Sparkplug Highlights: The Natural World, by Damien Jay

If you love stories about witch trials, medieval small-town politics, and religious hypocrisy, THEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW NOT READING THE NATURAL WORLD?! Seriously -- do yourself a favor and pick up the first four issues as soon as you're done reading this blog. An entertaining and gripping account of a medieval hamlet's encounters with witches (real and imagined), forest spirits, and violent brigands and the convoluted relationships between the townspeople, The Natural World is at its heart a timeless story about people -- scared people, power-hungry people, people with secrets, and people just trying to get by.

Jay introduces a fascinating cast of characters who orbit around each other throughout the course of his four issues: a simpleton who understands more than people give him credit for, his brother who rails against licentious witches one hour and cheats on his wife the next, a man driven out of the town and left to fend for himself in the forest, a pack of thieves, a courageous woman who wants more out of her paramour than he's offering, a friendly dog, and a bizarre and otherworldly entity who lives in the woods and communicates incomprehensible messages. When the threat of witches in their midst arises, the town begins to turn on itself; meanwhile, something in the forest grows stronger. . .

Jay's art is wonderful to behold. He skillfully combines a classic cartoon aesthetic with delicate watercolors, his graywashes adding depth and sophistication to each panel. With a few lines, his character's expressions are rendered clear as day; his backgrounds range from nonexistent (used when drawing attention to the characters at the forefront) to lushly detailed (especially when he's depicting the forest or the rolling hills surrounding the town). Jay also has a serious flair for the comedic: there are so laugh-out-loud funny bits of dialogue, the adorable dog is the perfect goofy canine companion, and there are even a couple of classic cartoon fights, complete with disembodied eyes and fists in a giant cloud of dust and stars. This is a comic that moves smoothly between serious art and funnybook silliness with ease. Grab it today, and be on the lookout for issue #5!

New in the Store: Making Tide and Just Noise!

We have two new additions to the store today from the incomparable Eroyn Franklin: Making Tide and Just Noise. Vastly different in execution, they are both amazing works of art and storytelling.

Just Noise is a tiny marvel of intricacy. A dialogue between a couple whose actions speak louder than words, the speech bubbles between them are are cut-out voids, leaving it up to the reader to intuit what is being said a creating a beautifully layered effect as the pages stack on top of each other. This is a must read for not only fans of Franlklin's work but also aficionados of cut paper.

Making Tide, on the other hand, is a departure from Franklin's wordless, high-concept comics. It stands on its own, however, as a testament to Franklin's prowess in many different media. A selection of stories that deal with a trip to Vietnam, the creative process, serious bodily harm, and love, her dreamily painted landscapes and carefully inked characters will draw you in and take your breath away.

Just Noise is a tiny marvel of intricacy. A dialogue between a couple whose actions speak louder than words, the speech bubbles between them are cut-out voids, leaving it up to the reader to intuit their meanings and creating a beautifully layered effect as the pages stack on top of each other. This is a must read for fans of Franklin's and aficionados of cut paper. - See more at: http://sparkplugcomicbooks.com/shop/distro-books/just-noise/#sthash.TZf5io0i.dpuf

Just Noise is a tiny marvel of intricacy. A dialogue between a couple whose actions speak louder than words, the speech bubbles between them are cut-out voids, leaving it up to the reader to intuit their meanings and creating a beautifully layered effect as the pages stack on top of each other. This is a must read for fans of Franklin's and aficionados of cut paper. - See more at: http://sparkplugcomicbooks.com/shop/distro-books/just-noise/#sthash.TZf5io0i.dpuf

Just Noise is a tiny marvel of intricacy. A dialogue between a couple whose actions speak louder than words, the speech bubbles between them are cut-out voids, leaving it up to the reader to intuit their meanings and creating a beautifully layered effect as the pages stack on top of each other. This is a must read for fans of Franklin's and aficionados of cut paper. - See more at: http://sparkplugcomicbooks.com/shop/distro-books/just-noise/#sthash.TZf5io0i.dpuf

New in the Store: Cavities Sampler!

