It’s a rare occasion that you can use words like sweet, thoughtful, and gentle to describe a science fiction superhero story taking place in a brutal, dystopian urban battleground, but thanks to Sophie Campbell’s Shadoweyes from Iron Circus Comics, that day has arrived. Set in a cluttered and decaying city of the future, Dranac, Campbell introduces […]
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Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Books, Reviews, Graphic Novels, Comics, Webcomics, Kickstarter, Indie Comics, Crowdfunding, sophie campbell, Add a tag
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Comics, Mini Comics, Indie Comics, Anne Emond, madeline flores, Laura Knetzger, Retrofit Comics, Sophie Franz, Yumi Sakugawa, Alabaster Pizzo, Kaeleigh Forsyth, Akino Kondah, Add a tag
Bear, Bird, and Stag Were Arguing In The Forest and Other Stories by Madeline Flores Flores offers three philosophical shorter works that come together well in their examination of knowing yourself, living purposefully, understanding where you stand in the universe, seeing the potential in yourself, and lots of other good things, but without being heavy. Instead […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Comics, Mini Comics, Indie Comics, Anne Emond, madeline flores, Laura Knetzger, Retrofit Comics, Sophie Franz, Yumi Sakugawa, Alabaster Pizzo, Kaeleigh Forsyth, Akino Kondah, Add a tag
Bear, Bird, and Stag Were Arguing In The Forest and Other Stories by Madeline Flores Flores offers three philosophical shorter works that come together well in their examination of knowing yourself, living purposefully, understanding where you stand in the universe, seeing the potential in yourself, and lots of other good things, but without being heavy. Instead […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Graphic Novels, Comics, Indie Comics, conundrum press, Rebecca Roher, Add a tag
For many people, the earliest experience of human loss that pierces their emotions and affects their everyday existence is the death of a grandparent, and that of a grandmother, I have found, anyway, seems to pack a particular wallop. Some grandmothers participate in a kid’s life as a kind of back-up parent, others as a […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Books, Reviews, Graphic Novels, Comics, Art Comix, Indie Comics, Literary Comics, Koyama Press, Patrick Kyle, Add a tag
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 […]
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JacketFlap tags: Art Comix, Indie Comics, alternative comics, Malachi Ward, Small Presses, science fiction, Reviews, Comics, Add a tag
This collection of short works by Malachi Ward and published by Alternative Comics announces itself with a verbal joke — From Now On is another way of saying the future, after all. Ward’s stories reflect the sensibility of the title, presenting familiar scenarios, but presenting them in an unexpected way that challenges the tropes we’ve embraced […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Graphic Novels, Comics, Mini Comics, Art Comix, Indie Comics, Koyama Press, cathy g. johnson, Add a tag
This short, spare, poetic, emotionally brutal piece from Cathy G. Johnson and Koyama Press captures the intersection of three lives, and the unlikely self realization that two of them enact on one. The story begins with two punks at a music show exhibiting destructive manners that disrupts the shows and gives them an opportunity for […]
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JacketFlap tags: alternative comics, Oily Comics, Small Presses, Reviews, Comics, Kids' comics, Mini Comics, Indie Comics, Add a tag
Massachusetts cartoonist Melissa Mendes has a knack for comics that not only center on kids, but present the world from their points of view with an unromantic honesty. Her first major work, the Freddy Stories collection, and her most recent project, the serialized webcomic The Weight both show off her prowess, and Lou, a collection […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Indie Comics, Koyama Press, Top News, Add a tag
Koyama Press has just announced its fall line-up and it’s mostly on the adventurous side, with a few sure crowd pleasers. It definitely continues the tradition of excellence from this Canadian publisher with a well rounded slate that touches on all of the most popular contemporary indie comics genres. On tap: CAT RACKHAM by […]
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JacketFlap tags: Los Angeles, UFO, haunting, LA, Nerdlebrity News, chris hardwick, Wondercon, Top News, Wonder-Con, Nerdist News, Small Presses, podcast, Sports, Conventions, Culture, Commentary, Podcasts and other media, Podcasts, Add a tag
By Nicholas Eskey If you label yourself a “nerd” and wear it with pride, undoubtedly you already follow Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist News. The quick witted comedian and mega-nerd took heads the podcast driven news network for nerds with a wonderful collection of colleagues and special guests, discussing everything from the current state of all things […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Art Comix, Indie Comics, Literary Comics, roman muradov, kus, Add a tag
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 […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Eleanor Davis, James Kochalka, Top News, Crowdfunding, Leela Corman, Retrofit Comics, Alabaster Pizzo, Kaeleigh Forsyth, Luke Howard, Paloma Dawkins, Add a tag
Retrofit Comics has been putting out some of the finest small press comics of recent years and they’ve announced their Spring/Summer 2016 line with Leela Corman, Alabaster Pizzo, Kaeleigh Forsyth, James Kochalka, Paloma Dawkins, Eleanor Davis and Luke Howard so this season should be just as fantastic. They’re running a Kickstarter to pay for printing and artist […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, News, Dark Horse, Valiant, Ghostbusters, Top News, Crowdfunding, Ethan Young, 2d could, cyanide an d happiness, faith #1, joking hazard, the battles of bridget lee, Add a tag
