Dash Shaw and Jesse Moynihan come to Floating World on Saturday October 3, from 4-6 pm to celebrate the release of their new books! Then head to Clinton St. Theater for A Night of Animation with Jesse Moynihan and Dash Shaw at 7 pm. The pair will screen new material they’re working on and host a discussion about their various artistic projects.
In Forming, Jesse Moynihan takes 50,000 years of socio-religious postulation and throws it in the blender to create one epic—and irreverent—battle royale between alien gods, Ancient Greek Titans, interplanetary assassin droids, and humanity itself. Originally begun in 2009 and garnering hundreds of thousands of followers online, Jesse Moynihan’s acclaimed Magnum Opus was never completed — until now!
Like Swimmersopens during the Covid summer of 2020, when Richmond-based web designer Mackenzie wakes up to find her younger brother Howie dead in their apartment. An autopsy reveals a startling cause: Howie was killed by a silver bullet. With no help from a police force overwhelmed by protest and plague, Mackenzie turns sleuth and goes on the hunt for an answer to what she believes is a simple question: who murdered Howie? Dash Shaw, fresh off the acclaimed Blurry, delivers a fast-paced mystery in lush painted color that delves into loss, calamity, and whether we ever really know the people we love.
WHO: Jesse Moynihan and Dash Shaw WHAT: Forming + Like Swimmers release party WHEN: Saturday October 3, 4-6pm WHERE: Floating World Comics, 340 SW Morrison St. STE 1300, Portland OR 97204
Jesse Moynihan worked as a writer/storyboard artist for the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time from late Season 1 until the end of Season 7. He helped create the characters Lemongrab, Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant, Maja the Sky Witch, and Jermaine to name a few. He was heavily involved in the story arcs pertaining to Magic Man, Tiffany, Lemongrab, Betty, Wizard City, Glob, and Finn’s grass arm. In 2014 he co-created the animated short, “Manly” for Cartoon Hangover’s YouTube channel. Currently, Jesse lives in Los Angeles recording music for his collaborative studio project Make A Rising and writing and drawing Forming—an eon-spanning epic work of modern mythology about the trajectory of consciousness on planet Earth, now completed and published by Seattle’s Fantagraphics.
Dash Shaw is a cartoonist and animator. His latest title, Like Swimmers from New York Review Comics, is a fast-paced mystery in lush painted color that delves into loss, calamity, and whether we ever really know the people we love. His previous graphic novel Blurry was named a “graphic novel of the year” by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes and others. He’s also the cartoonist of Discipline, New School, Bottomless Belly Button, BodyWorld and others. He’s written and directed two animated features, most recently the 2021 film Cryptozoo, which won the Sundance Next Innovator Award. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Small Press Expo has announced the first 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.
Tillie Walden
Tillie Walden will be signing copies of Clementine Book 1 and Book 2, as well as Junior High, a graphic novel made in collaboration with Tegan and Sara Quin. Also at the show there will be copies of her sketchbook compilation and never-before-seen zines! Her other work will be available as well, including her earliest work with Avery Hill Publishing. She will be giving the SPX Lecture at the Library of Congress at Noon, September 13.
Carol Lay
We are so honored to have Carol Lay as a Special Guest at SPX! She’s been creating art for decades and has an incredible body of work. Her new book, My Time Machine from Fantagraphics, is serious and funny, a sly cautionary political satire, and a rollicking time travel story full of puzzling paradoxes, edge-of-your-seat suspense, breezy badinage, and a deeply felt wonder at the universe.
Peter Kuper
Peter Kuper is a multi-award-winning cartoonist and illustrator who is frequently featured in The New Yorker, The Nation, and Mad. In 1979 he co-founded the political comix magazine World War 3 Illustrated, and has produced over two dozen books during his career. Peter has lectured and exhibited his work extensively throughout the world and teaches Harvard University’s first class dedicated to graphic novels. Among other awards, in 2016 his graphic novel Ruins won the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album. He is currently working on a graphic novel on the history of insects and the people who study them. He will be signing copies of the paperback edition of Ruins published by SelfMadeHero
Dash Shaw
In his latest offering, Dash Shaw wrestles with the murky indeterminacy of life. Blurry, from the New York Review of Books, asks that readers sit in—try to enjoy, even—that place of doubt and indecision, where the future is uncertain, identity is unsettled, and chance encounters intrude. Sometimes making a choice is so damn hard. And who knows what will be the consequences of one’s action? In Blurry, Shaw creates a cast of characters who tell their stories of those pivotal moments of decision and what came after.
Christi Furnas
Christi Furnas’ graphic novel Crazy Like a Fox from Street Noise Books tells an autobiographically-inspired story about leaving home, figuring out life, being diagnosed with schizophrenia, and navigating the mental health system. Publishers Weekly says, “Furnas skewers the mental healthcare system in her sharp-edged graphic novel debut. . . . This surreal work reflects the disorientation of mental breakdown.”
