AdHouseBooksBlog

The title pretty much says it all.

It is with great excitement that I announce the AFRODISIAC Southern Tour!

Here’s the details:

Jim Rugg and Chris Pitzer hit the road to talk about their latest creation: AFRODISIAC. Each stop will include a signing, talking and LOVE! Plan your Valentine gift giving and pick up an autographed copy of the book!

Feb. 5th
6pm - 9pm
Velocity Comics
Richmond, VA
www.velocitycomics.com

Feb. 6th
6pm - 9pm
Chapel Hill Comics
Chapel Hill, NC
www.chapelhillcomics.com

Feb. 7th
3pm - 6pm
Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find
Charlotte, NC
www.heroesonline.com

Keep your fingers crossed that the books arrive in time!

Howdy Folks!

Well, hope your holidays were swell. Ours was pretty good. We haven’t really blogged all that much since we don’t have that much going on at present. The next big thing for us is AFRODISIAC which is making it’s way to your better local comic shop very soon! (I’ll be sure to post when we have a concrete date.) We also have some other things in the work, so we’ll be sure to mention those when the deats are a bit more concrete.

I thought I’d link to a few of the Best Of lists that have been happening of late that are associated with the Ad.

• Patrick Godfrey of Velocity Comics gave REMAKE a nod on his best of 2009.

•  Johanna Draper Carlson gives JOHNNY HIRO a VERY BEST OF 2009, which is quite stunning.

• NY Magazine gives AFRODISIAC a best of 2009 nod. We’re on the cusp, people!

• Joe at Flashlight Worthy says DRIVEN BY LEMONS deserves a Best of 09 nod.

• Douglas Wolk gives LEMONS an honorable mention on his Best of 09 BN list!

• Matt at Drawn give PR3 a nod on his 09 Best of list.

• Publishers Weekly gave LEMONS a Best of 09 Nod, too.

• Jeff at JHU just gave JOHNNY HIRO a Best of Nod as well.

Well, that’s all the ones I can think of at this point. What else? If you’re in the mood for a new TeeShirt, I’d suggest checking out the swell design Joshua Cotter did for The Comix Revolution.

That’s right. We’re having one. A pretty big one, actually.
Click here for all the details!
Hurry for best selection! Sales lasts from 11/24/09 to 12/21/09.

Something about the Fall and the plethora of events available…

This past weekend there was a McSweeny’s reading, a Zine festival and a combined silkscreen/beer event. (Along with one set of rents visiting!) Unfortunately, I only got to get to the Zine festival,  so, check the pics, if you are so inclined.

Other stuff:

Congrats to Josh Cotter and his Driven by Lemons being nominated as a Best of 2009 by Publishers Weekly. Very cool, in that I wish Josh the best that can happen. If I had to guess, I’d say the book should be in better LCSs on 11/18? You can check any number of places for shipping lists, and we’ll hopefully announce for certain on the twit, once we confirm.

That said, Pope Hats #1 is for sure in your better LCS on 11/11 in the US and 11/12 in some parts of the Great White North. (If your LCS doesn’t order our comics, you can always order from us.)

It looks like we’ll have THE BIGGEST SALE WE’VE EVER HAD sometime in the beginning of December. We’ll be sure to announce it here and other places when it goes live.

Stumbled (virtually) upon a new store in Norfolk called Local Heroes. Hope to stop by and check them out the next time I’m down there. Thanks to Todd Webb for the headsup.

Traditional Comics is up and running. One of my fave publishers… ever!

James Jean is on tour around the world. Clicky for the deats!

Many moons ago, our friends at the Dollar Bin interviewed Fred, Josh and Lamar at SPX. Thanks!

Afrodisiac is being printed as you read this. You can being informed of it, and other Jim Rugg stuffage at his new blog.

Publisher as a young fanboy.

I don’t know how it happened, but Robert Crumb visited Richmond.

I found out about it many months ago, and I’m sure I’ve mentioned it on the blog already. The event happened last night at the gussied-up Carpenter Center, and I felt it was well attended. I saw both Ed Sizemore and Ben Towle there, and they were both in reporting mode, so keep an eye out for what they will say. They both write really well, and I saw Ben’s copius notes. (I have a few notes myself, and they can be found below.)

In prelude to Crumb’s talk, the decision makers at the University of Richmond, along with consultants, decided to hold a panel discussion of various comic creators that would end up being moderated by little ol’ me. At first I was hesitant, since this would be my first time moderating, but the people involved were very forthcoming with help, answers, and assistance. So, I’ll go ahead and do my shout outs to Tom DeHaven, Patrick Godfrey, Erling Sjovold, Andy Kozlowski, David Howson, and Katherine DeLoyht. Many thanks for involving me, and making all of it very memorable.

The panel discussion brought in Gabrielle Bell, Kim Deitch, Hope Larson, and Anders Nilsen. All fantastic comic creators coming with different views and histories of making comics. So, that was kind of troublesome, since I wasn’t really sure how to tie them all together. Erling stepped in and suggested the scope should probably fall into creation, history (with a nod to Crumb), and publishing. He also suggested a few questions, which turned out to be very helpful.

I know it’s pretty silly, but one of the most exciting aspects of our talk was that there was a GREEN ROOM. I had never been in one before, so I found it all types of interesting. We did a sound check, which was also interesting, and then eventually settled in for an hour long talk about the topics mentioned above. I’d throw in a few oddball questions that dealt with minicomics or anthologies, and before I knew it, our time was up. I thought the event was well attended for a Sunday night. It concluded with a few questions from the audience. Here’s one I remember:

“What current book have you read that you REALLY liked?” (Or something like that.)
Hope: 20th Century Boys. Anders: Jack Survives. Kim: Genesis. Gabrielle: Crap, I can’t remember.

There was a signing afterwards, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Fast-forward to Tuesday night, and we’re all on a bus from the UofR campus to downtown Richmond. It was a bit rainy, so that was the only real damper on the evening. Kim’s wife Pam is a treat and told me of all the stops they got to explore in Richmond, including most of my faves like the Whitings Antique Paper, The Richmond Book Shop, Coppala’s Deli.

As many will probably note, the talk started with Crumb taking a joking fall on to the stage. I couldn’t tell if the audience knew it was a joke or not, but I’ll say that I was quite amazed at his agility in doing so. I guess Aline helps him stretch as well.

Françoise Mouly interviewed Crumb, and took some interesting turns. Since this is one of five stops in the states, it made me wonder if she mixes it up in each city. That would keep Crumb on his toes, and a bit more lively in the discussion. Interesting tidbits I took from the talk:

• Crumb is a grandfather now. (I hadn’t heard… not that I guess I should have?)

• To allow him to finish Genesis, his wife Aline found a secluded house in the country so he could devote ALL of his time to it. Wow.

• A fair amount of resource material was borrowed from the 1916 movie Intolerance. I had never heard of this movie, but it looks amazing. The sets are mind blowing.

Françoise also made it interesting by presenting Crumb with letters she had received at the New Yorker in regards to running the Genesis excerpt. What I found interesting was Crumb’s actual interest in the letters. He seemed to want to be able to debate each one.

Weirdly, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the talk for me is just Crumb’s voice. It’s very interesting and soothing. It took me back to memories of the movie, and makes me want to watch that again.

So, all in all, FANTASTIC! I know I probably have forgotten things that I’ll regret not talking about, but that’s me and my old age. I wish I could have partied into the night with all involved, but again, the old age. Thanks again to all involved! I look forward to diving into Genesis!

Yes you can.

All -

I wanted to thank everyone who got behind FCHS to try and make it happen.

However, the advance orders we received were not enough to allow us to publish this title.

I made the creators aware of that this morning, and asked that we let Diamond know, then retailers, and then the public.

That request got missed, and the decision to not publish has already reached the public.

I have made Diamond aware, and they will be officially announcing the cancellation.

I wish the creators all the best with this, and will be discussing with them other options they might choose to take.

Again, thanks to Vito and Rachel for all the hard work they put into this creation.

-
Chris

Instead of a SPX report, like I’ve done in the past, I thought I’d create my first ever AdNatz Competition.

And by that, I’m basically just having fun with my creating a list of some of my favorite things I received at SPX. By winning your category below, you really don’t “win” anything, other than my appreciation that you’ve created such a fine piece of work. So, thanks.

Like the Ignatz Awards, I’ll keep the AdNatz brief. No more than nine items… and kind of random.

AdFave: UNSETTLED by James Hindle. Best packaging. Best minis. Best overall greatness. If I could have only received one mini at SPX, this would have been the one I wanted. Three great minis in one envelope for only $5.

AdMiniWithTheMost: CYCLOPS by Evan Dahm. From the creator of Rice Boy, a mini comic that is minute in scale, but big in content. If you don’t know Rice Boy, you will.

AdHard: 3 STORY by Matt Kindt. Not the only hardback I got, but the first one I read, and really enjoyed.

AdNewness: MANS WALKIN’ by Jose-Luis Olivares. I never heard of JLO before this SPX, but he gave me a bunch of his comics during the show. I like his stuff. My fave is MANS.

AdGirth: A COLLECTION OF MORNING EMAILS by GB Tran. If this “mini” was anything thicker, I don’t know if it could be stapled! Acting as a collection of 8-bittish dootles of his first emails in the morning, I found most chuckle-worthy.

AdMail: MILKY WAY SHUFFLE! by Elio. If Elio had been at SPX, I had planned to seek this out. Since he wasn’t, he dropped me one in the mail, and now I am happy. Great little mini with a distinct voice and a nice doodle in the back!

AdContinuation: BIKEMAN by Jon Chad. Man… I love this comic. Thanks for making these Jon. This is sample book three.

Ad#1: LEGENDS OF SUPER WRESTLE by Andy Kettler & Kevin Panetta. Like a European Los Brothers, this mini is building a universe one page at a time. While not the best it can be yet, I do enjoy reading these, and hope Andy and Kevin keep making them.

AdFun: REMATCH by JP Coovert. A fantastic mini about the Intergalactic Ping Pong Championship. Great production, great fun. JP make some great comics, and this one makes me smile.

AdAlmostNotAMini: COVERED IN CONFUSION by Will Dinski. Does Will make some of the most elaborate minis in this day and age? Yes. This new one follows his previous efforts in creating a great comic that almost feels like a book.

Well, I guess I’ll end it there. Thanks to all that “entered”. You’re all winners in that you’re following your love of making comics, and that’s pretty cool.