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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  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 […]

And that just about wraps it up here! With new books by Horrocks, Rickheit, Schrauwen, Knisley, James Romberger and Marguerite van Cook, and a little item called The Complete ZAP! I think Fanta is kinda….ruling. Get these REALY kids because they will go FAST FAST FAST.

Arsene Schrauwen by Olivier Schrauwen

Follow along as Olivier’s grandfather traveled to a remote colony to help build a utopia in the wilderness, fell in love with his cousin’s wife, and then into delirium – but is it love or jungle virus-induced fever, reality or imagination? You’ll come undone by Olivier’s first full-length graphic novel: part-biography, part-surrealscape, all fantastic.  $34.99 Out in November 2014 but get your copied SIGNED by Olivier at CAB.

Cochlea & Eustachia by Hans Rickheit

Cochlea & Eustachia appear to be twin human girls, but this has yet to be confirmed. Their actions seem to be motivated less by curiosity than boredom and an inclination towards purposeless destruction. This new graphic novel from the author of the acclaimed Squirrel Machine is lighter in tone than his previous works, yet its myriad charms remain as sinister as Rickheit fans would expect. $19.99 Out in stores December but pick up an advance at the Fantagraphics table at CAB.

Displacement by Lucy Knisley
A travel memoir recounting the artist’s experience of caring for her frail grandparents aboard a cruise ship, while reflecting on her own fears on mortality, her age, ageism in America and her family’s relationships and history. $19.99 In stores January 2015 but pick up an advance copy at the Fantagraphics table at CAB.

Foolbert Funnies by Frank Stack, edited by Kristy Valenti

A “best of the rest” tribute collecting Stack’s work under his pseudonym, “Foolbert Sturgeon”. Includes appearances by Dirty Diana, time traveler Frank Crankcase, Dr. Feelgood, and others. A tribute to a Texan who’s been quietly creating observational, iconoclastic art for more than forty years. $24.99 In stores January 2015 but pick up an advance copy at the Fantagraphics table at CAB.

The Complete ZAP Comix by R. Crumb, Rick Griffin, Paul Mavrides, Victor Moscoso, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson

The most historically and aesthetically important comics series ever, finally collected. There scarcely was an underground comics world before Robert Crumb’s classic solo first issue of Zap in 1968. By Zap #2, he had begun assembling a Seven Samurai of the best, the fiercest, and the most stylistically diversified cartoonists to come out of the countercultural kiln. It will also include the 17th unpublished issue with work by Crumb, Moscoco, Wilson, Rodriguez, Shelton, Mavrides, and Williams. We’ll have one set for you to paw over. $500.00 In stores November but pick up this ONE copy at CAB.

The Late Child and Other Animals by Marguerite Van Cook and James Romberger

A generational autobiography written by legendary punk diva and award-winning poet Van Cook, adapted by artist Romberger. The journeys and struggles over decades of this mother and daughter are linked in five episodes that veer between lyricism, wry wit, and harrowing suspense. $29.99 In stores November but pick up an advance copy and get it SIGNED at the Fantagraphics table at CAB.

Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It, various artists, edited by Anne Ishii and Graham Kohlbeins

Big, burly, lascivious, and soft around the edges: welcome to the hyper-masculine world of Japanese gay comics. The first English-language anthology of its kind: a collection of manga from the most talented and influential artists in the gei komi genre. $35.99 In stores late December but pick up this a copy at CAB and get it signed by Anne Ishii and designer Chip Kidd.

Michael Jordan: Bull on Parade by Wilfred Santiago

A thrilling, kinetic bio-epic about Michael “Air” Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time and most influential athlete in history. This tour de force explores Jordan’s public successes and private struggles. $24.99 In stores February 2015 but pick up an advance copy at the Fantagraphics table at CAB.

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen by Dylan Horrocks
www.fantagraphics.com/samzabel
A creatively blocked cartoonist finds a mysterious old comic book and is thrown into a fantastic journey through centuries of comics, stories, and imaginary worlds. Funny, erotic, and thoughtful, Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen explores the pleasures, dangers, and moral consequences of fantasy. Horrocks’s first new graphic novel since Hicksville. $29.99 In stores late December but pick up an advance copy at the Fantagraphics table at CAB.

