Talbots for a while, then? Or is it just that the comics world is a small one?
KC: Well, I’ve known Bryan for years, though our paths didn’t cross very often. And I’d never met Mary until I began working on her script. I suppose the comics world was a much smaller world back then. But Bryan knew my work.
PÓM: Any idea why Bryan asked you to do this, specifically?
KC: Hmm. given that he wasn’t available – Grandville – I think both he and Mary felt that it would be appropriate that a script written by a woman about the Suffragettes might be also illustrated by a woman. Although he was familiar with my work he found a drawing of mine – Virginia Woolf at Home, a sort of Bloomsbury pastiche; very detailed, very realistic, black and white line (not my usual style at the time) – which convinced him I could achieve the effect they were after.
PÓM: What other work had you done, before this, which we might have seen?
KC: I was one of the contributors to Nelson, from Blank Slate Books, edited by Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix, and some years ago I was involved with Carol Bennett’s Knockabout imprints – Fanny and Dykes’s Delight – plus a couple of Knockabout editions, um, 7 Ages of Women and Women Out of Line. There’s a theme emerging here.
But most of my working life has been spent drawing cartoons, strips and illustrations in the mainstream press. I had a strip in New Scientist which ran for years, up til 2001, Life, the Universe and (Almost) Everything. I put the Almost in, in case Douglas Adams objected, which, amazingly, he did – or at least, his agent did. But you can’t copyright a title, and I carried on for a few more years. I had strips in the gay press from very early on – when there was a hard copy gay press – Gay News, The Pink Paper – very political times they were too. And I had a strip in The Guardian for a couple of years – Millennium Basin – pretension and nonsense in Islington, really.
There’s lots of stuff on the website.
PÓM: is there no longer a hard copy gay press in the UK, then?
KC: Not much. A couple of mainstream glossies (though they don’t ignore politics and important issues) and, I suppose, some small press and indie zines. And I’m guessing a bit there.
A combination of the internet and changing social attitudes pretty much removed the need for the papers and magazines which informed the community, acted as a lifeline for isolated LGBT folk (posted in plain envelopes) and, massively important, personal ads and contacts.
In its heyday, Gay News, a fortnightly paper, carried a 24-page literary supplement!
The golden age of the gay press…
PÓM: I’m guessing there wasn’t much money to be made working for small press at the time, or am I making a massive – and incorrect – assumption about that?
KC: Has there ever been? I was lucky enough to earn a living in the mainstream – newspapers, magazines, publishing (so different today – digital, less illustration commissioned for fewer hard copy publications, commissioning rates dropping like stones) so I didn’t really do that much small press stuff, if by small press you mean comics. The gay press was more about community, identity and politics. I sometimes worked for small mainstream publishing houses, and their rates could be perfectly decent. But mostly, not a great deal of dosh around.
PÓM: I know you’ve done at least one other book-length comics work, The Cartoon History of Time. Was this an out-growth of the strip in New Scientist?
KC: Yes, it was. And the New Scientist strip in turn rose from the ashes of a weekly black and white strip in The Independent, basically about Quantum Physics – I can’t right now remember it’s exact name… But it was pretty heavy going, no chickens. The science editor had done astrophysics at uni, so that’s what the strip was about. The Cartoon History of Time has recently been republished by Dover Books!
PÓM: I’m also very impressed to note you are in AARGH! I have a couple of copies of that somewhere, including one that I occasionally attempt to get the contributors to sign.
KC: Why thank you. I think that came after Strip Aids, which was put together by Don Melia, a gay cartoonist who was incensed by the attitude of the Evening Standard‘s cartoonist (Jak, I think) to the AIDS crisis (Don alas himself had AIDS, from which he subsequently died). He contacted comic artists – Hunt Emerson, Mark Buckingham, Dave Gibbons, for instance, and cartoonists – Steve Bell, Frank Dickens, Kipper Williams – 80-odd artists reflecting a positive attitude to HIV/AIDS. Several of us were working in the gay press at the time (1987) and we were invited to contribute too. I mention this in particular because that was my first contact with comics. I met Tony and Carol Bennett from Knockabout; Woodrow Phoenix too. Don and his partner Lionel Gracy-Whitman also published the fabulous Heartbreak Hotel series.
PÓM: Did you actually have a background in science, or did you just become the default science cartoonist, the way Bryan Talbot was the default Adam Ant cartoonist, at one point?
