New Books: Big Plans Collection and Take a Picture

Hello friends!  We've added two books to our store.  First is the Big Plans collection by Aron Nels Steinke, published by Bridge City Comics!  If you've been a fan of Big Plans for awhile (like we have) this is a real treat; it contains Big Plans 1-5 plus a bunch of extras from other work Aron has done.
The other book is Asher Craw's zine Take a Picture.  Asher's art - rough but detailed - is excellent as always in the two pieces in the zine.  The first is about the most famous Parisian death mask and the second is an adaptation of an Adrienne Rich story.  Good stuff!

Also, mark your calendars - Sparkplug will be in LA for the LA Zine Fest on February 17th!  See you there!

Reviews and Top Tens

Tom, Emily and I have done our Top Ten Comics lists again, but first...please check out this excellent review of Riech #9 by Rob Clough!  Also, Nurse Nurse made it onto CBR's Top 100 comics of 2012, so congrats to Katie Skelly!  And now, the lists:

Emily:
My top 10, in no particular order:

• Cebolla Con Chocolate: surprise comics/zine find of 2012, by art collective Cafe Con Leche.  The covers are all one of a kind magic marker drawings, Spanish language text, artistic wizardry throughout!   
• Love & Rockets #4
• Zebediah by Asher Craw.  One of Sparkplug's newest distro books, by a super fine talent. Spooky and thrilling!
• Forming Vol. 1 - Jesse Moynihan.
• Hello, Me Pretty - Line Gamache.  I keep re-reading this.  It gives me hope for humanity.
• Golem of Gabirol - Olga Volozova.  Hauntingly beautiful.
• Nurse Nurse - Katie Skelly.  Hard to describe how great this book is, our first book under the new ownership!
• Reich #9 - Elijah Brubaker.  This series just gets better and weirder!    
• Short Run - a great event by and for small press weirdoes. 
• Big Plans collection - Aron Nels Steinke.  Bridge City Comics has made the leap to comics publishing! Excellent book to start with!
• Sparkplug 2012 - We did it!

Virginia:
Also not in order...

• Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel
• Nurse Nurse by Katie Skelly
• In Situ #2 by Sophie Yanow
• Jade #1 by Fiona Avocado
• Zebediah #1 by Asher Craw
• Black is the Color by Julia Gfrorer
• Sleepwalking by Mel Stringer
• The Melinderly Volume 1 by Melinda Tracy Boyce
• 8th Grade (series) by Sam Alden
• Vortex #1 & 2 by William Cardini
• About a million people on Tumblr, esp. Georgia Capra, Aaron Whitaker & Noel Heimpel

Tom:
To be honest, I've picked up a lot of amazing books from some great new artists out there that I'm really excited to dig into. But this year has been really fucked up and I really haven't read much at all... So, here's my top 10 comic related things that kept me happy in 2012 (in no particular order):

1) The first L.A. Zinefest was by far the best show of the year for me... best show of the last several years. It's so great to finally have a good local show and community building in this city that I love.
2) Collaborative art and bookmaking with a bunch of artists and Le Dernier Cri at The Projects in Portland, OR. Actually, the entire festival was such a great experience. Makes me wonder why I'd ever wanna sit behind a table and sell books at a "convention," when I could be at a festival collaborating with other artists for a fun weekend celebrating this treacherous but wonderful life we all lead of trying to make the world a brighter place.
3) Sparkplug publishing Nurse Nurse, Reich #9 and Golem of Gabirol. We're still chugging along... I'm really proud we got these books out and thankful we get to work with such amazing artists.
4) Eamon Espey's Songs of the Abyss is everything I hoped it would be. He is seriously one of the most unique artists making books right now. This is one of the only books I've managed to read in the last 6 months. But I've devoured it several times already.
5) (non-comics related but...) Witchcraft "Legend" - possibly my favorite album of the year. I can't stop listening to it.
6) DREDD 3D - my favorite movie of the year. A flawless action/art film that does everything right. I wish they would make a series of these. Now someone needs to start reprinting classic Dredd comics.
7) Oily Comics and Retrofit Comics subscriptions - there's nothing better than getting mini-comics in the mail! I just re-upped for another 6 months!
8) SPX continues to get better every year. I used to have mixed feelings about that show, but this year made me love it. See you again next year!
9) Freak Scene Art Show at Synchronicity Gallery, Los Angeles - curated by Keenan Keller, and full of some of the raddest contemporary underground cartoonists. Also a super fun weekend hanging out with all those guys. And an honor to be included amongst such great artists.
10) Rededicating all of my time and energy to my art and comics career. Now that I no longer have a wife, I'm married to my art. I'm finally back to working on new projects. The world is a big beautiful place full of possibility and I wanna see it all. See ya soon.


