The acclaimed Portland-based Study Group 12 anthology is starting up a web comic portal for several of their contributors, with regular series & one-shots included, in addition to regular blog posts like this one on Craig Thompson’s Habibi process.)

From their blog:

We’ll be uploading new comics every weekday at noon EST, with the occasional one-shot story mixed in by our wrecking crew:

The site already has several short stories available for your reading pleasure, including Tom Neely’s thimble theatrical “Doppleganger” and Malachi Ward’s mindbending “Utu,” as well as SG Founding Father Zack Soto’s mystery “Day 34” and art-school confessional “Lost Art.”

Levon Jihanian’s Danger Country is up in color that transforms the pages from the sparse black & white printed versions. Check it out!

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In Commonwealth countries, the day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day, when servants and trades people were given boxes of gifts and bonuses by employers.  In modern times, it is now a secular holiday, known in some parts of the world as the Second Christmas Day.  Since it immediately follows Christmas, it long ago became the start of year-end clearances, and thus one of the biggest shopping days of the year.  (When I worked on the front lines of retail, our Holiday season began the first Friday of November, and ended around the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, with the clearance sale tapering off into February.)

But now, with various devices which can access the Internet 24/7, another shopping day has become popular: Christmas Day.  I don’t think anyone has coined a clever term yet, so I will:  unBoxing Day.  That is, specifically, the day people receive new electronic devices and gift cards, unbox them, and immediately go online to purchase content for those devices, which can include mp3 players, e-readers, tablets, laptops, cellphones, and computers.

How big is this new shopping day?  IBM Coremetrics Benchmarking, via Forbes Magazine, reports on sales figures for Christmas Day 2011:

• Apple iPads accounted for 7% of sales, iPhones had 6.4%, and Android devices 5%, meaning that 18.4% of all online sales were from mobile devices.  This does not include apps and such from app stores, but people using these devices to shop other websites.  Last year’s stake: 8.4%, an increase of 117.8 percent
• Online sales grew 16.4% compared to Christmas Day 2010.
• “Mega-Monday” sales  also exceeded those of last year.

Back when Amazon announced their exclusive agreement with DC Comics, people wondered how popular these titles would be.  Would e-book graphic novels sell?  I knew the big wave of users wouldn’t hit until Christmas Day, when a lot of people would get Kindle Fires as presents.  Last year saw a surge of web traffic on Christmas Day as people eagerly downloaded e-books to e-readers, and I expected this year, with even more viewing options available on Kindles and Nooks, to be even more hectic.  Of course, Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble usually offer generalities when discussing sales and usage, so we won’t know for certain.

So, how are graphic novels selling on the Kindle Fire today?

Here’s the page.  “Best Sellers in Comics & Graphic Novels”

Here’s a screen shot:

Since the resolution is gonna be awful, here are the top ten paid titles, with links from Amazon:

1.  How To Be A Super Villain (A Beautifully Illustrated Children’s Picture Book; Perfect Bedtime Story) [Kindle Edition] ($0.99 , #623 overall)

2.  Ex-Heroes [Kindle Edition] ($2.99 , #1,817)

3.  5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides) [Kindle Edition] ($7.39 , #2,074)

4. Batman: The Complete Hush [Kindle Edition] ($9.99 , #2,279)

5.  Watchmen [Kindle Edition] ($9.99 , #2,501)

6.  1,000 Comic Books You Must Read [Kindle Edition] ($13.49 , #3,150)

7.  Batman: The Long Halloween [Kindle Edition] ($9.99 , #3,572)

8.  Superman Earth One [Kindle Edition] ($9.99 , #3,596)

9. Anabella Giggles All Night! (I Love Anabella) [Kindle Edition] ($2.99, #3,645)

10.  Ex-Patriots (Ex-Heroes Book 2) [Kindle Edition] ($9.99 , #3,869)

The number one book?

A self-published children’s picture book.  Written and drawn by a 14-year old girl. Telling a fun story enjoyed by parents and children.    Outselling DC’s dark brooding bestsellers.  Outselling Miller, Loeb, Lee, Moore, Straczynski, Gaiman, Willingham, Vaughan…

One second while I search the web for the proper response…

Ah… here it is! ☞☞☞

(Or, if you want a soundtrack, Cesar Romero hooting as the Joker.)

Sure, it’s only $0.99.  But… it’s self-published.  It’s a children’s picture book.  It doesn’t have the marketing muscle (or the dedicated Amazon storefront) of DC Comics.  No one in the comics industry knew about this title.  A teen-age girl from nowhere, influenced by manga, is beating DC (and every other comics publisher) without hardly trying.

And, most important of all, she’s coming from the manga side of comics.

People have wondered about all those teenagers reading manga.  Would they write and draw their own comics?  Was it just a fad?  How would that influx of new talent, some drawing since they were in grade school, affect the small press community?  How would it affect the big publishers?

Well, here’s one answer.  Rachel Yu has published nine titles in two years.  She’s improving with every book, and she still has her high school career ahead of her.  (Comics fans will remember another high school cartoonist who showed lots of promise.) She’s publishing her titles via Amazon’s CreateSpace and Amazon Digital Services, selling her titles direct to tablet owners.  She’s having fun.

And… there are thousands of teenagers just like her.  They’re making comics after school via the Comic Book Project.  They’re making comics digitally, intuitively, copying their favorites (just like a lot of other comics professionals used to do in grade school), and making new stories, just like the comics circles in Japan making dōjinshis, and selling them cheaply.  They’re raising the cartooning bar at art schools, entering with skills and talent not seen before.  Will the U. S. see a Comiket-like event, drawing thousands of amateurs and hundreds of thousands of fans?  Or will it just remain online, replicating the APA, mini-comic, and webcomic communities?

