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What Are You Reading?

Showcase: DC Comics Presents

It's old home week at What Are You Reading today, as our special guest is none other than Graeme McMillan, who,  before he became a writer and editor for the sci-fi blog io9, used to pal around with us back when we were at that other blog that shall not be named for fear of ... something, I dunno.

Anyway, to see what Graeme and everyone else is reading this week just click on the link below ...

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Oooh, a sale! TWO sales!

Milk & Cheese #2, from SLG Publishing

Kramers Ergot 7, from Buenaventura Press

Unholster your credit cards, comics fans: Two publishers are currently holding nigh-irresistible sales in their webstores.

As we've reported, cartoonist Evan Dorkin notes that indie-comics stalwart SLG Publishing -- home of comics by Dorkin, Jhonen Vasquez, Jim Rugg, James Turner and more -- is slashing prices on its entire library by 40%. Meanwhile, art-comics trailblazer Buenaventura Press -- the outfit behind books by Johnny Ryan, Jerry Moriarty, Lisa Hannawalt, and Matt Furie, not to mention Kramers Ergot -- has announced that they're offering an across-the-board 20% off sale. Both sales are designed to help their respective publishers weather these still-nightmarish financial times, so not only would taking advantage of them help score you some sweet deals, it'd be a mitzvah as well.

But these prices aren't sticking around forever, so you've gotta act now. And if you're ;ooking for a guide to help you do so, The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon has recommendations for both the SLG and Buenaventura sales, as well as a smidge of analysis as to what it all means. Beyond "great deals," that is.

Buenaventura does The Believer

He's the man who helped bring us the sublime Kramers Ergot 7 and the ridiculous Boys Club. Now publisher Alvin Buenaventura is lending his Midas touch to stalwart literary magazine The Believer for its annual Art Issue.

At his Blog Flume group blog, Buenaventura reveals that In addition to an Acme Novelty Library/Jack Surives "crossover cover" by regular cover artist Charles Burns, the issue features an interview between Acme's Chris Ware and Jack's Jerry Moriarty, other interviews with Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Peter Blegvad, and a poster by Moriarty.

Finally, the issue sees the launch of a new monthly feature: a comics spread featuring new strips from Burns, Al Columbia, Matt Furie, Tom Gauld, Lisa Hanawalt, Tim Hensley and more, edited by Buenaventura himself.

Click over to Buenaventura's blog for sample art, click the individual links for the respective features, and get ready to gorge on some great comics content.

Wow -- between this and issue #33 of The Believer's sister publication McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, dubbed The San Francisco Panorama and featuring comics by Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Erik Larsen (!) and more, it's a good time to be a fan of comics in high-end literary periodicals.

Kramers Ergot 7: the minicomic?

Hall Hassi's "ke7 zine"

Standing nearly two feet tall, boasting over 50 contributors (including Matt Groening, Chris Ware, Jaime Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, and Adrian Tomine), and costing $125, Kramers Ergot 7 -- the latest installment of the avant-garde anthology series from editor Sammy Harkham and publisher Alvin Buenaventura -- was a famously, even infamously, grand production. And now...it's a minicomic?

Artist Hall Hassi has created what she calls a "ke7 zine" -- a 96-page, 8.5" x 5.5", black-and-white xeroxed version of the massive full-color hardcover. Pictures of the finished product can be found at the blog of artist Blaise Larmee, who notes that "sometimes the text is entirely legible. sometimes not at all." God only knows what kind of Kinko's kung fu had to be applied to even get the book to fit on a photocopier, so not being able to read some of it seems like a small price to pay.

Email Hassi if you're interested in purchasing one -- unless you're Sammy Harkham himself, who's still waiting to find out when he can expect a contributor copy.

(Via Kramers contributor James McShane.)

Ted May previews Injury #3

Page from Injury #3

Like the subject line says, artist Ted May has a brief pdf-file preview of the third issue of his ongoing series Injury up on his Web site. The comic will be available from Buenaventura Press soon.

What are you reading?

