Contrary to popular belief, Fantagraphics Books does occasionally issue a floppy comic book every now and then. We’re not sure how far and wide this one is being spread, but it would be very nice to see this sort of book from comics’ foremost formalist Dash Shaw come out on a fairly regular basis.

Also new to the shop is Fantagraphics collection of short stories by Tom Kaczynski – Beta Testing The Apocalypse. Many more on the way. It’s been a busy week around here.

Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division, died by his own hand some 33 years and 3 days ago. The recording above (from 18th December 1979: Les Bains Douches, Paris), which I’d never encountered before this evening, sounds – to my audio engineer and former DJ ears – to be pitched a bit forward from it’s original recording speed. So somehow that all makes it seem appropriate to post this gem here on May 21. Give us something to think about other than Sonny Terry and the dancing chicken in Strozek, as Ian contemplated his final moments.

Soul Brother Nate Powell posted the following to facebook yesterday and I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing it:

“In 2005, this book helped me start digging out of the hole I’d found myself in for 3 years, and helped change the direction of my life. The perspective I absorbed from Deborah: contrary to the notion that Ian Curtis’ disorders, wrecked family life, infidelities, and inability to handle success led to his death, she conveys that he fulfilled his own fatalistic narrative by choosing to give in to those factors, time and time again, needing their jurisdiction over his life.

“We all have control over our choices, and sovereignty over our sense of self. Sometimes we fight to keep other people from unfairly (re)defining us, but what can be more difficult is awareness of if/when we’ve redefined ourselves as hopeless/ monsters/ losers.

“RIP Ian Curtis, and love and respect to all those who struggle.”

Being as this was my very first comic arts convention, I couldn’t have asked for better wolves to whom to be thrown. the TCAF staff, volunteers, and creators all around me were supportive and helpful. Shout out to everyone who made this happen.

I think you can pretty much figure out what’s going on in all these pictures. there are shots before/after capacity; of the beautiful venue (a library! brilliant!); the table; some cool people who stopped by; and some dank ass pho i had. [And lots of clever novelty T-shirts]

Laura, John Will and Elaine M. Will, creator of Look Straight Ahead. The Alternative Comics table crew.

[Malcolm Middleton fan?]

oh, this photo of all the stuff spread out on a buffet are my spoils. all that for $35!!! unbelievable!

Laura has recently moved to Detroit and is a volunteer at the mighty 826 Michigan operation.
It’s the Mitten State’s affiliate of Dave Eggers’ awesome 826 Valencia.

I was looking for links related to Jonny Negron, when I stumbled upon these two unexpected gems. Our customer comicKkrakK has reviewed at great length and depth his experiences with ordering comics from Wow Cool. He seems pleased. Thanks Mr. comicKkrakK! He has many videos up, including a review of a review of Elaine Lee & James Sherman’s The Transmutation of Ike Garuda (with awesome electronic space music), and this one on Seth Fisher, NoBrow Press & Will Sweeney.

In the shop now is the first giant sized issue of Adapt by Jonny Negron, published by Floating World. Hopefully there will be many more.

Steven Cerio draws. A video. Enjoy.

Just added to the Wow Cool shop are five of the most recent releases from TopShelf Productions: Alan Moores’s Unearthling, Nemo: Heart of Ice and The From Hell Companion; and, Jess Fink’s We Can Fix It and the fifth volume of James Kochalka’s Johnny Boo: Does Something!

“The art of the future will be the creation of situations or nothing”. Go watch “On the Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972″ Hopefully the audio will be less dodgy for you than it is for me. Enjoy it for what it is otherwise. Via former bandmate Adam who found it on the McDonald’s sponsored Dangerous Minds.

Here’s some of the strange experiences I’ve had in my journeys…

Somewhere on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon, Canada near the Northern Lights Centre is this nearly kilometer-long display of a major shedload of street signs.

I found out that most mapping systems are not that friendly to mainly walking trails like Suck Valley Way in Ireland.

One of the strangest experiences I had with GeoGuessr was being suddenly stuck in the middle of this restaurant – presumably somewhere in Western Europe – there were no navigation options… I could just spin around… I kept looking for a clue… a menu cover, a label, a sign… something… and ultimately gave up.

