Vinegar Syndrome‘s cult hit New York Ninja returns in a magazine-sized Super Special by Ignatz award winner Charles Forsman.
New York City, 1984 – Crime is at an all time high. John aka the New York Ninja scours the streets night after night, searching for his wife’s killer. Meanwhile, the villainous Rattail’s new radioactive powers make him deadlier than ever.
New York Ninja Super Special #1 is in shops November 30 from Floating World Comics.
Award-winning journalist Rone Tempest, science fiction novelist Maurice Broaddus, and Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated writer Adam Roberts are collaborating with NeoText, a new digital publishing company dedicated to publishing short-form prose ranging from science fiction and noir novellas to investigative journalism and narrative nonfiction. Each release from NeoText will be accompanied by covers and spot illustrations from acclaimed comic book artists and illustrators, including acclaimed artist Jim Mahfood and award-winning illustrator François Schuiten. In the months ahead, NeoText will publish an impressive array of artists and storytellers—including award-winning journalist Mike Sager, Ho Che Anderson, Howard Chaykin, Fay Dalton, Charles Forsman, Mad Dog Jones, Benjamin Marra, Dash Shaw, and photographer and director Neil Krug.
Started by Addictive Picture’s Russell Ackerman and John Schoenfelder and their frequent collaborator producer Jay Schuminsky, NeoText marks a new engagement with the publishing world for Schoenfelder, who previously played a role in the creation of Mulholland Books before forming Addictive Pictures with Ackerman in 2013, which they will continue to oversee together. NeoText has also tapped Eric Raab, video game narrative development veteran and former senior editor at Tor Books, as the Chief Creative Officer, while Edgar Award-nominated crime fiction author and editor Allan Guthrie has been named Editorial Director. NeoText has also brought Nicholas Mennuti, a prolific author and a former Narrative Consultant for NATO, on as Director of Narrative.
NeoText’s August publications reflect the company’s wide ranging storytelling ambitions:
Release date: August 4th. $2.99
Acclaimed sci fi writer and activist Maurice Broaddus (Buffalo Soldier), co-writer Otis Whitaker and internationally renowned illustrator Jim Mahfood have created an urban fantasy novella in which a 30-year-old man comes of age — and comes into his own as a hip hop inspired sorcerer.
At thirty, Malik Hutchens is the black sheep of one of the most successful families in Harlem. While his cousins strive to better the family, he couch-surfs with relatives, parties with his girlfriend, and ghostwrites rhymes for local rappers for a few bucks to finance his lifestyle. When cocky Malik sells two warring rappers the same verse, he paints an unmistakable target on his own back.
And then his beloved grandfather dies. On his deathbed, Pop-Pop tells Malik that he is a sorcerer —and that now it’s Malik’s turn to step up and take his place as wielder and guardian of an ancient magic passed down through generations. Malik is thrown headlong into a quest that winds through the mysteries underlying the streets of Harlem, to the rural South, and places much farther beyond, places that he’s only visited in dreams… Now Malik must grow to be both a sorcerer and a man, or face death and fail his family, his people, and the world.
Release date: August 18th. $2.99
Award-winning journalist and investigative reporter Rone Tempest presents the gripping true crime story of a Puerto Rico-born undercover officer gunned down by a white Wyoming lawman in 1978 — and the notorious frontier trial that followed.
“THE LAST WESTERN is quick moving, deeply sourced, and a page-turning snapshot of an event that rocked the state and still lingers – for better or worse.”
— C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of LONG RANGE
“Hugely entertaining…. Think: High Noon meets Training Day in Deadwood.” —Mike Sager, Esquire, author of The Devil and John Holmes and Hunting Marlon Brando.
Of all the possible explanations for why lawman Ed Cantrell shot and killed his deputy Michael Rosa in the parking lot of the Silver Dollar saloon, the least likely was the one that prevailed at trial—that a deranged Rosa went for his gun and Cantrell outdrew him in self-defense. In his powerful and compelling reconstruction of the infamous 1978 killing in boomtown Rock Springs, Wyoming, award-winning journalist Rone Tempest tracks the parallel lives of Cantrell, an Indiana schoolboy who fashioned himself into a 19th-century Western gunfighter on the right side of the law, and Rosa, a Puerto Rico-born and West Harlem-raised decorated U.S. Marine who worked under Cantrell as an undercover narc. For a time, Tempest writes, the two were an efficient team: Cantrell, the steely-eyed Wild West throwback and Rosa, the street-savvy New Yorker with an impressive flair. But then came a falling-out. Tensions and paranoia built to a breaking point until a midnight meeting in a saloon parking lot where Cantrell, with two other cops beside him, drew his Model 10 .357 and shot Rosa between the eyes, killing him instantly as he sat in the backseat of an unmarked police car. Unearthing previously unseen investigators’ notes, military records, personnel files, census records, college transcripts and even airplane manifests, Tempest skillfully demonstrates the true aim and cost of the raucous murder trial that followed the killing.
