It’s Good to be the Crane

EVERYONE’S BEEN SAYING how great BCGF was, but at the risk of sounding like an echo chamber up in here: What a great show.

We were pre-gaming with Edie Fake at Cinders Gallery in Williamsburg the Thursday beforehand. He signed books, pinned Gaylord buttons and sprinkled gay love powder on all comers – and that stuff works. Big ups to everyone at Cinders and all of you that dropped by, said hi and got all homoerotically cudly with your very own Gaylord Phoenix.

And then there was the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival (aka BACKFAT – h/t to D&Q). It was full-throttle from the get until a dinnertime lull before taking it to another level of remorseless consumerism. It was tight, in both senses; here a comics luminary, there a comics luminary, everywhere a comics luminary. Lynda Barry, Matt Groening, Charles Burns. Renee French, Brian Chippendale, Anders Nilsen, Kate Beaton. Blah, blah, blah. Listing is futile – who wasn’t at BCGF? Well, to answer that not completely rhetorical question:

While voices have been raised in the aftermath of the show about curation at cons, it’s hard to argue when space is at a premium and the results are all killer, no filler. Admittedly, not getting the nod sucks, but if you think it’s show friends, not show business, just look at the guest list. Putting those folks in one BCGF-sized room doesn’t leave much space left over. We were honored to make the cut. With Stumptown joining the curated likes of TCAF and BCGF, ranks might be closing a little, yes. There is still a scene for everyone.

Having Gaylord Phoenix debut at our table with Edie Fake and Ken Dahl tricking out their books and making nice-nice with the customers kept sales blisteringly brisk, but the absolute best part of the day was hearing mad respected cartoonists and industry folks praise the Acres. Jim Rugg, Kevin Huzienga, Karen Green, Anne Koyama and loads of other amazing heroes came by to pet us. That kind of encouragement puts the love back in the labor of love that is making comics. We are humbled.

However, you cannot imagine what it’s like being Jordan Crane. Unless, of course, you are Jordan Crane. We all got a chance to intern as sales associates at his neighboring table. He let us handle the prints and collect the monies while he snuck out for Asia Dogs and panels (Fool!). Having dozens of strangers walk up to you and call you a genius and deploy the L word every thirty seconds is just like taking a bath in the sun. Even if they have no idea that they’re talking to the wrong guy. If ever you have the opportunity, be the Crane.

Speaking of the panels, we tried to sit in on a few, but the Asia Dog munchers were louder than the PA system (our lone organizational criticism) so we just stared blankly at the pretty comics people on the stage, moving their pretty mouths and pointing at the presentations.

Thank you Gabe, Dan and Bill for organizing and hosting such a tremendous comics show and afterparty. For us, it was beyond gratifying to participate, and it ended (a pretty rough, at times) 2010 on the best possible note.

Also! You know how we know it’s Christmas? Fantagraphics gave us the best present ever when it posted this image of Zak Sally, which went direct deposit in the Acres spankbank. Like a Dog, indeed. Can we make this a tradition please? At the very least there should be a Zak Sally (plus dog) advent calendar.

So that’s it for this update. Sorry for the delay in BCGF spin, but we’ve been awful busy making sure all the good girls and boys get their Acres stuffs for the holidays. We’ll have one big, fat year-end wrap up post shortly, but there’s a couple Best of 2010 lists (here and here) for you to peruse. Major props to John Brodowski and Edie Fake for getting that ball rolling so fast. Upon our return, we’re going to spill the beans on 2011 – and we will have an exciting announcement to make. Till then, keep your panties on. It’s friggin’ cold!

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

Gaylord is Out

WITH OUR BELLIES FILLED with Thanksgiving treats, Secret Acres is getting festive yet again. And by festive, we mean gay. Gay-owned, operated and managed, Secret Acres is debuting its first queer-themed book this week, Gaylord Phoenix. In fact, and we were thinking about this, is there another gay-themed graphic novel, as in long form comic fiction, from a gay creator out there that can’t be filed under porn/stupid? And no, Fun Home and Stuck Rubber Baby don’t count; they’re very good, yes, but they’re memoirs. Please holla back if you’ve got something; we’re all ears and we love lists.

