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Rob’s Top 20 self-published Comics and Minicomics of 2011
I love making lists, and now that I am fully immersed in the small press alt-minicomics world I found it well-nigh impossible to resist putting in my 2 cents as to what was especially good among the titles I’ve seen this year (disclaimer: there’s a lot I haven’t seen). I stuck to a rule of Only Published In 2011 - otherwise we’d be here all night. My other criterion was that to make the list a title had to be self-published, be it a full color comic with a binding and an ISBN # or simply a stapled, handmade or photocopied affair. Obviously nothing I put out is here (though I’m quite fond of the comics I published in ‘12). One artist’s webcomics output is mentioned with all of her other zine titles, but I otherwise stuck to print media only - I generally don’t seek out webcomics, save for artists whose work I already know of and love. What can I say, I love paper. My list is in no particular order and I don’t have one particular favorite mini or comic of the year.
1.You Don’t Get There From Here: Carrie McNinch
I wrote a little article for Maximum Rock and Roll’s punk comics blog last spring about Carrie’s awesome daily diary comics and you can read it on the MMR site rather than me rehashing her awesomeness here. She’s up to issue #21 and still going strong.
2.Strange Growths #15: Jenny Zervakis
This zine has been around since the 90’s but I’d never read it until I nabbed this thoroughly enjoyable issue. Zervakis has a unique and dreamlike view of the world. The art is not slick but suits the author’s almost off-the-cuff musings and observations perfectly.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ed Luce debuted as an already fully developed cartoonist back in the mid-aughts with Wuvable Oaf #’s 0 and 1, but somehow his art just keeps getting better and better and the storytelling ever more accomplished. And who doesn’t wuv the Oaf?
4.Shirtlifter #4: Steve MacIsaac
The most fully realized issue of Shirtlifter to date, this was so good it prompted a thorough reread of issues 1-3 before I read #4 all over again. Can’t wait for #5 to see what happens next in the serialized main feature, “Unpacking.” I have mad respect for Steve MacIsaac.
Are you reading Noah van Sciver’s totally excellent, wide-ranging one-man anthology comic book series yet? If not you totally should be doing so.
6. Fearful Hunter #2: Jon Macy
A beautifully, lushly rendered erotic gay fantasy starring a handsome druid and a soulful, beautiful werewolf, Fearful Hunter manages to be super hot while never losing the aching poignancy of its central story of two magical yet damaged souls falling in love. Jon Macy is an exceptional artist and deservedly won the Prism Queer Press Grant for Fearful Hunter in 2010.
7.Not So Butch, Sister Spit Tour Diary 2011, A Year of No Sleep, plus her Rumpus webcomics: MariNaomi
Mari is perhaps the cartoonist who most inspired me this year. In addition to her lovely book Kiss and Tell (Harper Perennial) she self-published this nice variety of zines, each one a gem. In addition, I think her Rumpus webcomics may be her very best work yet. Stay prolific, Mari!
8.Not My Small Diary #16: (various, edited and published by Delaine Derry Green)
Like Jenny Zervakis’s Strange Growths, NMSD is another long-running zine I’d never read before – glad I finally remedied that situation. This special 2-volume issue (!), all about transportation in its many forms, was a treat, featuring 63 artists, including the awesome Dave Kiersh (whose art here I could look at all day long), Frederick Noland, Noah van Sciver, MariNaomi, and John Porcellino, with exquisite cover art by Carrie McNinch.
9.Big Plans #5: Aron Nels Steinke
Autobio cartoonist Aron Steinke has great comic timing that is all his own, plus there’s something about seeing his charmingly-drawn characters (Steinke is a children’s book author) shouting things like, “Slow down, Motherfucker!” that never fails to make me laugh. Best of all, this is a giant-sized Big Plans - still in the same appealing pocket-sized mini format, but with112 pages, so it lasts longer.
The other two stories in this issue of the now-venerable anthology are good stuff, but the real highlight here for me was “The Most Gripping, Mind-Exploding, Triumphantly Electric of Our Time” by Jonas Madden-Connor, who produces the award-winning Ochre Eclipse series. I think Madden-Connor is brilliant, with an inventive approach to storytelling that employs formalistic concerns but never feels forced or academic. One of the best comics I’ve seen yet in Papercutter and one of the very best single stories of 2011.
11.The Magic Hedge and other Stories by Marian Runk
Marian Runk makes some of the most charming comics and hand-crafted books around. “The Magic Hedge,” an ode to the joys of bird watching, found its way to my heart instantly (I’m a bit of a bird-guy myself) and the little story about Mondo from Project Runway and the hilarious, endearing final drawing of Marian and her girlfriend cavorting about in bird costumes were just icing on the cake.
12.Two Days Away from Staring at Birds From a Park Bench: Kelly Froh
This plain-spoken little auto-bio comic is about losing your job unexpectedly and the resultant emotional fallout and feelings of helplessness that ensue. As Froh states, “What was so strange is that I got hopeless So Fast.” Instantly relatable & scary reading in these perilous times. I really like Froh’s Roz-Chast-like drawings too.
