Indie Comics

January wasn’t all bad news in the comics industry as Image had a strong month. Spawn #200 sold a crazy amount of issues thanks to its many variant copies, while The Walking Dead continues to rise and the new weekly reprints did fairly well. The biggest launches were a Darth Vader miniseries from Dark Horse, and IDW’s zombie crossover series Infestation.

A beautiful Peter Kuper poster and the guest list have been announced for this year's MoCCA fest.

A new poster for S.P.A.C.E., the Columbus indie comics show, has just been released. It's by Tom Williams of drawrobot fame.

This spring's Xeric Grant winners have been announced. Founded by Peter Laird, the Xeric is presented to worthy cartoonists to provide them with funds to print their projects. A total of $31,158 was awarded for seven comic book projects.  The Foundation has awarded in excess of $2.4 million to comic book creators and nonprofit organizations since its first grant cycle in September 1992.  

POOD, the oversized newspaper anthology of current cartoonists, has a third issue coming out in April, just in time for MoCCA, editor Adam McGovern writes:

Zeitgeisty Brandon Graham covers the Stumptown Comics Fest, to be held April 16-17, in Portland, OR.

This year's Stumptown Comics Awards are going to a juried format, and to do this...you must have a jury. The five judges form a...

The SPACE Prize, given to the best publications presented at the SPACE indie comics show held yearly in Columbus, OH., have just been announced, and they are:

Buffy held the top spot once again, while Joe Benitez’s Lady Mechanika was the biggest launch this month. Meanwhile Dark Horse launched new Star Wars, Hellboy, and Conan series, Avatar launched a new Lady Death series, and John Byrne’s Next Men returned from IDW.

By Jen Vaughn -- What do you do with a man with a wild mind of his own and a pair of drawing hands that just won't quit? You make him KING.

James Kochalka is the one of forerunners of autobiographical diary comics with his syndicated comic, American Elf, which is also available online and began way back in October, 1998. He is also the creator of other excellent comics like irreverent SuperF*ckers and children's books like the Johnny Boo series and most recently, Dragon Puncher. His comics are published by Portland-based comics publisher, Top Shelf.

A few months ago, we wrote about artist Tony Harris and his attempt to raise $60,000 via Kickstarter to fund his dream project, a graphic novel called ROUNDEYE: FOR LOVE. This raised a bit of discussion about whether $60k was too much for Kickstarter or whether this was an appropriate amount to attempt to raise. (Harris said it reflected his need to feed kids and pay the mortgage.) Since then a couple of things happened.

Paul Hornschemeier has just opened a web store which includes things like this creepy Lidsville cover. You will buy things. His Life with Mr. Dangerous is coming out from Villard in May.