Scam!

Microcosm is trying to print a new Scam Anthology book but it is $5,000 more expensive to print than our average book, so they are pre-selling copies on http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/897079804/scam-the-first-four-issues" to help them raise money to pay to print it! Watch the video!

Comics Over The Edge: Tomorrow In Berkeley!

 

Kick off the Memorial Day weekend plans with a reading and slide show presentation of comics, comics, comics! Join six Bay Area cartoonists, Trevor Alixopulos, Rina Ayuyang, Ben Catmull, Josh Frankel, Renee French and Lark Pien as they showcase their comics endeavors!!

Comics Over the Edge!
A Six-Cartoonist Reading Event
Thursday, May 27, 7:30pm

Pegasus Books
2349 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
www.pegasusbookstore.com

Trevor Alixopulos, http://hautejunk.blogspot.com
Rina Ayuyang, http://rinaayuyang.com
Ben Catmull, http://bencatmull.blogspot.com
Josh Frankel, http://hungryforbrains.com
Renee French, http://reneefrench.blogspot.com
Lark Pien, http://larkpien.blogspot.com

 

This information and event flyer by Josh Frankel can also be found at:

http://rinadoodle.blogspot.com/2010/05/see-us-go-over-edge.html

Event flyer for download:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3338/4635488799_ac857606e4_o.gif

 

A great review of Chris Wright's Inkweed!

This review at Poopsheet (one of my favorite sites) by Justin Giampaoli is pretty awesome:
http://www.poopsheetfoundation.com/profiles/blogs/inkweed-by-chris-wright

Crumb's Genesis at the Portland Art Museum

This show at the Portland Art Museum was made possible by the persistent efforts of one assistant curator. Unfortunately, I can't remember her name. My uncle helped in the effort as well and I was happy to see free tickets to the opening night arrive at my door yesterday. This should be a great show and it sounds like this is the first time the Portland Art Museum has curated a show on comics.

Amy Kuttab rules

I love this page. Amy's art is totally amazing to me. Take a closer look.

I've started a review blog.

I'm really enjoying reading minis and self-published comics, so much so I'm trying to write about them. I'm most likely going to write about other things (films, music, art) but I'm stuck on comics at the moment. I'm still getting my feet wet but here is the link:
furtherexamination.blogspot.com
I'll try and keep it up and Emily may even write some.

David King, Olga Volozova and others at Silverlake Jubilee!

The Silverlake Jubilee is a new neighborhood street fair that is happening in Los Angeles this weekend-

May 22nd and 23rd.

COMIX JUBILEE!

SATURDAY May 22nd at 10.30 AM

COMIX JUBILEE! @ EL CID, 4212 Sunset Blvd., 90029,

featuring live reading performances by cartoonists:

ROBERT GOODIN, JESSE MOYNIHAN, DAVID KING,

TOM NEELY, TED STEARN, & MALACHI WARD

COMIX JUBILEE! SIGNING, @ LITERARY VILLAGE

at the Molossus table on Myra Avenue

12.00 PM ROBERT GOODIN, DAVID KING, TIM HENSLEY

01.00 PM JOE MATT, TED STEARN, OLGA VOLOZOVA

02.00 PM MALACHI WARD, TOM NEELY

Reading at Pegasus in Berkeley, CA

With tons of Sparkplug friends and artists
Thursday, May 27, 7:30pm

Pegasus Books
2349 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA

Kick off the Memorial Day weekend plans with a reading and slide show presentation of comics, comics, comics! Join six Bay Area cartoonists, Trevor Alixopulos, Rina Ayuyang, Ben Catmull, Josh Frankel, Renee French and Lark Pien as they showcase their latest comics endeavors!!

More information here: http://pegasus.indiebound.com/event/2010/05/27/day

Trevor Alixopulos, http://hautejunk.blogspot.com
Rina Ayuyang, http://rinaayuyang.com
Ben Catmull, http://bencatmull.blogspot.com
Josh Frankel, http://hungryforbrains.com
Renee French, http://reneefrench.blogspot.com
Lark Pien, http://larkpien.blogspot.com

Rina in Toronto!

Rina Ayuyang has put up her convention report for the Toronto Comics Arts Festival. She went, representing Sparkplug in all her awesomeness. Check it out:

rinadoodle.blogspot.com/2010/05/hot-times-in-cold-places.html

Monteal Anarchist Bookfair is looking for books!

Call Out FOR TABLING MATERIALS FOR Anarchist/ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN People of Colour for Montreal Anarchist Bookfair 2010!

Anarchist/ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN People of Colour (APOC) Montreal is seeking MATERIALS for our table at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair taking place May 29-30, 2010.

