Miuzi Weighs a Ton
BLAH! We are losing it a little bit. We are raging against the dying of the light, etc. In other words, there’s this thing that happens every once in a while when one of our little gang surprises us with a new comic. If you look at our comics, you can tell by the staples which ones were accidents, to use some pregnancy terminology. Like many parents will attest, the accidents are often the best of the litter. Such was the case with Sleeper Car and 2012, and is now the case with Curio Cabinet 5. See, we finally gave it a name!
We’ll maybe give you some more details about our latest addition in our pre-show post for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, which will host nearly the entire Acres gang. Meanwhile, we’re moving, looking for apartments, shutting down the Queens warehouse and maildrop and hauling the entirety of Acres operations over to Brooklyn. If you know of any good sublets available by the first, please holler at us.
Speaking of shows, Mike Dawson and Eamon Espey did manage to return safely from the Minneapolis Indie Xpo. It seems to have been a real good time, as you can tell from Mike’s wrap-up post on his site. While it’s very nice of him to have taken a picture of his elephant cookie, he didn’t post any pics of our dear genius, Eamon, and to make things even worse, he got to visit Zak Sally‘s studio and skipped that photo opp, too. As if to remove all doubt that Mike meant to upset us, he even made nice to the terrible, awful Comix Claptrap people on that trip. Numbers-wise, it seems like everyone but Mike had softer sales. Hopefully, this has nothing to do with whether or not there will be another MIX. We missed this one, but the thought that we might never get to go is a little too much to bear.
Mike did get to record a TCJ Talkies panel at MIX, with two great talents, MariNaomi and Noah Van Sciver. You must listen, especially if you love Jizz. Of course, there’s also been an Ink Panthers podcast, in which the Panthers tell Hitler where he went wrong (hint: Adolf had a little taint). Mike’s Troop 142 got some love from the Stranger, on their Slog blog, prompting us to guess who will direct the yearning indie film of Troop 142 (no, not Ivan Reitman). Finally, there’s a big ole Troop 142 book group discussion of how awesome that book is at New York’s own Midtown Comics tomorrow. We will be there with everyone else, including you. It’s BYOB, so don’t be stingy. Also, we got to see the Midtown warehouse, which looks something like Santa’s workshop. They have everything, so get your consumer confidence up to speed fast.
We haven’t been ignoring the other Secret Acres folks, either. Theo Ellsworth got a cartoon shout out from the master, Kevin Huizenga. We’re going to take that as his approval of us, too, since that’s a Sleeper Car character. There’s a very strange and very rad interview with Theo up on Don’t Panic. Everyone should ask questions like this, but really only Theo could have answered them so well. You can see pictures of Theo’s new kids on his site (ain’t they cute?). Speaking of children, those wacky CCS kids gave the Comics Reporter an update on the state of their library after Hurricane Irene – and you can get a sneak peak at Gabby “Ken Dahl” Schulz’s art for the CCS appeal letter. It’s gorgeous, of course. You can practically hear the checks being written. Want more sneak peaks? There’s a look at some brand new Only Skin pages on Sean Ford‘s blog. That’s going to be one enormous book. Last, but not least, Edie Fake got a little love from It’s Nice That.
We’d love to stay and chat, but we have books to make and crap to pack. We’ll be back here before BCGF with a little pre-show rundown. See you tomorrow at Midtown downtown!
Your Pals,
Barry and Leon
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May 20, 2013 at 3:24 pm What happens when Bigfoot meets the Breeders? Why, our Scuttlebutt TCAF wrap-up, of course! You'd think we were kidding, but we're not. If it weren't for Bigfoot, we'd never had gotten to meet the Breeders and see them play Last Splash front to back way up in Toronto. This has nothing to do with comics, but then most of what happens at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival has nothing to do with comics. It's really about the dancing. And the singing. And the topless singing. Worry not, we did get Capacity 8 unboxed and there were no border issues for anyone (except for Casey). We even made it to our panel, first thing Saturday morning. That may have been perfect timing, because it was something like Between Two Ferns meets group therapy. We're lucky bastards, for sure, but we missed the Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon, singing Bette Midler's the Rose (and, no, he was not topless). If any of you have video of this, or pictures of Drawn and Quarterly's jean vests, please, oh, please get back to us. Read on...
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SORRY it’s been a week since TCAF but we’re raw, where the shot leaves us gagging for the arrow. This year’s official Secret Acres comics mule, Dash Shaw, amazingly did not want to kill us after we spent the better part of the ride up arguing about the existence of Bigfoot (or Bigfoots, or Bigfeet?)...
