13 Minutes on Habitat #2

Habitat #2 by Dunja Jankovic just got a great review at 13 Minutes by Justin Giampaoli:
http://thirteenminutes.blogspot.com/2011/03/surveying-habitat.html

Family Store on Heavy Hand

 
The Family Store in LA is carrying The Heavy Hand by Chris Cilla and they've written a really thorough discussion of the book on their blog:
http://blog.familylosangeles.com/2011/03/heavy-hand.html

Everything is coming up Tessa Brunton!

Tessa Brunton (creator of In the Tall Grass) has a gallery show opening in 3 days at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, CA. http://cartoonart.org/2011/03/small-press-spotlight-on-tessa-brunton/
The show will be up March 26th through June 19th this year, so make a point of checking it out. Her art is great!

In fact, Sparkplug likes her comics so much that we are going to be publishing her new book Passage this Summer. Tessa talks about the book and much more in a new interview:
http://www.sfstation.com/tessa-brunton-a34701

For more on Tessa Brunton, check out her site: http://tessab.net/

Milk and Moo, Service Industry and more!

I just added four books to our online store: Milk and Moo by Yumi Sakugawa, Service Industry by T. Edward Bak, I Was Born, But...#2 by Emily Nilsson and Drip by Chris C. Cilla. There are descriptions of each if you click through the link, but you can trust me: they are all four fantastic reads.

The Heavy Hand, Neptune and Whirlwind Wonderland are released by Diamond!

Diamond Comics stores will be putting The Heavy Hand, Neptune and Whirlwind Wonderland on their shelves this Wednesday. Make sure to stop by and take a look.

And if that weren't enough Joe Mcculloch wrote a great piece on the Heavy Hand at the TCJ:
http://www.tcj.com/this-week-in-comics-32311-multifarious-chills/

Papercutter #15 & Mel Stringer

We got the new Papercutter in! Issue #15 is for sale in the store now and includes three excellent stories by Jonas Madden-Connor, Melinda Boyce, MK Reed and Drew Weing. And we also added Goodness, by Australian artist Mel Stringer. If you haven't seen her stuff before, you should check it out. She is fantastic and hilarious.

New in the Store Today! Tessa Brunton and Jason Overby

I know it's now the weekend for y'all, but we here at Sparkplug are still adding stuff to the store! Today we have minis by two very different autobio artists: Tessa Brunton's dense, funny In the Tall Grass #3 and #4 and Jason Overby's sparse, deconstructed Obligatory Artifact and Solipsist's Doodles.

Have a great weekend! And don't forget to go to the Jose Alaniz talk tomorrow!

Our founder.

José Alaniz talk in Portland at the IPRC.

Hello, Portland Comics People!

This upcoming Saturday, Dr. Jose Alaniz is coming to the IPRC to give a presentation about comics in Russia as part of the IPRC's class in World Comics.  Dr. Alaniz is a professor of Slavic languages and literature at the University of Washington in Seattle where he teaches comics and Russian literature.  Last year he published the book "Komiks: Comic Art in Russia" (University Press of Mississippi, 2010).  He is a walking encyclopedia about comics in general, and Russian comics in particular.

Join us, and spread the word!





About the book:
José Alaniz explores the problematic publication history of komiks--an art form much-maligned as "bourgeois" mass diversion before, during, and after the collapse of the USSR--with an emphasis on the last twenty years. Using archival research, interviews with major artists and publishers, and close readings of several works, Komiks: Comic Art in Russia provides heretofore unavailable access to the country's rich--but unknown--comics heritage. The study examines the dizzying experimental comics of the late Czarist and early revolutionary era, caricature from the satirical journal Krokodil, and the postwar series Petia Ryzhik (the "Russian Tintin"). Detailed case studies include the Perestroika-era KOM studio, the first devoted to comics in the Soviet Union; post-Soviet comics in contemporary art; autobiography and the work of Nikolai Maslov; and women's comics by such artists as Lena Uzhinova, Namida, and Re-I. Alaniz examines such issues as anti-Americanism, censorship, the rise of consumerism, globalization (e.g., in Russian manga), the impact of the internet, and the hard-won establishment of a comics subculture in Russia.
Komiks have often borne the brunt of ideological change--thriving in summers of relative freedom, freezing in hard winters of official disdain. This volume covers the art form's origins in religious icon-making and book illustration, and later the immensely popular lubok or woodblock print. Alaniz reveals comics' vilification and marginalization under the Communists, the art form's economic struggles, and its eventual internet "migration" in the post-Soviet era. This book shows that Russian comics, as with the people who made them, never had a "normal life."

AUSTIN STAPLE THIS WEEKEND

Virginia Paine, Chris Cilla, Tim Goodyear and I are all going to Austin, Texas this weekend  (March 5th and 6th, 2011) for our own chainsaw massacre. It will be amazing. Also exhibiting at the show will be Top Shelf Productions, Melinda Tracy Boyce, Aaron Whitaker, James O'Barr and tons more.

ALSO, at this show, you are in for a real treat:

Saturday, March 5th
2:30pm - 3:30pm — Texas Rangers: Austin Underground Comix. Q&A with
Mack White and Al Frank, moderated by Tim Goodyear & Dylan Williams.

We may also get Chris Cilla to ask some questions.  If you've ever needed a reason to go to a comic book show in Texas this is it. Mack and Al are two of the best comic artists in the world who both happen to live in the same historical comix town.

http://www.staple-austin.org/

New in the store today: Papercutter #10-14!

I've just added Papercutter #10-14 to the shop. If you're unfamiliar, Papercutter is an anthology put out by Portland's own Tugboat Press that showcases underrated but awesome artists. Each issue contains three stories and is only four bucks!

Papercutter #14 - Dave Roche, Nate Beaty, Brian Maruca, Jim Rugg and Farel Dalrymple
Papercutter #13 - Matt Weigle, Tim Root and Jonas Madden-Connor
Papercutter #12 - Rachel Bormann, Nate Powell, Joey Sayers, Mark Campos and Dalton Webb
Papercutter #11 - Amy Adoyzie, Jon Sukarangsan, Dustin Harbin and Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg
Papercutter #10 - Damien Jay, Jesse Reklaw and Minty Lewis

Dunja Jankovic Art Party at Floating World in two Thursdays!

Dunja Jankovic at Floating WOrld Thursday March 3rd 6-10pm. To celebrate the release of Habitat. More details to come.

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Henry and Glenn Art Show This Friday

From Ed Luce about the upcoming Henry and Glenn art show this Friday:

We're very excited to announce the opening of the Henry & Glenn Forever Gang Bang group exhibition at the legendary La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, California!   The Igloo TornadoEd Luce, Dave Davenport, Justin Hall, Johnny Ryan, KAZ and Coop!) to explore and expand their take on the hard rock love that dare not speak its name. 

For those not familiar, the original Henry & Glenn Forever book asks the question, “what if Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig were a little more than 'friends'?"  It has sold more than 30,000 copies since its debut last spring, garnering nods from guys (Tom Neely, Gin Stevens, Scot Nobles & Levon Jihanian) have invited two dozen artists (including Spin, National Public Radio, MTV, LA Weekly, Decibel, Maximum Rock’n’roll and Razorcake.  The book is still available at http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3174

The reception is Friday, February 18th from 8 - 11pm and features a signing with Igloo Tornado and performances by the faBUlous BLACK FAG (seriously, they're rad) and Danzig cover band GLENN!!!  The show itself will run February 18th - 27th.

Ed will be on hand for the exhibition's opening reception...so long lost LA peeps, please stop by and say howdy! 

For more info visit: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Events/Henry_and_Glenn_Forever/Henry-and-Glenn-4Eva.htm

Jason Shiga and Aaron Reiner at Reading Frenzy on Saturday

Jason Shiga (author of Bookhunter, Fleep, Meanwhile and Empire State) and Aaron Reiner (author of the Unsinkable Walker Bean, Spiral Bound, and Papercutter contributor)  will be at Reading Frenzy this Saturday February 19th at 7pm. You should check it out.

http://www.wweek.com/portland/event-46447-aaron_renier_and_jason_shiga.html

Sadness Will Prevail

 Les Toil, Kevin Pope, me and Jack Kirby in 1992 at Comic Relief

I just read a little about Comic Relief in Berkeley, CA closing. I call it Comic Relief, Berkeley cause I worked there when they split off into two stores. One in Berkeley and one in San Francisco. I worked at both, along with many of my friends from the Bay Area like Ben Catmull, Landry Walker and Barry Futterman. Comic Relief was an institution and is currently being fondly remembered all over the internets. I figured I should add some thoughts. Mine aren't fond for the store, they are fond for a group of people that worked there. Normally I hate doing stuff like this and would rather spend my time working on the future than reliving the past. But I've got some thoughts that need to be typed out.

