Tag Archives: theo ellsworth

SPX 2015 Announces Special Guests Matt Bors, Lilli Carré and Theo Ellsworth

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spx-logo-240SPX has announced 21st Century creators Matt Bors, Lilli Carré and Theo Ellsworth as guests at SPX 2016. This is in addition to the previously announced creators of the current century Kate Beaton, Luke Pearson, Noelle Stevenson, Michael DeForge, Gemma Correll and Noah Van Sciver.

SPX 2016 takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 19-20, and will have over 650 creators, 280 exhibitor tables and 22 programming slots to entertain, enlighten and introduce attendees to the amazing world of independent and small press comics.

Matt Bors irreverent take on politics and society garnished him the prestigious Herblock Award in 2012, as well as being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning. His cartoons appear in such alt-weekly newspapers as the Sacramento Bee and the Pittsburgh City Paper as well as online. He is the editor of the widely read and critically acclaimed web site The Nib, which since its inception in 2013, has published over 2000 social and politically oriented cartoons and comics. For SPX 2015, there is a Kickstarter campaign underway to publish the first print collection of works from The Nib’s wealth of graphic social commentary, with cartoons and comics by Matt Bors, Gemma Correll, Erica Moen, Emily Flake, Matt Lubchansky, Ted Rall, Keith Knight, Liza Donnelly and Ann telnaes, amongst other contributors.

Illustrator, animator and cartoonist Lilli Carré is the co-founder of the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation in Chicago, which will occur November 5-7, 2015. Her animated cartoons have been shown across the world at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and the International Festival Rotterdam, amongst other venues. Her artwork has been displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and her illustration work has appeared in the New York Times, and The New Yorker. Her most recent compilation of comics, Heads or Tails published by Fantagraphics, went into its second printing this year.

SPX 2015 will see the debut of Theo Ellsworth’s final installment of his dense, surreal, exquisitely drawn comics series trilogy, Understanding Monsters –  Book Three, from Secret Acres. Understanding Monsters –  Book One was selected for The Best American Comics 2014 and was named an Lynd Ward Prize Honor Book. Understanding Monsters –  Book Two was recently selected to be represented in the Society of Illustrators Cartoon Annual in New York. Ellsworth was a contributed to the Eisner Award winning book, Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, as well as to the political anthology Occupy Comics. He also displays his two and three dimensional works in art galleries around the United States.

Small Press Expo (SPX) is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons. SPX is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit that brings together more than 650 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini comics, and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. The expo includes a series of panel discussions and interviews with this year’s guests.

The Ignatz Award is a festival prize held every year at SPX recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning, with the winners chosen by attendees at the show.

As in previous years, profits from the SPX will go to support the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program, which funds graphic novel purchases for public and academic libraries, as well as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), which protects the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals.

Review: Occupy Comics #3

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OccupyComics 3 CoverThis week sees the final issue of the Kickstarter funded, Black Mask Studios published Occupy Comics. With the third issue, we get a solid final entry full of though provoking cartoons, editorials and a great history lesson from Alan Moore. The Occupy Comics trilogy is a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration of more than 50 comics pros is a celebration of Occupy and a time-capsule of the movement’s themes. The organizers and creators are donating all their revenue after costs to Occupy-related efforts and initiatives as well.

This issue features the talents of the before mentioned Moore, Molly Crabapple, Joshua Dysart, Caleb Monroe, Kevin Colden, Swifty Lang, Salgood Sam, Brea and Zane Grant, Shannon Wheeler and Charlie Adlard. If you’re a fan of any of these creators, this is a must get as far as comics.

The stories vary in quality and length with every one at least good and a few in the great category. Overall, there’s an air over the issue, since is the last one. A few entries reflect on the fleetingness of the Occupy movement, but also could be used as commentary on a series that I wish would go on for longer.

Occupy Comics is a perfect combination of comics and politics with a great balance of education, fairness and not being too preachy. Even though it’s labelled as Occupy, it never really takes on side or the other about the movement as each creator ads their own voice and thoughts about it. To have an anthology that allows this political thought and expression go is a loss for the comics community and I wish we could see more of it.

No matter your take on the Occupy movement as a whole, this issue, and the two that proceeded it, is a nice look at a political movement that fizzled quickly and whose long lasting contributions will be debated for some time to come. To get first hand accounts, and opinions, about what it all meant and why it happened is important in in the historical sense but also the educational. This series acted as a voice for creators to reflect and be free with what they say without corporate interference, much like the movement itself. It’s voice is one we need and one I hope we see more of down the road.

Story: Caleb Monroe, Mark L. Miller, Zane Grant, Bea Grant, Patrick Meaney, Joshua Dysart, Kelly Bruce, Alan Moore, Kevin Colden, Swifty Lang, Shannon Wheeler Art: Molly Crabapple, Theo Ellsworth, Mark L. Miller, Jonathan Spies, Jenny Gonzalez-Blitz, Eric Zawadzki, Allen Gladfelter, Salgood Sam, Matt Bors, Jerem Morrow, Frank Renoso, Eric Drooker, Charlie Adlard
Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8 Recommendation: Buy

Black Mask Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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.