News

Alternative Comics at Comic-Con International: San Diego
Cartoonists on hand to debut many anticipated books

Gainesville, Florida, July 2, 2001:

Florida comic book publisher Alternative Comics will attend Comic-Con International in San Diego, California running July 18 through July 23, 2001, and will debut a number of eagerly anticipated new releases including Legal Action Comics and new books from cartoonists Nick Bertozzi, Dean Haspiel, James Kochalka, Jen Sorensen, Ben Catmull, and Frederick Noland. A number of cartoonists published by Alternative Comics and contributing to the Legal Action Comics anthology will be on hand for autograph sessions. The biggest event of its kind in America, Comic-Con International is the place for fans of comic books, movie memorabilia, toys, action figures and all things related to pop-culture. Held every year in San Diego, CA, at the San Diego Convention Center, Comic-Con International features the largest gathering of comic book publishers, creators and professionals of any convention or event of its kind anywhere. With over 45,000 attendees and over 3,500 exhibitors the total attendance for last year's show was a staggering 48,500.

Alternative Comics publisher Jeff Mason will be at the Alternative Comics booth where the following Alternative Comics cartoonists will be on hand Wednesday through Sunday:

• James Kochalka - debuting his new Peanutbutter & Jeremy: The Flibbledibble File comic and his new Don't Trust Whitey CD. James Kochalka's distinction as a "rock star" has been tempered more and more lately by his acclaim as a cartoonist. Critics and fans have responded like crazy to his instantly recognizable comic books and graphic novels. Kochalka has won and has been nominated for many prestigious awards such as the Ignatz award, the Eisner award, the Firecracker Alternative Books award, and the Harvey award. He recently released his Sketchbook Diaries book from Top Shelf Productions.

• Dean Haspiel - debuting his new Opposable Thumbs #1 comic book. Dean Haspiel is the author of semi-auto-bio comix and super-psychedelic romances. In the mid-80s, Dino worked as an assistant to Howard Chaykin on American Flagg!, Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin, and Walter Simonson on Thor. In 1987, Dino inaugurated his comics career when he co-created and illustrated The Verdict with writer Martin Powell and went on to draw two DC Comics Bonus Books in Detective Comics and Justice League International. His comics appear in Billy Dogma, Keyhole, Non, Top Shelf, Minimum Wage, DC Comics' Bizarro Comics and the EXPO anthology. Dean illustrated Sony Pictures Classics' SLC Punk comic and is a regular contributor to Harvey Pekar's American Splendor. Dino's most recent Billy Dogma work, Boy in My Pocket, from Top Shelf Productions.

• Nick Bertozzi - debuting his new The Masochists graphic novel. Nick lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and their new baby Sabina Edwina LeBonBon Bertozzi. His comics credits include: DC Comics' Bizarro Comics, Comix 2000 (L'Association), Boswash for which he also received both the Xeric Grant Award and the Ignatz Award, several stories for the Big Book series (Paradox Press), and many other cartoon anthologies across the globe.

• Jen Sorensen - debuting her new Slowpoke: Cafe Pompous collection. Jen Sorensen is the creator of Slowpoke, a weekly comic strip that appears in several alternative newspapers throughout the US, for which she was nominated twice for the Friends of Lulu Kimberly Yale Award for Best New Talent. Slowpoke, which serves up political and social commentary with an absurdist twist, grew out of a popular daily strip she drew while a student at the University of Virginia. Jen was recently awarded a Xeric Grant to publish Slowpoke: Cafe Pompous. Jen Sorensen's work has also appeared in several other publications, including The Big Book of the '70s (DC/Paradox Press), Action Girl Comics, Dignifying Science, Empty Love Stories, the EXPO anthologies, and will be featured alongside such luminaries as Matt Groening and Tom Tomorrow in Ted Rall's upcoming book on alternative political cartoonists. Jen Sorensen lives in Charlottesville Virginia, where she also does web design.

• Graham Annable - with his recently released Grickle graphic novel and debuting a brand new issue of his Hickee anthology. Graham Annable was classically trained as an animator at Sheridan College in Toronto, graduating in 1992, and has worked as an animator ever since, including work on British children's TV, story boards for Chuck Jones Enterprises, Disney's A Goofy Movie, and since 1994 an extended string of computer game projects for LucasArts such as Full Throttle, The Dig, Afterlife, Outlaws, and The Curse of Monkey Island. Annable is the Lead Animator for the LucasArts video game Star Wars: Obi-Wan. His projects have won numerous animation and graphics awards including the ASIFA Annie Award, animation's highest honor, in 1998 for "Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Interactive Program". Graham currently resides in the Bay Area, California.

• Sam Henderson - with his Magic Whistle comics and some new secret stuff. One of the funniest people in comics is Sam Henderson. Henderson's drawing is crude, but it has the same kind of energy you see in the work of today's best gag cartoonists, whose drawing also tends to be a little basic. Extremely low-brow humor that almost parodies low-brow humor - it's enjoyable on either level. Over the years Sam has done work for many dozens of anthologies, has done a self-syndicated comic strip and published comic Magic Whistle, now through Alternative Comics. Sam is currently also a writer of Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon show.

• David Lasky - with some brand new hand printed stuff and to make some special surprise announcements. In 1991, David Lasky published the first of his many Boom Boom comics. Over the years Boom Boom was self-published, Xeric Grant Award funded, and published by Aeon Press. In the two years since his last Boom Boom production (Boom Boom at Ground Zero), Lasky has continued to produce mini-comics with titles such as OM and Minutiae, and has expanded his illustration portfolio with idiosyncratic work for publications like Seattle's The Stranger and Tower Records's Pulse!. More recently Lasky, along with co-conspirator Greg Stump, thoroughly thumbed his nose at the indie-culture scene (while seeking to profit from its spendthrift excesses) in the first issue of their archly monikered Urban Hipster, from Alternative Comics.

• Frederick Noland - debuting his new Xeric Grant Shpilkes book. Frederick Noland was born in Ventura California in 1972. He began cartooning long before he was able to read eventually appearing in the local mini-anthology Wood-Eye (1995 to 1998) where he contributed to ten of the series' twelve-issue run, leaving with it's penultimate issue. He has also published three comics on his own: Expanded Zero, Full Frontal McSurly and the seminal Shpilkes mach-I. In September 2000 he was awarded the prestigious Xeric Grant and is continuing the Shpilkes project.

• Ben Catmull - debuting a new issue of his Paper Theater book. Ben Catmull was born on Long Island, New York and grew up in Albany, California. Now he lives in Oakland and creates comics and he has a very time consuming day job that he'd rather not talk about. And the other day he saw a blimp. Catmull also won the Xeric Grant to produce a collected Paper Theater book to be released by Alternative Comics in September.