Will the “Twenteens” be the decade when digital comics explode, transforming the industry like graphic novels did in the “Aughties”?  Time will tell, and I can’t wait to see what happens!

This one gets its own post because it might just be the book of the show:

Secret Acres especially pleased to finally release I Will Bite You! and Other Stories, the years-long delayed book debut of Joseph Lambert. We can say that the wait was entirely due to Joe’s ruthless perfectionism, the best proof of which is in the book you now have in hand. I Will Bite You! will be in stores this month, following its launch at the 2011 Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival in New York City.

Jason Lutes, author of Berlin and Jar of Fools writes:

“This book will punch, kick and bite its way from your brain to your heart and back again, leaving you dazed and dumfounded in its wake.”

One of the Comics Reporter’s five most anticipated books of the year, I Will Bite You! includes the Best American Comics selection, “Turtle Keep it Steady,” and several new stories, presented in gorgeous two color and full color pages. An economy of line and sophisticated, unusual narrative mark the inimitable style of an artist many have been watching with interest.

As Jim Rugg, Ignatz Award winning and Glyph Award nominated co-creator of Afrodisiac and Street Angel says:
“I Will Bite You! and Other Stories signals the arrival of Joe Lambert’s whimsical, lively, beautiful and thoughtful voice to comics.”

Joseph Lambert is a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies. He lives in Vermont with his wife and dog. His comic “Turtle Keep it Steady!” was published in Houghton Mifflin’s The Best American Comics 2008, for which he also designed the endpapers. His illustrations have appeared in Business Week, Popular Mechanics, 7Days, The Comics Journal and many other publications. Look for more of Joesph’s work at submarinesubmarine.com.

I WILL BITE YOU! AND OTHER STORIES by JOSEPH LAMBERT
IN STORES APRIL 2011
ADVANCE COPIES: Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival
April 9TH and 10TH, 2010, at the 69th Regiment Armory
68 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010
SOFTCOVER, 128 PGS, ISBN 978-0-9799609-4-9, 6×9 in, $14.00

BY JEN VAUGHN

Art schools and apprenticeships find themselves more popular than ever, let’s all tip our hats to inspiration artist Rudolph Töpffer’s for his creation of boarding school for boys. While anyone can teach themselves and become successful on their own, a lot of the specialty schools allow access to equipment, connections, mentorship of working professionals and opportunities in a condensed amount of time that are priceless.

Cartoonist and professor Steve Bissette, Katherine Roy (CCS ‘10) and James Sturm

The Joe Kubert School, Savannah College of Art and Design, School of Visual Art and the Center for Cartoon Studies are constantly providing this sort of wonder for their students. Most recently, CCS celebrated its annual Industry Day where hand-picked editors, designers and comic critics are invited to present themselves to the school as well as take a gander at the illustrious student portfolios. Past visitors have included Brett Warnock from Top Shelf, Calista Brill and Colleen AF Venable from First Second, Tom Devlin and Chris Oliveros of D&Q, Eric Reynolds from Fantagraphics, critic Douglas Wolk and on and on and on.

This year publishers Leon Avelino and Barry Matthews of Secret Acres provided excellent company along with Charlie Kochman of Abrams ComicArts, artist agent Bernadette Baker-Baughman of Victoria Sanders & Associates with mediator, journalist Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter. The panel sat down and spoke honestly about themselves, comics and the industry and this little fox perked up her ears on your behalf.

Left to Right: Sleepercar, Fatal Faux Pas and open Wormdye published by Secret Acres. The Art of Jaime Hernandez and Diary of a Wimpy Kid published by Abrams. Farel Dalrymple (Pop Gun War) represented by Bernadette Baker-Baughman.

Secret Acres started off with mentioning that they prefer to receive submissions via the mail. They go to so many conventions to sell books and look for art that if you just hand them your work, it goes in one big bag to be read at some future date. So if Secret Acres might be for you, keep your comics to yourself at a con unless they ask for them!

Kochman spent twelve years going to cons and giving portfolio reviews. He’s also had several people READ their comics aloud to him and I think we all know how condescending that can be. Unless we’re talking about Steamy Punk fiction or something. Yet from that time he published a little graphic novel you might have seen fleetingly on the shelves, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Charlie Kochman and Tom

As a agent, Bernadette provided the three elements she is looking for before signing up to represent a creator. These elements are A) Falling in love with the work; B) Instantly knowing half a dozen publishers who would buy it and C) The material has to be near completion, fit for a publisher or printer. Bernadette suggested if an artist is interested in an agent to investigate who they are representing and what books they are selling. Would you fit in? Do you like any of the material? She also whole-heartedly believes that kid’s comics and non-fiction comic books are the easiest to sell at the moment.

Bernadette with client and cartoonist, Zack Giallongo

Inevitably, Tony Shenton’s name came up as the master indie distributor that he is AND that Abrams recently hired him to man the backlist of comic book stores. Shenton makes sure that shops have copies of comics and graphic novels right before a NY Times review hits so the hungry public can actually get their hands on a copy. An excellent idea for a man of such talents, bravo Abrams.

The digital discussion did come up and Bernadette has seen many prose works going straight into reading applications. Meanwhile, largely-produced comics are still at a standstill. Kochman smartly rambled on the idea of giving the digital rights BACK to the creators since most companies are just sitting on them. This would be beneficial for both creator and company if the creator adapted something to fit the digital platforms (add some music!) or in the case of Mom’s Cancer, could help people if it was put back online.

Barry of Secret Acres mentioned working on something secret, dark and dangerously digital especially since the release of the iPad 2 have solidfied the medium’s existence. Leon bemoaned the slow swan song of the periodical but lauded the praises of reading the same material on such digital platforms. The immediate impact of the digital revolution on smaller, independent publishers is that they are getting better quality at better prices from printers. Secret Acres loves being pursued.