Every now and then you land somewhere really easy like this. Another time I landed somewhere that was just way too familiar looking. I was so sure, that instead of looking around I just said, ‘I’m in Putnam County, New York, dammit! Somewhere near Peekskill or Cold Spring. I thought it was route 9, but it was 22… closer to Danbury… but, still, pretty good for winging it.

More often then not, though, you end up somewhere (or, nowhere) like this. Good luck with that.

More coverage: The Escapist | Rock, Paper Shotgun

Moving together through an elaborately signaled landscape.

See Previous.

Available for a mere dollar on Bandcamp today are the fragments that remain in all their noisy glory of the abandoned second CD release (There had been 3 cassettes and several compilation appearances) of my mid-90′s band Krebstar. “Barbara Bain” was a step towards a more beat-driven electronic musical collage after the Stockhausen-influenced process-based experiments of the previous CD “Barry Morse”. Apart from the titles, little direct influence from the productions of Gerry Anderson’s Century 21 productions is present. Steven Cerio is the guest vocalist on track three. Fellow Brown Cuts Neighbor and Krebstar member Robert Goodale contributes a bit to the sounds that are sampled. Enjoy.

Wow Cool’s noble office-mates Alternative Comics have pushed forth three new comic books on an unsuspecting world that are debuting this weekend up in the worlds most polite city, Toronto, Ontario, Canada at TCAF – The Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Creators Elaine M. Will (Look Straight Ahead) and Alternative Comics #4 contributors Theo Ellsworth, Sam Alden and Robin (Inkstuds) McConnell will be at the show to sign copies of their books. Karl Steven’s Failure will also be making its debut. Come visit Alternative Comics at table 232 on the second floor this weekend and meet our hostess Elle, who will dish the dirt worth dishing, and point you in the right direction. Among the other Wow Cool and Alternative Comics artists who will be at the show are Michael Kupperman, Dash Shaw, Sara Varon, Scott C., Becky Cloonan, Josh Neufeld, and Paul Pope.

In PF Chang’s restaurants around the land there exists something like this… A former pay telephone alcove, with a shelf and an empty phone jack, guarded not by terracotta warriors, but by enlarged Family Circus cartoons by Bil Keane. PF Chang’s opened its first restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1993. Family Circus creator Bil Keane, a resident of nearby Paradise Valley, soon became a fan. He made at least two Family Circus panels that were set in the restaurant – enlarged dedicated reproductions of which can be seen at a location near you.

Obviously that headline is a little misleading and far from true. But there are very few continuing series in the alt/small/micro/indie/what-have-you comics publishing world. Two standouts in that field just dropped their second issues – Gabrielle Gamboa’s Miss Lonelyhearts and Cody Pickrodt’s Reptile Museum. You should go get them.

Gary Panter‘s autobiographical story of his life lived near music is pretty much the most must-read comic of the season. Features a guest appearance by Ross Goldstein – formerly a member of Jason Martin’s Evolution Revolution, now the Ross in Gary, Devin & Ross. Go! Go read it. We offer a modest selection of Gary’s comics here on Wow Cool.

BTW. Everything in the shop is 20% off until Midnight (pacific time), Sunday May 5, 2013. Share and enjoy.

Dungeon Family by Matt Furie. New from Mt. St. Mtn. I like to imagine that these are all the creatures that would be in bonus levels to Narbacular Drop – the precursor to the popular Valve video game Portal. A quick search reveals that there are bonus levels for Narbacular Drop.

There really is a mini-comic revival going on, as Charles Forsman at Oily Comics has been proving, along with Space Face books and Matt Furie’s new book above. I swore we would not start carrying lots of minicomics again, like we did in the 1990s. Partly out of not competing with our good friend Rick at Poopsheet, but largely out of staple fatigue. So… here we are with the second installment of Michael DeForge’s Elizabeth of Canada.

Now a big fat juicy pink and blue slab of a proper magazine has landed in the form of much-awaited Study Group Magazine #2 from editors Zack Soto and Milo George. I’m still too dazed from the wonderful big plate of homemade noodles and bulgogi I ate with these gentlemen last weekend during Stumptown Comics Fest to be able to focus much on the magazine, but I can assure you it is one of the major releases of the season.

Also newly added to the shop are these vintage units: Smith’s Adventures in the Supermundane by Farel Dalrymple, Atlas #3 by Dylan Horrocks, Clover Honey by Rich Tommaso, and Fuff #1 & Fuff #2 by Jeffrey Lewis. There are probably a few other things too. There’s much to be added yet. We are a tiny bit back-logged.

Brown Cuts Neighbors “Channel 16″ – as presented by Jason Martin, with program materials selected and sequenced by Jason and myself – have been invited to be part of the latest edition of the biennial New York Electronic Art Festival. The talk and screening will be on Friday, June 28 at Harvestworks in SOHO. Full details, press release and website to be released soon.

Adventure Time designer & storyboarder Andy Ristaino has assembled a 128 pg FULL COLOR book collecting tales of macabre humor that he has written and drawn. Night of the Living Vidiots collects Sci-fi, horror, and comedy melted together and topped with a Twilight Zone twist in a comic book soup. Darkly funny tales featuring mad science, gothic anime, TV zombies, kaiju, giant robots, monsters from the deep, and even a haunted sweatshirt. A mere 25 dollars will get you a copy of the book and your name in the credits. The rewards offered for larger contributions are beyond excellent. An August 2013 release date is estimated. Get more of Andy’s books right here on Wow Cool.

Writer Erick Lyle (Scam) and artist Josh Bayer are the guests on the latest Everything Went Black podcast to discuss Erick’s story for the LA Weekly and Scam #9: Damaged: The story of Black Flag’s classic first album about the 30th anniversary of Damaged; Erick’s story Can I Get In The Van (Vice) and the Black Flag reunion(s). Go listen! You can also subscribe on iTunes.

We just got a new scanner here in Wow Cool land, and instead of picking some stunning and masterful piece of art, I chose this crappy jam comic from long ago. Phil Felix stopped by Harvey Kurtzman’s class at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) one day back in the mid-late 80s to do a comic book lettering demonstration. I got to keep one of the sample pages. Naturally I took it to the cafeteria at 209 East 23rd street and drew a stupid jam comic out of it with the help of Paul Komoda. I think it eventually appeared in the comics anthology Tuna Casserole #6, edited by Sam Henderson and myself. Click the image to make real big.

This past weekend I gave a little intro speech to a panel of Meathaüs artists at the Stumptown Comics Fest about the history of comic book groups and movements at SVA, so it was fun to pick something from my era there after talking so much about that strange institution over the weekend. Alternative Comics will be publishing a collection of Tuna Casserole and related material in 2014.

For the survival and health of comics, we recognize that no single system of commerce and no single type of agreement between creator and publisher can or should be instituted. However, the rights and dignity of creators everywhere are equally vital.

Our rights, as we perceive them to be and intend to preserve them, are:

1. The right to full ownership of what we fully create.

2. The right to full control over the creative execution of that which we fully own.

3. The right of approval over the reproduction and format of our creative property.

4. The right of approval over the methods by which our creative property is distributed.

5. The right to free movement of ourselves and our creative property to and from publishers.

6. The right to employ legal counsel in any and all business transactions.

7. The right to offer a proposal to more than one publisher at a time.

8. The right to prompt payment of a fair and equitable share of profits derived from all of our creative work.

9. The right to full and accurate accounting of any and all income and disbursements relative to our work.

10. The right to prompt and complete return of our artwork in its original condition.

11. The right to full control over the licensing of our creative property.

12. The right to promote and the right of approval over any and all promotion of ourselves and our creative property.

The new novel by John le Carré is out in much of the world today. Available in the US and Canada on May seventh. Dedicated visitors to this site will immediately know that this much tape player porn makes our boy parts excited.