To celebrate all the gayness, we’ve got a Cinders Gallery (in Brooklyn) release party on Thursday, December 2nd. The idea of Gaylord books framed by the Heavy Light installation currently up at Cinders is going to make for a stunning display. Get there early; this one might get crowded fast.

On Saturday, we’ll be selling the book at BCGF, of course. Surely, you’re familiar with BCGF, and if not, then we’re sure you know the guest list. BCGF is a unique battle royale of the best literary comics and bleeding edge artists around. It’s free; so just go and be amazed – and prepare to go broke; there’s just too much good stuff.

You’ll find us right at the entrance, wedged between Canadian powerhouse Drawn & Quarterly and that Jordan Crane guy, whose prints will give you brain damage. Ken Dahl and John Brodowski will be joining Edie Fake at our table, signing any old thing you put in front of them, and Secret Acre Sean Ford will be about and dropping the penultimate Only Skin just to make this even more overkill. It’ll also be your last chance to get artist-signed and sketched books to give as holiday presents. Remember, street cred always makes a great gift.

If you’re in Chicago (and good for you!), Edie Fake will also be at Quimby’s Gaylord Phoenix release party on December 9th. Yep, the whole U.S. of A. is celebrating Edie’s book, one city at a time. If you pre-ordered a copy of Gaylord Phoenix from the Emporium, it should be getting out to you this week!

If Thursday is just too far away, Acres pal Lisa Hanawalt has a comics party at Desert Island on Tuesday, November 30th to celebrate both issue #2 of I Want You and the fantastic window display she did for Desert Island. Rumor has it there will be beer as well.

Speaking of presents, don’t forget the Secret Acres Emporium is always open and we’ll be happy to ship things off to you in time for the holidays – just let us know your timeline. We should have the full run of Troop 142 back in stock next week.

We’ll be back after BCGF with salacious details of all the release parties and panel discussions. We may even have the first wave of responses to Gaylord Phoenix!

Your (gay) pals,

Leon and Barry

A World Without Superheroes

SECRET ACRES LOVES AN ADVENTURE, so we were glad to participate in King Con for the first time this past weekend. Undeterred by the marathon or the moldy space, we set up our table up and sold our wares. The luckiest part of the deal was being allowed to sit next to the entertaining (and somewhat high energy) duo of comics veterans, Fred Chao and Jamie Tanner. The unluckiest part of the deal was that we spent all of Sunday looking at a sea of glossy lady torsos at the table across from us. All day Sunday. Seriously. This was especially odd when, during the oddly titled panel Hips, Lips and Pencil Tips: The Sexual Female as Feminist Focal Point, we were mesmerized by the boobs above.

Luckily, our pal and talented Secret Artist, John Brodowski, had come down from Vermont to sit with us, sign books and keep things lively. Take a gander at the name tag he made for Leon below.

Some general notes from King Con:

– Sales were reasonable on Saturday, almost brisk! It was the strangest sales sheet we have ever seen. The sheet has our titles in a column on the left and then little check boxes trailing off to the right where we make a mark for each copy sold. Normally, there are a half dozen things that each show freaks out about, so the checks in the little boxes move left to right. Not this show. The checks moved up and down, leaving the sheet looking like some kid’s who ran out of time on the SATs and marked everything C. We sold a couple of everything, as if the people at the show checked to see what everyone else bought and bought something else. This never happens.

– Sunday sales were barely there. It could have been the marathon or it could have been how things roll in the fancier sections of Brooklyn on Sundays, but that show was near-death until an odd burst of sales to other folks on the floor at the waning hours. But really, you could have shut down an hour earlier; half the tables had packed up by then.

– It was one of the most diverse crowds we’ve seen at a show. Usually we get a hundred guys with beards wearing plaid, i.e. our gang. King Con was occasionally hip, occasionally dorky, but always interesting. Plus: one elf and one blue cat. And a pug dressed up as Wonder Woman (for real, check out Jamie Tanner’s photo here). On Saturday, grumpy, beautiful genius Brooklyn author, Zadie Smith bought an entire run of Sean Ford‘s Only Skin from us. She has great taste, which makes it almost unfair, since she’s got everything else, too.

