Action Journalism - SMALL PRESS PREVIEW

By Zack Quaintance — Journalism and American comic books have been inextricably intertwined since comics first entered the mainstream American consciousness in earnest in the 1930s. There’s a few reasons why. Journalism’s primary medium at the time was print periodicals, just like comics, and as such, there was a lot of cross pollination between the folks who worked it both, which led to plenty of journalism on the pages of comics. This, of course, is most famously manifested in Superman, with the characters of Lois Lane and Clark Kent.

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HOWL, a sci-fi graphic novel - SMALL PRESS PREVIEW

By Zack Quaintance — It always feels like there are too many good projects on Kickstarter, with too many great writers and support talented artists to keep up with…which is to say I particularly enjoy Kickstarter projects that give me a chance to interact with the work of a large group of creators. Today’s small press preview is certainly one of those. I’d like to introduce all of you to Howl, a community comic written by Tom Abbosh that aims to hire a new illustrator for each chapter of the book.

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KITH + KIN, an anthology - SMALL PRESS PREVIEW

By Zack Quaintance — This isn’t a new or insightful statement, but the breadth of new comics being made these days is really stunning. For example, I recently read Spitting Image, which was published by the Nashville Review, a literary magazine out of Vanderbilt University in that city. Spitting Image is the work of writers Brittany Matter and Heather Ayers, and artist Sally Cantirino. In this story, they’ve collaborated for a tale that spans 10 pages.

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SMALL PRESS PREVIEW: Barking by Lucy Sullivan

By Zack Quaintance — Today’s new SMALL PRESS PREVIEW is Barking by Lucy Sullivan, which was published this month by Unbound Books. The book is ethereal and haunting, and it uses stunning comics art to get at serious themes and questions. Born out of creator Lucy Sullivan’s own mental health crisis, the book is a winding journey through that experience, told as powerful allegory.

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SMALL PRESS PREVIEW: Palomino by Stephen Franck

Today we’re featuring Palomino by Stephen Franck, and it’s a story that combines the largely-forgotten California country rock scene of the early 1980s with a classic Los Angeles neo noir crime story. That’s one hell of an interesting pedigree of themes, history, and ideas. And that high level of interesting is certainly bore out in the preview artwork that’s been revealed on the project’s Kickstarter (live now), which you can also just go ahead and check out below.

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SMALL PRESS PREVIEW: Two Swords Til Mercy

By Zack Quaintance — I am so pleased to bring you today’s small press preview, which features Two Swords Til Mercy from writer Brentt Harshman, artist J. Paul Schiek, colorist A.H.G., and letterer LetterSquids. The writer and artist on this book are a couple of my favorite up and coming creators to follow on Twitter, both effusive with praise for other creators and open with insights into their own careers and processes.

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Small Press Preview: SHE Vol. 1

By Zack Quaintance — There were no new direct market comics today, and this was the first Wednesday in my lifetime that I can remember that happening without a holiday or some other long-planned reason for delay. Today’s absence of new books was due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the resultant shelter in place orders, and the ripple effect it’s having on the economy. All that said, there are still plenty of excellent comics out there for fans and readers to find and support.

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SMALL PRESS PREVIEW: The Boxer by Dominic Archer & team

By Zack Quaintance — Since launching our first ever small press preview last week, there’s been a suprisingly robust reaction to the idea. Although I suppose, this shouldn’t be all that surprising. I’ve known for a while there is a veritable sea of excellent comics being made outside the direct market, primarily coming to us from crowd-sourcing platforms such as KickStarter.

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SMALL PRESS PREVIEW: Check out Tiny Wizards, new on Kickstarter

By Zack Quaintance — We’re starting a new feature today called Small Press Preview, which is exactly what it sounds like…a preview of the many many small press comics that reach out looking for reviews or other coverage. Sooo, the goal here is to showcase one of these projects every Friday, to share pages and process art and pitches and anything else small press creators would like to share.

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