j.t. yost Archives - Graphic Policy

Tag Archives: j.t. yost

J.T. Yost steps away from Birdcage Bottom Books

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Brett

One thing we predicted for 2023 is that there’d be a few publishers who would be closing their doors or consolidating. Today’s news makes it sound like Birdcage Bottom Books might be one of those.

In an email, J.T. Yost announced they were “stepping away” from Birdcage Bottom Books after the upcoming spring publishing season. Daniel Whitfield, who has been running the shipping and fulfillment department, intends to continue in his role. This means the publisher will be able to continue the distro and selling of BBB publications, even if they’re not actively publishing new comics.

A search has been on to find someone to take over Yost’s role but the search continues so that comics that were in the pipeline can go forward.

Birdcage Bottom Books was founded in 2008 by Yost with the help of a Xeric Grant. The publisher represents over 100 self-publishing artists and small-presses with a focus on handmade comics, prints, and apparel. Its publications have been nominated for and/or won multiple awards including the Eisners, Ignatz, Charly Eiselt, DiNKY and Japan Media Arts awards.

You can read the full email below:

Hello beloved BBB customers. I’ve been putting off making a formal announcement, but I suppose it’s time to pull off the metaphorical band-aid. Due to some intense personal upheaval, I must step away from BBB after this upcoming spring publishing season. Daniel Whitfield, who has been running our shipping and fulfillment department, intends to continue in his role. This means we will be able to continue the distro and selling BBB publications, even if we’re not actively publishing new comics.

I haven’t been able to find someone willing to take over the multiple roles I inhabit, but I’m still holding out hope someone will so that BBB can continue in some form (please reach out if interested). We had a ton of remarkable comics in the pipeline, so hopefully those will still be published (Fieldmouse Press will be publishing November Garcia’s Complete and Utter Malarkey!)

I am searching for a more reliable/stable source of income, so if you know of any job openings that could utilize my skill set, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I am hoping to continue working within publishing (doesn’t have to be comics), but I’m open to other opportunities as well (especially if it’s a vegan or non-profit company!).

I’d love to get the rest of the BBB publications currently in our basement delivered to Daniel in California, so if any of you happen to be driving from NYC to California (near L.A.), I’d be happy to pay you to load up your trunk.

Thank you so much for being what I honestly consider my extended family. I’ve had so many wonderful interactions with many of you at shows, on social media, or through email, and I can’t thank you enough!

Love, J.T. Yost

Review: American Cult

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Brett

Learn the intriguing history of cults through American history. The graphic novel dives into the interesting history of 18 different groups and their history.

Contributors: Robyn Chapman, Steve Teare, Emi Gennis, Ellen Lindner, Rosa Colon Guerra, Janet Harvey, Jim Rugg, Andrew Greenstone, Lara Antal, Josh Kramer, Mike Dawson, Ryan Carey, Mike Freiheit, Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg, Ben Passmore, Jesse Lambert, Vreni Stollberger, J.T. Yost, Robyn Chapman, Robert Sergel, Lonnie Mann, Brian “Box” Brown

Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Amazon
Bookshop

Silver Sprocket provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

Get Birdcage Bottom Books’ 2021 Releases, Running on Kickstarter Now

Posted on March 14, 2021 by Graphic Policy Team

You can pre-order Birdcage Bottom Books‘ 2021 publications now through their Kickstarter campaign and get exclusive original art, custom art, limited edition comics, and more! The campaign ends March 29 and 4:06 ET.

Coming in 2021 are:

TOO TOUGH TO DIE: An Aging Punx Anthology

From “tired of being pushed around” to “just plain tired”, the TOO TOUGH TO DIE anthology explores the spectrum of what it means to be an aging punk through personal stories by some of the best cartoonists around. Shifting perspectives on angsty rebellion, the importance of community, persistent racism within the scene, appearance and identity and more are covered within this nearly 300 page tome.

Co-editors Haleigh Buck and J.T. Yost have tapped preeminent punks including Josh Bayer, Emily Flake, Casanova Frankenstein, Hyena Hell, Janelle Hessig, Gideon Kendall, Carrie McNinch, Brother Malcolm, Liz Prince, Aaron Renier, Ben Snakepit, Jenn Woodall, and so many more to provide punk-themed autobiographical comics for your eager consumption.

6” x 9”, 260+ pages. $20
Full-color covers with b+w interior. Perfect-bound

Flop Sweat is an ongoing serialization of Lance Ward’s autobiographical comics arranged chronologically. Previous self-published collections of these comics were featured in The Best American Comics. Ward’s life has been rife with pitfalls: abandonment, addiction, mental illness, sexual assault, arrest, attempted suicide, and even a death experience (not “near-death”, he was clinically deceased!). Yet, through it all he has somehow maintained a positivity about and loyalty to his art, even after crushing his drawing hand!

This second issue delves into Ward’s teen years battling family dysfunction, sex & drugs, another injury and joining the military!

In issue three, Ward is befriended by a shady character while working night shifts at a convenience store leading to cocaine addiction, grand larceny and committal to a psych ward.

This fourth issue finds Ward struggling (and failing) to remember an entire year of his life after waking up in yet another psychiatric hospital.

