Tag Archives: spx

SPX announces a Special Multi-Media Event with Thalia Zedek and Leela Corman to benefit the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program

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Small Press Expo has announced a special multi-media event with famed indie-rock musician Thalia Zedek and award-winning graphic novelist Leela Corman as a benefit for the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program.

This special, one-time only performance will be held on Saturday, September 17 from 5PM-7PM in the White Oak Room at SPX 2022, which will be held at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

The performance will include Leela presenting some of her recent comics accompanied with music by Thalia, who will then do a solo performance of her music while Leela’s art is projected on-screen. This will be followed by a Q&A session led by comics creator and teacher, Josh Bayer.

Tickets are $20 for people not attending SPX, and will be an additional $10 for those who buy badges to SPX 2022. Tickets for both this event and to attend SPX can be purchased via Eventbrite. 

More information about more programming and the exhibitors room at SPX 2022 can be found on the festival website. 

The money raised will be used to reinstate the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program, which awards a grant to library systems that serve under-privileged communities in the Mid-Atlantic region to supplement their budgets so they can purchase graphic novels for their patrons.

Thalia Zedek
Leela Corman

Thalia Zedek is a critically acclaimed indie-rock musician whose eponymously named band’s latest work, Perfect Vision  is available along with her many other recordings on the Thrill Jockey record label:

https://thrilljockey.com/artists/thalia-zedek

Leela Corman is teacher and award winning graphic novelist whose previous works include Unterzakhn (Schocken-Pantheon) and We All Wish For Deadly Force (Retrofit/Big Planet). More information about Leela and her works can be found on her web site: 

http://www.leelacorman.com/

Small Press Expo Announces Signups for Workshops at SPX 2022

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Small Press Expo 2022

For the first time in three years, participants will be able to sign up for a variety of workshops at Small Press Expo. These are aimed at a wide range of ages and skill sets, from kids just starting out to experienced cartoonists looking to sharpen their skills.

Tom Hart, founder of the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW), will be leading a workshop, as well as several cartoonists associated with SAW. Small Press Expo also has several graduates of the Center for Cartoon Studies leading workshops.

SPX will also host two sessions from Crowdfundr, the sponsor of the Ignatz Awards, who are presenting alternatives for comics project fundraising. Here are a few highlights of this year’s workshops:

  • Bodies, Birth, and Death: A Comics Workshop With Tom Hart
  • Drawing Cute, a Comics Workshop With Shauna A. Grant
  • Making Science Comics: Dinosaur Edition With Coco Fox and Annabel Driussi
  • Figure Drawing For Cartoonists with Danielle Corsetto and Babs New

You can sign up for any of the 14 workshops at this year’s show here on the SPX web site.

SPX 2022 Announces its International Special Guests

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Small Press Expo 2022

Small Press Expo has announced the International Special Guests for SPX 2022. Coming from Canada, England, and Europe. Announced are Aimée de Jongh, Elizabeth Pich, Katriona Chapman, Ho Che Anderson, Barbara Stok, Lote Vilma, and Carla Berrocal as Special Guests at this year’s show.

The guests are made possible by generous grants from:

  • Spain Arts & Culture – Carla Berrocal
  • Goethe Institut – Elizabeth Pich
  • Nederlands Letterenfonds – Aimée de Jongh and Barbara Stok

The first in-person show in three years takes place on Saturday, September 17, and Sunday, September 18, with programming and workshops about the amazing world of independent comics, along with over 500 creators on the exhibitor floor.

See the Special Guest page on the SPX 2022 web site for more information.

Aimée de Jongh will be attending SPX fresh on the heels of winning over a dozen international Best Of awards for her latest book from SelfMadeHero, Days of Sand. The Return of the Honey Buzzard, her first graphic novel, won the Prix Saint-Michel for best Dutch graphic novel and was made into a film in 2017. Her following books, Blossoms in Autumn and Taxi!, were translated worldwide and won awards in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Japan. Aimée worked as a graphic journalist in the refugee camps in Greece. Her interest in travel, ecology, and journalism resulted in Days of Sand, her biggest project to date. When she’s not drawing comics, Aimée works in animation as a storyboarder and director.