Secret Acres
May 7, 2013 at 3:26 pm Finally, we are hitting the asphalt for our first road trip of the year. It's a long drive to the Toronto Comics Arts Festival and we are carrying some precious cargo as usual. Theo Ellsworth is being delivered via airmail, with fellow Acres Brendan Leach, Joe Lambert and Edie Fake meeting us there. Sean Ford has called shotgun, and Capacity 8 is in the boot. Capacity 8 is one of those surprise births with which we are regularly blessed here at Secret Acres. It's also the first time anyone in our gang has dropped a new story for a series that we've collected. Capacity, Theo's big, fat book, is a complete thing, for sure. The eighth issue is all new territory, but it's still all true. In a way. In that Capacity way. Oh, and we'll be kicking off first thing Saturday with a small press panel featuring pals and heroes, Koyama Press, Rebus Books and Grimalkin Press, too. This year's Acresmobile comic mule is the legendary Dash Shaw. Alas, last year's hitcher, MK Reed, is too lazy to make it to TCAF. Everyone else better be heading up - or catching Eamon Espey's Ishi's Brain show in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Yeah, we're looking at you. We're standing right behind you. No, the other way. Anyhow, there's explicit instructions up on Scuttlebutt.
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April 25, 2013 at 6:59 pm PEOPLE OF THE SEATTLE: Tonight's the night! Go watch Eamon Espey and Lisa Krause as they bring their show, Ishi's Brain, to Hugo House. Which is in Seattle. Ishi's Brain is based on Eamon's story of the same name from his Secret Acres collection, Songs of the Abyss. Lisa Krause is an artist and puppeteer of Bread and Puppet fame, among other things. It's quite a unique experience and pretty much beats the hell of out any old, regular reading. They are on tour all over the country, but there's something fitting about performing Ishi in Seattle. You know, because Seattle is strange and dark and there are scary woodlands and coffee. The Richard Hugo House is also something to see in itself. They have a writers' residence for zinesters (currently held by ZAPP), classes on seemingly everything, a focus on a local writing community and, of course, performances. Go. Have fun. Report back to us. Even the Stranger says to check it out. See...
The Stranger Suggests: Eamon Espey
It’s tough for authors to figure out what to do at a graphic-novel reading: Do you show slides?
Secret Acres
April 25, 2013 at 2:57 pm Stranger things have certainly happened, but it would appear our man, Theo Ellsworth, will have not one, but two debuts at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival. Yes, we will have the eighth issue of his ongoing Capacity (the first since our enormous collection of that title), but we'll tell you more about that later. Meanwhile, we knew Theo was working on a comic for an anthology, but we didn't realize it was the fourth Alternative Comics anthology. You may or may not be aware, but Alternative Comics published some truly amazing things, like Jeff Lewis' True Swamp and Steven Weissman's Yikes (yes, this was before Fantagraphics took over). Then they took some time off. Now they're back. Also included in this anthology are Alternative Comics graduate James Kochalka, this guy named Craig Thompson, the adorable Noah Van Sciver and #cybergang leader, Alex Schubert, to name a few. Get up to TCAF because it's amazing, and Theo and most of the Alternative Comics crew will be there to sign the thing. Collect them all!
Alternative Comics: Publisher of cool comic books & graphic novels
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Alternative Comics, publishers of cool comic books, releases some of the most original and intelligent titles being created today
Secret Acres
April 22, 2013 at 3:56 pm On a more important note than usual: 282 Broadway is where the party has been for, well, seems like forever now. What the hell is that, you ask? It's the home address for Domino Books and Revival House and Rebus. It's known sometimes as Bill K's Place, as in Bill Kartalopoulos. Just about everyone who has ever attended or exhibited at a comics event in New York City or, hell, ever drawn a comic while in city limits, has been exhausted, high, drunk or lost in that apartment while rubbing elbows with their heroes. We've written plenty on our blog, about their comics and their parties, too. Now they're moving out. We're telling you this because these guys need a new home. Go buy some comics from them. Forget the good cause, their books are amazing and we've been seethingly jealous of their good work, so if you like us, help them and get some great stuff for yourself. Everybody wins!
282 BROADWAY/Cartoon House
dominobooksnews.com
Hey everyone! A lot of you may have heard about this already, but DOMINO is losing our headquarters, 282 Broadway/Cartoon House (also the place that I and many other people in the arts/comics comm...
