Tag: Indie Comics

Canada's Koyama Press continues to present a lively slate of boundary-pushing work, and this fall they are putting out their biggest line ever, including two books by Michael DeForge, new books by Jane Mai, Cole Closser and some newcomers, a kid's book and a revamped version of Julia Wertz's Drinking at the Movies. I expect one of the most interesting will be Robin Nishio's Wailed which follows "a group of friends who also happen to be the vanguard of alternative comics making." And you thought The Sponsor was shattering! All the details below:

It's almost quitting time here in EDT so let's leave the week with something FUN for a change. Why just do a comic book based on a classically of it time TV show when you can reinvent it as an acid trip that bends time and space? And hooray for licensors who let you get away with it. Miami Vice: Remix by Joe Casey and Jim Mahfood is anything but a dull TV show comic...it's an audacious tale on tropes and icons, and a gem in the Lion Forge line-up.

The good news is that the 2015 MoCCA Festival moved to a new venue—Center 548 in the heart of Chelsea's gallery district—and it was ideal! Windows, flattering white walls, three floors of comicksy goodness, tons of foot traffic, and a rooftop lounge where you could sit in the sunlight and look out over the Hudson to the far lands of Jersey. And the panels held at the Highline Hotel wee a hop skip and jump away. It was smooth sailing! The bad news is that MoCCA will never be there again. (h/t Daryl Ayo) The building—once the home of the prestigious Dia Arts Center—has been sold and will be converted to condos, like everything else in New York. When all these people move into these condos will there be anything fun left to do in NYC except shop at the Stella McCartney store? I sure hope so.

Today is a day to send shout-outs to the Center for Cartoon Studies, located in White River Junction, VT and recognize it's many good deeds. While my shout out should be a loving essay on how teaching comics has had a strong effect on storytelling and how the bucolic yet isolated campus in rural Vermont allows students to focus in on making comics, or the print room or the other great things about the faculty which includes James Sturm and Steve Bissette, I don't have time for that. Instead I will just direct you to Rob Clough's series looking at the WORK of CCS grads and spotlight a few of them:

The Beat's own Zachary Clemente has just announced a new comic called Immolation and it looks very cool. ANNOUNCEMENT: The first installment in a...

Uncivilized Books has had a few knockout books, with Maya Neyestani's An Iranian Metamorphosis getting a lot of wards consideration. And now here's the...

TCAF, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held May 9-10th this year, with a whole week of events, art exhibits, screenings. Special programming events include the CSSC-SCEBD Academic Conference, Library & Educator Day, Word Balloon Academy, and Comics Vs. Games 4. IN other words, it jam packed with stuff to see and do. As for programming the first spotlight has been announced: Drawn & Quarterly's 25th anniversary, which is certain to bring out some top notch sessions.

§ By chance, two websites have been devoting some time to overviews of...non Big Two Comics I guess you could call 'em. Multiversity is...

Sparkplug Books has just put out new of their new mini series, with work by Suzette Smith, Olivia Horvath, Nalleli Sierra, Ebin Lee and Solomon Fletcher. I'm not familiar with most of these, but I'm always interested in whatever Sparkplug is putting out.

CCS just keeps turning out interesting new cartoonists. Sophie Goldstein is a recent grad whose works defies easy categorization, except to say that she's got a great line and a keen eye, she writes stories and anything can happen. And now AdHouse is bringing out The Oven by Goldstein in April. It's set in a totalitarian future where "dwindling resources have driven the human race into domed cities where population controls are strictly enforced. When a young couple goes looking for an anti-government paradise in the desert they may have found more than they bargained for."

2015, the year of the team up. Brooklyn's Hang Dai Editions, a studio whose members include Gregory Benton, Dean Haspiel, Seth Kushner, and Josh...

Whew the comics arts festival circuit news is flowing thick and fast; we're in the middle of application season and hearts and minds are turning to tabling. And the CAFs are answering back with news.