Blog - March 2008

Cartoonist Hunt Emerson has launched a new website with a gallery of cartoons, an online shop, a news section, and an "about me" section with bio and bibliography. Emerson's News section isn't a blog, he'll use it for news and announcements about his work and the website. There's also a link to his old site.

Sean Azzopardi has just published the fourth issue of his indie comic Ed. It's available directly from the artist or through select UK comic shops like Gosh! and Orbital. His website also provides a few preview pages.

Preview of Lewis Trondheim's New Book
Kaput & Zosky will be published in April by First Second Books. Check out Publisher's Weekly's preview here.

24-Hour Comics Drawpocalypse
Cosmic Monkey Comics in Stumptown is hosting a 24-Hour comic day on April 5th beginning at 10AM. If you can't make the trip, not to worry, the sleepless staff of Cosmic Monkey and Top Shelf Productions will be blogging throughout the day bringing Stumptown to your town (or at least your computer). Guest include Valentino and 24-Hour world record holder David Chelsea, who will create his 10th 24-Hour comic.

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March 22, 2008 Blog Entry
Small, Pressing News Items

Jabberwocky Graphix
Since Brad W. Foster's contribution is being featured this week in our series on The Michael Roden Benefit Portfolio, I thought it would be a good idea to mention his website, Jabberwocky Graphix, this week too.

Most cartoonists who got their start in small press publishing during the newave comix era, dropped in and out of the scene over the years—or left and never returned. Brad, however, is one of those rare artists who never lost his momentum.

Over the years, he's published or contributed to literally hundreds of small press publications. His massive website still offers many of them for sale at very reasonable prices. There are dozens of great titles to choose from, but I wanted to mention one series in particular: Our Story Thus Far. During it's three issue run, this ultimate artist jam features the work of 84 different cartoonists!

With no preconceived script, each contributing artist wrote and drew one page that picked up the story where the last page left off. The only requirement was that the main character, Mark Simmons, had to appear on every page to help unify things. The result is an amazing journey that's entertaining, funny, full of surprises, and provides an incredible sampler of artwork in a 3-issue series! When you visit the Jabberwocky Graphix site be sure to check out the list of artists that are included.

Brad has worked on the site for well over a year and keeps adding more pages and content. It truly is massive. Click on the Site Map Flow Chart to get an overall feel for how the site is organized. He's recently completed a great write-up on his Artistic Process, so be sure to check it out.

The Darker Mask—
Heroes From the Shadows
Michael Gonzales wrote this week to note a new anthology of heroic fiction in the tradition of Byron Preiss's Weird Heroes from the 1970s, George R. R. Martin's Wild Card series, and Michael Chabon's McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales has been published by Tor Books. The Darker Mask is a collection of original prose stories recalling the derring-do of the beings we call Superheroes and the worlds they fight to save. But unique to The Darker Mask stories is that these plots and characters color a literary universe outside of what has been predominantly white, idiosyncratic, and male in previous homages to pulp. This is the stuff of urban legends, new mythos, and extraordinary folks who might live in a soon-to-be-gentrified ghetto, the dreary rust-belt of the city, or in another dimension. The Darker Mask offers an eclectic mix of popular fiction writers exploring worlds gritty, visceral, and fantastic.

The Darker Mask includes stories by: Walter Mosley, L. A. Banks, Naomi Hirahara, Lorenzo Cacaterra, Tananarive Due and Stephen Barnes, Michael A. Gonzales, Gar Anthony Haywood, Ann Nocenti, Jerry Rodriguez, Reed Farrell Coleman, Doselle Young, Mat Johnson, Peter Spiegelman, Alexandra Sokoloff, Christopher Chambers, Gary Phillips, Victor LaValle, and Wayne Wilson. Slated for publishing by Tor Books for August, The Darker Mask is available for pre-order at Amazon.com for about $10.

Check out the development process for the cover artwork by Tomer Hanauka, here.

Related Recap
Chuck Moore of Comic Related reports on his Blog that he's got all of his hardware set-up and will begin recording the first episode of his new podcast, Related Recap this week. The new monthly podcast is scheduled to begin on March 28th.

Cruse Newsletter #7
Howard Cruse continues to produce his 4-page PDF Cruse Art Newsletter. It features his original artwork and cartoons for sale directly from Cruse central. The new issue is #7. To subscribe, sign up here.

Club Decline
Dan Nauenburg has written an article called The Nationwide Decline in Clubs for the Small Press Syndicate's newsletter Rap Sheet. The article deals with the gradual, but continuous decline of membership and participation in all types of clubs, including groups like SPS. It's available as a free PDF download here. Join the discussion about it on the SPS Forum > SPS News > Decline in Clubs Column.

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March 15, 2008 Blog Entry
Small, Pressing News Items

Famous Monsters #1
A copy of the original first issue of Forrest J. Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland will set you back over a Grand, but you can get the next best thing for $39.95. That's the price Filmland Classics is selling their 50th Anniversary reprint of this classic horror fan mag.

