Friday, May 30, 2014

Sparkplug at CAKE - TOMORROW!

Hey all!  Sparkplug will be set up at CAKE at table 65 THIS weekend (May 31st and June 1st)!  We'll be debuting The Anthropologists by Whit Taylor.  About The Anthropologists:

 The Anthropologists follows the author’s trip to Australia and subsequent reevaluation of her chosen field of study. Taylor’s expressive line work and analysis of the strange intersection of self as a person of color, a tourist and a scholar of Aboriginal culture make for an engrossing, thought-provoking read.The Anthropologists is the second book in the Sparkplug Minis Series, a collection of limited-edition minicomics by fantastic underground artists.

We'll have free copies of Barrio Mothers as well and of course - postcards!

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Sparkplug Highlight: Thyme Balm Live $3 and Karate Gods by James Kirkpatrick

James Kirkpatrick's complicated but confident drawings fill each page of these two comics. His humor is superb and on-point, just as his artistic voice allows your mind to wander. Features of the characters are individual but also ambiguous. Each page holds a new joke. Both of the stories lend themselves to Kirkpatrick's hypnotic style and one-liner humor. 
Thyme Balm, the "worst"nose band, holds several members of questionable value. But in the end, the show ends up pretty good! You feel the complicated feelings of attending a show that you're determined to dislike.. but end up feeling the jams. Hey, you're a complicated being! It's ok!
Karate Gods follows the battle between many mortal foes and you. Will you be victorious against such brutal fighters with names like Sporty Spice or Frozen Lord? Much like a fighting game crew, these toughies seem like stoic jerks. I hope you win.






Both of these comics are available here!

Friday, May 23, 2014

Next Weekend: CAKE!

Hey all!  Sparkplug will be set up at CAKE at table 65 next weekend (May 31st and June 1st)!  We'll be debuting The Anthropologists by Whit Taylor.  About The Anthropologists:

 The Anthropologists follows the author’s trip to Australia and subsequent reevaluation of her chosen field of study. Taylor’s expressive line work and analysis of the strange intersection of self as a person of color, a tourist and a scholar of Aboriginal culture make for an engrossing, thought-provoking read.The Anthropologists is the second book in the Sparkplug Minis Series, a collection of limited-edition minicomics by fantastic underground artists.

We'll have free copies of Barrio Mothers as well and of course - postcards! 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Store is FIXED!

HOORAY! The shop is back up and running! AND you can still preorder The Anthropologists, our new book by Whit Taylor!

Online Shop (temporarily) Down!

So it looks like our online shop is down and may have been down for a while! Sorry about this, folks! We are looking into getting it up and running again. If you have tried to order or need to order, please send me an email: virginia (at) sparkplugcomicbooks (.) com.

Thanks for your patience!


Sparkplug Highlight: In Situ #2 by Sophie Yanow


I noticed that In Situ No. 4 was released recently, and wanted to recommend this series! After reading In Situ No. 2, I felt refreshed and more confident - Sophie keeps her journal comics relevant not only to herself, but also to all people - the feeling transience, or being caught up on something you saw in passing. The loosely drawn pages show great ease on Sophie's part, but she also scribbles out mistakes that add some nice texture to the pages. A travel log through Canada and California, In Situ No. 2 also is a log of trailing thoughts - some political, all honest. I'm excited to read further issues!
Aside from the content, this book is beautifully designed! When I grabbed it off the shelf I exclaimed "wow"!! It's just not often that you see a simple black and white with color cover zine so carefully laid out.



(28 interior pages, 5.5" x 8.5", black & white with colored paper half-cover, Colosse) 
In Situ No. 2 is available for purchase here

Wednesday, May 14, 2014


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Sparkplug Highlight: Rock That Never Sleeps by Olga Volozova & Juliacks

 Rock that Never Sleeps is a split book between two awesome lady artists! First in the book, Olga Volozova establishes the tale with her many-layered comic style and creates a new myth revolving around memory. People around town begin to lose their skill of recollection, including a family of solely women, the Katchia family. Regarded as frightening and witchlike due to their tightly kept secret craft of puppet making, the Katchias are held in even higher fear than before as they too begin to lose memory of their spells, and thus their livelihood. 
Determined to regain their craft, three members of the family travel through the desert to Rock That Never Sleeps, a town where sages guide those whose memories are lost to items that may help them recover. There is always a catch though - if you regain your memory, you lose something else. 
Juliacks' story exists in the same space as Olga Volozova's, but in a different time. Far into the future, three people travel once again to Rock That Never Sleeps in order to regain what they've lost. In Juliacks' future, there are sages all around who can see the memories of objects through their psychic birthmarks. Tragedy befalls the future in this tale as you are guided along through dense pages of psychic discordance. You become lost among the memories of objects just like your three protagonists!
This book is a rad exploration of the concept of objects and what impact they have on the human psyche. What relations you have with things. Also the value of memory; how important is it for humans to have and rely on such a liquid aspect of themselves. 



(36 interior pgs, 9" x 6", color cover with black and white and sepia interiors)

Rock That Never Sleeps is available here!

Friday, May 09, 2014

The Anthropologists is available for pre-order!

I'm so stoked about our next book, The Anthropologists!  Taylor does a great job portraying travel: the awkwardness, the self-analysis, the uncomfortable cultural implications.  Her art work is deceptively simple; she is a master of capturing the nuances of expression and her landscape drawings do a great job capturing the expanse of the Australian desert.
The Anthropologists is up for pre-order in the Sparkplug store now!  Pre-orders will ship the first week of June and come with a surprise book from the Sparkplug catalog.

Here are a couple preview pages from the story:



Thursday, May 08, 2014

New In the Shop! Barrio Mothers & TEMI #1!


Good morning, all! Two new books are up in the shop today- first off, you can order the incredibly cool and incredibly free-except-for-shipping Barrio Mothers Free Comic Book Day comic if you missed it in stores! With such a lovely cover and good local Portland artists, there really is no resisting such a fabulous deal~


Next up is TEMI #1 by Sera Stanton! This book is the first in an ongoing series that explores the hero myth from a new perspective - that of a lunar female hero. Follow Temi through densely illustrated pages as she is bullied, riddled with nightmares and generally has a bad time until she is cast out of her community to face the world on her own. She can tough it out!

Enjoy the sun while you can, Portland! Have a rad day!

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Sparkplug Highlight: Long Legs by Julianna Green!

Long Legs is the first book in a series. What really strikes me about Julianna Green's comic style is it's density. Each page is filled with rich blacks and linework. Each character is designed to grab your attention. My eyes scan over the craft of every panel before I allow myself to read the text.
Aside from the art, the magic and imagination put into the character design and story is refreshing. The events in the story, from hypnotism to the rescue of tiny beasts, is taken first hand without explanation - clearly I've been plunged into a world of mystery and sorcery. Mystical objects and beings are commonplace in this world. 
Despite the urgency of the tale, it also has a casual tone of everyday friendship. The main characters seem to act as if their daily life is full of tricks and charms. This is an awesome introduction to a much larger story. I want to continue to travel through the world of Long Legs and I can't wait for the next issue!



20 interior pages, 4.25” x 5.5, black and white on lavender paper

Long Legs is available for purchase here!


Friday, May 02, 2014

Free Comic Book Day!

Tomorrow is everyone's favorite holiday: Free Comic Book Day!  This year Sparkplug teamed up with Portland publishers Floating World Comics, Snakebomb Comix and Teenage Dinosaur to bring you BARRIO MOTHERS!  With art and stories by Souther Salazar, Nick Norman, Josh Juresko, Sophie Franz, Karissa Sakumoto, Asher Z. Craw, Wally Catton, Andrew Scully and Cameron Hawker, Barrio Mothers is pure delight for zero dollars.  Head to local comic shop tomorrow to pick up your copy!

If you are in an area where Barrio Mothers is not available, don't worry!  Sparkplug will be adding it to our online store next week for the reasonable price of one penny (plus shipping).

In other news, things are chugging along for our next book, The Anthropologists by Whit Taylor.  It should be ready for CAKE at the end of the month!