Treasury of Mini-Comics Vol. 2 edited by Michael Dowers
www.fantagraphics.com/treasuryofminicomics2
Four decades of deliberate DIY cartoon rebellion! Collecting some of the best mini comics ever produced by some of the most creative artists in the world. Edited by Michael Dowers. $29.99 In stores January 2015 but pick up an advance copy at the Fantagraphics table at CAB.


by Zachary Clemente

This past weekend, the 20th annual Small Press Expo (SPX) brought an explosion of independent and small press comics to the Marriott hotel in Bethesda, MD. Literally overflowing with an abundance of talent, the weekend was filled with amazing creators, signings, panels, even a wedding and a prom. One of the panels, Micro-Press and Beyond, discussed the findings of a study on micro-press comics publishers by moderator Robyn Chapman, who runs mini-comics publisher Paper Rocket, as well as posing the study’s questions to the panel participants. From left to right, the publishers are Chuck Forsman (Oily Comics), Keenan Marshall Keller (Drippy Bone Books), Anne Koyama (Koyama Press), and Raighne Hogan & Justin Skarhus (2D Cloud).

Chapman kicked off the panel by showing her findings, collected in The Tiny Report, a mini-comic she published, based on questions she sent to 52 micro-press publishers, which she defines as being “one-person publishing houses”. The purpose of the Tiny Report is to be a “micropress yearbook”, serving to be an aid in understanding and chronicling the comics micro-press movement. One by one, she took the panel through some of the questions she posed for the report, seeing how they affect each representing publisher. While the responses for Forsman, Keller, Hogan, and Skarhus were fairly uniform; Koyama, as a more established publisher had slightly different answers. Although all agreed the major challenge of publishing was funding, seeing it as the root of any other discussed challenges, such as distribution or marketing.

Data Collected by Robyn Chapman

The majority of the panel was an informative and lengthy discussion about how micro-publishing is in essence a massive clustercuss. Selling books to comic stores often requires very precise book-keeping, dealing with printing and shipping costs is a measured act of a madness, running the convention circuit can be emotionally and physically punishing, and even trying managing an online store or crowd-funding campaigns can be a full-time job. Despite all these hurdles, micro-press publishers have been springing up left and right to print minis and floppies, filling the void left by publishers left by publishers like Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly, who now focus more on graphics novels, collections, or art books. Ultimately, the issues voiced come from a lack of steady funding as it’s not uncommon for an independent publisher to see a check for books sent to a store 6 months after the fact.

During the audience Q&A portion, a question I’ve been curious about was raised about artist contracts and compensation. Most of the publishers pay in copies or small royalties, depending from artist to artist and many don’t really bother with formal contracts. Only Koyama utilizes formal, customized contracts and pays a lump sum up front to each artist she works with.

“You’re an angel from Heaven.” – Forsman to Koyama

Data Collected by Robyn Chapman

Lastly, on the word of submitting, all but Koyama takes submissions through email or convention drop-offs – all stating that finished or nearly finished work is ideal. Koyama bemoaned the fact that she often cannot find the names of people on their websites or tumblr pages and won’t be able to contact them. Koyama press rarely takes submissions, only publishing 10 books a year, all handpicked by Anne herself. Everyone agreed that the best possible policy for getting published is just “make a good comic.” When asked about the “Beyond” of micro-publishing, all wished for a climate where sustainable and local printing was a more affordable option, but for now, overseas printing is the most economical option.

This was my first time at SPX and it was an exceptional experience. I’ll be back next year and (hopefully) continuing small press coverage!

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Following the hilarity of Fart Party and the hilarity tinged with self-examination of Drinking at the Movies and The Infinite Wait, cartoonist Julia Wertz proved herself one of the sharpest observers out there. However she’s been in hiatus from making new comics for the last two years, while getting a new reputation as an urban explorer. (If you want creepy, follow Wertz on Instagram.)

However, good news: Wertz is cartooning again and will have a new mini at SPX this one dealing with “girlie subjects.” And she’ll have plenty of other stuff as well:

I’ll be with Atomic Books from SPX opening until 4pm, then I’ll be with Koyama Press from 5-7. I’m signing with Renee French at Atomic, who I adore, so I’ll be more excited to be there than you will, I’m sure. To buy Museum of Mistakes, come by Atomic. To buy The Infinite Wait & Other Stories, come to Koyama. At both tables you’ll be able to buy this mini, but I will have tons of other stuff at Atomic, like original art, hand made trinkets, photos, posters, etc…so if you want all that hot garbage, swing by Atomic before 4pm. If you want both books, don’t worry, I won’t make you wait, I can totally sell you both at the same time.

