New Website

So, our new website is up! We are still working out a few kinks, so please let me know if you have any trouble navigating or purchasing anything. virginia (at) sparkplugcomicbooks (dot) com

Electoral Surge

Friend of Sparkplug Gwenaëlle has been posting a page a day of her new graphic novel, Electoral Surge, over on tumblr. If you've enjoyed her work in the past or if you enjoy quiet, beautiful comics, please check it out!

Rock That Never Sleeps Animation!

Rock That Never Sleeps from Juliacks on Vimeo.

Juliacks was kind enough to send us a link to the animation she and Amy Johnson made, based on Rock That Never Sleeps. The book itself was written by Juliacks and Olga Volozova and is available in our online store.

Julia Gfrörer interview at TCJ

Sean T. Collins has done a wonderful, in-depth interview with Julia Gfrörer over at The Comics Journal. Julia and Sean cover a lot of topics, from the depiction of sexuality in her work to Game of Thrones. Well worth a read!

Windy Corner #2 Reviewed!

For our French-speaking readers: the tumblr blog 1 Fanzine Par Jour has posted a review of Windy Corner #2. Thanks JJM!

Coming Soon: NURSE NURSE by Katie Skelly

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Contact: Virginia Paine

virginia (at) sparkplugcomicbooks (dot) com

Nurse Nurse, a graphic novel by Katie Skelly, is slated to come out April 2012 in time for a debut at Stumptown Comics Fest and MoCCA.

If you are not familiar with Katie Skelly’s Nurse Nurse minicomics series, you are in for a double treat. Not only will this epic space adventure thrill you, Sparkplug is collecting all eight issues into one compact and easy-to-carry graphic novel! (180 pgs, black and white with color cover, paperback, $15 USD,ISBN 978097974654351500)

The story starts out with the main character Gemma traveling to her new assignment on Venus. She soon discovers a mysterious substance that is having an amorous effect on the Venusians, but is it a conspiracy, or just … science? And what’s with the butterflies? Sarah Morean of The Daily Crosshatch says: “The plot is smart and innocent and the panels are well-designed and full of gorgeous detail. Skelly’s a wonderful comic artist.”

Author Katie Skelly has been creating minicomics since 2003 and her work has appeared recently in Thickness#1. She holds a B.A. in Art History from Syracuse University and currently resides in Astoria, New York.

Please stop by our table at Stumptown Comics Fest or MoCCA to pick up your copy or visit our online store at sparkplugcomicbooks.com. Wholesale orders, please contact Tony Shenton: shenton4sales (at) aol (dot) com

J.T. Dockery's Top 5

J.T. Dockery has named Reich and Habitat #2 as two of the top 5 books of the year! Also included on the list are Tom Neely's The Wolf and Julia Gfrorer's Too Dark to See. Read the complete list here.

Best Ofs

Several Sparkplug titles and distro books have made it on Best Of 2011 lists - including one by Rob Kirby and Best American Comics Notable Titles. Congrats to all the authors! We will be posting our own Top 10 lists soon.

Also, Tom, Emily and I were interviewed by Tom Spurgeon at the Comics Reporter about the future of Sparkplug. You can read the interview here.

Our website update has had a few setbacks, but should be up soon!

Happy holidays!

End of Year Lists!

Virginia Paine's Top 10:
(Eleven, actually!)

1. Gay Genius Anthology

2. Passage by Tessa Brunton

3. Amy Kuttab's story in Dan Quayl

4. Papercutter #17 Anthology

5. The Wolf by Tom Neely

6. Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years and Other Stories by Yumi Sakugawa

7. 20 Girls in 20 Days by Greer Lawson

8. Outta This Comes the Crazy by Rina Ayuyang

9. Big Plans #5 by Aron Nels Steinke

10. Ignition Zero (webcomic) by Noel Heimpel

11. I Think You're Sauceome (webcomic) by Sarah Becan

Emily Nilsson's Top 10 (in no particular order):

1. Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 by Jaime Hernandez. I haven't even read this one yet, but I know I'm going to love it, because I've loved Jaime for the last 20 years and more.
2. Play Overlord by Theo Ellsworth, Sean Christensen and Amy Kuttab. Three geniuses, or is it genii?
3. Habitat #2 by Dunja Jankovic.
4. American Gun Culture Report edited and published by Ross Eliot. I'm anti-gun, and yet I find this zine engrossing. It's made by and for liberals, spanning issues such as politics, feminism, and LGBT.
5. Face Man by Clara Bessijelle. I got a preview copy at BCGF!
6. Big Plans #5 by Aron Nels Steinke
7. Shenzhen by Guy DeLisle.  I know this is a couple years old.  But I read it over the holidays and I really enjoyed it and learned a lot!  Travelogue comics are among my favorites.
8. The Holy Ghost Guide to The Stars by ??? - A mystery lady in bird/ghost costume handed this to me at BCGF.  Did you know that the Septagram is the "star of Babalon and the SFPD"?  You will know that and more if you read this.  See her blog here.
9. Have You Seen the DOG Lately? edited by Serena Lafler.  A great comic/zine anthology including the likes of Steve Lafler and Carrie McNinch.
10. Manifesto Items by David Lasky.  A collection of poems, comics, and thoughts.  David's been a great inspiration and support to me in my own work over many years!    



Tom Neely's Top 10 (that isn't a "Top 10" at all)

I can't call mine a "Top 10 of 2011" because I haven't read everything that came out in 2011 (I'm still catching up on the last couple of years of books).  Maybe I'm just excited about comics in general, and lately I'm in a mood to lean more towards entertaining comics than heavy literary tomes, but it seems like I've found a lot of really amazing stuff this Fall. I got some good stuff earlier this year at Stumptown and TCAF, too, but that seems like a lifetime ago. After several years of the comics industry at large proclaiming the end of everything from comic books and comic shops to the end of all print media, finding so many good comics coming out of the small presses and self publishers fills me with inspiration.

So, this is more of a "best of the comics I acquired on my Fall tour." In no particular order:
1) JOSH BAYER! Man, is he some kind of unstoppable force?! His new Raw Power is really amazing. Get it from Retro Fit Comics. While you're at it, subscribe to Retro Fit Comics! Who doesn't like getting comics in the mail?
2) Rub The Blood by Various. This book is a psychotic art attack on all things Rob Liefield and awful '90s comics that all nerds my age have a special soft-spot for. "Only available in person"
3) Gagged by Dan Wiekin. This is a ridiculous book of really dirty, somewhat evil, and really offensive "gags."  Uncivilized Books.
4) I'm really excited by everything I've read from Domino Books.
5) Sammy the Mouse Vol 1 by Zak Sally. This collects the first three issues of the series in one book. All hand printed by the artist on his own printing press. Amazing. Even if you have the 3 individual issues, I think the story reads even better in this format. Get it from Zak Sally's La Mano 21.
6) Things You Carry by Vincent Stall. A beautiful, wordless, dreamlike book that seems to be about loss. Get it from 2D Cloud
7) Mother Lover Anthology from 2D Cloud. A couple of really good short stories by a few good Minnesotans.
8) BENJAMIN MARRA! Getting a new Marra comic makes me as giddy as when I went to the comic shop on new comic book day when i was 12 years old and still liked superhero comics. Get Night Business and Gangsta Rap Posse from his own Traditional Comics.
9) King Cat # 72 by John Porcellino. What can I say? John P. is a national treasure. Everyone should be reading this series.
10) Andros by Max Clottfelter. This guys a genius! So funny. So surreal. I wish I could draw like this guy.
11) 3 Short Stories by Clara Bessijelle - Clara's drawings are mesmerizing. Domino Books
12) The Greatest by Kelly Froh. This simple little book makes me really happy.
13) Sad Sex minis by Heather Benjamin. The drawings in these things scare me. This girl is sick. I like it.
14) WEIRD Magazine #1 by various artists - Imagine if all the weirdest art comix stars were running things at the old Warren Publishing house in the '60s and '70s. Yeah... that woulda been awesome. And it is. From E. T. Press
15) Keenan Marshall Keller! I love his super-stoopid-sci-fi-drugged-out-EPIC Galatctic Breakdown series (not pictured above)
16) The Disgusting Room by Austin English (not pictured above) - I wasn't sure if I should promote a Sparkplug book on this list since I'm now a partner, but it came out before I was officially part of Sparkplug Books, so... This is probably my favorite book of the year. Austin English continues to blow my mind with his merging of art into the narrative comics form. This work deserves to be hanging in museums. I can't wait to see what he does next. I told Austin it was like if "DeKooning had made comics" and he frowned and said "I've never really been a fan of his work..." Which makes me like Austin's work even more.

I would also like to mention that I really enjoyed new minis from my partners Emily and Virginia.

Sparkplug's Website is Updating!

Big news! We are changing the Sparkplug website - making it a little more streamlined and easier to use. The address will remain the same, but expect a slightly different look and ordering system. The redesign is being done by Aaron Amstutz. The change should take place sometime within the next week; I'll post again when everything is finalized and the new site is up.

