Thursday, July 13, 2017

PR: Small Press Expo Announces Special Guests for SPX 2017

For Immediate Release
Contact: Warren Bernard
Email: warren@spxpo.com

Small Press Expo Announces Nate Powell, Gene Yang, Jim Rugg, Gabrielle Bell, Kickily, Sloane Leong and more as Special Guests for SPX 2017

Bethesda, Maryland; July 13, 2017

Media Release - Small Press Expo is proud to announce its first slate of Special Guests for SPX 2017. The festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 16-17, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center and will have over 650 creators, 280 exhibitor tables and 22 programming slots to entertain, enlighten and introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics.

SPX 2017 is honored to have the following creators as Special Guests to this year's show:

NATE POWELL is a New York Times best-selling graphic novelist born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1978. He began self-publishing at age 14, and graduated from School of Visual Arts in 2000.

His work includes March, the graphic novel autobiography of Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis; You Don't Say, Any Empire, Swallow Me Whole, The Silence Of Our Friends, The Year Of The Beasts, and Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero.

He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

GENE LUEN YANG is the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. He has written and drawn many graphic novels, including American Born Chinese, which was a National Book Award finalist, as well as the winner of the Printz Award and an Eisner Award. His graphic novel set Boxers and Saints won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has also written for the hit comics Avatar: The Last Airbender and Superman. His latest project is the comics and coding series with Mike Holmes, Secret Coders. geneyang.com. Sunday only

JIM RUGG is an Eisner and Ignatz Award winning cartoonist based in Pittsburgh. His books include Street Angel, the PLAIN Janes, the Guild, Afrodisiac, and Notebook Drawings.

Street Angel, the deadliest girl alive, is back in a series of original hardcover graphic novels from Image Comics and the creative team of Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca. In Street Angel: After School Kung Fu Special, our skateboarding heroine, Jesse Sanchez, faces a ninja bully and battles teen angst over a big school dance. In July, Jesse joins a violent team of troublemakers in the Street Angel Gang.

GABRIELLE BELL's work has been selected for Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and has been featured in McSweeney's, the Believer, Bookforum, and Vice among numerous other publications. Her story, "Cecil and Jordan In New York," was turned into a film by Michel Gondry. Bell's previous graphic novel, The Voyeurs, was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and the Atlantic. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Find her online at gabriellebell.com. Saturday only

Photo by Jordan Guile

After graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art, SAM BOSMA taught in the Illustration department from 2011 to 2013 before moving to Brooklyn, NY. At SPX 2016, his first volume of Fantasy Sports won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic! He currently does background drawings for Steven Universe on Cartoon Network when not creating comics and graphic novels. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

KICKLIY is the creator of the critically acclaimed Musnet series of books. The Musnet books follow the all-ages adventures of a certain poor Mus Musculous (a common field mouse, for those of you that don't speak Latin) on his quest to become the greatest mouse painter that ever was.

Musnet was nominated for the 2017 Prix Angouleme for Kids Comics. Kickliy is also an accomplished oil painter. He lives somewhere between Minneapolis and Giverny.

SLOANE LEONG is a cartoonist currently living in Portland, Oregon who has worked for Image Comics, Dark Horse, Cartoon Network and more. Her Ignatz-nominated short comic, A Map to the Sun, will be expanded into a graphic novel and will be published by First Second in 2019. Sloane Leong's newest comic, A Hollowing, is a lean grim story about a young girl and her horse, the breaking down of performed domesticity and the realization of the horrors of the body.

GILBERT HERNANDEZ is co-creator of the long-running, award-winning, and critically acclaimed series Love and Rockets, which in 2017 celebrates its 35th Anniversary. His books include Marbles, Bumperhead, Luba, Palomar, Speak of the Devil,Love from the Shadows and Girl Crazy. This year, Hernandez designed clothing based on his Love and Rockets characters for men and women available at Pinup Girl.

KEITH KNIGHT,winner of the Glyph, Harvey, and Inkpot Awards, is a spectacular cartoonist whose Knight Life comic strip is read nationwide in such newspapers as the Washington Post. Keef's funny yet hard-hitting cartoons in his series (T)hink and The K Chronicles led him to be named one of the 2015 NAACP History Makers. Knight is the illustrator of the critically acclaimed tween book, Jake the Fake Keeps It Real. He also has a new collection of Knight Life strips called the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Behind.

Born in Palo Alto and raised in Nashville, award-winning, New-York-Times-bestselling illustrator JANET LEE is best known for her decoupage art technique. Self-taught, Lee has been drawing comics since she was old enough to hold a pencil. After working for more than a decade at the business end of publishing, Lee received her big break with the publication of Return of the Dapper Men. Since then, she has illustrated close to a dozen different books and anthologies. This year, Return of the Dapper Men returns in a new deluxe edition from Top Shelf Productions. Lee still lives and works in Nashville, in a house filled with one husband, one son, two dogs, and four very bad cats.

