Brand new in the shop is the second book release from Space Face Books, an anthology digest by the name of Rat Hex featuring brand new art and comics by Robert Beatty, Clint Colburn, Michael DeForge, Jesse McManus and Matt Lock.

Sorry it’s been a slow week in blog-land, the main machine is in the shop at the moment. All should be coming at you quicker again soon.

We are scheduled to get the last of our shelving for the too long in developing physical Wow Cool store in Cupertino sometime in June. So look for an announcement no later than July 4th about that opening up. Hours will be limited to start off (likely just Saturdays and by appointment for the summer).

Oh, and don’t miss the latest Ant Comic by Michael DeForge.

Thanks for visiting. Talk more soon. OK?

Sparkplug, Teenage Dinosaur, Revival House and Floating World join forces to bring you their 2012 FCBD anthology, BRAD TRIP. Eight Portland artists take you on a journey that explores vagaries, innuendoes, dreamscapes and weirdness in narrative form. Featuring all new comics by Virginia Paine (Milkyboots), Annie Murphy (I Still Live), Kinoko Evans (Zine City Comics), Aidan Koch (The Whale), Dunja Jankovic (Department Of Art), and Maria Sputnik (Gazeta) & Connie Hockaday. Covers by Lori D and Brenna Murphy (Oregon Painting Society).

Brad Trip is a 32 page black and white comic book with color covers. FREE with any order (or plus postage on it’s own) while supplies last. Any orders placed on WowCool.com this Saturday, May fifth (Cinco de Mayo!) will also receive as many other random free books as will fit in the box. We have all sorts of goodies waiting for you.

In Portland, Oregon? Go to the book release and art exhibit Thursday, May 3rd. Then join the artists the following Saturday 12-2pm for Free Comic Book Day.

WHO: Lori D, Kinoko Evans, Annie Murphy, Virginia Paine, Maria Sputnik
WHAT: Brad Trip free book release & art exhibit
WHEN: Thursday, May 3rd, 6-10pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

Steven Cerio‘s film “The Magnificent Pigtail Shadow” – narrated by Kristin Hersh – will have its screen debut at the MAKING MOVIES 2012 FILM AND VIDEO SERIES curated by Terry Cuddy and organized by the Schweinfurth Art Center and held at the Auburn Public Theatre (108 Genessee street, Auburn NY) tonight, Thursday, May third. Check it!

After a brief hiatus during the recent troubles, the mighty Injury Comics by Ted May and company has returned. Issue number four is here! The books are in stock and ready to ship to you. Successfully funded as a Kickstarter project, our friends at Alternative Comics have kicked in the extra help to up the print run on this baby and get it out to the masses through the usual channels. The book makes it’s official debut on June 16 at CAKE – The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo. Shortly after that it will be showing up in an indie-friendly comic shop near you. Until then you can only get them direct through Ted or from us. Grab ‘em while they are hot, true believer!

Already past its goal with a couple days to go, but still needing some extra help to safely up the print run to a thousand is Injury Comics #4. Please help these guys out.

Thanks!

The mighty tabloid from Philadelphia returns! They met their (way too modest) goal on the first day and have now set a secondary goal of $1,500 to double the print run. From the same team that brought you the mighty Rub The Blood. Get on over and Kickstarter this monster!

The latest issue of Desert Island’s excellent tabloid comics anthology Smoke Signal is out now and available for free from the store in Brooklyn or for a mere $3 online. It’s 28 pages, color and black and white, printed in an edition of 2000. Includes work by Brian Ralph, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Kamagurka and Seele (Cowboy Henk), Gabrielle Bell, Glenn Head, cover art and five pages of “Belligerent Piano” by Tim Lane and much more. Be sure to look for Wow Cool’s full color ad in this issue featuring art by Andy Ristaino.

Desert Island is located at 540 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 | Map

Git yr ass down to the Roxie in SF this weekend for the Mission-style glory that is Cine-Madness! Friday, March 23 – Sunday, March 25, the Roxie teams up with L.A.’s Cinefamily and Austin’s Alamo Draft House to present three nights of wrong and twisted viewing pleasures. Get all the details on the Roxie’s site.

