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News
Gainesville,
Florida, August 29, 2003:
Florida comic book publisher Alternative Comics will attend The Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, Maryland running September 5 through 7, 2003, and will debut a number of eagerly anticipated new books from cartoonists Jed Alexander, Damon Hurd, James Kochalka, and Lauren Weinstein. A number of cartoonists published by Alternative Comics will also be on hand for autograph and sketching sessions for their fans.
In its tenth year SPX now serves as the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comic books and the discovery of new creative talent. SPX will bring together over 300 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, distributors, and each other.
Alternative Comics publisher Jeff Mason will be at SPX where the following Alternative Comics cartoonists will be on hand Friday through Sunday in the Versailles Ballroom with tables 32 through 35 as their main display area:
- Jed Alexander — will be debuting the first issue of his new Yellow Baby series at SPX this year. Jed Alexander lives in Davis California with his girlfriend Regina and her two dogs. He?s written and done illustration for Shannon Wheeler?s Too Much Coffee Man Magazine, and has done covers for the free newspapers The Sacramento News and Review and Outword. His first published comics work, an earlier, more primitive version of "Turtle, turtle," appeared in issue #5 of the anthology Meathaus, which, coincidentally, is the same anthology that premiered the works of Alternative Comics artists Tomer Hanuka and Thomas Herpich.
 Graham Annable — with his Harvey Award and YALSA nominated Grickle graphic novel, will be
promoting the upcoming debut of the brand new issue of his Hickee anthology. Graham Annable was classically trained as an animator at
Sheridan College in Toronto, graduating in 1992, and has worked as an animator ever since, including work on British children's TV,
story boards for Chuck Jones Enterprises, Disney's A Goofy Movie, and since 1994 an extended string of computer game
projects for LucasArts such as Star Wars: Obi-Wan, Full Throttle, The Dig, Afterlife, Outlaws,
and The Curse of Monkey Island. Annable is the Lead Animator for the LucasArts video game RTX Red Rock . His projects
have won numerous animation and graphics awards including the ASIFA Annie Award, animation's highest honor, in 1998 for
"Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Interactive Program". Graham currently resides in the Bay Area, California.
 Gabrielle Bell — nominated for this year's Ignatz Awards for "Outstanding On-Line Comic" for her Bell's Home Journal strip, recently released her When I'm Old: And Other Stories book, and is responsible for the Book of series: Book of Insomnia, Book of Sleep, Book of Black, Book of Lies, and Book of Ordinary Things. Gabrielle Bell will be debuting her second issue of her mini-comic Lucky. She has contributed to publications such as Stereoscomic, Bogus Dead, Shout!, Orchid. She lives in Brooklyn, New York
- Nick Bertozzi — nominated for this year's Ignatz Awards for "Outstanding Comic" for Rubber Necker #2 and for "Outstanding On-Line Comic" for his The Salon strip, will be showing off the first three issues of his great new Rubber Necker comic book series that just garnered him two Harvey Awards. Nick Bertozzi lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and their new
baby daughter. His comics credits include: Boswash (Luxurious Comics)
— a map comic for which he also received both the Xeric Grant Award
and the Ignatz Award, The Masochists
(Alternative Comics), several stories for the Big Book series (Paradox
Press), and many other cartoon anthologies across the globe.
Nick Bertozzi won two 2003 Harvey Awards for "Best New Series" and "Best New Talent" and was nominated for the 2002 Eisner Award for "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition"
- Scott Campbell — will be at SPX to promote the upcoming new Hickee collection. Born in San Jose, California to parents who still enjoy square dancing, Scott is an art director/character designer at a video game company. He is also the co-founder of MMAC, a San Francisco-based art collective which has put together shows in both San Francisco and Tokyo.
- Leela Corman — will show off her hand-made wares including silk-screened panties and sexy greeting cards. Last year at SPX, she debuted her Subway Series graphic novel following the exploits of Tina, a frustrated sixteen-year-old city girl whose affections are divided between two guys. The problem is, one has an out of town girlfriend and the other is a complete jerk. Add to that a bitchy adversary whom she once called a friend who's out to humiliate her, and now confused Tina doesn't know which way to turn. Subway Series is a teen Sex in the City. Tina doesn't know what she wants, but she's pretty sure it involves "getting it over with." With whom will it be? When will it happen? Most current comics about female sexual experiences focus on extremes of behavior such as abuse. Subway Series depicts the more average teen experience: coercive, confused and mundane. Leela Corman's, lavish calligraphic drawing style, described as "Music to my eyes" by Scott McCloud, vividly brings to life this singular graphic novel showing real teen sex and angst in all its awkward splendor.