Leon, Barry and Bernadette

The comics community seems large but like that damn song, we know what small world it is. Kochman reminisced on having to pass up books he really to publish that have luckily their homes at publishers elsewhere. He responds to individual style and believes artists should strive to make their work recognizable without a name attached to it. Secret Acres is always on the lookout for artists that are unique, whose influences are hard to put a finger on. They are often approached after a book comes out by jealous publishers (not necessarily the aforementioned) but cheekily reply that everyone attends the same shows and sees the same mini-comics.

After the panel slowed down, students met with the Industry Day movers and shakers for portfolio reviews. Constructive criticism is always the goal but a few tears now and then occur (one publisher jokingly once told me he was aiming to make people puke!). With pockets of comments, criticism and compliments of their work, the student cartoonists go to the drawing board more hopeful for ensuing glory and and continue to burn that midnight oil.

And with that, I think it is time for all of us to go back to work, whether we are writing or drawing or creating that magic that exists in between.

–

Jen Vaughn’s favorite part of Industry Day is of course, the karaoke and mixer that may have occurred later that day.

Bad Machinery and Scary Go Round creator John Allison has just returned from attending some comics events in the USA and he’s written a 10 point manifesto about what he believes is wrong with the UK indie comics scene. It’s useful reading for anyone involved in making comics, whether they live in the UK or not.

2. Small press: it is not 1994 any more

There are comics on the internet now. If you’re good enough, have a decent website, and keep a reliable schedule, you can have a whole career there. The notion of the primacy of a photocopied quasi-zine “small press scene” in the UK is ludicrous. 1 in 4 people in the world can speak English. Questionable Content has half a million readers. It is not rocket science.

4. Forget what you learned at art school and read some business books

You need entrepreurial chops to make a living from your art, or the help of someone who has them. It’s not that hard. You copy someone who has already succeeded. It usually works.

7. Diary comics: stop it

If your only comics outlet is a diary comic on the internet, you are wasting your time and your energy. The success stories in this field are the product of people with strong, often eccentric personalities and a robust visual vocabulary, capable of turning their lives into a compelling narrative. The 200 people who read your diary comic, on the other hand, all make their own dull diary comics. Or are about to start.

Read the whole thing on Allison’s blog.

Chris Pitzer announces more books from AdDistro, his indie distributor, including ADA by Atak & Gertrude Stein. More good stuff in the link. Don’t miss out on the fun!

Just a very quick moment to jot down a few thoughts on SPX. (My “official” report will be in PWCW tomorrow.) In short, it remains the summer camp of comics, with a bunch of people who are there for love just hanging out, talking, drawing, drinking, smiling, and laughing.

First off, SPX is the only comics show that has HOT BUBBLING CRAB.

It has Adam Hines and DUNCAN THE WONDER DOG.

The ATM machine is out of money by 4 pm.

Michael Cho and his prints!

Mike Dawson, Jon Lewis and Gabrielle Bell.

Robert Ullman and Keith Knight

The Tiny Kitten Teeth Gang

Metaphrog

Jesse Reklaw

Liz Baillie

Jen Vaughn

Vanessa Davis who was absolutely the sweetheart of the show.

On the car ride back, all we could talk about was what a good time we had and how nice everyone was. Seriously. No Diamond/Marvel/DC politics and stress. No editors from New York with credit cards to compete for (that sounds bad, but it all worked out.) Just love of comics and creativity. I don’t care that my breakfast on Saturday was inedible and my dinner almost never came. Words and pictures were enough to fill your belly for one weekend.

SPX is the one show where you know where everyone is all the time. With no real options nearby and a roomy hotel complete with drink tickets and a 7/11 next door for cheap beer, everyone hangs out. It was a blast running from room party to room party post Ignatzes, talking Primus with Lisa Hanawalt and Chester Brown with Tom Devlin. People sang songs and told jokes, and fell asleep but did not have mustaches drawn on them — at least where we were standing.

Good times.

What’s new at SPX this year? Click the images for more info!

D+Q Creative Director Tom Devlin will be manning ye old booth this weekend at SPX at the Marriott North in Bethesda, MD. The show is open from 11-7 on Saturday and from 12-6 on Sunday. Friday night Tom will be at Politics & Prose in Washington DC with James Sturm presenting MARKET DAY while in Baltimore at Atomic Books, you’ll find R. Sikoryak and Vanessa Davis with friends presenting respectively Masterpiece Comics and Make Me A Woman.

At the show new books with authors signing include Vanessa Davis’s Make Me A Woman, and Kevin Huizenaga’s Wild Kingdom along with Gabrielle Bell, James Sturm, and R. Sikoryak.

PictureBox is double dipping at the Brooklyn Book Festival. All pertinent info here.

Raina Telgemeier – with T-shirt sale!

Joey Weiser and co:
This weekend, Sept. 11-12, is the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland! I’ll be there, at tables H1-2, as illustrated by tablemate David Yoder. We’re right by the entrance, next to Tugboat Press, across from Top Shelf — You’ll find us! I’ll be sharing the table with David, as well as Drew Weing, Michele Chidester, Adam Aylard, Kevin Burkhalter, and the minis of David Mack (who unfortunately can’t make it this year)! Drew will be promoting his new book, Set to Sea, and Michele will have THREE (3) copies of a new, hardbound mini-comic, Reassurance. You definitely want to check those out. Not sure exactly what everyone else will have, but it’s all gonna be great! Our table is not to be missed!

