Top Shelf Productions

Jeffrey Brown is crossing the border! In celebration of his new graphic novel Undeleted Scenes, Jeffrey will be appearing at Toronto's North York Central Library tonight (April 26) to discuss "the unique challenges of creating soul-bearing autobiography in comics, his development as a cartoonist and storyteller, and blurring the line between fact and fiction." The event is totally FREE and open to the public, so check it out!

It's all part of the city-wide buildup to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), May 8-9, which should be a blast. See you there, Toronto!

You probably know that Portland, Oregon is a hotbed of comic-book activity -- but did you know that two years in a row, the mayor has officially declared April to be Comics Month in Portland?

Well, the pinnacle of that month is upon us, with the annual Stumptown Comics Fest hitting Portland this weekend! Top Shelf will be there in style, of course, with Portland-based crew Brett Warnock and Leigh Walton supporting a crew of great cartoonists including Brett Weldele (The Surrogates), Bwana Spoons (Welcome to Forest Island), Liz Prince (Delayed Replays, Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed?) at her own booth, and Craig Thompson (Blankets) as a featured guest of the show!

Stumptown is renowned as one of the friendliest of all comic shows, so come on out and say hello!

Jeffrey Brown's hilarious robot spoof Incredible Change-Bots has plenty of fans -- most recently, Rick Marshall at MTV's Splash Page, who just posted an "Adapt This!" column arguing for an animated series starring those bumbling 'bots. "Incredible Change-Bots manages to find the perfect balance between nostalgia and self-aware fun," he writes. So, will we ever Balls the golf cart brought to life on screen? Only time will tell, but in the meantime check out this awesome animated short, and stay tuned for the Change-Bots sequel coming in November!

Meanwhile, Comic Book Resources celebrates the release of Matt Kindt's Super Spy (vol. 2): The Lost Dossiers by interviewing the man himself! Click here to read his thoughts on The Lost Dossiers ("a giant spy activity book for adults"), book design ("I'm a firm believer in the medium being the message"), and more... including his plan to conquer every comics publisher in the industry! Hey, we're happy to share him -- there's plenty of Kindt quality to go around!

Manga scholar Ryan Holmberg has been a big help with our upcoming book Ax: A Collection of Alternative Manga -- he wrote the artist biographies printed in the back of the book. He's also the curator of an excellent new exhibit at New York's Center for Book Arts, called "Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964-1973," showcasing the early years of legendary underground magazine Garo (an ancestor of Ax)!

The exhibit runs through June 26, but tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 21) Ryan is holding an artist talk with contemporary underground manga-ka Akino Kondoh! Ms. Kondoh is internationally known as a gallery artist, illustrator, and animator, but she'll also be prominently featured in our Ax book -- contributing two stories and the gorgeous cover!

Anybody in the New York area should check this out, 6:30pm at the Center for Book Arts. And stay tuned for more details on Ax, coming to you this summer!

Hey Chi-town friends, the Top Shelf Swedish Invasion is coming to you! Starting Friday and all weekend long, the new Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) takes over the lakeside McCormick Center in downtown Chicago, and we'll be there in full force!

Come out and meet:

• Indie comics superstar Jeffrey Brown, signing his vast array of graphic novels and debuting his awesome new book Undeleted Scenes!
• Super secret spymaster Matt Kindt, debuting Super Spy (vol. 2): The Lost Dossiers, a book filled with more gadgets and cool tricks than Batman's utility belt!
• Swedish Invader #1: Mats Jonsson, author of the hilariously painful hipster memoir Hey Princess!
• Swedish Invader #2: Simon Gärdenfors, author of the wild travelogue The 120 Days of Simon, a true story of sex, drugs, and hip-hop!
• Swedish Invader #3: Kolbeinn Karlsson, author of the surrealist fever dream The Troll King, full of magical biology and neo-traditional folklore!
• And the phenomenal Nate Powell, author of the Eisner-Award-winning tale of adolescent schizophrenia, Swallow Me Whole!

And don't forget to swing by the Nerd City / Top Shelf Swedish Invasion party, Saturday, April 17, at the Double Door in Wicker Park!

Available now for pre-order at your favorite comic shop are two totally different (and totally excellent) graphic novels from Top Shelf! The mature-readers heavyweight this month is The Playwright from writer Daren White and artist Eddie Campbell, a gorgeous fully-painted romantic comedy about the sex life of a celibate middle-aged man -- it's a witty blend of cynicism and sweetness, from the award-winning artist of Alec and From Hell.