In a classic case of ‘It always comes back to comics’ in my life, Pat ‘The Human Vise’ Povilaitis – who was the star of the Great Black Swamp Olde Time Strongman Picnic DVD that I made a few years ago with Atomic Athletic and Tiger Claw Martial Arts – appeared a few days ago in the very long-running cartoon feature Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Adding unbelievable to weird, I discovered that Pat was also the subject of a feature on the History Channel’s Stan Lee’s Superhumans show. Pat is in episode four of the second season (available on iTunes). Iron Mind talked to Pat about the show. Some out-take video I made of Pat at New Jersey’s (now sadly much washed away by Hurricane Sandy) Seaside Heights is below, followed by Pat’s segment on Stan Lee’s show with awkward French overtalking (sorry, best I could find). One thing I seriously miss from moving back to the west coast is getting to regularly see the indie strength training crew that is so well represented by Pat and Atomic Athletic.

Found in the archives. A Stupid Pages creation. The Survivor Dan portion was drawn by me. Survivor Dan was a very briefly lived character in Brown Cuts Neighbors TV shows and concerts. Although almost impossible to see here, I was wearing the obscenely heavy and hot costume at the left in this very dark video. The dancing guys are by Jason Martin.

We Will Remain by Andrew White is the latest release from Retrofit Comics – whom, if they have not yet stretched beyond their initial promise to deliver 17 comics in 17 months are certainly pushing near to it. We hope to see many more of their olde fasiondey floppy commics pamphlettes.

Andrew will be reading from and signing copies of his book at Providence Rhode Island’s Ada Books on Saturday, May 4th from 4pm until 6pm. He claims to be nervous about this… so, you know, act appropriately.

Saturday, April 20, 2013 is Record Store Day. Go buy some damn records! You may be surprised to learn that we sell a fine selection of records and related musical media right here on Wow Cool, including many hard to find items by the likes of Steel Pole Bathtub, Helios Creed, Alan Moore, Hail Mary, God Hates Computers and Steven Cerio.

Maverick publisher Space Face Books has delivered three new stellar minis: Patron Saint by Sam Alden (Eighth Grade, Alternative Comics #4), Duck by Joe Kessler, and Foreigners by Patrick Kyle (Black Mass). Go get them.

Josh Bayer has delivered the latest in his twisted anthology series of mash-up re-interpretations of classic comic strips to us. Delivered in Unibomber-style packaging. God help us all. Wrap-around cover art by Kevin Scalzo (Sugar Booger). Get yours here.

New to the Wow Cool shop is cartoonist David Lasky’s recent book of drawing-free stories – Science Fiction. David is on tour right now in the Bay Area with an appearance tonight at Mission Comics and on Thursday in Sacramento to promote his Eisner Award nominated book The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song. You will go see him.

Once upon a time, Jeff Mason–the founding ringleader at Alternative Comics–had the foresight to send a big box of the otherwise now-hard-to-find Free Comic Book Day Alternative Comics anthologies from 2003-2005 to Ricko from Poopsheet. Many years later, what is left of those has made their way to Alternative Comics new home here in Cupertino. We are very grateful to Rick for holding onto these. Found in the inside back cover of the third issue was the full color gem you see above by James Kochalka promoting his seminal The Cute Manifesto. When Alternative Comics relaunched in 2012, the Cute Manifesto was the clear choice out of the back catalog of books to offer again to the world. I like to think some sort of a statement was being made.

In the meanwhile, it has been announced that the Alternative Comics anthology title has been relaunched as a bi-annual title–many of the old contributors are involved, and there are also many fresh faces. Alternative Comics #4 is in this month’s Diamond Previews [APR130765]. We urge you to order many copies of it. The book will also be available from Last Gasp and here at Wow Cool.

The new title that Alternative Comics relaunched with last year was Ted May’s Injury #4. It was a funny sort of co-publishing arrangement. The book had previously been with the defunct Buenaventura Press for the first three issues. The fourth one was funded through a Kickstarter campaign. I basically begged Ted May to print twice and many as he had planned, and to let Alternative distribute and promote the book to a larger audience. To the surprise and joy of all of us, the lead story in that issue: “A Birdsong Shatters the Still,” by Jeff Wilson and Ted May was announced as a nominee for the best short story in the 2013 Eisner Awards yesterday.

All I can say is thank you. Maybe this mad journey back into comics makes some sense after all.