Thanks for supporting Sparkplug and happy holidays!

-Virginia

Gay Genius on Autostraddle!

Our fantastic anthology of queer artists and comic folks, Gay Genius, made it onto a gift guide on Autostraddle! Check out the full list here!

Poopsheet's Best of 2011

Austin English's The Disgusting Room has made it on Poopsheet Foundations' Best Mini-Comics and Small Press Titles of 2011 list! Also on the list: Sparkplug artist Julia Gfrorer's Too Dark to See and Sparkplug co-owner Tom Neely's The Wolf. A bunch of the honorable mentions are Sparkplug titles as well! You can read the full list here.

If you are planning on doing any of your holiday shopping at Sparkplug, now would be a great time to order! Please check out our store; a lot of our books would make great gifts. If you need some suggestions, please feel free to contact me - virginia (at) sparkplugcomicbooks (dot) com.

Have a great week!

Passage, Reviewed!

Justin Giampaoli has written a wonderful review of Tessa Brunton's Passage on his blog Thirteen Minutes:

... Her note perfect details in the pencils lend a sense of authenticity to her quirky upbringing. When you start cataloguing the shading technique, the rampant crosshatching, and the variable line weights, you realize her self-taught style is highly accomplished, culminating with a glorious two page spread that’s a cutaway diagram of her parents’ house. It comes with a penchant for creating rich panels that hum with a lived-in feeling evident in the clothing, the hair, the backgrounds, and the general sense of diversity in all of the figure work. ...

Good stuff!

Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest

Emily and Tom will be in charge of the Sparkplug table this weekend at Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest. Our special guest star will be Katie Skelly, author of the Nurse Nurse series! Please join us for this super awesome fest!

Here's the scoop, from the BCGF website:

BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL 2011

WHAT: Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival
WHEN: December 3, 2011 12- 9 pm
Free and open to the public

WHERE: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church
275 North 8th Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
and
Union Pool
484 Union Avenue # A
New York, NY 11211-3440

We are pleased to announce the third Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, a festival of comics and graphic art featuring artists and publishers displaying and selling publications; lectures and conversations on comics; and associated exhibits and satellite events. Over 75 of the very best artists and publishers will gather on December 3rd to display and sell their work and engage in discussions and exhibitions.

In order to accommodate overwhelming demand, this year’s Festival expands its exhibition space to both floors of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church’s facilities, with a full weekend of programs and events taking place at an array of independent Brooklyn-area arts and culture institutions.

Our 2011 featured guests are: Jack Davis, Phoebe Gloeckner, CF, Lisa Hanawalt, David Mazzucchelli, Chip Kidd, John Porcellino and Brian Ralph. These guests are joined by an international array of publishers including Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Adhouse, Nobrow, Pantheon Books, Last Gasp, Akashic, Top Shelf, PictureBox, and Koyama Press, who in turn will host artists including Adrian Tomine, Jordan Crane, Michael Deforge, Gabrielle Bell, Dash Shaw, Gary Panter, Frank Santoro, and Leslie Stein.

For our third edition we have partnered with like-minded organizations in the borough. Union Pool will host a cartoonist-studded rock show on Friday night, as well as our full slate of Festival panels all day Saturday. Scott Eder Gallery is the site of the exhibition Drawing Pop Culture: The Art of Jack Davis, while four days of comics-related films will screen at The Spectacle Theater, and a graphics and theater performance event will be presented on Sunday at the Brick Theater.

Full programming and Festival information will continue to be posted to our website: comicsandgraphicsfest.com

The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is an ongoing project by Desert Island, PictureBox and Bill Kartalopoulos.

Thanks to Some Extra-Special People

We here at Sparkplug have so many people to thank for their kindness and generosity to us in this transitional period.  At this time, we want especially to thank Jason Leivian of Floating World Comics, Jason T. Miles of Profanity Hill, comic artist Jim Rugg.  These awesome guys organized and promoted a series of eBay auctions of original art and collectible books to help support Sparkplug as we realize our goals. 

