Artwork will be on display until May 31st.

LISTING INFORMATION:

WHAT: Art exhibit
WHEN: Wednesday, May 16th, 6-8pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

As well as book signing, Kinoko will read from the book, share process and talk about the Epic of Gilgamesh acknowledging the history, art and culture of ancient Mesopotamia and a journey of research and understanding of the archaeology of these civilizations and the context of the ancient world in the more globally leaning civilization of today.

“In realizing that early civilization shared the same uncertainty and inability to grasp their own place in the universe, I feel more connected to my humanness and the human race with which I share life on this planet.”

LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Kinoko
WHAT: Book release, reading and signing
WHEN: Wednesday, May 23rd, 6-8pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

BIO INFORMATION:

Kinoko is an Opti-Mystic with a light heart. Exploring themes of technology, spirituality and New Primitivism, she places playful characters in heavier situations. Thinking positively towards a hopeful future, her work opens a visual dialog about humanity. Epic mythologies are staged by insouciant characters, giggling and vigilant in narrative, contemporary lore. Her work is inspired by Omega Point theory and reveals connections to ancient civilizations and a search for new mysticism in the present.

Visual influences of Eighties Art, Japan’s Super Flat and the Paleolithic are apparent and often points of discussion in Kinoko’s published comics. She has a knack for drawing the cute, sensitive, silly and mischievous. Often these images are translated from brush ink drawings and cartoons into screen prints popping with emotion and calculated palettes.

Originally from Philadelphia, Kinoko studied print making at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Liberal Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. At the turn of the millennium she moved to Seattle, Washington and worked within the merging craft uprise, fine art and street art communities. She is a continuing member of Seattle based arts collective Fourthcity. She was awarded artist residencies at S.A.W. gallery in 2003 and in 2006 by Luke Ramsey’s Islands Fold in British Columbia. In 2010 She moved to Portland, Oregon working with and showing through both Pony Club Gallery and Grass Hut Gallery. She has very recently completed a BFA in illustration as a transfer at PNCA. Her work has been exhibited in Europe, Canada, Japan and the U.S. She is actively engaging in more art challenges to feed her drawing addiction by continuing her graphic novel retelling of Gilgamesh.

http://www.kinokogallery.com/

Floating World has teamed with Traditional Comics to reprint Benjamin Marra’s sold out Elf Booklet series, Drawings Inspired by the Motion Picture “American Psycho”. The original artwork was rescanned and published as a 32 page broadsheet (15” x 22.75”) newspaper. Three new illustrations and brand new covers were created for this limited edition of 1500 copies.

Employing Raymond Pettibon’s aesthetics and inspired by the movie “American Psycho”, these 28 illustrations “seem almost mathematically calculated to haunt the eyes they meet: whether it’s the sublimely balanced blacks and whites or the point-of-impact axe to neck shots… the real story here is Marra’s art, which is far and away the best work of his career.” – Matt Seneca, Comics Alliance

Now available to order
Limited to 1500 copies, 32 pages, 15″ x 22.75″, b&w, $5.
Shipping $3 US, $10 INTL, $5 CANADA

It’s 1868, the hostile period succeeding the American Civil War. When the freed slave Lincoln Washington shows up in the small South Carolina town, Butchergrass, with coin and a deed to a plot of land the locals are none too happy about it. In particular, Jasper, the son of a wealthy plantation owner. Lincoln, accused of a crime he didn’t commit, must draw on centuries of racial injustice to give him the power to fight his enemies and defend his inherently human right to freedom! Witness the beginning of this Reconstructionist-Era action epic!!

Floating World has also teamed up with Traditional Comics to publish a broadsheet newsprint (15” x 22.75”) edition of Benjamin Marra’s American Psycho.

Employing Raymond Pettibon’s aesthetics and inspired by the movie “American Psycho”, these 28 illustrations “seem almost mathematically calculated to haunt the eyes they meet: whether it’s the sublimely balanced blacks and whites or the point-of-impact axe to neck shots.” – Matt Seneca, Comics Alliance

Both books make their Portland debut at this event. The artwork will be on exhibit during Stumptown weekend, until Sunday April 29th.

LISTING INFORMATION:

WHO: Benjamin Marra
WHAT: Art exhibit, book release and signing
WHEN: Thursday, April 26th, 6-8pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

BIO INFORMATION:

Benjamin Marra – Benjamin Marra is the notorious creator of the comic books NIGHT BUSINESS, GANGSTA RAP POSSE and THE INCREDIBLY FANTASTIC ADVENTURES OF MAUREEN DOWD (A WORK OF SATIRE AND FICTION).

Marra’s comic book work has drawn comparison to mainstream masters Jim Steranko and Paul Gulacy as well as underground comix legends R. Crumb and Spain. His work exists beyond the cutting edge of independent comic books and operates within the cut itself.