KC: Not in the slightest. In fact, a couple of folk who knew me at school didn’t believe it was me, I was so rubbish at maths, chemistry and physics. Though earlier I’d been pretty good at something called ‘science’ – had the maths taken out, y’see.
I suppose the strip worked because I was interested in a lot of stuff – it was so flexible – I had everything in it from quantum physics to cutlery. It was a good excuse to draw things I liked. Animals, birds, ponds… Drawing instruments… Women in science… daft jokes…
PÓM: At what point did you get involved with Sally Heathcote? I know Mary Talbot did the writing, but had Bryan done some sort of breakdowns on the art before you got to it, or were you involved before that?
KC: Mary also broke down the script into pages and panels, and Bryan prepared the layouts, designed the panels and did the lettering. The only thing I did before that was to send some character sketches. Once we’d agreed that I’d do it, I did a couple of sample pages and we took it from there.
I’d get a batch of around 8 pages in Photoshop layers – page grid, lettering layer and layout – he drew direct to screen with a tablet.
PÓM: Do you draw electronically, or the old-fashioned way?
KC: Actual drawing, 100% ‘traditionally’. But in Photoshop, I often clean them up, colour them up, add effects… fun but painstaking.
PÓM: How much research did you have to do at your end? I presume Mary Talbot already had her own research done – and this is very much right slap-bang in her given field, anyway – but I presume there was research for contemporary clothes, backgrounds, and the like?
KC: Yes, Mary – and Bryan too – supplied most of the specific reference material – architecture, particular photographs and set-pieces – transport – various bits of background – and all the posters. They form an important element of the book. Some as visuals, giving the flavour of the period, others as important parts of the narrative.
I had reference sources of my own, too – apart from the internet I’ve accumulated a pretty good reference collection, which I used to augment the reference I’d been provided with – sometimes I found a clearer image, which was helpful; there’s an awful lot of detail in there.
Costume was really up to me, and I tried to use outfits from source photographs wherever I could – very few of the characters in the book are invented – though Sally herself is, of course.
Although Bryan was very clear about the look and feel of the backgrounds, he always encouraged me to add extra touches. We were all rather obsessed with accuracy, and constantly checked images and ideas.
PÓM: Now that I’ve finally had a chance to read the book: Sally Heathcote is, I’m guessing, a fictional character who’s there as our Point-of-View character, with pretty much everything going on around her, and most of the people, being genuinely historical?
KC: Yes, Mary created Sally as a character who could take us through the story without being tied to any particular aspect of it, as would have happened if she’d focused on, say, Christabel Pankhurst or Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. So in this narrative Sally, a young girl from the poorhouse, taken on by Mrs Pankhurst as a maid-of-all-work, observes the movement from the early days, becomes an activist, witnesses the movement split, and the beginning of war. She also represents a working class voice in what is perceived as a predominantly middle class movement.
PÓM: Just a brief technical question: Who did the colours and the final lettering?
KC: Bryan did the lettering.
Sometimes he specified colour and tone on the layouts – firelight, night scenes, for instance – early on he came up with the idea that Sally should be a redhead – she stands out wherever she is on the page.
Originally the plan had been only to use the green and purple of the WSPUs as spot colour, but early on in the process we (more or less collectively) decided to expand the palette – purple for Mrs P, brown hair for Em Pethick-Lawrence; red for blood, flame etc. I coloured the artwork up first in watercolour and finished it off in photoshop.
Ta-da…
PÓM: I have to say, I loved the book. I have a young lady friend who works in publishing in London, and who is active in union activities, and I want to get her a copy. How has the reaction been to it, so far?
KC: Great!
4-5 star reviews so far – really good reception. Bryan and Mary doing [BBC Radio 4's] Woman’s Hour tomorrow morning, which is brilliant. They only wanted two, which suited me. Should shift a few more copies!
PÓM: One thing I noticed in the book was that there are several instances of threats of sexual violence against the suffragettes. Was there a lot of this at the time, do you know? Considering that there has been a lot of talk recently about rape threats to women online, do you think this is all just part of an ongoing use of threats of sexual violence against women, by men, and that, in a way, there’s nothing new under the sun?
KC: Threats of sexual violence against the suffragettes – there must have been. Any references in Mary’s story – well, same old, same old. Exactly your comment ‘there’s nothing new under the sun‘. Online threats are just easier to make. Some men (and some women too, alas) will always be threatened by women trying to achieve any sort of equality.