The Complete Peanuts: 1973-74

Welcome once again to What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is the esteemed critic and blogger Robert Clough. Rob is probably best known for his contributions to the seemingly now inert Sequart.com, though you can find most of his recent reviews on his blog, High-Low.

To see what Rob and the rest of us are reading, just click on the link below ...

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SDCC '09 | Buenaventura Press and First Second

Injury #3

Buenaventura Press will be debuting a grand total of four new comics at the show this weekend, including Aviatrix #1 by Eric Haven, Boy's Club #3 by Matt Furie, I Want You by Lisa Hanawalt and Injury #3 by Ted May and co.

Haven, Furie and Hanawalt will all be attending the show and signing copies at the Buenaventura booth (#1732).

In addition, copies of by Tom Gauld andThe Gigantic Robot The Complete Jack Survives by Jack Moriarty will also be available for purchase. Both books were available at the last MoCCA show, but they won't be available in comic book stores until August, so if you can't wait, this is your chance.

The company will also have a selection of minicomics and imported books from Sweden, Japan, Italy, France and the UK on hand.

Oh, and in case you were thinking of holding off on buying a copy of Kramer's Ergot 7 until after the show, publisher Alvin Buenaventura has some news:

This will be the last major signing event for Kramers Ergot 7 as many of the contributors including the editor Sammy Harkham will be with us. We're down to our last few hundred copies so if you've been holding out this is one of your last chances to get a copy and signed! We will not be reprinting this book.

Other artists who will be signing at the booth include Johnny Ryan, Xaime Hernandez, Seth, Tim Hensley and Leif Goldberg.

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Buenaventura offers stimulus package

Refusing to sound the death knell for the alt-comic pamphlet, Buenaventura Press, publishers of last year's mammoth, unexpected-controversy-inducing Kramer's Ergot 7, have announced plans to release not one but six new comic books this year.

The inspired bit is that these comics will be packaged together in what the company is calling "The BP Comics Revival Economic Stimulus 3-Pak." In other words, BP will release two sets of three comics shrink-wrapped together, a la the drugstore packages of olden days.

The first three-pack includes Ted May's Injury #3, Aviatrix #1 by Eric Haven and I Want You #1 by Lisa Hanawalt. The books cost $4.95 apiece, but will be available as a package for $11.95 and will be offered in the June issue of Previews.

As you may remember, May had expressed concerns online that the latest issue of his ongoing series would not meet Diamond's new minimum cut-off requirements and thus not be available in most comic stores. It's nice to see the publisher has found an inventive way around that problem.

Click on the link to read the full press release: Continue Reading »

2009 Joe Shuster Award nominees announced

The nominees for the 2009 Joe Shuster Awards, which honor Canadian comics creators, were announced today. The five-year-old awards program is named after Joe Shuster, co-creator of Superman. The list of nominees this year includes Darwyn Cooke, J. Torres, Karl Kerschl, Dave Sim, Kathryn & Stuart Immonen, Faith Erin Hicks and Seth, among many others.

Check out the full list of nominees in the press release after the jump.

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Print magazine covers Kramers signing

Like the subject line says, Print has a video slideshow of the Dec. 6 book release for Kramers Ergot 7 at Desert Island, Brooklyn, featuring interviews with folks like Kevin Huizenga and Adrian Tomine:

Kramers Ergot in Brooklyn from james gaddy on Vimeo.

(thanks to Bill K. for the link)

Is the ship sinking? A short chat with Ted May

Injury #3

I'm not sure when I first came across Ted May's work -- it was probably with It Lives -- but I remember being delighted with his sly blend of rock and roll, monster mania, superheroics, and adolescent smartassery, all delivered with a wink and a nod. I was excited, then, when May recently began a new comic book series, Injury, published by Buenaventura Press. What other alt-cartoonist would dare to imagine a Slade pinball machine or unabashedly quote Nazareth lyrics?

Alas, it seems Injury and May have fallen victim to Diamond's recent policy changes, as the third issue apparently won't make the cut-0ff criteria, making distribution of the pamphlet a tricky issue at best.

I spoke with May over email last week about these issues and the future of the series. I'd like to take this moment to thank him profusely for taking the time to answer the list of poorly worded questions I threw at him.

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