Tag Archives: Small Press Expo

Small Press Expo 2023: Another Wonderful Show!

A day in the life of Small Press Expo. Sketch by Henry Chamberlain

There are a number of ways to experience Small Press Expo and the best is to be on the convention floor as much as possible. And, even better is to be an exhibitor and have your own table space. It can really be a lot fun. Sure, there’s a fair amount of waiting to see what will happen next but you just need to pace yourself. I kept telling myself I was on a mission that no one is going to appreciate better than me: “I am here to represent my new graphic novel, George’s Run, published by Rutgers University Press.” I had to convey that energy and determination. Each time I described my book, and gave my pitch, was a new opportunity. Each work of comics is an island unto itself which you are beckoning passersby to consider hopping upon.

In support of my new graphic novel, GEORGE’S RUN!

Proudly representing Rutgers University Press!

I feel that it’s essential to be in the moment, acknowledge your table-mates, get to know them if possible, acknowledge your environment and everyone passing by, and certainly acknowledge yourself and your own comfort and well-being. I like to sneak in some time to draw in my sketchbook and that’s not only therapeutic but people often are curious and it can help strike up a conversation. Either that or people know right away that you’re not just a rep but the cartoonist! So, without further ado, I want to take a moment to acknowledge a few of my fellow creators. There are plenty more that I can share with you. This is a quick moment in time . . .

In this photo, you will see the following creators and contact info:

Sneaker Ghost by Jackie DeVito. Find it here.

Orts by Barrett Stanley. Find it at Radiator Comics.

Bruce Fort: Professional Bully by Bread Tarleton. Find it at So-So Press.

Bubbles #17. Find it here.

What I’ve Loved: Chapter 11 by Pam Wye. Find it here.

Precinct X99, Episode 2: Soft Toys. by Wren McDonald. Find it here.

I Owe It to My Parents to NOT Come Out by Richard Mercado. Find it here.

Empty by Jared Throne. Find it here.

Nickelodeon Guts by Sean Michael Robinson. Find it here.

Moonray by Brandon Graham and Xurxo G. Penalta. Find it here.

My Body Unspooling by Leo Fox. Find it here.

A big highlight for me, as it was for all of us at Small Press Expo, was Deb JJ Lee winning an Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent. Of course, Lee has many fans and she’s been around for more than a minute but the honor is highly significant. In fact, Lee cried when she went up to accept the award. For those new to Lee, this is the time to check out her new graphic novel, In Limbo, published by First Second.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t bring to your attention one of the hottest graphic novel releases for 2023: Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman by Éloïse Marseille (out November 7, 2023). This graphic novel presents a raw, tongue-in-cheek and refreshing look at sexuality in an engaging and entertaining manner that mature readers will appreciate. It is published by Pow Pow Press. The French edition is highly popular and we will soon have the English translation.

There is so much more that I need to share with you and I promise to just keep doing what I’m doing. I do my own thing regarding creating comics and I do my own thing writing about comics. See you again with more very soon!!

“Each work of comics is an island unto itself which you are beckoning passersby to consider hopping upon.”

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Small Press Expo: Henry Chamberlain and GEORGE’S RUN plus Pop Culture Super-Sleuth

Work-in-progress page excerpt from Pop Culture Super-Sleuth.

Hello friends, I will be at Small Press Expo this upcoming weekend, September 9-10, in North Bethesda, Maryland. As my regular readers are aware, I’ll be promoting my new graphic novel, George’s Run, published by Rutgers University Press.

This is the book for any fan of comics, pop culture, and great stories!

Be sure to get both!

I will also be debuting Issue #0 of my new on-going series, Pop Culture Super-Sleuth, which you can also purchase at SPX. For those of you attending, this will be a chance to chat and get to know what I’ve been up to. I’ve been up to quite a lot over the years. I sincerely believe I’m entering into a new phase of creating comics.

I will do my best to give you my all at this event. I can answer any questions and I’m certainly eager to share with you anything I can. I’ll have original samples of my work. And, yes, there’s some very special SPX deals to be had. So, come on over to Table E3.

The annual Small Press Expo comics and graphic arts festival presents the best and brightest established creators in independent comics.

It’s an honor to be among this top tier group of cartoonists. Small Press Expo is the place to be this weekend!

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Small Press Expo 2022: Ignatz Award Winners

Outstanding Artist Reimena Yee

2022 Ignatz Awards Nominees & Winners

Follow the link and you can see all the nominees for this year’s Small Press Expo, along with links to purchase. I believe this is the first time that links have been provided for direct purchase! Scroll below for a list of this year’s winners.

2022 Ignatz Awards Nominees

SPX Ignatz Award Winners for 2022:

I See a Knight

Outstanding Comic:I See A Knight” by Xulia Vicente (Shortbox). Since childhood, Olivia has been able to see a headless knight invisible to everyone else- is it an omen, a ghost, or something much more real?