13.Untitled zine of drawings by Hedwig Vinson
This was my “discovery” at the Minneapolis Indie Expo in November. Recent MCAD grad Hedwig was tabling a few chairs down from where I was situated and when I saw her brushy drawings of bendy, swirly, sweaty, bursting-with-energy rock stars, such as Jimmy Page and Klaus Nomi (below) up on the walls, I felt them calling to me, calling and calling. After I scored this zine collection of said-drawings I showed it to my tablemate, Kris Dresen, who immediately got up to go get her own copy.
14.King Cat Comics and Stories #72: John Porcellino
What can I say? John P. is inspirational and a new issue of King Cat is always a joy.
15.Second Chances: Matt Sundstrum
After I read about this pantomime comic on Optical Sloth, I sent away for it in an effort to gain some inspiration while toiling away on my own pantomime comic. But Second Chances, a fantasy in which the protagonist gets the chance to live the life he thinks he wants while a magically fabricated other self takes care of day-to-day business, just made me nervous and self-conscious about what I was doing at first, as it was just so skillfully executed on all counts. Yeah, I ate my heart out a little, but let’s give credit where credit’s due.
16.Feral and The Ghost Skater: Dave Davenport
As far as I’m concerned, Dave D. is The Punk Rock Gay Cartoonist Of All Gay Punk Rock Cartoonists. Awesome X rated stuff with energy and style to burn, and burn it does.
Beautifully drawn, soulful poetic melancholy by a master of beautifully drawn, soulful poetic melancholy.
18.Solid Silver/All Deez Females Crawl: Matt Runkle and Amanda Verwey
I just found this good old fashioned flip book (Matt’s story is on one side and Amanda Verwey’s is on the the other) inspiring. The two pieces presented in tandem work very well together and make for groovy fun.
Politically ambivalent true tales from a Bread Not Bombs volunteer. Always thought-provoking, never didactic, just the way I likes it.
For the final entry let’s break the rules I established up top and go with a book not actually self-published but still with that proper self-published “feel.” Passage is an autobio reminiscence of growing up with loving but eccentric and embarrassing parents, complete with beautifully detailed drawings and sublime storytelling. One of the best single stories of 2011, if you ask me. Oh, while we’re at it let’s break the rules one last time again and mention a little mini published in 2010 but still one of the best I read in 2011: Jesse Reklaw’s piercingly funny and relatable warts-and-all examination of his history as a DIY self-publisher, NYDI #1 (NYDI = acronym for No, You Do It). Self publishers, do read this: you’ll laugh, you’ll wince.
A FEW OTHER THINGS
Some fave creators I saw nothing new from in 2011 (by nothing new I mean work in orthodox stapled comic books - yes, I know some of you put out art zines or fashioned wallpaper designs, or worked on your upcoming books, etc, etc. - I’m not calling you slackers, I’m just saying - sniff! - I missed ya):
Justin Hall
Favorite New Discovery: Comics from Scandinavian countries.
Also from Latvia. European comics are the new black.
Bad News: No Minneapolis Indie Expo (MIX) in 2012.
Just when I managed to get several of my awesome cartoonist pals to breeze into Minneapolis to hang with me and sell comics with me and have dinner and get (mildly) drunk with me in early November at the second annual MIX, the event directress and all-around super-heroine Sarah Morean understandably burned out and had to bow out of producing the expo next year. Maybe in 2013?
Sad News: the passing of Dylan Williams, founder and publisher of Sparkplug Books. He was a giant in the world of alt-indie-small-press comics creators and a wonderful person to boot. He will be missed, but the many creative publishing seeds he planted will continue to grow and flourish in the years ahead.
Glad News: Northwest Press, Zan Christensen’s still-young queer comics publishing company, continued strong in 2011, first publishing a long overdue comprehensive collection of David Kelly’s wonderful 90’s-era comic strip “Steven’s Comics,” as well as a compendium of very talented young Turk Rick Worley’s raunchy but sweet series A Waste of Time in the fall. Before that, the first two books from the NAP line both got a bit of recognition: Jon Macy won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica for his brilliant graphic novel adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Teleny and Camille, while Justin Hall was nominated for Best Transgender Fiction for his graphic novel collection Glamazonia: The Uncanny Super-Tranny. And then there was this well-deserved bit of recognition. Zan Christensen & the creators at Northwest Press, you’ve got it going on.
Most look forward to in 2012: above all else, my pal Justin Hall’s upcoming book with Fantagraphics No Straight Lines: 4 Decades of Queer Comics. Gosh, to say I can’t wait for this is an understatement.
Personal milestones: In June 2011 I published the second issue of THREE. In mid-August I was the guest artist at the Palm Springs Art Museum, demonstrating the fine art of comic strip inking, and a few days after I got back, THREE #1 got an Ignatz nomination for Outstanding Anthology or Collection (as well as a well-deserved nomination for Outstanding Story to Eric Orner for his “Weekends Abroad”). I had a piece in the Dirty Comics art show, curated by Jon Macy, at the Museum of Sex and Culture in San Francisco. On October 1st I received the Prism Queer Press Grant for THREE, and at the end of that month I published my first solo minicomic in 20 years, King for a Day. Yup, it was a good comics year for ol’ Rob. I’m looking forward to 2012 and beyond.
Pictured: art from Kris Dresen, Steve MacIsaac, Aron Nels Steinke, Hedwig Vinson (c)
December 15, 2011
