HOORAY! The shop is back up and running! AND you can still preorder The Anthropologists, our new book by Whit Taylor!
Read moreOnline Shop (temporarily) Down!
So it looks like our online shop is down and may have been down for a while! Sorry about this, folks! We are looking into getting it up and running again. If you have tried to order or need to order, please send me an email: virginia (at) sparkplugcomicbooks (.) com. Thanks for your patience!
Read moreSparkplug Highlight: In Situ #2 by Sophie Yanow
I noticed that In Situ No. 4 was released recently, and wanted to recommend this series! After reading In Situ No. 2, I felt refreshed and more confident – Sophie keeps her journal comics relevant not only to herself, but also to all people – the feeling transience, or being caught...
Read moreKickstart This: Steve Ditko’s #20
Robin Snyder and Steve Ditko promise “something unusual and fresh and original” in the Kickstarter campaign for their latest publishing project, #20. After 26 years of publishing indie comics I’m pretty sure they can be taken at their word on this. Go support #20. Wow Cool...
Read moreSparkplug Highlight: Rock That Never Sleeps by Olga Volozova & Juliacks
Rock that Never Sleeps is a split book between two awesome lady artists! First in the book, Olga Volozova establishes the tale with her many-layered comic style and creates a new myth revolving around memory. People around town begin to lose their skill of recollection, including a family...
Read moreThe Wonderful and Frightening World of Gary Panter
Gary Panter is well deservedly a much revered artist for his scratchy line and his many very influential works scattered across various media in a long career. Whether by accident or chance or plan, many of these works – as well as some obvious examples by his peer cohorts Matt Groening...
Read moreNew Noah Van Sciver and More in The Shop
We have just added three new Noah Van Sciver books to our shop: A City of Whisky and Fire (with writer Daniel Landes); and, the full-color sketchbook replicas from Tinto Press Weekend Alone and Weekend For Two. Also from Tinto we have the Eisner Award nominated Homesick by Jason Walz. In the...
Read moreThe Anthropologists is available for pre-order!
I’m so stoked about our next book, The Anthropologists! Taylor does a great job portraying travel: the awkwardness, the self-analysis, the uncomfortable cultural implications. Her art work is deceptively simple; she is a master of capturing the nuances of expression and her...
Read moreNew In the Shop! Barrio Mothers & TEMI #1!
Good morning, all! Two new books are up in the shop today- first off, you can order the incredibly cool and incredibly free-except-for-shipping Barrio Mothers Free Comic Book Day comic if you missed it in stores! With such a lovely cover and good local Portland artists, there really is no...
Read moreSequential Artists Workshop 2014-15 Applications Open
SAW — The Sequential Artists Worksop — in Gainesville, Florida is now accepting applications for the 2014-1015 school year for their single-year program. Full details here.
Read moreSparkplug Highlight: Long Legs by Julianna Green!
Long Legs is the first book in a series. What really strikes me about Julianna Green’s comic style is it’s density. Each page is filled with rich blacks and linework. Each character is designed to grab your attention. My eyes scan over the craft of every panel before I allow myself...
Read moreA Quarter Each or 25 for Five Dollars
In case you hadn’t heard, we are having a big sale on Saturday at our Cupertino, California store and on WowCool.com all weekend. You will have to make it to Cupertino to dig through the 17 longboxes of comics we are selling at a quarter a pop (or 25 for five dollars, as it says
Read moreFree Comic Book Day!
Tomorrow is everyone’s favorite holiday: Free Comic Book Day! This year Sparkplug teamed up with Portland publishers Floating World Comics, Snakebomb Comix and Teenage Dinosaur to bring you BARRIO MOTHERS! With art and stories by Souther Salazar, Nick Norman, Josh Juresko...
Read moreWow Cool Grand Opening Sale
Come join us in Cupertino on Saturday, May 3rd for our big party at the store; or, online at WowCool.com all weekend for lots of free comics and 20% off everything we sell. All the details you need are here.
Read moreSparkplug Highlight: Moon Between Mountains by Yumi Sakugawa
Moon Between the Mountains by Yumi Sakugawa follows the story of a cat girl as she grows up in a human world. Her sad story begins as she is left at the door of an old couple’s home, dropped off by mysterious figures. She leaves home after the couple raises her, and goes out into
Read moreThe Stupid Pages 33: Charlie Brown On Acid
Anonymous contribution.
Read moreSparkplug Highlight: ZIRP #4 by Till D. Thomas
ZIRP #4 starts off where #3 ended: Elisabeth and Raoul relaxing together in a stunning penthouse, giggling and splashing in the pool. While all this is going down, Rizzo departs on a sea voyage to find Elisabeth and convince her to take him back. Will he overcome his fear of living in order to...
Read moreNew Books In the Store! 2005, Long Legs, and I Cut My Hair!
Good morning all! Four new books were added to the store today! First: 2005: a Fragment of the Larger Work 4 by Sean Christensen! This book hits close to home when our protagonist gets bummed over some tunes that remind him of a past love. Sean’s transitions in this comic are especially...
Read moreATTN Retailers: deadline for Barrio Mothers, a FCBD anthology
Sparkplug, Teenage Dinosaur, Snakebomb and Floating World join forces again to bring you their 2014 Free Comic Book Anthology – BARRIO MOTHERS. Eight Portland artists present new masterpieces guaranteed to take your face on a wild trip. These line wranglers have harvested the freshest...
Read moreSparkplug Highlight: ZIRP #3 by Till D. Thomas
Featuring both beautifully stylized comic pages, as well as painted splash pages, ZIRP #3 is a delight to behold. The story opens with half-baked author Raoul as he lives his loser life, trying to read his own book. After becoming disgusted with it, he searches the internet for the book, and...
Read moreNew Books From Alternative Comics and More
It looks like we are doing new comic book day on Thursday this week. We have three new books from our house label Alternative Comics in stock online and in the Cupertino store: Jed Alexander’s (Mostly) Wordless, Kevin Scalzo’s Sugar Booger #2 and the second edition of the Big...
Read moreSparkplug Highlight: Edison Steelhead’s Lost Portfolio by Renee French
Renee French’s small but beautiful book Edison Steelhead’s Lost Portfolio: Exploratory Studies of Girls and Rabbits perhaps has many themes, but surely the most obvious is body horror. Each spread includes a soft, detailed charcoal rendering of a girl or a rabbit on the right, with a short...
Read moreSteve Moore Has Minutes To Go In Suspension
I was about ten or eleven when I was first exposed to the writing of the recently deceased Steve Moore in the pages of Doctor Who Weekly. He and Alan Moore (no relation) wrote back-up stories in the magazine. Some of the ones that first caught my attention were the tales of the Cyberman who
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