Also featured is the hilarious fourth adventure in the infectiously goofy Johnny Boo series by James Kochalka, Johnny Boo and the Mean Little Boy. In their latest episode, Johnny Boo and Squiggle meet a new friend who loves to play games -- but as you can guess, some of his games aren't very nice! Our heroes learn a few lessons about making friends, getting revenge, and changing your pants.

Place your orders now for these two beautiful, hardcover books... June'll be here before we know it!

The Swedish Invasion is officially a hit! Top Shelf packed heavy for the MoCCA Festival this past weekend in New York, knowing that we'd be joined by over half a dozen Swedish guests and debuting tons of new books... and still we sold out of almost every book we brought!

The three hot Swedish debuts (Hey Princess, The Troll King, and 120 Days of Simon) were definitely among the star books of the show. Check out this photo of authors Mats Jonsson, Kolbeinn Karlsson, and Simon Gärdenfors signing copies, and click here to see it full-size.

Thanks to all our Swedish friends, the hard-working MoCCA staff and volunteers, and most importantly the fans who came out to our Swedish Invasion pre-party at Rocketship and to the Festival!

Now the Invasion rolls on... to Chicago for C2E2 this weekend! Good thing we've got a whole new shipment of books on the way...

The SWEDISH INVASION begins TONIGHT at ROCKETSHIP COMICS & continues all MoCCA weekend, April 10TH-11TH!



Come meet and party with Simon Gärdenfors (THE 120 DAYS OF SIMON), Mats Jonsson (HEY PRINCESS), Kolbeinn Karlsson (THE TROLL KING), Niklas Asker (SECOND THOUGHTS), Fredrik Strömberg (SWEDISH COMICS HISTORY), as well as Chris Staros, Leigh Walton, Johannes Klenell, and many of the contributors to the Swedish Anthology FROM THE SHADOW OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS at:



THE ROCKETSHIP SWEDISH INVASION PARTY
FRI, APRIL 9TH, 8:00PM
@ 208 SMITH ST, BROOKLYN, NY



And join us this weekend for:



THE MoCCA ARTS FESTIVAL
SAT & SUN, APRIL 10TH & 11TH
@ THE 69TH REGIMENT ARMORY
68 LEXINGTON AVENUE (BETWEEN 25TH & 26TH)



(Next weekend we're heading to CHICAGO for C2E2, the CHICAGO COMIC & ENTERTAINMENT EXPO (FRI - SUN, APR 16TH-18TH) -- don't miss the Nerd City/Top Shelf Swedish Invasion Party on SAT APR 17TH at the famed Chicago nightclub, the Double Door.)

Today the comic industry's hotly-anticipated Eisner Award candidates were announced, with Eddie Campbell's Alec: The Years Have Pants, Jeff Lemire's Essex County, and Kevin Cannon's Far Arden receiving the honor of a nomination.

In his acclaimed career, Eddie Campbell has won multiple Eisners for the monumental From Hell (with Alan Moore) in addition to countless nominations for his solo work on the Alec and Bacchus stories. This year sees him nominated for Alec: The Years Have Pants, a "Life-Sized Omnibus" collection of his groundbreaking autobiographical comics, in the category of Best Reprint Graphic Album.

Jeff Lemire is nominated this year for The Complete Essex County, his sweeping portrait of the power of family in small-town Ontario, as Best Reprint Graphic Album. In previous years, the individual Essex County volumes earned nominations in the Best Writer/Artist and Best New Graphic Album categories. Jeff is also up this year for his Vertigo series Sweet Tooth, which is nominated as Best New Series!

Kevin Cannon has got to be pleased to receive an Eisner nomination for his debut graphic novel Far Arden, a rip-roaring adventure on the Arctic high seas. He broke onto the scene drawing science-based nonfiction comics with studio mate Zander Cannon, but Far Arden, his first full-length solo graphic novel, has established him as a master storyteller and is now up for an Eisner in the category Best Publication for Teens.

Our proudest congratulations to Eddie, Jeff, and Kevin, as well as all the other fine nominees!

Advance praise is starting to roll in for Kathryn & Stuart Immonen's gripping drama of Nazi occupation, art smuggling, and impossible choices, Moving Pictures! Booklist reviewer Francisca Goldsmith awards it a starred review: "This elegant and evocative historical graphic novel explores the personal relationships involved in protecting internationally recognized works of fine art during the Nazi occupation of Paris ... the storytelling and the characters are as sober as the crisp, heavy black-and-white of its images ... Deftly told, the whole story resonates long after its appropriately ambiguous final pages."

The full review will run in the May 1 issue of Booklist. For more info on Moving Pictures or to pre-order the book, click below!

Prominent industry journalist Tom Spurgeon (The Comics Reporter) has finally presented his picks for best comics of the year, with Eddie Campbell's landmark collection Alec: The Years Have Pants receiving the #1 spot for archival/reprint books. Also honored as one of the year's best was Far Arden, the rip-roaring Arctic adventure by Kevin Cannon.

Spurgeon singles out Alec as "extraordinary" and "life-affirming," pointing out that "Campbell's work reflects not just a life as lived but mirrors the process of understanding that life." He praises Far Arden, meanwhile, not only for its formal tricks but also for "its world-building and capacity for melancholy." Click here to read the whole list!

Comic Book Resources staff writer Alex Dueben emcees a great in-depth interview with JD Arnold and Rich Koslowski, creators of the upcoming blues/racism/revenge thriller BB WOLF AND THE THREE LPs! Find out how the JD's script and Rich's art made "a story that is so familiar" into something "as moving and powerful as this book is," and find out why Alex calls it "one of the best graphic novels of the year and a must read for any comics fan!" Click here to read the interview!

THE SWEDISH INVASION BEGINS AT ROCKETSHIP COMICS ON FRI APRIL 9TH & CONTINUES ALL MOCCA WEEKEND APRIL 10TH-11TH!



Come meet and party with Simon Gärdenfors (THE 120 DAYS OF SIMON), Mats Jonsson (HEY PRINCESS), Kolbeinn Karlsson (THE TROLL KING), Niklas Asker (SECOND THOUGHTS), Fredrik Strömberg (SWEDISH COMICS HISTORY), as well as Chris Staros, Leigh Walton, Johannes Klenell, and many of the contributors to the Swedish Anthology FROM THE SHADOW OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS at:



THE ROCKETSHIP SWEDISH INVASION PARTY
FRI, APRIL 9TH, 8:00PM
@ 208 SMITH ST, BROOKLYN, NY



&



THE MoCCA ARTS FESTIVAL
SAT & SUN, APRIL 10TH & 11TH
@ THE 69TH REGIMENT ARMORY
68 LEXINGTON AVENUE (BETWEEN 25TH & 26TH)



(And they’ll also be at C2E2, the CHICAGO COMIC & ENTERTAINMENT EXPO (FRI - SUN, APR 16TH-18TH) and at the Nerd City/Top Shelf Swedish Invasion Party on SAT APR 17TH at the famed Chicago nightclub, the Double Door.)

We just had some fantastic recent appearances in Seattle for Emerald City Comic-Con (with Andy Runton, Matt Kindt, and Jeff Lemire), in Memphis for the ComicsPRO retailer conference, and in Portland for the Public Library Association's conference! All three were excellent events, with some great opportunities to hear from fans, retailers, and librarians. The 2010 convention season is off to a beautiful start, and we can't wait to see you at the next show!

Coming up next are these events in the month of April:
APR 10-11: MoCCA ART FESTIVAL (New York, New York)

• featuring the Top Shelf Swedish Invasion! Plus Alex Robinson (Saturday only) and Kevin Cannon!
• Come to our Swedish Invasion party, Friday, April 9, at Rocketship Comics in Brooklyn!

APR 16-18: C2E2 - CHICAGO COMIC & ENTERTAINMENT EXPO (Chicago, Illinois)

• featuring the Top Shelf Swedish Invasion! Plus Jeffrey Brown!
• Come to our Swedish Invasion party, Saturday, April 17, at the Double Door in Wicker Park!

APR 24-25: SWEDISH SMALL PRESS EXPO (Stockholm, Sweden)

• with Chris Staros, Brett Warnock, & Lilli Carré!

APR 24-25: STUMPTOWN COMICS FEST (Portland, Oregon)

• with Leigh Walton!

APR 24-25: CALGARY COMIC EXPO (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

• with Andy Runton and Jeffrey Brown!

Indie superstar James Kochalka is famous for creating huge amounts of material in all sorts of areas (graphic novels, kids' books, webcomics, painting, music), but this year he looks to be busier than ever before! As this new profile in WIRED explains, he's got a lot on his plate!

The long-awaited vinyl-bound collected edition of his foul-mouthed super-sitcom comic SuperF*ckers hits stores in just a few weeks, he's got a successful series of kids' graphic novels called Johnny Boo (and a new one coming this summer called Dragon Puncher), and he's just teamed up with indie game developers PixelJam to make his dream video game Glorkian Warrior a reality. They used the website Kickstarter to solicit $10,000 in donations from fans in order to fund the game's creation, surpassing that goal well before their deadline! Finally, he has a significant role in the new rotoscoped sci-fi romance film Mars, which just debuted at SXSW! Pretty sure that officially makes him the busiest man in Burlington, Vermont.

See below to grab copies of some of his books, or click here for our full Kochalka catalog!