Good Boy! magazine

Outstanding Anthology:Good Boy Magazine” #1, edited by Michael Sweater and Benji Nate (Silver Sprocket). This 112-page collection features the tagline “Read comics or go to hell.” That says it all!

Outstanding Artist: Reimena Yee for “Alexander, The Servant, & The Water of Life,” a retelling of the life/legend of Alexander the Great. Yee is also the creator of numerous other comics, including the Eisner & McDuffie-nominated “The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya,” “Séance Tea Party,” and the upcoming “My Aunt is a Monster.”

Mr. Boop

Outstanding Collection:Mr. Boop” by Alec Robbins (Silver Sprocket). This is the complete collection of the absurdist and romantic tale of author Alec Robbins being in love with his wife Betty Boop, the 1930s cartoon superstar, presented in a beautiful, deluxe package.

No One Else

Outstanding Graphic Novel:No One Else” by R. Kikuo Johnson (Fantagraphics). Johnson’s long-awaited second graphic novel follows Charlene, Brandon, and Robbie as they learn to navigate life day to day with their plans, fears, and desires after a death throws their life into turmoil.

Pee Pee Poo Poo #69

Outstanding Minicomic: “Pee Pee Poo Poo” #69 by Caroline Cash (self-published). A throwback to ’60s underground comics with a zesty title to boot.

Ride or Die

Outstanding Online Comic:Ride or Die” by Mars Heyward features demon cars, street racing, fumbling romance and revenge, and is described as “Christine meets Ghost Rider meets Fast and Furious but gayer!”

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

Outstanding Series: “The Many Deaths of Laila Starr” by Ram V & Filipe Andrade with Inês Amaro and AndWorld Design (BOOM! Studios), a five-issue mini-series exploring the fine line between living and dying through the lens of magical realism.

The Lover of Everyone in the World

Outstanding Story: ‘The Lover of Everyone in the World’ by Beatrix Urkowitz (Parsifal Press). Originally drawn for Popula, ‘The Lover’ joins three other stories about being loved by everyone, and no one, in Urkowitz’s first graphic novella of the same name. The collection was possible thanks to a generous grant from Koyama Provides.

Djeliya by Juni Ba

Promising New Talent: Juni Ba. A cartoonist from Senegal and France, Ba’s recent work includes the anthology series “Monkey Meat” (Image Comics) and “Djeliya” (TKO Studios), which tells the tale of Prince Mansour and his royal storyteller Awa, as they journey to reach the mysterious Wizard Soumaoro, who guards a fearsome power that he once used to destroy the world.

Krazy Kat’s Ignatz, namesake for the SPX Ignatz Award

Small Press Expo returns next year during the weekend of September 9 and 10, 2023.

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Small Press Expo: 2021 Ignatz Awards Nominees; SPX online kicks off September 18, 2021

The Ignatz Awards!

Bethesda, Maryland – The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce the 2021 nominees for the annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.
Presented virtually, SPX 2021 will feature a full slate of programming along with a livestream of the Ignatz Awards ceremony.
Once again the Ignatz jurors have selected an amazing slate of nominees that reflect the diverse voices comprising the SPX community. On behalf of the Executive Committee, we want to thank the jurors for all of their hard work, and to congratulate all of the creators for giving comics readers these incredible works during such trying times. Good luck to everyone!!!! – Warren Bernard Executive Director
The Ignatz Awards are a juried festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry. Traditionally, the winners are determined by attendees of the in-person event. This year, as was the case in 2020, voting is open to all who register to receive a ballot.
Ignatz Awards nominees are determined by a panel of comics professionals. The 2021 Ignatz jurors are Sunmi, Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn, and Daniel Elkin.
The Ignatz Awards ceremony will be live-streamed via the SPX Youtube channel at 8PM on September 18.
Additional Information about the nominees can be found at www.smallpressexpo.com.

