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Small Press Expo announces debut works from Lilli Carre, Keith Knight, Sammy Harkham, Michael DeForge, Adrian Tomine and over 140 others at SPX 2012

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The Small Press Expo (SPX) is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons. It’s now wonder then that so many new independent comics will debut at the festival. To find out what to expect, you can head to http://www.spxpo.com/debuts. But, there’s over 140 debuts at this year’s show, the most in show history. They represent a diverse range of cartooning styles, narrative approaches, topics, audiences and cartoonists, from some of the biggest names in the indie comics field.

Here’s a few of the comics you can expect:

Lilli Carre will be back at SPX for the first time in over five years with her new compilation Heads or Tails, from Fantagraphics.

Keith Knight’s social commentary strip K Chronicles, has a new compendium of material not available in other collections, titled The Incredible Cuteness of Being.

Sammy Harkham debuts his new book from Picturebox, Everything Together: Collected Stories.

Adrian Tomine’s New York Drawings from Drawn & Quarterly collects and annotates his illustration work, including drawings for The New Yorker and other magazines.

Michael DeForge series of self-anthologized works continues with the debut of  Lose #4 from Koyama Press.

All of the above creators will be at SPX 2012 to sign their latest works.

The festival features additional debuts from: Carol Tyler, Theo Ellsworth,  Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson, Dean Haspiel, Renee French, Ron Rege, Diana Thung, Jess Smart Smiley, Carolyn Belefski, Lamar Abrams, Ethan Rilly, Frank Santoro, Julia Wertz, Michael Bracco and many others.

SPX Announces the Small Press Expo 2012 Programming Schedule

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The Small Press Expo is pleased to announce the SPX 2012 Programming Schedule.  SPX has its usual thought-provoking programming featuring leading comics artists and critics in conversation. As in previous years, the Programming Schedule will feature two simultaneous tracks on both Saturday and Sunday, September 15th and 16th.

SPX 2012 programming highlights include special spotlight discussions with headline guests Daniel Clowes, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, François Mouly, Adrian Tomine, and Chris Ware, all of whom will also join in several other panel discussions.

This year’s programming schedule will include several panel discussions, with artists including Nick Abadzis, Derf Backderf, Michael DeForge, Theo Ellsworth, Renée French, Sammy Harkham, Tom Hart, Dean Haspiel, Stan Mack, John Porcellino, Katie Skelly and Lauren Weinstein.

This year’s panel discussions will include:

  • A discussion of Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby, featuring Clowes, Mark Newgarden and Ware.
  • A spotlight on British comics, including Abadzis, Glyn Dillon, Nobrow’s Sam Arthur, Ellen Lindner, and Luke Pearson.
  • A consideration of comics as children’s literature with French, Mouly, Newgarden and Brian Ralph.
  • Reflections on life after “alternative comics,” with Clowes, the Hernandez Brothers, and Tomine, moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos.
  • A discussion about the needs and challenges of institution building in comics.
  • Our annual hands-on comics workshop, led by Robyn Chapman, Hart, and Alec Longstreth.

The complete SPX 2012 Programming Schedule with full descriptions and participants may be found at http://www.spxpo.com/programming.

This year is the seventh year that SPX programming has been organized by Programming Coordinator Bill Kartalopoulos. Kartalopoulos is a comics educator, critic and curator who has taught classes about comics at Parsons The New School for Design and co-organizes the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. He is a Contributing Editor for Print Magazine, and assisted Art Spiegelman on the production of the Eisner Award-winning book MetaMaus.

Programming on Saturday will run from 11:30AM  until 7 p.m. Sunday programming will run from 12:30 p.m. until 6 p.m.  The complete SPX 2012 Programming Schedule may be found at http://www.spxpo.com/programming.

Small Press Expo Announces the Ignatz Award Nominees for SPX 2011

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Official Press Release

Small Press Expo Announces the Ignatz Award Nominees for SPX 2011

Bethesda, Maryland; August 18, 2011 – The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce nominees for the fifteenth annual presentation of the Ignatz Awards, a celebration of outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning.

