Small Press Expo has announced that over 140 books and comics will debut at SPX 2025. The festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 13-14, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center with over 500 creators, 280 exhibitor tables, 50 publishers, 22 programming panels and 18 hands-on workshops to introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics.
We’ve gone through the list and picked some of the comics, graphic novels, and zines that stand out. But, the great thing about SPX is everything you discover at the show! If you’re a fan of small press and indie comics, it’s a can’t miss event!
A complete list of of the over 140 books debuting at the show, including cover images and publishing information, can be found on the SPX web site.
9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off
Raymond Biesinger
$18.95
Published by Drawn & Quarterly
SPX Table W1-5
A veteran illustrator imparts practical advice for the working creative with candid humor
New York Times and New Yorker illustrator Raymond Biesenger has over twenty years of experience as a self-employed creative. You might say he’s been through it all: from chasing down a concert promoter for payment on a fifty-dollar Megadeth poster design, to a regular stint at Monocle, to confronting a government agency for stylistic theft. Biesinger’s ingenuity for solving the most unexpected issues extends far beyond his primary task of filling the page.
Sure, everything an aspiring creative needs to know might be at their fingertips. But the question of what to do when their work has been exploited remains. In 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off, Biesenger undertakes the challenge of answering that ever-present question by revisiting some of the most unforgettable—and at times—irrationally absurd moments in his career with a wink and an encouraging nudge. 9 Times… proves time and time again that creative problems will more often than not require creative solutions.
This portable, and elegantly illustrated guide to navigating and maneuvering the least glamorous aspects of the creative industry is a future classic suitable for everybody from the earnest novice to the seasoned professional.
A Scientific Study Of Transexuality
Oscar Woodiwiss
$10.00
Published by Fieldmouse Press
SPX Table M2 – M3a
Originally published as a part of the 2023 ShortBox Fair, an online digital comics festival, Oscar Woodiwiss’ A Scientific Study of Transsexuality is a satirical fictional scientific journal that explores the expression of transsexuality in nature. Woodiwiss’ moves deftly from the microscopic to the cosmic, interrogating cultural norms and affirming the sensual beauty of the trans body.
Beyond A.D.: 20 Years After the Deluge
Josh Neufeld
$10.00
Published by Hang Dai Editions
SPX Table W60
Commemorating the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the devastating flood that followed, Beyond A.D. is a companion zine to Josh Neufeld’s “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge.” It features selected updates, related comics and illustrations, unseen artwork, and other “DVD extras” to accompany the book.
Bridge Planet Nine
Jared Throne
$19.99
Published by Top Shelf Productions
SPX Table W56-W59
A heist gone wrong. In this gritty, intimate sci-fi graphic novel, four down-and-out thieves touch down on an abandoned colony planet for an easy heist… until the masks come off.
Cookies And Herb
Matt MacFarland
$15.00
Published by Fieldmouse Press
SPX Table M2 – M3a
Matt MacFarland grew up in the Reagan years in small town California. The people who made up his life, like his elderly neighbor Herb, helped him feel understood in an indifferent, insecure world. With gentle humor and compassion, Cookies and Herb honors and memorializes those people who gave Matt support and care when he needed it most.
Demon Summoner Gash Gash
Connor McCann
$25.00
Published by Strangers Publishing
SPX Table A1
WHO WILL SURVIVE THE CENTIPEDE GOLGOTHA?
After an unspeakable tragedy, Mason Marrow must descend into a world of grindhouse black magic in order to save his town and family from an impending cosmic massacre.
DEMON SUMMONER GASH GASH is a genre-bending odyssey through heaven and hell. Inspired by Devilman, Gummo and Cormac McCarthy, it’s everything you’d expect out of a Connor McCann comic and more.
Double Take
Kat Foyle
$5.00
Published by Fieldmouse Press
SPX Table M2 – M3a
People often speculate what it would be like if they had a doppelganger somewhere out in the world. If you had a doppelganger, would they be cooler than you? More successful than you? Would they imitate you at the grocery store? Kat Foyle’s Double Take explores this idea and all of the anxieties and irritations that would surely come with it.
House Haunting
Kelly Phillips
$6.00
Published by Kelly Phillips
SPX Table L4
A real estate ghost story: A true encounter with a haunted house
The summer we decided to start looking for a house to buy, we came across a unique listing: a strange, old house at the top of a steep hill, surrounded by darkened cliffs and filled with mysteries. Why is the second floor bathroom filled with windows? How long have the third floor bedrooms been staged as children’s rooms but left abandoned? Why do none of the staircases have handrails? Why won’t the front door lock so we can leave?