Print by Antoine Cosse

It’s hard to convince me to not contribute to the growing number of small press comic subscriptions–every season there seems to be even more great material I want to get my hands onto, and it’s a rather addicting cycle of excitement whenever there’s a new package at my door. Oily has proven to be an exceptionally versatile publisher with their subscriptions—the form of their pocket-size, digestible mini-comics has parlayed a habit-forming nature in their readership that stays true to the internal logic of comics. Series like Melissa Mendes’s Lou and Charles Forsman’s TEOTFW have hooked many a fan in, including myself, allowing a sense of gratification and appreciation that hasn’t always been as accessible in indie comics. There is something quite rewarding about receiving an Oily bundle; the mini-comics are neighborly crafted and packaged to make you feel welcome from the outset.

This season’s Spring Oily Bundle, a limited 200 count batch, featured 9 different mini-comics along with additional prints and art from the stylish roster of Oily cartoonists. Mixing a touch of the familiar and the new, this was an impressionably refreshing stack of work, demonstrating the inarguable benefits of reading comics in their printed format.

Noah Van Sciver’s The Lizard Laughed

The first of the loot is Noah Van Sciver’s new minicomic, The Lizard Laughed. Beginning with a quote from Martin Sheen’s 2012 shared memoir with son Emilio Estevez, Along the Way, Sciver sets up this father-and-son narrative, contorted through his trademark doom-and-gloom thematic craftship. While the recognizable tropes of bleakness and brooding malaise are definitely present, Sciver is able to input some very quiet and reflective moments within this short piece that make it surprisingly satisfying.

Harvey is the deadbeat, stoner dad who gets an unexpected visit from the son he abandoned so many years ago. Although supposedly complacent with his role as an absent father, Harvey endeavors to enact what he believes is fatherly action to Nathan, offering affection through engaging in conversation and artistic similarity, and even planning a joint rendezvous, the time-honored tradition of a father-and-son hike. Harvey’s tragic, cumbersome attempt to fill in a paternal guise is apparent at every moment of the two’s interaction, and the emotional machismo on display is unwieldy.

The ending is no surprise, and there’s a sense of crushing disappointment for both father and son. While Harvey is sure to continue in his cyclical inability to truly connect with another person, Nathan walks away from revenge, and in a way comes to grips with understanding, even in disconnect, why Harvey is the way he is. It would be flawed to associate this comic as another father-and-son narrative, the cringe-worthy air between Harvey and Nathan actually sheds light on Sciver’s creative ability to ride that line between empathy and ridicule. There’s not a lot of people, let alone cartoonists, who can exhibit the gnarled grace that Sciver does with a character like Harvey, someone who is incredulously unlikeable and irrationally mulish to boot.

Sciver pacifies the overarching tension with Harvey’s meandering tales of playful, fantastical adventures with dangerous historic sites and imaginative recounts of mystical creatures. It’s in these stories that Harvey seems the most in touch with life, his childish sensibility drawn with a touch of humor. He is swallowed by the fantasy of his surroundings, and it’s never more clear how misguided and detached from reality he genuinely is, a palpable actuality that Nathan plainly sees.

I’m unsure if Sciver meant to comment on or parody the Sheen memoir Along the Way (something tells me neither Sheen nor Estevez wouldn’t be able to connect that sad, self-deprecating psyche in quite the same way), and The Lizard Laugh is anything but a Hollywood memoir. Sciver succeeds yet again in creating a narrative that turns the focus inward; to our own shortcomings that we reject by fluffing up our own perception of wisdom, and the choice Nathan makes that allows Harvey to retain some dignity, to not be small and nothing.

Crash Trash, an uber little comic from French cartoonist Olive Booger, is a streamlined reworking of his style’s drippy, color-saturated, hysteric scratchiness as seen in Kuš! And his graphic novel, I Like Short Songs. While superficially shrunken down to a 4” by 2.25” mini-mini-comic, Crash Trash packs a whole lot of trippy detail in the comic’s anthropologic recounting of the rise and fall of a fictional 1980s gang called the Trash Boys, along with the antics and lawlessness of their home base, the district of Crashtown.

It’s at first a little jarring to see such a small comic flushed with a heavy hand of text—almost every panel is scrawled with as much space filled with script as it is image. There is no dialogue, only narration and a smattering of effects, thereby pacing the comic quite cinematically, as panel transitions move from pull back shots of the Trash Boys to close-ups of a fallen comb or cross-cutting to a colossal punt by enemy gang, the Mega Dogs. At first glance, it may seem Olive was restricted by size in the type of details he could use to fill in details, yet his histrionic prose amplifies the limited visual space, resisting an urge to rapidly read the comic. There’s a rhythmic cleverness in the way the comic moves, an ebbing and tiding in the momentum as well as in the elevation of dramatic moments. The story is neither bounded with innovation, so when particular key words are bolded, it aids in setting the scene because you’re most likely able to attribute certain visual cues.

What I’ve said so far shouldn’t discount Oliver’s artistic aspiration; his style is still largely tangible even when stripped down to its red and black risographed print. His previous work harkens a definite Charles Burns influence with the thick, oil paint execution and thematics resonating with the sordid darkness of a city’s underbelly. Crash Trash is situated with the aesthetics of raw, punk desperation of his preceding I Like Short Songs but the simplicity in his line work has taken a new mode, less garish and more nuanced. It’s very impressive to see his art pulsate even with the oppressively tight margins of space.

A lot has been said about Melissa Mendes’s Lou, the seventeen issue long pillar amongst the Oily lineup. This newest addition, titled A Very Special Lou, marks a revisiting to the series which ended in August 2013, and a warm return it proves to be. Like a childhood friend or long unseen family member, A Very Special Lou is an entirely new narrative that retains its delightful, underlying spirit of kindred nostalgia.

One of the reasons I really took to this particular issue was how it gently touched on the omnipresence of fandom for professional wrestling. I’ve always been comfortable broadcasting myself as a fan of comics, and more recently I’ve come clean as a fan of professional wrestling. Fans of comics and professional wrestling share a long, complex history of facing ridicule for following such a denigrated form of entertainment—wrestlers and superheroes are arguably a form of con-job, deemed “fake” by those who choose to stand by higher media forms, be it athletics or literary elitists. However, criticisms aside, fans of wrestling and comics share a distinctly unique concept of play, where we consume media in a way that extends the narrative fluidly, defying rigid roles between the identities of producers and consumers.

A Very Special Lou functions both as a piece about being an admirer of comics as well as wrestling through the domestic lens of childhood imagination. Referencing wrestlers like King Kong Bundy and Hulk Hogan through 6-year-old John’s fannish fascination and how it’s lived through his family, Mendes yet again accesses the real emotions that we feel as charismatic kids and continue to feel today. Through the entire Lou serialization, Mendes almost effortlessly lets the reader dip into points of their own life, spurring even the most dormant, forgotten affections.

The Lou Series all laid out

Stay up to date with all the Oily greatness by browsing the Oily Comics website.

(Image Credits: http://melissammmendes.tumblr.com, http://snakeoily.tumblr.com)

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About a month ago, Steve asked me who my favourite comic creators were, and horrible as I am at answering on the spot questions, I did manage to provide him with one name: Julia Gfrorer. If you follow mainstream comics, your most beloved authors put out work regularly, but at indie central, you get a mini-comic or a book a year, with perhaps a few contributions to anthologies. Despite this, Gfrorer’s work is consistently excellent, featuring themes of myth, folk lore, mysticism and spirituality, coupled with her fine-lined, evocative art.

She also manages the seemingly possible: discussing sex in a way that’s interesting, sexy, varying degrees of disturbing, and all disgusting fluids at the same time: her work is never patronising or affected. Her excellent first longer length comic, Black is the Colour, is due to be published by Fantagraphics in autumn, and you can currently read it in full over at the Study Group Comics site, and hopefully that should be enough to convince you to pick up a print copy when it’s out!

Here’s a sneak peek from an upcoming interview with The Beat, where Gfrorer talks about how she ‘got into comics’:

‘When I moved to Portland in 2007, I had just made a mini called “How Life Became Unbearable,” about Saint Francis of Assisi. I took it to Pony Club Gallery to consign it, and that was how I met Dylan Williams, who was a member then. Around the same time, I was in a show at Launch Pad Gallery, and I was doodling a little comic at the opening, and Sean Christensen zeroed in on me like I had flashed the comix beacon. So those guys were my first friends in my new city, and they introduced me to their friends and encouraged me to be part of their projects, so before I knew it comics were my whole world.’