In 1987 a new store opened up in Berkeley. I was at Berkeley High which was right around the corner. I'd go to CR as much as humanly possible. I'd bought comics from Best of Two Worlds where Rory Root worked (and I think where Kristine Anstine and Mike Patchen worked?) and so it was a great continuation of the old Berkeley comic store tradition I'd grown up with. But pretty quickly it became a different store. A lot of what I've read online and in the trade journaling basically gives one of the owners all the credit. And I don't want to take any respect away from Rory Root. But I do want to set some of my thoughts down.

It was clear from day one that this store cared about other things besides old comics and hot new Marvel/DC comics. Berkeley comics shops always supported the indy boom which got recontextualized as or changed into the black&white glut. I remember seeing new Elfquest and Cerebus issues (when both series started) in Best of Two Worlds and Comics & Comix. Rory, Mike and Kristine had continued this tradition, they supported Bone early on and helped with so many other books. But even that wasn't totally abnormal. Many big, good comic stores have helped make the careers of many of us in independent comics.

What Mike, Rory and Kristine did was hire some of the most knowledgable and comics loving people in the world. When you look back at the legacy of "the comic BOOK store", the lesson to learn is twofold. One, the secret to running a good business is finding good people to run it. Unfortunately none of them besides Todd Martinez ever found much reason to stay with Comic Relief beyond a few years of employment. Todd is a rare kind of person and I'll get to him in a minute. The other lesson about running a business that you can get from the Comic Relief experiment is that the reason the store itself was so good was that the employees loved comic books. Selling things that you like is easy and you aren't lying to people.

Kristine was the first manager of the store and then Comic Relief, San Francisco and in my honest opinion she made both stores. Most importantly, She hired me and was a tough boss but she worked so hard that I could never argue with that. I had a conversation with Rory one time where he was complaining about how she wouldn't do what he said so much of the time (like give me a raise). I said "There isn't a problem though because she is doing everything she does to make your business great, you just disagree with how she is doing it. Your goals are the same." Mike and Kristine split off from the Berkeley store to just run CR, SF as a separate business after a while. Kristine's management skills kept both stores afloat during her time there. But in the end they raised the rent on CR,SF (on Haight st.) and it closed.

So, Mike and Kristine and Rory laid a groundwork for a great store. But it was the employees (including Kristine) that made the stores what they were. Rory and Mike each loved their own brand of Fantasy comic. Mike was WAY ahead of the curve on the books that would become Vertigo and he constantly read comics. I mean, I read a lot of comics and he impressed me enough to remember it 20 years later. Rory came from gaming culture and was a fan of the classic gaming type comics. But within a year the store was staffed by punks and alternative culture people. They started a tiny mini comics section where, in 1988, I bought the comic that would lead to my life in comic books: "Whiplash Comics" by local skate punks. Even in the early days they were still more in the tradition of a classic Berkeley comic book store. But thanks to two of their hardest working employees and Kristine they'd become a completely different kind of store.

Josh Petrin is actually the person most people should thank for making Comic Relief into an alternative mecca. He is the one that took their tiny mini-comics shelf and turned it into a section. He was deeply involved with bringing in the giant array of counter culture books. Josh fought like mad to make that store what it got know for. He co-ran a distro called Wow-Cool and made sure that Comic Relief was always stocked with Eightball, Monkeywrench, Eric Haven comics and about anything cool in comics.

And in his footsteps came Steven Fujisaka who is still, to this day, pretty much the hardest working person I've ever worked with. Steven and Kristine were the ones who made sure that Comic Relief was always fully stocked with then new magazines like Grand Royal and Answer Me, that we were selling hundreds of. Steven and Josh were obsessive counter culture aficionados but they also knew EVERYTHING about comics, art, film, music, computers and what-have-you. Steven is one of the first people I remember pushing art manga before anyone was publishing manga. They are why Comic Relief had a functioning film and art section for years in the 90s. They made sure those books sold and kept people coming back in. Josh is the person who introduced me to a then teenage Jason Shiga in 1995. Steven and Kristine had done such a good job as orderers for the store that a headhunter for Virgin Megastore (before they opened) called to ask for the Comic Relief book buyer.

If you were a fan of Comic Relief in the 90s you owe that fandom to Kristine, Josh and Steven as well as the full spectrum of employees they supported and hired. Once they were gone there was almost no hope for the store. It slid away from being run by people who cared about what they were doing. Still, I'm sure there were people who worked there who cared about comics but maybe very few on the level of Josh or Steven.