JIM MCCANN is an award-winning writer of comic books, television, and theatre. He wrote several critically acclaimed Marvel Hawkeye series before branching out into creating his own comics and graphic novels, as well as other projects. His first graphic novel, Return of the Dapper Men, won the Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Album. He has since gone on to create hit series such as the space-heist Lost Vegas and the ongoing top-rated series Mind the Gap, both published through Image Comics. This year, Return of the Dapper Men returns in a new deluxe edition from Top Shelf Productions.

In the next few weeks, SPX will announce additional guests, special events, the 2017 Ignatz nominees and a full slate of programming.

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 nonprofit that brings together more than 650 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. The expo includes a series of panel discussions and interviews with this year's guests.

The Ignatz Award is a festival prize held every year at SPX recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning, with the winners chosen by attendees at the show.

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. For more information on the Small Press Expo, please visit http://www.smallpressexpo.com.

Summer Comics Poll: Meet Our Expert Panelists!

July 11, 2017

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/11/536452412/summer-comics-poll-meet-our-expert-panelists

The Old School: Classic Strips That Continue To Shape Comics

July 13, 2017
http://www.npr.org/2017/07/13/536827295/the-old-school-classic-strips-that-continue-to-shape-comics

The Negative Zone: What Didn't Make Our Final List

July 12, 2017

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/536712921/the-negative-zone-what-didnt-make-our-final-list

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Post on cooking comics

Local cartoonist Robin Ha is featured, but the Post seems to have forgotten that it used to run a cooking comic strip for years - Cheap Thrills Cuisine by Bill Lombardo and Thach Bui - see its introduction at https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/food/1993/06/30/and-now-for-a-little-comic-relief/5defeca9-290f-4274-a9ef-a79d65a10ec4/

Some of the newest cookbooks look like comics. But does that work for readers? [in print as Is this the way we want to cook now?]

By Charlotte Druckman

Washington Post July 12 2017, p. E1, 6

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/some-of-the-newest-cookbooks-look-like-comics-but-does-that-work-for-readers/2017/07/10/479b71d0-6032-11e7-8adc-fea80e32bf47_story.htm

A brief history of graphic cookbooks

By Charlotte Druckman

Washington Post July 12 2017, p. E6

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/a-brief-history-of-graphic-cookbooks/2017/07/10/96bcd410-61be-11e7-a4f7-af34fc1d9d39_story.html

NPR on 100 top comics

Let's Get Graphic: 100 Favorite Comics And Graphic Novels

Glen Weldon and Petra Mayer

July 12, 2017
http://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/533862948/lets-get-graphic-100-favorite-comics-and-graphic-novels

Dave Miller's The Frankenstein Zombie comic book campaign

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-frankenstein-zombie-comic-book-series-horror-literature#/

The Secret History of the Frankenstein Monster is revealed when he becomes humanity's unlikely ally as the dead rise from the grave to feast on the living. I've always wanted a Frankenstein series that is representative of the character written by Mary Shelly. One of the great myth creations of literature. JK Rowling isn't the only English, female fantasy writer that created an enduring horror icon.

July 28 - Aug 12: King Kirby play in MD

King Kirby

By Crystal Skillman & Fred Van Lente

http://offthequill.org/productions/king-kirby/

Directed by: William Cassidy

For over 50 years, Jack Kirby was the driving force behind the most iconic comic book characters in American pop culture.

This is the story of the work that made the marvels.

At The Greenbelt Arts Center

Purchase Tickets HERE

July 28 – August 12

Cast:

Jack Kirby – Josh Mooney

Stan Lee – Erik Harrison

Joe Simon – Michael J. Dombroski

Roz Kirby – Jenny Oberholtzer

Ensemble – Brett Cassidy

Melissa Robinson

Sean Eustis

Jonathan Palmer

Enoch Wilson

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

PR: Small Press Expo Announces Special Guests for SPX 2017

For Immediate Release
Contact: Warren Bernard
Email: warren@spxpo.com

Small Press Expo Announces Jillian Tamaki, Eleanor Davis, Emil Ferris, Ann Telnaes, Tillie Walden and Others as Special Guests for SPX 2017

Bethesda, Maryland; July 11, 2017

Media Release - Small Press Expo is proud to announce its first slate of Special Guests for SPX 2017. The festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 16-17, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center and will have over 650 creators, 280 exhibitor tables and 22 programming slots to entertain, enlighten and introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics.