You can find her site here and buy her work here

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If you’ve been following my haphazard writing at all, you know of my love for Corinne Mucha, aka the undisputed Queen of Mini-Comics. Mucha has only one longer format ‘graphic novel’ to her name (Freshman Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions  Revelations and Other Nonsense aimed more at the teen and young adult market) and whilst it’s good, her mini-comics are where her talent is really and truly on show.

She won an Ignatz award last year for her Retrofit comic, The Monkey in the Basement and Other Delusions, but I personally believe My Every Single Thought to be her best work, where she deftly explores what being a single woman means -to single and non-single women, to men, to society, the expectations and connotations it carries as a label, and combining, as always, humour and whimsy with deeper, more reflective thoughts.

Here’s a bit more on her abilities from a piece I wrote over at FPI last year:

‘Mucha packs so much into these pages, pictures brimming off the edges and words, words, everywhere (an unfashionable and dying art in comics), that you never feel you’ve read anything other than a full, dense and enriching narrative. Her shining quality is her ability to combine irreverent humour with more serious ruminations in a manner that’s honest and contemplative without being overly earnest or preachy. Her mini-comics are one of the best uses of the format I’ve come across, her narratives layered and rewarding.’

You can find her website here and buy her fantastic mini-comics here.

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BY JEN VAUGHN – For anyone who has ever performed any improv, there is a simple rule: ‘Say Yes.’ Say yes to a situation when presented to you because your fellow troupe member has a story line. You can add even more “yes and…” The same rule applies to a game called Fiasco, which calls itself the ‘make your own Coen brothers film’ game. You create a story without props with high stakes, characters with high ambition and low impulse control AND with a traditional story structure. The first time I played was with Comics Journal editor and gaming partner Kristy Valenti and the heat was oppressive, adding to our Western setting. Center for Cartoon Studies professor and cartoonist (most notably for BERLIN), Jason Lutes, has taken the narrative he created with five CCS graduates and turned it into a 72 page full-color comic book called BINGO BABY.

The creators include five CCS graduates Donna Almendrala, Bill Bedard, Joseph Lambert, Amelia Onorato, and Denis St. John and Jason Lutes is their whip-cracking editor. It’ll be interesting to see this story that was created rather on the fly by creative storytellers and then coaxed into comic book page submission. Each of these young cartoonists are drawn to rich stories, no matter what genre or style.  Based on the video, they draw a lot from the quiet mountain town of White River Junction, full of its share of characters from the meth addicts to the Vietnam War veterans to the bougie retirees to the dueling bingo venues crammed with hardcore players. You can do the ol’ Kickstarter pre-order now for only $10.

Lutes is known at the school for his board game nights. Wish there was a reward that included Lutes coming to YOUR board game night and teaching you a thing or two about wheat or stone trades. Rewards include the book itself, a shirt, hell—some original Lutes artwork!

—

Jen Vaughn is a Seattle-based cartoonist and marketing manager at Fantagraphics. CAVEAT: she’s played board games with all these creators and they are magnificent bastards.

Tweet I’m a HUGE mini-comics fan; I think they encapsulate the potential and diversity of the medium perfectly in the way in which they combine storytelling, art, and innovation with accessibility and a do-it-yourself attitude. Its currently a very good time to be fond of the floppy- the format has been experiencing somewhat of a revival in the past [...]

TweetYou Can Never Be Me by Patrick Kyle There’s a meme (as I believe they’re called) that I see cropping up fairly regularly in my forays of Internet yonder. Here, allow me to show you: Batman is a seductive fellow, isn’t he? Fetishes aside, one of the main appeals of the character is that, theoretically, anybody [...]

BY JEN VAUGHN – Forget Kickstarter! Let’s talk OLD SCHOOL SUBSCRIPTIONS! Micropublisher Oily Comics has a DEAL for you. Center for Cartoon Studies alum, two-brick Ignatz winner and future Fantagraphics author, Charles Forsman is offering a subscription service for a few more hours! Days after subscribing I received a package full of comics. BAM!

