BIG NEWS, Y'ALL!

BIG NEWS, Y'ALL!

From here on out, Birdcage Bottom Books will be publishing Jamie Vayda's "LOUD COMIX". Jamie is insane, so he wanted to put out a new 32 page issue each month. We were able to subdue him with tranquilizers and with gentle brain-washing methods involving a harmonium and free vegan food, got him to chill the f**k out and agree to a new issue every two months. 

LOUD COMIX is a collection of stories authored by members of various rock bands & music enthusiasts (with an emphasis on southern punk luminaries). The first issue features stories by Sonny Joe Harlan (Murder Junkies, Shitcan Dirtbag, The Sonny Joe Harlan Band), Frankie Nowhere (The Chumps, Eastside Suicides, Faster Disasters, Flash Boys), Erika Lane (DISAPpointed PARents, Early Graves, KILLZALL, The Stovebolts) and Alan King (Hellstomper, Polecat Boogie Revival, The Beer Drinking Christians). 

Also, Losers Weepers #1 is back in print (3rd printing). Hopefully the pink cover will offset the depressing nature of this first issue. 

In Losers Weepers #1, J.T. Yost has found a novel way to show off the bizarre and seemingly unrelated detritus he has scavenged from the streets by incorporating found letters, notes and journals directly into an ongoing comic narrative. In issue #1, a newly sober homeless heroin addict relapses after bumping into an ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. 

* In other news, you may have noticed that this blog is no longer updated very often. We've pretty much moved everything to Tumblr, Facebook & Twitter. So, please follow us there!

Suspect Device #3 anthology

Here's another short comic I did for the Suspect Device #3 anthology. In case you're unfamiliar with the concept, editor Josh Bayer sends you a bunch of panels from two different comic strips (this go-round was Little Orphan Annie & Popeye). Traditionally, you're expected to use one of the panels at the beginning of your new comic and another at the end. What you do in-between to connect the dots is up to you.

I ended up using several of the original panels instead of just two (other artists used one, none, altered the existing panels or whatever else they felt like doing).

In related news, we carry both Suspect Device #3 and Suspect Device #2 in the Birdcage Bottom Books store!

25% OFF COMICS SALE at Birdcage Bottom Books

Just a heads up to you not signed up on the mailing list, Birdcage Bottom Books is having a 25% OFF sale on select books to promote our greatly expanded distro service, including:

mammoth Digestate food & eating themed anthology, edited by J.T. Yost

Aron Nels Steinke's Big Plans collects all five mini-comics and more!

Lauren Barnett's Me Likes You Very Much, published by Hic & Hoc

Jeff Zwirek's Burning Building Comix collects all five minis in an unusual format and in full color!

Suspect Device #2 anthology, edited by Josh Bayer

...and if that weren't enough, there's other books at an even steeper discount. Plus, we now carry tons of handmade comics by lots of wonderful indie comic artists. 

Check out the sale (and get the coupon code) here!

Bayer & Yost at MoCCA Fest 2013!

Bayer (drawn by Box Brown) & Yost: Don't look them in the eyes.

We just got our table assignment from MoCCA. I'll be representing Birdcage Bottom Books and sharing a table with Mr. Josh Bayer. Our drawing styles don't have much in common, but we do both have beards.

We'll be debuting a new book by Ben Snakepit ("Snake Pit Gets Old: Daily Diary Comics 2010 - 2012") and running some sales, so please drop by table B-58!

Shout-out: Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR:

LISA ROSALIE EISENBERG!

Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg is a cartoonist and educator living in Portland, Oregon.  She teaches comics workshops and classes to youth in schools throughout the Portland area.  (If you ask nicely, she will share the latest in cool teen slang with you, but she promises to sound very un-cool in the telling).  

Lisa's work has been published in the anthologies Bird Hurdler, Runner Runner, Papercutter, Bearfight!, and TheStrumpet.  She is illustrating a script by Jonathan Baylis for Digestate, and that story will also appear in Jonathan's series So...Buttons.  

Lisa self-publishes the comic series I Cut My Hair, a combination of autobiographical, fiction, and historical fiction comics stories.  A new page is published weekly at ICutMyHairComics.com, and the zine version of I Cut My Hair can be purchased through sparkplugcomicbooks.com.  

Lisa can also be found on the social media platforms Twitter: @lisa_rosalie and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Lisa.Rosalie.Eisenberg.Comics.Illustration

Editor's note: Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg was the only artist I didn't personally choose/harass to be in the Digestate anthology (she drew the comic written by Jonathan Baylis), but I'm really glad that Jonathan selected her. There must be something in the water up there in Portland, OR. There's just so many great cartoonists coming out of that city! If I weren't a sun junkie, I'd try to convince my wife to move there. 