The stylish poster above was designed under great duress (seriously, it’s been a pretty heavy week here) by Wow Cool’s own Marc Arsenault (me). How often do you get to draw Nixon, Elvis and George Kuchar together?

Ted May is all done with the fourth issue of his Injury Comics series. The catch is, he’s without a publisher at the moment. The book’s all done – featuring contributions from Jeff Wilson and Mike Reddy – they just need to be printed. And, yup, Ted needs your help to do that.

The first three issues of Injury and other works by Ted May are available in the Wow Cool Shop.

Northlanders Vol. 6: Thor’s Daughter – March 20, 2012

Dropping onto shelves later this month: Simon Gane illustrates writer Brian Wood’s tale of lost Viking history. Foot soldier Mads gives a grunt’s-eye view of the famous Siege of Paris where hundreds defended against thousands, and political maneuvering was as important as the clash of the shield wall. Even while they fight off the invading horde, Mads and company still have to make it through the brutal winter to survive. Collects Northlanders 37-39 “The Siege of Paris” + #40 “The Hunt” – illustrated by Matt Woodson, and #41 “Thor’s Daughter”, illustrated by Marian Churchland. Also, as mentioned recently, Simon will be the regular artist on the new Godzilla series starting in May.

Our dear friend Chloe is reprinting the popular Crap Hound #6 in a new edition and she needs your help on thee Kickstarter to make it happen. Here’s the pitch:

Dear Readers,

Sean is currently working on a book-length version of Crap Hound devoted to “Unhappy People” to be published by Feral House Press, so we thought we’d reprint an old favorite — Crap Hound #6: Death, Scissors & Telephones with a 16-pg. supplement of all new images — in the meantime! All the new material is in the supplement, the only change to the magazine from the 3rd edition is the cover.

This time around we’re offering pre-orders, as well as a variety of highly covetable rewards! Our goal is $13,000, which will cover the cost of printing 5000 copies of the magazine and supplement, silkscreen print, shipping and handling, and project fees.

Thanks for your interest in our project! If you like what you see, please help spread the word by sharing it with your friends! Remember, Kickstarter is an all or nothing proposition. If we don’t meet our goal, we won’t receive any funding!

Your Faithful Proprietress,
Chloe Eudaly
Reading Frenzy/Show & Tell Press

Brand new publisher Hic & Hoc announce a call for submissions to their non-fiction comics anthology of Unsolved Mysteries. They also have books coming soon from Neil Fitzpatrick, Lauren Barnett, Pat Aulisio, Alabaster, Bernie McGovern, Philippa Rice, Dina Kelberman and Emi Gennis.

MASSIVE LEAK REVEALS CRIMINALITY, PARANOIA AMONG CORPORATE TITANS
Dow pays “strategic intelligence” firm to spy on Yes Men and grassroots activists. Takeaway: movement is on the right track!

WikiLeaks begins to publish today over five million e-mails obtained by Anonymous from “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The emails, which reveal everything from sinister spy tactics to an insider trading scheme with Goldman Sachs (see below), also include several discussions of the Yes Men and Bhopal activists. (Bhopal activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India, that led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.)

Many of the Bhopal-related emails, addressed from Stratfor to Dow and Union Carbide public relations directors, reveal concern that, in the lead-up to the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the Bhopal issue might be expanded into an effective systemic critique of corporate rule, and speculate at length about why this hasn’t yet happened—providing a fascinating window onto what at least some corporate types fear most from activists.

“[Bhopal activists] have made a slight nod toward expanded activity, but never followed through on it—the idea of ‘other Bhopals’ that were the fault of Dow or others,” mused Joseph de Feo, who is listed in one online source as a “Briefer” for Stratfor.

“Maybe the Yes Men were the pinnacle. They made an argument in their way on their terms—that this is a corporate problem and a part of the a [sic] larger whole,” wrote Kathleen Morson, Stratfor’s Director of Policy Analysis.

“With less than a month to go [until the 25th anniversary], you’d think that the major players—especially Amnesty—would have branched out from Bhopal to make a broader set of issues. I don’t see any evidence of it,” wrote Bart Mongoven, Stratfor’s Vice President, in November 2004. “If they can’t manage to use the 25th anniversary to broaden the issue, they probably won’t be able to.”

Mongoven even speculates on coordination between various activist campaigns that had nothing to do with each other. “The Chevron campaign [in Ecuador] is remarkably similar [to the Dow campaign] in its unrealistic demand. Is it a follow up or an admission that the first thrust failed? Am I missing a node of activity or a major campaign that is to come? Has the Dow campaign been more successful than I think?” It’s almost as if Mongoven assumes the two campaigns were directed from the same central activist headquarters.

Just as Wall Street has at times let slip their fear of the Occupy Wall Street movement, these leaks seem to show that corporate power is most afraid of whatever reveals “the larger whole” and “broader issues,” i.e. whatever brings systemic criminal behavior to light. “Systemic critique could lead to policy changes that would challenge corporate power and profits in a really major way,” noted Joseph Huff-Hannon, recently-promoted Director of Policy Analysis for the Yes Lab.

Among the millions of other leaked Stratfor emails are some that reveal dubious financial practices, including an apparent insider trading scheme with Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz, who joined Stratfor’s board of directors and invested “substantially” more than $4 million in the scheme, called StratCap. “What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments,” wrote Stratfor CEO George Friedman in September 2011. StratCap was designed through a complex offshore share structure to appear legally independent, but Friedman assured Stratfor staff otherwise: “Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral… It will be useful to you… We are already working on mock portfolios and trades.” (StratCap has been due to launch in 2012, though that could now change.)

Other emails show Stratfor techniques of a truly creepy Spy vs. Spy sort: “[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control,” wrote CEO Friedman recently to an employee, Reva Bhalla, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on Chavez’s cancer. (Stratfor’s “confidential intelligence services” clients include, besides Dow and Union Carbide, the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines, the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.)

Perhaps most entertainingly of all, the email trove reveals that Stratfor’s “Confederation Partners”—an unethical alliance between Stratfor and a number of mainstream journalists—are referred to informally within Stratfor as its “Confed Fuck House.” (Another discovery: Coca Cola was spying on PETA. More such gems are sure to surface as operatives sift through the 5.5 million emails.)

A number of the remaining Yes Men-related emails take the form of reports on public appearances by the Yes Men, such as one that describes one audience comprised of “art students on class assignments and free entertainment.” Another notes that “The Yes Men tweeted about the US Chamber of Commerce ‘plotting forged emails, documents to trick (AND smear) opponents,’” a reference to an apparent plot to discredit Chamber opponents using forged documents, as revealed when thousands of emails were recently leaked by Anonymous from cyber-security firm HB Gary. Yet another discusses Alessio Rastani, the Wall Street trader widely mistaken for Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum, who proclaimed, live on the BBC, that “governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world.”

“Rastani was right,” said the real Andy Bichlbaum five months later. “But it’s now very clear that it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.”

The Yes Men and representatives from the Bhopal Medical Appeal will join Julian Assange of Wikileaks at a press conference at noon today, Feb. 27, at the Frontline Club in London.

TheYesMen.org (unavailable at time of writing)

Wikileaks Global Intelligence Files

Wow Cool received this press release today from the Yes Men. We are running it as-is without any further comment. Share and enjoy.

Doris West Coast Readings!!!

2/26 Sunday at 5:00 at Rock Paper Scissors, 2278 Telegraph Ave, Oakland

2/29 Wednesday at 7:00 Modern Times Bookstore,
2919 24th St, SF

3/9 Friday at 7:00 Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak St, Portland OR

3/11 Saturday at Evergreen college, not sure of time. This will be a talk, not a reading

3/12 Monday at 7:30 Left Bank Books, 92 Pike St, Seattle WA with Peregrine of Entropy zine and hopefully Neely of Mend My Dress zine!!!

The popular Godzilla comics series from IDW is getting a relaunch in May and Simon Gane will be the regular artist. Simon had previously illustrated Godzilla Legends #2 starring Rodan for the company, but this will be his first full-on go at the Big G. Full solicitation text follows.

Godzilla #1
Duane Swierczynski (w) • Simon Gane (a) • Art Adams, Tony Harris (c)
Godzilla is back… in an all-new ongoing series! Duane Swierczynski and Simon Gane launch this ultimate action-movie blockbuster, ushering in a new era of monster battles. Ex-special forces tough-guy Boxer is a man with a grudge and vows to end the terror of Godzilla, no matter what. He assembles a top notch team to take down monster-sized threats… at $7 billion a bounty. What starts as a vendetta could become a lucrative business for Boxer… if he can live past day one!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

*Variant Covers:
Ryan Kelly movie-tribute cover!
Art Adams gatefold cover!

Bullet Points:
¥ The new ongoing Godzilla series STARTS HERE!
¥ Bigger, badder and more radioactive… this is the ultimate Godzilla tale!
¥ Every issue contains a random Art Adams monster trading card! 9 different cards available, collect the whole set! Also, look for randomly inserted unique sketch cards from Matt Frank!

Hey Silicon Valley folks! Get yr butts down to the SLG Art Boutiki at 577 S. Market St. in San Jose tonight – Wednesday February 15 – from 6 until 9pm for the NerdMart “Geek Swap Meet”. Wow Cool will be there in the form of Marc, with a big Frank Santoro-style bargain box of strange comics as well as a few Wow Cool goodies, including a big stack of Sam Henderson’s Free Ice Cream.

Word has it that our old pals Prank Records (They put out one of the early Hail Mary 7″ records) will be on hand as will be Jim “Blockhead” Pitts – selling old underground comix, Movies, toys, steampunk schwag and more. So, come and check out what people are getting rid of, what people value beyond all other things, and what one person’s crap becomes another person’s cool.

SLG Art Boutiki & Gallery, 577 S. Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113 | View Map

Double Fine Adventure on Kickstarter. As seen in Forbes. Most successful Kickstarter project ever. Over a million dollars raised in the first 24 hours – $600,000 past the goal. For a new point and click adventure game from two of the people involved with such classics of the genre as Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Pajama Sam, Grim Fandango and many more. Double Fine has also been home to comics great Scott C., of course. These are the good guys. Add them to your good guy list.

CASH Music Platform. You just need to go and read the whole pitch on this one. I imagine if you are not a music maker you might not care. I am very happy to see this happening. Some of the people involved are quite close to things you will be hearing about coming from Wow Cool quite soon, some others I have met and talked to and greatly respect their work, and the fact that they are behind this speaks volumes. Sorry if that’s a bit vague. Get behind this.

For nearly ten years, I’ve supported myself producing comics by making merchandise that hopefully, people will buy. All the while, I try to do my best work, writing stories and illustrating them, for free. It makes very little sense.

My comics on this site will always be free to read. But if you want to directly fund the stories you enjoy, please consider signing up for a Scary Go Round subscription. Once a year, you’ll be a bona fide patron of the arts. There are no other benefits. £2 a year is less than a penny per comic.

STANDARD – £2 / $3 every year – receive nothing*
BRONZE – £10 / $10 every year – receive nothing*
SILVER – £25 / $25 every year – receive nothing*
GOLD – £50 / $50 every year – receive nothing*
PLATINUM – £100 / $100 every year – receive nothing*
*but my gratitude

It’s a square deal. You’re free to cancel via your Paypal account at any time – use this link to access your subscriptions. If I decide to abandon webcomics, you will be informed in advance. After 13+ years without missing a scheduled update, you’re probably pretty safe.

I love making comics, and want to find a better way to keep doing it the same way I always have – if that makes sense! If I can fund my work this way, I will be able to work without worry. Thanks for taking the time to read.

Little Heart is a comic anthology created to show support for marriage equality, produced in partnership with 2D Cloud & [MN]Love and YOU. The comics included in the volume cover a variety of material, from auto-bio, science fiction, intimate vignettes, romantic incidentals; work created to show that love strikes all walks of life.

This project was spawned by the very urgent need to fight the 2012 referendum that seeks to instill discrimination and hate in the Minnesota state constitution. Since Little Heart’s inception, the project has grown. The reason for the growth is that the issue itself is bigger than Minnesota. Which is why we have enlisted artists across the US and Canada.