Happy New Year from Sparkplug!

New Books in the Store: Vortex #2 and Jade #1

I added two new books to the store today; first, the second installment of William Cardini's Vortex!  Are you ready for some visually intense wizard battles?!

And second, the also visually stunning Jade Volume 1, by Portland's own Fiona Avocado.
Please check them out!

Reviews of The Airy Tales and Flesh & Bone

Julia Glosemeyer has been reviewing a couple Sparkplug books over at buyindiecomics.com.  Please check out her write-ups of Olga Volozova's The Airy Tales and Julia Gfrörer's Flesh and Bone!

The Golem of Gabirol and BCGF

After a couple hiccups, we are pleased to announce our latest book, The Golem of Gabirol by Olga Volozova, is now available for sale in our shop!  It's a beautiful story and we highly recommend it.

Also, Sparkplug will be around tomorrow for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest!  Austin English will be covering both our table and his own Domino Books.  Please be sure to check out them, as well as Aron Nels Steinke and Katie Skelly's tables.  It's really wonderful the festival is still happening despite how messy I'm sure Brooklyn must be right now.

Indiegogo Gift Update!

Hi Friends!

Many of you donated to our Indiegogo fundraiser last spring and a lot of you are still waiting for your gift perks to be sent out.  I wanted to let you all know that we are caught up with our printing goals and have been sending out packages as of two weeks ago, starting with the lower tiers of the donation amounts.  We've sent out many envelopes containing Reich #9, and we are awaiting Olga Volozova's new book The Golem of Gabirol to arrive from the printer's in the Bay Area!  The copies we have been sent already look amazing!   

We had a few unforeseen changes to Golem, plus a switch in the printing venue, so things got a little pushed back.  We've also undergone a major move of our office space but business is back to normal. 
We're going to get those perks sent out to you ASAP.  It might take a few weeks to get completely through our donor list, but we promise to work hard at it.

Thanks again for being so generous and kind in donating to Sparkplug!!

Emily 

Short Run in Seattle!

Sparkplug will be happily tabling at Short Run Small Press Fest this Saturday, from 10:30 to 5:30 at the Vera Project in Seattle!  If you haven't been to Short Run before, you are in for a treat - last year was a cozy, friendly affair and I'm sure this year will be no different.
We'll be joined by Sparkplug artist Olga Volozova AND debuting her new book, The Golem of Gabirol.  Please be sure to stop by!

Sparkplug at APE

Hello all!  Sparkplug will once again be at APE in San Francisco this weekend.  Please visit Emily and Tom and check out our new books (including Reich #9!) and distro acquisitions.  It should be a great show and we look forward to seeing you.
APE takes place October 13th and 14th at the Concourse (635 8th Street).

SPX, Reich #9 and Some News

A couple things:
-Sparkplug will be at SPX in Bethesda, MD this weekend!  Katie Skelly, Tom Neely and Ben Marra will be running things, so be sure to stop by.  Get more info about SPX here.  We'll also be debuting the new issue of Reich.

-Reich #9 by Elijah Brubaker is now available in the shop!  We also found a box of Reich #1 in hiding, so it is available again.

-The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum has announced the establishment of the Dylan Williams Collection (specializing in small press and self published works).  Read the full announcement here.