How about me? Well, I will have plenty of copies of my new graphic novel, Cavemen in Space. If you’ve been waiting to pick this up, now is the time! I’ll be there to sign and doodle one of the many cast members in your copy. Debuting at SPX, is Mermin issue 3! I’ll have the first two issues there as well, so you can get caught up if you aren’t on board yet. I’ll also have The Ride Home and Tales of Unusual Circumstance, and I think I’m going to bring what’s left of my Kaiju Life postcard set, but I may not put those out depending on how much space we’ve got at our table. If you’re curious about any of these items (or can’t make it to the show) you can check them out at my online store. Mermin 3 will be available for purchase online sometime after SPX.

Pais the cat

Julia Wertz

Robyn Chapman

Editor and publisher Robyn Chapman is pleased to announce the debut of the much-anticipated anthology Make: Comics About an Intimate Act.  The intimate act in question? Pooping.  Everyone does it, and yet the topic is not welcome in polite conversation.  Make endeavors to break this taboo, and offers 80 pages of stories that are human, sincere and entertaining.
Chapman handpicked 8 talented cartoonists to tackle this subject:
Nate Beaty
Robyn Chapman
Joseph Lambert
Jason Martin
Melissa Mendes
José-Luis Olivares
Maris Wicks
Adriana Yugovich
Make will debut at the 2010 Small Press Expo on September 11 and 12.  Look for it at The Center for Cartoon Studies table (table F16).

Tugboat Press:

Yes, Let’s is our first picture books for kids and our first 100% full color publication. It’s written (in rhymes!) by our longtime friend and sometimes co-editor Galen Longstreth and illustrated by the amazing Maris Wicks. This is the first book of this kind for either creator, so get in on the ground floor with this one. It’ll charm your socks off!

Invincible Summer #19 / Clutch #22 is the ninth annual split zine from these two mainstays of American zinedom. If you don’t know Nicole and Clutch’s zines, this split is a great gateway drug. Told in diary style comics, these two old pals live (somewhat) overlapping lives of zines, friends and good times.

Papercutter #14 has been a longtime coming! Nate Beaty, who has drawn the endpages for every single issue of Papercutter, finally steps forward to illustrated a big 21 page story and the front cover. And it’s a good one! Written by old friend Dave Roche of On Subbing fame, their story follows Dave on a train trip through the darker parts of middle America. There is also a one pager from Jim Rugg featuring the character Bald Eagle from Jim’s legendary series Street Angel. And Farel Dalrymple provides the third story. He’s always been a hero of ours, so it was a real honor having him contribute to this issue.

Fanfare/Ponent Mon
——–
This is surely only the tip of the iceberg…We’ll discover the rest of the goodies ourselves.

The entire programming list for SPX is up now, curated by Bill Kartalopoulos and reproduced below. It’s the usual outstanding mix with spotlights on R. Sikoryak, James Sturm, and Jaime Hernandez, and much more. SPX will be held Saturday, September 11, from 11 AM to 7 PM and Sunday, September 12, noon-6 PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days. Please note: We’re moderating two panels, one a spotlight on the late Harvey Pekar and another on the creative storytelling process.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE

Comics and Worldbuilding
1:00 | Brookside Conference Room
This panel will consider the challenge of developing original settings for comics, individual artistic processes, and how the medium of comics is particularly well-suited to creating convincing invented worlds. Evan Dahm will lead a conversation with Liz Baillie, Aaron Diaz, Carla Speed McNeil and Spike Trotman.

Spotlight: James Sturm
1:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
James Sturm is the author of several comics and graphic novels including The Golem’s Mighty Swing, Unstable Molecules, James Sturm’s America, and Market Day. He is also the founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies, a unique two-year degree granting institution dedicated to cartooning. In this spotlight presentation, Sturm will discuss his work and answer questions from moderator Chris Mautner.

A Conversation About Daniel Clowes
2:00 | Brookside Conference Room
Daniel Clowes has long been one of America’s premier cartoonists, and his work has caught the public eye again with the 2010 publication of his graphic novel Wilson. Ken Parille and Isaac Cates, co-editors of the recent anthology Daniel Clowes: Conversations (University Press of Mississippi) will discuss Clowes’s art and career with moderator Bill Kartalopoulos.

Carousel at SPX
2:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
The long running slide show series, Carousel, returns with some of today’s finest comics artists, graphic novelists, and pencil pushers reading and presenting their work. Hosted by R. Sikoryak, this special SPX edition of Carousel will feature Kate Beaton, Dean Haspiel, Lizz Hickey, and more!

Critics’ Panel: How We Judge
3:00 | Brookside Conference Room
The accessibility of online publishing alongside traditional media has enabled a diversity of critical voices who are addressing the broad spectrum of comics being published today. A diverse group of critics will discuss the disparate bases for their own critical opinions, and the extent to which they regard different kinds of work in different ways. Join moderator Bill Kartalopoulos for a discussion with Johanna Draper Carlson (Comics Worth Reading), Gary Groth (The Comics Journal), Tim Hodler (Comics Comics), Chris Mautner (Robot 6), Joe McCulloch (Jog the Blog/Comics Comics), Ken Parille (Blog Flume), and Caroline Small (The Hooded Utilitarian).

Center for Cartoon Studies Self-Publishing Workshop
3:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
Robyn Chapman, Jon Chad and Alec Longstreth join us from The Center for Cartoon Studies, a two-year college for budding cartoonists in White River Junction, Vermont.  Alec will offer a short presentation chock full of self-publishing tips.  Afterwards, each participant will draw, fold and bind a comic using the Hidden Book format.  This simple process allows you to create an 8-page comic with a single piece of paper.  No matter what your experience level, you’ll leave this workshop with your own handmade minicomic!