Upon discovering an empty room with nothing more than a lone piano, and an ominous portrait of a woman, the energy within the house starts to turn, and our three heroes find themselves accompanied by a presence that’s eager for them to also call this place home.
Snow Emergency Route – an adoptee graphic memoir
Lynn Von Sien
$20.00
Published by Leaf in Pocket Press (self published)
SPX Table W29B
Colorful midcentury coming-of-age misadventures are folded into the ticking clock of terminal cancer in this tragicomic memoir. After moving back to the neighborhood of her youth with two cats and a helpful fiancé in tow, Lynn Von Sien navigates her elderly mother’s decline. A deep dive into a complex adoptive mother/daughter relationship, teeming with wisdom and emotional truth.
Soften the Blow
Bread Tarleton
$39.95
Published by Fieldmouse Press
SPX Table M2-3A
Audrey Morris is a trans woman who was once a popular professional wrestler. Transphobic management and a horrible in-ring accident drove her from the sport. Sequestered in a small town, she struggles with her identity, body dysmorphia, addiction, and isolation in a series of surreal, interior vignettes. Can she find self-acceptance and community in the face of her own trauma?
Stay Awake and Watch
Turner Hilliker
$15.00
Published by Holiday Pay Press
SPX Table W10B
Inspired by classic shows like The Twilight Zone and Tales From The Crypt, Stay Awake And Watch is a 76-page comic book horror anthology influenced by late-night horror television.
The Fire Breathing Duckling
Frank Cammuso
$14.00
Published by Toon Books
SPX Table D11A
It’s the classic ugly duckling tale—but this time around, the little one turns out not to be a swan, but a dragon. And when their duckling siblings find themselves in trouble, it’s our little fire-breathing friend who saves the day. Whereas Hans Christian Andersen’s original is synonymous with inner beauty, Frank Cammuso’s loving update turns it into a parable of inner strength.
The Jungle #2
Keenan Marshall Keller and Tom Neely
$10.00
Published by Uncivilized
SPX Table W47-49
Johnny and The HUMANS struggle with the rules of their new world; butting heads again and again with anyone and everyone on the block, leading to conflict with Thumper and the God Bullies, whose interest in NADA snowballs into an all-out Bloody Brawl in the Boiler-room!!
This issue has it all, including Crazed Christian Sermons, Threats of Forced Trepanation, a heaping dose of Ape Cock, Witchy Occult Ceremonies, a Bloody Brawl, and mountains of SKIN SHIT!!! This is crazy Apesploitation Action at its BEST!
ALL IN “KING-KONG” SIZED MAGAZINE FORMAT!!!
The Needle and The Damage Done
J.T. Yost
$10.00
Published by self-published
SPX Table 13B
This collects two true stories of addiction (“Shot Thru The Heart” and “Down The Hatch”) adapted into comics by J.T. Yost. They originally appeared in the “BOTTOMS UP! True Tales of Hitting Rock-Bottom” anthology (in black & white). Three color (black, violet, fluorescent pink) interior printed on cream paper with two color (mint, fluorescent pink) covers printed on black card stock. Limited edition of 100, numbered on the inside back cover.
This Place Kills Me
Nicole Goux, Mariko Tamaki
$20.00
Published by Abrams Books
SPX Table w72
A compelling, propulsive YA graphic novel mystery from acclaimed Eisner Award–winning author of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Mariko Tamaki, and Eisner-nominated illustrator Nicole Goux
Multiple starred reviews! “Certain to leave readers breathlessly enthralled.” (Kirkus starred review)
At Wilberton Academy, few students are more revered than the members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society—a.k.a. the WTS—and no one represents that exclusive club better than Elizabeth Woodward.
Breathtakingly beautiful, beloved by all, and a talented thespian, it’s no surprise she’s starring as Juliet in the WTS’s performance of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. But when she’s found dead the morning after opening night, the whole school is thrown into chaos.
Transfer student Abby Kita was one of the last people to see Elizabeth alive, and when local authorities deem the it-girl’s death a suicide, Abby’s not convinced. She’s sure there’s more to Wilburton and the WTS than meets the eye. As she gets tangled in prep school intrigues, Abby quickly realizes that Elizabeth was keeping secrets. Was one of those secrets worth killing for?
Told in comics, letters, diary entries, and news articles, This Place Kills Me is a page-turning whodunnit from award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki and acclaimed illustrator Nicole Goux that will have readers on the edge of their seats and begging for an encore.