Outstanding Artist

Ashanti Fortson – Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
Lee Lai – Stone Fruit (Fantagraphics)
Arantza Peña Popo – Lavender Scare (self-published)
Damien Roudeau – Crude (Graphic Mundi)
Karl Stevens – Penny (Chronicle)
Outstanding Anthology
A Queer Prisoner’s Anthology IV – ed. by Casper Cendre (ABO)
Bystander (Kadak Collective)
Confined Before Covid: A Pandemic Anthology by LGBTQ Prisoners (ABO)
First Wave: Comics from the Early Months of China’s Outbreak – ed. by Xinmei Liu (Paradise Systems)
Glaeolia 2 (Glacier Bay Books)
Outstanding Collection
Sami Alwani – The Pleasure of the Text (Conundrum Press)
Ancco – Nineteen (Drawn & Quarterly)
Abby Howard- The Crossroads at Midnight (Iron Circus Comics)
Tess Scilipoti – Do You Think I Look Like a Girl? (self-published)
Kuniko Tsurita – The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud (Drawn & Quarterly)
Outstanding Comic
EA Bethea – Francis Bacon (Domino Books)
Ashanti Fortson – Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
Maddi Gonzalez – Rhapsodie (Fantagraphics)
Adam Szym – A Cordial Invitation (Fantagraphics)
Dominique Duong – The Dog & The Cat (self-published)
Outstanding Graphic Novel
Alex Graham – Dog Biscuits (self-published)
Jim Terry – Come Home, Indio (Street Noise Books)
Lee Lai – Stone Fruit (Fantagraphics)
Sloane Leong – A Map to the Sun (First Second)
Nico Harriman – Mr. H: Portrait of a High School Art Teacher (self-published)
Outstanding Minicomic
Brendan Leach – Slum Clearance Symphony (Czap Books)
Casey Nowak – Bodyseed (Diskette Press)
Arantza Peña Popo – Lavender Scare (self-published)
Whit Taylor – Montana Diary (Silver Sprocket)
Leda Zawacki – The Drain Pipe (self-published)
Outstanding Online Comic
Michael DeForge – Birds of Maine
Ashanti Fortson-Leaf Lace (Hiveworks)
Shing Yin Khor – I Do Not Want to Write Today
Susannah Lohr – Shadows Become You
Alec Robbins – Mr. Boop
Outstanding Series
Ex.Mag (Peow Studios)
Malarkey – November Garcia (Birdcage Bottom Books)
Ley Lines – ed. by Kevin Czapiewski (Czap Books)
Tongues – Anders Nilsen(self-published)
A Queer Prisoner’s Anthology IV – ed. by Casper Cendre (ABO)
Outstanding Story
Raquelle Jac – Misguided Love from Now #9 (Fantagraphics)
Ancco – Nineteen (Drawn & Quarterly)
Yeong-shin Ma – Moms (Drawn & Quarterly)
Freddy Carrasco – Personal Companion from Ex.Mag #1 (Peow Studios)
Stan Stanley – The Hazards of Love (Simon & Schuster)
Promising New Talent
Royal Dunlap
Nico Harriman
Zoe Maeve
Pa-Luis
Tess Scilipoti
The Ignatz Awards ceremony will be live-streamed on the SPX Youtube channel. Further details on presenters will be given at a later date.

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Comic Arts Festivals & Covid-19: Small Press Expo Still Has Plans for 2020

Small Press Expo executive director Warren Bernard

I wear many hats, including graphic novel artist, or “cartoonist-auteur.” This year is significant for me since my plans are to attend Small Press Expo and debut my new graphic novel, George’s Run. At least, that remains the plan as we all monitor the Covid-19 crisis. Here, in its entirety, is an interview with Small Press Expo executive director Warren Bernard with The Comics Journal. This interview will be of interest not only to those in the comics community but also provides insight into the response to the current crisis as it relates to landmark events and business in general. Each day, in every way, we are integrating more and more into a virtual and digital world. On so many levels, life will never be quite the same again.

Warren Bernard is the executive director of the Small Press Expo, one of the largest festivals focused on comics art and the indie-comics scene in the U.S. Each year, SPX gathers together creators, retailers, and fans of alternative comics and illustration in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. SPX2020 is currently scheduled for Sept. 12-13 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Warren is also a comics fan and historian, who’s amassed a significant collection of artwork, publications and memorabilia extending back over a century to the early days of graphic storytelling. He’s also the co-author of Drawing Power and has written extensively about the 1950s juvenile delinquency/Senate Comic Book Hearings.

Recently, TCJ writer Michael O’Connell interviewed Warren about the status of SPX2020, in light of the current coronavirus pandemic. In the interest of safety and maintaining proper social distancing, this interview was conducted via Skype.

MICHAEL O’CONNELL: How has the coronavirus impacted SPX 2020 at this point?

WARREN BERNARD: There are a couple of things that it’s impacted. Let’s take them one at a time. The first one is the impact on the exhibitors room. Normally, we send out, we’ll call it an invite list. That’s like all the publishers that normally come. And then there’s a selection of people from the indie comics community on an individual creator basis that we also invite. That is put together with input from everybody in the executive committee. So that normally goes out and then we also start the lottery. We pushed things back to see what was going on. And one of the decisions we made was that normally by this time, by April, we’re collecting money from people.

