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Midnight Fiction Favorite Mini Comix of 2011
Small Press News of December 31, 2011
Thanks very much for reading MF.com in 2011. We're closing in on 150,000 visits thanks to your clicks, searches and return visits. Special thanks to Joe Wehrle, Bruce Chrislip, Rick Bradford and Bob Vojtko, and to many of you like Jim Main and Dan W. Taylor who sent copies of their publications to preview.
 N.D.I.Y. by Jesse Reklaw |
 Ouroboros by Ben Newman |
 The Heavy Hand by Chris C. Cilla |
 The Comix Reader #2 edited by Richard Cowdry |
 Monster Party by Chris Eliopoulos |
 Rashy Rabbit #7 by Josh Latta |
 White Buffalo Gazette 2010 edited by Buzz Buzzizyk |
 Cragmore #1-4 by Pat Lewis |
 The Possum and the Pepper Spray by Pete Hodapp |
 Herman the Manatee #3 by Jason Viola |
Not necessarily published in 2011, these ten mini comix are my favorites of the many I read throughout the year. Click on a cover to read my review (or preview) of the title. All are highly recommended, I'd encourage you to pick up a copy of each one, if you haven't already. A few like White Buffalo Gazette 2010 may no longer be available, but most are very easy to find. |
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The new Writer's Digest is out. The January 2012 issue features an interview with Outlander author Diana Gabaldon and lots more. $5.99 on newsstands or for quite a bit less via subscription from Writer's Digest.
Late, but news to me, science fictioner William Hertling provides an in-depth report on OryCon 33.
Chip MacGregor posted some solid advice about marketing. It addresses books, but much is applicable to any publishing or small press effort. Start with Step One and work your way up at MacGregor Literary.
Rampant Loon Press is the small Midwestern publishing house behind Stupefying Stories. The December 2011 issue includes work by Justin Williams, Ron Lunde, Aaron Bradford Starr, Tyler Tork, Kersley Fitzgerald, Gary Cuba, David Landrum and Bill Ferris. $1.99 for the Kindle Edition on Amazon.com.
Alterna Comics announced their first sketch card set, to celebrate their five-year anniversary in 2012. They're currently looking for 50 artists to take part in the set and already have several contributors on board. Space is limited, so everything is on a first-come, first-considered, basis. If you're an artist or know of an artist who'd be interested in being featured in their card set, contact Alterna Comics.
Hogan's Alley posted Milton Caniff's Christmas Strips by David Irvine this week on The Cagle Post.
Alan Cranis picks the best books of 2011 on Bookgasm.
James the Stanton granted Agthbar his own webhome this week. Click over to Gnartoons to peruse all 38 episodes of this very complicated cartoon character.
Amazing Stories, the world's first science fiction magazine, is online with big plans for 2012. Be sure to check out the free PDF back issues of over a half-dozen classic editions from years past at Amazing Stories Magazine.
Top November 2011 October 2011
Jamie Chase
At the Earth's Core
Small Press News of
December 24, 2011
As noted on All Pulp, congrats to Jamie Chase on his upcoming collaboration with Martin Powell on Sequential Pulp Comic and Dark Horse Book's adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' At the Earth's Core.
Koyama Press has updated their website thanks to Squidface & The Meddler.
This week, on Destination DIY: author Stephen Elliott's DIY book tour. After the release of his memoir The Adderall Diaries, he traveled the country, reading in people's homes rather than in bookstores. He sold upwards of 1000 books — many more than he would have moved on a traditional book tour. But spending so much time alone on the road also cost him some sanity. . .
Rob Kirby posts his Top 20 Self-Published Comics and Minis of 2011 at Rob Kirby Comics.
Adam Gnade's new 66-page novella from Punch Drunk Press is about the story within the story. Waking time and dream dissolve into one as his characters navigate an interconnected world of long conversations, transmissions into the void, and horror stories told firsthand.
