August 26, 2015 by joshuaon

Bill Sienkiewicz Brings Fire to PROMETHEUS ETERNAL

We’re putting PROMETHEUS ETERNAL, our collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to bed today. It’s off to press with the appropriately named Fireball Printing tomorrow. This thing features work by Dave McKean, Grant Morrison, Yuko Shimizu, Lisk Feng, Paul Pope, David Mack, Andrea Tsurumi, James Comey and Farel Dalrymple. These comics will be displayed alongside artwork by Michelangelo, Rubens and Titian, and stands proudly and rightfully beside the work of the Old Masters.

But if you want to get to the amazing stories inside, you’ll have to brave the hellfire on Bill Sienkiewicz’s startlingly powerful cover.

Keep your eyes on the skies, friends. This book is a gift from the heavens.

-Josh O’Neill

July 30, 2015 by joshuaon

Awards and Onwards

So… it’s a bit of a heady time here in the land of the Locusts.

Andrew went to San Diego, and came back with these things:

Those globes are actually spinnable, and the base is made of solid wood. But beyond even their fine craftsmanship, these objects also have symbolic value. They are Eisner awards, assigned by a jury of our peers, recognizing the transcendent beauty and Herculean it-takes-a-village communal effort that is LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM.

EISNER winner Our collective labor of love was recognized as BEST ANTHOLOGY, and Jim Rugg’s gorgeous work on the package was singled out for BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN.

We’re humbled. So much dedication and care went into the crafting of the 118 beautiful pieces contained in this collection. And we couldn’t be prouder to be behind one of the projects spearheading this surprising and splendid Winsor McCay revival – between our anthology, IDW’s RETURN TO SLUMBERLAND mini-series, Taschen’s complete Little Nemo reprint, and Katherine Roeder’s academic work WIDE AWAKE IN SLUMBERLAND, our man was the recipient of, count ’em, eight Eisner nominations and four Eisner awards. These are some pretty voluminous coat-tails, and we’re riding ’em in good company, hanging on for dear life.

Then we turn around the next week and find that LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM has been nominated for two Harvey Awards, (BEST ANTHOLOGY and SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION; voting open till 8/31), and Locust Moon Press was nominated for a Philadelphia Geek Award for COMIC CREATOR OF THE YEAR. The accolades for this beautiful book are coming faster than we can tweet about them. It’s a remarkable thing, to see the spectacular work and incredible passion of so many visionary cartoonists recognized by their industry and their colleagues.

BUT – lest you think we’re resting for even a moment on our laurels – we thought we might take this opportunity to give you a glimpse of what we’re working on.

Friends, this is the calm before the storm. All spring and summer long, we have been planting seeds.

Soon – the harvest.

Here’s what’s coming from Locust Moon in the next three months. Gird yourselves, comic lovers.

LITTLE NEMO’S BIG NEW DREAMS

We’re pleased and honored to announce the newest incarnation of our seemingly endless Little Nemo revival project: we’ve partnered with TOON BOOKS, Francoise Mouly’s remarkable comics-for-young-readers imprint, home of beautiful children’s books by Art Spiegelman, Jeff Smith, and Neil Gaiman, to create a miniature, abridged edition of our ginormous compendium.

Gorgeously designed by Francoise herself, edited by myself, Chris, and Andrew, and featuring an introduction in comic strip form by none other than Art Spiegelman (!!!!), this beautiful new book is our attempt to create some version of our dream-tome fit for libraries, schools, backpacks, picnics, and budgets without room for triple-digit literary line items.

Due for release on September 1st, this edition is a sparkling treasure smuggled out of Slumberland while everyone was distracted by the cacophonous pomp of the LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM parade.

Some great early reviews of LITTLE NEMO’S BIG NEW DREAMS are already in from ICv2 and Kirkus.

SHAMAN

This is a project that’s been bubbling away on Locust Moon’s most favored back burner for a couple years now, and it’s finally come to a boil. Ben Kahn and Bruno Hidalgo’s gleeful dismemberment of superhero tropes marks the long-form debut of two top-flight storytellers and one bitingly brilliant comics-making team. Ben and Bruno’s sharp, nimble, contagiously funny creative vision is about to be loosed on the world in the shape of a charming supernatural saga that’s sure to leave readers enraptured and hungry for more. In the never-ending battle between good and evil, the door between life and death swings both ways – and Shaman’s the asshole with the key.

SHAMAN: Volume One, featuring special appearances by the likes of Farel Dalrymple, Jim Rugg, and J.G. Jones, will be in comic shops everywhere October 15.

Make sure your store gets it! Diamond order code JUL151468.

QUARTER MOON: IMPRACTICAL CATS

Yes, this is a whole issue of Quarter Moon about cats. Mostly this cat…

…but a lot of other cats too.

Our little quarterly-esque comics anthology is growing up, pouncing into the future with its wildest, prettiest and most ambitious iteration thus far. Featuring a cover by Lisk Feng and artwork and stories from a lineup of ringers including Paul Pope, Farel Dalrymple, Dean Haspiel, David Mack, Bill Sienkiewicz, Ronald Wimberly, and many more, this celebration of our furry friends prowls and purrs like the fine feline she is.

The sixth volume of QUARTER MOON will hit shelves by November. Our hope is that the slow boat from China gets it here in time to debut this creature at Comic Arts Brooklyn.

PROMETHEUS ETERNAL

We’ve been keeping this one a semi-secret outside of some slightly obnoxious vaguebooking, but goddamn. We’re just too excited to hold back any longer.

We’re teaming up with the Philadelphia Museum of Art (you know, from Rocky?) to produce a comic book companion to their upcoming WRATH OF THE GODS exhibition – a show featuring representations of Prometheus throughout history, including works by Rubens, Michelangelo, and Titian.

How do you answer the call to arms that comes in the form of a collaboration with one of the greatest American art museums, in a show featuring a number of old masters?

You recruit a lineup of the greatest cartoonists in the world. Our PROMETHEUS ETERNAL comic will feature illustrations and stories adapting the Prometheus myth by creators including

GRANT MORRISON
DAVE MCKEAN
LISK FENG
BILL SIENKIEWICZ
PAUL POPE
ANDREA TSURUMI
DAVID MACK
JAMES COMEY
FAREL DALRYMPLE
YUKO SHIMIZU

We’re bringing the visions of these incredible storytellers into a context in which it deserves to be seen: among other great works of art history. If our crazy plan works, this book will be the first of many, and this partnership between Locust Moon and the P.M.A. will mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

A little taste, courtesy of McKean…

UPDATE: And now, Bill Sienkiewicz’s cover!

May 29, 2015 by joshuaon

FANGIRL’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Signing with Sam Maggs

Come meet Sam Maggs, author of The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy. Maggs will say hello and sign books!

6pm on Tuesday, June 2nd at Locust Moon.

April 15, 2015 by joshuaon

Party All Weekend at Locust Moon!

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.

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.

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.

April 8, 2015 by joshuaon

QUARTER MOON: REVENGE to Debut at MoCCA-Fest!

Have you been wronged? Mistreated? Betrayed? Cut off in traffic? Dumped, dissed, kissed off, cussed out, ripped off or robbed?

Well, the law firm of Kitchen, Seitchik, Woods, Dougherty, Simple, Turbitt, Heimer, Comey, Proch & Krayewski is in your corner.

But it’s not justice we offer. It’s REVENGE.

The fifth issue of our quarterly comics magazine features eleven jaw-clenchingly vindictive tales of retaliation, comeuppance and just desserts from many of the finest, angriest cartoonists working today.

It premiers at New York’s esteemed Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival on April 11th & 12th, from 11am to 6pm. So come find us at table 316, and we’ll seal your copy with a spiteful kiss.