Because we pushed everything back, we’re not going to have all the tables’ stuff done before most probably May. Normally, that’s like by March or April, all that stuff is done so we can push everything out to everybody saying, ‘OK, look, you’ve got a table, send us money.’ We’re not even going to think about collecting money from anybody until late May, early June. There were a couple of reasons for that. In the indie comics community, there are a lot of people out there that have lost their day jobs. They’ve lost any kind of gigs that they’ve got in terms of artwork, freelance gigs. So we don’t want to go ahead and have to force people to cough up money that they may not have right now.

The second reason is that there’s all this uncertainty out there. And by the way, there’s a semi-selfish reason. We didn’t want to have to go through the hassle of refunding people’s money if we had to go ahead and cancel. We also were going under the assumption that people who did need unemployment would be able to get onto unemployment by the time we asked for money, because we do need money to go ahead and run the show. We’re not going to make any decision about holding SPX until most probably somewhere in June.

The second thing we had to do is we had to change the Ignatz Awards. The problem there was all of the boxes go to Dan Stafford’s house. We didn’t want to run into the circumstance where someone sends a box, God only knows who packed it. Dan or someone may not get sick, but they’re a carrier and all of a sudden there’s a problem. Also, by not doing that, we’re saving people a lot of money because normally people would have to send six copies. There’s the price of the books. There’s the price of the postage. And so we decided to take that out of the equation. So we’re going digital. And we’ve already set up a process of how we’re doing that. We sent the email out and we’ve already got close to 200 submissions for the Ignatz Awards to the digital platform.

Is there an entry fee that goes with that?

No, there was no entry fee that ever goes with that.

So that saves them the money of copies and the saves them the money of shipping. That’s a plus.

Assuming SPX gets held, we are going to ask on an optional basis for people to send in one copy of their submission so that it can go into the SPX collection at the Library of Congress. All the submissions that get sent in, whether they’re nominated or not, the Library of Congress gets first crack at all of those books. So if they don’t have them in their holdings, they are donated. And on most years, that’s literally 98 percent of the stuff that’s sent in for submissions that the Library of Congress does not have.

It’s nice that you’re able to have that continuity and you’ve been able to adapt to it, doing what everybody else is doing, virtual stuff. And probably that June date is a good date. My day job, I’m an editor for Patch and one of the beats I cover is D.C, and I know they’re looking at a peak for coronavirus cases at the end of June.

Things may be going back to normal, but are they going to allow 4,000-5,000 people here in Montgomery County to get together? We don’t have a clue.

Things may start to ramp-up, but the people that you talked about who may have lost their jobs or lost hours and gigs, they may not be in a position to travel or do anything.

There are so many different variables right now that anyone who says they think they know what’s going to happen is a liar. Like I said, there’s this whole safety thing. For all I know, they may want to go ahead and reopen stores and stuff like that, but large congregations of people, they may put the kibosh on that for a while. We don’t know. No one knows. So all we’re going to do is take these incremental steps.

Do you have a drop dead date? Is there a point of no return where if you don’t do certain things by like July 15, then that’s it?

I haven’t thought about that yet because in all honesty, I want to get to the first road mark, which is May-June. Every big show has a contract with the hotel for a certain number of room nights. And if you don’t book those room nights, you get penalized. The next step is going to be once we see the lay of the land on a practical basis. Is Amtrak running to bring people down from New York and Philadelphia? Are the planes flying? There are all these other variables that are going to come in besides whether or not SPX can physically hold it here in Montgomery County.

Is there a way to do a smaller show for 2020?

The problem with the smaller show is that we’ve already got a contract with guarantees in it. There are penalty clauses and all kinds of other stuff like that. I don’t want to get into the legal aspects of it. But, the bottom line is, if Montgomery County or the state of Maryland doesn’t want groups of 250 or more, 500 or more or 2,000 or more to get together, it’s not going to make much sense for us to even do a reduced show. Because then you have the whole problem of, in this reduced show, let’s say I do cut it back. We have about 280 tables in the room. Let’s say I cut it back to a quarter of that. We’ll use a quarter of the ballrooms, that’s 70 tables, who do I choose? So there’s this other operational thing that says, ‘OK, if we’re going to reduce the show, who are we going to have? What special guests are we going to have?’ There’s this other thing that says if I do cut it down, what do I cut it down to? And then how do you make those decisions? And I don’t have an answer for that at all.

Let’s talk about the show as if it were going to happen. What is it you’re hoping to do this year?

Because of the coronavirus situation, I’m not going to get into names that can be special guests, but one of the things that we’re doing is we’re going to bring in political cartoonists and people who do graphic journalism, because of the importance of the 2020 election. We started this back in 2008 for Obama’s first term and, so we brought down Tom Tomorrow, Jen Sorensen came, Ken Fisher/Ruben Bolling came, a bunch of people from the alt-weekly world came down, back when they were alt-weekly newspapers. We’re going to do a similar thing as that for this year. In 2012, the AAEC (American Association of Editorial Cartoonists) actually came in at the same time as SPX and had their convention here.

Not to name names and possibly people coming, who do you think is doing good political cartooning right now?

I’ve been a subscriber to Matt Bors’ The Nib since day one. And I think that they’re doing, between people like, Ben Passmore and Matt and Jen (Sorensen) and everybody like that, I think that’s the place to go for both graphic journalism and political cartoons these days. I have been actually somewhat surprised, do you know this political cartoon newsfeed called Counterpoint?

Yes, I do.

I subscribe to them also. As opposed to the understandable left-wing view of Matt Bors, Counterpoint, tries to present many more perspectives. Besides that, I subscribe to Jen. I get Tom Tomorrow’s work. I get Ken Fisher/Ruben Bolling. I’ve been an Inner Hive Patreon member for all those. Keith Knight is another one that I pay attention to.

You’re a collector of comic art and know much about comics history. Is there a political artist that is one of your favorites?

Warren: (Laughs).

Pick one. You can only pick one.

I can only pick one, fuck.

You can pick two.

David Lowe would be one of them, the British cartoonist. He saw the Nazis coming early on and actually was on the list of people to be killed if the Germans took over Britain. There was a hit list. He was on the hit list. In terms of American political cartoonists, I’ll show my bias. I was a big Herblock fan. I worked on his book. He’s another one for the 20th century. The third one, you have to go ahead and say Thomas Nast. There’s a bunch of other guys in there, like Robert Minor. I don’t know if you’re familiar with him or not. He was at one time the highest paid political cartoonist in the country and left it to become an avid member of the American Communist Party. Some of his cartoons were some of the best that came out in the teens and ’20s. Off the top of my head, those are probably my four faves.

OK, I’ll give you four. What do you think of the current state of the comics industry right now? I know there’s been a lot of worry, you mentioned the alternative press. I’ve seen a lot of people talking and being concerned about when Diamond announces it’s not going to distribute stuff and there are a lot of comic shops that are facing really tough times because of this. What are your thoughts about where we’re at right at this moment?

I think that all of this stuff that’s going on is really going to hit the retail comic shop industry pretty bad. There are going to be a number of bankruptcies. There are going to be a number of shops that aren’t going to come back.

I’m going to bifurcate this for a second.

On the superhero side, the Image, D.C., Marvel-type comics, I could see the day when those people just go digital only. Yeah. I think that someone took a poll that the average age of the person coming in to buy their comics in a comic shop, I think it’s in their late 40s. So, those are the people that have most of the boxes and stuff like that. I think there’s a sea change coming anyway, as it is with the whole retail business. This has just seriously accelerated that.

Now let me go to the other side, which is a smaller but nonetheless just as artistically important. That’s the indie comic side. … So when it comes to somebody like a Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly or Top Shelf, their main issue is getting their product out and getting it distributed. Plus they also rely upon these festivals, whether it’s a book festival or an indie comics festival, Brooklyn Book Fair or SPX as two examples, to help promote their work, along with book signings. They’re going to see a certain amount of a hit also. And I’m going to be curious to see what that’s going to do because their stuff doesn’t go through Diamond.

Right. But the other thing about them is that they’re also dealing with a specialized audience. There are people who are paying for reprints of, you know, Little Orphan Annie. They’re in big bookstores, but they’re not necessarily reaching a wide audience or they’re not targeting as wide an audience.

Right. But it’s still going to impact them, whether it’s D&Q or for Fantagraphics, I think that they’re going to have a tough time because these festivals aren’t going to be around. That because San Diego isn’t there, because SPX may not be there, or Brooklyn Book Fest, most of them sell lots of books at these festivals. So, yeah, on the reprint side, let’s say IDW, their reprint side, someone like me, if I want something, I’ll go out to their website and just buy it. But the other ones where they’ll bring in people to an SPX, I think that they are going to see cash crunches also. It’s going to be a different manifestation than the superheroes side and a different impact because the business model is different.

As scary as the coronavirus is, I think the economic recovery is going to be pretty scary as well.

Oh, yes.

In times when people don’t have a lot of money, they cut out things, the frills. And for a lot of people the frills are books, comic books, movies, things like that. So even though right now they’re taking a big hit, during the recovery, who knows how long this downturn is going to go on?

On exactly that point, floating back to SPX and this coronavirus thing, without getting into internal details, we have gone ahead and taken a look at our expenses and have cut a whole bunch of stuff. And by cutting a whole bunch of stuff, we are anticipating a 20-25 percent drop in attendance. Assuming we do hold it, we’re going to try, as we get further into the year and if it becomes viable, we’re going to have to see about cutting more stuff. Because, we have no idea who’s going to be able to come through the front door. Even if we do get all these people in as special guests and we can do all the programming that we want to do. So we’re even doing things that, like I said, there’s a whole bunch of different areas that we’re cutting that then impacts people who were depending on us to go ahead and whatever little revenue we were going to throw them, we’re now not going to throw it to anybody.

