NEW! EVIDENCE 12″ Record 
Stephan Moore & Scott Smallwood present Final Goodship Tuesday. Out Now from Wow Cool.
About Us Wow Cool is a studio and label based in Cupertino, California. Artists include: Marc Arsenault, Brown Cuts Neighbors, Steven Cerio, evidence, Simon Gane, God Hates Computers, nickname: Rebel, and Offset Needle Radius.
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Newave! is a 892 page monster collection of 80's minicomix. Art by Marc Arsenault, Sam Henderson, Ion, Wayno and scores of others. Available Right Now! The Good Guys 
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If you’re going to be in Los Angeles during the next few days, you should be sure to check out the exhibit of Eric Joyner’s latest paintings at Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. The show runs through September first. You will have the perfect chance to see the show this Wednesday, because you will want to see Evidence performing at Royal/T, which is right down the street from the gallery.
I am very pleased to announce that three of Eric’s paintings will be included in a super top secret project that has been brewing here at Wow Cool. Stay tuned for the official announcement of just what that is in a few short days.
Eric’s Robots and Donuts book from Dark Horse is available from Amazon.
The long awaited new Vertigo graphic novel Dark Rain by Mat Johnson (Incognegro) illustrated by Simon Gane has been announced for an August 24 release in bookstores and from Amazon and August 18th in Comic Book stores. Cover by Nessim Higson
Dark Rain is a graphic novel thriller set in the days after Hurricane Katrina. Two small-time ex-cons with big dreams get the idea that this would be the perfect time to rob a bank. Catch is, the bank is in New Orleans, and they’re on parole in Houston. Now, as every sane person tries to get out of The Big Easy, Emmit and Dabny will do whatever it takes to get in.
As they journey through a tide of human suffering, Dabny wants to help, and Emmit sees only the money. But a rogue commander of the ruthless security force “Dark Rain” has his sights set on taking down the same bank. If Emmit and Dabny don’t outrace him, their last hope for a second chance could be washed away in the floodwaters – along with their lives.
“Mat Johnson’s unflinching, macabre sense of humor is perfectly in tune with New Orleans, and Simon Gane’s eye for character and detail brings the region — in all its glory and degradation — to vivid life. Together, Johnson and Gane dredge up nightmarish memories of the dark days following Hurricane Katrina.”
— Josh Neufeld, writer/artist of the New York Times Bestseller A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
See a preview of some finished pages at Spinetingler Magazine.
There is a must-read new interview with Simon up now on Reglar Wiglar, which contains this classic quote: “Guernica almost looks pro-war on an iPhone.” Make of that what you will.
There is an excerpt from the book included in many Vertigo comics currently on the stands.
The House of Wow Cool is deeply involved in getting a few projects out to press and arranging release events for same. All will become clear over the next several months. Clues are available on the Events page. In the meanwhile, while thing were getting done, there was some sort of event in San Diego going on known as Comic Con. Of note at this was the induction of Michael Wm. Kaluta into something called the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame. Michael was the sole living inductee in this years’ event. He wasn’t actually there. The first book I ever edited and designed that was nominated for an Eisner for was a sketchbook collection of Mr. Kaluta’s from Kitchen Sink Press in 1994. We lost to Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics (which I did a bit of production work on anyways), certainly no shame or surprise there. Much congratulations to Mike for an honor so deserved. My photos of Mike’s studio circa 1993 that were taken for the aforementioned book are on view here. I’m sure we’ll talk again soon.
And I couldn’t come up with much. I never knew or worked with the man. We had never met. But I know his art, and have saved a great deal of his comics. I still have a great admiration for his refined, yet fluid craft. One of the best lines ever put to paper. Superhuman mark making ability. I wanted to dig up some of the more obscure items from his publishing history that I have stored away here… but they are stored away pretty deeply and I have much work to do right now. And, frankly, scanning other people’s old comic work is an act that just depresses me.
Al Williamson was one of the great comics artists of the 20th century. The youngest of the EC Comics stable of greats, the definitive modern artist on Star Wars and Alex Raymond’s creations Flash Gordon and Secret Agent Corrigan (X-9). All my attempts to find something to say usually ended in memories of my mentor at the School of Visual Arts, fellow EC great, and editor of Al on several classic short stories for DC Comics, Joe Orlando, who has also long-since left us.