Please join me in welcoming cartoonist Erin Griffin to Sparkplug's shop! Her comic, Cavities Sampler, is too cute for words. Showcasing glimpses of Griffin's life, her round and cheery style is adorable, even if her stories sometimes hint at a sadness below the surface. Though Cavities Sampler occasionally recalls the lighter stories of Lynda Barry or the more sadsack episodes of Charlie Brown, Griffin's style is undeniably her own. Lovingly handcrafted, bound with purple wire, and hand-numbered as part of a limited run of fifty-six, you definitely don't want to wait to get your copy!

Sparkplug Highlights: Crooked Teeth, by Nate Doyle

Nate Doyle has a style and a life that makes for great comics -- the stories in Crooked Teeth are fast, engrossing, and heartfelt, and his art manages to come across brilliantly whether it leans more towards classic cartoon or dashed-off sketch. The issues we have in stock contain pieces from his ongoing fantasy story, "Bowl of Flies," miscellaneous sketches, and autobio comics.

"Bowl of Flies" is a hauntingly atmospheric story about a traveler, mysteriously marked, who encounters a terrifying spirit in the woods and is then shunned by the townsfolk he encounters . . . until he meets a woman in a pub who implores him to share his story. Its amazing character design and high fantasy feel will have you eager to read the next installment!

His autobio comics are joys to read, in a completely different way: spanning both sides of the country and exploring different punk subcultures, old friendship, crushes and love, the touring life and live shows, and fighting through uncertainty and depression, they contain episodes that almost anyone will relate to. Nate's stories make you feel like you're not alone in your experiences, and for that alone, they are worth reading.

Sparkplug Highlights: The Would-Be Bridegrooms, by Shawn Cheng

The first thing that catches your eye about The Would-Be Bridegrooms is the fact that it's hand bound. How often do you see that anymore? The red thread binding is set off by the intensely yellow cover and striking single cover image; these things, combined with the book's slightly unusual size, make for an incredibly enjoyable tactile experience that sets it apart from a sea of minicomics.

Okay: so the book is well-made and nice to hold. But this is just a hook to get you to look at the lovely story contained within it. Shawn Cheng's The Would-Be Bridegrooms is a tale reminiscent of ancient myths and classic fables. It tells of the rivalry between Rabbit and Fox, who are both in love with the same girl. Upon finding out about their competition with each other, they begin to transform into a series of ever-more outrageous monsters in order to defeat the other in battle . . . until they are finally stopped by an unexpected force! Using detailed, stylized work that pulls from First Nations influences, Cheng takes the reader on a timeless journey that is as perfect today as it would have been many hundreds of years ago. Check it out and let us know what you thought, and while you're at it, share with us your favorite fable or myth!

New in the Store: You Don't Get There From Here #26 and In Situ #2!

We've got two awesome new comics in the shop this week! First up, the long-awaited next installment in Carrie McNinch's bittersweet zine series, You Don't Get There From Here #26. In this issue, Carrie goes to Oaxaca to celebrate Dia de los Muertos, sightsee, and spend time with friends. When she gets home, she finds that the cold has set in, the city is changing, and her father's mind is deteriorating even further. As always, she brings to this issue an incredible playlist of songs and some cute scenes of her cats.

We also have the second issue of Montreal-based cartoonist Sophie Yanow's comic, In Situ. A diary told in sketchy, half-glimpsed moments, this comic follows Yanow as she couch-surfs in California, Canada, and New York as she figures out her life and waxes political about the tuition crisis. Her art is vague, even rushed, but strangely elegant and poetic. She is definitely an cartoonist to keep an eye on!

