It brings us great joy to welcome four of our favorite comic artists to the Mome fold in this Fall's Volume 16: Renée French (who graces the cover), Nicholas Mahler, Archer Prewitt and Ted Stearn. Of course, our returning artists are also nothing to sneeze at: T. Edward Bak, Dash Shaw, Lilli Carré, Conor O'Keefe, Laura Park, Nate Neal, Sara Edward-Corbett, and the "Cold Heat" crew of Ben Jones, Frank Santoro and Jon Vermilyea. This issue is now available for pre-order in our online shop. Download our free 12-page PDF excerpt for a sample page from each contributing artist. This book is scheduled be in stock and shipping in mid-September, and in stores approximately 4 weeks later (subject to change).
• Review: "You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!... collects all the [Fletcher] Hanks material not included in the first book. Hanks' hyperactive, colorful, robust, and crazily disproportionate art is perfectly matched to his over-the-top storytelling... There are few artists, from the Golden Age to today, that so deftly blended goofy dialogue with terrifying violence and surreal situations; for better or worse, Hanks was a real original. [Grade] B+" - The A.V. Club
• Review: "[Ho! The Morally Questionable Cartoons of Ivan Brunetti] is a brutally funny and disturbing attempt to push some buttons, either uncomfortably or comfortably mired in taboo. The aesthetic of freaks, geeks, nerds and ugly men and women, all with dark pasts, dirty fetishes, sociopathic tendencies, and murderous habits all play out over 120 odd pages of frenetic cartoon violence, sometimes sexual, sometimes suicidal, sometimes offensive, but always funny." - Geek Pie
• Review: "Explainers [is] a veritable Bible of middle class American dysfunction... [Jules] Feiffer reveals the depths of his subject not only through the dialogue — which are filled with psychological, social and politic depths that few cartoonists have ever plumbed — but also through an amazing skill to capture the body language so crucial to human communication... Explainers is 500 pages of startling truth captured in sequential squiggles on paper, a real masterpiece worth delving into." - John E. Mitchell, North Adams Transcript
• Profile/Review: Robert Birnbaum of The Morning News proposes "a Mount Rushmore of American illustration" consisting of Bill Mauldin, Jules Feiffer, Ed Sorel, Seymour Chwast, and David Levine, adding "American Presidents is a 128-page compilation that assembles Levine’s survey of American leaders and their coteries and skewers them with delightful results. It should be a required text in American history courses—Levine’s images powerfully expose the venality, duplicity, and hypocrisy of the upper reaches of our government."
• Interviews: Inkstuds presents a two-fer of audio talks with newly-minted Mome contributors: first up, it's Noah Van Sciver (whose comics "read like they came from the mind of a crazed hobo. Seriously, they are great"); up second, it's T. Edward Bak (described simply as "great")
• Plug: "Olivier Schrauwen is one of my favourite new cartoonists, and one of the best artists to appear in recent issues of Mome." - Richard Cowdry, Love the Line
The 15th issue of Mome is now available for pre-order. This issue boasts one new beginning (T. Edward Bak's "Wild Man"), two conclusions (Gilbert Shelton's "Last Gig in Shnagrlig" and Tim Hensley's "Wally Gropius"), new work from Dash Shaw, Andrice Arp (who also provides the cover), Sara Edward-Corbett, Conor O'Keefe, Noah Van Sciver, Robert Goodin, and Paul Hornschemeier, PLUS a bound-in minicomic by Spanish master Max! This book is scheduled to be in stock and ready to ship in June and in stores approximately 4 weeks later (subject to change).
On our product detail page we've got a free PDF preview with pages from almost every contributor, plus the full table of contents so you can see exactly what's in the issue. Photo and video previews are still forthcoming -- watch this space.
Erstwhile Fantagraphics staffer Jen Ralston returned to the fold for the weekend, with a slice of real estate for her adorable stuffed felt creatures.
Zuniga took a page from the Ajax Wood book of shades-wearing con badassery.
More pretty, pretty books & comics. Sadly I failed to get a photo of Dame Darcy when she was at our table, especially since she was resplendent and colorful in a fancy turquoise dress.
So, this year's Stumptown Comics Fest was a-hoppin' on Saturday when I was there. Stumptown has cemented a place in my heart as my favorite comics show. Personal highlights this year:
1: Meeting and talking to T. Edward Bak, who showed me his gorgeous original pages for the story which begins serialization in the next issue of Mome. He's doing the pages in a sketchbook and they'll actually be printed larger than actual size. He also told me about the grant he received [correction!] has applied for (hope I didn't just jinx it!) to adapt the story into an online educational resource and introduced me to his intern (!) -- go man go!
2. Finding a lot of really talented young cartoonists I hadn't heard of before, meeting some whom I'd heard of but hadn't seen much of their work, buying stuff from them. I do most of my comics shopping at cons, so I went a little splurge-happy. I found some pretty exciting and interesting stuff and can't wait to start digging into my haul.
3. More shopping at such fine concerns as Little Otsu (new Lilli Carré book!) and the ever-reliable Sparkplug (several excellent-looking comics and, finally, the Renee French t-shirt I've been wanting for years but they never had in my size until now).
4. It's always nice to see those familiar con faces and say howdy. Comics people are good people.
5. 14 awesome new Yodas in the Yoda sketchbook (not scanned yet). I saw Douglas Wolk's sketchbook making the rounds too, and I can't wait for him to post his scans.
I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting. Many thanks to the Stumptown organizers and volunteers for putting on a swell show. I'm already looking forward to next year.