Elizabeth Pich is a comic artist from the United States and Germany. After studying design and computer science, she now works as a comic artist in Saarbrücken, Germany. Since 2011, she has published several series including the popular webcomic War and Peas, with co-author Jonathan Kunz. Her current book Fungirl was released by Silver Sprocket in November 2021. Her comics are read weekly by over one million readers worldwide.

Katriona Chapman is a comic creator living in London, England. She spent years working as an illustrator before starting to self-publish zines and comics. Her zine Katzine won Best Ongoing Series in the Broken Frontier Awards. She has two graphic novels out with Avery Hill Publishing – Follow Me In (2018) and Breakwater (2020) and is currently working on a third. In 2018, Follow Me In won Best Graphic Non-fiction in the Broken Frontier Awards, and in 2020, Breakwater was on the New York Times list of best graphic novels of the year. It’s also just been translated into French for an edition by Futuropolis. Katriona works as head of marketing for Avery Hill Publishing.

Born in London, England, Ho Che Anderson was named after the Vietnamese and Cuban revolutionaries Ho Chi Minh and Che Gue­vara. Anderson is the author of nu­merous graphic novels, including King, a biography of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.; the horror thriller Sand & Fury; and the science fiction action-adventure Godhead. Ho Che Anderson lives in Toronto, Canada. 

Barbara Stok is an award-winning comic artist from The Netherlands. She briefly studied at the Fotoacademie school of photography in The Hague and worked as a journalist before becoming a cartoonist and illustrator. Her early work was autobiographical in nature, constantly questioning the meaning of life and right and wrong, always with a light touch. She has spent the last few years studying the classical philosophers and taking philosophy classes at university. Her critically acclaimed graphic novel Vincent (SelfMadeHero, 2012), about the life of Vincent van Gogh, has been published in more than 20 countries. Stok’s fascination with philosophy led her to write The Philosopher, the Dog and the Wedding, the result of five years of research.

Lote Vilma is an illustrator and poet from Latvia. Besides commission work, she writes and illustrates her own books, which have received several awards in Latvia for both writing and illustration. Lote also draws comics, many of which have been published in kuš! anthologies, as well as in magazines such as Kutikuti and Le Monde Diplomatique. Her next big project is a graphic novel based on her own experiences as a student in an art high school while living in a communal flat with an exciting yet chaotic atmosphere.

Carla Berrocal was born in Madrid, where she studied illustration and graphic design. She has written reviews of comics in the Guía del Cómic and also contributed to the radio program of the Fine Arts Circle in Madrid on the same theme.

In 2019, she was awarded an artist residency at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome for her comic project about the Spanish Copla singer Concha Piquer, Doña Concha, (Reservoir Books, 2021).

She works in her own studio and teaches workshops on comics and graphic novels at various institutions. She is also a comic artist for several different publications and an illustrator for countless advertising agencies and publishing houses.

SPX 2022: SPX Announces Ignatz Awards Sponsor Crowdfundr

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SPX

Small Press Expo has announced that Crowdfundr, a free crowdfunding platform for creators, is the official sponsor of the 2022 Ignatz Awards. 

Crowdfundr launched on June 21 to the delight of comics creators looking for a crowdfunding alternative that puts their interests first. Nearly all of the first comic book creators and publishers on the platform have already fully funded their projects. The mission of Crowdfundr is to empower and support the creator community by providing them with a free and robust crowdfunding platform. 

The prestigious Ignatz Awards are held every year at SPX, recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The winners will be announced at SPX 2022 during the Ignatz Awards Ceremony, that occurs on September 17 at 9PM in the White Oak Room of the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

Small Press Expo 2022 will be held on September 17 & 18, 2022 at the Bethesda North Marriott. Information about tickets, transportation and the hotel can be found on the SPX web site. In a ceremony to be held Saturday September 17 at 9PM, the most outstanding indie comic’s creators will be awarded the prestigious Ignatz Award across ten nominee categories, such as “Outstanding Artist”, “Outstanding Anthology”, “Outstanding New Talent” and more.