Anyhow, I highly recommend checking out her auto-bio and experimental comics posted every Monday on her site!

Shout-out: William Cardini

DIGESTATE CONTRIBUTOR:

WILLIAM CARDINI!

William Cardini is currently serializing his psychedelic sf graphic novel Vortex in self-published minicomics. His comic have published in the Image Comics tribute anthology RUBTHE BLOOD, the 3D comic MathFiction, the newsprint anthologies SmokeSignal and SecretPrison, and on the online sites for ArthurMagazine and Squidface& the Meddler.

http://hypercastle.com

Editor's note: I can't claim to understand William Cardini's work, but it's fun & compelling enough that I don't have to. Obviously his comics deal in science fiction, but there's a humor to them that is absent in most sci-fi that I've read. Maybe if I'd done more drugs as a kid I'd be better equipped to comment at length, but as it stands I'll just recommend picking up some issues of Vortex!

Pre-order the new SNAKE PIT book & save!

It is on.

Pre-order the new Snake Pit book now!

Pay less than the retail cost ($17) for the new Snakepit diary comic collection, and get some limited edition goodies thrown in:

“Snake Pit Gets Old: Daily Diary Comics 2010 – 2012″ - Ben Snakepit returns with an all-new book of daily diary comics, three years in the making. As the title implies, Ben transitions from the pants-pooping idiocy of youth to the dark, sobering responsibilites of adulthood. Read along in amazement as he quits his bands, gets a real job, has a kidney stone removed and much much more. It’s 18+ fun for the whole family!
6″ x 8.5″, 288 pages.
Full-color cover with b&w interior. 

PLUS: one limited edition sticker and button!

Pre-sale price is just $15 plus shipping! Click here to order.
Books expected to ship in April 2013. 

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Save tons of money when you pre-order the new Snake Pit book, and get lots of goodies:

“Snake Pit Gets Old: Daily Diary Comics 2010 – 2012″ - Ben Snakepit returns with an all-new book of daily diary comics, three years in the making. As the title implies, Ben transitions from the pants-pooping idiocy of youth to the dark, sobering responsibilites of adulthood. Read along in amazement as he quits his bands, gets a real job, has a kidney stone removed and much much more. It’s 18+ fun for the whole family!
6″ x 8.5″, 288 pages. Retail cost $16.95
Perfect Bound with Full-color cover, B&W interior

“Snake Pit 2009″ – Ben Snakepit’s ninth year of diary comics sees him slipping further into domesticity and responsibility. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of overindulgence, partying and punk rock!
6″ x 8.5″, 96 pages. Retail cost$6.00
Perfect Bound with Full-Color Cover, B&W interior

PLUS: one limited edition button & two stickers!

Pre-sale price is just $18 plus shipping! Click here to order.
Books expected to ship in April 2013.

New Snake Pit diary comic book by Ben Snakepit!

Guess we can let the cat out of the bag now that it’s official…

Birdcage Bottom Books will be publishing Ben Snakepit’s next comic diary collection (three years worth!), “Snake Pit Gets Old: Daily Diary Comics 2010-2012”. 

Release date is April 6th, 2013 (at the MoCCA Festival). We will be offering discounted pre-sales of the book along with limited edition goodies. Please sign up on our mailing list to receive the details as they are released. 

Cyber Monday Sale on comics & more (FREE SHIPPING)!

Birdcage Bottom Books is having a Cyber Monday sale now through midnight 11/26/12. FREE SHIPPING on orders over $15 (within the U.S.). Just use the coupon code: CYBERMONDAY12 at check out.

You can see more details here.

We're carrying lots of new comics in our shop from the likes of James Kochalka, Kevin Cannon, Josh Burggraf, Danny Hellman, Victor Kerlow & William Cardini as well as old classics from Ben Snakepit, J.T. Yost & Noah Van Sciver!

Birdcage Bottom Books at New York Comic Con!

BBB will be at the New York Comic Con on October 12 (Friday) & October 13 (Saturday) from 1 pm until 5 pm. We may also be there on October 14 (Sunday) from 1-5 pm depending on how much we have packed for our trip to Atlanta the following morning!

You can find us at the Kickstarter booth (Artist Alley at Booth N407) along with other artists hawking comics funded (in part) through Kickstarter. 

We've never been to a super-hero-centric comic convention (just indie/self-publisher-centric ones), so please come by and tell us everything will be alright. We admit that we're a little terrified. 

New Birdcage Bottom Books logo!

I didn't think a logo could make me so happy, but this one is so adorable I just want to squish it!

While redesigning our website (I designed the current one, but I feel we're outgrowing my limited abilities), old pal & graphic designer extraordinaire Michael Lassiter threw in what he calls a "logo refresh" but I think could be more accurately dubbed a "logo overhaul". He designed the original logo, so don't worry about anyone's feelings being hurt. I didn't think he could improve on the original, but I stand happily corrected.

Please check out his other fine work here: mlassiter.com

I can't wait to see what he does with our website (hoping to have it operational in September when the Digestate anthology has it's soft release).

DIGESTATE anthology, Rabid Rabbit #14

Hey folks,

Today was the third day in about two years (when my daughter was born) that I got eight hours of sleep, so I'm feelin' great! Seriously, I felt like I was losing my mind, but now I just feel like I had a half-shot of Maker's Mark or something. Thanks to Lulu for sleeping in to an incredible 7 a.m.

Anyhow, I've been staying incredibly busy. Birdcage Bottom Books (that's me) is putting out a food/eating themed anthology called "Digestate", and I've been doing a lot of legwork to wrangle & rope artists into contributing. So far we've got a really excellent crew of about 45 cartoonists. I'll release a list of contributors at a later date.

My comic for the anthology uses verbatim text from an interview with a slaughterhouse worker. Gail Eisnitz, author of "Slaughterhouse" was kind enough to send me a stack of affadavits from various slaughterhouse workers. It was exceedingly difficult to pick just one from the bunch since each was compelling for different reasons. I may end up doing more comics using other interviews, each focusing on a different aspect of the slaughterhouse workers' plights.

I'm posting two samples from the comic in progress, which will most likely end up being around 24 pages.

Since this material is so heavy in its theme, I was glad to be invited to participate in the next Rabid Rabbit anthology (#14), which has a much friendlier theme: romance. I've written my "script" and thumbnailed two pages (of five) so far.


Well, that's it for now. Check back soon for a list of Digestate contributors. Thanks!

Thinger Dingers!

That fresh toner smell is in the air again here at Birdcage Bottom Books. We've learned enough from current global trends (Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, etc.) to know that we must offer SOMETHING to satiate the dissatisfied mob while they anxiously await our upcoming anthology "Tempeh & T-Bones: A Food Fight" due out in April 2012.

So, here we have "Thinger Dingers", a collection of comics by J.T. Yost (that's me) originally included in a variety of anthologies. Think of it as "Old Man Winter 2" but funny instead of depressing. Lord knows we've got enough to be depressed about these days.

At a trifling three dollars for 24 densely packed pages, it should definitely occupy you through at least one bowel movement. Well worth it, I should think.

Thinger Dingers will be officially released at the upcoming Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival on December 3rd. It's available for pre-order on our website right now!

The Bitch is Back!

While living in the real world I occasionally neglect this sad little virtual world. Interrupting my pleasant dreams of sharing vegan milkshakes with Calvin Broadus, Jr. (you probably know him as "Snoop Dogg", but we've been dream-bros for almost a decade now, so he insists I call him by his given name), a nagging snuffling series of zeroes and ones overtakes my subconscious and hounds me relentlessly until I passively aggressively type a new entry into this here blog.

So, what's been keeping me so busy that I can't even be bothered to write or call? I'm glad you asked!

Here, I'll present it as a series of bullet points for maximum efficiency:

• We moved! Yes, after only two years in Brooklyn, we've returned to Manhattan. We could no longer resist the siren call of my in-laws' offer of the bottom floor of their brownstone on the Upper West Side. My wife and I now both share a studio that is NOT part of our living room/kitchen, which is a first. The UWS is quite a different scene than our previous apartments in the Lower East Side or Brooklyn. You can't find a (vegan) meal for under $10 and the mean age is 65, but there are lots of parks and museums for our little one. The apartment wasn't finished being renovated for the first six weeks after we moved in, but now we're almost done unpacking and getting back to a semblance of normal life. 
• I finished a new ten page comic for Nicole Georges (Invincible Summer). It's for an anthology she's putting out about bad roommates. I've been blessed with mostly amazing roommates, but there have been a few stinkers. This comic explores four of the worst offenders. 
• Chainsaw Comics accepted my five page comic for an anthology with the theme of "fear". I originally drew this one for the Dapper Chap anthology (with a "horror" theme), but the founder volunteered at a primate sanctuary in South America (can't fault him that!) and I don't think it will ever come out.
• My publishing company, Birdcage Bottom Books, was working on a project with a couple of fairly high-profile comic artists, but it seems to have fallen through. Now that my tears have dried, I'm thinking of putting together a split anthology. Half would be comics by vegan artists and half would be by carnivores or whatever the more accurate term for non-vegetarians might be (since true carnivores eat meat almost exclusively)...omnivores? I'm not sure if I want to impose a stricter theme beyond that of diet. I'm still in the brainstorming stage. Anyone out there interested in submitting or have any bright ideas?
• I'm writing the final chapter of my Losers Weepers comic. I took a break after issue #3 to work on some shorter comics and in anticipation of moving to our new apartment.

