Indie Comics

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.

Indie seems to be having something of a renaissance at the moment, with a lot of books selling out and going to second print. Walking Dead and Buffy top the chart once more this month, with the new Magic The Gathering and Conan titles taking the next two spots, Fatale holding strong and the new Star Wars book, Dawn of The Jedi, looks to be a genuine hit. Rob Kirkman’s new book Thief of Thieves and a new Stephen King adaptation also score high, with kids comic Adventure Time also launching very well.

134 indie books charted this month, 2 down on last month. The bottom book sold 4,270, over 1,500 up on last month. In total those books sold approximately 1,257,329, well up on last month’s 1,052,459 with fewer titles. Average sales are 9,389 per book, also up on last month’s 7,739. As usual, UK and European sales from Diamond UK are not reported in this chart.

This month IDW were the number three publisher, thanks to the first two issues of Magic the Gathering, with 6.66% dollar share and a 5.62 market share, followed by Image with 5.53% dollar share and 4.88% market share, Dark Horse with a 4.98% dollar share and a 4.06% market share, Dynamite with a 4.20% dollar share and a 3.82% market share and Boom with 1.61% dollar share and 1.40% market share. Everyone but Boom was up for the month.

MoCCA Fest 2012 has finally announced its guests and begun rolling out other activities—and they have a brand new dedicated website, above, to do so. P. Craig Russell is the guest of honor—which explains the exquisite rococo ad we've been running for the past month -- and Gary Panter will be presented with the Klein Award, MoCCA's lifetime achievement honor.

Although best known for their biographical comics line, Bluewater publishes other titles, original and licensed. Here's a new book based on Solder of Fortune magazine, full of rootin' tootin' manly action — the first series will be written by NY Times bestselling author Marc Shapiro with art by Steven Black: