Indie Comics

Katie Skelly's NURSE NURSE from Sparkplug was a sellout at MoCCA, but you can still get a copy in NYC at tonight's book party at Desert Island.

Better late than never! Please at least scroll through this (very incomplete) listing of new books out at MoCCA and just look at the pictures if nothing els.e There are some pretty amazing books coming out that haven't gotten that much press, so I think it's wroth your while.

Just a brief guide to some publishers and creators and stuff to look out for!

As we've been putting together the listings for this bi-coastal duel indie comics weekend extravaganza, it occurs to us that we are just not very plugged in to the Portland scene...well not the way we are NYC that's for sure. So we're doing our best to cover this, but maybe what we need is a PDX correspondent? Anyhoo, Stumptown actually has a great events page with all the weekend goings on. So we'll put post the pictures and links here. Send us reports!

Please note that our panel tomorrow at 1:15, "The State of Small Publishing", will now include Fanfare/Ponent Mon's Stephen Robson, in addition to Box Brown, Craig Yoe, and Secret Acres' Barry Matthews. These fine gentlemen all have a lot to say and I'm as eager to hear their discussion as anyone!

Having torn through politicians and teen idols, Bluewater is launching a new biographical comics series, this one focusing on great artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. The series marks a new partnership between comic-book publisher and German artist Willi Bloess (German: Willie Blöß) and Bluewater.

In awesome news, the Sparkplug Books Indiegogo campaign has reached its goal. But you can still give them more money to publish creator-owned, independent books that validate the spirit of the best that comics can be.

The date was December 9th, 2011 when cartoonist and Center for Cartoon Studies professor Alec Longstreth shaved off his beard and shaggy do. A promise to himself in 2008, he decided to chart his progress through pictures of his hair and beard growth that would undoubtedly remind him daily of his commitment. Living in a small town with a beard as his shadow, Longstreth went from industrious Fellow of the school to an instructor of both summer workshops and graduate classes to the Acting Director (while James Sturm takes a much-needed sabbatical) . Even after all the excitement, he is still growing and evolving, deciding to learn watercolor on the side. Venture on to read more about the amazing cartoonist Alec Longstreth.

Published by Retrofit Comics. Can't wait.

Here. Gary Panter, Hans Rickheit, Daniel Johnston, and more. We'll be moderating the following panel Saturday at 1:15:

A new self-publisher showed up at C2E2: Campaign Comics and creator Shia LaBeouf. He's keeping it low key in artist alley. "We're just here to have fun," he said while signing his OGN.

Indie comics publisher About Comics is no publisher manqué: the company has published books by Gail Simone and Charles Schulz. But it's also a small indie comics company in a world where the margins for that are getting tinier and tinier. To that end publisher Nat Gertler—who marks inventing 24 Hour Comics Day among his other achievements—has formulated a new publishing plan. Although About has a strong slate for the year with never before reprinted comics by Schulz and a new comic by MEN IN BLACK creators Lowell Cunningham, Gertler is no longer going to offer new products to the direct market. Instead About's offerings will be available via print on demand...and of course electronically.