We also owe a debt of gratitude to the dozens of artists who gave their creations and books to be sold in the auctions, as well as friends and colleagues who made other generous donations.  Here are the names of those who contributed:

Adam Hines

Adrian Tomine

Aleks Sennwald

Allie & Jeremy Tiedeman

Annie Koyama

Art Spiegelman

Ben Dewey

Bill Boichel

Bill Kartolopuolos

Charles Brownstein

Chris Pitzer

Dan Clowes

Dan Nadel

David Lasky

Dunja Jankovic

Eric Reynolds

Eroyn Franklin

Ethan Rilly

Gabe Fowler

Greg Stump

Ian MacEwan

James Romberger

Jason T. Miles

Jeff Lemire

Jenny Gialenes

Jeremy Eaton

Jim Rugg

John Porcellino

Jonathan Case

Jordan Crane

Jordan Shively

Julia Wertz

Karn Piana

Katy Ellis O’Brien

Kelly Froh

Ken Dahl (Gabby Schulz)

Kevin Huizenga

Levon Jihanian

Luke Ramsey

Malachi Ward

Marc Palm

Martine Workman

Matt Fraction

Matthew Sheean

Max Clotfelter

Megan Kelso

Micheal Deforge

Michel Fiffe

Natalie Nourigat

Nate Powell

Nick Abadzis

Paul Hornschemeier

Pete Toms

Peter Bagge

Peter @ The Beguiling Books

Rebecca Artemisia

Renee French

Rich Tommaso

Ryan Standfest

Sarah Morean

Sean Ford

Skinner

Stephen DeStefano

Steve Lieber

Tom Scioli

Victor Kerlow

Warren Bernard

Review of Flesh and Bone

Attention Deficit Disorderly has done a great review of Flesh and Bone by Julia Gfrorer:

"Gfrörer’s intelligence shines through in virtually every particular, from pacing (the excruciatingly interminable sequence in which the bereaved man writhes first in agony then in resigned masturbatory ecstasy on his beloved’s grave) to dialogue (a devastating exchange between witch and demon in which love is dismissed as “mutual masturbation,” a form of slavery that prevents humankind from pulling itself out of the muck) to strategic absences of dialogue (a harrowing silent sequence in which an owl is sent to blind a young witness to a horrible crime) to character design (the man’s Byronic good looks, the demon’s disembodied lion head) to facial expression and body language (the witch’s arched back and closed lids as she copulates with a screeching mandrake creature) to a cover that nails the appeal of her wiry, frail characters and line."

You can read the review in its entirety here.

Rina Ayuyang and Lark Pien at Komiks Expo 2011

Rina Ayuyang and Lark Pien, both good friends of Sparkplug, will be tabling at the Komiks Expo in San Francisco this Saturday! Details below:

Komiks Expo 2011

Saturday, November 19, 1pm-5pm

It's going to be our own local version of Comic Con! Komiks Expo 2011 is a comic book convention to showcase Filipino and API artists in cartoon, comic book, and graphic novel media. Come out to see artwork from aspiring local artists/groups in the SF Bay Area and beyond!

Special Guest: Whilce Portacio!

About Whilce Portacio:
Whilce Portacio started as an inker before launching his career as a penciller over two decades ago. He has been a leading comic book talent ever since his big break through on Marvel titles X-Factor and Uncanny X Men in the early '90s. Whilce has worked on titles Iron Man: Heroes Reborn, Punisher, Wetworks, Stormwatch, Batman Confidential, and Superman/Batman.

Admission: FREE!

Come in a comic book character costume for a chance to win a prize pack worth $100!

ALSO:
Curating Komiks exhibit for I-Hotel Manilatown Center. Opening September 17, 4-6 PM at 868 Kearny Street, SF. A tribute to Filipino & Filipino American Comic Book Artists, featuring the work of Alfredo Alcala, Alex Niño, Ed Badajos, Vidda Chan, Dino Ignacio, Whilce Portacio, and Nestor Redondo..

Location:
I-Hotel Manilatown Center
868 Kearny St.
San Francisco, CA 94108

Manilatown Homepage

www.manilatown.org
Non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and fostering the rich cultural and artistic traditions of San Francisco's Filipino American community.

Back in Stock: Play Overlord, Death Deals & Ishi's Brain

We got a couple excellent books back in stock: Death Deals and Ishi's Brain by Eamon Espey and Play Overlord by Theo Ellsworth, Sean Christensen and Amy Kuttab! Take a look at them in our shop if you like!

Short Run Small Press Fest!

Join us this weekend in Seattle! I can already tell that Short Run is going to be a super fun fest, with lots of other great presses and artists involved. Emily and I look forward to seeing you there!

Short Run Small Press Fest
@ the Seattle Center
Saturday, Nov. 12th from 10:30 t0 4:30
Free Admission

Elijah Brubaker interview at Exquisite Things

Kevin from Exquisite Things has done a wonderful, in-depth interview with Elijah Brubaker, creator of the Reich series for Sparkplug. Please give it a read!