Besides sponsoring the Ignatz Awards, Crowdfundr will also host two workshops for creators to learn more about crowdfunding and the platform. The workshop schedule and the signup form will be announced mid-August.

Small Press Expo 2022 Announces Additional Special Guests

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Small Press Expo has announced additional Special Guests for SPX 2022. It’s the first in-person show in three years taking place on Saturday September 17 and Sunday September 18 with programming and workshops about the amazing world of independent comics, along with over 500 creators on the exhibitor floor.

SPX 2022 is honored to have the following creators as Special Guests to this year’s show:

Maia Kobabe is the author of Gender Queer: A Memoir, winner of an Alex Award, Stonewall Honor, and the most banned book in the US in 2021. It is being released in a deluxe hardcover edition that features a brand-new cover, exclusive art and sketches, a forward by ND Stevenson (Lumberjanes, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) and an afterward by creator Maia Kobabe. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

Ronald Wimberly (born 28 April 1979) is an American artist (a cartoonist and filmmaker). He has published several graphic novels, as well as shorter works for The New Yorker, DC/Vertigo, Nike, Marvel, Hill and Wang, and Dark Horse Comics. Wimberly was the 2016 Columbus Museum of Art comics resident, and was a two-time resident cartoonist at Angoulême‘s Maison des Auteurs. He is the recipient of the 2008 Glyph Comics Award, and has been nominated for two Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.

Rumi Hara was born in Kyoto, Japan, and started printing her comics on a tiny home printer while working as a translator in Tokyo in 2010. After receiving an MFA in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design, Rumi moved to New York in 2014, where she now lives and works as an illustrator and comics artist. Her comics series Nori was first self-published as minicomics and was nominated for an Ignatz Award in 2018.

Gabrielle Bell’s work has been selected several times for Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and has been  featured in The Believer, McSweeney’s and Vice magazines. Her story, “Cecil and Jordan In New York,” was turned into a film by Michel Gondry. The Voyeurs was named one of the best Graphic Novels of the year by Publishers Weekly. Inappropriate, her most recent collection of absurd short comics, garnered two Ignatz Award nominations and was named “One of the Best GNs of the Year” by The Library Journal. Gabrielle Bell lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Bianca Xunise is a cartoonist based out of Chicago, Illinois and will debut at SPX a brand new zine, Midnite Crawling, which is a collection of short stories about music and the punk subculture. In 2017 Xunise earned an Ignatz for Promising New Talent for their comic Say Her Name, an autobiographical story of police brutality and social justice. In 2020 Xunise earned their second Ignatz for their contribution to Be Gay, Do Comics published by IDW. Xunise has collaborated with Vogue, The Washington Post, The Nib, and Believer Magazine. They are also a contributor to the book How We Fight Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance along with Ta-Nehisi Coates, Tarana Burk, and Harry Belafonte. Bianca became the first nationally syndicated non-binary cartoonist when they joined the comic strip Six Chix in 2020 as their first black creator.

Small Press Expo 2022 reveals its Special Guests

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Small Press Expo has announced the first Special Guests for SPX 2022. The first in-person show in three years takes place on Saturday September 17 and Sunday September 18 with programming and workshops about the amazing world of independent comics and an exhibitor floor with over 500 creators.

Additional Special Guests will be announced over the next few weeks.

Keith Knight is the inspiration and Executive Producer of the Hulu series Woke, as well as being a current nominee for the  Cartoonist of the Year Reuben Award. Among Keith’s many other awards are the Glyph Award, the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best Syndicated Comic Strip, the Inkpot Award from San Diego ComiCon along with receiving a NAACP History Maker Award. His latest cartoon collection, Good On Both Sides, the fifth collection of his socio-political single-panel cartoon, (th)ink.

“Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator is a remarkable first-hand account of New Yorker cartoonist, Sofia Warren’s experience embedded with New York State Senator Julia Salazar and her staff during their first year in office. “So much of this experience was a surprise to me,” says Warren: “that for their entire first legislative session, Julia and her staff let me be in the room.” Sofia will be making her first appearance at SPX.