AND then came Todd Martinez who'd been floating around the store for years. I don't know a lot of the behind the scenes drama but I can tell you that the only reason that store stayed in business after its early 90s glory days is Todd's skill as a manager. Todd didn't just care about comics, he cared (and cares) about people. He is genuinely the nicest guy in the world. He was the day to day face of the store and ran it as well as he could considering the already legendary mountain of debt that had been built up. When Rory wanted to go to San Diego with and ever larger set of booths it was Todd that made it possible. Todd was the life support for a store that was past its prime, he made it shine like a vintage car with a fresh coat of paint. But the problem was that fuel the car was running on was poisoning it.

Once Rory died Todd was supposed to get the store. And didn't. The store was burdened with a family of people that didn't care about comics. Todd moved on to a much better situation, and if you ever run a business it is somebody like Todd you should be looking for.  He really is all the stuff people lie about being on resumes. Actually it is people like Kristine, Todd, Josh and Steven you should be looking for. They are why that store is even worth talking about as opposed to the thousands of other stores started in the 80s that died in the 90s comics store massacre.

I know I'm leaving some people out, but I was only an employee for about three years and moved away from the Bay Area in 1997. I did go back every few months and stayed in touch and did follow a lot of the behind the scenes goings on.  Until last year. I don't think it was just the family that killed the store, I think it is more complicated. There is a lesson to be learned from the whole Comic Relief experience. I tried to explain it on my silly Yelp appraisal of the store, but I think those lessons are lost on people who think they know how to do everything. I learned SO much from working with four of the smartest, hardest working best people I've ever met. In their own way, they each left a giant stamp across my face that says "If you care about what you do, you can keep doing it for a long time." Sure they aren't perfect, only Kristine and Todd are still directly involved with comics (that being the measure of perfection). But for being given a tough job, and overcoming pretty intense odds, they deserve most of the credit. Rory and Mike, they deserve the credit too but mostly for setting up a giant sandbox that the rest of us could build castles in.

I realize that this is all just my rambling, whacked-out, long after the fact appraisal. I'm probably wrong about some things and I'm sure I've insulted somebody.  But to quote Bad Finger "I don't mind". I feel like I've got to say something, in a few years nobody will care much at all. The problem is, if you want to start a business that is any good and keep it going, you have to care a lot. Ultimately, it is the people who bought the comics that the people at Comic Relief cared about who are really responsible for the store. But maybe it is a symbiotic relationship of people who love comics that makes good stuff happen in comics. I'd like to believe that is the truth.

Austin English, the influences!

 Austin English just did guested a great article about his new book (coming from Sparkplug for MoCCA festival) and his influences over at Inkstuds. Please take a look:

http://www.inkstuds.org/?p=3298

Chris Cilla x Kristy Valenti

Chris Cilla gets interviewed by one of my favorite comics writers:
http://www.comixology.com/articles/434/Manos-The-Hands-of-Fate-Chris-C-Cilla-s-i-The-Heavy-Hand-i-

Sparkplug is joining the 21st Century.

Yes, it's true! Sparkplug now has a facebook page and a twitter account! We'd love it if you became a fan or followed us! You can use the linked words or the widgets in the sidebar!

Art Call for PZS!

The Portland Zine Symposium is looking for art submissions for the 2011 poster. This year's theme is "Postmarked 2011." Your art submission should be your creative interpretation of that theme.

The guidelines are simple – We are looking for a 11" wide x 17" tall poster that will also be used in other formats (the web, post cards, buttons, stickers, etc), so your design needs to be visible and striking at multiple sizes and resolutions (or have smaller, breakaway pieces). The design will eventually be silk screened / screen printed onto t-shirts, so limit your colors to black, white and one other color. We encourage artists to use any medium or style. We strongly prefer that the choosen artist is able to assist us in the process of transferring (resizing / cropping / etc) the image multiple mediums.

Your design should include (or be able to include once all details are finalized) the following:

- the theme

- the dates (TBA)

- the place (TBA)

- the website (www.pdxzines.com)

- "11th Annual Portland Zine Symposium"

- "A conference and zine social exploring facets of independent publishing and DIY culture."

Submission deadline is March 1st. Submissions can be emailed to pdxzines@gmail.com (most strongly preferred), mailed (to PO Box 5901 Portland, OR 97228-5901), or dropped off at the IPRC.

New in the Store Today: I Cut My Hair #1-3 and more!

Winter is the perfect time for curling up with diary comics and a cup of tea. We've got a couple new autobio mini-comics in the store today: issues 1 through 3 of Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg's lovely I Cut My Hair and Susie Cagle's provocative Nine Gallons #1. Also the newest issue of You Don't Get There From Here!