There’s a lot of news about comics out there, so this is going to be a lot of column. • Faith #1 continues to be a huge hit for Valiant and is now in its FOURTH printing! The new printing hits on March 30th along with Faith #3. Here’s a cover gallery and some interiors. […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Graphic Novels, Comics, Art Comix, Indie Comics, Koyama Press, Julia Wertz, Reprints in Review, Add a tag
Julia Wertz’s Eisner-nominated Drinking At The Movies, originally from 2010 but here with a handsome reissue from Koyama Press, is renowned for its humorous self-deprecating pile-on. At its root is the suggestion that beating yourself up is probably just part of personal growth. And that’s not just meant to make you feel better, but an […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Secret Acres, robert sergal, Add a tag
Let’s get going with spring book announcements: SPACE, a collection of Robert Sergal’s series ESCHEW. Sergal is an Ignatz Award nominee for Outstanding Comic and a Best American Comics selection, and his comics are short, stark but funny snapshots of awkward interactions, body humor and moment we’d often rather forget. Rod Lott, of Bookgasm writes: […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Comics, Art Comix, Indie Comics, Literary Comics, Top News, Drippy, conundrum press, Julian Lawrence, Add a tag
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 […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Comics, Mini Comics, Indie Comics, Autobiographical Comics, ninth art press, Dan Mazur, Kelly Froh, Add a tag
The Weekend Casserole Collection by Kelly Froh Froh brings together a number of short pieces from various sources — anthologies she’s contributed to, some of her own minis, as well as some previously unseen work — Covering incidents from all parts of her life — childhood sleepovers, high school crushes, strangers on buses, work acquaintances […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Comics, autobiography, queer, Graphic Memoir, Indie Comics, Literary Comics, conundrum press, meags fitzgerald, Add a tag
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 […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Reviews, Comics, Mini Comics, Indie Comics, ninth art press, whit taylor, Add a tag
The sad clown is a trope that has been well-used in every storytelling media there is, but Whit Taylor’s Up Down Clown from Ninth Art Press takes that trope further than usual. Rather than settling for the simple dichotomy of make-up and merriment hiding gloom, Taylor examines how a mental state might fluctuate with the […]
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JacketFlap tags: Indie Comics, Literary Comics, European Comics, vuk palibrk, kus, martins zutis, max baitinger, paula bulling, Zosia Dzierzawaska, Small Presses, Reviews, world comics, the holocaust, Add a tag
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.
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Add a tag
Robyn Chapman is once again collecting information for her annual Micropress Survey, which is not only a fact filled compendium of the state of very small indie publishing, but a nice zine as well. 2015 is drawing to a close, and you know what that means! It’s time for the 2015 Micro-Press Survey. I use […]
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Koyama Press, Patrick Kyle, cathy g. johnson, Rokudenashiko, Small Presses, Literary Comics, aidan koch, ben sers, Add a tag
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:
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Diversity, Top News, moonshot, chad solomon, indigenous comics creators, j. veregge, james leask, jay odjick, jon proudstar, Michael Sheyahshe, noel franklin, scalped, Add a tag
In yesterday's discussion of Marvel's new Red Wolf comic and comics journalism, I had talked a lot about other comics by and about indigenous people but cut it from an already lengthy piece. However, in the discussion of whether Red Wolf needs to be supported just because it promotes diversity, I suggested some other options -- please list more in the comments!
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Interviews, Comics, Indies, Kickstarter, Top News, andrew herbst, tony keaton, wolves of summer, Add a tag
It truly is a new Golden Age of comics, not just because of the fantastic output from such publishers as Image, Fantagraphics, Oni, etc., but also because of how many great comics are going unnoticed. The market is brimming with material that has gone largely undiscovered. I experienced that in a big way with Shawn […]
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JacketFlap tags: Small Presses, Previews, Indie Comics, Koyama Press, Julia Wertz, Top News, autobio comics, drinking at the movies, janeane garofalo, Add a tag
Continuing our look at this fall’s top graphic novels, Koyama Press is reissuing Julia Wertz’s Drinking at the Movies, originally published by Three RIvers press but here reissued with all new material and an intro by Janeane Garaofolo. Wertz’s comic strips are autobiographical, but fearless in their honesty, and forgiving in bringing a light touch to […]
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I haven’t started reading this one but Wet Moon, also by Sophie, is an outstanding strange comics, unlike any other, quite addictive. And her last jobs on Glory and Jem and the Holograms are the more reasons to pick this one up.
I had the chance to interview her 5 years ago for an issue of my mag focused on the DC Minx line. She really impressed by both her kindness, her doubts but also by the strenght of her convictions. That was probably one of the best exchange I ever had with a comics creator. It made me want to look after her other work (I had since only read Water Baby at Minx) and I haven’t been disapointed in the slightest. :)