Ted May
The end of Buenaventura Press: a reaction round-up
(L-R) Robert Crumb, Kramers Ergot 7 contributors Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, and Adrian Tomine, and publisher Alvin Buenaventura; photo by Melissa P. Coats
On Friday, publisher Alvin Buenaventura announced he had shut down his imprint Buenaventura Press as of this past January, due to a single knockout legal/financial blow. Publicly available details are few, in keeping with the private way the move has been handled for the past six months. But comics creators and critics en masse are mourning BP’s demise and reading the tea leaves as to where its publisher, artists, and entire brand of comics will land.
Robot 6 reached out to several of the artists published by Buenaventura, as well as a few of his fellow publishers, for their reaction:
Working with Alvin over the years has been really amazing. He has introduced me to a lot of magical and influential artists and hooked me up with tons of inspiring and perverted books. His place has awesome shit scattered all over- mountains of crazy books, toys, memorabilia, gigantic figures, artwork- it’s like a bomb went off. Now that he’ll be taking a break from the business we’ll finally have more time to play Rock Band and trip out on weird TV shows.
–Matt Furie, writer/artist, Boy’s Club
- June 14, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
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.
- August 31, 2009 @ 11:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Kramers Ergot meets the Simpsons in this year’s Treehouse of Horror
©2009 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons © & ™Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
I somehow missed this in Tucker Stone’s report from MoCCA last week, but luckily Heidi over at the Beat caught it — Stone spoke with John Kerschbaum about his future projects, and the creator revealed that he’s working on this year’s Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror book for Bongo Comics.
Kerschbaum isn’t the only one working on the book, though; as you can see below in the solicitation copy that Bongo was kind enough to send us, they’ve recruited a Murderer’s Row of creators, including Jeffrey Brown, Kevin Huizenga, Matthew Thurber and many more, and it’s edited by Sammy Harkham of Kramers Ergot fame:
Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #15
Edited by Sammy Harkham
$4.99
48 pages/standard format/color/humor
UPC: 01511 (7-98342-02851-5)Guest edited by Sammy Harkham, the award-winning creator of the popular Kramers Ergot anthology, this year’s issue is a jam-packed with some of the most idiosyncratic (and weirdest) takes on “The Simpsons” universe ever. Among Halloween-inspired short strips by such visionary cartoonists as Jordan Crane (Uptight), C.F. (Powr Mastrs), Will Sweeney (Tales from Greenfuzz), Tim Hensley (MOME), and John Kerschbaum (Petey & Pussy), are four featured tales of inspired Simpsons lunacy: heralded artists Kevin Huizenga (Ganges, Or Else) and Matthew Thurber (1-800 Mice, Kramers Ergot) collaborate on a weird and wild story equal parts Lovecraftian eco-horror and Philip K. Dick identity comedy. Jeffrey Brown (Incredible Change-Bots, Clumsy) does a creepy and suitably pathetic story featuring Milhouse in a “Bad Ronald”-inspired tale of murder and crawl space living. Harkham and Ted May (INJURY) pull out all the stops for a tragic monster tale of unrequited love, bad karaoke, and body snatching at Moe’s Bar. Ben Jones (Paper Rad) does the comic of his life with an epic tale of how bootleg candy being sold at the Kwik-E-Mart rapidly spirals out of control into an Invasion of The Body Snatchers-like nightmare of a Springfield filled with cheap bootleg versions of familiar characters. And nobody does squishy, sweaty, and gross like up and coming cartoonist Jon Vermilyea (MOME), who outdoes himself with “C.H.U.M.M.,” a C.H.U.D.-inspired parody featuring everybody’s favorite senior citizen, Hans Moleman!
With a cover by Dan Zettwoch, Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #15 is like nothing you’ve ever seen, and is sure to be one of the most talked about comics of the year by alternative comic readers and Simpsons fans of all ages!
This goes on my “must buy” list.
- June 17, 2009 @ 04:01 PM by JK Parkin
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 »
- April 22, 2009 @ 09:34 AM by Chris Mautner
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.
- March 16, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner