comix

Intergalactico is the creative/multidisciplinary studio founded by designer, artist and illustrator, Chris Capuozzo; and the website received its official launch today. You may know his stuff from his work with Funny Garbage or the last Paper Rodeo, or even some moldy old issues of Wow Cool’s Tuna Casserole anthology. Anyway. He’s a great artist and designer, and there is just tons of sweet eye candy content on his site. Dig it.

Zoo District #7 - Adventures in Excitement is a 28 page black and white digest with color covers by Marc Arsenault (that’s me) collecting various comics and drawings spanning several years. A few strips appeared previously in Brian Ralph’s Monster, Paper Rodeo, Roarin’ Rick (Veitch)’s Rare Bit Fiends and Tuna Casserole. The rest are previously unseen. Guest art by Brigham Martin, Jason Martin and Paul Komoda. It’s available to order online now from the Poopsheet Shop. If you’re in Brooklyn you can pick it up at Rocketship in Cobble Hill. If you are in Berkeley, then you should be able to get it from Comic Relief. More stores to be added as they have them. Inside art previews are on Poopsheet.

Yup, we will have new shirts from Marc Arsenault and Simon Gane at HeroesCon this weekend. But, just to recap, first, there will also be: Ian Lynam’s Parallel Strokes, Marc Arsenault’s new Book “Adventures in Excitement”, new CDs from Offset Needle Radius and nickname: Rebel, lots of books by Simon Gane and Steven Cerio. So come look for the Wow Cool sign and the spaceman in Indie Island, where Marc will be drawing pictures and Joshua Baker will be making music.

OK, T-shirts. Each is available in sizes S, M, L, XL. They are on super high-quality 100% cotton shirts. They will be very reasonably priced. First up, brand new from Vertigo’s Vinyl Underground artist Simon Gane, is this super-stylish 2-sided promotional shirt for his book with Ian Lynam and Kim Fern: Sap.

And, even more confusing is this also stylish number from Marc Arsenault made especially for this event. Let them know you’ll never be retconned again!

And there will be much, much more at the show, free stickers, garage sale specials, costumed surprises, tigers, Brown Cuts Neighbors, The Doris book, a big box of “last copies” going back years… See you there!

It’s done! 28 pages of fun. (or 32 in the special edition, which also comes with a tape and other goodies). Go to Heroes Con next weekend to get yours!

See some choice Simon Gane art on Arthur Conan Doyle story in the Graphic Classics Free Comic Book Day special, available Friday, May 3rd, 2008 at finer comic book shops everywhere. Simon previews his story here. Read a review of it on Newsarama, where they say that “Simon Gane has a wonderfully busy, angular style that’s perfect for the Victorian story. He’s also remarkably adept with faces and body language, so the characters’ shifts in mood and personality throughout the tale are utterly convincing.” There are many other fine books available that day; get all the details on the Free Comic Book Day site. You should also visit our Simon Gane shop on Wow Cool and read the Vertigo title that Simon pencils - Vinyl Underground - for more wonderful Gane magic.

Wow Cool will be at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 20-22, 2008. There will be a few new debuts, lots of stuff by Simon Gane, Steve Cerio and myself, music, comics, shirts, etc. I’m hoping to spend most of my time drawing sketches of 70s Marvel monsters for the kids (or, failing that, for Frank Santoro). Updates to come in this space. You can look for the new shop and some other fun web stuff to go up well before then (hey, the Interweb is hard). Thanks.
–Marc Arsenault

by Jason Martin 1991

Wow Cool was launched 20 years ago this month by Sam Henderson, Tom Hart and Marc Arsenault in New York. Tonight, a few of those characters and more are gathering in Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York for a memorial pub crawl. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by Alex Cox’s excellent Rocketship shop around 7pm. Otherwise you’ll have to catch up with the traveling show at one of the usual spots on Smith Street.

It seems that Wow Cool has been around long enough now (20 years this coming January) that it has attained some sort of historical signifigance, or at least our old friend Rick Bradford of the Poopsheet Foundation thinks so. I guess I need to get it in gear to get him much more art and info for this ambitious project. Original post from Midnight Fiction follows.

Poopsheet Foundation Website Revamp
Rick Bradford has just completed a major revamp of the Poopsheet Foundation website. Besides offering the web’s best selection of collector’s mini-comics for sale, Bradford has added a section on mini-comics history and a cover gallery. As Bradford explains, "I’ve felt for a long time that both the history and evolution of the mini-comic need to be more aggressively documented and easily accessible. Over the years I’ve been greatly inspired by the research of folks such as Bruce Chrislip, Gary Usher, Dale Luciano, Jay Kennedy and Mal Burns (not to mention Clay Geerdes and anybody else who has contributed to the documentation of the scene past or present) and I want to do my part."

Poopsheet’s new history section includes bibliographies for Mike Cody, David Miller, John Porcellino, and Souther Salazar, plus a biography on Michael Roden. Bradford’s also republished several articles by Tom Spurgeon; a 1991 letter from Jay Kennedy in which he describes his plans for the second edition of his Official Underground and Newave Price Guide; and publisher’s indexes for Wow Cool, Comix World, and Starhead Comix.

The new Gallery section provides over 700 mini-comics covers from Anthrax Press, Bruce Chrislip, Comix World, Dada Gumbo Press, Everyman Studios, No Way Comix, Ozone, Phantasy Press, Slice o’ Life Press, Starhead Comix, Wow Cool, and XEX Graphix! Bradford adds, "My intention for the new Poopsheet site is to collect as much relevant information as possible and make it available to all interested parties (collectors, fans, researchers). To that end, I’m certainly open to submissions and suggestions, corrections and additions to the existing content, as well as any cover scans missing from the gallery."

When asked about the site’s registration option, Bradford explains, "Although the new site was built on the Ning social network platform and signing up with Ning is an option, registration is not required. The Poopsheet site itself may be freely enjoyed without signing up." The new Poopsheet site is a great resource and archive on the history of mini-comics, and Bradford’s blog entries on the home page also provide news of current projects being developed and published by today’s mini-comics cartoonists.

Perhaps the best news about the revamped Poopsheet Foundation website is that it’s just getting started. Bradford has lots more planned, so if you’re into minis, underground, self-published, and alternative comics, start making it a regular visit!