Being a Friends of Oily Comics means you get a monthly shipment of comics made each month featuring the works of D&Q’s former jane-of-all-trades Jessica Campbell, Andy Burkholder, Melissa Mendes, Belgian cartoonist Max de Radigués, Aaron Cockle, Dane Martin, and soon Joseph Lambert, Warren Craghead III, Marian Runk, Alex Kim, Dan Zettwoch, Sammy Harkham, Zach Worton, Michael DeForge, and more on the way. How can you say no to that? Preview page of Charles Forsman’s comic:

$30 gets you monthly shipments from July-September, $50 gets you monthly shipments from July-December and a suh-weet patch for that bag/jacket/hat. Oh and a Michael DeForge-designed card and original portrait. Check mine out! Read more here and Order now!

BY JEN VAUGHN – From solid cartoonist, Sophie Yanow, a mini-comics TOUR is happening in TWO different countries. Deets below:

MONTREAL COMIC ARTISTS – August West Coast Book Tour

MONTREAL, QC, JULY 30, 2012 — August 17-25, members of Canadian independent comic book collective Colosse tour from San Francisco to Vancouver BC with multimedia readings of their acclaimed and edgy works, followed by book signings. Authors include Sophie Yanow (In Situ, a graphically daring, poetic journal strip) and Francois Samson-Dunlop and Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau (Pinkerton, an indie-rock rom com about getting over a truly 90s breakup in a post-90s world). Don’t miss this rare West Coast appearance!

Friday, Aug. 17 • Mission: Comics and Art, San Francisco, CA

Saturday, Aug. 18 • The Escapist Comic Bookstore, Berkeley, CA
Tuesday, Aug. 21 • Spine and Crown Books, Seattle, WA
Thursday, Aug. 23 • Lucky’s Comics, Vancouver, BC
Friday, Aug. 24, • The Waypost, Portland, OR
Saturday, Aug. 25 • Floating World Comics, Portland, OR

In Situ by Sophie Yanow

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By: Heidi MacDonald, on 5/18/2012
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Television, Cartoons, Culture, Mini Comics, Cartoon Network, Adventure Time, Indie Comics, Regular Show, The Problem Solverz, Add a tag

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By: Heidi MacDonald, on 5/16/2012
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Regular Show, First Second Books, Sparkplug Comic Books, Interviews, Cartoons, First Second, Oni, Mini Comics, Cartoon Network, Indie Comics, JG Quintel, Add a tag

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JG Quintel, creator of Cartoon Network's Regular Show at Comic Con 2011 (Image via Wikipedia)

The following interview with  JG Quintel, the creator of Cartoon Network’s Regular Show, took place outside an East Hollywood Bar earlier this year.  The interview was conducted as research for a Publisher’s Weekly article on the tremendous amount of independent comics talent working on Cartoon Network Shows like Regular Show. Animator/Cartoonist Benton Connor was hanging out with us for the duration of the chat and managed to squeeze a couple of choice sound bites and some additional levity into the conversation.

Shannon O’Leary: Calvin Wong a storyboarder and writer on Regular Show and Hellen Jo a storyboard revisionist on the show both claim you found their respective mini-comics at the Sparkplug Comic Books table at San Diego Comic Con in 2009. Sparkplug isn’t exactly a mainstream comics publisher or distributor, what brought you to their table that year?

JG Quintel: At the time I was gearing up for the (Regular) show. I was looking for new people and knew I wanted to look at independent comics because the style matched closer. A lot of mainstream comics, like Spiderman or whatever, don’t really fit what we’re looking for.

SO: How does it not fit? How does indie fit more?

JG Quintel and Benton Connor (Image via Calvin Wong's Tumblr)

JG: A lot of independent comics (are) written and drawn by the same person. It’s not done in a company kind of aspect where one person writes, one person draws, and one person inks. I wanted to find people who were the total package because we’re not a script based show. We’re a storyboard driven show – where the board artists write the dialogue and draw the drawings. Usually with comics you can tell right away what kind of sense of humor (someone) has. Are they funny? Can they draw? Do they understand perspective? You can tell a lot by a little mini-comic. And

0 Comments on Interview: Regular Show creator JG Quintel on indie comics and cartoons as of 5/16/2012 6:19:00 PM

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By: Heidi MacDonald, on 4/28/2012
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Small Presses, Comics, Conventions, Mini Comics, MoCCA Fest 2012, Add a tag

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22. Box Brown’s THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT now available

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By: Heidi MacDonald, on 12/1/2011
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Mini Comics, Indie Comics, Add a tag

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An anthology of Box Brown’s much lauded EVERYTHING DIES mini-comic and webcomic is now available. Winner of two Ignatz Awards, EVERYTHING DIES deals with various historical and religious takes on the end of the world, second comings, death, and other eschatological matters.