Newly landed in our shop – mere minutes ago, even – is the first solo US comic from the amazing Boulet: The Noirness (The Darkness was already taken, he tells us), published by the mighty AdHouse Books. He’s been seen previously in print on these shores only in Dungeon: Zenith, Vol. 3 Back in Style with Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar. Boulet is well known here for the many amazing webcomics he posts in French, English and Korean on his BouletCorp Blog. Several hundred pages of these are collected in their original French in the seven volumes (so far) of his Notes series. Let’s hope some ambitious publisher brings those out in English soon. Boulet will be touring North America over the next few weeks – making stops at Stumptown, TCAF and many other locations. Don’t miss him.

Michel Fiffe‘s much-acclaimed and fast selling (going through multiple printings, even) Copra series has had the first three issues assembled in one volume by the fine people at Park Slope’s best comic book shop, Bergen Street Comics, in their debut release as a publisher. Go get yours from Wow Cool. Right Now!

As mentioned here recently, the film The Place Beyond The Pines, which opened nationwide today was co-written by Ben Coccio (shown above), who was a major part of the cast and crew on Brown Cuts Neighbors second and third series of TV shows in the early 1990s. The film was shot in and around our hometown of Schenectady, New York. Go see it.

Jason Martin in a typical structuralist film moment. Jason has been giving talks and conducting workshops at Trans-Q TV and Carnegie Mellon and Youngstown Universities this week. You can make your own screen test while visiting the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Berkeley’s own Les Blank – director of Gap-Toothed Women, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe and many other great American documentary films has died at 77. He will be much missed. New York Times Obituary.

FACIAL RECOGNITION a Three Person Group Exhibition featuring James Kochalka, Matt Furie and Mark Todd opens with a reception from 6:30-10pm tomorrow, April 6 at GR2. The show runs through April 24, 2013. GR2, 2062 Sawtelle Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90025

James Kochalka is a comic book artist, musician, and more hailing from Burlington, Vermont. His well known works include a new animated cartoon called Superfuckers. Matt Furie is well known for his illustrative character works, at times featuring super heroes and villains in a world that’s all his own. Mark Todd is an illustrator and instructor at Art Center College of Design. His works are often amalgamations of layers that often comprise his own takes on classic comics covers.

The news buzzed around the interwebs throughout Thursday afternoon, and eventually it seemed very likely that the great Carmine Infantino had indeed passed on. I was a huge fan of Carmine’s work while growing up. The 1980s was his true golden age as an artist. He worked hard to develop his craft – even going back to school in mid-life. We both studied (at different times) with the very influential Jack Potter at New York’s The School of Visual Arts – where Carmine was later a teacher. Ah, but his comics in the late 70s and 1980s… He returned to the character he co-created The (‘Silver-Age’) Flash and illustrated tons of other comics in his unique energetic style.  His work on Spider-Woman and Star Wars were great favorites. I started buying Nova because Carmine was drawing it. It was always a treat when he’d turn in an issue of Avengers, Howard the Duck or Iron Man. Although his style was a bit buried under the inks, his adaptation of the movie The Deep was a comic I read many many times. Fred Hembeck was largely influential in my appreciation of the peculiarities of Carmine’s work – the pointing hands attached to captions, distant futuristic skylines…

Most of all I will remember Carmine as the World’s Greatest Gorilla Artist. The one time I got to meet him – at New York Comic Con a few years ago – I told him this. He was not too bemused by this to not sign a copy of his then-recent book from Vanguard for me… including a little ape-head sketch. I very much wanted to get to meet him again and talk more. As near as I can tell Carmine’s last major comic book work was a Danger Trail four issue series for DC Comics in 1993 – where he returned to characters he co-created over 40-year previously. The original Danger Trail comics from the early 1950s stand out as one of the better and most memorable works from DC Comics in that strange era. Carmine was the last – hell, the only – maverick publisher (or whatever his job title was) at DC Comics. The main reason that company ever put out anything that anyone could possibly still care about. Just try to imagine DC Comics without him there at that time, and all that has followed on since. If you’ve got the time, spend some of it with this interview with Joe Orlando, where he talks a bit about those heady days at DC, staying up until 10 at night with Carmine to make the best issue of Angel and The Ape ever; and, the Comics Journal interview between Carmine and Gary Groth from 1996. Right now… enjoy some of the greatest hits from The World’s Greatest Gorilla Artist!