You could also order one from our web store today!

Then come join us the following weekend on Saturday, April 18th for a ruthless evening of retribution and reprisal. A book release party to flaunt our joy and success in the faces of our many enemies and detractors.

Bring your grievances and grudges. We will drown them in blood.

An eye for an eye. A tit for a tat. A comic for you, you heartless, blood-thirsty hate machine.

BYOBile.

March 16, 2015 by joshuaon

INTELLIGENT SENTIENT?

Luke Ramsey’s INTELLIGENT SENTIENT? defies description. Its back-cover copy takes a pretty impressive swing, though: “INTELLIGENT SENTIENT? feels like an artifact from another time — a lost feature in Omni magazine or the album booklet for a late 1970s Hawkwind record or, perhaps, a print version of Koyaanisqaatsi.” In fact it doesn’t really quite feel like any of those things, but the comparisons in sum point you in the right direction: they evoke the pure found-object otherworldliness and unsettling artifactual shimmer of this weird and startling thing. It’s an item that floats in its own self-sustaining cloud of unknowing – a mislaid, untraceable document of a long-forgotten future.

Among the things it’s documenting are: motherboards and root systems; almond-eyed aliens; snakes made of snakes; mushroom clouds trees with trunks of tangled red veins; the exploitation, subversion and destruction of a bountiful, frightening planet; insectoid mandalas, third eyes, astral projections; puppets, puppetmasters, secret societies; shadows and distorted reflections; the ways the writhing, chaotic mass of the natural world fuses to the sleekly ominous silent hum of the digital one.

In this thematically and stylistically linked series of wordless illustrations, Ramsey’s art bends and folds in on itself, redoubling and kaleidoscoping into endless patterns, fractals, double helixes and splintered nuclei, building a mythos of interconnection and unearthly mystery. There’s no rendering in these hyperdetailed kenophobic drawings – just an endless, roiling ocean of squiggles and geometric shapes: anarchic, filigreed abstraction wriggling within the strictures of gorgeously designed clean-line compositions. His stretched-out landscape-format images bubble and twist, exploring the endlessly replicating, mirrored architectures of both our universe and culture. As above, so below.

The same esoteric heiroglyphs – pyramids, obelisks, eyes, coils, snakes – keep recurring through the book, appearing both as natural formations and branded onto labels, displayed on the sides of vehicles, inscribed into flesh. INTELLIGENT SENTIENT? explores the secret lives of images — how the transcendent visual archetypes of myth and nature spawn and split in our viral and mindless cultural exchange, which uses up then reiterates used up structures and compositions and icons. In Ramsey’s vision, a supermarket check-out line is as hauntingly empty and alienating as the star-strewn sky. They both make you feel small and alone, and they are both in a certain sense masks for the unknowable essence of reality.

As in the stunningly detailed but unassuming, even modest pink-on-pink cover, Ramsey uses a combination of high- and low-contrast color choices to introduce a shrouded dimensionality to his strange compositions. He buries painstaking detail in barely-differentiated shades of black on dark brown, or red ink on a red background. It shows an admirable willingness to camouflage his own beautiful and laborious work, and its coy subtlety is magnetic — it lures you deeper and deeper into this book’s quiet, disconcerting simulated reality. It whispers that you should look closer. There’s always more to see – always more paths to follow and lines to unravel.

INTELLIGENT SENTIENT? is animated by a precise and compelling aesthetics that reinvents the universe with a kind of paranoid wonder, builds it up and breaks it down. Its inscrutable message has a cryptic urgency: the world is not the world. There is unspeakable beauty and cunning intelligence hiding behind every curtain. Pull them back at your own risk.

I’m almost to the end of this review, and I still haven’t answered the most pressing question posed by INTELLIGENT SENTIENT?: should you read it while high on mushrooms?

I haven’t taken mushrooms in a very long time, so I can’t speak from experience. I feel I should be cautious here and advise against it. The horror vacui in here is very ominous and itchy, and maybe too compelling for a psilocybin-vulnerable mind to handle. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone’s psychic break.