– The bathrooms were a horrorshow. Everytime the staff of the Lyceum tried to sell us raffle tickets to support their roof garden, we wanted to counter that the funds might be better suited to creating restrooms for humans. Co-ed is not that huge a deal. Privacy and cleanliness are. As for those raffle tickets, they were announced every thirty seconds at ear-splitting volume. Please note that microphones make you loud; screaming into them makes you annoying as shit, unless you’re Future of the Left.

– We saw some new faces! The show was small and friendly enough that we had many more one-on-one interactions with people than usual. Anthony Stock and Peter Quach‘s comics were new to us, at least, and not bad at all. The real star of the show was Morgan Pielli, an old pal killing it with Indestructible Universe. And, for the last time, stop giving us comics at cons, please. We have no idea what’s a submission, and what’s our haul and that’s too bad for you.

– Other bloggers have covered some of the operational challenges and confusion around the Convention this year, so we’ll skip any frustrations we had with the programming or marketing of the event – but this: Make sure the convention site has a street address.

The bottom line is that we’ll likely return next year, but if it takes place on marathon weekend, we’re not sure about that second day. We were both tickled and miffed that Heidi MacDonald called us the biggest “publishers” there (yes, she used quotes), so, any other local publishers, please, come join us. About those boobs above, our Acres wagon had a hell of a time making it up and down the stairs of the Lyceum, eventually busting a wheel and an axle. When all seemed lost, the woman drawing in front of us and sitting behind all those boobs, and there were thousands of boobs, ran over and picked up a hundred pounds of our gear in one hand and walked the only remaining Acre guy to the curb. A world without superheroes, our ass.

Speaking of Brooklyn comics shows, we are mere weeks away from our favorite show of the year, Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest. This year, the guest list is the most powerful and talented cartoonists in the universe. We’re thrilled to be able to participate. And to make matters even more exciting, we’ll be debuting Edie Fake‘s graphic novel, Gaylord Phoenix. If all you’ve seen of the series are the first five mini-comics, prepare to be overwhelmed by the spectacle of the full graphic novel. It will give you brain damage. Edie will be at the table with us, signing his book and glad-handing. It’s our last show of the year and a real sweet way to end our third year publishing comics. We’re three! We can wipe our own asses!

If anyone was annoyed that we didn’t have those limited edition Theo Ellsworth prints at the show, well, we’re starting to run low. The Emporium is always open; you may want to snag one as a holiday gift before they are gone. We’ve got the Natural World 4 – and we’ll have Gaylord Phoenix available for preorder in a week, and books will ship out right after Thanksgiving. Keep warm, eat loads of carbs and come see us December 4th in Williamsburg. We”ll be back to remind you in a bit.

Your pals,

Leon and Barry

Secret Acres is the Best!

THERE’S GOOD NEWS and then there’s good news. First the good news.

We do very much appreciate having our horns blown for us, since it doesn’t really count as bragging if we’re quoting someone else, does it? Someone over at NY Press really likes us. We’re in the boroughs, so being the Best Independent Comics Publisher on the Best of Manhattan 2010 list is a bit more of a hoot to us low-rent guys—and yeah, there’s lots of Brooklyn on there, too (Acres sympathizer and onetime SPX tablemate, Lisa Hanawalt picked up another win for Best Comic About Menstruation. Seriously.). Although, how many independent comics publishers are there in New York, anyway? Is it just us and Picturebox?

Speaking of Manhattan, our man Edie Fake is representing at the New York Art Book Fair (another former NY Press Best of Manhattan selection) this very weekend. He will have all the homemade stuffs, and, if you’re very nice, maybe he’ll even show you his Gaylord Phoenix.

On the left side of the country, another nice guy genius, Theo Ellsworth, of Capacity fame, has a solo show at Giant Robot in Los Angeles. It is entitled Visitors, and if you can be there on the 6th, there’s a 6:30pm reception, but be careful mixing booze and Theo’s art. Just get there by November 8th or you’ll miss out.

