Store Events

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Locust Moon Comics Festival’s Halloween Weekend

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Photo by Dan Mazur

The Locust Moon Comic Festival, Philadelphia’s rapidly growing independent comics expo, has announced a star-studded guest list and an expanded slate of programs for its fourth annual event, to be held on Halloween of this year.

The historic Rotunda on Walnut Street will play host to a cross-section of the greatest artists, writers, publishers, designers, and makers in sequential and graphic arts. This year’s guest list includes Bill Sienkiewicz (ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN), Craig Thompson (HABIBI), Chris Claremont (UNCANNY X-MEN), Alexa and Denis Kitchen (KITCHEN SINK PRESS), David Mack (KABUKI), Mark Beyer (AMY + JORDAN), and Noah Van Sciver (FANTE BUKOWSKI).

“For the first time, the festivities will extend for three days across the weekend,” says organizer Chris Stevens. The festival kicks off with an all-star Drink & Draw at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, open to the public and led by all of the aforementioned special guests, on Friday night; and following Saturday’s main event, the fun extends through Sunday afternoon with a long pancake brunch for exhibitors. This will be a weekend to remember for artists, authors, and readers alike.

“The intimacy of our festival is what sets it apart from other shows,” says co-runner Josh O’Neill. “What other convention would invite its attendees to have drinks at an art museum with Bill Sienkiewicz and Craig Thompson? It’s not about fans meeting creators and getting books signed. At Locust Moon Comics Festival we all come together as lovers of comics and have a great party.”

The donation-based event on Saturday, October 31 is free to children under 12, and will feature complimentary programming for kids including comic-making workshops, face-painting, and a Halloween costume contest.

Programming throughout Saturday at the Locust Moon store will include a conversation with Chris Claremont, a panel on underground comics featuring Denis Kitchen, Mark Beyer, Pat Aulisio and Noah Van Sciver, an exploration of what it takes to “Draw on Life” with Craig Thompson, Dean Haspiel and Andrea Tsurumi, and a discussion on comics in fine art contexts with Ronald Wimberly, Bill Sienkiewicz and David Mack.

More than just a convention, this community-focused event will honor comic creators and their creations, and for one day, break down the barriers between professional creators, passionate fans, aspiring artists, and curious new readers.

Says organizer Stevens, “Locust Moon Fest brings the world of comics to Philadelphia, and the comics of Philadelphia to the world.”

Find further information about the event and more guests on the Locust Moon Comics Festival website (locustmoonfest.com), Facebook (facebook.com/locustmoonfest), and Twitter (twitter.com/locustmoonfest).

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– Schedule of Events –

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30
6pm-9pm: Drink & Draw @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31
11am-6pm: Comics Festival & Kids’ Activities @ The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St)
12pm-6pm: Panels @ Locust Moon Comics store (34 S 40th St)
8pm-???: Halloween/After-Party @ Locust Moon Comics store (34 S 40th St)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1
12pm-3pm: Artists’ Brunch @ Locust Moon Comics store (34 S 40th St)

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Party All Weekend at Locust Moon!

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There’s no Drink & Draw tomorrow, my fine feathered friends. Save your strength for a weekend-long celebration of comics and community at Locust Moon.

It begins Friday at 7pm, when we host a signing of COLONIAL COMICS, the beautiful new collection of stories set at the dawn of our great and troublesome nation, hot off the presses from Fulcrum Books.
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Many of our Locust Moon mainstays contributed to this handsome volume, including James Comey, Mike Sgier, Charles Fetherolf, Jason Rodriguez, and yours truly, humble scribe and scrappy utility infielder Josh O’Neill.

Jason will play the fife. I’ll bang a drum. if you’ve been yearing for more fife in your life, this is the place to find it.

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Then join us the following day for our QUARTER MOON: REVENGE release party. Though there is no formal presentation, Dave Proch will be performing scenes from his unhinged love/hate story GYPSY at full voice and unexpected intervals throughout the evening.

Be there, or be the next victim of our swift and brutal vengeance.

On Sunday, we rest, and maybe eat some waffles.

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MAPS FOR EARTHMATES Opening Reception

us and we art - teach me to swim map west africaLocal West Philly artist Joey Hartmann-Dow (working under the name Us & We Art) brings her signature map creatures to Locust Moon for a solo show Maps for Earthmates, opening February 26.

As seen at Go West! Craft Fests and occasional First Fridays in Old City, the artist paints and draws directly on maps, making creatures out of the borders of land and water. In her artist’s statement she asks: “Can we see that land as a moving, breathing creature, worthy of love and care? How would we treat the earth differently?”

The work invites viewers to look at the features of our planet in a new light—as living things with hearts and souls.

The opening reception for Maps for Earthmates is 7pm to 10pm on Thursday, February 26 at Locust Moon Gallery. The work will be up through March 28, and digital art prints will be available for sale throughout the show.

Locust Moon Comics is a retail store, art gallery, and publishing company based in West Philadelphia. The store and gallery are open Monday through Friday, from 12pm to 8pm, Saturday 11am to 9pm, and Sunday 11am to 7pm, and is located at 34 S. 40th St, Philadelphia.

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More News From Nowhere

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February is a time of death. Not a time of dying — it’s the quiet beyond the grave, a time when long-past deaths persist, through all acceptance and despair. It’s the very bottom of the year, the moment when even the blackest magics have been exhausted. The month the earth stands still. February is what it feels like to be alone.