Rick Veitch, however, had the direct experience with the man and has had much to share about it over the last couple of weeks. Rick has always been one of my favorite people in comics, and I am very grateful that he has published a strip of mine in the past and put up with my young foolish noodling on some of his books co-published with Tundra during my time with them. Thank you for these memories Mr. Veitch.
My Friend Al Williamson
Meeting Al Williamson
Meeting Al in the Flesh
Working With Al Williamson On Star Wars
More Al Williamson Memories
NEW July 8, 2010: More Thoughts On Al Williamson including a lovely piece of art from Blade Runner.
If you got through all that, you will also want to read this post from my amigo Steve Bissette.
Get up close and personal with Biologic Show and Pim & Francie creator Al Columbia in this in-depth interview on the Comics Comics blog with Nicole Rudick.
At the beginning, I’m really into it, but then you come to a point where you realize the whole day you’re going to be drawing doorknobs. And I start to think, “I don’t care how cool this thing I’m working on is, I don’t want my whole day to be about this doorknob.” It’s like sitting still and looking at the trees for fourteen hours. Do you want to do that? Or “Wow, I’m drawing bricks all day. This is fun.” I could see doing that for a single piece, but I started to get into painting the backgrounds more and more and doing one or two of them a day, when now, it would take me a week to do one of those. I was very ambitious, and I couldn’t realize each and every idea I had, and I couldn’t pick which one was worthy of my time. I had so many ideas, so many stories, and I didn’t know which one to work on. These aren’t the feelings I want to be experiencing, so it’s easier to jump around and work on the cool things I really want to work on, and hopefully one of them will get done someday.
We are proud to announce the immediate availability of this brand new T-Shirt design by Mr. Simon Gane, of Bath, England, The UK. We would also like to submit that this would have been a much better choice for the 2012 Olympic mascots.
The immortal story of these star-crossed lovers, eternally smoking, skating and completely missing each other, throughout the sprawling three part epic that is Simon Gane’s, Ian Lynam’s and Kim Fern’s SAP is reduced to humble, yet sublime fashion. Available in Small, Medium, Large and the Extra Large.
Simon Gane SAP t-shirt
Exclusive design by Simon Gane for Wow Cool. Three-color art. SAP girl on front. SAP boy on back. SAP logo on sleeve. Printed on high-quality Gildan Ultra Cotton shirts. 100% pure cotton.
Gallery
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Simon Gane previews some full-color art on his blog from his forthcoming adaptation of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s “A Luckless Santa Claus”, part of Christmas Classics: Graphic Classics vol. 19. This special edition of Graphics Classics also features Rick Geary and Hunt Emerson (a welcome change from his work for the Beano, even though he’s the best thing in it).
More info at the Graphic Classics site.
Pre-order now from Amazon. The book is expected October 1, 2010.
More of Simon’s work available in the Wow Cool Shop.
The Art of Zines show at Anno Domini in San Jose is still going on (through March 13th, 2010). There are many zines by me and related Wow Cool type people on display. Check it out if you can. Many reviews have been flowing in from the likes of: Daily DuJour, Gary Singh at the San Jose Metro, and 1 (800) Dilettante.
The reviews are coming in overwhelmingly positively on Fantagraphics new book NEWAVE! The underground Mini Comics of the 1980s, which features my 8-page comic the Girl From Mars. Loving words are to be found from: Steampunk Willy’s Mad Comix Ride podcast, Comicsgirl, Publisher’s Weekly, Mania, and the Comics Reporter.
OK. Now some damn music. Brown Cuts Neighbors have been organizing the archives and have put out a call for any audio/video/photo documentation that might be out there (See this earlier post). One item that is already online that has resurfaced is this piece on the 1986 release(?) by BCN “No Big Deal” (When Jason was 12) on Albany, New York’s TheHiddenCity.com. It includes four song downloads and a full gear breakdown by Jason Martin. He claims a Tesco guitar was employed. That is hardcore.
Brown Cuts Neighbors bassist circa 1999-2001 Seth Cluett is presenting “Forms of Forgetting” Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:00pm – 9:15pm at the Princeton University Chapel (FREE admission). The work explores the role of in-attention and re-attending in listening. Using found objects, altered consumer electronics, home-made instruments, sine tone oscillators, the acoustics of the space and a host of psycho-physical phenomena, this new piece aims to construct a focused, attentive perceptual space and an elastic, malleable experience of time. For more information: http://www.onelonelypixel.org
I got to spend last week in Wow Cool’s stylish Brooklyn HQ and met up with occasional recordist, mixer, and masterer for nickname: Rebel, Mr. Andrew Gerhan, who was fresh off of a European tour with Adam Arcuragi. Andy was part of Adam’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert recently, and he had many exciting tales of life on the road, which included late night concerts on the MTA (New York Subway), with the whiskey flowing freely, and other assorted hi-jinks.
