
Rob Ullman returns to do an illustration for the Washington City Paper! I've really missed his work - I don't even read Savage Love anymore without Rob's drawing to pull me in.

Bethesda, Maryland; September 9, 2009 - The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce Jerry Moriarity, R. Sikoryak and Joshua Cotter as guests for SPX 2009.
SPX will be held Saturday, September 26 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, September 27, noon-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days.
For further information on the Ignatz Awards, the nominees or to request an interview, please contact Warren Bernard at warren@spxpo.com.
For more information on the Small Press Expo and the Ignatz Awards, please visit http://www.spxpo.com.
Here's some PR from Pete Maresca which I'm passing along because they do such good work. I've bought every one of their book so far.
Sunday Press Turns Comics World "Upside-Down" with New Book on Gustave Verbeek
Sunday Press Books announces the latest in its highly-acclaimed series of comic strip reprints. "The Upside-Down World of Gustave Verbeek" offers a complete run of the artist's most famous creation and a sampling of his other work in comics and art.
Palo Alto, CA, September 6, 2009 -- A new collection from Sunday Press Books reprints a complete run of Gustave Verbeek's "Upside-Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo" (1903-1905), digitally restored and presented in their original size and colors. Also featured are a complete run of Verbeek's "Loony Lyrics of Lulu" (1910) and a sampling of his long-running "Terrors of the Tiny Tads" (1906-1914). A compilation of 25 early cartoons and paintings by Verbeek for magazines and illustrated books (1900-1915) fills out this large hard-bound volume. For collectors, there is an insert sheet of 12 "Tiny Tads" postcards, reprinting a 1907 promotional set.
Gustave Verbeek, as the book's introduction explains, was a truly international artist: a Japanese citizen of European descent, he trained in Paris, then moved to New York to become one of the most original contributors to the emerging art of the comic strip. His Sunday comic, "The Upside-Downs," is one of the wonders of the comic world. This fantasy story came in two parts: the first is read like a regular comic, then turn the page upside down and the images transform to illustrate the continuing story.
Verbeek was born in Japan, son of a Dutch educator and missionary. He studied art in Paris where he did his earliest cartooning as a part of the famed "Chat Noir" theatre group. He then moved to New York, creating cartoons and illustrations for Harper's, Scribner's, Century, Judge, and other magazines. His work in comics and illustration are a curious combination of Japanese, French, and American styles and cultures.
Verbeek illustrated numerous children's books in the early 20th century, as well as working in Expressionist painting and monotypes. He created Sunday comic strips in the earliest years of the medium; first for Pulitzer's New York World, then for the New York Herald, where he created his famed "Upside-Downs," and continued to draw comics there for 15 years. His work has influenced, directly or indirectly, Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz, and many other illustrators and cartoonists.
"The Upside-Down World of Gustave Verbeek" includes a foreword by science and mathematics scholar Martin Gardner, who has authored nearly 100 books, including "The Annotated Alice in Wonderland" and numerous volumes on mathematical puzzles. His interests in children's literature and puzzles merge in his admiration of Verbeek's work. The book's introduction is by comics scholar Jeet Heer, with contributions by "nonsense comics" specialist Marco Graziosi, and renowned comic strip historian, Richard Marschall.
This is the first complete collection of Verbeek's "Upside Downs" and the only one in the original size and colors since 1904. Editor/Publisher Peter Maresca states, "As with our other Sunday Press collections, we restored the Sunday pages to simulate the look of the comic strips at they appeared 100 years ago."
Sunday Press Books is a specialty publisher restoring and reprinting classic American comic strips in their original size and colors. The "The Upside-Down World of Gustave Verbeek" is the sixth book from Sunday Press. The first Sunday Press collection, "Little Nemo in Slumberland, So Many Splendid Sundays" (2005) received rave reviews and testimonials from around the world. Both this book and its sequel, "Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays" received the coveted Will Eisner Award for Excellence in Comics. The first four Sunday Press publications received a total of seven Eisner nominations. Sunday Press collections have been printed in French, Spanish, and Russian editions. Also from Sunday Press in 2009 is L. Frank Baum's, "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz." More information is available at www.sundaypressbooks.com or via email: info@sundaypressbooks.com
"The Upside-Down World of Gustave Verbeek"
120 pages, 11 x 16 inches, color, $60
ISBN - 09768885-7-2
EAN - 978-0-9768885-7-4



Small Press Expo Announces John Porcellino and Willy Linthout as Guests for SPX 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact: Warren Bernard
E-Mail: warren@spxpo.com
Bethesda, Maryland; September 3, 2009 - The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce John Porcellino and Willy Linthout as guests for SPX 2009.