So come where the hearth and the hearts are hot. Eat with us. Drink with us. Make merry with us. For we have already died, and tomorrow we will be reborn.

On WEDNESDAY 3/18 we will be at the Society of Illustrators for the opening reception of the LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM gallery exhibition.

mailing societyBy THURSDAY 3/19 we will be back, probably a little worse for the wear and still dressed in a rumpled rendition of our finest regalia, huddled together Drinking & Drawing.

The following week on THURSDAY 3/26 we will be hosting MAPS FOR EARTHMATES, a gallery show by Us & We Art (aka Joey Hartmann-Dow), who turns old maps into glorious creatures. Her work is original, funny and fascinating.

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In the meantime, we’re hard at work on the second volume of ONCE UPON A TIME MACHINE (this time it’s sci-fi takes on Greek mythology), a book whose completion beckons ever closer. Seeing the work rolling in by Toby Cypress, Charles Fetherolf and Andrea Tsurumi reminds us that somewhere, there is an eternal springtime waiting to be made new.

Some pencils from my collaboration with surly-but-brilliant Monsieur Fetherolf:

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So come. Sit and read with us. We have thousands of books, and they are full of fire. Warm your hands and your godforsaken soul.

-Josh O’Neill

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a spoil of riches

we are neck-deep in the LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM kickstarter, yes, but we’re also getting ready for the 3rd annual LOCUST MOON PHILLY COMICS FESTIVAL on OCTOBER 25th. we’ve got a sweet fest poster done by the talented mister ron wimberly that we’ll be revealing soon, and preparations are under way to improve & expand on last year’s show. but we wanted to do something special this summer, and give folks a taste of what’s to come. it just so happened 3 of the top cartoonists working today all have great new books out, and are our pals, and we’re going to bring them together and rock the philadelphia comics scene for one glorious july night.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1466509490262234/

Coming to the store on FRIDAY, JULY 18…

PAUL POPE’s been someone i’ve admired and looked towards for almost 20 years, which is crazy because he’s not much older than me. his newly released ESCAPO, out of print for years and now in full color, is probably my favorite book of his.

DEAN HASPIEL is the guy i want to be when i grow up. a man’s man with a romantic heart and a creator through and through. FEAR MY DEAR, his new BILLY DOGMA book, is a lean crystallization of dino!’s comics.

TOM SCIOLI’s unbridled love and immersion into comics both recharges me and makes me feel like i need to be doing MORE. the fact he’s taking on my childhood obsession GI JOE, in TRANSFORMERS VS GI JOE, makes me giddy in anticipation and so, so jealous.

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this is going to be a night to remember. see you there.

–chris stevens

 

 

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Locust Moon, Digitally

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Get ready, internet: Locust Moon Press now has a digital store, where you can buy all our self-published comics in digital form (sorry, you’ll have to go to Dark Horse Digital or your digital device’s Nook app for all your digital Once Upon a Time Machine digi-needs). We call it…

LOCUST MOON DIGITAL – gumroad.com/locustmoon

Of course, you can still buy our printed comics from Locust Moon’s non-digital online (so…still sort of digital) store – locustmoon.storenvy.com

One of the reasons we want to make sure people have easy access to our books is to get something out there that we’re really proud of, a work deserving of a wider audience. And that’s Rob Woods’ 36 LESSONS IN SELF-DESTRUCTION. Paul Pope describes Rob’s book as “expressive…compelling, revealing, and ultimately, optimistic” — we couldn’t agree more, and we’re eager to find every avenue to get this work into people’s hands and hearts. If we can find a way to beam Rob’s comics directly into your brain, we’ll do that too.

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Rob’s drawing table, and cover to 36 LESSONS IN SELF-DESTRUCTION

Here’s a little preview of 6 of those LESSONS…

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Direct links to get Rob’s book:
Digital – https://gumroad.com/l/36lisd
Print – http://locustmoon.storenvy.com/products/3464183-36-lessons-in-self-destruction

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an evening with toby cypress

we are pleased as punch to have toby cypress at the shop tonight. toby is, for our money, one of the finest artists working in comics today, and it’s an honor to have him be a part of both LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM (his page will melt your eyes) and the not yet officially announced sequel to ONCE UPON A TIME MACHINE. tonight we celebrate the release of the first issue of toby’s new series from dark horse, THE WHITE SUITS. cartooning and conviviality will prevail.

and the first 10 folks who buy one of toby’s books and spend $20 will receive a free print exclusive to this evening. it’ll look a little something like this…

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RSVP & details at the Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/508391562607039/

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An Evening with Michael DeForge

On Wednesday, February 12th, Locust Moon will be hosting the launch of Michael DeForge’s darkly existential graphic novel Ant Colony. In just a few short years, DeForge’s singular, idiosyncratic style has made him one of the most exciting new voices in alternative comics. Here, he will present a slideshow with a reception to follow. Drinx, snax & comix.

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Ant Colony follows the denizens of a black ant colony under attack from the nearby red ants: from its opening pages, DeForge immerses the reader in a world of false prophets, unjust wars, and corrupt police officers. On the surface, Ant Colony tells the story of this war, the destruction of a civilization, and the ants’ all-too-familiar desire to rebuild. Underneath, though, Ant Colony plumbs the deepest human concerns – loneliness, faith, love, apathy, and more. DeForge’s striking visual sensibility – stark lines, dramatic color choices, and brilliant use of page and panel space – stands out in this volume.