There’s so many different levels that you’ve got to look at this. You’ve got to look at your own business side of can we afford these contracts that we have to maintain? Are we going to be able to get the people that are going to draw audiences in? And then is the audience even going to be financially able to come?

Not just financially able. I don’t know how much you listen to business news. I read the Wall Street Journal. I watch a lot of business news, and one of the things that some people are beginning to talk about is, let’s say for sake of argument, July 1 you open up the restaurants, you open up the movie theaters. On a real basis, how many people are really going to go? Forget about money. Forget about the ability to afford it. But particularly people who have diabetes or have high blood pressure, have those extra things. The mortality rates for people with those kinds of things who may want to go to a show just make it really risky to go ahead and go out into large crowds. I think Baltimore Comic Con is going to have a similar problem. Let’s say everybody did have a job. Let’s say everything does open up. Are people really going want to go?

It’s going to take some time.

Oh yeah.

What would you say to the retailers, to the people who are going to want booths, and also the the people that may be coming to do panels and things? What would you say to them? And then also, what would you say to other people who want to attend?

I would say do what you feel safe doing. It’s the only thing that you can do. I’m not going to get up here and plead with people to come and ask them to go against their own self-health interest. By the way, if it comes down to that we have to cancel SPX because of strictly health reasons, then that’s something that we’re going to have to do.

So, to those people that are thinking about coming, everyone’s got to assess their own circumstance and everyone’s got to feel safe in terms of not only getting here, but staying here and then being in a room with however many people are going to be allowed in the room. For instance, what if they go ahead and they say, ‘Ok, you can hold it, but you have to maintain the six-foot distance.” How would that even work in an SPX situation? Here in Montgomery County, they’ve basically told all the stores, ‘Look, you have to enforce the six-foot rule. You have to have someone out front to control the number of people coming into your stores.’ So all of this gets back to everyone has to feel safe in what it is that they’re doing. That’s the message that I think everybody needs to have.

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GEORGE’S RUN releases for Small Press Expo Debut Sept 12-13, 2020

GEORGE’S RUN

The graphic novel, GEORGE’S RUN, is scheduled for a special indie release during Small Press Expo, September 12-13, 2020. This is a 200-page graphic novel that features the life and times of science fiction writer George Clayton Johnson. In his day, George earned his way into the inner circles of such legends as Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, and cult literary favorites, Charles Beaumont, and Theodore Sturgeon.

GEORGE’S RUN is a story about storytelling. It’s not about just one thing and could easily be misunderstood but it’s worth giving it your attention.

Henry Chamberlain is your host. He is a cartoonist through and through. He wrote and drew this graphic novel that we’re talking about. Heck, our pal Hank has been behind the whole project from initial thumbnails to digital coloring. The guy could use a little help. For that, consider some of the awesome shout-outs he has earned from some VIPs who care about quality entertainment:

“It clearly is an act of passion!”

— Jeff Smith, creator of the comics series, Bone

“It’s really a one of a kind tale: a madcap ride back into our own pop culture told with a free-wheeling zest.

— Jerome Charyn, author of Cesare: A Novel of War-Torn Berlin

George Clayton Johnson’s Cafe Frankenstein

“GEORGE’S RUN tells the engaging story of George Clayton Johnson’s pivotal role in the core group of fantasy writers who wrote for The Twilight Zone and Star Trek, as well as his amazing novel Logan’s Run. Chamberlain’s graphic novel is a fascinating tribute to a writer who came out of nowhere to influence American fantasy writing forever.”

–Martin Olson, author of Encyclopaedia of Hell

George keeps on running!

GEORGE’S RUN

So, just to be clear, the book will make a number of introductions into the world with a special highlight being its SPX debut in September 2020. If SPX should be cancelled, it will still enjoy a special September online release. You can keep up with updates here and at the official website for the book. For all intents and purposes, you can consider the book published as of now since I’m providing you with an early bird view of it here.

As time progresses, you’ll be able to find GEORGE’S RUN in different formats and at other venues. A version in color will be out by September.

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Filed under Comics, George Clayton Johnson, Henry Chamberlain, Small Press Expo, SPX

GEORGE’S RUN: Progress Report and Overview, The Making of a Graphic Novel

George’s Run process video.

If you thought creating a graphic novel, fully realizing it into the world, was easy, think again. But, dear true believers, George is coming! I’m in the process of adding color and I plan to show it off this year. He’s on his way. The plan is to have GEORGE’S RUN debut at Small Press Expo this year. And, fingers crossed, it will happen. For now, enjoy the first in a series of videos to document the process of bringing a graphic novel into the world. I talk a bit about hand-drawing comics, using an iPad Pro with Procreate and using the new comic book template at Lulu xPress:

GEORGE’S RUN is a graphic novel on its way to finding a place in your heart. Stay tuned.

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Filed under Comics, iPad Pro, Lulu xPress, Procreate, Small Press Expo, SPX

Review: COOL VALLEY by Craig Frank

Cool Valley by Craig Frank

Craig Frank’s new graphic novel, Cool Valley, published by Fahrenheit, provides an intimate look at childhood with a masterful command of the comics medium. Frank has a zeal for storytelling that is rooted in his background in animation and his overall passion for creative pursuits. In fact, the reader will see Frank’s first stir of interest in comics and drawing within the pages of his new book. I was completely won over by Frank’s debut graphic novel from a few years ago, the quirky and surreal, JFK: Secret Ops. Read my review here. This new book shares a similar live wire sensibility, set in a small town in Missouri in the 1970s, packed with an uncanny amount of vivid details.

Cool Valley by Craig Frank

There’s a bit of Huck Finn mixed in this series of vignettes interlaced together building up to a sobering existential assessment. Along the way, there are more than some touches of the supernatural too. Actually, it may have been helpful to bring the supernatural elements to the forefront due to their compelling thematic strength. What is intriguing, and deliciously spooky, is how Frank ultimately approached things by having all the scary stuff gradually emerge! So, it’s something of a toss up. You can start in with a story already with built-in expectations or you can surprise an audience with unexpected material. Going in, the reader does not know to expect anything about demons. That said, the reader quickly picks up from the first few pages that there’s a melancholy and strange tone brewing.

Cool Valley by Craig Frank

Demons aside, young Frank is jumping from one misadventure to the next. While talk of demons is only one aspect to this narrative, that eerie sense of dread is woven throughout, especially since it involves a series of tragic events that gradually, then suddenly, take over amid a narrative that includes both sorrow and joy. Frank does a wonderful job of presenting this tableau of light and dark, always wondering about meaning, always daring to express frustration with elusive answers. This is a mature work for all ages that thoroughly respects and rewards the reader. It’s a great work for young adults and older adults alike.

Cool Valley by Craig Frank

Craig Frank has taken a very original and idiosyncratic path with his comics–and that is where the most authentic comics come from. It’s great for a budding cartoonist to follow an influence and emulate his or her favorite artist. We can always have yet another cartoonist who echoes the cool vibe of Daniel Clowes. That’s a tall order and to be applauded when it works. However, it’s even better when you develop a style and vision all your own and that also takes time and dedication. And another thing, sometimes the next graphic novel is the one that catches on and lifts up the one that came before. I think Cool Valley is definitely a perfect entry point to Frank’s work. Then make your way over to his hilarious JFK: Secret Ops and then…well, we’ll just have to see what Craig Frank comes up with next!

Here is a book trailer for Cool Valley:

And here is a panel discussing the relationship between comics and animation at SPX this year that includes Craig Frank:

Cool Valley is published by Fahrenheit.

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Filed under Comics, Graphic Novel Reviews, Small Press Expo, SPX

Review: PITTSBURGH by Frank Santoro, a New York Review Comic

If you enjoy experimental art, then do check out the new graphic novel by Frank Santoro. This is a work that will transport you to an immersive mindscape where Mr. Santoro tracks memories and explores family history. It is a refreshing approach to the comics medium that plays with elements like text and panels, shifts them, redirects them, and presents them in unexpected ways within a finely-tuned structure. Pittsburgh, a New York Review Comic published by New York Review of Books, brings together a lifetime of storytelling. This is one of the notable titles debuting at this year’s Small Press Expo this weekend, September 14-15, in Bethesda, Maryland.

One card taped to another card and then another.

Frank Santoro is a well-respected and celebrated independent cartoonist and trailblazer. If you are looking for a new way of looking at the comics medium, then consider taking his comics course. Frank Santoro’s work has been exhibited at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York and the Fumetto comics festival in Switzerland. He is the author of Storeyville and Pompeii. He has collaborated with Ben Jones, Dash Shaw, Frank Kozik, and others. Santoro lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which brings us to his latest work. In Pittsburgh, the reader is introduced to life in the Rust Belt, that region of the country known as the manufacturing hub, the area famously known as the demographic which Hillary Clinton neglected to win over enough votes. It’s a tough working class landscape. Santoro shares that region with you: his growing up, his family, and especially the doomed relationship between his father and mother.

It’s all about the process.

