Vortex should be available at your local comic shops today!
The comics critic Jog has chosen Vortex as a spotlight picks for his weekly column on new releases for The Comics Journal website, here’s a screenshot:
If you can’t find Vortex at your shop you can ask them to order it for you.
Hey hey hey! On this Saturday, September 10th, I’ll be tabling next to my buddy Tim Brown at the second KC Zine Con from 10am to 6pm.
Poster by Kelsey Wroten.
I’ll have Vortex, Future Shock Zero, Ink Brick #4, RhiZome #3, Digestate, and these risograph Vortex posters:
Posters printed by local shop Oddities Prints.
This’ll be my first time tabling in Kansas City and my only time tabling in 2016!
I’m very excited to tell y’all that Vortex is on Page 269 of Previews, the Diamond comics catalogue! It’ll be on shelves in fine comic book stores across the US on October 26th September 28th.
If you’d like a copy, ask your local comic book store to order it for you before September 2nd.
Order code AUG161125.
You may have noticed that these two pages are the Alternative Comics section of Previews. After Virginia Paine decided to close Sparkplug Books, Marc Arsenault of Alternative Comics inherited most of Sparkplug’s backstock. I’m grateful to Virginia for taking a chance on Vortex and all the work she did to get the Kickstarter funded and the book printed and distributed. Running a publisher as a third job is hard work and I’m glad that she’s going to be able to focus on her own awesome comics, like The WHYs, an epic webcomic about queer superpowered teens.
The reviewer Rob Clough of High-Low said goodbye to Sparkplug in a review round-up that includes Vortex.
Orders of Vortex placed until midnight tonight (eastern time) are only $13. I will send them domestic priority mail for free. They should arrive before Christmas.
Sorry international friends but this offer is for US addresses only.
Deal over, thanks to everyone who bought a copy! You can order a copy of Vortex from me here (shipping included in prices).
I’ll draw in your order too!
I have comics in two comics collections that will debut at Comic Arts Brooklyn this weekend (Nov 7th): Future Shock 0 and Ink Brick 4. If you can’t make it to CAB, both are also available for preorder.
Future Shock 0 is a full-color astro-psych SF anthology edited by Josh Burggraf and published by Retrofit Comics.
Cover by Jordan Speer.
My six-page comic is called “Ax the Ship.” You can preorder it here.
Ink Brick 4 is a full-color journal of comics poetry run by Alexander Rothman, Paul K. Tunis, and Alexey Sokolin.
Cover illustration by Matt Huynh and design by Alexey Sokolin.
My four-page contribution is called “Mud Mind.” You can preorder it here.
My first time at SPX was a mixed experience. I had a blast hanging in the cartoonists concentrate of the Bethesda Marriott, sold a lot of Vortex and my two risograph minis, and brought home a heavy stack of fantastic comics, but I was unable to fully represent Sparkplug due to a shipping snafu.
On Friday, my hotel roomie and I caught a metro ride to join my friend at Fantom in downtown DC for a hot and humid but fun book signing with Farel Dalrymple, MK Reed, Brandon Graham, and others. We checked out Fantom’s inventory – DC is lucky to have such a great shop!
Saturday morning I was dismayed to discover that the box of books that Sparkplug had shipped to the hotel wasn’t at my table. Sam Marx, the friendly SPX Exhibitor Coordinator, and the hotel staff scoured the loading dock but the box was never found. So instead of a table full of books, I had a minimal installation of Vortex, Cold Heat Special #10, and Sphere Fear (which luckily did arrive at the hotel).
I hadn’t seen Sphere Fear before the show (published by Yeah Dude Comics). I was a worried about my riso color choices (orange and green – I worried that it would be unreadable but I wanted to expand beyond pink and blue) but Issue Press did a wonderful job printing the minis, they looked beautiful and I sold out of my comp copies. Look for it on the Birdcage Bottom Books distro soon.
After the morning’s disappointment I rallied. I was in an auspicious table location – to the right of Benjamin Marra and around the corner from Frank Santoro, who was selling treasures from his long boxes unearthed from the basements of comics history and promoting the IndieGoGo campaign to fund the embodiment of his school in a physical building, the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency (contribute to this exciting cause if you can), and supporting his table neighbors with snacks.