And, back in Brooklyn, Secret Acres will be throwing down at King Con, with none other than John Brodowski, the artist formerly known as JB and the man who brought you Curio Cabinet. Additionally, official Acres pal Mike Dawson (the Me in Freddie and Me and superstar creator of Troop 142) will also be hanging around King Con. If you haven’t read either Curio Cabinet or Troop 142, now’s your chance to get both at the same time and maybe some killer sketches to save your street cred.

If you’re wondering what the hell we are doing at King Con if we’re so artsy, well, you’ll find out when we do. New shows are always an adventure. We’re used to being the weird kids in the class, but when a childhood icon like Chris Claremont is the headliner, we really have no idea what to expect. Yes, we’re old enough to remember when Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men were fifty cents an issue. No, we have no thoughts on the $3.99 (momentarily back to $2.99) price tag and its effect on the Direct Market except to say that would have been most of our allowance back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Also, as publishers of Ken Dahl‘s Eisner-nominated, multiple Ignatz-winning Monsters, you’d think we’ve have noticed Ken’s online comic about sexism. The comic was largely a reaction to Hark a Vagrant! mastermind Kate Beaton’s message board and tweet hellhole of this past week. In fact, we only noticed it because of Kate’s tweets. Like Kate, we found it was really good, although it generalized about gender too much. Good fodder for discussion, just not online. If you want proof of the putrid horrors of our souls that can only be revealed in cyberspace, you can check out Ken’s message board in the wake of his comic.

For full disclosure, we don’t know Kate. We are fans, like the rest of the world, and she was very polite signing our prints for us at SPX. We think it’s worth noting that on the womanless ride home from said SPX this year, we realized that all of the cartoonists that we were gushing about were of the lady persuasion: Kate Beaton, Lisa Hanawalt, Minty Lewis, Corinne Mucha, Laura Park, Gabrielle Bell, Julia Wertz, Rutu Modan, Melissa Mendes, Lynda Barry, Leslie Anne Mackenzie Stein, Lilli Carre, Sarah Glidden, Joey Sayers, et al. In fact, we tried to name all the great woman cartoonists currently at work and gave up after a while. Depressing as it was to read through some of the intwerwebs’ vitriol and ignorance over the last few days, maybe Heidi MacDonald was right to wonder if we still need a Friends of Lulu?

This whole man/woman thing. Gaylord Phoenix can’t get here soon enough.

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

Notes From Underground

OUR GANG spent the entire ride home from the big show dissecting what amounted to a whirlwind goodwill tour of an SPX. It was a very a strange show for us. Secret Acres would appear to be at a crossroads of sorts. Go get some coffee; this is going to be a long one.

Organizationally, SPX was very much as expected. These guys really know what they’re doing. It was crowded, but comfortable. The panels all seemed to work like, well, a clock, even if our very own Eamon Espey and those other guys were too smart for us (Seriously, if you put Espey, Tom K and Kevin H in a dark room and say the word iconography aloud, you better remember your SAT vocab). They found a way to accommodate Kate Beaton‘s line of admirers, which was pretty much everyone at the show, per usual. The Ignatzes were the Ignatzes. The snozberries tasted like snozzberries. And all was right with the world.

Then we found ourselves way back in time. On the aforementioned ride home, we agreed that the smart money would be on Heidi MacDonald feverishly typing up a killer post about the return of the good old days of SPX (No proof of this at typing time). This show was very much that. Last year it seemed to us at the Acres that there was quite a lot of waxing, nostalgic and otherwise, for the newly old guard that didn’t show. Dean Haspiel, Mike Dawson, Gabrielle Bell, Tom Devlin et al had given way to CCC, Sparkplug, Bodega and Buenaventura. The torch had been passed. The old gray mare ain’t what she used to be.

