Filed under: OUR ARTZ

DIAMOND 6 OUT THIS WEEK!

The newest issue of Floating World's fantastic comics newspaper is coming out this week... DIAMOND 6!

This issue features new works by members of the Electric Ant Zine extended family like Dash Shaw Jonny Negron and Lala Albert, as well as a bunch of other heavy hitters in the scene. I am gonna grab a copy at TCAF (i hope!?). 

Diamond-flyer-6-crop
Full details from Floating World's blog:
Featuring a wraparound cover and 1 page comic by Paul Pope!

The latest full color issue of DIAMOND is at the printers right now and is due to arrive this Wednesday, April 13. Like the previous issue, we’ve teamed up with the Portland Mercury for distribution. 5000 copies will be included as a FREE insert in the 4/14 issue of the Mercury coming out next week.

We’re holding onto 1000 copies which will be sold at the store and through distributors like Last Gasp, Tony Shenton, Copacetic… Orders may also be placed directly by emailing jason (at) floatingworldcomics (dot) com.

[28 pages, FC, 10.25″ x 13.5″, unbound newsprint, $4]

PURIFY YOURSELF IN THE WATERS OF PYRAMID LAKE

I was recently sent an advanced copy of Ray Sohn's upcoming PYRAMID LAKE, and the zine indelibly changed my impression of what a personal art zine/project can aspire to encompass. (I realize that sounds a little hyperbolic but it's true, especially after seeing so many flimsy "zines of xerox'd sketches" with work that didn't really persist past the time your eyeballs were scanning the page). I haven't met Ray personally yet, but am a longtime admirer of the gross-out/true-life comic strip True Chubbo, which he creates with his wife Tomomi.

Ray's latest project is Pyramid Lake, an upcoming exhibition of new works by the Brooklyn-based cartoonist that will be happening next month at Wonder Fair gallery in Lawrence, Kansas. Pyramid Lake is also the name of a book accompanying the exhibition, and will be available to purchase via his site next month as well.

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Opening up my copy of Pyramid Lake gave me the rare pleasure of actually gasping out loud at the book's art, full up with a dazzling breadth of strange visual geometries!? I was pretty stunned by the compositions and variety of styles in this book. Pyramid Lake features a mixture of ink and collage, paneled pages showing the passage of time alongside cacophonic pages full to the brim with dense lines -- like brain coral reefs of imagery. The look of the book overall is by definition extremely bold, in that Ray made,
"...a conscious, almost spartan resolve to restrict myself by only using a dip pen, and black india ink on 12" x 12" pieces of paper. All of the free hand, and technical ink lines were laid down directly on paper with absolutely no planning, forethought, or preparatory under drawings."

I'm probably not good at describing the specific pieces in the book (which include Ray's monolithic portrait of Lady Gaga from Prison for Bitches) but I can say that it was one of the most visually exciting books I've encountered in a while, the kind of short read where you pore over the details in each page rather than skim quickly. If you don't believe my tastes, Mr. Gary Panter wrote the introduction and discusses the accomplishments of Ray's project in the book's opening page :)

You can see some of what I'm talking about here:
(Click each image for a larger version)
DETAILS ON THE EXHIBITION:

Pyramid Lake: 
An Exhibition and Book by Ray Sohn
April 29th - June 19th, 2011

Opening Reception
(Final Friday) April 29th, 6-10pm

803 1/2 Massachusetts Street
Lawrence, KS 66044

In addition to Pyramid Lake, you can see a new color True Chubbo strip in the first issue of me and Michael DeForge's THICKNESS #1, an anthology of erotic comics debuting at TCAF 2011!

š! #7: Forest Tales... NOW AVAILABLE

The newest issue of the fantastic Latvian comics anthology š! is now available :)  The zine is full color and compact in size, and an incredible showcase of contemporary indie comics talent from around the world. I can't recommend š! (and its larger, less-frequent sister publication kuš!) highly enough for anyone interested in learning what's happening in cartooning outside the US.

This issue's theme is "Forest Tales", described by publisher/editor David this way:
The issue contains 20 stories from Latvian and international artists about the forest. It might not be so much about gnomes and fairies, like in the forest of your dreams, but rather stories that might evoke nightmares...

Featured in this issue are two of my favorite cartoonists (and EAZ crew members): Michael DeForge and Derek Ballard!  Also included is a comic by new friend Emelie Östergren!

Check out these preview pics and full details below, then order your copy!
Cover artist: Till Hafenbrak (Germany).
Comics artists: Emelie Östergren, Kolbeinn Karlsson (Sweden), Michael Jordan (Germany), Juani Ta (Romania), Michael DeForge (Canada), Ansis Puriņš, Duy Thang Nguyen (Canada) Derek M. Ballard (USA), Pat Aulisio (USA), Jyrki Heikkinen (Finland)
König Lü. Q. (Switzerland), Yoshi (Lithuania), Dace Sietiņa, Kristofers Reidzāns, Maija Līduma, Mārtiņš Zutis, Oskars Pavlovskis, Ingrīda Pičukane, Sabīne Moore, UKNO (Latvia)
Format: A6, 100 pages, stiched binding, full-color, English and partly Latvian with English subtitles,
Price: LS 1.40, $6.50, € 5.00 (plus shipping). Write to kushmens@gmail.com or buy it on ecrater. Soon also available in Latvian bookstores.

FRIENDS COMICS FOR "CREATIVE TIME"

A bunch of talented cartoonists were asked to create 9" x 9" grid comics for the Creative Time Comics site. I hear folks got paid pretty well, and the roster includes Electric Ant Zine mainstays Michael DeForge & Lisa Hanawalt, along with our buddies Michael Kupperman and Edie Fake (gallery below), and a bunch of other artists. 

Check the link above to navigate through the entire set of comics (they get less interesting the further back you go, but I'm excited to see who will be coming in the future)