Here's the first page of the bad roommate comic to pique your interest...

Ohhhhhhh Yeahhhhhhh!

Losers Weepers #3 is finished! The proof is in the pudding.

This little gem will be debuting at MoCCA this weekend (April 9 & 10), but we'll have them up on the Birdcage Bottom Books website for preorder in the next day or so.

Victor Kerlow & myself can be found at table B8 if you care to come give us terrorist fist-bumps and/or cold hard cash. 

MoCCA 2010

This was my second year selling at MoCCA (and 9th year attending). Seems like they worked out a lot of the kinks from last year. For the record, I didn't mind the heat last year, but since most everyone else did, it was a wise move to change the fest to April. My biggest complaint this year was the astronomical cost of the tables. Fortunately, it seems that the organizers took this into consideration since next year's tables cost nearly $50 less. I just hope that doesn't translate into higher ticket costs for attendees.

I didn't get to attend any of the panels, but since Brian Heater was at the helm I'm sure they were fantastic. I get paranoid about leaving my table, because I feel like that's when someone I want to see will stop by. Luckily, I was there when one of my favorite babies came by for a visit. Lulu is a much more savvy business person than I am, and her visit lead to increased sales until she needed to nurse. I guess comic geeks can't handle a little discreet bosom bearing.

As you may know, Birdcage Bottom Books put out this year's collection of Ben Snakepit's diary comic. Since Ben doesn't put his name on the front of the books, this led to many misidentifications. I guess it's the fact that we both have chin-strap beards, because we aren't really similar in any other way, physically. One kid insisted that I sign a copy of Snakepit even though I repeatedly insisted that I wasn't Ben.

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun hanging out with Victor, the Supertalk crew and the Rabid Rabbit crew. As always, I met lots of talented and friendly folks and left with a healthy stack of new comics.

Losers Weepers #2 is here!

I can't believe I've finally finished it! I just got the pages and covers of "Losers Weepers #2" back from the printer. I'll be assembling and trimming them over the next couple of days, and they'll be ready for MoCCA this weekend.

They're available for pre-order on the Birdcage Bottom Books website. Here's a little synopsis for you:

This mini-comic continues the fictional narrative thread woven around real life found letters, notes & journals. In the first issue, a newly sober homeless heroin addict relapses after bumping into an ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Social anxiety causes him to act out and murder another drifter in a fit of rage. This second issue focuses on how the death affects the family of the murdered vagrant.

Snakepit!

In an effort to not be so damn egomaniacal, Birdcage Bottom Books will be publishing the next comic diary collection (2009) of Ben Snakepit! We will have it out by MoCCA in April, if not sooner. Here's a sneak-peek of the cover art...

If you're not familiar with his work, go pick up some of his past books available through Microcosm and maybe Young American Comics if they have any left. I guarantee you will be addicted, and that you will spend too much time on the toilet (where it is meant to be read).

I've known Ben since we went to college in Richmond together in 1992, and I've always enjoyed his comics and sense of humor. We also both lived in Austin for a brief period. Now that I don't see him on a regular basis, it's nice to be able to keep tabs on him via his diary comic.

Taking care of our new baby doesn't leave me too much time for drawing my own comics (although I do squeeze it in when I can), so I thought I'd put the profits from my first book to good use and publish someone else's work for a change!

Losers Weepers #1 - New Comic!

I'm gonna be dramatically unveiling a new 44 page comic at The Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, MD this weekend. It will undoubtedly involve fire, chihuahuas in sparkling jackets and/or levitation (the unveiling, not the comic itself).

I'll put it up for sale on www.birdcagebottombooks.com next week when I get back.

I've posted an image of the front cover, although it is being printed on green cardstock. I was going to stamp color onto the covers like I did with the Snoop Dogg comic, but it turned out looking very ugly (in my opinion). I'll have about 20 on hand that ARE stamped if you prefer those, but otherwise it's just going to be plain jane. Saves me some time, anyway.

Anyhow, hope to see you at SPX!

Review in Comic Related

A short and sweet review by Richard Krauss on Comic Related (click to read it).

Last weekend was my first time behind a table at the MoCCA festival, and it was an amazing experience. I still bought way too many books, but at least this time I was selling some to balance things out. It was so much fun to be able to talk to so many like-minded people and to meet a ton of artists I have so much respect for. My table-mate and I had such a great time that we've already reserved a table for next year.

My new mini, "Tales of Good Ol' Snoop Doggy Dogg" almost sold out, but I've still got a few copies left for sale on the Birdcage Bottom Books website. They're only a measly $three bones$, so step up!

Anyhow, I'm pretty exhausted and have a ton of work to catch up on, so I'll write in more depth later.