Jim Rugg
Looking forward, looking back: Chris Pitzer on AdHouse in 2010 and 2011
Afrodisiac
If you’re looking for a company that started and ended strong 2010, look no further than AdHouse Books, the independent company that’s published books by Joshua Cotter, Paul Pope and James Jean, among others. Although they aren’t the kind of company that puts out a huge amount of books, they are one you can always count on to put out something interesting.
As for those bookends for the year, AdHouse kicked off 2010 with the release of Afrodisiac by Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg, and ended it with Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines, which landed at the top of some folks‘ best comics of the year lists. (Including my own; it came in at No. 16 on CBR’s list for 2010).
I spoke with AdHouse Publisher Chris Pitzer about the previous year, the above two books, their new AdDistro initiative and what they have coming up for 2011. My thanks to Chris for sending over a lot of cool art to show you as well.
JK: Thanks for agreeing to talk to us today, Chris. I thought we could start off talking about 2010, and in particular some the bigger projects you put out.Let’s start with something that seems like it came out a long time ago, Afrodisiac. It seemed to garner a lot of attention when it came out in January.
Chris: Thanks for the interest in AdHouse, JKP! I dig what the Robot 6 blog does, so I appreciate the opportunity to chat about this stuff. In regards to Afrodisiac, it was an HONOR to work with Jim and Brian on that. We’ve been “dancing” around the topic of publishing it for years, and it was nice to finally have it happen. Yeah, it feels like so long ago, doesn’t it?
- January 2, 2011 @ 05:26 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Blood's a Rover
Hello and welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, where the Robot 6 crew talk about the comics and graphic novels that they’ve been enjoying lately. Our special guest this week is comics journalist and critic Dirk Deppey of Journalista and The Comics Journal fame.
To see what Dirk and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, read on …
- September 12, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Read Jim Rugg’s Rambo 3.5 for free
from Rambo 3.5 by Jim Rugg
If you’ve ever thought that our whole al-Qaeda problem was nothing a little team-up between George W. Bush and John J. Rambo couldn’t fix, then have I got the comic for you. Over on his blog, Afrodisiac/Street Angel artist Jim Rugg is offering free copies of his celebrated, Ignatz Award-nominated minicomic Rambo 3.5, in convenient Flickr, Comicpress, .cbr, .cbz and .pdf formats. Do we get to win this time? You’ll have to read the comic to find out!
- September 7, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
SDCC Wishlist | Jim Rugg’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3 T-shirt
by Jim Rugg
I’m not even sure where this will be available, but I really, really need one … artist Jim Rugg shares artwork he created for a limited edition Marvel vs. Capcom 3 T-shirt that’ll be available in San Diego this week. That’s the front of the shirt up top; click over to his blog to see the back.
I plan to hit the Capcom booth as soon as possible to see if I can find one.
- July 21, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Afrodisiac cover
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading? Our guest this week is Van Jensen, writer of Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer and the Great Puppet Theater. To see what Van and the rest of the Robot 6 crew are reading, click below.
- June 20, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Jim Rugg draws my childhood
by Jim Rugg
This weekend’s HeroesCon will feature an art auction, and artist Jim Rugg is showing off his submission — featuring everyone from Lobo and Hellboy to the friggin’ Road Warriors — on his blog.
On an unrelated note, why the hell do I not have this convention in my travel plans every year?
- June 3, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the shopping | PictureBox fundraiser
Cold Heat print by Jim Rugg
Want to exchange your money for rad things? Jim Rugg, Dash Shaw, Johnny Ryan and Frank Santoro are but a few of the cartoonists who are willing to take you up on that offer right now on behalf of a fundraiser for Comics Comics, the fine magazine-cum-blog of comics and criticism. Edited by Dan Nadel, Tim Hodler, and Frank Santoro and published by Nadel’s PictureBox Inc., the mag’s in the red, and it needs your help.