While putting this together I’ve been listening to Brown Cuts Neighbors co-founder Coleen Martin’s Lady Starlight Rock N Roll High School Podcast.
There is a nice little writeup of the NEWAVE! Minicomics book by the esteemed Mark Frauenfelder on today’s edition of BoingBoing. Go read that thang.
NEWAVE! is now in stock and ready to ship from Amazon.
UPDATE: Some photos from the release party at the Fantagraphics Bookstore/Gallery.
An unholy host of New York City-type cartoon art guys (and a couple others and at least one gal), many of whom have been or are currently published or distributed by Wow Cool (and nearly all the rest are old friends from SVA, minicomics or the Zero Zero anthology) get to step out in style in Hotwire Comics 3, available today, Wednesday, January 27, in a comic book shop near you. That’s right, brand new work from Steven Cerio, David Sandlin, Mats?!, Danny Hellman, Michael Kupperman and a whole bunch more. The Comics Reporter says: “A boon for fans of a certain kind of energetic, restless, profane comic book making — for the rest of us it’s an exquisitely curated, controlled visit to that particular comics world.”
If you are in New York City, there is a release event for the book at Desert Island Comics this Friday, January 29. Editor Glenn Head and contributors Danny Hellman, Sam Henderson, Michael Kupperman, Jayr Pulga, David Sandlin, R. Sikoryak, Chadwick Whitehead and Karl Wills will be there in person. If you miss it, I imagine you can catch most of them at Kellogg’s Diner sometime after 4 am.
See a preview at Fantagraphics.
Visit the Hotwire site.
Order yours right now from Amazon.
Get on down to the glorious DTSJ (that’s Down Town San Jose, folks) for the South First Friday art walk this coming February 5th; and, do not fail to stop in at Anno Domini for their Art of Zines show. Wow Cool will be at a table there hawking our wares, too. All the details and the awesome poster (including Frank Beam with the ductwork head on the cover of “That Dog Drives A Go-Cart”) can be found right here. The show runs through March 13th. Anno Domini, 366 So. First Street, San Jose, CA 95113 408.271.5155
It’s Official! Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle, Washington will be hosting a release party for this massive brick of a book on January 30, 2010. The event marks the debut of their new Spectacular Saturday series. The show will feature original art and graphics by underground mini comix pioneers Jaimie Alder, Jim Blanchard, Wayne Gibson, David Lasky, Wayno, Steve Willis, Dennis Worden, and XNO. NEWAVE editor Michael Dowers will produce and distribute a mini comic on site. This festive reunion also includes live music, a comix jam, and the debut of the NEWAVE! anthology. I will have a piece of art on exhibit at the show but will not be able to attend. More details and the awesome poster by Gahan Wilson.
Plan to go see Wow Cool’s and about about a bazillion other publisher’s zines at Anno Domini’s 2009 Art of Zines exhibit. It opens on Friday, February 5, 2010. Reception begins at 8pm. There will be live music and Marc Arsenault (me) will be there in the stinkin’ flesh. Thanks to Cherri from AD for the photo above of the books I dropped off today for the exhibit.
Brand new on the Interwebs, in just the last few days, are the three following, vaguely Wow Cool connected sites that are worth your while to check out. Relevancy and mileage may vary based on your personal preferences and life experience.
1. Steve Bissette’s King of Monster Isle
Yes, It is true, the renowned Swamp Thing artist, Mister SR Bissette, has launched his first sustained comic effort since putting Tyrant on hold in 1995. It’s a webcomic with a Parson and some monsters. What else? We’ll find out as it develops.
2. Lady Starlight’s CONSUME Shop
Lady Starlight, AKA Brown Cuts Neighbors co-founder Colleen Martin, known to many as a collaborator of Lady Gaga and to a few less as the author of the best rock blog ever – Lady Starlight’s Rock n Roll High School – has launched her own shop. Style + Capitalism (and very glam).