-We are currently in the process of moving into a new space, so our response times are a little slower than usual.  Sorry if we haven't emailed you back or your order is taking a little longer than normal to reach you.  Don't worry, we've gotten your emails and orders and are getting to them as fast as we can.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me: virginia@sparkplugcomicbooks.com

-Mark your calendars!  We'll be at APE, Short Run and BCGF later this fall and are looking forward to seeing you!

Passage Nominated for 2 Ignatzes!

Tessa Brunton's Passage has been nominated for two Ignatz awards ("Promising New Talent" and "Outstanding Comic")!  We're really proud of this book and of Tessa for crafting such a beautiful, heartfelt story.  Congratulations to her and to all the other nominees!

Portland Zine Symposium

Hey all!  Please join us this weekend for the Portland Zine Symposium!  We'll be tabling with a lot of our distro stock, including some new zines.  PZS takes place at Refuge (116 SE Yamhill) and the hours are Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-5.  See you there!

A Couple New Titles in the Shop

We've added a couple minis we picked up at Olympia Comics Fest and CAKE to our shop!  Check out Swaying Gates by Naji, Viewotron #1 by Sam Sharpe and David Goodrich, and Daily Comics Volume 5 and Volume 6 by Chelsea Baker.
We also have The Natural World series (by Damien Jay) back in stock!

Sparkplug at CAKE!

Hello Chicago!  Sparkplug will have a table at CAKE this weekend, June 16th & 17th.  This is a new show and we're very excited about it!  There will be a ton of awesome artists and publishers there.  Click here for more info.

Also, Rob Clough has written a wonderful review of Nurse Nurse.  Please check it out!

New YDGTFH!

Hey all, we just added You Don't Get There From Here #22 to the store!  If you love diary comics, Carrie McNinch will totally be your jam.

Nurse Nurse reviewed on Thirteen Minutes!

Justin Giampaoli has written a lovely review of Nurse Nurse on his blog, Thirteen Minutes.  Check it out!

"There’s unexpected danger and unpredictability lurking around every corner that fuels the narrative and always keeps pushing it forward."

Optical Sloth Reviews The Heavy Hand

Kevin Bramer at Optical Sloth has posted a tantalizing review of The Heavy Hand, by Chris Cilla.

"Crikey, Chris has produced quite a show here. I don’t think I’ve ever referred to a graphic novel as a show before, but I’ll be damned if I know what else to call it."

Click here to read the full review!

PS Don't forget, Sparkplug will be at the Olympia Comics Fest on Saturday!

Olympia Comics Festival

So, Emily and I will be toting our books up to the Olympia Comics Fest this weekend!  This is a free festival, and there are a bunch of fun events scheduled around the con itself, including a reading by Jason Shiga (Fleep, Bookhunter).  Get more info on their webpage or facebook event page!

 Hey Portlanders, here's a fun activity for you to attend tonight!

Vortex #1 in the store!

Have you read William Cardini's Vortex yet?!  You should, and it's in our online store now!  Rob Clough (High-Low, TCJ) says: "I've enjoyed Cardini's development as an artist and the refinement of his heavily Mat Brinkman-influenced style. Cardini works big in this sci-fi/fantasy battle comic, but more interestingly, he uses a deliberately artificial-looking style of line. You can see the dots and pixels on the page, giving the whole thing a cold and digital quality that is trying to separate the reader from Brinkman's warm, organic and oozing imagery. That slight distance and primitiveness of the line quality (as opposed to the drawings themselves) adds a certain extra comical layer to a story that involves a wizard quite graphically and viscerally biting off the arm of a monster. The whole thing has a light-hearted feel, much like the rest of Cardini's work, odd as it may appear on the surface. Working bigger certainly suits him, and I enjoyed looking at the images as images."
 

 

Bitch Magazine reviews Nurse Nurse!

 

Our friends at Bitch Magazine have written a great review of our latest book Nurse Nurse, as well as Julia Gfrörer's latest, Too Dark To See.  Please give it a read!