Release date: August 25th. $2.99
Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated writer Adam Roberts (The Thing Itself) and François Schuiten, recipient of the Angoulême International Comics Festival’s prestigious lifetime achievement award, present THE COMPELLED, a sci fi novella and the first book-length science fiction publication that Schuiten has illustrated.
A mysterious change has occurred in humanity. Nobody knows how, why or exactly when this change came about, but disparate, seemingly unconnected people have become afflicted with the uncontrollable desire to take objects and move them to other places, where the objects gather and begin to form increasingly alien, monolithic structures that appear to have vast technological implications. Some of the objects are innocuous everyday things—like a butter knife taken still greasy from a breakfast table or a dented cap popped off a bottle of beer. Others are far more complex—like the turbine of an experimental jet engine or the core of a mysterious weapon left over from the darkest days of WWII.
Where is the Compulsion coming from? And— more importantly—when the machines they’re building finally turn on, what are they going to do?
Upcoming NeoText publications include STONE, a dystopian revenge thriller for our times from the acclaimed cartoonist, filmmaker, and novelist Ho Che Anderson (King), as well as unannounced projects from Ray Banks, David Birke, Brendan C. Byrne, Ashley Christine, Max Allan Collins, Howard Chaykin, Fay Dalton, Sonny Day, Ryan DeMita, Charles Forsman, Alan Glynn, Henry Jones, Mad Dog Jones, photographer Neil Krug, Jardine Libaire, Benjamin Marra, Biddy Maroney, Christopher McBride, Julian Oliver Meiojas, Nick Menutti, Eric Raab, Adam Roberts, Mike Sager, Dash Shaw, Ian Simpson, Ashley and April Spicer, R. Emmet Sweeney, and Michael Tisserand.
In addition to a robust frontlist, with multiple new publications each month, NeoText will have exclusive, regular content on its website, including: a history of time travel by Adam Roberts; essays from Paco Taylor on topics from Basquiat, Counte Dante and hip hop covers; features on comic culture by Chloe Maveal; and interviews conducted by comic legend Howard Chaykin with crime legends like Megan Abbott and Lawrence Block and comic book superstars including Neal Adams, Joe Jusko, John Romita Jr, Walter Simonson, and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Cover art for each NeoText title will be designed by WBYK in a classic retro style that harkens back to the old pulp novels which inspired NeoText. Many titles will have two covers: a WBYK-designed cover and a cover where WBYK designs around art provided by the interior artist. “Just like the mass market genre publishers of old that inspired the covers’ awesome retro aesthetics, NeoText will offer our books at the super low price points you might remember from your childhood at the newsstand or drugstore,” said Jay Schuminsky. “We want our books to be accessible and affordable, so that a new generation can enjoy that delightful experience of buying good stories like candy and reading as many of them as they’d like without breaking the bank.”
Bergen Street Press has announced that COPRA and Revenger will no longer be published by them and each have found new publishers.
COPRA by Michel Fiffe and Revenger by Charles Forsman are praised indie comics and the move is so each will reach the “wider audience they deserve.”
The creators haven’t announced their new plans but both series are hot properties and can easily land at numerous publishers.
Fiffe took to Twitter to praise the publisher calling himself “lucky to have such compatriots” in his corner.
Bergen Street Press followed up saying they “have lots of plans” for the future but they are still figuring out their next moves.
Before The End of the Fucking World was a genre-bending, international smash hit on Netflix and Channel 4, it was the 2013 critically-acclaimed graphic novel by Charles Forsman, published (without the asterisks) by Fantagraphics Books! Re-released this past fall in a new hardcover edition, the book flew off the shelves within 24 hours of the hit series’ debut on Netflix last Friday. As a result, an ambitious third printing of The End of the Fucking World has been expedited and will hit stores in early February.
The End of the Fucking World is an eight episode series that premiered on Channel 4 and All 4 in the United Kingdom in October of 2017 and on Netflix internationally on January 5th, 2018. The show stars Jessica Barden and Alex Lawther as Alyssa and James, two teenagers whose predilections for nihilism spiral into horrific and humorous mayhem.
Originally self-published by Forsman in mini-comic form, The End of the Fucking World was collected and published as a softcover graphic novel by Fantagraphics in 2013. It was re-released in hardcover in late 2017 in anticipation of its small screen debut.
Pre-order your copy of The End of the Fucking World today from your local bookstore, comic shop, or directly.
This isn’t your usual boy meets girl tale. Come join teenage outsiders James and Alyssa on a road trip like no other. Based on the comic by Charles S. Forsman, The End of the F***ing World is out on Netflix January 5th.
You can read our review of the comic before you see the show!
The Secret life of Walter Mitty is one of those movies that no matter what walk of life you come form, you can relate to. His fantasies throughout the movie speaks to anyone and everyone who felt something towards someone. His fantasies with his object of desire is any boy who falls in love with a girl. His fights with the new boss, is anyone who has had a bad relationship with their supervisor. The movie made the viewer assured that every fantasy was too fantastical to be true.
Eventually, Mitty goes on his own real-life adventures, in the movie, ones which if you had a bucket list, these would be the places you ventured. Not once did he get the girl or hit his boss in the face, as his justice was assuredly passive aggressive. Therefore, when these impossible feats happen in real life, we all wish we could be in their shoes. So, when I heard about TEOTFW (The End of the F*$king World), where one of the main characters becomes nihilistic, and act upon these fantasies.
We meet James, a young adult, who goes through life, not caring about himself and is nonchalant about hi relationships and surroundings. This change when he meets Alyssa, his girlfriend, who despite his abuses, and violent behavior, is like a puppy dog in love. Eventually, James starts killing people, leaving a ton of bodies in his wake, and with the police on his trial, but James and Alyssa’s bond becomes even stronger. By book’s end, James and Alyssa got caught, but everyone who they across including the police officer hunting them, becomes affected this murderous duo.
Overall, a hard-hitting, frightening look at inhumanity and the darkness that occupies all of us, as it this is an exercise in restraint, and those without it. The story By Charles Forsman was scary, suspenseful, and disturbing. The art by Forsman reminds of Garry Trudeau’s work on Doonesbury. Altogether, a crazy ride, which will make the reader understand, that everyone is one bad choice from ruining their lives.
Story: Charles Forsman Art: Charles Forsman
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy
Small Press Expo is proud to announce additional Special Guests for SPX 2017. The festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 16-17, at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center and will have over 650 creators, 280 exhibitor tables and 22 programming slots to entertain, enlighten and introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics.
SPX 2017 is honored to have the following creators as Special Guests to this year’s show:
CHARLES FORSMAN grew up in Mechanicsburg, Pa. After dropping out of high school he went on to work and flail until finding a home at the Center for Cartoon Studies, from which he graduated in 2008. He is the author of the acclaimed, Ignatz Award-winning graphic novel, The End of the Fucking World, which has been adapted into a live-action miniseries that premieres on Netflix in early 2018. He runs a micro-publisher, Oily Comics, and continues to draw comic books in Massachusetts.
ANDREW AYDIN serves as Digital Director & Policy Advisor to Congressman John Lewis in Washington, D.C., with whom he co-wrote the March series. While studying at Georgetown University in Washington, Andrew wrote his master’s thesis on the history and impact of Martin Luther King & The Montgomery Story. As March has grown into a bona fide phenomenon, Andrew continues to publish and lecture about the history of comics in the civil rights movement — including giving talks at the headquarters of both Google and Apple. Saturday only.
Meet Christina, a data-entry specialist in her early twenties. Seemingly timid and plain to her coworkers she harbors dangerous urges. A lion of sexual violence bubbles just below the surface. The only soul she shares these feelings with is a terminal boy named Joshua in a wheelchair that lives several states away. They strike up a love through the internet but have to keep it hidden from Joshua’s strict and over-attentive mother. Will these two broken people get the freedom to love each other or will Christina’s monster escape its cage and scratch that violent itch that taunts her?
A psychosexual thriller in the tradition of the films of Brian de Palma and David Cronenberg. This 5 issue series by Charles Forsman and published by Floating World Comics will leave you breathless and heartbroken.