3. Brevator, CALMS, Burnt Hills, nickname: Rebel members launch new band White Seizure
Mike Keegan, Nick Carpenter and Robb Cole went and started another band. It’s pretty rockin’. Go listen.
I have been an avid fan of Javier Mariscal’s art since first encountering his Garriris comics in Raw Magazine at the age of 12. When I got to visit Barcelona for the first time, apart from the buildings of Guadi and the museums of Picasso, Dalí and Miró, I was most excited to see what works there were by Mariscal (and then I discovered the wealth of other amazing work by young Catalan artists in the streets and universities). I have the most wonderful plush dog of Mariscal’s (with both eyes on one side of the head, of course) as a memento of that trip. If I had managed to attend the Olympic games in 1992, I would surely have a room filled with his designs. Instead, there is now this dream book of his art, Mariscal Drawing Life , published by Phaidon to coincide with Mariscal’s installation of the same name at the UK’s Design Museum, which ran from July to November 2009. You will want to be sure to visit the exhibit blog, which features many wonderful images and videos from the event.
Continuing this informal daily (-ish) holiday series on Wow Cool, that highlights some cultural objects that may have flown under your radar, but are well worth a look for one reason or another, we move on to a few lovely (comic) art books that were published in 2009. In other words, if you have some leftover holiday cash and need a coffee table book, you could do far worse than to get these.
Being a former comicbook designer (for most of the 1990’s at Tundra, Fantagraphics and elsewhere), Gary Spencer Millidge’s Comic Book Design: The Essential Guide to Creating Great Comics and Graphic Novels immediately caught my eye. I have never seen a book similar to this one. Considering the scope of it’s topic, it does a pretty good job with it, offering samples from an impressive array of genres, eras and publishers. The book is of a decent size to do justice to the material (11×10″) and the reproductions are generally of a high quality. Although, as pointed out in this more detailed review on Comic Book Bin, the art is sometimes victim of the format (or more specifically, trying to make the page design grid accommodate different publication sizes), resulting in a few examples that are either too small or are distorted. Such is the later case in one I am far too familiar with (having done the color separations back in 1997), the reproduction of the cover of Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library #8 from Fantagraphics books, which appears to be stretched out to fit the books layout. Apart from that, of the many times that I have seen that cover reproduced, this is the first that came close to the book’s actual appearance. Not an easy thing to do, as it was printed with a gold foil plate in addition to the usual CMYK.
Mr. Millidge is also the creator of strangehaven and he maintains a website and blog.
Is a porno comic.
Yes, Brandon Graham’s 56 page smut comic from 2003 Perverts of the Unknown is that most rarest and sought after of things. Impossible to find in a reasonable condition for less than One Thousand US Dollars! As the sole reviewer on Amazon attests (in box, below), it is not the most immediately arousing of works for the typical audience for such books, so we can only assume that the reason for this scarcity lies on the tome’s artistic merits.
I bought this book because I enjoy seeing pretty, erotic drawings of nude women, particularly nude women together with other women. The cover of this book shows an attractive naked girl lying down in front of an older man and a dominant-looking older woman. So far, so good. But the inside of this book is overly raunchy and far less erotic. There’s precious little lesbianism, and instead there’s lots of XXX-rated male-to-female stuff that I found far too hard-core and generally uninteresting.
Clearly a man of taste who knows what he wants.
I stumbled upon this curiosity while cruising through Amazon attempting to fill some holes in my collection of the fine works of Brandon Graham. Who knew that his early comics could command fees in league with the earliest and rarest of books by the likes of Cole, Ditko and Eisner?
You really should be picking up Brandon Graham’s King City (every couple months from Image Comics), and, Multiple Warheads (pretty infrequently from Oni Press) and be sure to look at his blog RoyalBoiler every week where he shares his own art, and some stunning cartoon oddities from the near to distant past.
UPDATE: Further digging revealed that three copies of the book have sold for a meager $260.69 on eBay. I could not find any other copies available for purchase online.
Portland’s Floating World Comics is selling a magnificent 18″x24″ very limited print of Al Columbia’s painting Toyland (detail view above). I’m a little late posting this, but they seem to be still available. Go get yours now! The art also appears as the centerspread to Floating World’s Diamond Comics #4.
UPDATE: The Prints Keep Coming!
Brooklyn’s Desert Island is now offering a slightly less limited Pim & Francie print by Al, for much less money, and it’s been hand-stained in tea!
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