Even for a story concerned with stories, this is a book gill-packed with detail and minutiae; it's a dense, humid, crowded America—pocket dials and celebrity magazines, suburban parking lots and border crossings, a Civil War ghost story, a wedding and a mercy killing, a crowded street full of industry and an angry Russian tumblr-ing her way through spring break. It's about the disappearing ground of love and the endless nightmare of endless nights alone, the book's inhabitants looking at a lostness they can't quite articulate. (As says the vacationing Russian Eva Neveski, "What I see is this: miserableness, no joy, lack of god. Young people without direction, stuck in apartments, doing drugs, afraid to quit bad jobs. Everyone either wasting away like skeletons or getting cartoonishly fat. The few (the vast minority) who 'know what they want from life' striking out alone and scattering themselves across the globe.") $6.00 from Adam Gnade.
The January issue of Funny Times is out. 12 issues for $25 makes a great new year's subscription from Funny Times.
Top November 2011 October 2011
Zine World #30.5
Small Press News, December 17, 2011
Jerianne Thompson has released an interim issue of Zine World. Issue #30.5—16 full-size (8.5" x 11") pages with no fluff or filler. More than 230 reviews of zines, comics, books, and other self-published things. Yours in exchange for $1.00 + first class stamp mailed to their new address in Stumptown:
Zine World
PO Box 3556
Portland OR 97208
$1.50 via PayPal
Outside the US the price is $2 by mail, or $2.25 by PayPal.
Current subscribers receive #30.5 for free. Jerianne is working on the next full issue, #31, scheduled for early 2012. If you have a zine you’d like Zine World to review for that issue, now would be a great time to send it in!
Sisters in Crime shares videos from their SinC Into Great Writing Workshop.
Alec Longstreth finished his epic, Basewood and got a shave and a haircut to celebrate the new Phase in his life.
Kirk Whitham demonstrates his new Hardcover Casing Board gluing station, on The Binding Blog. He'll begin hand-manufacturing and offering it for sale for $99 plus $19.99 for shipping very soon from his Etsy Shop.
A couple of recent books from J.T. Yost: Thinger Dingers is 5.5" x 8", 24 pages, collects six comics previously published in anthologies. Available for $3.00 (plus postage) from Birdcage Bottom Books.
J.T. Yost also issued Loser Weepers #3 earlier this year. A 36-page continuation of the fictional narrative woven around real life found letters, notes and journals. It's 7" x 7.25" (like the first two issues) and available for $5.00 (plus postage) from Birdcage Bottom Books. You can follow Yost's exploits at The Holy Yost.
Hogan's Alley #18 is printed and will be out soon. Subscribe now to include it in your subscription. $24 for four issues at Hogan's Alley subscriptions. Also, check out a collection of Beetle Balley Christmas greetings by Mort Walker at Ho Ho Hogan. And if you'd like to read a 1940 Christmas adventure from NEA, check out The Quints' Christmas by Brandon Walsh.
Top November 2011 October 2011
Justin Giampaoli names 2011 Best Mini-Comics
Small Press News, December 10, 2011
Justin Giampaoli names his Best Mini-Comics & Small Press Titles of 2011 at Poopsheet Foundation.
BTW, an easy way to support your Poopsheet Foundation is to click through their site when you're shopping for comics from Amazon.com.
The Baltic Comics Magazine #9 is out with the theme: Female Secrets. How is it possible that a group of people constituting almost 50% of the world's population can keep so many secrets? This surely must come to an end. Therefore with the help of 27 female comics artists issue nine unravels some of the greatest mysteries of humanity. All 164 pages, many in full color, for $12.00 from the kushkomikss shop, which includes a 10-page preview. Follow the Latvian gang at kus! komiksi or that face thing.
Aron Nels Steinke is starting a new webcomic called Bozo the Teacher.
Gerry Giovinco writes about The Art of Delivering Comics at CO2 Comics.
Noah Van Sciver reports via The Little Blog he's finished The Hypo early and is getting ready to ship it to Fantagraphics!
The Bob Corby led Lump of Coal #5 by the Art Exploer Post 407, is now available for $1.50 from Back Porch Comics and select Ohio retailers.
Ink Stains #36 by Ken Meyer Jr. is live on ComicAttack.Net. This episode explores Jim McPherson and the world of Phantacea #1 and #2. Among other fascinating factoids, issue #1 includes early work by Dave Sim.