Perhaps overt threats of sexual violence were more taboo in Edwardian Britain – what seemed completely acceptable was the depiction of extreme violence towards Suffragettes, and what we’d today describe as torture – often taking the form of comic postcards. Women having their tongues cut off; jokey force-feeding. But hey, they were jokes! So that was all right, then. Very often on these cards, it’s suggested the woman ‘can’t get a man’ she’s invariably an ugly ‘old maid’; she neglects her children, she’s a sexless old freak.
PÓM: Am I right in thinking that this was finished and ready to go a good few months back, but Jonathan Cape wanted to hold it until Mayday, for fuller impact?
KC: Sally was finished in early June, last year. We’d been expecting a Christmas/New Year publication, so were surprised by the turn of events.
I don’t know if May 1st was deliberately chosen for the connotations of that date or not, but I heard that the Spring publication was brought forward from October 2014!
PÓM: Did you enjoy doing all this? It’s quite a different end of the business from what you usually do, isn’t it?
KC: Yes, I enjoyed working on Sally very much indeed. I’ve always pretty much made all the decisions, at all stages, myself. Once I realised that I didn’t have to make any of the basic decisions about layout, placing characters, emotion – even light and shade (and it didn’t take long) – I relaxed into it and concentrated on realising Mary and Bryan’s vision of Sally, with a sort of overwash of my style and contributions. I was conscious of becoming very proprietorial towards someone else’s character, and it was rather a wrench when I finally finished the book (even though I’d been practically counting down the days).
PÓM: Are there any plans afoot for the three of you – or just you and Mary Talbot – to do any further work together?
KC: Well, Mary has already written and I’ve illustrated the concluding chapter of a collaborative graphic novel (IDP 2043 – ‘Internally Displaced Person’ – a dystopian, post-diluvial action tale set in the Scottish borders) commissioned by the Edinburgh Book Festival*, to be launched at this year’s Festival. Pat Mills, Hannah Berry, Irvine Welsh amongst others are also involved.
I have my own graphic narrative which I’m starting work on soon, so I’ll be pretty busy for some time – but if Mary ever wanted to make a sequel to Sally – never say never!
PÓM: Can you tell me more about this graphic narrative you’re going to be doing?
KC: It’s a combination of personal memoir and the arc of LGBT history/life (specially the L) in Britain from 1950 to the present day. Lost worlds of the 50s, 60s, 70s… Role models, heroes/heroines. A Girl’s Guide to Sensible Footwear. It’s going to take quite a while.
PÓM: Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview, Kate, whilst you were running around the country signing books!
KC: Many thanks – and hope to see you in Dublin!**
[*The Edinburgh International Book Festival is on from the 9th to the 25th of August 2014, and Kate Charlesworth will be appearing there, along with Bryan and Mary Talbot, on the 23rd at 12 30, as well as at a launch that evening for IDP 2043, along with the other contributors.
**Sadly, Kate and I never did get to meet in Dublin, as she was flying in for a visit within hours of my flying out to Paris for a few days. C'est la vie!
]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/11/2014
Straight from the offices of Publishers Weekly, it’s More to Come! Your podcast source of comics news and discussion starring The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald.
In this week’s podcast the More to Come Crew – Heidi “The Beat” MacDonald, Calvin Reid and Kate Fitzsimons – discuss this year’s MoCCA Arts Fest and Emerald City Comic Con – with interviews from the MoCCA floor, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, new comics to screen deals including Federal Bureau of Physics and Sinister Six and more on PW Comics World’s More To Come.
Now tune in Fridays for our regularly scheduled podcast!
Listen to this episode in streaming here, download it direct here and catch up with our previous podcasts on the PublishersWeekly website, or subscribe to More To Come on iTunes
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 9/13/2013
Straight from the offices of Publishers Weekly, it’s More to Come! Your podcast source of comics news and discussion starring The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald.
In a More To Come interview special episode, Heidi talks with acclaimed indie comics creator Jeff Smith about his Eisner-winning kids’ fantasy epic Bone, his adult sci-fi tale RASL, the advantages and difficulties of being your own publisher, his new Paleolithic webcomic Tuki Save The Humans and much, much more on this episode of Publishers Weekly’s graphic novel podcast. in this podcast from PW Comics World.
Now tune in Fridays at our new, new time for our regularly scheduled podcast!
Stream this episode and catch up with our previous podcasts through the Publishers Weekly website or subscribe to More To Come on iTunes
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