In Situ gives the readers faded snapshots, half-glimpsed moments of Yanow's life couch-surfing in Canada and California, spending time with friends and lovers, and trying to figure out what she's doing with her life. Vague but strikingly elegant, this beautifully-designed and put-together comic is worth multiple reads. - See more at: http://sparkplugcomicbooks.com/shop/distro-books/in-situ-2/#sthash.kIke4EDJ.dpufA

In Situ gives the readers faded snapshots, half-glimpsed moments of Yanow's life couch-surfing in Canada and California, spending time with friends and lovers, and trying to figure out what she's doing with her life. Vague but strikingly elegant, this beautifully-designed and put-together comic is worth multiple reads. - See more at: http://sparkplugcomicbooks.com/shop/distro-books/in-situ-2/#sthash.kIke4EDJ.dpuf

Carrie returns to Oaxaca to celebrate Dia de los Muertos, sightsee, and visit old friends. When she returns to California, the days are shorter, the roads have changed, and she has to deal with her father's continuing descent into Alzheimer's. - See more at: http://sparkplugcomicbooks.com/shop/distro-books/you-dont-get-there-from-here-26/#sthash.c7Ir7TyD.dpuf

Carrie returns to Oaxaca to celebrate Dia de los Muertos, sightsee, and visit old friends. When she returns to California, the days are shorter, the roads have changed, and she has to deal with her father's continuing descent into Alzheimer's. - See more at: http://sparkplugcomicbooks.com/shop/distro-books/you-dont-get-there-from-here-26/#sthash.c7Ir7TyD.dpuf

Sparkplug Highlights: Take a Picture, by Asher Z. Craw

No discussion of work from local artists and writers can possibly be considered complete without including the Craws, and Asher's Take a Picture is a lovely and thoughtful addition to Portland's creative body. The first story included, "Unknown: Life & Death; Paris & Portland; 19th & 21st Centuries," is a reflection on the enduringly mysterious and alluring L'Inconnue de la Seine. One version of the story says that in the late 1880's, a young woman, a suicide, washed up on the shores of the Seine. Somehow, miraculously, her lips were curved into a smile. Her visage was so lovely, so placid and beatific, that a pathologist at the morgue was inspired to make a plaster cast of her face -- a death mask. People were so taken with her face that reproductions of her death mask became incredibly popular: politicians, artists, writers, and the bourgeois all had her death mask on their walls. Young women even fashioned their hair and makeup after her. Asher discusses the story and ponders the meaning of this poignant, macabre fascination with an unknown dead girl while utilizing his signature detailed cross-hatching and skillful variation of line weights to draw the reader in visually.

The second story contained in this little book is called "The Ladder Is Always There". This is an adaptation of Adrienne Rich's "Diving Into the Wreck," a incredible poem about self-discovery, the power of myth and stories, gender roles, journey and transformation. Asher's illustrations wonderfully bring the poem to life, faithfully reproducing and playing with photographs from Jacques-Yves Cousteau's The Silent World.

Take a Picture is a dreamy rumination on death, the creative process, and identity, and it is sure to inspire and provoke you.

 

Sparkplug Highlights: The Golem of Gabirol, by Olga Volozova

Olga Volozova's portrait of the life of the late Solomon Ibn Gabirol mixes ancient Jewish lore with her unique, fluid style of storytelling in The Golem of Gabirol. Originally told by Ibn Yahya in "Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah," legend has it that a rival of Gabirol's, a jealous Muslim poet, murdered him and buried his body beneath a fig tree. When the tree bore an abundance of extraordinarily sweet figs, a search for the missing Gabirol was instigated, and his remains were found in the roots of the tree. The murder paid for his crime with his life.

It is also said that Gabirol created a rare female golem, a creature made of inanimate matter and brought to life by magic, to serve as his companion; when the authorities found out, they were outraged (some say because of the potentially romantic relationship between Gabirol and his golem), and so to save himself from brutal punishment, Gabirol withdrew his magic and turned his golem back into a pile of wood.

Volozova has woven these two fascinating, poignant stories together into an achingly beautiful story of unrequited love, jealousy, magic, and justice. Her watercolors, complex detail work, and her fairy tale-style pacing all work to create a thoughtful and vivid retelling of an incredible fable that remains powerful to this day.

 

 

 

 

 



New in the Store: Vortex #4!

