(W) David Hazan, Maria Llovet, Anirudh J, (A) Maria Llovet, Stefano Nesi (CA) Miguel Mercado In Shops: Jan 29, 2025 SRP: $5.99
Ahh, the sweet scent of love!
Does your beloved prefer the putrid stench of corpse flowers or the warm, metallic aroma of flowers made of corpses? Either way, Hello Darkness is the perfect compliment to a bouquet and a heart-shaped box full of still-beating hearts with special stories of romance!
It all starts with “L-O-V-E” by Griffin Sheridan, Ethan Parker, and Edison Neo, a heart-wrenching-out-of-chests twist of a slasher tale! Plus more-sickly-than-sweet tales of loves lost, changed, and downright strange in “Words in the Smoke” by Maria Llovet, “Evermore” by David Hazan and Stefano Nesi, “The Booth” by Anirudh J, and “Excision” by Chris Gooch and Eli Powell! All this and more romantic rejection and rollicks in another of Robert Hack’s “I Can’t Take You Anywhere” and more!
BOOM! Studios has revealed a lovely first look at Hello Darkness #7, the horrifying continuation to the new ongoing anthology series featuring the darkest stories yet from a murderer’s row of world class creators! Everything from primal fears to modern political horrors will be explored, in the classic style of Creepy and Eerie and the contemporary chills of Black Mirror.
Does your beloved prefer the putrid stench of corpse flowers or the warm, metallic aroma of flowers made of corpses? Either way, Hello Darkness is the perfect compliment to a bouquet and a heart-shaped box full of still-beating hearts with special stories of romance! It all starts with “L-O-V-E” by Griffin Sheridan, Ethan Parker, and Edison Neo, a heart-wrenching-out-of-chests twist of a slasher tale! Plus more-sickly-than-sweet tales of loves lost, changed, and downright strange in “Words in the Smoke” by Maria Llovet, “Evermore” by David Hazan and Stefano Nesi, “The Booth” by Anirudh J, and “Excision” by Chris Gooch and Eli Powell! All this and more romantic rejection and rollicks in another of Robert Hack’s “I Can’t Take You Anywhere” and more!
Hello Darkness #7 features a main cover by Miguel Mercado, and variant covers by Gabriel Rodríguez, an explicit polybagged variant cover by Jenny Frison, and a special BOOM! Studios 20th Anniversary variant by InHyuk Lee. It comes to shops January 29, 2025.
Small Press Expo has revealed even more Special Guests for SPX 2024. The show takes place on Saturday September 14 and Sunday September 15 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.
Jeffrey Brown
New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Brown (Darth Vader & Son, Loved and Lost,Jedi Academy) gets back to his autobo roots (sort of?) with a new collection of bizarre statements from and interactions with his youngest son, Simon.
Kids Are Still Weird, a follow up of sorts to Kids Are Weird (about his older son, Oscar) that will debut at SPX! Come say hi to Jeffrey and get Simon Says, a risograph mini-comic of bonus material free with purchase of the book.
Lonnie Millsap
Special Guest Lonnie Millsap, will be signing copies of his latest book, titled ‘My Owners Were Chewy!’. ‘Chewy’ is a collection of humorous, single paneled cartoons that are laugh out loud funny. Millsap will also be signing prints of his work from the book and prints of his New Yorker cartoons.
Stan Mack
Stan Mack drew a comic strip every week for decades based on what he saw and heard in his native New York City, famously using verbatim dialogue for his graphic dramatizations.
A mixture of humor, spontaneity, serendipity, and weirdness, Mack’s comic strip snapshots caught New Yorkers — whether it is an extortionist calligrapher, a baby evading arrest at her first protest, a stroll up Broadway with a ferret, an evening with a male liberationist, or an unlucky-in-love dolphin trainer — being who they are in all their unguarded and uninhibited glory. He’ll be signing copies of Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions, and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995 at the Fantagraphics booth!
Laura Pérez
We are thrilled that, thanks to the generosity of Spain Arts & Culture, Laura Pérez is a Special Guest at SPX 2024! She’ll be discussing and signing copies of Ocultos from Fantagraphics, an entrancing collection of graphic short stories explores the occult forces that touch upon our everyday lives.
Celebrated for her previous graphic novel, Totem, Spanish comics artist Laura Pérez presents another entrancing vision of magic and mystery. Artfully rendered in her signature wispy, atmospheric pencil lines punctuated by splashes of color, Ocultos is a spiritual, reflective work that will leave you spellbound.ianate storytelling that draws on stylistic elements found in illuminated manuscripts. A poetic and evocative exploration of destiny and survival.