Ruben Bolling is the author of the weekly satirical comic strip “Tom the Dancing Bug,” which has appeared in hundreds of publications, including The Washington Post, The Village Voice, and The New York Times and currently appears on the online publications BoingBoing.net, DailyKos.com, and GoComics.com.  Ruben has won the Herblock Prize, an RFK Journalism Award, a National Cartoonists Society Award, a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal, and a Berryman Award from the National Press Foundation and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist (2019 and 2021).

Lonnie Millsap has been twice nominated for the prestigious Rueben Award and has won the Los Angeles National Cartoonists Society Dingy Award along with the Comic Art Professional Society’s Don Rico award. In 2018, his first cartoon was accepted by The New Yorker, which used his cartoons for their renowned Caption Contest. Millsap was also the character designer for Donny Hathaway’s Official animated ‘This Christmas’ music video released by Warner Records that has well over two million views. His work has also appeared in season one and two of Keith Knight’s television show, ‘Woke.’ Millsap’s latest cartoon book release is titled ‘Hit It To The Mermaid!’ (2022).

Megan Kelso has been drawing comics for over 30 years. In 2007, she was invited by The New York Times to serialize her “Watergate Sue” comic as part of the weekly “Funny Pages” feature. In 2019, she was selected for a public art commission for Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.  Her books include The Squirrel Mother (2006), Artichoke Tales (2010), and Queen of the Black Black (2011).

Tommi Parrish is a cartoonist and painter based in Montreal, QC. Their debut work, The Lie and How We Told It, won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for the best LGBTQ graphic novel, was nominated for the Ignatz award, and was featured in several best of 2018 lists and translated into several languages.

Small Press Expo Announces Its In Person Return in September

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Small Press Expo

The Small Press Expo has announced that it will return, live and in person, September 17-18, 2022. With COVID still an issue, the convention has announced safety precautions along with exhibitor registration and attendee information.

COVID-19 AND SPX

SPX plans to take a variety of measures to help ensure that they can provide as safe an environment as possible for the exhibitors, guests, and attendees. For this year’s in-person show, SPX will have the following COVID protocols in place:

For SPX Volunteers and Staff

  • Volunteers and staff must provide proof of vaccination to participate onsite
  • Volunteers and staff must abide by social distancing measures while on shift
  • Masks will be mandatory in all indoor SPX spaces, except while eating or drinking

For Exhibitors and Special Guests

  • Exhibitors must provide proof of vaccination to receive their SPX badge
  • Exhibitors will be limited 2 people per table allowed on the floor at any one time
  • Masks will be mandatory in all indoor SPX spaces, except while eating or drinking

For Attendees

  • Attendees must provide proof of vaccination to receive their badge
  • Masks will be mandatory in all indoor SPX spaces, except while eating or drinking
  • The convention is exploring the possible use of timed attendee tickets to help alleviate crowding

Additional Measures Under Consideration

The risks, and risk factors, for COVID-19 have continued to evolve and, with many months until showtime, it is likely that the safety measures will need to evolve as well. SPX will update the community periodically with the status for both the show and COVID protocols.

Over the next few months, SPX will explore whether they should require a negative COVID test within 48 hours of SPX as a condition of attending the show. Rapid antigen (at home) tests and PCR (lab reviewed) tests are costly and hard to come by in many locations. The convention will assess the additional margin of safety these measures could provide against the practicality and feasibility of their use.

Small Press Expos is also working with the Marriott over the course of the next several months to ensure the availability of sanitization supplies and masks, as well as the necessary equipment and logistical planning to enable proper social distancing in our meeting rooms, lines, etc.

COVID-19 AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY

One positive with regard to the pandemic is that SPX takes place in Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the most highly vaccinated areas in the United States. Based in part on these high vaccination numbers, currently, the Montgomery County Department of Health and the State of Maryland are allowing large functions at the Marriott, with mask wearing required except in the small breakout rooms and eating areas. Barring a decision from the county to halt large events such as ours, SPX feels confident in its ability to move forward with the show, and the attendees ability to plan accordingly. 

EXHIBITORS KEY DATES

Following is the planned schedule for opening table registration for SPX 2022:

  • March 4 – Invitations to publishers and creators sent
  • March 20 – Table lottery opens
  • March 28 – Table lottery closes
  • Week of April 4 – Lottery winners contacted
  • Mid-April – Hotel room block information sent to all table holders

The convention hasn’t yet determined the timeframe to provide payment for exhibitor tables. Expect May at the earliest and they’ll confirm the date with everyone by the first of March.

ATTENDEE INFORMATION

  • Advance tickets will go on sale no earlier than late June, with availability dependent upon the state of the pandemic.
  • For those attendees coming from out of town, the hotel room block will be made available the first week in May.
  • Capacities for panels and workshops may be limited. Sign-up forms for workshops will be available in August. 

Small Press Expo Announces its 2021 Virtual Programming Slate

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Small Press Expo

In addition to the previously announced live-streamed Ignatz Award ceremony, the Small Press Expo is pleased to announce that there will be a full slate of programming on Saturday, September 18th, and Sunday, September 19th, 2021.

Beginning at 11:00 AM EST each day, the panels will stream on the SPX YouTube channel. The programming includes a documentary about the diverse creator voices at SPX and workshops from Liz Reed and Tom Hart. There will be panels on Queer Joy, innovation in the use of color, starting your own local comics scene, and many more. The Spotlight panel will be on Bill Campbell and Bizhan Khodabandeh’s book The Day The Klan Came To Town, moderated by ICAF’s Dr. Qiana Whitted.

Check the SPX 2021 Program Schedule for an up-to-date list of everything that has been announced so far, and
Following the program schedule at 8:00 PM on Saturday, September 18 will be the livestream broadcast of the 2021 Ignatz Awards ceremony, also on the SPX Youtube Channel.

All the action begins on Saturday September 18th. 

SPX 2021 Programming

(All times are Eastern Time)

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 18

Enemies of the State
11AM-12:00PM
Join moderator Alex Hoffman and fellow critics Rob Clough, Daniel Elkin, and Jules Bakes for a special SPX edition of the podcast Enemy Of The State. The panel’s special guest is artist E.A. Bethea, whose Francis Bacon was nominated for a 2021 Ignatz Award. They will ask her in-depth questions regarding the comic and its remarkably dense qualities.

Personal Comics from Color, Shape, Line … and Lyrics!
12:15-1:15PM
You can make comics only with an open heart and whatever materials you have lying around. In one of the favorite workshops at SAW, Tom Hart will guide you through making 8-page mini-comics that uses song lyrics, personal memories and simple drawing and painting to make a personal comic that says what you feel and has a magic all its own. Suitable for all ages.

Comics, Bodies, and Embodiment
1:30PM-2:30PM
Bodies take many forms, and our relationship with one’s own can shift throughout our lives. Comics are a powerful tool for understanding and accepting the bodies in which we live. Joel Christian Gill, Tatiana Gill, Ashley Robin Franklin, and Robin Smith discuss their work as a means of exploring the corporeal form in a discussion led by Alison WIlgus.

Queer Joy and Queer Friendships
3:00PM-4:00PM
Join moderator Carta Monir and guests Emma Jayne, Crystal Frasier, and Walter Scott in a celebration of queer joy in comics. This discussion focuses on the power of queer friendships and happiness as both driving force and radiant rebellion.

Ourselves, In Stories: A Documentary Of The Small Press Expo
4:15PM-5:15PM
Award-winning documentarian Marjee Chmiel screens her documentary on SPX. Titled Ourselves, In Stories, it takes a look at the challenges, obstacles, and rewards of crafting new stories and redefining our cultural vision for whose stories are heard. Moderator Warren Bernard joins Marjee after the screen to ask her about the inspiration for and making of the film.

The Local Scene: Shows, Publishing, and Getting Started
5:30PM-6:30PM
While not every city has congregations of cartoonists like Chicago or Portland, every city has its own particular advantages and special qualities that can create its own unique scene. Join moderator Robin Enrico along with publishers and scene-makers Juan Fernandez, Jamila Rowser, Avi Ehrlich, and Neil Brideau as they discuss ideas regarding pedagogy, connecting with local schools and institutions, and incorporating other media and art scenes in creating your own.