How do you best convey your observations and feelings about your family? In a documentary? In a novel? In an art installation? The possibilities are endless. What Frank Santoro has done is find a different path that combines aspects of various disciplines within one. This is a comic but not a comic that you are typically familiar with. This could be called a graphic novel or memoir but it also manages to be something more. At times, I felt as if some of the actions, dialogue, characters and settings in this book were shifting from one medium to the next. Very easily, I could imagine the whole book being turned into an art installation. Santoro’s method basically breaks down barriers and pares down to essentials. He likes to play with geometry and create backbones for his pages. The goal is for each element on the page to play off each other, each opposing page, and the entire work. He wants the process to show through so, if he makes a mistake, he’ll sort of leave it in and lightly cover it up so that you can still see it. In a sense, each page becomes animated with unexpected movement.

Every element falls into place and plays off each other.

The quotidian of life, the everyday moments that can blur into each other, that is what Santoro aims to capture and evoke. This is one of the things that the comics medium does best! It is akin to a tour de force cinema vertie experience with the camera being replaced by a sketchbook. Santoro is hardly alone in attempting this but what he does is distinctive. And he makes it look easy and, in a weird sense that actually takes years of experience to appreciate, it is. Whatever the case, it can’t look forced. It comes natural to Santoro as he edits, rearranges, and composes. He make various choices which include various ways of telling the story most efficiently while allowing things to breathe. He wants ambiguity but he also demands clarity. He keeps to a basic palette that, in the end, brings out all the color he could ever want. In the end, he presents something new and compelling. In this case, it is his coming to terms with having grown up in a dysfunctional family that ultimately breaks apart. Like any good documentarian and artist, Santoro picks up the pieces, examines them, and with heart and soul makes something out of them.

Comics, elevated to the art form that it is.

Pittsburgh is a 216-page full color hardcover, available as of September 17, 2019, published by New York Review of Books.

 

 

 

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Filed under Art, Comics, Frank Santoro, Graphic Memoir, Graphic Novel Reviews, Small Press Expo

SPX 2018: Observations & Recollections

SPX 2018: “Three tickets, please.”

Whenever I go to anything creative, be it a play or a reading or a comics art festival, I do a lot of processing: What have I learned? How does this fit into the world? So, Small Press Expo is no different in that regard. Once you drop into SPX, it is like being inside a giant pinball machine as you’re being thrown in one direction after another. For me, with many years of experience in creating comics and writing about them, I rely on my internal database to make sense of it all.

For this post, I will introduce some pieces of the puzzle that I will discuss further in upcoming posts. I’m as much cartoonist as journalist in the sense that I feel most alive when I’m tackling a project that requires a good bit of deciphering.

It is my strong belief that you can’t study the art of comics inside a comics bubble. I mean, you run a high risk of doing yourself and the reader a disservice if you come to the subject of comics only as a comics enthusiast. I’m digressing here a bit but I’m just trying to say that comics fit into a much bigger picture. You can, as the saying goes, lose the forest for the trees. Where do you begin with such a colossal subject as comics? You look at it, walk away for a while, then refocus–and always keep in mind those outside of comics or just entering the world of comics.

One thing I do know is that people still read. And I’m always pleased when some folks make their way over to my posts. I do my best to provide concise text with a decent sampling of images as needed. Here I will post some creators I will spotlight in some upcoming posts. I think this will result in giving a sense of the wide range of activity and talent at Small Press Expo. Here are some representative talent: Kati Lacker, Luke Foster, and Sophie Goldstein:

Kati Lacker

Luke Foster

Sophie Goldstein

Let’s make a quick detour. I want to share with you a little taste of the comics workshops at SPX put together by Comics Workbook. I had the honor of participating in one led by Dash Shaw. We covered quite a lot of work in one hour! I include a sample in this below video. I even got a chance to participate in the informal Q&A. I wasn’t planning to but then I did.

I put a question to Dash Shaw: “This may sound silly but is the only true work in comics created by one person?” His response was interesting: “It’s great that a work in comics can be created by one person. Not all things can be created by one person. You can’t make a baby with just one person.”

Dash Shaw leading a Comics Workbook session at SPX

I enjoyed that response very much. But it was only the next morning that I thought of a much better way to frame the question–or my own answer back: “It can hold true that, just like the lone painter creating a painting, and we see painting as the act of a singular vision, so too can we see that in the creation of comics, there is a singular vision by one creator.” That is exactly what each student was doing in that session with Shaw: creating one work by one person. So, anyway, that for me was good to think about. Of course, there can be other factors that come in, like hiring a colorist. In the end, comics are about a driving force and that usually means one very determined creator started the ball rolling or kept the ball to themselves.

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Filed under Comics, Illustration, Illustrators, Kati Lacker, Luke Foster, mini comics, mini-comics, Minicomics, Small Press, Small Press Expo, Sophie Goldstein