Top Shelf Productions

I feel like one of those late night cable access car-salesmen! But really, this is totally good stuff we're offerin' up here, kids! Seriously, if you're ahead of the curve and are buying comics for the digital device of choice, it don't get much better than this. Hell, it makes me want to get an iPad for myself!

Top Shelf Cyber Monday Sale: 30% off everything!

• "A Bit Amish" Comics Legend Alan Moore Goes Online To Honor Harvey Pekar at Fast Company!!

That's really cool!... they even provided a hyperlink to the Cleveland graphic novel on our website!

As my partners on the Veeps film and myself find ourselves on the home stretch, i thought this would be a good time to showcase some more work by one of the two key players in our drama. As you may have read in last week's Hey, Bartender blog, Bill Kelter recently took a transformational road-trip. Meanwhile, Wayne Shellabarger too has been busy. Pretty soon (come on now!) Wayne is supposed to have his own website up, which will feature tons of rarely seen comics, posters, and miscellaneous art. Stay tuned.

Here's a 7" record cover Wayne did for San Francisco band Born Petrified. Subtle. Understated. Beautiful.

Wayne also did the film poster for a little comic-book short called, Souls of Splendor. It was filmed at Amazing Fantasy in the Sunset District... terrific shop. Check it!

Veepster Bill Kelter waxes nostalgic on "The Cradle of Insignificance," in his new Veeps blog post. Some tasty travel writing and veeps history.

• Steve Lafler's swell new music video!

• Nate Powell -- On The March!! Does this guy ever sleep? From Nate himself:
My site has been totally redesigned! It also features links to the new digital versions of both graphic novels.

I just did the cover for the band Good Luck's new album, Without Hesitation. It's out on No Idea Records, and the artwork was a collaboration with photographer Ben Rains.

My forthcoming graphic novel The Silence Of Our Friends (written by Mark Long and Jim Demonakos, published by First Second Books) is "Certified Cool" in this month's Previews, and will hit stores in January!

I'll be going on a two-week tour in February, doing discussions, presentations, and signings for The Silence Of Our Friends-- dates aren't set yet, [stay tuned].

I also finished a novel/graphic novel hybrid with writer Cecil Castellucci called The Year Of The Beasts, to be released in May 2012 on Roaring Brook Press.

As part of the digital week, the amazing James Kochalka will be doing a Reddit AMA today! Go over and ask him anything!

EDIT

BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE AWESOME JAMES KOCHALKA! Take a look at his responses here.

MIX. Minneapolis Indie Expo. So much fun was had at this show. Lots of great catching up with friends. Met new ones, like Grimalkin Press' Jordan Shiveley. Little children literally freaking out over our Kids Club books. I try to travel light, but did come home with some good loot, including new stuff from Joe Biel at Microcosm, a sketchbook (and dinner!) from Annie Koyama, two new issues of Jon Lewis' True Swamp from Tom K.'s new press, Kevin Cannon's Beard Hero, and Tim Sievert's new mini-comic, The Clandestinauts. And more from Chris Pitzer at AdHouse. And some rad stuff from the impossibly cute posse of girls at Paper Darts.

Super props to Andy Krueger and Sarah Morean for rocking another great show.

Oh, and speaking of Tim Sievert, here's the wraparound cover i commissioned from him, for my new Fantasy/Sci-Fi themed sketchbook. Sweet!!

Stumbled across a nice little used bookstore called James & Mary Laurie Booksellers, on Nicollet Mall. Picked up a bitchin' book on Hollywood Westerns, a gorgeous, fully painted book on extinct animals, and a wonderful little illustrated book drawn by the great great Maurice Sendak, titled How Little Lori Visited Times Square (1963).

On the food front, found and ate at terrific all-sustainable eateries every day. They were all outstanding. Restaurants included: Red Stag Supperclub, Spoonriver, Brasa, and Sea Change.

• This isn't under the radar, but neither is it widely known that Renee French is working on a total revamp of her classic, out of print book The Soap Lady. Here's some notes she's been making in this massive undertaking. "I'm working on cleaning up the missing pages of handwritten text for the soap lady redux book. I have it stuffed with little postits."

• Geekdad talks Top Shelf Kids Club with Leigh Walton at Wired.

• Jeremy Eaton continues his spectacular metamorphous with his new art blog. His work is crazy good and always worth checking out.

• Here's a rough cover sketch for Jeffrey Brown's forthcoming, A Matter of Life graphic novel.

• Finally, in the whirlwind world of Jennifer Hayden, she's got a lot going on! [Aspiring cartoonists take note. This is textbook self-promotion.] Check it:

"Thursday, November 10, 7:30 p.m., I'll be speaking on a panel, "Backgammon, Blackberries & Barbarians" at the Princeton Arts Council in Princeton, NJ, with two other Princeton graphic novelists Galit Seliktar Barak (Farm 54) and Mike LaRiccia (Too Fast). The moderator will be children's author and graphic novel editor Galen Longstreth.

"Saturday, November 12, 8:00-11:00 p.m., it's the rescheduled-due-to-snow-in-October launch party for UNDERWIRE at Bergen Street Comics in Park Slope, Brooklyn! Yeah! Booze, bubbly, books, family members, live music, Sharpies, outta control.

"Wednesday, November 16, 7:00 p.m., my first UNDERWIRE reading in NYC, at BookCourt in Brooklyn! Dean Haspiel will MC, and I'll be joined by George O'Connor, reading from his gorgeous book Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory, and Leslie Stein, reading from her cool book, Eye of the Majestic Creature.

"Friday, November 18, 8:15 p.m., I'll be participating in a "Literary Death Match" at Bardot in Miami, FL, which I hope doesn't involve any actual death. I'll be competing with Mat Johnson (Pym), T.M. Shine (Nothing Happens Until It Happens To You), and Sandra Beasley (Don't Kill The Birthday Girl), hosted by Todd Zuniga. Judges will be Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Damned), Dean Haspiel (Bored to Death), and Justic Torres (We the Animals).

"Sunday, November 20, 11:00 a.m., I'll be speaking on a panel at Miami Book Fair International called "2011 Favorites and New Classics", with Vera Brosgol, Shannon Wheeler, and Matt Phelan, moderated by John Hogan and Jeff Newelt.

"Sunday, November 20, 4:00 p.m., I'll be speaking on a panel at Miami Book Fair International called "Comics and Autobiography" with Jason Shiga (Empire State) and Mark Kalesniko (Freeway), moderated by John Hogan (editor, Graphic Novel Reporter.)

"And check out my new blog post I wrote for Trip City, concerning chicken broth and motherhood.

And you can also check out my new webcomic S'Crapbook there, "Moments of Shirley"

I'd forgive someone who mistook this blog as Jennifer Hayden's blog, if only by way of the fact that she's always here, right? Well, i tell ALL of our authors that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and goshdarn if she isn't the squeakiest wheel on our big 18-wheeler!! (James Kochalka runs a close second in the squeaky wheel contest!)

In any case, Jennifer's webcomic S'Crapbook has a new home. She writes:

"I'm proud to announce that I'm part of a new web-based arts adventure called Trip City that launched today. Trip City is a multi-media virtual "arts salon", featuring music, and video, and comics by Dean Haspiel, Chris Miskiewicz, Seth Kushner, Jef UK, Nick Abadzis, Amy Finkel, Joe Infurnari, Nick Bertozzi, Kevin Colden, Jen Ferguson, Ron Scalzo, and The Perv Whisperer."

• And check out this interview with the whip-smart whirlwind of comics awesomeness Sarah Morean at Comics Reporter. Sarah runs the MIX show in Minneapolis, and it's in this interview where i myself learned this could be the last one. : (

From Gregory Benton and Top Shelf! [And make sure to check out Gregory's page at Top Shelf!]

"This map will be handed out to kids who attend the Halloween party at my son Eli's school. It lists the various activities, some of them kinda abstractly...

For instance, 'silly winds' is a ping pong ball race where you blow the ping pong balls with a straw."

• Here's a sweet new piece from Gregory Benton!

• Snow pummeled New York as i write this, so Jennifer Hayden's UNDERWIRE launch party tonight at Bergen Street Comics in Park Slope has been postponed. The party has been rescheduled for Saturday, November 12, at 8:00 p.m.

Jennifer writes:
"Many thanks to hosts Tom and Amy Adams, whose beautiful store, Bergen Street Comics, is located at #470 Bergen Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Just steps away from the 2/3 Bergen Street subway stop. You can also take the 4/5/B/Q trains to Atlantic Avenue, or the D/M/N/R trains to Pacific Street.

"There'll be beer, bubbly, and books! And you can meet a couple of real-live characters from my comix: my husband Steve and my daughter Charlotte. We'll also be serving Charlotte's favorite drink: Shirley Temples! And live music will be provided by Steve Hayden on his electric guitar, with possible accompaniment by me on my electric fiddle..."

An Underwire review from Under the Radar magazine:
"Jennifer Hayden's Underwire is so fucking inspiring. If that naughty word put you off, avoid this web-comic collection. It is filled with salty language while relating the intimate observations of a woman in her late 40s. Hayden's drawings of flawed and wonderful characters from her life are naive, but so very sweet. If Underwire looks like it's drawn by someone who might also write and illustrate children's books, that's because it is. The central character is the author herself, and she's a joy. She's bawdy, messy, raucous, and entirely human — as likely to sit around with her friends, slamming wine and gossiping, as she is to lament over her son leaving for college. She draws and thanks goddesses a lot (you might too, if you were a cancer survivor!), but she's also a witty sweetheart who loves her kids and enjoys banging her husband. One criticism is that her end panels come too abruptly, but that adds to the realism a bit. Oh, messy life! Hayden is seriously fun, alive, and inspiring — as an artist, a writer, a woman, and a human being. Brava!" —Kate Mercier

• In other news, just wanted to point out that our friends at Sparkplug will be tabling at several festivals in the next couple months: MIX on November 5th and 6th, Short Run Small Press Fest on November 12th and Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest on December 3rd. Look for more updates about these events in the next couple weeks!

"This map will be handed out to kids who attend the Halloween party at my son Eli's school. It lists the various activities, some of them kinda abstractly...

For instance, 'silly winds' is a ping pong ball race where you blow the ping pong balls with a straw."

• Here's a sweet new piece from Gregory Benton!

• Snow pummeled New York as i write this, so Jennifer Hayden's UNDERWIRE launch party tonight at Bergen Street Comics in Park Slope has been postponed. The party has been rescheduled for Saturday, November 12, at 8:00 p.m.

Jennifer writes:
"Many thanks to hosts Tom and Amy Adams, whose beautiful store, Bergen Street Comics, is located at #470 Bergen Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Just steps away from the 2/3 Bergen Street subway stop. You can also take the 4/5/B/Q trains to Atlantic Avenue, or the D/M/N/R trains to Pacific Street.

"There'll be beer, bubbly, and books! And you can meet a couple of real-live characters from my comix: my husband Steve and my daughter Charlotte. We'll also be serving Charlotte's favorite drink: Shirley Temples! And live music will be provided by Steve Hayden on his electric guitar, with possible accompaniment by me on my electric fiddle..."

An Underwire review from Under the Radar magazine:
"Jennifer Hayden's Underwire is so fucking inspiring. If that naughty word put you off, avoid this web-comic collection. It is filled with salty language while relating the intimate observations of a woman in her late 40s. Hayden's drawings of flawed and wonderful characters from her life are naive, but so very sweet. If Underwire looks like it's drawn by someone who might also write and illustrate children's books, that's because it is. The central character is the author herself, and she's a joy. She's bawdy, messy, raucous, and entirely human — as likely to sit around with her friends, slamming wine and gossiping, as she is to lament over her son leaving for college. She draws and thanks goddesses a lot (you might too, if you were a cancer survivor!), but she's also a witty sweetheart who loves her kids and enjoys banging her husband. One criticism is that her end panels come too abruptly, but that adds to the realism a bit. Oh, messy life! Hayden is seriously fun, alive, and inspiring — as an artist, a writer, a woman, and a human being. Brava!" —Kate Mercier

• In other news, just wanted to point out that our friends at Sparkplug will be tabling at several festivals in the next couple months: MIX on November 5th and 6th, Short Run Small Press Fest on November 12th and Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest on December 3rd. Look for more updates about these events in the next couple weeks!

"This map will be handed out to kids who attend the Halloween party at my son Eli's school. It lists the various activities, some of them kinda abstractly...

For instance, 'silly winds' is a ping pong ball race where you blow the ping pong balls with a straw."

• Here's a sweet new piece from Gregory Benton!

• Snow pummeled New York as i write this, so Jennifer Hayden's UNDERWIRE launch party tonight at Bergen Street Comics in Park Slope has been postponed. The party has been rescheduled for Saturday, November 12, at 8:00 p.m.

Jennifer writes:
"Many thanks to hosts Tom and Amy Adams, whose beautiful store, Bergen Street Comics, is located at #470 Bergen Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Just steps away from the 2/3 Bergen Street subway stop. You can also take the 4/5/B/Q trains to Atlantic Avenue, or the D/M/N/R trains to Pacific Street.

"There'll be beer, bubbly, and books! And you can meet a couple of real-live characters from my comix: my husband Steve and my daughter Charlotte. We'll also be serving Charlotte's favorite drink: Shirley Temples! And live music will be provided by Steve Hayden on his electric guitar, with possible accompaniment by me on my electric fiddle..."

An Underwire review from Under the Radar magazine:
"Jennifer Hayden's Underwire is so fucking inspiring. If that naughty word put you off, avoid this web-comic collection. It is filled with salty language while relating the intimate observations of a woman in her late 40s. Hayden's drawings of flawed and wonderful characters from her life are naive, but so very sweet. If Underwire looks like it's drawn by someone who might also write and illustrate children's books, that's because it is. The central character is the author herself, and she's a joy. She's bawdy, messy, raucous, and entirely human — as likely to sit around with her friends, slamming wine and gossiping, as she is to lament over her son leaving for college. She draws and thanks goddesses a lot (you might too, if you were a cancer survivor!), but she's also a witty sweetheart who loves her kids and enjoys banging her husband. One criticism is that her end panels come too abruptly, but that adds to the realism a bit. Oh, messy life! Hayden is seriously fun, alive, and inspiring — as an artist, a writer, a woman, and a human being. Brava!" —Kate Mercier

• In other news, just wanted to point out that our friends at Sparkplug will be tabling at several festivals in the next couple months: MIX on November 5th and 6th, Short Run Small Press Fest on November 12th and Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest on December 3rd. Look for more updates about these events in the next couple weeks!

From Hell is now available in digital form, ready to impress people looking over your shoulder as you peruse comics on your iPad, Kindle, or Nook. Check it out at iTunes and Comixology!

• Harkening back to yesteryear, Mark Arsenault returns to the comics fold with a newly minted Wow Cool!! No lie folks, there used to be a time before internet was widely used (gasp!), when the Wow Cool and (John Porcellino's) Spit and a Half catalogs were the only game in town where one could find and order mini-comics by your favorite comics creator or zinester. Self-publishers take note -- this could be huge.

• Oh how i love Naomi Klein... a gorgeous rabble-rouser...

Anyway, here she waxes eloquent about Occupy Wall Street, and how this might could possibly hopefully be a real game-changer. The super-elite in corporate and political power don't give a flying f*ck about you or me, people. Just sayin'...

This bartender is back from a somewhat extended holiday, having traveled down into Southern Oregon and Northern/Central California for lots of camping, as well as my annual pilgrimage into San Francisco for APE. (Alternative Press Expo.) I won't lie, kids, traipsing through old-growth redwoods is hard to beat...

Anyway, i didn't get too much loot from the show this year, but i did happen across a few illustrators whose work is pretty damn fine, including Helen Chau, Marian Dilan, Aggie Cheung, and Kelsey Short.
Helen

Marian

Aggie

Kelsey

And of course, big up to James and Kirsten at Isotope Comics for letting me do my margarita-mixin'... i think i finally figured out why i seem incapable of not getting blotto doing this, but i'm pretty sure i shouldn't write about it here. ; )

• Meanwhile, here's a little film Kagan McLeod put together for the Infinite Kung Fu Launch Party Featuring Hop Fu.

• Finally, with Craig Thompson's Habibi out now, and most likely breaking new sales records, Eddie Campbell trotted out this older review he wrote for Craig's outstanding Carnet de Voyage.

Top Shelf 2.0 alumnus Jeff Zwirek is trying to gather funds on Kickstarter for his terrific comic project Burning Building Comix, and has less than two days to get it done!!

• The wonderful David Lasky is trying to wrap up his gorgeous Dont' Forget This Song graphic novel and launched a Kickstarter campaign with writer Frank Young to finish it. I've been wanting to see this for years, people, so let's help him get it done!

• Here's a new trailer for Jennifer Hayden's terrific graphic novel Underwire!

UNDERWIRE: The Trailer from Jennifer Hayden on Vimeo.

• The new issue of Strapazin arrived in the post from Switzerland today, and it's another beauty. Maybe the most consistent and long-running international comics anthology running.

Here's a choice interior page from P.Paetzel & S. Scholz. ALL of these stories can be read for free on their website!!

• This is just amazing.

A Timelapse Journey with Nature: 2009-2011 from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.

• And as promised, more news from Jennifer Hayden!

"I'll be selling fresh, hot copies of UNDERWIRE at The Brooklyn Book Festival this Sunday, September 18, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Brooklyn Borough Hall. If you can make it, come find me at table #118, where I'll be with Kevin Kobasic, New York City cartoonist and creator of the very funny book BEANBOTS. Along with UNDERWIRE, I'll be selling fine art prints of stand-alone art from UNDERWIRE, as well as UNDERWIRE Wearables--my new line of jewelry made with closeups of art from my book--and a new minicomic collecting the first ten strips from my new webcomic S'CRAPBOOK.

"At 1:00 I'll be speaking on a panel at the festival which should be seriously good called "Funny Ha-Ha: Comedy in Comics", moderated by Heidi MacDonald, with Michael Kupperman (Mark Twain's Autobiography: 1910-2010), Keith Knight (The Knight Life: Chivalry Ain't Dead), and superstar Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant). The official press release for the festival is below.

"P.S.--To my fucking horror, SPX was videotaping the panel I participated in last weekend--"Images of The Body". Watch it, if you dare..."

SPX 2011 - Images of the Body from Small Press Expo on Vimeo.