Sparkplug Books intern Jenny Flax brought the Sparkplug tablecloth and postcards to the table.
I tried to stay rooted behind my table but I couldn’t help but slip away to check out the rich outpouring of talent at SPX. Since moving to Kansas City I’ve been in a bit of an art comics desert so this was an oasis for me. My favorite book was the Blades & Lazers collection by the aforementioned Ben Marra, fresh off of a successful Kickstarter campaign, including a bad-ass genderbent comic by Lale Westvind and Keenan Marshall Keller, and brilliantly printed in fluorescent pink and metallic blue spot colors, genius choices by the Sacred Prism publisher. I also really dug Mickey Zacchilli’s Venom riso mini, which boils super villain angst and vicious energy down to their viscous essences; the very metal horror-fantasy book Azzuldekkon by Alan Brown; Meghan Goes to McDonald’s, Meghan Turbitt’s hilarious and absurd collaborations with her comics students; and Pat Aulisio’s Infinite Bowman, frenetic psychedelic SF that riffs on 2001. I got a lot of other great books too and I’m slowly reading my way through my pile.
Saturday night I stayed out far too late and got to hang out with a lot of great people. I love how everyone stays close to the hotel, it’s very convivial. I’ve been to enough shows at this point that I have a crew I usually hang with and most of them were there. I didn’t attend the Ignatz award ceremony but it was great to hear that so many skilled women were recognized, especially after this year’s Hugo nonsense.
Sunday was slower than Saturday. Sales were steady but I noticed a definite shift in what people bought – Saturday was all about the risograph minis and Sunday was for books.
Sunday night I took it easy – got dinner with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend; played (and lost) a round of the Magic card game, which was a fun nostalgia trip; and soberly talked with some people at the bar before trying to get some restorative sleep before my early morning flight. When I got up to catch a cab at 5am, a few people were still up, jam drawing. Next time I’ll have to get a later flight!
Despite the lows, I loved SPX and the close-knit atmosphere it emits. And thanks to Alex Hoffman and Matt Moses for being great hotel roommates. Sharing a room made the trip a lot more affordable for me. I can only do one out-of-state show a year and SPX might be my choice in 2016 too.
I’ll be tabling for Sparkplug Books at the Small Press Expo this weekend, September 19th and 20th, in Bethesda, MD.
Sparkplug superstar Jenny Flax and I will be at table N11 with a bunch of great Sparkplug postcards, mini comics, and graphic novels!
I’ll also have Vortex and my new risograph mini comic Sphere Fear, published by Yeah Dude Comics. Come by my table and say hi, it’s my first SPX and I’m really excited!
Robin McConnell of Inkstuds interviewed me about Vortex, Skew, performance art, Jack Kirby, Sphere Fear (my risograph comic debuting at SPX, published by Yeah Dude Comics), and more! Listen to it here.
I was pretty nervous about the interview but friends have assured me that it sounds fine. There were a few things that I realized afterwards I should’ve mentioned:
I’m the token American in the third issue of the British SF anthology series RhiZome, edited by Rob Jackson and Kyle Baddeley-Read. My comic, “Rock Troll,” is ten pages long. Here’s the first page:
RhiZome #3 was reviewed by Richard Bruton on the Forbidden Planet blog. He liked “Rock Troll.” Here’s a quote:
A thing of some shape meets a rock. And the rock turns nasty. And then other stuff. It’s hardly War & Peace but by heck, it’s great. Maybe it’s the visual simplicity of it all, but whatever it was, it’s great.
Buy it from the shop link on Rob Jackson’s website. It’s £4 plus £2 if you’re outside the UK.
Here’s another page:
Kyle Baddeley-Read posted an interview with me on the RhiZome blog. Here’s an excerpt:
From the first three issues of RhiZome, what stories have stood out to you? Why?
My favorite story is “Corporation Pop” by Rob Jackson. The first two installments were in RhiZome #1 and #2. I like how Rob depicts a mundane office life that is spiraling out of control into a paranoid fantasy where nothing seems real. Tyler Stafford’s comic in RhiZome #2 is also amazing, like all of his work. He puts in a lot of little details in his drawings that make his SF worlds grounded. I also dig his character designs.
Here are two more reviews of Vortex with contrasting perspectives. Click here for blockquotes and links.