It would seem the olde farts took the torch back and set the kids on fire. Haspiel? Shirtless at the Ignatzes presenting to James Sturm, that cutthroat whippersnapper. Dawson? Nominated for everything, bringing home the brick for best webcomic, proving that online comics aren’t just for kids anymore. Bell? Ringing it. Devlin? Not only was he there, but the Fort Thunder geezers were putting up Monster. Not since the Dark Crystal have there been so many Mystics in one room.

Just after the awards, we got a moment with old buddy, and hero/mentor, Tom. Maybe it was the booze, or the Ignatz glow, but our heads were a little messed up for the lack of CCC, Sparkplug, Bodega, Buenaventura. Was this not supposed to be our time? What the hell is SPX without Randy and Dylan? Or Austin? Or Tony Shenton, for that matter?

“It’s weird,” we whined to Tom. “Isn’t it?”

Tom’s response: “The last time I was here, none of that existed. I haven’t been to this show in five years. I’ve never been to this hotel. This is the way it always is.” And so it shall be, so sayeth Tom. Papa Devlin was, as always, being quite generous with us and our peeps, especially compared to some. A fellow old guardian, a very well respected and well read critic, actually came all the way to our little table in Siberia to say hello to Lisa Hanawalt (who, by the way, is the next big thang, minus the next part) and tell her how happy she was that a woman finally won the Ignatz for Best Comic and how she couldn’t wait to read it. Picking up a copy of I Want You and flipping through it, she blanched, told Lisa it wasn’t her bag, and walked off. Maybe Mike Dawson got it right that comics criticism is still in its infancy. Or maybe, as we suspect in our tiny, paranoid brains, she was gloating.

So little Acres was left feeling a bit alone (though we did cuddle up to Chris Pitzer for warmth). We’re a very young, very small company. We’re fairly certain that we were the only publishers confined to a single table (which won’t be the case next year, come hell or Highwater). We’re ten days away from our third anniversary and we’ve only been putting out our own books for two years and change. We miss Randy and Dylan and everybody.

And yet, between our books and the books we distro and our amazing table guest, Ms. Hanawalt, we realized we had seven Ignatz nominations (yes, four noms for the deserving Troop 142, from Mike Dawson – who is not old at all, for crying out loud) and three winners, including the first ever for a book with the Secret Acres logo on it, our very own Eisner-nominated Monsters. Considering that our SPX debut books were both delayed, between those little red Ignatz tags, a couple bricks and some leftover Eisner stickers, we sure as hell had a lot of bling on the table, even if it was mostly just loaners from our pals (Many, deep thanks to new pals Lisa and Mike – and old pal Blaise). And we did okay, with no new books and a table in the middle of nowhere, because we have a lot of pals. So how lonely could we be?

It’s not exactly good news when three indie houses, and our friends therein, don’t make it to SPX, no matter what the reasons. It does make us feel a little more self-conscious, a little more aware that Secret Acres is in the midst of an awkward stage. But we’re doing okay and we’re growing up fast.

After the Ignatzes, while our man Ken Dahl was busy victory tweeting from a toilet stall, Heidi herself came up to us and said, “Hey, Secret Acres! You’re still here!” We’re not exactly sure if she was referring to our absent friends, but we’ll take that as a compliment, thank you very much.

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

SPX (I’m a…)

WELL, well, well. It’s that time of year again. We swear, with MoCCA moved up (thankfully) and SPX so early, it seems time is moving faster and faster, until after a while you wouldn’t feel anything and then your body would just burst into fire.

Walk with us to SPX where we will have some choice goodies. We will have these darn beauties of Theo Ellsworth prints. We will have the ever lovely and reborn Capacity. Most importantly, we will have a super guest star at the table: the astonishing Lisa Hanawalt. If you’re not familiar with her comics, we can remedy that down in beautiful Bethesda, MD. If you can’t make it to the big show, check out her site, but be warned as you may go broke. If you’re wondering about the rest of the gang of Acres, yes, godlike genius and Murdaland local legend Eamon Espey will haunt the joint and Ignatz (and Eisner) nominee Ken Dahl will be looking for that (second) brick. Monsters has already won an Ignatz, but an embarrassment of riches is fine with us.

Speaking of embarrassing ourselves, the much delayed I Will Bite You!, and the never before delayed Gaylord Phoenix are, you guessed it, delayed. Now, before you scratch our eyes out, I Will Bite You! will be our superdeluxe production for MoCCA in the spring – and the epic Gaylord Phoenix is landing for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, which, come on, is not really that far away. If you can’t wait, or if you don’t believe us, check this out. See.

Biting you or not, go holla at Joe Lambert and fellow Secret Acre Sean Ford at the Sundays and One Percent Press tables, where they promise to have a “pretty great” anthology, edited by Joe himself. Indeed, we know you want Only Skin 6. It’s facken ginormous and yet another reason to head to BCGF, but first things first.

If you can’t make it down to the show, you can always pre-order the new Capacity in the Emporium. But please, stop paying two hundred smackers for it on half.com. Seriously.

We will back shortly with our SPX report and other things. See you on the other side (or at SPX).

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

City of Brotherly Love

AND Secret Acres has returned again.

The Philadelphia Alternative Comic Con, or PACC, as to it we shall henceforth refer, was a real good show and shows a lot of promise. This was primarily an artist’s shindig, which is a rare breed in the age of Comicon International and the like. There were only two or three publisher tables, which made us one of the bigger getups on the floor, which is also a rare thing for us. This was all very much good news for the crowd, and there was quite a crowd, coming to PACC to check out the local (and not so local) talent.

As fans, we were into it. There were some familiar faces in Box Brown, the ever-present Liz Baillie and Partyka’s own Matt Wiegle. New to us, and among our favorites in our haul was Peter Lazarski’s Imaginary Monsters. The real stars of the show, by our estimation, were its organizers and wardens of Secret Prison, Pat Aulisio and Ian Harker.  There’s some pretty great stuff in those Secret Prisons (no actual relation to Secret Acres), from some pretty great artists, a shocking number of which are Philly locals. As to the locals, local legend Charles Burns himself dropped by the show. There is definitely something going on at PACC.

We were not around for PACC the first, but for a show in its second year, it’s got a rosy future. Before anyone starts up saying that this was a labor of love alone, there really was a crowd and we really did sell some books. A lot of books. Of course, we had Ken Dahl, Eamon Espey and Sean Ford with us, so that may not be a surprise, but for PACC, which is still in its infancy (or a toddler), the sales and enthusiasm were pleasantly surprising. Thinking about it on the ride home, with all the local talent and all the Philly fans, that city needs a PACC. Congrats and thanks to the Philly Comix Jam and Secret Prisoners for making it happen. Of course, this may mean that next year we won’t be one of the bigger kids on the block, but we like it like that, too.

Now the REAL news: The Friends of Lulu are still kickin’ it after all these years and it’s time to prove once again that Minty Lewis can’t lose. If you still have not read PS Comics, now is the day to save yourself from missing out. But don’t take our word for it, check this out and then go vote for Minty here. Seriously, you can just write her in for every category. Minty is nothing if not Kid-Friendly, Most Talented, a Lulu, a Distinct Woman and a born Hall of Fame monster.

Go vote!

We will definitely see you in September for SPX, and we may have some treats for you before then…

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

Road Trip!

OKAY, we’ve got big plans. But first up, there were no losers on Eisner night – except those of us who did not win our awards. We’re coming to get you, Tatsumi-sensei.

Ahem. Now back to the celebrating!

To congratulate our resident sellout (and we mean that literally) and genius, Theo Ellsworth, on getting rid of all those Capacity books, we got all-new, signed and fancy posters! Our second limited poster is in the Emporium and shipping right this very second. There’s only 250 of ’em and when they’re gone, they are gone forever and ever. If the internets is really just too much, you can find these things at Desert Island, Forbidden Planet and Jim Hanley’s Universe in New York City and Phantom of the Attic Comics in Pittsburgh, PA. The last run of limited posters we printed sold out pretty quickly, so don’t drag your feet if you think you want some signed & numbered wall art from Theo Ellsworth. We’ll feel bad for you if you miss out, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

We’ve also got some new mini-comics from the heralded Joseph Lambert in the Emporium. Take a look at Food/Fall, Everyday, Tantrum and whatever this thing is called. They’re real pretty and you don’t have to impress them.

Eamon Espey’s books are back in stock, thankfully. You can read Rob Clough’s review of Death Deals here. Or you can just get the book already. Or even better, do both.

We are putting the finishing touches on Edie Fake’s glorious and epic (meaning it’s a big fat book) Gaylord Phoenix, which will be reinventing everything later this year.

Finally, as you may have guessed from the subtle title of this post, Secret Acres is taking the show on the road, walking the talk, and hitting a whole lot of indie comics shows this year on both sides of our great nation. Expect to see us at Philadelphia Alternative Comics Con which is this Sunday, August 8th. Special thanks to Pat Aulisio for inviting us and putting the convention together. “We” includes Ken Dahl, Eamon Espey and, for the first time ever at Secret Acres table (except when he was drunk and lost at SPX), Sean “Only Skin” Ford.

Of course, we would not miss SPX in September (Bethesda, MD), but we will be crashing Brooklyn’s own King Con in November, heading back to ExpoZine in November (Montreal) and then back to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival in December.

And on the left coast, the ever lovelier Minty Lewis and the dashing Damien Jay (of Natural World fame) will be your Secret Acres hosts at APE (San Francisco) in October. We’re also looking at setting something up (if not this go-round, then the next) for the Portland Zine Fest, in case you guys wanted more after Stumptown.

So, basically you have no excuse not to come and say hi to us. We’re going to be everywhere – and we’ll be back shortly to give you the skinny on the happenings for our year of travels, travails and triumphs. If you’ve made it this far, you might enjoy a peak at the second edition of Capacity. We’d show you some Gaylord, too, but come on. If we give it all up now, you might not like us in the morning.

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

Ask not What Secret Acres can do for You

SO we’ve seen the number of submissions we receive increase significantly over the past year. This is great because we love seeing new work! Unfortunately, based on our day jobs and hectic production schedule, it sometimes takes us a very long time to read submissions. We do the best we can, but seriously, we have stacks of comics to read. It was much easier to find the time to enjoy comics before we started publishing them!

In the interest of making our process totally transparent, here are some guidelines and helpful info for submitting your work to Secret Acres:

1) Know our books. As much as we like to believe that we don’t have a particular aesthetic, there are books that really don’t make sense for us to publish or carry. These include illustrated novels (meaning prose with some pictures, not graphic novels) and manga inspired work (If you are a traditional manga-ka  as it were, it’ll be tough to stand out, so please be prepared to dazzle us if you’re going to insist.). It is really obvious to us when we receive submissions from folks that are not familiar with the work that we already carry/publish. And it is kind of insulting to get these blind submissions since it distracts us from reading other submissions.

2) Don’t expect a response. There was a time when we could respond to everyone, but the stack these days is out of control. Yes, it seems mean and callous that you won’t hear a yes or no from us, but we don’t have the resources to respond to every submission we get. If we like what we read or want to carry your books, we will absolutely let you know. If you don’t hear from us, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we hate your work, only that it wasn’t right for us or we haven’t gotten to it yet. While every publisher says something along those lines, we generally don’t hate stuff, unless we really, truly deeply hate it – and you’d have to be utterly ignoring what we actually publish and distribute to send us comics we will outright hate (though hate can be amusing, and, really, if you’re not reading our books, you’re not reading this, either, so we will surely continue to be amused by our hatred). Along with this, please don’t send an SASE for a response or work that you expect to be returned to you.

3) Don’t send us pitches, especially if you are unpublished. When it comes to comics, it’s important for us to be able to see and read the work. If you’re an emerging artist that sends us a script or a pitch, we don’t have enough to go on to consider publishing you. Anything you show us should be mostly finished.

4) Send us submissions. Handing us submissions at conventions probably seems like a much more personal, effective way to get your work to us, but the truth is that we are usually busy at conventions and your comic may not make it to the Secret Acres Submission drawer. We love meeting new people and talking to creators, and we’re likely to read anything that gets handed to us at a convention, but we may not specifically treat your comic as a submission. Just a warning for the friendlier cartoonists. This isn’t to say we’ve never given anyone live feedback at the table, but that doesn’t qualify as a submission.