You can check out their eBay listings for original art from Rugg, Shaw, Santoro, and even Gasoline Alley‘s Frank King, or drop them a line and commission a portrait of yourself being “erotically violated” by Johnny Ryan. (The portrait’s by Johnny Ryan, not the erotic violation. Not necessarily, I mean.)
And if you’ve never checked out Comics Comics before, you can’t go wrong with the $10 three-issue Comics Comics Fun Pack. Where else can you find serious, stimulating writing on topics like Steve Gerber, Paper Rad, Guy Davis, Dick Ayers, Berserk and the Masters of American Comics exhibit, by everyone from top-notch critics like Tim Hodler, Joe McCulloch, and Jeet Heer to cartoonist-critics like Santoro and Shaw to guest stars like Peter Bagge, Kim Deitch, Brian Chippendale, and Mark Newgarden?
You can also purchase a hand-selected pack of five books from Santoro’s infamous back-issue bin, featuring some of the best indie and mainstream hidden gems of the ’80s, or snag a pair of deluxe art books from Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd album artists Hipgnosis and the ’70s-tastic West Coast airbrush art scene for $25 total. I’m telling you, it’s tough to go wrong here. But act quickly, because a lot of these offers end within hours!
- May 27, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Everyone’s a Critic | A roundup of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
Blackest Night #8
Capes and tights: Wow, here are two posts in one weekend about what’s wrong with superhero comics! Charles Hatfield picks up Blackest Night but just gets tired thinking of all that continuity, while PC Weenies creator Krishna Sadasivam picks up three new comics and finds none of them is accessible to new readers.
Meta: Jeet Heer gives his candidate for worst comics criticism of the 21st century. It’s short so go, read, laugh.
- April 26, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves | A roundup of publishing news
3X4
- AdHouse will distribute 3X4, by Scott Morse, Lou Romano, Don Shank and Nate Wragg, the guys behind Sex and Science and The Ancient Book of Myth and War. AdHouse describes the book as “a unique collection of paintings built around the simple aesthetic of the numbers 3 and 4. Be it shape, line, texture, or color, this collection dares to boldly add a new perspective to modern art.”
- Per Ross Campbell, the sixth edition of his popular Wet Moon series of graphic novels from Oni Press is now slated to come out next year. “I’ll be finished with the book on the same schedule, but Oni has restructured their workflow a bit so their turnaround/build time is longer now, making WM6 most likely a February 2011 release,” he wrote.
- Heidi at the Beat points out that this preview of the London Book Fair by Publishers Weekly reveals that Ben McCool and Billy Tucci are working on a graphic novel adaptation of the film Alexander Nevsky by Russian director Sergei Eisenstein.
- Jim Rugg will debut a new Rambo minicomic at this weekend’s SPACE event.
- Meathaus has scans of a Charles Burns minicomic called Free Shit “with preview art from an upcoming project of his.”
- Rami Efal has self-published Never Forget, Never Forgive, which was originally serialized on the webcomics collective site ACT-I-VATE. “It is a tragedy taking place in 16th century Japan and is a cross between Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, Sophocles’ Antigone, and Lone Wolf and Cub,” according to the author.
- April 23, 2010 @ 01:09 PM by JK Parkin
Your video of the day | pood #1: The Motion Picture
Look at the size of that thing! It’s pood #1, the new newspaper-style alternative-comics anthology edited by Geoff Grogan, Kevin Mutch, and Alex Rader and featuring contributions from Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca, Hans Rickheit, Sara Edward-Corbett and many more. And in this video, you can sort of get a sense of just how much comics is packed onto each page. You got a better way to drop four bucks on a funnybook?
- April 21, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Objet d’Afro contest winners
AdHouse Books has announced the winners of their “Objet d’Afro“/Afrodisiac art contest. At the top of this post you’ll see the contribution by “King Daddy” winner Marcussparcus; you can also check out the second and third place winners, “Cigarette Pimp” Katie Skelly and “Poppa-stoppa” Mike Shea.
Bonus: Don’t miss you chance to get a limited edition Afrodisiac T-shirt from ToonSeum.