Welcome to the psychedelic space fantasy cosmos of the Hyperverse, a realm filled with immensely powerful beings who battle over worlds with strange geologies and hoard advanced technologies left by ancient starfarers. The Vortex are shape-shifting berserkers created and enslaved by the Empire of Tolx. In Vortex #2, the Miizzzard entered the shred Vortex dreamworld to destroy the device by which the Empire controls the Vortex. In Vortex #3, the Miizzzard battled his way to the control device and stepped inside...

In this amazing conclusion to the Vortex series, the Miizzzard enters into a deadly battle in order to destroy the Empire's Vortex-controlling device...but does he succeed? Get this visually stunning final issue to finish Cardini's incredible series and find out!

Sparkplug Highlights: Watching Days Become Years #1, by Jeff LeVine

Be warned: the first issue of Watching Days Become Years will sneak up on you, make you feel like you're understood and in good company, and then, at the last possible minute, punch you right in the gut.

Knowing that, do you still want to read it? You should.

Jeff LeVine writes about his life (or a life, in any case), which in itself isn't anything groundbreaking. What makes him stand out in a sea of autobio comics is the way his vignettes -- most often depicting quiet, single moments -- speak to the broad human experience. The feelings he expresses, the small joys and dull pains of everyday life, are nothing I haven't felt a hundred times before, which makes them resonate that much more strongly. His slow spiral into depression and substance abuse hits harder because we understand exactly how he got there -- and maybe we've even been there ourselves. Watching Days Become Years is Jeff's story, but it's a story that belongs to a lot of other people, too. When do we realize that the minutes and hours gradually slipping by are our lives? How do we reconcile the way we spend our time with the people we want to be?

Honestly, though, Jeff's art is reason enough to read this comic. A skillful blend of chunky lines and precise crosshatching create beautifully textured scenes that convey the emotional weight contained in the mundane. His settings and cityscapes are incredibly realistic but never distracting or overly busy, as if he has distilled the most essential elements from a photograph. Occasionally, there will be looser panels or whole pages done in grayscale washes, and these serve to show the audiences flashes of the dark, uncomfortable emotions that have been roiling just beneath the surface the entire time.

Watching Days Become Years is an incredible addition to anyone's comic collection. And, when you're left at the end of issue one with your mouth agape and your brow furrowed, take solace in the fact that there's another issue right behind it.

 

 

 

Sparkplug Highlights: Neptune, by Aron Nels Steinke

Aron Nels Steinke possesses a rare talent: he has the ability to create stories that will appeal to children and adults in equal measure. This talent is exercised magnificently in his first graphic novel, Neptune. Co-published by Sparkplug Books and Tugboat Press, Neptune is a quirky, adorable tale about a precocious young girl named Erika, her brother, Patrick, and their dog, Neptune. The story begins with Erika starting at a new school and having to tell her classmates who she is and where she comes from. She decides to tell the story of how she was expelled from her last school, and the reader is instantly swept up in her strange and compelling yarn. Everything revolves around the mysterious Neptune, who appears in the kids' home one morning and quickly proves himself to be a loyal and faithful friend. After following the siblings to school, though, an incident occurs with the strict administration and a terrible storm floods the town, forcing the trio to find their way home alone. The bizarre series of events leads to their expulsion and subsequent move to Oregon, and everything seems like it will be alright...but what happens when Erika brings Neptune in to meet her new class? Stienke, surely drawing on his own experience teaching young children, perfectly imitates the way children tell stories: with the utmost conviction and belief in what they are saying, even if their version of the events seems fantastical or impossible.

Steinke's art also successfully straddles the line between children's and adult comics. His rounded shapes and simple characters ensure an easily understandable visual story, but his intricate textures, repeated patterns, and inventive panel layouts and splash pages will appeal to more sophisticated artistic eyes. Neptune is a delightful little book that will make you fondly remember the stories you told as a child; it will also make you want to go hug a big, friendly dog.

