Poopsheet Community Blog

OKAY ON DOOMSDAY, another new one from Ben Hutchings

2009-11-08T05:02:10.000Z

Okay, so you might not be able to get a copy of this one (click the image for more info). But you can definitely read it over at Top Shelf 2.0.

Monster Show 4 now online

2009-11-08T04:30:00.000Z

Monster Show 4 is running concurrently at Domy Books' Austin and Houston locations and everything is now online as well. Go see Austin, go see Houston. If you're in town you can go see the art in person through December 3rd.

The image above is by Mark Hensel and below are Sarah Ra Ra, Joe Legs and Sumi Ink Club. Other artists in the show include Aeron Alfrey, Mark Todd, Benjamin Marra, Matt Furie, Dave Kiersh, Matt Thurber and many others.

Nov. 7 on MidnightFiction.com

2009-11-07T16:15:00.000Z

awesome Dan Zettwoch poster

2009-11-06T10:47:11.000Z

Click the image above for more info on this art show, rough sketches that became this poster and a sneak peek at Dan's own pieces in the show.

COMIC OF SMALLNESS #2, new from Ben Hutchings

2009-11-05T03:00:18.000Z

Click the image for more info. Ben's also been posting a lot of nice comics and art at his blog lately.

BLACK ROBOTS, new from Hurk

2009-11-04T02:45:31.000Z

Click the image above for more info!

Review: "Crowbars Don't Kill People...CROWBARS Do", Volume 1

2009-11-04T02:45:24.000Z

You know already whether or not you're going to be into this. The cover of this book doesn't lie. Scratchy, amateurish scrawling with what appears to be a Bic pen, tasteless gags, and lots of blood (oh, the book, even though it mostly in black & white, is printed in color so the blood can be red...nice touch, really...)

It probably shouldn't work as well as it does. But the thing is that, about half the time, it actually works...sort of. The author, identified only as "Matian" has some gags and even though his or her artistic skill may be limited, the gags are presented effectively and they are sometimes very funny.

But Matain, more than anything, needs an editor. There's some truly really funny stuff in here, even if you take out the gags that fall flat (and many do), there's enough here for 3 or 4 good issues of a digest-sized 'zine. This obviously wasn't Matian's intent though, because the book is identified as a "coffee table book" so it would appear that he/she meant for it to be this big.

It's a shame really, because ultimately the gags that misfire wind up obscuring the ones that don't, and by the time you're looking at a panel of a shirtless teacher murdering his students on the third-to-last page (SPOILER ALERT!) you're kind of punch-drunk and maybe not remembering the funnier parts of this book.

I can't figure out how much this thing's gonna cost you, but I recommend you head over to www.brokennoses.com and check out the work for yourself. You'll know pretty soon whether or not you're into it.

works-in-progress: THE QUIET FAMILY by Theo Ellsworth

2009-11-01T22:59:03.000Z

Click the image above for more.

Oct 31 on MidnightFiction.com

2009-10-31T19:08:17.000Z

more Halloween/monster/horror-themed fun!

2009-10-31T07:00:00.000Z

Paper Tiger Comix #4 (2007), cover by Vince Packard

Fried Brains #21 (Clay Geerdes, 1986), cover by Jeff Gaither

The Thing in the Closet (Slice O' Life Press, 1990) by David Tosh

"Fisticuffs" (2008) by Rob Sato

Skull button (The Dale Lee Planet, 2007) by Andy Nukes

More to come! Happy Halloween!

NOT MY SMALL DIARY #15 now available in the Poopsheet Shop

2009-10-31T01:41:28.000Z

Thick two-volume set with tons of great cartoonists!

More info and sample pages at the Poopsheet Shop.

Halloween/monster/horror-themed mini-comics covers!

2009-10-31T01:05:51.000Z

Happy Halloween!

Parched Bones (Thru Black Holes Comix, 1981), cover by Ed H. Dorn

Big Bad Panels (Scratchez, 1987) by Bob Lewis

Exquisite Corpse #2 (Thru Black Holes Comix, 1984) by Michael Roden and Bill Shut

Twitch Vixen #2 (Slice O' Life Press, 1994), cover by David Tosh

Sleazy Horror #5 (Clay Geerdes, 1983), cover by David Miller

APC Tales #? (APC Publications, 1986), cover by Hilary Barta and Jeff Gaither

More to come!

UK anthology SOLIPSISTIC POP #1, edited by Tom Humberstone

2009-10-30T08:07:04.000Z

TWO EYES OF THE BEAUTIFUL, new from Ryan Cecil Smith

2009-10-28T05:09:58.000Z

SELF-INDULGENT COMICS #24 by Colin Upton now out

2009-10-28T01:52:43.000Z

NOT MY SMALL DIARY #15 edited by Delaine Derry Green

2009-10-27T05:30:00.000Z

Two-volume set available soon in the Poopsheet Shop and it can also be ordered from Delaine's site as well.