Genesis II Pilot
Cartoonist Mike Lynch noted the pilot of Genesis II was available online in his Blog this week. Genesis II was the first of three attempts by Gene Roddenberry to create a new science fiction TV series following the success of Star Trek. The pilot aired on CBS on March 23, 1973, but the series wasn't picked up.

Sean Azzopardi Interview
Matthew Badham interviewed London cartoonist Sean Azzopardi this week about his comics Ed and Twelve Hour Shift.

Billy: Demon Slayer #5
Austrialian-based Siberian Productions released the fifth issue of Billy: Demon Slayer (2nd series) this week. Check their website for a list of their other titles and for ordering information. Writer and artist Hayden Fryer also manages a separate Billy: Demon Slayer site.

Kel M. Crum's Comedy Bits
Last week in the review of Cornelia Cartoon's #10, Kel M. Crum's radio comedy work was mentioned. You can listen online to the Classic Audio bits he wrote for the Gary Burbank Show. Check out: Ripped Off by an Angel, Springer, and Voodoo Barbie.

Web Site Updates
Chuck Moore launched a new logo along with a new page layout for his Comic Related site this week. The larger page size provides room for more news items, rapid fire news, and coming attractions. The design work was done by Jay Carvajal of Cinema Comics.

Tim Corrigan has closed his small press review website due to the lack of response. For now, he's focusing his energies on his monthly Comics & Stories title.

A new site, Indy Comic News, launched this month. Their focus is on independent comic and graphic novel news and resources. Approved publishers can log onto the site and post their own news releases.

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March 8, 2008 Blog Entry
Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo Photos

All photos taken by and copyright Dan W. Taylor of Weird Muse Productions. Many thanks for their use, Dan! Debut at SPACE: Time Warp Comix #5, Symphony in Ink #3, and Images.

Robert James Algeo (Skull Pen #1), in absentia press Debut at SPACE: Black Gold Black Water

Suzanne Baumann, Mungbeing #4

Larry Blake, Rock Bottom Comics

Pam Bliss, Paradise Valley Comics

Craig Bogart, The Ineffables Debut at SPACE: The Secret History of the Ineffables

Steve Boucher (left) Lance (Doc) Boucher, ComicSpace

Wade Busby, Mr. Emergency

Lorena Caiazzo, Flickr

JK Carrier, ComicSpace

Michael Carroll, Carrolltoons

Bruce Chrislip, City Limits Gazette

Bob Corby, The SPACE Man, Back Porch Comics

Tasha Courtney

Matt Dembicki with Dave Sim (Day Prize for Mr. Big with Carol Dembicki), Wasp Whispers & Trickster

Matt Feazell, Not Available Comics

Allen Freeman, Fan-Actic Press Debut at SPACE: Slam Bang #3

Rickey Gonzales (Victims at the End of World), Pretentious Comics Presents Debut at SPACE: Concepción

Greg Hyland, ComicSpace

Joe Kletz, Ferrule Comics

Mike Maydak, The Blackbeard Legacy

Michael Neno, Neno World

Ed Piskor, Comics & Stories Debut at SPACE: WIZZYWIG: Phreak

Ian Shires, Dimestore Productions

Dave Sim, Glamourpuss Bulletins Debut at SPACE: Judenhass and Glamourpuss

Steve Steiner and pal, Nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs

Ray Tomczak, Wasted Potential Debut at SPACE: Wasted Paper

Carol Tyler Bloomerland

Junior Day Prize Receipients:
Madison Shires (8), The Adventures of Marky
Zack Flippo (10), Monster Bomb

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March 1, 2008
Small, Pressing News Items

A couple of new links to indexes of cartoonist's work (or Zinographies, as I like to call them), have been added to the About page on MF.com. One for Dave Sim's Cerebus and one for Doug Holverson.

Lots of new small press comics will make their debut at SPACE this weekend. Bob Corby has posted a four page listing of a few of them on his website. (Page 1 here.) Cartoonist Kel Crum sent me an advance copy of his tenth issue of Cornelia Cartoons, which will debut at SPACE. There'll be a review of it here next week.

Congratulations to Joe Gordon and the team over at the Forbidden Planet International Blog. They celebrated their third anniversary on February 25th! It's a great blog that covers all things comics from around the globe and provides the inside track on the European scene. Check it out here.

Larned Justin sent in a couple of issues of his 3 Page Follies. These are 3 pages of comics and laughs, plus a cover. Looks like he uses them to trade for other mini-comics. If you'd like one, send him an email (which you can grab off his website). While you're there, check out his 19th Century Detective series too.

During the newave comix movement (late 70s to early 80s ), Clay Geerdes published a twice-monthly newsletter called Comix World. It was probably the most important regular news venue for fans and cartoonists to keep up with the underground and newave comix scene at the time. Geerdes published Comix World from 1973 to 1984. During most of its impressive 238-issue run, the newsletter's masthead was drawn by a different underground or newave cartoonist every issue. Rick Bradford and I put together an artist's index of them that's available on the Poopsheet Foundation website in the history area.

Bradford has also added a new Forum to his site. Like the rest of Poopsheet, its main emphasis is on mini-comics, but there are several other categories that cover alternative, underground, conventions, hype & promotion, etc. Check it out here and join the community.

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