Artists included in the book are as follows:

Tuesday Bassen, Emma Reynolds, Tim Sievert, Michael DeForge, Alex Fukui, Ellen Redshaw, Anna Bongiovanni, Hannah Blumenreich, Megan Tulius, Hedwig Vinson + Rachel Kowarski, Milkyboots, Luke Holden, Ed Choy + Sam Sharpe, Tammy Ray, Noah Van Sciver, Sally Madden, Jeremy Sorese, Emily Carroll + Kate Craig, Sean Lynch, Joseph Remnant, MariNaomi, Maurice Vellekoop, Zak Sally; with Christopher Butcher handling the introduction/foreword.

Coming in at 160+ pages, perfect bound, 5” x 6”, featuring color as well as black and white — this book is going to be a looker. It’s also going to be a little spendy to produce. The production costs are about 4k to pay the artists and another 4.5k for the actual printing of the book. We are aiming to print 1000 copies — should we exceed our goal, extra funds will go towards increasing the print run, higher production values, and paying the artists a higher rate.

Suspect Device 2 on Kickstarter
Suspect Device #1 was released in August 2011, a 35 page book in black and white with one very good idea; making new comics by taking old panels out of context and drawing a new improvised context around them, a new comic from the old. The 2nd issue adds a couple new wrinkles to the game and brings in over 60 artists, including, Noah Van Sciver, Sam Henderson, Chuck Forsman, Johnny Ryan, Kevin Scalzo, KC Green, Brian Ralph, Lizz Hickey, Anne Emond, Brendan Lynch, Box Brown, Heather Benjamin, Noah Lyon of Retard Riot, Pat Ausilio, Keenan Keller, Domitille Collardey and Janelle Hessig.

When this fine volume emerges it will surely show up in the Wow Cool shop. We still have a few copies of Suspect Device #1 available.

Simon Gane shares a preview of the the cover for the upcoming Halloween Classics edition of the Graphic Classics series. More deets in this article from last week.

Sam Henderson doodles constantly. He has generated thousands of sheets of paper that are jam packed with his characters. Sometimes these get left behind… Here’s one that re-surfaced over a decade after he did it.

The debut issue of the new Adventure Time comic book series from KaBOOM! is in stores today*, and Toronto’s The Beguiling will be celebrating with an event this Saturday, featuring series writer Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics fame) and AT artist Steve Wolfhard (creator of Cat Rackham Loses It). Many comic artists work on Adventure Time – check out our survey here.

Gary Panter and Joshua White are opening a massive light show/trip city/living sculpture in a 22,000 square foot museum in Detroit. It’s at MoCAD, opening February 10th with a performance.

Sam McPheeters (of Born Against/Vermiform Records/Men’s Recovery Project/etc.) has written a novel – The Loom of Ruin – it is to be released on April 1st, 2012. He will be doing an extensive book tour and needs help filling in a few dates. Anyone seriously interested in helping me put an event together for Sam in the South Bay on May 3rd., can you please get in touch via the contact form. Thanks.

The Center For PostNatural History will be opening a storefront location on March 2nd 2012, at 4913 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA. Congrats to Rich Pell and crew! Hopefully we will have more details before the grand opening.

*Sorry, folks… Wow Cool will not be carrying the floppy issues of Adventure Time, as they are distributed exclusively through Diamond and we do not and have never done business with them. Stay tuned for news about the collected editions, which Wow Cool intends to offer for sale. So, hey, support your local comic shop!

Simon Gane brings us a preview of several panels from his 28 page adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 41 page* horror story from 1892, “Lot No. 249“. The comic will run in Graphic Classics Volume 23: Halloween Classics, due for release this August. The book will also feature adaptations of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cool Air”, Mark Twain’s “A Curious Dream’, and an interpretation of the silent film classic “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, with art by Matt Howarth. The story was the first bit of lit to introduce the character of the vengeful bad ass mummy — later much popularized by hollywood — right during the height of Egyptomania in Victorian England. Simon also steps out in a co-adaptation of The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde in the revised Graphic Classics edition to be released in April.

* It’s that long in “The Best Horror Stories of Arthur Conan Doyle“, where I have it… a few pages less in “Round the Red Lamp“, where it usually shows up.