Small Press Expo has announced that over 170 books and comics will debut at SPX 2022. The festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 17-18, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center and will have over 500 creators, 280 exhibitor tables, 21 programming panels and 14 hands-on workshops to introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics.

A complete list of debuts, including cover images and publishing information, can be found on the SPX web site.

Here’s some of what you’ll find:

A Voyage To Arcturus: An Illuminated Edition – Beehive Books

Visionary cartoonist Jim Woodring has chosen to illustrate an unclassifiable 1920 novel by the legendary British writer David Lindsay. A Voyage to Arcturus is a baffling amalgam of mysticism, science fiction, sexual politics, and outrageous fantasy, and stands as one of the greatest works of sustained, untrammeled imagination ever achieved. Woodring’s drawings capture the writhing currents of interacting forces that lie beneath the wonderfully arcane prose.

Featuring an introduction by Alan Moore.

Who Will Make The Pancakes: Five Stories – Fantagraphics

In Megan Kelso’s  suite of five brilliant comics stories united by themes of motherhood, family, and love. Who Will Make the Pancakes collects five deeply social stories by the acclaimed cartoonist Megan Kelso, exploring the connective tissue that binds us together despite our individual, interior experience. These stories, created over the past 15 years wrestle with the concept of motherhood and the way the experience informs and impacts concepts of identity, racism, class, love, and even abuse.

The Bend of Luck – Top Shelf

Some guys have all the luck… but not all luck is good. The award-winning duo behind Coin-Op Comics, Peter and Maria Hoey, return with a mind-bending tale of fortune and family. Imagine a world where Luck, the most ephemeral of ideas, has a physical form. Precious stones of luck, mined like gold, are worn as bringers of fortune. But luck breaks both ways. While the blue gems may grant advantage to those who wear them, their blessing is fickle and unpredictable. In the blink of an eye, good luck can turn to bad.

This graphic novel tale is told in alternating scenes between the two generations, The Bend of Luck follows felicity’s course, like an arrow, through a family’s destiny.

Good Person Trouble – Fieldmouse Press

Sebastian, the tobacconist, stands trial for the disappearance of his cousin Teresa, but all is not what it seems in this courtroom drama. Bertolt Brecht meets Judith Butler in this debut graphic novel by Noëlle Kröger, translated by Natalye Childress.

Thieves – NoBrow

In Lucie Byron’s first English-translated graphic novel, What happened last night? Ella can’t seem to remember a single thing from the party the night before at a mysterious stranger’s mansion, and she sure as heck doesn’t know why she’s woken up in her bed surrounded by a magpie’s nest of objects that aren’t her own. And she can’t stop thinking about her huge crush on Madeleine, who she definitely can’t tell about her sudden penchant for kleptomania… But does Maddy have secrets of her own? Can they piece together that night between them and fix the mess of their chaotic personal lives in time to form a normal, teenage relationship? That would be nice.

Fruiting Bodies – Silver Sprocket

Ashley Robin Franklin tells the story of Frances, her brother, and his annoying friend Trent as they take a road trip through the Pacific Northwest. A wrong turn strands them in the rain-soaked woods. Luckily, they’re found by a beautiful, friendly stranger who is eager to help them—but is her convenient arrival their salvation, or something else entirely?

A Brief Guide to Crutonia – Self Published

Created by Deborah Lang and Robert Christie, Crutonia is a kingdom full of whimsical characters, strange beasts, and stories to be told. A Brief Guide to Crutonia, from the creators of “Quirk’s Quest: Into the Outlands” and “Quirk’s Quest: The Lost and the Found” features maps, creature profiles, and information about all aspects of Crutonian culture.