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Birdcage Bottom Comics’ 2022 Slate Kickstarter is Live

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Graphic Policy Team

Birdcage Bottom Comics has a stunning roster of talent this year including Josh Bayer, Aeon Hand, Brett Hamil, Brother Malcolm, Lance Ward, & Yiqun Zhou. The publisher is currently running a Kickstarter to help bring their 2022 line of publications to print.

Check out the comics that make up this year’s “class” below and support the crowdfunding campaign here.

ABYSMALATION: Collected Short Works by Josh Bayer

Abysmalation is a book by a Josh Bayer, (author of Ignatz-nominated Theth, Tomorrow Forever, creator of the comics anthology Suspect Device, editor and writer for All Time Comics) collecting an array of fast and loose comics and obscure short pieces. The work here ranges from personal to experimental, some completed in ink, some scrawled in pencil on the backs of his gas bill. You may find you are only able to make your 2022 complete with the addition of Abysmalation to your comics library!

7.5” x 10”, 148 pages. $18
B+w covers with b+w interior (32 pages of color). Perfect-bound

MISFORTUNE: A Book of Illustrated Fortune Cookie Messages by Aeon Hand

Misfortune is a dark look into the prisms that create the illusion we call modern life, guided by fortunes from fortune cookies.

8” x 8”, 140 pages. $16.99
Black + white cover with b+w interior on cream paper. Perfect-bound

SK8 Dad Summer: Ramps, Rebellion, and Raising a Kid by Brett Hamil

A graphic memoir about being a dad, building a ramp, and recalibrating your inner gyroscope by blunt force.

6” x 8”, 64 pages. $10
Full-color covers with b+w interior. Perfect-bound

YESTERDAY: Diary Comix by Brother Malcolm

Can he stand another heartache? Join Brother Malcolm as he tiptoes on the cusp of misery in these weirdly optimistic diary comix.

6” x 8”, 348 pages. $15
Full-color covers with b+w interior. Perfect-bound

Super Power Comedian Interviewing Another Super Power Comedian by Yiqun Zhou

SPCIASPC is a story set in America in which a young comedian takes an iconoclastic journey to meet her hero, a retiring comedian, coming to terms with her former rival and their disparate career paths.

5.5” x 7.25”, 36 pages. $6
Full-color covers and interior. Saddle-stitched

Flop Sweat #5 by Lance Ward

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 fifth issue finds Lance moving in with two near strangers and suffering dire consequences. As a result, he ends up back in a psyche ward and eventually in a group home. Life improves when Lance is assigned a therapist and a roommate who quickly becomes a friend. During therapy, he grapples with his sexuality and reminisces about a past relationship and a job at a sex shop.

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

Flop Sweat #6 by Lance Ward

In issue six, Lance does a deep dive into the inner workings of the sex shop that employed him: gay cruising, peep-show booths, police raids, poppers, etc. More questioning of his sexuality after (and during) an experience with a male co-worker is followed by a grave mistake at his group home. After an eviction, Lance must make a potentially life-altering decision.

5.5” x 8.5”, 32 pages. $6
Full-color covers and interior. Saddle-stitched

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

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.