Slasher #1 is available to order in this month’s Diamond Previews catalog – FEB171109
For a period of about four or five months I kept seeing Charles Forsman name in my social media streams, talking about his new series called Revenger. So I looked over the previews and I liked that it had a look and feel similar to a few other cartoonists whose work I enjoy, namely Benjamin Marra and Michel Fiffe. Mainly what drew me in were the pages where Revenger is in a white background, nothing more than emptiness, no definition, her just killing clowns that are trying to attack and kill her with a baseball bats. There is no description of with the depicted action, we just have Revenger telling us what happened to her son, and why she’s doing this.
From there it goes into the story of a couple of teens who are in love, and of course the girlfriend is kidnapped and the boyfriend is upset and wants to get her back. So like any responsible boyfriend listens to rumors about a vigilante travels America righting wrongs and the number to call is… 1-800-Revenger! He calls and leaves a message and a few days later Revenger shows up in his town. Here we find out that it’s a bad Town town where girlfriends can be kidnapped and racism is dripping off the local officials.
Now I don’t want to give away the rest because it really is great, but I do want to say that Forsman has got some really interesting tricks he uses in telling the story. For example, alot of times something will happen off panel, not necessarily violence, but sometimes violence. Often times it made me laugh, in the same way I laugh when I watch Rambo or the first Predator movie. Violence is something just woven into the fabric of America, and how we understand that is reflected in so much of our entertainment and national dialogue, I think Revenger is tapping into that, much the same way that the Punisher comics do. Helping us face questions about the how and why of justifiable violence. Not to get too deep on everybody, but just stating the obvious here.
Also I have to say that the physical comics themselves are perfect, the quality of paper and colors are just exactly what I want out of a comic. They are not printed on the high gloss paper generally found in big two books, but not on flimsy newsprint either, these things are solid, they feel like heirlooms.
Now since I didn’t want to review each individual issue, cause the collection of the first five issues just came out, I thought to do something a little more and managed to get Chuck Forsman to answer some questions through the e-mail. Here for your consideration are his responses, potentially incriminating I might add…
Graphic Policy: What inspired the choice to make the latest Revenger series take place at a different point in her history, and will we see more issues like this?
Chuck Forsman: I think it comes from just that I am always fascinated to learn about characters in different points in their lives. Originally I had imagined to keep going in a linear direction but I would need to be selling a ton of comics to keep that sort of momentum up. So that also influenced the decision. I figured it would be easier to get people to pick up the comics if they were more separated as opposed to one long narrative.
GP: Do you have a grand finale in mind or is Revenger more of an open ended story?
CF: Ummmm. a little bit of both. I don’t want to ruin any surprises but at the same time, I do enjoy keeping things a bit open. For me, that is the most fun about making comic books is that often you end up in unexpected places. A lot of my past work was much more open ended. I really enjoyed an improvised approach. I liken it to playing a game. You set up the rules and boundaries and set your characters off and see where things take you.
GP: What sort of non comics art influences you? (movies, paintings, books etc)
CF: Right, now it’s movies. The last few years I have really embraced that place where genre meets art. Directors like John Carpenter, Cronenberg, Kathryn Bigelow, Brian DePalma. People who worked in or on the cusp of Hollywood but are complete visionaries. I think those movies really brought me over to doing Revenger. My past work is for lack of a better term, decidedly more “indie.” My obsession with action, horror movies wasn’t waning and also my renewed interest of comics from the 70s-90s helped fuel the fire. Trying to find the art within industrial comics is an obsession that won’t go away for me anytime soon. So I guess doing an action comic book like Revenger…I saw it as a bit of a challenge for myself. It’s very different from my other work and I was curious to see how I would handle it.
GP: If you could have a cross-over with any comic character and Revenger, who would it be? (example, like Revenger vs. Daredevil or Batman or Bloodshot or whoever)
CF: Oh jeez, I would probably pick someone a bit more obscure. One of my favorite comics was this 1986 5-issue series from Marvel called Dakota North. North was billed as a late-80’s fashion icon that was a sort of investigator for hire. It was written by Martha Thomases and drawn by Tony Salmons. I encourage anyone to find those comics. They are very common in dollar bins. Salmons is just incredible. A very adept action cartoonist. But anyway, I could see Revenger and Dakota teaming up to taking down a corporate goon and maybe not getting along very well.
GP: What books are you reading now that excite you about comics? (regular old pictureless books are acceptable too of course)
CF: At the moment I am obsessed with collecting comics garbage, as my friends and I call it. I love going into the dollar bins at a convention or shops and flea markets and looking for stuff from the 80s mainstream. I always buy Klaus Janson comics when I see his stuff. Especially when he is working on his own doing pencils, inks, and colors. I especially like his 5 issues of the first Punisher ongoing and he did a small run on a comic called St. George from Epic. I’ve been looking at the layouts in St. George a lot for inspiration. Michel Fiffe turned me onto Trevor Von Eeden and I just read the first issue of his Green Arrow mini from the late 80s. Again, I just marvel at every page. Von Eeden is a master as graphic decision making.A lot of that stuff is unreadable but there were amazing artists that work doing incredible things that I love to surround myself with.