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz Awards are a festival prize, the first of such in the United States comic book industry.

The nominees for the ballot were determined by a panel of five of the best of today’s comic artists, Rina Ayuyang, Mike Dawson, Kris Dresen, Theo Ellsworth, and John Porcellino, with the votes cast for the awards by the attendees during SPX. The Ignatz Awards will be presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 9:00 PM.

Additional information on the nominees and previews (as available) can be found at http://www.spxpo.com/ignatz-awards.

SPX will be held Saturday, September 10 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, September 11, noon-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center  in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days.

For further information on the Ignatz Awards, the nominees or to request an interview, please contact Warren Bernard at warren@spxpo.com.

For more information on the Small Press Expo, please visit http://www.spxpo.com.

Outstanding Artist
Michael DeForge, Lose #3 (Koyama Press)
Edie Fake, Gaylord Phoenix (Secret Acres)
Renee French, H-Day (Picturebox)
Joseph Lambert, I Will Bite You (Secret Acres)
Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know, Vol 2: Collateral Damage (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Black Eye, edited by Ryan Standfest (Rotland Press)
Gay Genius, edited by Annie Murphy (Sparkplug)
I Will Bite You, Joseph Lambert (Secret Acres)
Make Me a Woman, Vanessa Davis (Drawn & Quarterly)
Three #1, edited by Robert Kirby (Rob Kirby Comics)

Outstanding Graphic Novel
Gaylord Phoenix, Edie Fake (Secret Acres)
The Heavy Hand, Chris Cilla (Sparkplug)
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Barry Deutsch (Amulet Books)
Special Exits, Joyce Farmer (Fantagraphics)
You’ll Never Know, Vol 2: Collateral Damage, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Story
“Blood of the Virgin,” Crickets #3, Sammy Harkham (self-published)
“Browntown,” Love and Rockets: New Stories No. 3, Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
“LINT,” Acme Novelty Library #20, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
“The most gripping mind-exploding triumphantly electric of our time,” Papercutter #15, Jonas Madden-Conner (Tugboat Press)
“Weekends Abroad,” Three #1, Eric Orner (Rob Kirby Comics)

Promising New Talent
Darryl Ayo Brathwaite, House of Twelve Monthly #3 (Comixology)
Tony Breed, Finn and Charlie are Hitched (www.hitchedcomic.com)
Jesse Jacobs, Even the Giants (AdHouse)
Jon McNaught, Birchfield Close (Nobrow)
Jesse Moynihan, Forming (Nobrow)

Outstanding Series
Crickets, Sammy Harkham
Dungeon Quest, Joe Daly (Fantagraphics)
Everything Dies, Box Brown (self-published)
Lose, Michael DeForge (Koyama Books)
Reich, Elijah Brubaker (Sparkplug Comic Books)

Outstanding Comic
Crickets #3, Sammy Harkham (self-published)
Danger Country #1, Levon Jihanian (self-published)
Habitat #2, Dunja Jankovic (Sparkplug Comic Books)
Lose #3, Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
The Magic Hedge, Marian Runk (self-published)

Outstanding Mini-Comic
Ben Died of a Train, Box Brown (self-published)
Danger Country #1, Levon Jihanian (self-published)
Gaylord Phoenix #5, Edie Fake (self-published)
Morning Song, Laura Terry (self-published)
Trans-Utopia, Tom Kaczynski (Uncivilized Books)

Outstanding Online Comic
Alphabet Horror, Nate Marsh: www.alphabethorror.com
A Cartoonist’s Diary, Pascal Girard: www.tcj.com/author/pascal-girard/
Finn and Charlie are Hitched,Tony Breed: www.hitchedcomic.com
Hark! A Vagrant, Kate Beaton: www.harkavagrant.com
Lucky, Gabrielle Bell: www.gabriellebell.com