- April 14, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim: Jim Rugg
Afrodisiac
Regular readers of Robot 6 will not be surprised to read we’re fans of Jim Rugg‘s work. Rugg and I recently did an email interview regarding his latest collaboration with Brian Maruca, Afrodisiac (AdHouse). The book is described here as: “Inspired by the blaxploitation films of the 1970s and classic superhero comics, the Afrodisiac collects art and comics starring the original super badass and featuring cool cars, sexy women, scary monsters, self-righteous superheroes, corrupt cops, aliens, Dracula, Richard Nixon.” Any interview so deeply focused on an unforgettable independent work of this caliber is a blast–partially also thanks to the wacky turns our discussion takes, including into the realm of Wolverine. My thanks to Rugg for his time and to longtime pal of mine (as well as a great publisher), AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer, for his assistance in arranging the interview.
Tim O’Shea: Before getting into the guts of the book, one quick question on the back cover. Who had the idea to do the female silhouette glaze (or what would it be called) on the back cover?
Jim Rugg: It’s called a spot varnish, son. When we figured out the front cover design, Chris Pitzer (Adhouse Books publisher and all-around awesome design guru) suggested a spot varnish for the glasses. That sounded great to me. So I wanted to take advantage of the spot varnish on the back too. But the illustration on the back didn’t really lend itself to the same treatment as the front. I wasn’t sure the back cover effect would work, but figured it was the back cover. Give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out.
- March 1, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Tim O'Shea
Objet d’Afro: AdHouse announces an Afrodisiac art contest
Objet d'Afro
Jim Rugg and AdHouse Books are hosting an art contest — Objet d’Afro — to help promote the recently released (and very awesome) graphic novel Afrodisiac. Here are the details, from AdHouse’s blog:
Objet d’Afro highlights the obvious awesomeness of everyone’s favorite superhero, the Afrodisiac.
Here’s what we want – post a picture on our Flickr group of an Afrodisiac art thing…you pick the medium…you pick the everything. All mediums of art; whether it be painting, graphic art, sculpting, drawing, sketching, fake ads, short strips, or gluing an afro on a Ken doll. All categories are welcome, as are entrants from all countries….whatever…go nuts. If you don’t have a Flickr account, send us the picture…or the art thing…and we’ll post it for you.
We’ll have some awesome prizes for the king of the long shoe (art) game.
King Daddy: a piece of original art featuring Afrodisiac vs Dragonfly
Poppa-stoppa: a deluxe edition of the Afrodisiac and a signed copy of the Street Angel trade paperback
Cigarette Pimp: a signed copy of AfrodisiacHonorable mention(s) will receive a signed Afrodisiac print.
The contest will run from now (get going) through the end of March. Winners will be named by April 15, 2010.
You can find the Flickr group right here; even if you don’t plan on contributing, it should be fun to check back later and see what everyone else comes up with.
- February 12, 2010 @ 09:45 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Photos from the Afrodisiac ‘AfroTour’
Jim Rugg outside of Chapel Hill Comics
AdHouse Books has a Flickr photo set documenting the Southern leg of cartoonist Jim Rugg’s “AfroTour” in support of the release of the Afrodisiac hardcover. Rugg and AdHouse Publisher Chris Pitzer appeared at signings at Velocity Comics in Richmond, Virginia, Chapel Hill Comics in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“This was the first time I’ve done anything with a comics store outside of my hometown,” Rugg writes on his blog, “and was overwhelmed with everyone’s kindness and support from the store employees to readers both new and old.”
- February 9, 2010 @ 09:50 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
The Troublemakers
Welcome to What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is the artist extraordinaire Jim Rugg, best known for books like Street Angel and The Plain Janes, and whose latest book, Afrodisiac (with writer Brian Maruca), arrived in comic stores this past Wednesday and has been winning raves everywhere it goes. (FYI look for an interview with Mr. Rugg courtesy of our own Mr. O’Shea sometime soon).
- January 31, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner