36 lessons in self-destruction

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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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The Locust Moon Top 40: November 2013

40. DELUSIONAL

This art & sequential bits & bobs book from Farel Dalrymple & AdHouse made our Top 40 back when it was announced. Now that we’ve finally gotten our copies to pore over, we want to put it on ALL the Top 40s.
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39. The Fantagraphics Kickstarter

Because we all need our continued supply of Uncle Scrooge.

38. BOARDWALK EMPIRE

The hopeless glory of season 4 ended with no winners, only losers. Pretty appropriate for a show set in Atlantic City.

37. DISAPPEARANCE DIARY

Hideo Azuma’s autobiographical chronicle of a cartoonist dropping off the map and going on the lam from relationships, responsibilities, and sobriety is a fascinating and oddly adorable illustration of the kind of personality with which some of us can identify a little too much.
Disappearance_Diary_by_Hideo_Azuma

36. Calvin & Hobbes Dancing

We’d usually say that Bill Watterson’s opus is hallowed ground upon which fan art must not tread, but this animation of Calvin & Hobbes dancing is delightful, touching, and utterly true to its origins.

35. This Mountain Man

I hope to one day also stand in court and declare, “I AM THE NATURAL MAN.”

34. THE ART OF RUBE GOLDBERG

This book about Rube Goldberg is also an ACTUAL FUNCTIONING PAPERCRAFT RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE! How cool is that?
The Art of Rube Goldberg Front Cover
Continue reading →

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The Locust Moon Top 40: September/October 2013

40. DOGS OF WAR

Nathan Fox and Sheila Keenan’s heart-wrenching, half-century-spanning tale of soldiers and soldiers’ best friends is old-fashioned in its storytelling and forward-looking in its gorgeously sleek illustration.
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39. Will Laren

It is… unsettling how funny we find these inexplicable and off-kilter comic strips.
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38. Z2 Comics

We can’t wait to see Paul Pope’s ESCAPO and Dean Haspiel’s BILLY DOGMA collection from Josh Frankel’s ambitious new imprint.
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37. TURMOIL IN THE TOYBOX

7 and 1/2 minutes of the gospel truth. The toys, comics, cartoons, and games of the ’80s turned our entire generation into satanists. Watch this as you perform your daily sacrifice.

36. INHUMANS

One of the finest stories Marvel Comics has ever told is back in print. Jae Lee and Paul Jenkins explored the artful outskirts of what is possible in a superhero comic.
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35. TEOTFW

Chuck Forsman’s dark, opaquely frightening story of two broken young people on the run plays like a Gus Van Sant version of BADLANDS. It gets under your skin.
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Continue reading →

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The Locust Moon Top 40: August 2013

40.  Simon Stålenhag’s Sci-fi Suburbia

A Sweden turned inside out by science, yet still recognizably, nostalgically human.
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39. MARK SHULTZ’S XENOZOIC TALES ARTIST’S EDITION

Dinosaurs, dino-sized. Thanks yet again, IDW.
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38. LEGO Delorean

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads! Because LEGO cars are not street legal.
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37. Patton Oswalt trolling Twitter

“Eat the poor, disabled and hopeless. It’s the only way we can insure our future.”
I think he’s really onto something.

36. THE ANIMAL MAN OMNIBUS

Grant Morrison’s mind-bending genre-smasher is finally as heavy as it ought to be.
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35. Real-life Patlabor

Because one real-life giant robot was not enough for Japan. Thank god.
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34. Suggestions for Street Harassment

Hey HollabackPHILLY, let’s get on this:

holla(and so on)

Continue reading →

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Locust Moon Comics Festival 2013

This October, the LOCUST MOON COMICS FESTIVAL returns! If you want to find more info on the festival, its guests, and its programming, check out the Locust Moon Comics Festival website. And if you’re an artist, creator, or publisher yourself, you can apply for a table at the event. But before all that, check out the wonderful poster Rob Woods whipped up for the occasion:

LMCF2013 poster by Rob Woods

On Saturday, October 5th, Locust Moon Comics will host the second LOCUST MOON COMICS FESTIVAL, an annual celebration of comics, illustration, and graphic arts, to be held at the Rotunda in West Philadelphia (4014 Walnut Street).