Destination DIY teamed up with the popular website Instructables to put on the DIY Disaster Challenge. Together, they found some great stories of do-it-yourself projects gone wrong.
James the Stanton shows a new side of his artistic prowess in Takilma (Sept. 2011), a new digest-size comic. It's available for $5.00 (plus postage) from the Gnartoons Store.
Top November 2011 October 2011
African-American Classics: Graphic Classics #22
Small Press News, December 3, 2011
Steve Willis shares news a few ghost stories in a recent post on Morty the Dog. He's also uncovered numerous vintage newave original minis and put them up on the block, so check his posts.
The Latvian publishing empire, kus!, posted a list of their favorite international comix distro on the kush komikss blog.
James Stanton added new Gnartoons stickers to his online store.
Edward Bolman reports Noble Head Funnies #6 is complete and in search of a publisher at Omnia Exeunt in Mysterium.
Spinetingler Magazine is opening their queue for crime, mystery, thriller, suspense and horror fiction submissions.
Destination DIY producer Jaymee Cuti shares stories of home aquariums gone wrong.
Mark Terry is funding his Dust Jacket Archive Project with Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC.
Pulp Empire is accepting submission for their themed anthologies: Heroes of Mars, Modern Pulp Heroes and Aliens Among Us.
Chloe Eudaly of Reading Frenzy set up new consignment hours Thursday - Saturday 11am - 7pm. Check out the online Reading Frenzy Shoppe for a wonderful selection of books, zines and comix. You can also help out this independent distro by becoming a member of 500 Friends of Reading Frenzy. You'll receive 10% off general merchandise, 25% off RF exclusives and discounts on ticketed events. Sign up for the newsletter at Reading Frenzy.
African-American Classics: Graphic Classics Volume 22
Edited by Tom Pomplun and Lance Tooks
December 2011
(ISBN 978-0-9825630-4-5)
144 pgs, 7 x 10", paperback, full color, $17.95(US)
Eureka Productions announced the release of African-American Classics: Graphic Classics Volume 22, the newest volume in the Graphic Classics® series of comics adaptations of great literature.
African-American Classics presents comics adaptations of great stories and poems by America’s earliest black authors, illustrated by contemporary black artists. The volume is co-edited by Tom Pomplun and Lance Tooks, a longtime contributing artist to the series. “This is an unprecedented opportunity to expose young readers of all races to a group of brilliant American authors who’ve never been adapted into the comics medium, interpreted by some of our industry’s top talent,” states Lance.
The volume presents stories including “Two Americans” by Florence Lewis Bentley, “The Goophered Grapevine” by Charles W. Chesnutt, “Becky” by Jean Toomer, two short plays by Zora Neale Hurston, and six more tales of humor and tragedy. Also featured are graphic interpretations of eleven poems, including Langston Hughes’ “The Negro,” Claude McKay’s “America,” and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Sympathy.”
The comics adaptations and illustrations are by some of the best black talent in the comics and illustration fields today, including Kyle Baker, Alex Simmons, Christopher Priest, Afua Richardson, Trevor Von Eeden, Jeremy Love and Milton Knight.
The Graphic Classics series presents the works of great authors in comics adaptations and heavily-illustrated text. The adaptations are written at an adult level, and utilize as much of the author’s original language as possible. Our goal is to create books that are enjoyable for adults, yet accessible to children ages twelve and up. Graphic Classics are available in bookstores and comics shops nationally, or direct from the publisher: Eureka Productions.
John O'Neill provides a review of Strange Worlds edited by Jeff Doten from Space Puppet Press on Black Gate.
Comical Animal #6, Jim Medway's quarterly online comic anthology is up. Contributors include Fred Blunt, Rick Eades, Pete Hindle, Rob Jackson, Lizz Lunney, Jim Medway, Piotr Nowacki & Tomasz Pastuszka, Alex Potts, and Zeel. Plus, Issues #1-4 are now available in a print collection or as free digital download! Visit Comical Animal for linkage.
The new issue of Mystery Scene magazine is out with Stephen Hunter and Marcia Muller. Subscribe.
Fantagraphics introduces the world's first $50 free mini comix.
Top November 2011 October 2011
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