Contributors include: Donna Barr, Box Brown, Mark Campos, Max Clotfelter, Joe Decie, Brad Foster, Roberta Gregory, Dave Kiersh, Lucy Knisley, Richard Krauss, Patty Leidy, Simon Mackie, Carrie McNinch, Frederick Noland, Misun Oh, Adam Pasion, John Porcellino, Matthew Reidsma, Jim Siergey, Maximum Traffic, Noah Van Sciver, Chad Woody and many others.

CRAGMORE preview online

2009-10-27T03:13:37.000Z

Hey, now you can read the first 20 pages of CRAGMORE, the graphic novel I'm currently writing and drawing, online. Check it out!

Review: Nine Gallons

2009-10-26T05:37:04.000Z

Nine Gallons
32 pages, $5
Available at This Is What Concerns Me

You can't make these people up. Well, you can, but it's so true that truth is stranger than fiction. Raj is the first and most important member of the group that Susie meets as a volunteer for Food Not Bombs. Raj speaks very abruptly and, although quite humorless, steals each panel he's a part of in Susie Cagle's wonderful mini comic, Nine Gallons. His first words to her: "I am Raj and you are late! Here, chop these into bits and introduce yourself." He's hardly convinced of her commitment. Only after numerous acts of selfless devotion to the cause, does Susie win him over. It seems like a lot to ask but it seems like part of the reward too.

Not that Cagle appears to want to prove something. She genuinely comes across as someone who just wants to do good. She's a plucky young woman who wants to address the world head on and see what she can do. For her, it's becoming part of Food Not Bombs, an international collective that protests war and serves soup to the homeless.

Cagle's background is in journalism and it shows in the care she takes to render each individual and each scene with authenticity. Her style of drawing is cartoony with a naturlistic flourish like you would see in MAD magazine. It's quite good and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Miss Cagle's fine work.

Being part of something like Food Not Bombs is one of those things that you have to be there to truly appreciate. It takes on its own logic. You do it because it's a labor of love even if you wonder if you're making a real difference-and then you see signs that maybe you are. Nine Gallons tunes in to this scene beautifully and truly allows you in to get a taste of what it's all about. And speaking of taste, you even get a recipe in this book to the Food Not Bombs "Nine Gallon" soup. Enjoy.

Keep up with Susie Gagle and buy Nine Gallons and her other works at her site.

THE RATNEST #1 by Patrick Keck (now available through the Poopsheet Shop)

2009-10-25T02:33:44.000Z

Beautiful and creepy comics by Patrick Keck.

More info and sample pages at the Poopsheet Shop.

Oct 24 on MidnightFiction.com

2009-10-24T15:28:01.000Z

three new publications from Blaise Larmee

2009-10-23T09:30:00.000Z

Click the image above to order. More about Comics Youth here.

new print by Onsmith: "The Accusation"

2009-10-23T09:04:07.000Z

Check out this Theo Ellsworth-designed bookmark

2009-10-23T08:00:00.000Z

For Quimby's in Chicago. Click the image above to go see the back side.

L.A. DIARY, new from Gabrielle Bell

2009-10-23T07:42:52.000Z

Review: Emberley Galaxy anthology

2009-10-21T13:30:00.000Z

EMBERLEY GALAXY
Various artists, edited by Joe Kuth
Red Panda Comics

Ed Emberley is a children’s book illustrator who is best-known for his clever “how-to-draw” books, which teach kids how to design and draw all sorts of things using simple shapes and an additive, one-by-one approach. Emberley Galaxy is a tribute anthology to the illustrator, edited by artist Joe Kuth and assembling the contributions of numerous other comic artists, many of whom are also Emberley fans. These artists take a number of different approaches to giving Emberley a nod, and the resulting anthology is both entertaining in its own right and a fantastic summation of what makes its title subject’s work so exciting and enduring.

Some of the best strips in the book are those that take a formalist approach to the material, which is fitting since Emberley’s own work is so resolutely formalist, predicated on an attention to the building blocks of drawings rather than to finished effects. The book’s most clever piece is undoubtedly Stefan Gruber’s two-page spread, which is deceptively simple on its surface but reveals complicated effects once one begins to read it. Gruber builds drawings piece by piece and panel by panel using Emberley's distinctive style, with the shapes being added to the drawing at each point identified beneath the panel. But Gruber playfully messes with the form, sometimes by including impossible instructions — a clock symbol represents an attempt to translate an image from a three-dimensional cube into the fourth dimension — or by subverting expectations. In one of the best sequences, Gruber seems to be drawing a cuddly teddy bear, but at the last moment pulls an unexpected reversal and transforms the drawing into a teeth-baring monster. The strip as a whole is a wonderful reminder of the wide-open possibilities in Emberley’s simple drawings, which can head off in any direction unexpectedly.