John Porcellino is the creator of the mini-comix series King-Kat Comics, that began in 1989 that has spanned 69 issues of some of the best and most influential mini-comix around today. His autobiographical Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man, a collection of stories from King-Kat Comics, won the Ignatz Award in 2005. Porcellino's work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, and Korean and has contributed to McSweeney's Quarterly, Kramer's Ergot and Comics Journal Special. SPX is honored to have John join SPX 2009
Willy Linthout saw his first published comics in the Dutch edition of (À Suivre) magazine. In 1983 he began a collaboration with the Dutch comic actor Urbanus, producing more than 130 enormously popular albums with Urbanus that has sold millions of copies. In 2004 Linthout's son took his own life. Linthout processed his reactions to that experience in the graphic novel Years of the Elephant, published in Dutch by Bries and published this year in an English-language edition by Fanfare/Ponent Mon. The book won the Dutch Stripschapspenning award for best literary graphic novel (2007), the Flemish Community Cultural Award (2008), the Bronzen Adhemar (2009) and the Carolus Quintus Prize(2009). Willy appears at SPX with the generous support of the Flemish Literature Fund.
John Porcellino and Willy Linthout are in addition to the previously announced guests Gahan Wilson, Paul Karasik, Carol Tyler and Josh Neufeld.
SPX will be held Saturday, September 26 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, September 27, noon-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days.
For further information on the Ignatz Awards, the nominees or to request an interview, please contact Warren Bernard at warren@spxpo.com.
For more information on the Small Press Expo and the Ignatz Awards, please visit http://www.spxpo.com.
A Video Game Fit for a Hero: Being Batman is a joy at the art controls of 'Arkham Asylum' [videogame; online title: Fit for a Hero: 'Batman: Arkham Asylum'].
Posted By Micah Pearson
Express September 2, 2009
Online at http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2009/09/batman-arkham-asylum.php
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National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (September 2):
| Small Press Expo Announces Paul Karasik and Jeff Lemire as Guests for SPX 2009 For Immediate Release Contact: Warren Bernard E-Mail: warren@spxpo.com Bethesda, Maryland; August 31, 2009 - The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce Paul Karasik and Jeff Lemire as guests for SPX 2009. Paul Karasik is a contributor to both The New Yorker and Nickelodeon magazine. He is the former associate editor of the ground breaking RAW Magazine and a former teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design. As a graduate of the School of Visual Design, he studied with Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman. He was the co-creator of the graphic novel "City of Glass", in collaboration with David Mazzucchelli. Paul's critically acclaimed "I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets" on the works of Fletcher Hanks won the 2008 Eisner Award for the category Best Archival Collection/Project-Comic Books. His latest book is another collection of the works of Fletcher Hanks "You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!" published by Fantagraphics Books.
Jeff Lemire won a Xeric Award in 2005 for his book "Lost Dogs." Between 2007 and 2009 Top Shelf Productions published his Ignatz, Harvey, and Eisner-nominated "Essex County Trilogy" of graphic novels "Tales From the Farm," "Ghost Stories," and "The Country Nurse". They were collected into a single volume and issued earlier this year by Top Shelf as "The Complete Essex County". Jeff has won the 2008 Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Cartoonist, the 2008 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent, and the 2008 American Library Association's Alex Award (For Adult Books with Teen Appeal.) This year also saw the release of his original graphic novel "The Nobody" from DC/Vertigo. Jeff is currently writing and drawing the new monthly Vertigo series "Sweet Tooth," which will begin in September. Paul Karasik and Jeff Lemire are in addition to the previously announced guests Carol Tyler and Josh Neufeld. SPX will be held Saturday, September 26 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, September 27, noon-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days. For further information on the Ignatz Awards, the nominees or to request an interview, please contact Warren Bernard at warren@spxpo.com. For more information on the Small Press Expo and the Ignatz Awards, please visit http://www.spxpo.com. |
Unlike Calvin and Hobbes, this is a 'mosaic'. 
Small Press Expo Announces Carol Tyler and Josh Neufeld as Guests for SPX 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact: Warren Bernard
Phone: 301-537-4615
E-Mail: warren@spxpo.com
Bethesda, Maryland; August 27, 2009 - The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce Carol Tyler and Josh Neufeld as guests for SPX 2009.
Carol Tyler, one of the original "Wimmen" cartoonists, has contributed to Weirdo, Drawn & Quarterly, Zero Zero, along with the anthologies Wimmens Comix and Twisted Sisters. She will be at SPX to talk about her latest graphic novel, You'll Never Know Book One "A Good and Decent Man", released by Fantagraphics. You'll Never Know has received acclaim from critics and librarians alike for its portrayal of not only her fathers story of his experiences in World War 2, but how those experiences shaped Carol and her family. See more of Carol's work at her web site http://www.bloomerland.com.
Josh Neufeld, author of the Xeric Grant winner A Few Perfect Hours, spent time as a volunteer for the Red Cross in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This resulted on the online graphic novel A.D. New Orleans After The Deluge, which is now a full color book published by Pantheon that has garnered rave reviews. Josh also created the series The Vagabonds and as well as collaborating with Dean Haspiel on Keyhole. Visit Josh at his website at http://joshcomix.home.mindspring.com/.
Both Josh and Carol will be on discussion panels to talk about their works, in addition to being available for book signings while at SPX.
SPX will be held Saturday, September 26 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, September 27, noon-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days.
For further information on the Ignatz Awards, the nominees or to request an interview, please contact Warren Bernard at warren@spxpo.com.
For more information on the Small Press Expo and the Ignatz Awards, please visit http://www.spxpo.com.