Chris Gooch
Chris Gooch will be traveling from Melbourne, Australia to promote his recent graphic novel In Utero from Top Shelf. He will also be signing his previous three books with Top Shelf, Bottled (2017), Deep Breaths (2019) and Under-Earth (2020).
‘In Utero’ follows twelve years after a disastrous explosion, young Hailey is dropped off by her mum at a holiday camp in a dilapidated shopping mall. Alienated from the other kids, she connects with an eerie older teen named Jen… but soon dark horrors awaken, and the two new friends are caught up in a cataclysmic battle between two terrifying creatures who have been lying dormant all this time.
One of Australia’s most acclaimed young graphic novelists, Chris Gooch expertly crafts a taut and intimate thriller about mothers and daughters, the monstrous and the mundane, and the power of friendship in the midst of catastrophe.
Walter Scott
When Wendy is nominated for the coveted National FoodHut Contemporary Art Prize, all of her millennial dreams seem to be coming true. But not even achieving bona fide art star fame can hide the truth: a never-ending struggle with imposter syndrome. After she cracks in an online interview and gets dragged in the comments section, she heads straight to a local watering hole to drown her sorrows.
Walter Scott’s, ‘The Wendy Award’ from Drawn & Quarterly, incisively skewers the art world with its corporate overlords, performative activism, generational wealth, and weaponized therapy speak—a showcase of Walter Scott’s deft wit and social commentary. Walter Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working in comics, drawing, video, performance, and sculpture. Scott is Kanien’keha:ka from the Kahnawake Mohawk nation.
Sig Burwash
Sig Burwash is a visual artist whose practice includes watercolor, collage, ceramics, animation, illustration, and comics. They have had their works exhibited in the United States, Europe and Canada, where they live on Cape Breton Island.
Sig attended the Centre for Cartoon Studies to work on their debut graphic novel, Vera Bushwack from Drawn & Quarterly. The uniquely emotive pastel pages follow a journey of rage, joy, and self-acceptance in the rustic landscape of Nova Scotia. This is Sig’s first time attending SPX.
(W) Chris Gooch (A/CA) Chris Gooch In Shops: Nov 11, 2020 SRP: $29.99
The inmates of an extensive underground prison struggle to build meaningful lives in a broken system, in the most ambitious graphic novel to date from rising indie star Chris Gooch (Bottled and Deep Breaths).
Under-Earth takes place in a subterranean landfill, hollowed out to serve as a massive improvised prison. Sunken into the trash and debris of the past – Gameboys, iPhones, coffee cups, old cars – we follow two parallel stories.
In the first, a new arrival struggles to adapt to the everyday violence, physical labour, and poverty of the prison city. Overwhelmed and alone, he finds a connection with a fellow inmate through an old, beat-up novel. While these two silent and uncommunicative men grow closer thanks to their book, the stress of their environment will test their new bond.
Meanwhile, a pair of thieves pull off a risky job in exchange for the prisons’ schematics and the promise of escape – only to be betrayed by their employer. On the run with their hope for escape now gone, the two women set their minds to revenge. Yet as they lay their plans, their focus shifts from an obsession with the outside world to the life they have with each other.
Equal parts sincerity and violence, Under-Earth explores humanity’s inextinguishable drive to find meaning, connection, and even family – and how fragile such constructions can be.
A space bounty hunter tracks down a
frog princess, a woman finds a condom where it shouldn’t be, and a spoiled art
student works his first freelance job. Deep Breaths is a collection of short
comics about tension, violence, monsters, and moments… including the
award-winning story “Mooreland Mates” and nine other tales rarely or
never before seen. Written by Chris Gooch, winner of the Silver Ledger Award
for excellence in Australian comics!
Jane is sick of her dead-end life in the suburbs, and desperate for a change. Her old friend Natalie made it out, living in Japan as a fashion model. Now, as Natalie comes back to town on business, Jane sees a way for her friend to do her a favor… whether she likes it or not. Young Australian cartoonist Chris Gooch debuts with a haunting portrait of millennial alienation, tinged with body horror and Greek tragedy, glamour and terror.
Bottled by Chris Gooch
ISBN 978-1-60309-420-7 • Diamond: JUN170551
$19.99 (US) • 288 pages
2-color softcover graphic novel with French flaps, 5.8″ x 8.3″ On sale September 2017