 Dean Haspiel — nominated for this year's Ignatz Awards for "Outstanding Artist" for his work on his new Aim to Dazzle #1 comic book, will be talking to fans about his recent and upcoming projects including his 4-issue Thing/Startling
Story mini-series called Night Falls on Yancy Street written by Evan
Dorkin (Marvel), Dean Haspiel is the author of semi-auto-bio comix and super-psychedelic
romances. In the mid-80s, Dino worked as an assistant to Howard Chaykin on
American Flagg!, Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants and Elektra:
Assassin, and Walter Simonson on Thor. In 1987, Dino inaugurated his
comics career when he co-created and illustrated The Verdict . His comics
haved appeared in Billy Dogma, Keyhole, Non, Top
Shelf, Minimum Wage, DC Comics' Bizarro Comics and the EXPO
anthology, and is a contributor to Harvey Pekar's American Splendor.
- Damon Hurd — from the Eisner nominated creators of My Uncle Jeff, comes a new serialized graphic novel, A Sort of Homecoming. Owen has just received a phone call informing him of his best friend David's death. He begins his journey from his home in Boston to their old hometown in upstate New York. As he travels he drifts back and forth in his memory, chronicling their lifelong friendship together. This is a story about friendship and brotherhood, and a bond that even death can?s break. A Sort of Homecoming is the second a series of graphic novels by Damon Hurd, with an overarching title, beta. Damon Hurd is twenty-four years old, happily married to someone far smarter than him, and lives too far north of New York City. Besides writing and reading comix, he frequents jazz clubs, smokes fine cigars, and brews amazingly good beer. One can usually find him at pubs in a little town called New Paltz where he sucks at pool, but excels at drinking. beta includes the recently released, My Uncle Jeff and A Sort of Homecoming, as well as the forthcoming works, A Strange Day, and The White Elephant.
- James Kochalka — nominated for this year's Ignatz Awards for "Outstanding On-line Comic" for his American Elf strip, will be debuting his new Fancy Froglin's Sexy Forest graphic novel and a number of special edition books made just for SPX! James Kochalka's distinction as a "rock star" has been tempered more and more lately by his acclaim as a cartoonist. Critics and fans have responded like crazy to his instantly recognizable comic books and graphic novels. Kochalka has won and has been nominated for many prestigious awards such as the Ignatz award, the Eisner award, the Firecracker Alternative Books award, and the Harvey award.
 David Lasky — nominated for this year's Ignatz Awards for "Outstanding Mini-Comic" for his Lo-Horse #1 collaboration with Jesse Reklaw and for "Outstanding Comic" for Urban Hipster #2, David Lasky will be showing off his latest issue of Urban Hipster collaboration with Greg Stump. His stories and experimental comics have been popping up
in a number of recent anthologies, including Rosetta, 9-11: Emergency Relief, Dirty
Stories, Bogus Dead, Garlic, EXPO 2001, and Studygroup
12.
- Jon Lewis — Last year, nominated for the Ignatz Awards for his
True Swamp:
Stoneground and Hillbound, Jon will give readers a sneak peek at his upcoming new book, Neverglades!
- Razmig Mavlian — will be at SPX to promote the upcoming new Hickee collection.
Livin' a wicked lifestyle in the downtown core of San Francisco, Razmig finds time to animate and draw funny cartoons.
- Josh Neufeld — will be showing off his just-released first issue of his The Vagabonds series from Alternative Comics.
Josh Neufeld has been drawing comics since he was four years old. He
is the co-creator and illustrator of Titans
of Finance, also published by Alternative. Josh has contributed
artwork to Harvey Pekar's American Splendor (Dark Horse), the EXPO
anthologies, 9-11: Emergency Relief,
The Big Book of Urban Legends (DC/Paradox Press), and Duplex
Planet Illustrated (Fantagraphics), among others. He resides in Brooklyn
and makes a living mixing freelance illustration with web design.
- Joel Orff — will be at SPX showing off his new Strum & Drang book! Great moments in rock 'n' roll. Everyone has at least one. For the past three years, Joel Orff has been collecting people's stories, illustrating them, and posting them on his web site. Though several of these comics feature well-known musicians, they aren't necessarily about music. They may be life-defining experiences, or they may be small and sublime occurrences that the narrator has never forgotten, or moments that they would have liked to have forgotten, but couldn't, because they made too good of a story. These are funny and sometimes poignant comics about people struggling with and celebrating their circumstances, often through unlikely forms of self-expression.
- Nathan Stapley — will be at SPX to promote the upcoming new Hickee collection. Nathan Stapley lives in San Francisco and enjoys drawing, painting, and surfing in front of his house on Ocean Beach. He works as a texture artist at a video game company, but has also had several gallery showings of his own paintings and drawings. Nathan enjoys drawing comics, and hopes to put out a collection of his own.
- Lauren Weinstein — will be debuting her new Inside Vineyland book! Inside Vineyland contains forty of Weinstein?s finest works, many originally published in Seattle's legendary Stranger. Each comic is just one page long — perfect for the bathroom, the subway, or watching TV. You will be amazed by such mind-blowing classics as "The Bird War" and "The Manic Depressive Dogs"
. You will be embarrassed by the "Wacky Packages"-inspired ad, "Charmley: For Your Poor Ass." You will ask "Huh?" in wonder as you gaze at "Self-Visualization Activities." An extended bonus story is also included, telling of a robot's troubled quest for love as he's torn between his lust for electrical devices and his duty to serve humans!
- Robert Ullman — has been diligently
pumping out issues of his mini-comics From the Curve and
Atom-Bomb Bikini for six years under a blanket of relative anonymity. His
comic strip, My Noise, has appeared in several newspapers since debuting
in the Daily Kent Stater in February of 1995, and his spot illustrations
appear weekly in Richmond, Virginia's Punchline and the Washington DC
City Paper. An Addy Award-winning graphic designer by trade, Robert has
also illustrated several educational children's books for McGraw-Hill. His all-new graphic novella
Grand Gestures was just recently published by
Alternative Comics.
- Sara Varon — will show off her brand new Sweaterweather book! Sweaterweather, the stunning graphic novel debut from Sara Varon, is quite simply an absolutely essential tome for every graphic novel reader. This book will dazzle your senses with its Seuss-ian cast of characters and lush cartoon-y brushwork. Sweaterweather is about a turtle, a rabbit, and other sweet creatures on a snowy journey. Beautiful, funny, stirring, and for all ages. Sweaterweather contains short comics and lots of other delightful things, such as paper dolls, postcards, and stamps. "Sara Varon manages to be adorably cute with her sledding and hibernating animals, while still telling a really touching story; I can't wait to see more comics from Varon down the road." Greg McElhatton, iCOMICS.
- Joe White — will be at SPX to promote the upcoming new Hickee collection. Hailing from Ontario, Canada and now living in the San Francisco bay area, Joe White has formulated a fascinating theory that places the soul of America in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He works as an animator and lives in a little hut on a mountaintop.
Alternative Comics cartoonists will be on the following panels at SPX:
- SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH
1:30-3pm
Auto-Bio Comics: My Life In Ink (Part 2)
Several self-publishers discuss what it's like to create autobiographical comics, and how it has affected their careers and lives. Panelists include Madison Clell (Cuckoo), Dean Haspiel (Opposable Thumbs), Josh Neufeld (The Vagabonds), and Rich Henn (Zoomies).
- SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH
12:30-2pm
10th Anniversary of Alternative Comics
Publisher Jeff Mason, cartoonists Dean Haspiel, Josh Neufeld, Jon Lewis and a slew of familiar faces from Alternative Comics are here to celebrate ten years of publishing under the Alternative Comics banner. Whether you're familiar with their work, a passer by or looking to try something unique and different, this panel surpass your expectations in a celebration to some of the finest books self publishing has to offer.
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For
more information or requests, please contact publisher Jeff
Mason, c/o Alternative Comics, 503 NW 37th Avenue, Gainesville,
FL 32609-2204; Phone: 352.373.6336; E-mail: jmason@indyworld.com.
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