SPX 2017 is honored to have the following creators as Special Guests to this year's show:

JILLIAN TAMAKI is an illustrator and cartoonist based in Toronto. She is the co-creator along with her cousin Mariko Tamaki of the graphic novel Skim, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a finalist for the Governor General's Award. Their second graphic novel This One Summer earned a Governor General's Award and a Caldecott Honor. Tamaki's first collection of her own comics was the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller and Eisner Award-winning SuperMutant Magic Academy. Jillian will be at SPX to sign her latest book, Boundless.

ELEANOR DAVIS is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Athens, GA. In 2009, Davis won the Eisner Award's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award and was also named one of Print magazine's New Visual Artists. In 2013, her short story In Our Eden received a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. In 2015, her book How To Be Happy won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Anthology or Collection. Her latest book from Koyama Press is You & A Bike & A Road.

EMIL FERRIS will be making a rare East Coast appearance in support of her debut graphic novel, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters from Fantagraphics, that has taken the reading world by storm. The richly textured story follows a young girl obsessed with monsters, as she investigates the murder of her neighbor. Along the way the book explores politics, art, history, race, family and more in one of the most original and rewarding graphic novels. Emil has an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and in 2010, Ferris was made a Toby Devan Lewis Fellow in the Visual Arts.

TILLIE WALDEN is a two-time Ignatz Award–winning cartoonist from Austin, Texas. Born in 1996, she is a recent graduate from the Center for Cartoon Studies, a comics school in Vermont. Her comics include The End of Summer and I Love This Part, an Eisner Award nominee. Spinning, her autobiographical graphic novel about her days as a competitive ice skater, will debut at SPX.

ANN TELNAES creates editorial cartoons in various mediums- animation, visual essays, live sketches, and traditional print- for the Washington Post. She is the 2016 recipient of the National Cartoonists Society Reuben for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year and won the Pulitzer winner for editorial cartooning in 2001. Ann has an upcoming book "Trump's ABC" with Fantagraphics publishing and her images, which are licensed by Cartoonist Group Licensing, may be found on merchandise at Amazon.com.

HANNAH K. LEE resides in Brooklyn, where she works as a commercial illustrator, letterer, and designer and is a regular self-publisher of zines and art books, which contain personal work and experiments in letterforms and production. She was born to Korean immigrants and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, CA. She received a BFA in illustration at Parsons School of Design. Here first book, Language Barrier from Koyama press, will debut at SPX.

MATT WUERKER is the staff cartoonist for POLITICO.COM, providing editorial cartoons, illustrations, caricatures and Web animations for both the print and Web platforms of the publication. Matt won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2012. In 2010 he was awarded the Herblock Prize at the Library of Congress and later that year won the National Press Foundation's Berryman Award.

MICHAEL DEFORGE: Michael DeForge was born in 1987 and grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. His one-person anthology series Lose has been nominated for, or won, every major comics award including the Ignatz and Eisner awards. His previous graphic novels with Drawn & Quarterly are Ant Colony, Big Kids, and First Year Healthy. His most recent book is Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero. Photo courtesy Mathew James-Wilson.

ETHAN RILLY is a cartoonist and illustrator from Toronto. His one-man anthology comic series Pope Hats, from AdHouse Books, has received Doug Wright, Ignatz, and Joe Shuster awards as well as Eisner award nominations. He has illustrated for Slate, HarperCollins, Complex, Wired, Chronicle Books, The Walrus and The Believer. His latest is the long-awaited Pope Hats #5. Ethan now lives in Montreal with his wife and brown dog.

SHANNON WHEELER is an award-winning cartoonist best known as the creator of the satirical superhero Too Much Coffee Man. He has also created the strip Postage Stamp Funnies for The Onion and frequently contributes cartoons to The New Yorker. With writer Mark Russell, he co-created the acclaimed book God Is Disappointed in You (a tongue-in-cheek retelling of the Bible) and its sequel Apocrypha Now. In his latest book form Top Shelf, Sh*t My President Says: The Illustrated Tweets of Donald J. Trump, Wheeler tackles the 140-character president.

ALEXIS ZIRITT is originally from Venezuela but has lived in Florida for the past decade. He's been published in Complex Magazine, Heavy Metal, BOOM! Studios, Image Comics, Black Mask Studios, Adhouse Books and Dark Horse Comics among others. He is the Co-Creator of Space Riders and Tarantula, from Adhouse Books.

CHRIS KIM is a graduate of OCAD University in Toronto, his clients include The New York Times and The Hollywood Reporter, among others. He regularly posts illustrations and short stories at chriswkim.com. His first graphic novel, Herman by Trade, is published by SelfMadeHero and will be available at SPX 2017.