This Lulu-produced collection includes selections from both versions of the strip. Brown’s THE SURVIVALIST is also available for pre-order and will be at BCGF this Saturday.

The Great Disappointment collects work from Box Brown’s web and print comic, Everything Dies. This first volume features the non-fiction and auto-bio stories such as: The Great Disappointment, The Great Upsucking, Alpha, Omega, Ben Died of a Train and many others.  Everything Dies was on the notable comic list in The 2011 Best American Comics Anthology  and won two 2011 Ignatz Awards (Best Series, Best Mini-comic for Ben Died of a Train.) This is the first of three volumes set to collect all of Everything Dies print and web comics.  This is available exclusively through Lulu.

 ”More than anything, Everything Dies’ chief success is that it is an exercise in theological reverse-engineering, breaking down the unfathomable whole to better understand all of its working parts. Until Moses comes down from Mt Sinai with the instruction manual, I, for one, am more than happy to watch Box Brown work on it.” — Martin Steenton, Avoid the Future blog”

*Notable comic in The 2011 Best American Comics Anthology *Winner of two 2011 Ignatz Awards (Best Series, Best Mini-comic for Ben Died of a Train.)

1 Comments on Box Brown’s THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT now available, last added: 12/1/2011

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Box Brown said, on 12/1/2011 9:30:00 AM

Unfortunately, The Survivalist wont be available at BCGF, but I will have a brand new short-run excerpt from Roussimoff, the Andre the Giant based graphic novel I am working on.

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23. APE previews, debuts, parties!

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By: Heidi MacDonald, on 9/30/2011
Blog: PW -The Beat (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Events, Indies, Ape, Mini Comics, Add a tag

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The Alternative Press Expo kicks off this weekend, boasting one of the best guest line-ups imaginable, including Craig Thompson, Matthew Thurber, Kate Beaton and many others.

Please remember, Sparkplug Books will be at the show, and buying from them not only gets you some great comics but helps pay remaining medical bills from the late, truly great Dylan Williams. Here’s a very quick who’s where, debuts and all that other stuff:

PARTY POOP:

Tonight there are two kick off events:

Saturday:

Cartoon Art Museum

and Isotope with the Isotope Awards ceremony!

Please post any more in the comments!

PUBLISHER NEWS:

Marc Arsenault’s Wow Cool is relaunching at APE and has a new webstore up.
Drawn & Quarterly — with Clowes, Tomine and Beaton.
Secret Acres
Reliable Comics and Sparkplug
CBLDF
Flesk Publishing

WHO’S WHERE AND DEBUTS

Jenna Salume has CAPTAIN KITTEN!

5 Comments on APE previews, debuts, parties!, last added: 10/1/2011

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Jackie Estrada said, on 9/30/2011 4:09:00 PM

Hope everyone has a great time!

Mike Rhodes said, on 9/30/2011 4:27:00 PM

Getting ready to leave for SF and the exhibitor’s party. It’s my first APE as an exhibitor. My wife and I will be @APE on table 620A as BratCat Productions. Giddy barely describes the emotions here at the Sanctum BratCatus.

Andrew Farago said, on 9/30/2011 5:08:00 PM

Stop by the Couscous Collective’s table to check out our new anthology, OCEAN, and to buy signed & sketched copies of The Looney Tunes Treasury! We’re at table #230-231!

Mike Hansen said, on 9/30/2011 5:17:00 PM

This will be my first APE – I can’t wait.

I just signed on as Consulting Editor for Back Row Comics (booth #743), which is debuting a few print titles at APE – come say hi to everyone! :)

http://backrowcomics.com/

AudioComics said, on 10/1/2011 5:43:00 PM

If you have the chance, hit booth 265; Josh Finney and Kat Rocha of “Titanium Rain” and “Utopiates” fame will be rolling out their new 01Publishing line.

Lance Roger Axt
The AudioComics Company

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