Sparkplug Highlights: I'm Not Afraid to Love (Gridlords Anthology)

Did you know that Gridlords is happening this Saturday, the 28th, at The Waypost? And did you know that several talented comics folks in attendance will be debuting work from the new Gridlords anthology, Other Worlds?! We're super excited about it! Other Worlds, edited and designed by Sean Christensen ABT and Graham Kahler, contains "an outrageously delicious collection of worlds out there in the outer zones" and features 132 pages of greatness from these amazing creators: Kevin Hooyman, Max Clotfelter, Dunja Jankovic, Rebecca Artemisa, Daria Tessler, Darin Shuler, Theo Ellsworth, Sophie Franz, Anna Ehlemark, Nusha Ashjaee, Elizabeth Pusack, Fiona Avocado, Graham Kahler, Ryan Iverson, Kelly Froh, Joel Statz, Matt Lock, Marsuplala, Luke Forsyth, Sean Christensen, Jesse McManus, and Lillie & Asher Craw.

 

 

 

In honor of this news, we wanted to showcase their first anthology, I'm Not Afraid to Love. This minibook is made up of 44 pages of black-and-white comics dealing with love; it features works from Rebecca Artemisa Urias, Elizabeth Pusack, Julia Gfrörer, Cameron Hawkeye, Eroyn Franklin, Tim Goodyear, Suzette Smith, Jesse McManus, Maryanna Hoggatt, Cari Vander Yacht, Graham Kahler, Kinoko, Nusha Ashjaee, Kevin Hooyman, Theo Ellsworth, Sean Christensen ABT, Daria Tessler, and Patrick & Vanessa Keck. The stories, short as they are, each portray some facet or viewpoint of love; whether you like your comics ultra-realistic, historical, comical, surreal, futuristic, or poetic, there's something in here for you. This is an awesome introduction to a wide array of talented creators and shouldn't be missed. Grab a copy and gear up for the Other Worlds!

 

 

Sparkplug Highlights: Reich #10, by Elijah Brubaker

I don't know about you, but I love graphic biographies, illustrated journalism, and historical comics. From the highly detailed, moving work of Joe Sacco to Kate Beaton's hilarious history gags to the recent and highly acclaimed March, learning about the past, the present, and people's lives seems so much more accessible and vibrant when there is a visual component involved. Emotions are right there on the page for you to see and empathize with; horrors are laid out and impossible to ignore; the abstract is made real and immediate. Since Art Spiegelman set the bar with his Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, the graphic nonfiction canon has been one of the most consistently high-quality and exciting arenas of comics, and Elijah Brubaker is adding his own outstanding work to it right now.

Reich, the biography of the strange and fascinating Wilhelm Reich, is a thrilling, suspenseful ride -- quite the feat for a story that's over fifty years old. Issue ten, just released this summer, continues the gripping tale. From the intro:

"It has been a long, harrowing journey for Wilhelm Reich, from the excitement and progress of Vienna in the '20s studying under Sigmund Freud, through the conflagration of Hitler's Europe and into McCarthy era America. Reich, the ever intrepid scientist, delves deeper into the study of humn sexuality and into the very underpinnings of the cosmos. Reich discovers an energy, and élan vital, which he dubs "Orgone" energy and builds several devices capable of harnessing that energy. Several agencies of the US government suspect Reich of being a dangerous subversive and Reich's FBI file begins to grow. Later, Reich is approached a his home, Orgonon, by agents from the FDA. The agents question Reich about his devise and begin investigating his 'patients.' Around this time Reich begins to document his sighting of lights in the sky and several observations about his potent an seemingly universal Orgone energy..."

This issue is an ominous one, with the authorities closing in on Reich, his family life falling apart, and his associates losing faith in him. Brubaker's art, which is as textured and stylistically interesting as ever, illustrates this dark spiral well -- among his rounded characters and landscapes (that, honestly, are almost cute) are terrifying flashes of Reich's face in a rage, characters cloaked in darkness, and horribly vast expanses of sky and space. Even if you know what happens in the end, you can't help but feel a coldness in your gut and an intense desire to read on.