Warren Craghead unsurprisingly also offers a formalist take on Emberley, though it’s very different from Craghead’s more familiar style. Instead, with a clean, stripped-down line, he anthropomorphizes Emberley’s inanimate shapes into animate beings, none too happy about being pressed into service as elements in a larger design. Emberley’s work is a perfect subject for Dan Zettwoch, whose own comics almost always deal with diagrams and designs: his aesthetic is usually too cluttered and busy for my tastes, creating pages that are headache-inducing to read, but here the union of creator and subject is so perfect that his piece is great fun. I suppose Chris Cornwell’s piece also qualifies as a formalist take on Emberley, and it’s appealing to look at, but frankly so jumbled and confusing in its sequence that I have no idea what it’s actually supposed to represent: it seems to be a narrative comic but the panel order is so unclear that it’s impossible to actually discern what’s happening here. A few other pieces in this vein are even less compelling. C. Spencer Yeh, of the great noise outfit Burning Star Core, isn’t a cartoonist and his “fill in the blanks” series of strips shows that while anyone can draw Emberley’s simple figures, not everyone can make compelling art out of them. Doug Meyer draws himself trying to draw from Emberley’s example and growing frustrated with the results; it’s boring and one-joke despite some formal whimsy at the outset. Similarly, even in this context, Jeffrey Brown can only come up with a drawing of himself sulking. So much for a sense of play.

Another common approach is taking Emberley’s characters, or Emberley-inspired characters, and telling whimsical stories with them. To the extent that these tales capture Emberley’s children-oriented storytelling, they’re variously successful. Rina Ayuyang, the only artist working in color, contributes a story of fingerprint-modeled characters living in a world where all the sorrow has disappeared — and after an initial burst of excitement they’re increasingly anxious about the freedom from responsibilities and the openness of all possibilities. It’s not only a fine story, told in a distinctive children’s book style, but a visually appealing work as well. Kuth himself offers a fluffy, fun alien adventure, as well as collaborating with David Paleo on a series of monster fight comics. Alex Holden, in what seems like an outtake from Zettwoch’s story, turns in a brief but fairly amusing gag about shipbuilding, Emberley-style.

Two comics in particular capture the sense of what it’s like to be inspired by Emberley. Toby Craig offers a silent story in which two young kids, drawn in a rough, cartoony style, draw from Emberley’s example while on a road trip with their parents. As the kids become immersed in drawing, the white space on the page begins to fill in with examples of their work, animals and monsters and airplanes all crafted from assemblies of D’s and triangles and circles. It’s a loose and expressionistic portrayal of imagination running free. The final strip in the book, by Dan Moynihan, is a simple one-pager that shows how a creative artist or child might go beyond the steps in Emberley’s books to personalize and innovate their drawings. The rather basic drawings aren’t especially compelling in their own right, but it’s a fun page that celebrates how Emberley encourages creativity rather than simply teaching kids to draw by rote.

The book does have its missteps, of course, mostly in the form of a handful of artists who contribute lazy pages of doodles. Cansafis Foote’s page is utter gibberish, while Jack Fraley’s two pages are nothing but Emberley’s raw shapes, cut-and-pasted into repetitive grids over and over again. Sam Henderson’s page of Halloween-themed Emberley drawings is accompanied by his writing about (no joke) misspelling the artist’s name in a library search. Pages like this stand out because so many of the other artists put such real thought and genuine affection into their work; the few hacked-out contributions seem half-finished by comparison. On the whole, Emberley Galaxy is an admirable book, a tribute to its subject and to the imaginations of all the people — like the artists here — who he’s inspired.

KAT & TELLY by James Baker

2009-10-21T09:45:29.000Z

This one debuted at APE this past weekend. More info here.

Will Dinski wins 2010 Isotope Award

2009-10-20T09:00:00.000Z

Over the weekend Will Dinski's Covered in Confusion won this year's Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics presented by San Francisco's Isotope Comics. Congratulations, Will!

[ thanks to Robot 6 ]

Blammo #5 is almost done...

2009-10-20T01:36:40.000Z

I'm really happy to say that the 5th issue of Blammo is nearly done!
I had put this issue to the side to work on The Hypo, but upon my return to Denver late September I was ready to finish it up. This issue is being published by a local bookstore called Kilgore books.
Here is the cover:

Oct 17 on MidnightFiction.com

2009-10-17T18:39:29.000Z

WUVABLE OAF #2 by Ed Luce (APE debut)

2009-10-17T12:00:00.000Z