It’s that time of year again! The 2018 micro-press survey is live!
Are you a small press comics publisher that published comics in 2018?
Every year I try to chronicle the output of micro-publishers in my zine, the Tiny Report. But I can’t do it without your help. So take the damn survey! It’s super simple this year–just six questions.
Thanks, all, and happy 2018!
MoCCA is just a few days away! I’ll be at the Paper Rocket table with Age of Elves author Colin Lidston and special guest MIKE DIANA! See us at table E 170.
And my two debuts have arrived from the printer!
The Tiny Report No. 5…
…and The Age of Elves Issue 3!
See you there! Kickstarter backers can pick up these books at the show.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Age of Elves, Colin Lidston, Micro-Press Yearbook, Mike Diana, MoCCA, Tiny Report
I’ll be publishing two titles in April, just in time for MoCCA Fest. You can preorder them until April 6 on Kickstarter!
As usual, I’m publishing my annual small press zine, but the focus has changed a bit. I’ve shifted from just covering micro-presses to widely cover small press comics, especially minicomics. So I changed the title from the Micro-Press Yearbook to The Tiny Report. There is still a Micro-Press Yearbook section, with a fold-out chart, but there are also lot of minicomic reviews and interviews with artists.
I’m not sure what the Tiny Report will become, and to be honest I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be doing it. (I’m forty, and I have a very demanding job! This gets harder every year.) The plan is to make the Tiny Report a home for all my research and thoughts on small press comics—this is a subject I want to write seriously about. And with each issue I’ll continue to invite other writers to contribute, because I think it makes for a better zine. (And it also makes filling an issue much easier. I’m a slow writer.)
About this issue: #5! It’s big. At least 60 pages! Check out this cover by Zack Soto. Perhaps you’ve noticed that I always ask micro-publishers to do the covers. (To date: Chuck Forsman, Box Brown, J.T. Yost, Kevin Czap, and now Zack.)
We will have two main features. I wrote a profile about Eleanor Davis’s early minicomics, did a short interview with her, and created a near complete bibliography of her self-published work.
Haleigh Buck provides and in-depth interview with Mike Diana. (She also drew this illustration.)
And Robin Enrico and I review a lot of minicomics!
I’ll also be publishing the third issue of The Age of Elves by Colin Lidston. It’s a big issue to: 40 pages.
The issue opens in Gen Con, America’s largest table-top-gaming convention. Sarah, Jamie, Bram, and Evan seem to be the youngest people in attendance.
Sarah befriends an older LARPer couple. The first day of gaming goes well, until Evan fails to return to the hotel room that night.
Preorder your copies by backing the Kickstarter. And both of these titles will end up in the store before too long.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Eleanor Davis, Haleigh Buck, Kickstarter, Micro-Press Yearbook, Mike Diana, Robin Enrico
Happy New Year! Around this time I usually look back at the previous year and chronicle what the comics micro-presses were up to. And I’ll be honest, I really debated whether I had it in me to do it again. I AM BURNED OUT. (More on this below.)
But I decided I’m going to try. And you can help me out.
Are you a micro-publisher?
But wait, did you take the survey last year?
Please complete the survey by February 15.
As I look ahead to 2018 and consider what my creative output will be, I’ve had to accept the reality of my life: at the moment, my career leaves me little time for creative output. I’ve decided I need to step back a bit from scene and from tabling to focus on two things.
1. I want to get serious about collecting and writing about small press comics (especially minicomics). I’ve been posting mini profiles semi-regularly on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/paperrobyn/
And I wrote this thing about Eleanor Davis’s early minicomics on Roar.
I like writing about comics. For me, it’s not fraught in the way making comics is. I’m a decent writer—a slow one, but not glacial. Doing my Instagram posts and writing about minicomics at length: something about it just feels right. So I’m going to try incorporate that into what the Tiny Report is.
2. I want to develop an ambitious anthology project (more on that to come).
It’s my goal to really dig into these two projects in 2018. I’m settled in a new apartment that I love and freshly single for the first time in a long time. It’s my hope this gives me some space to focus, but only time will tell. Figuring out how to fit my personal work around my career at First Second is an on-going struggle. If you have any tips, I’d love to hear them!
Happy New Year!
And you know what the New Year brings: another micro-press survey! (Also more vintage clock-and-girl glamor shots.)
Did you fill out the survey for 2015? Then go HERE for the Fast Track Survey.
(The survey is streamlined and shorter than ever!)
If you didn’t fill out the survey for 2015, please go HERE.
New for the 2016 Yearbook! Publishers that only publish anthologies will now be included in the Micro-Press Yearbook. Because I’ve never tracked these publishers before, I have a lot of catching up to do. If you only publish anthologies, please complete our regular 2016 Survey. If you’d like to recommend some anthology publishers for the list, please reply in this post’s comments.
Thanks, guys, for sticking with me! Professionally, 2016 was an amazing year. I landed my dream job: I’m a full-time graphic novel editor. But that meant I didn’t have as much time to dedicate to this blog and the Micro-Press Yearbook. I’m hoping to pick up the slack in 2017, and deliver the next Yearbook earlier (by May, I hope).
I’d like to take a moment to thank these great publishers that filled out my 2015 survey. I couldn’t have done it without you.