Over the years, there has been ad-hoc APOC organizing during the Anarchist Bookfair to address issues of race, anti-authoritarianism and people of colour struggle politics within the context of anarchism, and to increase/create political (safer) space for people of colour. Montreal APOC is a loosely organized network of individuals who've identified a need to connect with, share resources and build strength from each other. We are here to build a community of empowered, anti-oppression, savvy, rad, queer positive and anti-racist individuals.

In an effort to bring together politically-minded POC, we'd like to have a presence at the Bookfair again this year, and we'd like our table to be a meeting place for APOCS, as well as be a place to access and distribute pertinent materials.

We welcome zines, pamphlets, posters, comics, art, buttons, stickers, t-shirts, patches and other items that embody experiences of and commitment to anti-racist and anti-oppressive thoughts, ideas and actions.

Please contact us if you have anything to submit or to bring.


If you are submitting something for us to copy (zines, posters, pamphlets, etc.): Email or send 1 or 2 originals and we'll arrange for copies to be made.

If you have materials that you can bring to the bookfair (zines, posters, patches): email us and let us know what it is and how many copies you can bring.


contact: adrienne - moohk@hotmail.com, sayyida - sayyida.jaffer@gmail.com

post: 3209 sainte antoine ouest, Montreal QC, H3Z1w9, Canada


(please distribute widely)

Rina in Pittsburgh!

Here is a recap of Rina Ayuyang's most recent tour to promote Whirlwind Wonderland:
rinadoodle.blogspot.com/2010/05/whirlwinding-into-pittsburgh-pa.html

Tom Neely at Decibel

Tom Neely just got interviewed at Decibel magazine:
decibelmagazine.com/Content.aspx?ncid=370297
About his Igloo Tornado and comics/metal.

Sparkplug at TCAF this weekend

Rina Ayuyang will be representing Sparkplug Comic Books at this year’s TCAF in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She will be signing copies of her debut graphic novel Whirlwind Wonderland, co-published by Sparkplug and Tugboat Press. She’ll also have new minicomics and all the latest Sparkplug releases such as Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #7, Robert Sergel’s Eschew #2, Aron Nels Steinke’s Neptune and other great reads by David King, Austin English, Renee French, Hellen Jo, Andrew Smith and many more!

Comics Variety

The quote below is from CBGXtra.com CBG is the Comic Buyer's Guide, a comic book industry watch dog for something like 30 or 40 years, I think. It was the voice that retailers listened to when I worked in a comic store in 1989-94 or whatever it was. I am really interested in the Black and White Glut and I was looking it up online. I found this post. The most interesting thing about it is that the one thing the CBG people were ignoring was expanding the actual readership of comics. At first they acknowledge it as a cause but then ignore as the cause in the end. Instead, the article blames publishers for putting out too much work. They had their finger on the pulse of mainstream and adventure comics but there is no real mention of what has since been proven, if you expand the available variety of comics to include a million different traditions of storytelling, you bring in the audience for these stories. It is there but it is ignored, or at least I think it is. Read on:

"The editorial of [CBG] issue #1031 provided a warning to publishers of the market’s precarious position. Don and Maggie Thompson wrote that 762 titles were solicited by Capital City Distribution for July, costing anybody ordering one of everything $1928.69, then an all-time high. Warning of what happened during the black-and-white glut, they wrote:

There are more stores, more comic-book purchasers (there is a question of whether there are more readers). But the audience has not grown enough to support this much material.

And do you know what? Some comic books last heard of during the black-and-white glut are back, adding to this new, larger glut.

After every glut comes a collapse and, with every collapse, there are casualties, including a lot of good titles and a lot of good publishers.

So, if you’re thinking about getting into comic-book publishing, our advice remains:

No.

Don’t do it.

Not now.

Good advice, preceding a seven-year recession that took down many retailers, publishers, and distributors before ending in 2000.

But whenever the market actually peaked, it wasn't entirely clear to many until January 1994, when, faced with the potential of staying open into another tax year, at least 1,000 shops shut their doors."

From my perspective the truth is exactly the opposite of this conventional logic. The limited amount of publisher (of all shapes and sizes) is what contributed to the crash. There were a handful of alternatives to mainstream fantasy comics. Not that they are bad, but that their ruling hand is what kept comics crashing over and over again. A dying audience that eventually learned that they weren't into what was being done. The more different comic books that exist, the more there is for people to read.

Excessive Force

Haunted Happenings PDX, a horror focused website just put up a great interview with Julia Gfrörer about her work and Flesh and Bone. Read it now here:
www.hauntedhappeningspdx.com