5.5” x 8.5”, 28 pages. $6
Full-color covers and interior

Everything Is Super by Rottsteak

Everything is Super follows the misadventures of Lloyd the Human Hemorrhoid Herman as he stumbles through contemporary life in a dead end, backwater superhero town. Volume one collects issues one through four. Recommended for mature audiences.

6” x 9”, 120 pages. $15
Full-color covers and interior. Perfect-bound

Comfort Creatures by Robert H. Stevenson

What happens when the things that once brought joy and comfort to your soul have transmutated into a haunting, dripping, mess of a monster you can’t help but love/hate? It’s called Comfort Creatures, an all-ages collection of illustrated rhymes with corresponding creatures that play like cautionary tales about some of our delicious escapisms.

5.5” x 8.5”, 24 pages. $6
Black cardstock with white ink cover with b+w interior

Silver Sprocket Reveals its Spring 2021 Releases

Posted on February 7, 2021 by Graphic Policy Team

That Full Moon Feeling by Ashley Robin Franklin

A witch and a werewolf go on three disastrous dates in this magical queer romcom.

Follow along with Suzy & Jada as they navigate online dating awkwardness, hungry monsters, jealous exes, rude skeletons, boring movies, feelings (!!!) & more!

Feb 2021; $14.99; Paperback; 64 full-color pages; 6″ x 8″; ISBN: 978-1-945509-56-8; Diamond: DEC201668

That Full Moon Feeling by Ashley Robin Franklin

The Antifa Super Soldier Cookbook by Matt Lubchansky

What if everything the right thought about the left was real? Accomplished ANTIFA operative Max Marx is about to get THE big promotion: body augmentation to become a fully-fledged super-soldier in the shadowy organization’s never-ending battle to destroy the police, the American way of life, gender, capitalism, and anything else they decide to deem “fascist.”

March 2021; $14.99; Paperback; 64 full-color pages; 6″ x 9″; ISBN: 978-1-945509-64-3; Diamond: JAN211538

The Antifa Super Soldier Cookbook by Matt Lubchansky

Heart Shaped Tears by Abby Jame

“In the age of the Anthropocene, girls are tired and jaded. And yet, we are the last reminders of glittering purity. Not dumb sexual purity, but light and love, laughing in beds, sneaking out like the most important thing in the entire world is on the other side of your parent’s driveway. We feel deeply, we express when we feel like it, we cry Heart Shaped Tears.”

Comics and illustrations about aliens, elves and boys who don’t text back from the sci-fi sad girl Abby Jame.

April 2021; $24.99; hard-cover; 108 full-color pages; ISBN: 978-1-945509-49-0; Diamond: DEC201667

American Cult edited by Robyn Chapman

From its earliest days, America has been home to spiritual seekers.

In 1694, the religious tolerance of the Pennsylvania Colony enticed a Transylvanian monk and his forty followers to cross the Atlantic. Almost two hundred years later, a charismatic preacher founded a utopian community in Oneida, New York, that practiced socialism and free love. In the 1960s and ’70s, a new generation of seekers gathered in vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles, Satanic coffee shops in New Orleans, and fortified communes in Philadelphia. And in the twenty-first century, gurus use self-help seminars and get-rich-quick schemes
to evangelize to their flocks.

Across the decades, Americans in search of divine truths have turned to unconventional prophets for the answers. Some of these prophets have demanded their faith, fortunes, and even their very lives. In American Cult, over twenty cartoonists explore the history of these groups with clarity and empathy—looking beyond the scandalous headlines to find the human stories within.

Featuring the talents of cartoonists Steve Teare, Emi Gennis, Ellen Lindner, Rosa Colón, Janet Harvey, Jim Rugg, Andrew Greenstone, Lara Antal, Josh Kramer, Mike Dawson, Ryan Carey, Mike Freiheit, Jesse Lambert, Ben Passmore, Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg, Vreni Stollberger, J.T. Yost, Robyn Chapman, Robert Sergel, Lonnie Mann, and Box Brown.

May 2021; $24.99; Paperback; 208 B & W pages; ISBN: 978-1-945509-63-6

New From Birdcage Bottom Books in 2021

Posted on January 10, 2021 by Graphic Policy Team

Birdcage Bottom Books has kicked off the new year revealing new comics coming from them in 2021.

Check out what you can expect in the coming months.

TOO TOUGH TO DIE: An Aging Punx Anthology co-edited by Haleigh Buck and J.T. Yost will collect true stories and ruminations from too many punk cartoonists to list.

Three new issues of Lance Ward‘s FLOP SWEAT series are scheduled for 2021. Flop Sweat is an ongoing serialization of Lance Ward’s autobiographical comics arranged chronologically. Ward’s life has been rife with pitfalls: abandonment, addiction, mental illness, sexual assault, arrest, attempted suicide, and even a death experience (not “near-death”, he was clinically deceased!). Yet, through it all, he has somehow maintained a positivity about and loyalty to his art, even after crushing his drawing hand!

Everything Is Super by Rottsteak will collect four issues of a supremely bizarre comic. There’s not a cover yet, so pictured is the cover art from the self-published Issue #1.

Comfort Creatures by Robert Stevenson is a surreal collection of intricately detailed drawings of things that usually bring us comfort but elicit horror in Stevenson’s illustrated poems. The interwoven text is as gorgeous as the drawings.