{"id":2517,"date":"2013-05-07T03:56:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T03:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secretacres.com\/?p=2517"},"modified":"2013-05-07T03:56:01","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T03:56:01","slug":"north-by-northwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/secretacres.com\/?p=2517","title":{"rendered":"North by Northwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>TO BE<\/span> completely honest with you, we had no idea who the hell was even riding up to the Toronto Comics Arts Festival<\/a> with us this year, until about five minutes ago. Theo Ellsworth<\/a> is flying into Toronto from his home in the wilderness known as Montana, skipping the trek in the Acresmobile, so there was an extra seat. Sure, Theo is a big jet-setter, but he may simply be smart enough to avoid our ridiculous, smuggler’s idiocy that made our last trip<\/a> to Toronto so much more exciting than it ever needed to be. It was nice to see that folks were concerned for us, but don’t worry. We learned our lesson. Or we hope so, because if we fail to get Dash Shaw<\/a> to the show, people will have our heads. You gotta admire Mr. Shaw’s gangsta for hitching with us.<\/p>\n

Praise be to Casey Gonzalez for making the Acres a trio instead of a duo. As luck would have it, we will be setting up shop and then running right to our panel, on the state of the small press, featuring the always astonishing Annie Koyama of Koyama Press<\/a>, Bill “Killer” Kartalopoulos of Rebus Books<\/a> and the ever lively Jordan Shiveley of Grimalkin Press<\/a>. Grimalkin Press and Jordan Shiveley have been cranking out those pretty Hive<\/em><\/a> anthologies for years and have been teasing us with Phil McAndrew<\/a>‘s big book, Crying in Font of Your Dog and Other Stories<\/em><\/a> which was supposed to be out in 1998, but is truly arriving at TCAF. Bill K’s Rebus Books will have the superb Barrel of Monkeys<\/em> by Florent Ruppert and J\u00e9r\u00f4me Mulot<\/a>. Surely, by now, you don’t need to hear any more about Koyama Press, but, in case you missed it, they’ve got four debuts, including Julie Delporte<\/a>‘s Journal<\/em><\/a>, Victor Kerlow<\/a>‘s Everything Takes Forever<\/em><\/a>, the fifth installment of something called Lose<\/em><\/a> and a collection of odd, dangly bits, “Very Casual”<\/em><\/a> both by this Michael DeForge<\/a> guy. We promise to talk as much shit as possible.<\/p>\n

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And what of little, old Secret Acres? We’ve got good, old Theo Ellsworth making his first ever appearance north of the border for the international dropping of Capacity 8<\/em><\/a>. Yep, that’s Capacity 8<\/em>, of Capacity<\/em><\/a> fame, meaning his ongoing series that we first collected way back in 2008. To say that people love Capacity<\/em> would be the understatement of the decade (and we’re all about enormous hyperbole here). People are rightfully crazy about Capacity<\/em>. We were just as surprised as you to learn that Theo was heading back into Capacity<\/em> territory. The previous seven issues that comprise the collection are wrapped up pretty tight by a much larger and longer story. One could say that these weren’t collected, but completed – and one would be right about that. If the first Capacity<\/em> collection was about the creative process, this eighth issue sets the series on a path to explore the future and the world at large. The stories in\u00a0Capacity 8<\/em> are less about the expression of ideas and more the embodiment of thought. If you’re thinking that Theo has abandoned his other opus, the one that got started in the Understanding Monster Book One<\/em><\/a>, we can say for certain that he has not. You’ll be getting more of the Understanding Monster<\/em> soon enough.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the road, Eamon Espey<\/a> has been burning it up. Eamon and Lisa Krause<\/a> have, of course, been on a nationwide tour with\u00a0Ishi’s Brain<\/em>, the live performance based on his story from\u00a0Songs of the Abyss<\/em><\/a>. It’s been a treat from us hearing from folks all over about the show. If you’ve missed\u00a0Ishi’s Brain<\/em>, or if it’s missed you, you’ve still got some chances left:<\/p>\n

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