THANK YOU 2d Cloud, AdHouse Books, Alternative Comics, Big Planet Comics, Birdcage Bottom Books, Czap Books, Desert Island, The Devastator, Dog City Press, Floating World Comics, Hang Dai Editions, Hic & Hoc Publications, Hidden Fortress Press, INK BRICK, Issue Press, Kilgore Books & Comics, Northwest Press, One Percent Press, Pegacorn Press, Pity Party, Price Tapes, Ray Ray Books, Retrofit Comics, Revival House Press, Rough House, Secret Acres, Silver Sprocket, So What? Press, Sonatina Comics, Sparkplug Books, Tinto Press, Yeah Dude Comics, Yeti Press, and Youth in Decline.
Earlier this month I (finally) published the Micro-Press Yearbook 2015. I had hoped to release it in early 2016. I’m doing my best, but it’s getting harder to carve out time to publish with a demanding day job (that I very much love).
But it’s here, And I’m offering it for the low cost of $4, free shipping. Which basically just covers my costs. Consider it my gift to you, dear reader.
Order your copies here.
I published the Micro-Press Yearbook 2015 just in time to head down to Georgia for the Savannah College of Art and Design’s annual Minicomic Expo. SCAD is my alma mater, but I hadn’t been back in a long time. I first arrived there as a freshman TWENTY years ago. Hard to believe.
This is what I looked like back then. Note the Love and Rockets t-shirt and my roller skates, painted silver and stenciled with some of my favorite comic book characters.
Still looking good,right?
Needless to say, it was an emotionally trip. This place was so significant to my younger self. I had forgotten that.
SCAD has changed a lot in the last twenty years. I think the greatest improvement to the Sequential Art department (or Sequa, as it’s casually know there) is its greater focus on self-publishing. That’s largely due to David Allan Duncan, the professor who invited me down. Duncan (as he’s known) teaches the minicomics class (there’s a minicomics class now!) and he’s responsible for the annual Minicomics Expo. The Expo is tiny comics convention held in a number of classrooms. Only students and alumni exhibit, and it’s free and open to the public. Each year one special guest is invited (usually an alum), and this year it was me.
While I was there I gave FIVE lectures over three days, so I was pretty drained. One of the lectures was called Robyn Chapman: a Career in Comics. I thought that one would break me. I’m not super comfortable talking about myself or my career. I naturally want to put quotation marks around that word: “career.” But that’s bull. For the first time, I have a real, grown-up, full-time career. I guess it’s time to own it.
Here’s a collection of photos of students and alums exhibiting at the Expo. (Please correct me if I got any names wrong.)
Eugene Park had a really nice set-up
Al Pullen makes Pokemon butt pins out of sculpy. Pretty cool
Scuzz Comics (Warren Bond?). This was his first show, but the pizza box display was a smart idea
Jordan Scribner and his partner at the Grad Lab podcast (sorry, I’m not sure of his name)
Sarah Myer, an MFA grad and a recent SCAD instructor
Fawn Prints has the Halloween vibe going on
SCAD treats its visiting artists very well. They put me up in the Magnolia House, a special bed and breakfast for visiting faculty. Here are some pics.
I had a great time at SCAD, and I even sold some minis at the Minicomic Expo. Considering that I didn’t spend a dime, it might be my most profitable convention of all time.
(Sorry for the long absence. I’ve just returned from a comic historian’s dream vacation, to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. More on that soon!)
I’ve sent out all my Kickstarter awards (thanks again, guys!) and the Micro-Press Yearbook 2014 can now be ordered at my store. Just five bucks, plus shipping.
This issue was a more ambitious (and time-consuming) project than last year’s. It’s now 32 pages and full color. Inside you’ll find an article about distribution by Whit Taylor, an interview with kuš! publisher David Schilter by Rob Kirby, and all the 2014 data I could gather. There’s even a map by Cadu França charting where US micro-presses are located, state by state. This awesome cover is by Box Brown.
Thanks, and enjoy. I hope to get on a more steady Tiny Report schedule soon.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Cadu França, distribution, Micro-Press Yearbook, Rob Kirby, Whit Taylor
Did you hear? You can pre-order the Micro-Press Yearbook 2014 on my Kickstarter.
I’ll be releasing the zine at Desert Island in Brooklyn this Thursday. I’ve also invited two micro-presses from the neighborhood to join: So What? Press and Revival House Press. It will be a micro-press party, which is kind of like a Tupperware party, except we’re selling small press comics.
Micro-Press Party at Desert Island
Thursday, June 25, 7-9pm
540 Metropolitan Ave
The Micro-Press Yearbook 2014 is available for pre-order through this quick and cheap Kickstarter campaign. With a cover by Box Brown and contributions from Whit Taylor, Robert Kirby, Cadu França, and Jonathan Rotsztain. It’s in full color this time, and with a lot more content! Just $7, which includes shipping.
Blink and you’ll miss it! I’m only doing pre-orders for a week and a half, and then I’ll have a release party at Desert Island.
Now that 2014 has drawn to a close, it’s time to get cracking on the next Micro-Press Yearbook. And I need your help!
Are you a comics micro-publisher?
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
TAKE THE SURVEY
Please complete the survey by February 6. Your input will help me write my next annual report, the Micro-Press Yearbook 2014. (See the 2013 yearbook here.) Thanks!
THE TINY REPORT 