Secret Acres is small. We publish two to three books a year and operate a small online store for books and mini-comics. Our publishing schedule is usually booked two years ahead of time. It’s good to understand this when you send us work so you understand how we operate. Our tastes are quirky and individual, but we truly love what we carry and publish and we are always interested in finding new comics to love.

Now, go vote for Monsters over here!

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon

Stumped Town

YES, that really is some Capacity ink up there. It was a lightning fast forty-eight hours in Portland. For the record, we’re not sure whether we were stalking Dean Haspiel or he was stalking us, but he was getting his shoes shined when we were getting pizza at JFK, sitting a few rows ahead of us on the flight to PDX, standing outside the Doug Fir while we were getting sloshed (we needed the acid after all the fat at Le Pigeon), sitting a few rows behind us on the flight home (and we were so tired we were nearly cuddling with our rowmate, and comics deity, James Sturm) – and, of course, we were all at Stumptown together.

Stumptown rocks. There were no organizational hitches that we noticed. Though we heard tell of overbooking from others afterward, there wasn’t anything we didn’t dig. The setup was open and airy. There were actual windows. We had some great real estate right at the entrance. We had Theo at the table. Should we thirst, there were volunteers bringing us water. And we thirsted!

That film crew did indeed show up. We had our big interviews in front of D&Q and the aforementioned Sturm and none other than Peggy Burns. We thought we did okay, but it’s tough to perform in front of Peggy, who is a killer communicator on a Wu Tang level. At least it was extra convenient for us to pick up Wilson on the way back to the table, where Theo had his turn in front of the cameras. It might have scared the crowd a bit, but if you’re wondering what real starpower looks like, check out Theo working the red carpet for the paparazzi below. He has style. He has grace. He better work.

Our panel was hella fun, or so everyone but one half of Secret Acres thought. Now, we were meant to discuss “the ever changing world of producing and publishing indy comics.” Other than needing to needle Blaise about his trophy thing and the comments thereupon, we decided to walk the talk of the talker to which Journalista Dirk linked. We figured if that Jeff Jarvis guy can talk about learner directed education, we could make it happen (Could you, Jeff Jarvis, you pompous bastard lecturer?). So we started with questions, rather than ended with them. It turns out that Jeff Jarvis was right; learners know what they want to know. We won’t get into the nitty gritty, but we will say this: Secret Acres’ stationery is real pretty; Theo Ellsworth lived in a cave; print and digital are not mutually exclusive (unless we’re talking about newspapers and periodicals); Minty is back in action post PS Comics – and, for all the talk, Secret Acres got Blaise to admit that the format of his future work will be a book. Now that’s mad real, as they say in France.

But what of the comics, you ask? There was Wilson (It’s great. Deal with it being great.). Minty dropped the killer Salad Days on us, and whatever she was up to on that break, this mini is worth the wait. Sean Christensen followed up Miranda Baby with the fatter and equally awesome Labanotation. Tom Neely killed us with Henry & Glenn (that’s Rollins and Danzig, of Crystar fame) and he drew us a nice cock. The lovely Joey Sayers kept the beat with the second issue of Just so You Know. But those are all the people we know we know.

Then there were those we did not know we did not know: Virginia Paine, The Warehouse on Poplar; Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg, I Cut my Hair; Julia Gforer, Flesh and Bone (Sparkplug Comic Books); Max Clotfelter, Alligator Milk; Kelly Froh, a lot of crap, as in various; Pam Cameron-Snyder, Crosses of Power; and, finally, Malachi Ward, whom we found at the Pony Club after-party and who gave us three pretty great comics, Utu, The Scout and U.S.S. Origin. Silly Malachi. Don’t give it up for free. We’d have paid for it.

And none, not one of these people, were assholes. Now that’s a con. You folks reading this, go out and get their stuff.

Your Pals,

Barry and Leon