This interview from 2009, conducted after the release of Olga’s first book The Airy Tales, has been updated with improved images, updated links and news of Olga’s recent books. Since its original publication, Sparkplug published her...
Read moreGo Kickstart This New Graphic Novel by Trevor Alixopulos
Sparkplug Books cornerstone author Trevor Alixopulos is branching out on his own and needs your help with his new book Lipstick Traces. Go get on that right now. We say those were the days but the night is when everything happens! A big...
Read moreAustin English’s Windy Corner Magazine, Volume 1 Review
(This review was originally published in 2007.) Reading Windy Corner Magazine #1 was a special pleasure because I’ve always found Austin English’s taste to be impeccable as a critic and now as an editor. It was a bonus to see so much...
Read moreTrevor Alixopulos’ Mine Tonight
Those that follow the minicomics scene will observe that geography plays a large part in forming artist support groups. These groups provide encouragement and critique for young artists and play a part in their development. The recent development...
Read moreHellen Jo’s Jin & Jam – Review
There’s little that’s quiet about Hellen Jo’s Jin and Jam, a Sparkplug Comic Books release. In the tradition of cartoonists like Charles Schulz, she’s clearly exploring different aspects of her self through her various...
Read moreDavid King’s Danny Dutch – Review
In small press comics, the output from a publisher tends to reflect their own personal aesthetic, even when they exert no editorial control over them. That shows through in things like design and format, creating a sort of house style, especially...
Read moreAustin English’s Windy Corner Magazine #3 — Review
What I like best about Austin English’s Windy Corner Magazine is that it seeks to clarify the artist’s relationship with memory and the narrative that we form from our memories, and how this is different from nostalgia. That theme was...
Read moreChris Cilla’s The Heavy Hand – Review
Reading Chris Cilla’s The Heavy Hand, I felt a tremendous sense of déjà vu. Each page felt like one I had already read somewhere, even though I hadn’t. One reason it may have felt so familiar is that The Heavy...
Read moreJason Shiga’s Bookhunter – Review
One reason why I love comics is that I occasionally run into a creator producing art that would only work as comics. I prefer not to use reductive terms like “pure cartooning”, but I have a great appreciation for many artists who...
Read moreOpen-Ended: Olga Volozova’s The Airy Tales – Review
Something I’ve noticed as a recent trend in comics is a style that somewhat trades in primitivism or outsider art on the surface, but in reality is a sophisticated integration of word and text. The plastic qualities of text are not...
Read moreJulia Gfrörer’s Flesh And Bone – Review
Revisiting another Sparkplug classic, here’s my original review of Julia Gfrörer’s debut book, Flesh and Bone, from 2010. Julia Gfrörer’s Flesh And Bone takes fairy-tale and folk legend tropes and both turns them on their heads...
Read moreSparkplug at CAKE!
Hello y’all! Sparkplug is heading to the Midwest for one final show. We’ll be exhibiting at CAKE Chicago with Suzette Smith. This is one of our favorite fests and it’s free and open to the public, so be sure to check it out! ...
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