Remembering Harvey Pekar
4:00 | Brookside Conference Room
When comics writer Harvey Pekar died in July 2010, he left behind an influential legacy of independent autobiographical comics that highlighted the forgotten moments and ignored people of everyday life. In this special panel event, a group of Pekar’s former collaborators will discuss their experiences of working with the creator of American Splendor. Heidi MacDonald will moderate this conversation with Vanessa Davis, Dean Haspiel, Jeff Newelt, Rick Parker, Ed Piskor, and Sean Pryor.

Spotlight: Jamie Hernandez
4:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
The 1982 publication of Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez’s Love and Rockets #1 by Fantagraphics virtually created the model for the post-underground alternative comic book series that characterized art-comics for nearly two decades. In the intervening years, Jaime Hernandez has emerged as one of the most distinctive visual stylists and compelling storytellers in modern comics, as he crafts the still-continuing saga of Hopey, Maggie, and his other post-punk Locas. Publisher and editor Gary Groth will ask Jaime about his art and life in this special spotlight session.

Comics for Younger Readers
5:00 | Brookside Conference Room
Book-length comics for younger readers are increasingly following graphic novels for adults into the bookstore and library shelves. Johanna Draper Carlson will discuss the pleasures and challenges of creating comics for younger readers with the collaborative duo Metaphrog, Aaron Renier, Raina Telgemeier, and Drew Weing.

Return of the Monster: The Fort Thunder Legacy
5:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
From 1995 to 2001, the Fort Thunder artists’ and performance space in Providence, Rhode Island was a fertile creative center. Work produced by artists living at the Fort – both at the time and in the years since it was shut down – has been enormously influential in the worlds of fine art, music, and comics. A new issue of the de facto Fort Thunder anthology Monster debuts at this year’s SPX. To mark the occasion, Bill Kartalopoulos will moderate a discussion with artists and former Fort Thunder residents Brian Ralph and Paul Lyons and publisher/editors Tom Devlin and Dan Nadel. 

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 12 PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE 
Telling Stories
12:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
How do creators shape inspiration and life experience into memorable stories and characters? Join moderator Heidi MacDonald for a lively discussion about vision and process with a panel of cartoonists including Meredith Gran, Roger Langridge and Jon Lewis.

Teaching Comics
1:00 | Brookside Conference Room
Comics have increasingly gained a berth as the subject of courses within the academy, and classes about comics production are increasingly a part of studio art departments. What do students need to know about comics? To what extent do studio art students need to know about comics history and theory, and to what extent do humanities students need to know about the practice of comics production? Professors Marc Singer and Isaac Cates join Center for Cartoon Studies founder James Sturm for a conversation moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos.

Kate Beaton and Julia Wertz in Conversation
1:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
Two of the most popular and entertaining cartoonists of their generation, Kate Beaton and Julia Wertz have both attracted dedicated audiences online with their uniquely humorous comics. This special conversation moderated by Dustin Harbin will investigate the similarities and differences between the creators of Hark, A Vagrant! and The Fart Party.

Brave New Comic Strips
2:00 | Brookside Conference Room
The newspaper industry, long the home of American comics’ first popular dedicated format, faces an existential crisis presented by the emergence and proliferation of digital media. Against all odds, artists interested in the daily strip format continue to produce work with an eye for print. Mike Rhode will discuss the present and the future of the newspaper comic strip with Marguerite Dabaie, Keith Knight, and Richard Thompson.

Developing Iconographies
2:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
Distinct from drawing as an art discipline with its own self-ratifying purpose, artists in comics create pictures as part of a visual language. Moderator Ken Parille will investigate the ways in which comics artists develop visual iconographies in individual works and throughout bodies of work. Cartoonists Eamon Espey, Kevin Huizenga, and Tom Kaczynski will participate in this discussion, illustrated with slides of the artists’ work.

Autobiography in Pieces
3:00 | Brookside Conference Room
How do you tell the story of a life that’s still in progress? Is “story” even the right way to think about it? How do you winnow down the manifold details and data of your life? Cartoonists Sarah Becan, Gabrielle Bell, Vanessa Davis, and Jesse Reklaw will discuss alternatives to the memoir with moderator Isaac Cates.

R. Sikoryak: Adaptation and Parody
3:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
Comics chameleon R. Sikoryak inventively adapts canonical Western literature using the visual styles and characters of historical American comic books and comic strips. These works have been collected in his 2009 book Masterpiece Comics (Drawn and Quarterly). Sikoryak will reveal his intensive working process and will discuss the history of parody and adaptation in comics in a discussion with Bill Kartalopoulos, curator of the recent exhibit  ”R. Sikoryak: How Classics and Cartoons Collide.”

Commercial Eruptions
4:00 | Brookside Conference Room
Jim Rugg (Street Angel, Afrodisiac) and Frank Santoro (Storeyville, Cold Heat) have produced auteurial work that shows the influence of commercial comics, and have brought an independent sensibility to work for publishers like Marvel Comics. In a conversation moderated by Tim Hodler, the two cartoonists will reflect on what they have learned from the contents and processes of historical commercial comics and how they reinterpret their influences when working for corporate publishers.

Comics and Printmaking
4:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
Comics have historically been a medium of work made for reproduction, but the means of reproduction have often constrained by technical and commercial limitations. Even as new digital technologies have broadened technical possibilities, a number of cartoonists are exploring the possibilities of reproducing work using traditional printing techniques including silkscreening and etching. Noel Freibart, Lizz Hickey, Brian Ralph and Jon Vermilyea will discuss the relationship between comics and printmaking with moderator Bill Kartalopoulos. 