Playing With The Medium
6:45PM-7:45PM
The familiar grids and linear storytelling of comics have stood the test of time. However, there are always innovators looking to stretch the formal limits of comics. Be it creating metafictional narratives, creating constraints on a page, or integrating comics with other media, there’s a rich tradition of playing with the medium of comics. Formal comics expert Dr. Craig Fischer will engage with experimental cartoonists Matt Madden, Shing Yin Khor, Nguyen K. Nguyen, and Joe Kessler on their formal experiments.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 19

Comics and Meditative Intention
11AM-12:00PM
What mindset is required for cartoonists to work? Is drawing a form of work or play? How does this relate to Lynda Barry’s conception of play as a serious, meditative activity? How do artists escape thinking about whether or not their work is good while they are doing it? Moderator Rob Clough discusses these and other questions with Hartley Lin, Keiler Roberts, Jason Shiga, and Luke Kruger-Howard.

Mixed Media Storytelling
12:15PM-1:15PM
Liz Reed of Cuddles and Rage walks you through how to sculpt Zombie Strawberries from C&R’s graphic novel Bites of Terror. This online workshop is designed to use clay and household materials to create your very own mixed media comic at home. The materials needed include: white, green, and red clay (polymer or air dry), foil, toothpicks, q-tips, a paintbrush, a gray marker or paint, cotton balls, glue, and a cutting tool. We’d love to see your zombie strawberries in action! When posting to social tag @spxcomics and @cuddlesandrage. Bites of Terror is a mixed media horror anthology by Cuddles and Rage from Quirk Books. You can find Bites of Terror online wherever books are sold or buy the book directly from Cuddles and Rage on Etsy.

World-Building And New Futures
1:30PM-2:30PM
What does the world become when any future is imaginable? From the smallest details to -all-expansive histories, alternate worlds provide a glimpse of what is possible. Alice Santos joins Kevin Czap, Maki Naro, Casey Nowak, and Alissa Salah in an exploration of the process of constructing these new futures.

Focus On The Day The Klan Came To Town
3:00PM-4:00PM
This is a special spotlight on The Day The Klan Came To Town, a powerful work of historical fiction. It’s based on the real events in 1923 when the KKK came to a small Pennsylvania town to make an example of its largely Jewish and Catholic populations, and how a group of people made a stand. Join moderator Dr. Qiana Whitted and creators Bill Campbell and Bizhan Khodabandeh as they explore the event and their adaptation.

Color and Narrative Innovation
3PM-4:00PM
Color is often secondary to line in comics, but a number of cartoonists have experimented with bringing color front and center. Not only that, but their innovations have included making color central to the emotional narratives of their stories. Moderator Rob Clough talks to Dash Shaw, Shira Spector, MariNaomi, and Tillie Walden about their challenges and experiences using color in bold, new ways.

Buer’s Kiss
5:30PM-6:30PM
Büer’s Kiss is a genre-bending live comics performance combining projected images, voice actors, and foley effects for an unforgettable adaptation of cartoonist Carl Antonowicz’s graphic novel of the same name. This recording was made during the show’s debut in 2018 at Pittsburgh’s New Hazlett Theater.

Small Press Expo Announces Dash Shaw, Bill Campbell, Bizhan Khodabendeh and Joe Kessler as Special Guests for SPX 2021

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Small Press Expo has announced the final group of Special Guests for SPX 2021. The virtual festival takes place on Saturday September 18 with live and pre-recorded programming about the amazing world of independent and small press comics, as well as a livestream of the annual Ignatz Awards.

SPX 2021 is honored to have the following creators as Special Guests to this year’s show:

Dash Shaw

Dash Shaw

Dash Shaw’s latest, Discipline from the New York Review Books, takes place during the Civil War, when many Quakers were caught between their fervent support of abolition, a desire to preserve the Union, and their long-standing commitment to pacifism. When Charles Cox, a young Quaker from Indiana, slips out early one morning to enlist in the Union Army, he scandalizes his family and his community.

