THE premiere small press show is almost upon us! SPX 2015 in Bethesda, MD will be THE place to be come September 19th-20th. Fantagraphics will be there with all the books, guests, and smiling faces you could ever want. Don’t miss the chance to party with us by checking out all the details here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Debut Books

There’s an absence of authority in the town of Alexandria, and the teens are trying to keep their makeshift society together until their parents return. But students keep dying mysteriously, local band The Crotchmen rock the nights away, freshmen palm readers and seers have lines out the door, and Ben Schiller has had it up to HERE with her sister Empathy’s disappearing act. It’s a punk summer vacation that might not make it to fall.

 

 

 

 

Mox Nox is populated almost exclusively by smiling psychopaths who invariably turn even the most mundane situation into a side-splittling and cringe-inducing farce. Cornellà’s humor mixes the absurdist comedy of Michael Kupperman with the transgressive, political incorrectness of Johnny Ryan. This is Cornellà’s long-awaited first book to be published in the U.S.

 

 

 

 

The renowned underground cartoonist and creator of the Zippy newspaper strip has written and drawn his first long-form graphic story — a 200-page memoir that poignantly recounts his mother’s secret life in the 1950s and ’60s. Invisible Ink unfolds like a detective story, alternating between past and present, as Griffith recreates the quotidian habits of suburban Levittown and the professional and cultural life of Manhattan in the 1950s and ’60s as seen through his mother’s and his own teenage eyes.

 

 

 

Just in time for The Peanuts Movie, Snoopy vs. The Red Baron collects all of Schulz’s beloved newspaper strips starring Snoopy as the famous World War I flying ace in his perennial battles with the infamous Red Baron of Germany. The Snoopy and Red Baron encounters were some of the most inspired — and most popular — episodes in all of Peanuts, and among the stories most beloved by children and adults alike.

 

Cartoons for Victory showcases wartime work by cartoonists such as Charles Addams (The Addams Family), Harold Gray (Little Orphan Annie), Harvey Kurtzman (Mad magazine), Will Eisner, as well as many other known cartoonists. Over 90% of the cartoons and comics in this book have not been seen since their first publication. Editor Bernard gathered them over years of unstinting research through private collections and the obscure holdings of public sources. This is the most comprehensive collection ever assembled of World War II–era cartoons, reflecting the indefatigable spirit of the Home Front in America.

 

 

Like any good writer, cartoonist Robert Triptow likes to invent stories. When he stumbled across a real-life class photo of an anonymous 1937 public school under a pile of garbage, his imagination took off. Using the photo as a springboard, each student’s fictionalized life is depicted in one- page installments. Triptow weaves these imagined lives in and out like so many dedications in a yearbook, mixing in social satire, elegant cartooning, occasionally disgusting hilarity, and plenty of good, clean fun.

 

 

Charles Rodrigues was one of the fiercest, most audacious, taboo-busting cartoonists who ever lived, and our second collection of his cartoons from the National Lampoon may be the most jaw-droppingly potent collection of single gag cartoons ever published.

 

 

 

Cartoonist Benjamin Marra brilliantly satirizes America’s obsession with justice — and disinterest in consequences — via a highly stylized, hyper- masculine style that gushes with violence, sex, and international intrigue, battering down the boundaries between psychedelia, political commentary, and aggressive expressionism.

 

Nineteen stories plus bonus features, each story meticulously restored and newly colored. Insightful story notes by an international panel of Barks experts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Guests:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signing Schedule

Saturday, September 19th

1-2 pm : Dylan Horrocks and Bill Griffith
2-3 pm: Joan Cornellà
3-4 pm: Benjamin Marra and Ed Piskor
4-5 pm: Eleanor Davis and Liz Suburbia
5-6 pm: Noah Van Sciver and Jeremy Baum

Sunday, September 20th

12:30-1:30 pm: Bill Griffith
1:30-2:30 pm: Dylan Horrocks and Noah Van Sciver
2:30-3:30 pm: Liz Suburbia and Ed Luce
3:30-4:30 pm: Joan Cornellà
4:30-5:30 pm: Jeremy Baum and Benjamin Marra

 

Programming Guide

Saturday

Animate Your Life!

1:00-2:00PM White Oak Room
Animation is a thrilling medium that’s changed so much just within the last decade! Join us for a lively discussion of the various paths people took to animation and what it means to them now. Lilli Carre (Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation), Sam Spina (Regular Show), Ian McGinty (Welcome to Showside), and Monica Ray (Harvey Beaks). Moderated by Michael Cavna.

 

SPX Spotlight on Bill Griffith

3:00-4:00PM White Oak Room
He’s the cool in Cool Whip! His mind’s a polysorbate trip! It’s Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy, the beloved and bizarre underground comic that escaped from the head shops to the stately pages of the daily newspaper, where “Zippy the Pinhead” has been syndicated nationally since 1986. Join SPX and Chris Mautner for a discussion of the debut of his new graphic novel memoir, “Invisible Ink” and hear the zany stories from the man himself! Are we having fun yet?

 

SPX Spotlight on Dylan Horrocks

4:00-5:00PM White Oak Room
Dylan Horrocks’s beloved 1998 graphic novel Hicksville gave readers a sensitive and bittersweet fictionalized account of comics history, and imagined a whole world of possibilities for the form. This past year has seen Horrocks’s return to regular publication with the new graphic novel, Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen, and Incomplete Works, collecting a body of short stories produced in the interim. Horrocks will discuss his recent work and the responsibilities of fantasy with Best American Comics series editor Bill Kartalopoulos.