But there’s a deep longing in Ramsey’s artwork for some kind of ineffable communion that lies beyond the limits of language and ego. This book wants to be ripped free from its confining context. It’s a world in and of itself, and it aspires to exist on its own terms – not as a collection of illustrations but as a teeming, unfathomable reality. It wants you to fall inside. INTELLIGENT SENTIENT? represents a wild, reckless thrust past the petty fears and estrangements and oppressions of mudane life into a frightening, beautiful, unmapped terrain – a bold attempt to establish contact with the thing behind the thing. It deserves an unguarded mind to meet it on its journey. So come to this book ready to believe. Eager to be abducted. Let Luke Ramsey and his collaborators pry open your mind. See what spills out.

So in other words, yeah. Read this book on mushrooms.

Then report back here and together we can try to signal the mothership.

-Josh O’Neill

March 12, 2015 by joshuaon

LITTLE NEMO meets CAROUSEL!

Please join us at the Society of Illustrators on Saturday, March 14th at 2pm for

LITTLE NEMO meets CAROUSEL

A performance and tribute to cartoonist Winsor McCay

Carousel, the comics reading & performance series, presents a tribute to Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo. The show features cartoonists from the Locust Moon Press anthology LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM, plus a special presentation by animation historian and Oscar-winning filmmaker John Canemaker.

Besides being one of the greatest cartoonists of all time, Winsor McCay was also a popular and innovative vaudeville performer, so this show is a perfect way to honor his amazing legacy.

With readings, animations, and performances by: John Canemaker, Maëlle Doliveux, Maria Hoey, Adriano Moraes, Dave Proch, Andrea Tsurumi, Ronald Wimberly, and special guests. Plus a slide show drawn by Dean Haspiel (not appearing in person). Hosted by R. Sikoryak.

The Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street (btwn Park & Lexington Avenues), New York City.

Admission: $15 Non-members, $10 members, $7 seniors/students.

Also on display: an exhibit with original art from the Locust Moon Press anthology LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM. The exhibition runs through March 28, 2015.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Animation historian and Oscar-winning filmmaker John Canemaker presents animation’s first female personality: the spunky dinosaur Gertie, who celebrated her 100th birthday last year. Winsor McCay’s breakthrough film is a masterpiece of early character animation, a type of individualization in animation whose legacy is the pantheon of Walt Disney. Canemaker is the author of twelve acclaimed books on animation history, including the only biography of Winsor McCay. He is a tenured professor and head of the animation program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and his short The Moon and the Son won a 2005 Academy Award as Best Animated Short. JohnCanemaker.com

Maëlle Doliveux is a French and Swiss illustrator, cartoonist and animator who’s clients include Newsweek, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Motorola. She graduated from the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program at the School of Visual Arts in 2013, has received recognition from the Society of Illustrators, the Art Director’s Club and American Illustration as well as having been a jury member for the Society of Illustrators in 2015.www.maelledoliveux.com

Emmy award winner and Eisner Award nominee Dean Haspiel created BILLY DOGMA, illustrated for HBO’s “Bored To Death,” was a Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, is a Yaddo fellow, a playwright, and the co-founder of Hang Dai Editions. Dino has written, drawn, and collaborated on many superhero and semi-autobiographical comix and graphic novels. http://www.deanhaspiel.com

Maria Hoey is 1/2 of Coin-Op. A studio started with her brother Peter in 1998. Together they create illustrations, animations, and comic stories. The best possible job on the planet. Coin-Op studio is at www.peterhoey.com.

Adriano Moraes is a Brazillian born cartoonist working as freelancer in NY on almost all mediums from theater to film, illustration, animation, puppetry, burlesque shows, graphic design and advertising. He sucks at singing and dancing but that never stopped him. facebook.com/theadriano

Dave Proch is a Philadelphia based cartoonist and the creator of the ongoing serial book, “Mango Lizard”. He can be reached at www.daveproch.com.