Another small press perennial — Batton Lash and Wollf and Byrd are as much a part of Comic-Con as Klingons and Mark Evanier panels! He’ll be at the show with a brand new book:

Exhibit A Press will have a new limited-edition Supernatural Law book at Comic-Con: The Gods Must Be Litigious:

When the Medusa decides to write a book—watch out! The Gorgon of Greek mythology, whose glance can turn people to stone, has been creating controversy on Earth as a bestselling author. Her highly opinionated How to Talk to a Mortal (If You Must) has brought her speaking engagements, TV talk show appearances—and lots of enemies! One of her most outspoken critics is editorial cartoonist Red Thrall, who is unrelenting in his cartoon attacks. Will the Medusa reach her breaking point and turn him to stone? How long 
will Zeus tolerate all this nonsense on Earth? Looks like Medusa’s going to need some lawyers! And those lawyers are of course Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre.

The book sells for $8.95 and will be available (while supplies last) at the Exhibit A Press booth, #1909. Cartoonist Batton Lash will be on hand to sign copies.

More info about Supernatural Law and Batton Lash: www.exhibitapress.com

The Supernatural Law webcomic unfolds at www.supernaturallaw.com

In the seasonal ocean of hype and comics companies whose main attraction is some actor signing some comic, there are still oases of good old comic books. And also people who send out fine little news releases and pictures of comics. Such a person is Randy Reynaldo, who has been at this a while but still sends out a nice. concise news bit. And he always gets his own news item, like this. Because he did it right. This time out, Reynaldo will premiere the first ever collection of Rob Hanes, Adventurer.

“Randy encourages everyone to support small independent comics publishers by visiting his booth (K1) and the other tables in the Small Press Pavilion.” And so do we!

Randy Reynaldo, publisher of WCG Comics and the writer-artist-creator of the long-running classic adventure indie comic-book series Rob Hanes Adventures, will be making his eighth consecutive exhibitor’s appearance (and 13th overall) at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. Randy’s booth will be at a new location from previous years: Booth K1 in the Small Press Pavilion of the floor, near where aisle 1500 terminates in the small press area.

At this year’s show, Randy will be promoting the first trade paperback compilation of his series, Rob Hanes Adventures, Vol. 0, which is scheduled to be released in September 2010. The collection was just solicited to retailers and consumers in the July issue of Diamond’s Previews catalog. The softcover trade paperback will retail for $15.99 and feature six complete adventures from 1994–96, and 140 black-and-white pages. All the stories have been digitally re-lettered for the new collection, replacing the hand-lettering of the original series. The trade is a great way for new readers to discover the series and for long-time fans to read the stories in a new, fresh and permanent bookshelf format.

In addition, WCG will debut a new special full-color comic-book edition of Rob Hanes Adventures at the show. The special edition marks marks the first time the series is available in full color in print. The edition features a cover price of $3.99 and 32 full-color pages.
In limited quantities, Randy will be giving away back issues for free for promotional purposes, and have new bookmarks and promotional pins available with purchase.

Randy encourages everyone to support small independent comics publishers by visiting his booth (K1) and the other tables in the Small Press Pavilion.

More preview pages here.

Indie publisher AdHouse has announced AdDistro, a new distribution site for small press books. PR below:

It’s the befriending of “like” publishers and creators whose work we appreciate. And by befriending,  it means that we’ve purchased copies of their work so that you, the reader, can now obtain even MORE quality publications in one easy to use location. (ie: AdHouse Books Distro) Our initial offering of work focuses on some of the harder to obtain material, from people like:

Nobrow Press.
Nobrow Press, based in London UK, is all about publishing beautiful tactile illustrated books. We work with a wide range of illustrators and artists from around the world to produce image based publications from comic books and graphic novellas to artist’s monographs and illustration journals. Our production methods combine the best materials with the most interesting printing methods often inspired by the illustrated books of yesteryear.

Koyama Press.
Koyama Press was founded in 2007 to sponsor projects with emerging artists. The rationale behind the enterprise is to fund a project with the intention to promote the artist. Ideally there will be a product to sell to create revenue. In addition to publishing books, the company has financed such diverse projects as zines, comics, artist designed t-shirts, installations, photo montage work, print folios, letterpress cards. The venture has covered travel costs, reference materials, art supplies and the odd lunch.

Malachi Ward.
I’ll be honest. I didn’t know Malachi’s work until a few weeks ago. I was introduced to it by a suggestion of a comic retailer friend. And, boy, I’m glad I was. His work is solid comic storytelling, with a hint of sci-fi.

The Stumptown Comics Festival was held this weekend. Many folks attended the party where the awards were held, and even wrote extensive blog postings about it….but no one actually posted the winners. But Tom Spurgeon combed through Twitter like the Continental Op, and assembled a list:

OUTSTANDING SMALL PRESS — BT Livermore, Bearfight! (above)

OUTSTANDING DEBUT — Sarah Becan, The Complete Ouija Interviews

OUTSTANDING DIY — BT Livermore, Bearfight!

OUTSTANDING WRITING — A. Bennett & P. Guinan, Boilerplate

OUTSTANDING ART — Paul Guinan, Boilerplate

OUTSTANDING PUBLICATION DESIGN — Stephenny Godfrey, Panorama

OUTSTANDING WEBCOMIC — David Malki Wondermark

• Tom also sleuthed out the fact that the 2010 Maisie Kukoc award, given ech year to a mini-comic, was given to Sarah Oleksyk for Ivy #5. You can read the FIRST issue of Ivy FREE online.

Dylan Williams is the founder of Sparkplug Comic Books, an art film/used bookstore owner, and the guy behind the scenes in many of Portland’s comic and independent press events. A few months back, I sent Dylan some questions for an article on Diamond for PW Comics, expecting a few short answers, and when I got his responses, I wanted to print them all.

So, to start off, when did you start up Sparkplug? How did you get started publishing other people’s stuff?