Discipline is told largely through the letters exchanged between the Cox siblings—incorporating material from an actual Quaker and soldier journals of the era—and drawn in a style that combines modern graphic storytelling with the Civil War–era battlefield illustrations of the likes of Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer. The result is a powerful consideration of faith, justice, and violence, and an American comics masterpiece.

Photo courtesy Joanna Morrissey

Bill Campbell

Bill Campbell

Bill Campbell’s author of The Day The Klan Came To Town from PM Press, which is a fictionalized, graphic retelling of a KKK riot that occurred in Bill’s hometown of Carnegie, PA in 1923, at the height of the power of the KKK in America, and the community resistance to it as seen through the eyes of Primo Salerno, a Sicilian immigrant.

Bizhan Khodabandeh

Bizhan Khodabandeh

Bizhan Khodabendeh is the illustrator of The Day the Klan Came to Town, a fictionalized, graphic retelling of a KKK riot that occurred in Carnegie, PA in 1923 and the resistance to it.

Joe Kessler

Joe Kessler

Joe Kessler’s Windowpane from London-based Breakdown Press, is a one-man-anthology of critically acclaimed narrative and experimental comics by London based artist, Joe Kessler. The book contains new work, along with reprints of Windowpane 3 and Windowpane 4.

Small Press Expo Announces Joel Christian Gill, Ashley Robin Franklin, Walter Scott and Matt Madden as Special Guests for SPX 2021

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Small Press Expo has announced the second group of Special Guests for SPX 2021. The virtual festival takes place on Saturday September 18 with live and pre-recorded programming about the amazing world of independent and small press comics, as well as a livestream of the annual Ignatz Awards. Additional Special Guests will be announced over the next few weeks.

Joel Christian Gill

SPX 2021 has revealed the following creators as Special Guests to this year’s show:

Joel Christian Gill

For the third book in the bestselling Tales of the Talented Tenth series, Joel Christian Gill brings Robert Smalls to life by telling the true story of the enslaved African who pulled off one of the most daring and largest heists of the Civil War. Come along for the adventure as Robert earns a job working for the C.S.S. Planter, escapes to freedom, goes on to become a first-generation Black politician, and makes history by writing and leading the passage of legislation that led to the United States’ first free and compulsory public school system. Tales of the Talented Tenth is a historical comic series that focuses on the adventures of amazing African Americans in action.

Ashley Robin Franklin

Ashley Robin Franklin

Fusing sexual intimacy with cosmic dread, Ashley Robin Franklin’s latest work, a queer horror tale One Millions Tiny Fires from Silver Sprocket follows Briana and Cassie, a couple in an isolated Texas farmhouse, whose rural fantasy has soured into a tense nightmare.

After discovering an unknown object that had crash landed from the sky, Briana begins to suspect that something uncanny is happening to her partner.

Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Wendy is an aspiring contemporary artist whose adventures have taken her to galleries, art openings, and parties in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Toronto. In Wendy, Master of Art from Drawn & Quarterly, Walter Scott’s sly wit and social commentary zero in on MFA culture as our hero decides to hunker down and complete a master of fine arts at the University of Hell in small-town Ontario.

At its heart, this is a book about the give and take of community—about someone learning how to navigate empathy and boundaries, and to respect herself. It is deeply funny and endlessly relatable as it shows Wendy growing up from Millennial art party girl to successful artist, friend, teacher—and Master of Art.

Matt Madden

Matt Madden

Matt Madden’s most recent book, Ex Libris from Uncivilized Books, revolves around a character trapped in a room with nothing but a futon and a bookcase full of comics. As they peruse covers, read stories and fragments of stories, they begin to suspect that the comics contain hidden messages and… a threat. Fiction and reality blur; sanity and madness become increasingly intertwined as the reader becomes convinced the key to their predicament hides between the panels of the strange books.

With a dizzying array of inventive visual and narrative styles, Ex Libris continues the line of exploration and play that Madden initiated with 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style. Ex Libris is a tribute to the meta-fictional tradition of writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Vladimir Nabokov, and Italo Calvino.

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