Building on last year’s event, this year’s iteration will feature more than twice as many creators in a larger, more versatile space, and add an expansive schedule of programs including workshops, panels, and discussions on the art, business, and history of comics. More than just a convention, this unique event will honor comic creators and comic creations. The emphasis will be on independent and creator-owned books, as the Rotunda will play host to some of the most distinguished and acclaimed artists, writers, and publishers in the comics world.

The LOCUST MOON COMICS FESTIVAL will boast a variety of local Philadelphia talent such as J.G. Jones (Final Crisis), Robert Woods (36 Lessons in Self-Destruction), James Comey (Donkey Punch), and Box Brown (Everything Dies), alongside acclaimed cartoonists from across North America including Farel Dalrymple (Pop Gun War), Chrissie Zullo (Cinderella), Todd Klein (Fables), Tom Scioli (Gødland), Michael Kupperman (Tales Designed to Thrizzle), and Benjamin Marra (Lincoln Washington: Free Man).

The festival will be an all-day affair on Saturday (10am to 6pm), as a cornucopia of publishers and creators vend their wares, sign books, and greet fans. A number of artists will debut festival-exclusive prints, and several will debut new books, including Robert Woods’ 36 LESSONS IN SELF-DESTRUCTION, the long-awaited complete collection of DEPRESSED PUNX mini-comics. While the festival itself takes place on Saturday, events and festivities at Locust Moon Comics will spill across the weekend, including a Drink & Draw, 36 LESSONS book release party, and post-con pancake breakfast.

“This new annual tradition is our way of recognizing and celebrating the huge variety of unique, independent voices in the world of comics,” says Locust Moon co-owner Josh O’Neill. “We want to exalt the infinite possibilities of the medium and acknowledge the intrepid talents that restlessly explore and expand its edges.”

Locust Moon Comics is a retail store, art gallery, and publishing company based in West Philadelphia. This event is the most recent of their many efforts to unify, accelerate, and publicize the burgeoning Philadelphia comic book scene.

Find further information about the event and more guests as they’re announced on the LOCUST MOON COMICS FESTIVAL website (locustmoonfest.com), Facebook (facebook.com/locustmoonfest), and Twitter (twitter.com/locustmoonfest).

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More News From Nowhere

As Brood II, the first wave of cicadas in seventeen years, begins preparing for the big show this summer, warming up their legs with the gentle, restless buzz of an orchestra tuning, we believe that we are entering The Summer of the Locust. As the cold lifts and the swarm threatens to swarm, we thought this as good a time as any to update you on the goings-on around the Moon. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Locust Moon Academy. Tonight, we matriculate in hell. The illustrious Mark A. Robinson (creator of Image’s I LOVE TROUBLE) and his hydroelectric fountain of creativity will inspire children ages 8-15, starting Saturday April 27th at 3pm, and proceeding weekly after that. James Comey, that ink-guzzling breaker of bones and artist of AMERICAN MONSTER BUFFET, will begin brainwashing any and all comers 16-and-older at 6pm on Tuesday May 14th.

The revolution begins here.


36 Lessons in Self-Destruction. Rob Wood’s magnum opus is complete. Now all that’s left to do is print this sucker, and plan the most self-destructive book release party the publishing world has ever seen. To be released on October 5th. Which just happens to be the date of…

The 2nd Annual Locust Moon Comics Festival. Our first shot at this was just a dry run. This time we move into the sanctuary space at the Rotunda, where we can fit five times as many tables. The back space at the Rotunda (where the convention was held last year) will be reserved for panels, screenings, interviews, talks, maybe even a musical performance or two. This is not a comic book convention. It’s a celebration of the infinite possibilities of the medium we all hold dear.

Stumptown Awards. ONCE UPON A TIME MACHINE is nominated for Best Anthology! We are honored. Vote for us HERE.

Free Comic Book Day. Saturday, May 4th. There will be cookies. There will be balloons. There will be an exclusive new flavor from Little Baby’s Ice Cream. There will be live musical performances. There will be our own little artist’s alley, composed of J.G. Jones, Mark Robinson, Rob Woods & Dave Proch. And oh yeah: a veritable smorgasbord of free comics, from our shelves to your hot little hands. Don’t miss it.

Little Nemo. The Slumberland Express rolls on. This past month we have been joined by Mark Buckingham, Chrissie Zullo, and an aspiring young gentleman by the name of Paul Pope. We’ve seen gorgeous watercolor sketches from J.G. Jones, brilliantly composed roughs from Maria & Peter Hoey, and finished inks from our own David Proch. Sometimes it feels as though we’re building a temple, and every stone is made of love.