I decided to start Sparkplug in 2002. I was working a good paying job with a good future there, so I figured I should screw it up and spend my dough on something I liked, rather than just buying a bunch of death metal albums and boring silent foreign films. I was so used to working low paying day jobs or trying to make it off of illustration that it was weird to actually have a stream of money coming in. I put an end to that eventually, thank God.

When did you add the distro part? And when did the store come into it?

Basically, I can never leave well enough alone. It is impossible for me to do something, do it well, and just do that. I added the distro a couple of years later, maybe 2004. I didn’t really promote it as such. I had sort of spearheaded the distro part of Puppy Toss back in the 90s and learned a ton of lessons from it, which I promptly forgot and had to re-learn. This time I’ve tried to keep it more focused. Sticking with books I’ve read, I know, and that I feel comfortable selling.

The store isn’t a comic store at all. It is called the Bad Apple, and it is something me and Tim Goodyear came up with in 2008, it opened in February 2009. Basically the same logic, we were both sort of feeling like we had some understanding of comics and wanted to do something we were both totally no-good at. We’re going to be continuing all kinds of stuff like that throughout our lives, it would seem. Both of us love movies and books and art, and we wanted a way to involve ourselves in the larger community of Portland. It has been an amazing experience and seems to be doing pretty well. Neither of us is making any money, but we aren’t losing any either. It gives me a place to do my Sparkplug work that isn’t my living room floor.

How do you decide what you’re going to publish?

It is a series of things, a process. My chief goal, even though I try to get away from it, is to publish stuff that I don’t see getting represented well in comics. But ultimately, it is my taste. I’ve been trying to publish some super arty stuff but I’ve found that working with books that are really arty is much harder than I thought it’d be. Meaning, they take a bunch more time and work. I feel like I’ve done a bad job of it because of that, so I’m reexamining how that works. I’m trying to publish books that push boundaries, that don’t just seem like safe bets. I’ve gotten a little more confidence as a publisher lately, but I still feel like a 19 year old kid in a game played by a bunch of business people or comics celebrities. I try and keep it focused on things I understand and things that I can present to other people confidently. Lately, I’m really on a “small is beautiful” kick.

How has the Diamond threshold affected Sparkplug as a publisher?

The threshold made us stop sending books in to Diamond. I don’t agree with it, so I feel weird sending books in to a system I don’t agree with. I keep on planning to send in a bunch just to see what happens, but I end up having too much other stuff to do.

Have they turned down any books that you don’t think they previously would have?

They turned down Jin and Jam #1, last time I sent books in. I figured they’d at least be interested in it but they used the “we’ll wait for the collection” logic. Maybe that means they were interested and it was just the format of comic books that they don’t like. I find that contradictory.

Prior to last year, how much did you work through Diamond? Did they carry any Sparkplug pamphlets like Reich? Or just the larger graphic novels?

We dealt with them a bunch. It was different for each book but they never liked the really arty books. Comic books like Reich were usually carried. They turned down Tales to Demolish till we did a color superhero one. They turned down some luxury paperbacks, the ones that were more fine arty.

Has the poor economy had more impact on Sparkplug than anything through Diamond?

Neither has really affected sales too much. We don’t sell as many individual books thanks to not going through Diamond, but their price structure wasn’t one where Sparkplug could make any money. The interet, indy stores and direct sales have done pretty well for us. I believe in supporting a personal connection between readers and producers of comix, as well as supporting small independent book and comix stores, so it fits.

As a distro, have you seen any change in business over the past year, in either increases, decreases, or new attitudes?

The distro side has been so great. People love finding self published art comix. The harder it becomes for stores to get things through Diamond, the more they go looking for other sources. It is a pretty awesome side effect of the minimums. Sparkplug keeps on finding more and more customers, thanks to their lack of interest in comix that are done with art and personal expression in mind, instead of commercial properties. .

Are more stores ordering from you directly for Sparkplug books/ other people’s books that you carry?

Oh yeah, lots more. It has been booming. I’m pretty overwhelmed with orders and I am always trying to stay on top of it. Dealing with stores directly is much more my speed and is what I’d love the future of Sparkplug to involve.

How would you describe the books you carry besides those you put out yourself?

The distro books are all over the place, they include well known books like Capacity, Mourning Star, and Wuvable Oaf, as well as a ton of wonderful art comix like Matt Thurber’s stuff or Carrie McNinch’s You Don’t Get There From Here. I think (and hope) my punk roots show, but most of it is just things that I’m going to feel comfortable selling and books I’ve read and like. It isn’t a free-for-all because I can’t afford that and wouldn’t be able to read them all. I feel like reading stuff is a key part of being able to sell it to other people.

Has working with Tony Shenton helped Sparkplug?

I’ve been working with him for almost a decade now I think. He is pretty awesome. He has made what I do possible and I feel like he never gets the credit he deserves for all the work he does. I’m so glad that he’s help to expand the world of comix distribution. He gets our books out to way more stores than I ever could. He should be knighted or sainted or something.

Are you going to put out more short, pamphlet sized comics like Jin & Jam and Reich? If so, then why?

I’m sort of focusing on comic books at the moment. We have couple of bigger books in the works, but I’m in love with the staple. We just published the second issue of Robert Sergel’s Eschew and Reich #7. Jin & Jam #2 is in the works as are new comic books by Julia Gfrorer, Tessa Brunto, Cameron Forsley, Damien Jay and David King. But we are also working on books by Chris Cilla and Janelle Hessig. Lots of stuff in the works.