Andrea Tsurumi is an illustrator and cartoonist who likes history, absurdity, dogs and monsters (in no particular order). Comics of hers have appeared in The Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature, Flashed: Sudden Stories in Prose and Comics, The Nib and Quarter Moon. Her work has been described as “strange and emotive.” She likes funny stories, lives in New York City, and you can see her work at www.andreatsurumi.com

Ronald Wimberly is an artist who works primarily in design and narrative. He is an accomplished illustrator and cartoonist, having designed several graphic novels as well as shorter works for DC/Vertigo, Nike, Marvel, Hill and Wang, and Dark Horse. His last work was the critically acclaimed Prince of Cats for DC/Vertigo. http://ronwimberly.com/

R. Sikoryak is the cartoonist behind Masterpiece Comics (Drawn & Quarterly). He’s also recently drawn for The New York Times Book Review, The Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature, SpongeBob Comics, Hellboy, and more.www.rsikoryak.com

For more info: societyillustrators.org

March 11, 2015 by joshuaon

good this week

east of west #18 : as good as it gets in monthly comics right now.

ant-man #3 : nick spencer hits all the right notes in this family-oriented, funny superhero romp. fans of the taskmaster, delight.

star wars #3 : jason aaron and john cassaday are making star wars fans everywhere very, very happy.

the surface #1 : to quote from ales kot’s own words here, i have no idea whether this book is going to actually work, but the spirit that he and artist langdon foss brought to this opening issue make it worth it to find out.

howard the duck #1 : SEX CRIMINALS artist chip zdarsky turns out to be the perfect guy to bring the irascible duck into the 21st century. teamed with joe quinones on art, this is a book that any fan of the recent HAWKEYE, SHE-HULK, or SILVER SURFER series needs to check out.

silver surfer #10 : wonderful wrap-up to this all-new galactus trilogy from michael & aura allred and dan slott.

mouse guard: legends of the guard vol 3 #1 : devid petersen’s anthology featuring various creators playing in his mouse guard world is always a delight, and with stories from creators like mark buckingham and skottie young, this new series is off to a fine start.

ragnarok #4 : walt simonson’s grim, energetic return to the ground he built his own legend on is heating up.

tuki save the humans #3 : the same can be said for jeff smith’s new series, as this 3rd issue is the strongest one yet.

spider-gwen #2 : spider-ham! the vulture! that costume! fun stuff.

–chris

February 25, 2015 by joshuaon

good this week

the fade out volume #1 : old time hollywood in the hands of CRIMINAL masterminds ed brubaker and sean phillips. this is about as good as noir gets, folks.

sex criminals volume #2 : what would you do if you could stop time when you orgasm? give this a read, it’ll help you figure it out.

abigail and the snow man #3 : is anyone better at this kind of innocently sophisticated cartooning as roger langridge? parents and the young at heart, start here and go to SNARKED and the wonderful MUPPET books roger did.

spider-gwen #1 : this book brings a lot of heat on the heels of the over-the-top fun SPIDER-VERSE storyline. there was a lot of talk about the batgirl costume redo from a few months back, and that was cool, but gwen’s webbed hoodie is one of the best new character designs i can remember in a long time.

ody-c #3 : whoah. this sci-fi gender-bent retelling of THE ODYSSEY is pure comics.

the manara library volume 6 : the final volume in dark horse’s fantastic collection of italian master milo manara’s singular work takes off on its own sci-fi flight of fancy. yes, it’s sexy.

curb stomp #1 : we’ve got the makings of the baddest girl gang since the lizzie’s here…

django/zorro #4 : matt wagner just flat out knows how to handle these characters, and an improbable pairing becomes a cracking good yarn in his hands.

–chris

February 23, 2015 by joshuaon

MAPS FOR EARTHMATES Opening Reception

Local 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.