I also love to find self-published comics from the 80’s black and white boom. I kind of see it as garage rock from the 60s. After the beatles every teenager in every small town started a band and some of them even cut records. I feel like this happened in the 80s for a time. A lot of young people made these comics that most people would laugh at but I see something magical in them. Benjamin Marra likes to call it “the passion.” And I think that is a perfect description for the stuff I look for in these bins. Just finding people who made comics in their bedrooms and they were putting their all into it. Just giving it all they had. I think I see myself in this work. I don’t consider myself a very good artist so I think I am attracted to the idea of making what I do have work. I’ll try to name some titles off the top of my head. New York City Outlaws with the art of Ken Landgraf is a great comic. I just read the first issue of Dog by Joe Vigil. That book is incredible. It’s about a tough dude who stumbles upon a tortured gay kid who spends his last moments talking to Dog. Then Dog gets angry and helps free the kids friends and kill the bikers responsible for torturing them. It is a visceral and satisfying read to be sure.
GP: Alright folks that’s it, go check out the official Revenger website where there is links to buy the comics direct from the creator, or get them digitally or demand your local shop get them!
MYFAKEHEAD is the online version of Benjamin Anthony, a former chef, janitor, lunatic, prisoner, cultist, clerk, tow motor operator (smooth) and currently an artist and writer. He is also morally and legally responsible for Super Awesome Comics. You can find him online at myfakehead.com and all your favorite social media internets.
The Small Press Expo was held this past weekend September 14 and 15th in Bethesda, Maryland and with it the annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards. Congratulations to all of the winners.
Winners are highlighted in bold.
Outstanding Artist
Lilli Carre for Heads or Tails
Michael DeForge for Lose #4
Miriam Katin for Letting It Go
Ulli Lust for Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life
Patrick McEown for Hair Shirt
Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Freddie Stories by Lynda Barry
Heads or Tails by Lille Carré
Peter Bagge’s Other Stuff by Peter Bagge
Stark #1 by Tusen Hjartan
Very Casual by Michael DeForge
Outstanding Graphic Novel
The Property by Rutu Modan
Susceptible by Genevieve Castree
Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust
When David Lost His Voice by Judith Vanistendael
You’ll Never Know Vol. 3: A Soldier’s Heart by Carol Tyler
Outstanding Story
“Arid” (Secret Prison #7) by Tom Hart
Birdseye Bristoe by Dan Zettwoch
“The Carnival” (Heads or Tails) by Lilli Carre
Gold Star by John Martz
“Neighbors” (Stark #1) by Joanna Hellgren
Promising New Talent
Sam Alden for Hawaii 1997 & Haunter
Nathan Bulmer for Eat More Bikes
Philippa Rice for Looking Out
Diana Thung for August Moon
Angie Wang for “The Teacup Tree” (Secret Prison #7)
Outstanding Series
The Hive by Charles Burns
Lose by Michael DeForge
Madtown High by Whit Taylor
Pope Hats by Ethan Rilly
Prison Pit by Johnny Ryan
Outstanding Comic
Hyperspeed to Nowhere 2: Return to Entropy by Lale Westvind
The Life Problem by Austin English
Looking Out by Philippa Rice
Pope Hats #3 by Ethan Rilly
St. Owl’s Bay by Simon Hanselmann
Outstanding Minicomic
The End of the Fucking World: Part 16 by Charles Forsman
Il Cammino Delle Capre by Kris Mukai and Zachary Zezima
Hawaii 1997 by Sam Alden
Layaway by Joseph Lambert
Powdered Milk Vol. 10: The Man Who Could Not Read by Keiler Roberts
Outstanding Online Comic
Bird Boy by Annie Szabla – http://bird-boy.com/
Haunter by Sam Alden – http://studygroupcomics.com/main/haunter-part-1-by-sam-alden/
Gabby’s Playhouse – Ken Dahl/Gabby Schulz – http://www.gabbysplayhouse.com/
July Diary by Gabrielle Bell – http://gabriellebell.com/2012/07/01/july-diary-day-one/
SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki – http://mutantmagic.com/
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