PR: SPX Announces Françoise Mouly and Adrian Tomine as Guests of Small Press Expo 2012

SPX Announces Françoise Mouly and Adrian Tomine as Guests of Small Press Expo 2012

For Immediate Release                   Contact: Warren Bernard
                                                                                                               E-Mail: warren@spxpo.com

Bethesda, Maryland; July 2, 2012 – Small Press Expo is pleased to announce Françoise Mouly and Adrian Tomine as honored guests of SPX 2012.  Both Mouly and Tomine will be making their first SPX appearances this year and are in addition to the previously announced guests Chris Ware, Dan Clowes and Jamie & Gilbert Hernandez.

Mouly, art editor for The New Yorker since 1993, is the author of several books including collections of cover art from The New Yorker, and has edited the forthcoming 2012 edition of the prestigious The Best American Comics series.  Mouly got her start in comics as the co-creator (with husband Art Spiegelman) of the groundbreaking and highly influential RAW series in 1980.  Consciously designed as an art object, RAW was, throughout the eighties, the premier showcase of cutting-edge comic art and storytelling techniques.  Many of the celebrated contributors to RAW, including Charles Burns, R. Crumb, Chris Ware, and Art Spiegelman have since gone on to grace the cover of The New Yorker with their artwork during Mouly's tenure as art director. Her successful Toon Book imprint takes her cartoon and illustration aesthetic into the world of children's books.

Writer/artist Adrian Tomine burst onto the comics scene in the mid-'90s with Optic Nerve, and his closely observed characterization and thoughtful storytelling quickly earned comparisons to the likes of Raymond Carver and nominations for the Eisner Award.  In addition to volumes collecting his sketches and otherwise uncollected work, Tomine's critically acclaimed Optic Nerve stories have been collected into several handsome volumes.  Though he is a generation removed from the "RAW generation," Tomine's distinctive artwork is of a piece with their sensibility, and has also gone on to grace the cover of The New Yorker on numerous occasions. 

About SPX

Small Press Expo (SPX) is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons. SPX is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit that brings together more than 300 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini comics, and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators, as well as a series of panel discussions and interviews with this year's guests.

As in previous years, profits from the SPX will go to support the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program, which funds graphic novel purchases for public and academic libraries, as well as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), which protects the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals. For more information on the CBLDF, visit their website at http://www.cbldf.org.

SPX also supports the Small Press Expo Collection at the Library of Congress, which preserves the history of both the artistic output of the creators who come to SPX, as well as the art that SPX itself generates as part of its yearly festival. It the first program of its type by a major institution in the United States to preserve the works of the indie comics community.

SPX 2012 will be held Saturday, September 15 and Sunday, September 16.  For more information on the Small Press Expo, please visit http://www.spxpo.com.