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More to come, Moonies. Stay tuned…

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The Locust Moon Top 40

40. Five Ghosts

Frank Barbieri’s retro-pulp debut is a shot of old-fashioned adventure-comics adrenaline.

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39. Rob’s Drawing Table.

Now long defaced by its creator. Burn it down, build again. Nothing gold can stay.

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38. The Fabletown Pool Party

You have never seen this many pairs of glasses in a pool.

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The Locust Moon Top 40

THE LOCUST MOON TOP 40

Counting down the hits this month

40. UNCANNY X-MEN #1

As dumb as AVENGERS VS. X-MEN may have been, the consequences have energized the X-universe. We love it for, among other things, this Cyclops propaganda poster.

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39. HAPPY

Grant Morrison wraps up his tonally schizoid miniseries that draws equally from THE TWILIGHT ZONE, Disney movies, and a half-century of dumb comics about hit men.

38. Trying to find a title for the Locust Moon quarterly comics collection

Any suggestions?

37. Virtual Reality Helmets

Because, as James Bond reminds us, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH.

36. KILL SHAKESPEARE: THE TIDE OF BLOOD

If comics be the food of love, play on. We’re excited for more adventures in the bardosphere.

35. This Cake

Celebrating the first year of the gloriously anachronistic RETROFIT COMICS with cake, booze and arguments.retrofit cake

Continue reading →

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News From Nowhere

pirate pete

Things are hopping at Locust Moon as we shake off the winter doldrums and resurrect this dusty old website. What’s keeping us busy, you ask?

* TRAVELING. We climb back into the time machine for a trip up to Bill Willingham’s FABLETOWN convention in Minnesota, which looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty special event. (March 22-24th) Then it’s down the shore for the ASBURY PARK COMIC CON (March 30th) and, hopefully, some surfing. We’ll also be speaking at William Paterson University on March 12th. (Also, we really wanna go to Toronto. Anybody have extra space at a TCAF table?) Look out world. Locust Moon is gonna be all over you.

* THE DEPRESSED PUNX COLLECTION. We’re putting the finishing touches on the complete Robert Woods’ DEPRESSED PUNX. To be released sometime in the summer, this book will collect all four issues of Rob’s brilliant mini-comic, along with 40 new pages. We’ve had the privilege of watching Rob work as Locust Moon’s artist-in-residence on the last couple of stories to be included in the book, and they are the finest work of his young but remarkable career. DEPRESSED PUNX is a book filled with heartwrenching comedy and hilarious tragedy, a lot of sadness and a jagged edge of hope. Rob’s characters may be laying in the gutter, but they are looking at the stars.

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* LOCUST MOON QUARTERLY. We’re starting an as-yet-untitled quarterly comics magazine to collect great idiosyncratic work by our favorite cartoonists and friends. Featuring new work  by Mark Robinson, Dave Proch, Bodie Chewning, James Comey and a host of others, this magazine-style collection should keep a constant flow awesome cartoonin, straight from our minds into your hot little hands. Contact us if you want to be a part of it, or have any suggestions for a title.

* LITTLE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER DREAM. Our passion project, our white whale, our true-blue comic book love song. The train to slumberland rolls on as this tribute to Winsor McCay and his brilliant early 20th century newspaper strip begins to take form. It has been our honor and privilege to spend the past six months rallying comic creators around this unique and remarkable collection. The dream team so far consists of Robert Woods, Jimmy Comey, Bill Sienkiewicz, John Cassaday, David Mack, Jeremy Bastian, Farel Dalrymple, Camilla D’Errico, Dave Proch, J.G. Jones, Sam Hiti, Brandon Graham, Theo Ellsworth, Dean Haspiel, Roger Langridge, Charles Fetherolf, Box Brown, Jim Rugg, Jeremy Tanner, Maria & Peter Hoey, Mike Sgier and Jason Lex. Winsor McCay can be considered among the likes of Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and Moebius, earth-shattering talents whose work landed like a neutron bomb, leaving the landscape of the comics medium forever altered. We are humbled & lucky to be the ones uniting many of the world’s greatest cartoonists in a tribute to the master. To be printed as a big broadsheet newspaper and a giant-sized (16×21″!!!) hardcover book. We’re going to do this one right. Oh! Um!

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The beat goes on. Expect this site to be updated regularly, and check out our event calendar for more info about what’s going on at Locust Moon. Stay beautiful, moonies.