About the book, Christi says, “I want Crazy Like a Fox to lift some of the fear and stigma around talking about psychotic illness, and offer hope. I’m happy and thriving.”
Christi will be talking about her graphic novel and mental health, and signing books at the show.
George Wylesol
George Wylesol is the author of the graphic novels 2120 and Curses, debuting at SPX from Avery Hill. He will be at SPX to talk about horror and the internet age, as well as signing books. His brightly-colored, experimental work ranges from short stories to choose-your-own-adventure style narratives that emphasize the weirdness of the world around us all and the prevalence of computers in our society today.
“His cartooning is economical, effective in a lunging sort of way. . . . the sensory experience of looking overpowers most everything else. His cartooning is economical, effective in a lunging sort of way,” says The Comics Journal about Curses.
Small Press Expohas 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’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’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 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’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.
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:
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.
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.
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.”
(W) Dash Shaw (A/CA) Dash Shaw In Shops: Jan 29, 2020 SRP: $15.99
Who did it? How’d they do it? And where? Answer these classic questions and solve the mystery in this graphic novel based on the timeless detective game. Cartoonist auteur Dash Shaw unleashes his murderous imagination on the quirky, thrilling, and mysterious world of Clue! Ripe with puzzles, secrets, and lies, everyone’s a suspect in this suspense-filled whodunit! Was it Miss Scarlet in the conservatory with the lead pipe? Suspicions mount as bodies start piling up.
The Boddy Mansion is piled with bodies. Still, the candlestick
lurks, and may illuminate the unseen killer… or last victim. In the climactic
issue of this whodunit, we finally see who’d done it! Cartoonist auteur Dash Shaw takes his last turn in the
puzzling, quirky, and colorful world of Clue!
Was it Miss
Scarlet in the conservatory with the lead pipe?! In issue two of this
mind-boggler based on the timeless detective game, suspicions mount and
Scarlet’s story is revealed. Still, more bodies will fall. Cartoonist auteur
Dash Shaw deepens the mysterious, quirky, and colorful world of Clue!
All of your favorite suspicious characters are back in this new
brain twister based on the timeless detective game. Ripe with puzzles, secrets,
and lies, in CLUE: CANDLESTICK
everyone’s a suspect! Cartoonist auteur Dash
Shaw unleashes his murderous imagination on the quirky, thrilling and
mysterious world of Clue!
IDW Publishing has announced that Dash Shaw, the comic book auteur and creator of the celebrated animated film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, will unravel an all-new mystery in CLUE: Candlestick, a three-issue comic book miniseries launching in May.
All of your favorite suspicious characters are back in this new brain twister based on the timeless detective game. The CLUE: Candlestick miniseries is rife with puzzles, secrets, and lies, and everyone’s a suspect! Visionary creator, Dash Shaw unleashes his murderous imagination – and writing, illustrative, coloring, and lettering prowess – on the quirky, thrilling and mysterious world of CLUE!
Shaw’s loyal fans will thrill to know that, in addition to his fantastic main covers for the series, variant editions of each issue will form a triptych of the iconic suspects and their murderous instruments, and illustrator Jed McGowan will also provide a special incentive cover. For added value, each issue features extra-length story content and will feature brand new CLUE game cards based on the comic.
Fantagraphics Books Inc. has announced the arrival of Now, a tri-annual anthology series with all new stories that highlights the diversity and talent of cartoonists all over the globe. The first issue is set to debut at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, MD and will arrive in comic shops and bookstores September 20th, 2017.
Now aspires to be an affordable and ongoing anthology of new comics that appeals both to the comics-curious as well as the serious aficionado. In the age of long form graphic novels, Now also intends to provide a platform for short fiction, experimentation, and for showcasing diversity in the comics field. The only common denominator to each piece is an exemplary use of the comics form.
Now is the brainchild of Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds, who previously edited 22 volumes of the fondly-remembered anthology Mome from 2005-2011.
The first issue will feature fan-favorites and fresh finds alike, and includes new work from acclaimed creators such as Eleanor Davis, Noah Van Sciver, Gabrielle Bell, Dash Shaw, Sammy Harkham, and Malachi Ward, as well as international stars such as J.C. Menu, Conxita Herrerro, Tobias Schalken, and Antoine Cossé. Plus strips from rising stars Tommi Parrish, Sara Corbett, Daria Tessler, and newcomer Kaela Graham, as well as a gorgeous painted cover by Pennsylvania artist Rebecca Morgan.
Now #1 will appear in the July issue of the Diamond Previews catalog for a September release and the second issue of the series is set to release in January 2018. Fantagraphics.com is offering an exclusive three issue subscription service for Now.
Fantagraphics Books Inc. has announced the arrival of Now, a tri-annual anthology series with all new stories that highlights the diversity and talent of cartoonists all over the globe. The first issue is set to debut at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, MD and will arrive in comic shops and bookstores 