Roll Up Your Sleeves

Blog-Header-09_04_13IT’S TIME to dance! We are finally, finally ready to rumble with Iron Bound, the new graphic novel from Brendan Leach. Man, oh, man, did this one ever feel like it was years in the making. It wasn’t, really, but we just couldn’t wait for it. Plus, we love SPX and we can’t wait for that, either. It is our church, and Iron Bound is our big, fat and only Small Press Expo debut this year. Yes, if you’re counting, we owe you a book or two, but get to SPX next weekend and you’ll have your hands full with this one, promise.

You may be familiar with Brendan’s Xeric Grant funded, Ignatz Award winning and Best American Comics selected Pterodactyl Hunters in the Gilded City. That was the first of Brendan’s comics that we ever saw and it was love at first sight. It is ingenious. Without any hesitation, we can tell you that Iron Bound completely kicks its ass. This is saying something. Like Pterodactyl Hunters in the Gilded City, Iron Bound is a period piece, set in Newark’s tougher-than-leather Ironbound district in the year 1961. There may be people living now who were alive in 1961, though we can’t confirm that. Brendan somehow did his due diligence in representing old Newark, though. It sure looks as pretty as it was gritty. He even got the sound right.

 

flexi stamp

 

Iron Bound is a tough, little book, but you can, in all seriousness, dance to it. This edition comes complete with a blood red, seven inch, flexi record with two songs, one for fighting and another for a slightly more cuddly kind of fighting. Both are written by Lucas Gutkowksi (and recorded with Brendan himself) for the Newark Wanderers, the official Iron Bound band. They even show up in the comic! On the way is a full album of Iron Bound inspired music, available online on September 6th (or so we are told) and on non-flexible vinyl (Dude!) in November. Between the digital and physical releases, the Newark Wanderers will be out on tour with Brendan. We’ll have links and dates and details for you soon, we swear. Meanwhile, we can say that the tour plans to get as far out as our beloved Windy City of Chicago, at least.

You know, it was fun for us being a record label for a minute. You kids won’t remember records or tapes or compact discs, but trust us, music is amazing even off a computer. We know, and we weren’t even alive in 1961, either. You might, if you are very wise, remember music videos, so here’s this ludicrously awesome thing for your viewing and listening pleasures.

If you are one of the lucky dozen million or so in the greater metropolitan area of New York City, you don’t have to wait until the fall to party with the Newark Wanderers. You don’t even have to wait until SPX to get your hands on a copy of Iron Bound. You fellow New Yorkers just need to get yourselves to Brooklyn’s own Bergen Street Comics this Friday. Starting at 8PM and going until the Bergen folks pass out, Brendan will be signing copies of Iron Bound just for you. He’ll make it nice, we swear. Of course, records will be spun, but, even better, the Newark Wanderers will be performing live in the store. This means free music, free bubbly and free beer! This could get ugly. Maybe it should get ugly.

If you can’t make it to Bergen Street, you have to go to SPX somehow. In addition to Brendan, we’ll have a Special Guest in the personage of Jon Allen at our table. Jon makes this and this and that and this and this. Eamon Espey will be on hand, having recovered from his own national tour. The one and only Mike “Gags” Dawson will be warming a seat. Even fellow Secret Acres gang members, Sean Ford and Joseph Lambert have threatened to wander by. If that’s just not enough, and you really can’t get yourself to SPX, you can always pre-order Iron Bound here.

We will return with our SPX rundown. We might even have some news, or a lot of news, or a lot of really big news if the lawyers tell us it’s cool to spill the beans. Keep your ears to the streets.

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon and Casey

 

iron-bound

 

 

Leave a Comment


Footer

CONTACT US

Secret Acres
PO Box 710
Cooperstown, NY 13326
Tel (718) 502-9882
Fax (718) 775-3991

info@secretacres.com

DISTRIBUTION

Consortium Book Sales & Distribution
The Keg House
34 Thirteenth Ave NE, Ste 101
Minneapolis, MN 55413-1007
Tel (612) 746-2600

www.cbsd.com

PUBLICITY

For review copies, cover images, author information and other related inquiries, please e-mail us at publicity@secretacres.com

SUBMISSIONS

To submit your work for publication, please see our submission guidelines here or email submissions@secretacres.com.

Copyright © 2011 Secret Acres - All Rights Reserved. Admin - Powered by Storefront Themes.