The reasons for more comic books are that I’m a big fan, they are more affordable, they sell better, and they are what artists want to do. Ultimately, it is up to the artists what kind of work they want to do, but I’ve proposed a few to artists. Printing and publishing are part of the art form of comix. I do find it really really unwise that in the middle of really crappy economic times, there was a push for large expensive books. It may be what big distros and stores like Borders or Barnes & Noble want from comix, but they never knew how to sell them in first place. The big business of book distribution ruined it for book publishing, almost for comix a few years ago and I’m not going to participate in doing it again. I don’t really believe in listening to selling imperatives from people who don’t buy or read comix themselves. That sort of behavior has lead to a couple of smaller publishers going out of business. And I don’t want to hand over the keys of an art form that means so much to me. I do love sharing comix with more and more people but I don’t think that the way to do that is to make them more expensive and less accessible. It is that old idea of people loving something for what it is and trying to do what artists want, since they’re the ones doing all the work.

Why do you still want to publish floppies in the digital age? What do you think is superior about them?

Good question. I don’t think anything is inherently better about any way of getting art out there. I’m actually not even innately against things like Kindles or iPhones. I prefer tangible real world objects, but they aren’t better. I like pamphlets a lot, but really it is just that I like comic books. I honestly believe that people like to buy affordable, accessible art. So, Sparkplug has published a bunch of books with spines. I try and work with like-minded artists though, so a bunch of the artists who’ve done books with Sparkplug like pamphlets and that is what we’ve done. Originally, the words pamphlet or floppies really bugged me because they are comic books. I actually had to explain to Diamond Comics that we were publishing Reich and Jin & Jam as comic books because we are a comic book company. It is in the name.

So, it isn’t part of some big master plan to bring back the floppy, but I’m not going to turn away from them because I really love them. The financial issue is really important to me though, I want to make comic books that people can afford to buy, that are made locally, that say exactly what the creator wants to say, and that are accessible.

Who are your favorite artists making comics right now?

Oh wow, that is a big question. I’m going to make a long list for you, and I’m sure it won’t have everyone I love now:

Eric Haven, Trevor Alixopulos, Annie Murphy, Al Frank, Bobby Maddness, Tessa Brunton, Emon Espey, Zak Sally, John Porcellino, Paul Grist, Carrie McNinch, Jessica Johnson, Mack White, Ben Catmull, Nate Doyle, Tom Kaczynski, Damien Jay, Frank Santoro, Ian Sundhal, Katie Skelly, Eroyn Franklin, David King, Ed Luce, Edie Fake, Dewayne Slightweight, Juliacks, Olga Volozova, John Hankeiwicz, Dan Zettwoch, Marko Turunen, Janelle Hessig, Tom Neely, Lisa Eisenberg, Amy Kutab, Rina Ayuyang, Hellen Jo, T. Edward Bak, Austin English, Jesse Moynihan, Julia Wertz, Mathew Thurber, Jason Overby, Jason T. Miles, Noah Van Sciver, Pam Cameron-Snyder, Ayo, Dan Clowes and there are honestly about 50 other people I could list. I feel like we are living in a new golden age of comics. Maybe not with the financial rewards of the olden days but there are so many really honest to goodness artists making comics these days that it is an both overwhelming and inspiring.

The UK Web & Mini Comix Thing happened this past Saturday, and despite a lack of “big” names (and the nearest tube station being closed until the early afternoon) leading to a smaller attendance than previous years, those attending found it to be a generally positive experience.

One of the reasons for this was the Dino-Saw-Us passport scheme created by some enterprising attendees. The idea was for each exhibitor to get a book of stickers printed up, and for attendees to have to talk to them in attempts to get a sticker. The main problem was that there weren’t enough passports for everyone, and it became a task to hunt one down before you could even start collecting stickers.

It seemed to be a great success, and several exhibitors said that lots of people stopped to talk to them, even if only to get a sticker or a stamp in their passport. I only managed to fill half of mine, but I saw at least one person who had run out of space in their passport for more stickers.

Daniel Merlin Goodbrey (left, Iron Man 2020) was there promoting the UniComics Festival happening later this month, and had copies of Necessary Monsters, which should be out in collected form from AiT/Planet Lar soon.

On the right was Douglas Noble, one of the editors on the upcoming Studies in Comics journal, with copies of The Complex and Black Death.

Philipa Rice (of whom I failed to get a good photo), had made this really awesome diorama with characters from her very awesome webcomic My Cardboard Life.

Roger Langridge, writer and artist of The Muppet Show comic from Boom! Kids, was there with loads of his self published material. He said he’d been doing DIY books for decades, and saw no reason to stop. He’s somewhat disappointed that you can’t actually buy the Muppet comics in the UK, but is hoping someone will pick up the rights to reprint them soon, and at least some bookshops have copies of the collections.

There were a number of people from mainland Europe at the show, including several from Germany. At least one of these books has been published in English (by Top Shelf), and I’m sure we’ll see more before too long.

Marc Ellerby (Love the Way You Love) gave me his last Dino-Saw-Us passport, for which I will be eternally grateful. Hurray Marc! He also let me know that he’s currently working on a comic with Kieron Gillen for the CBGB anthology Boom is putting out later this summer. So all you people going through Phonogram withdrawal have something to look forward to.

John Miers had greatly shrunk down copies of his comic based on the Tower of Babel. You can’t really tell from this picture, but those pages are the height of the table, and they’re only half the size of the originals. Loads of tiny details in there.

John Allison of Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery was possibly the biggest name at the Thing, and seemed to be having no problem shifting books and tea towels (which I didn’t even get to see). He said he was looking for ways to get the early Scary Go Round books back into print, and looking for a publisher for the first Bad Machinery collection.

While I managed to talk to lots more (awesome) creators, it was at this point that my camera batteries died, and soon after that we all went to the pub.

Matthew Murray ended up with a stack of minicomics from the Thing, good thing he has a blog where he can review them.