Marra’s illustration work has been recognized by The Society of Illustrators, The Society of Publication Designers, American Illustration and the Art Directors Club. Some of his clients include Playboy, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Marvel Comics, Vice, Nylon, Weiden+Kennedy and McCann-Erickson.

http://www.benjaminmarra.com/

“Henry & Glenn has such huge potential, and perhaps a sequel could tackle the idea more thoroughly” -Punk News

What if Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig were a gay couple who lived together? —Vice Magazine

The bigger the fan of each of these guys you are, the bigger the laugh. —Maximum Rocknroll

Goes beyond the tired and obvious bromance genre. —Carrie Brownstein, NPR

An unauthorized work of fantasy [like] the ‘official’ personas of Rollins and Danzig. —LA Times

BONUS: We will also debut the book release of Katie Skelly’s NURSE NURSE published by Sparkplug Comics Books at this show.

LISTING INFORMATION:

WHO: Tom Neely, Ed Luce, Benjamin Marra
WHAT: Book release and signing
WHEN: Friday, April 27th, 6-8pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

BIO INFORMATION:

Tom Neely is a founding member of The Igloo Tornado, the art fraternity who brought you the original Henry & Glenn Forever. As well as many other art making pursuits, Neely has made a lot of comic books including his award winning graphic novel, The Blot, a comic book for The Melvins, Your Disease Spread Quick, most recently the critically acclaimed painted novel, The Wolf, and many more. All released by his own independent publishing house I Will Destroy You.

Ed Luce is the San Francisco-based creator of Wuvable Oaf. Often referred to as “The Scott Pilgrim of gay comics”, Oaf has made appearances in Maximum RockNRoll, Bear Magazine, FUR: The Love of Hair (Bruno Gmunder) and No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics (Fantagraphics).

Benjamin Marra is the notorious and influential creator of Night Business, Gangsta Rap Posse, and The Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd. Marra has been recognized by The Society of Illustrators, The Society of Publication Designers, and 3×3. His clients include Playboy, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Vice, and Marvel Comics. He’s been featured in GQ, Vice, and Obey.

Igloo Tornado is an art fraternity founded in 2004 by Tom Neely, Scot Nobles, Gin Stevens and Levon Jihanian. The idea for Henry & Glenn Forever fell out of their beer-soaked brains one night at a bar and nothing has been the same since. They’ve done a lot of other stuff that nobody cares about, and have even been called “the best people in Los Angeles.”

Cantankerous Titles was founded in 2009 as a new publishing project by Joe Biel of Microcosm Publishing dedicated to “showing how the world works.” Recent titles include Cambodian Grrrl, Between Resistance and Community and Aftermass: A Post-Critical Mass Portland.

(dirt brap) (ript bard) (bart drip)

Spark Plug, Teenage Dinosaur, Revival House and Floating World join forces to bring you their 2012 Free Comic anthology, BRAD TRIP.

Eight Portland artists take you on a journey that explores vagaries, innuendoes, dreamscapes and weirdness in narrative form.

Featuring all new comics by Virginia Paine (Milkyboots), Annie Murphy (I Still Live), Kinoko Evans (Zine City Comics), Aidan Koch (The Whale), Dunja Jankovic (Department Of Art), and Maria Sputnik (Gazeta) & Connie Hockaday. Covers by Lori D and Brenna Murphy (Oregon Painting Society).

Book release and art exhibit May 1st Thursday. Then join the artists the following Saturday 12-2pm for Free Comic Book Day.

32 pgs, b&w interior, fc cover
FREE

LISTING INFORMATION:

WHO: Lori D, Kinoko Evans, Annie Murphy, Virginia Paine, Maria Sputnik
WHAT: Brad Trip free book release & art exhibit
WHEN: Thursday, May 3rd, 6-10pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

BIO INFORMATION:

Virginia Paine is from Wisconsin and has been living in Portland, OR for three years now.  She’s self-published several issues of her autobio comic Milkyboots, and she’s a partner at Sparkplug Books as well as a barista.  Her comics are featured in several anthologies and in Sadie magazine.  See more of her work at www.milkyboots.blogspot.com.

Annie Murphy is the author and artist behind I Still Live, a biography of spiritualist Achsa Sprague, as well as the editor of the comics anthology Gay Genius.  She’s lived in Portland most of her life., and has worked with many local artists on projects such as Collective Tarot: A Magical Collaboration, a radically politicked queer tarot deck.  Annie has also taught comics classes at the Independent Publishing Resource Center.

Kinoko Evans’ artwork has appeared in many Portland galleries, and her comics have been part of Zine City Comics.  She is originally from Philadelphia, and settled in Portland two years ago, and credits her present hometown with being “such a supportive place for cartooning”.  She is a freelance artist and illustrator. See kinokogallery.com for her website.

Brenna Murphy is a multi-media artist whose work includes music, video game design, and painting.  She is a member of the Oregon Painting Society, and is recording an album with her group MSHR.  She is from Seattle but has been a resident of Portland since 2006.

Aidan Koch is the creator behind the graphic novella The Whale, which is up for the Oregon Book Award.  She has been a resident of Portland for six years but as of this publication she is in Antwerp.  You can see her travel drawings at www.aidankochstudies.tumblr.com.

Dunja Jankovic is from Croatia but spends half the year here in beautiful Portland.  She has had numerous gallery shows locally and abroad, her artwork is featured in paintings, print work, and in comics.  Two of her comics, published by Sparkplug Books, are Dept of Art and Habitat #2.  See more of her stuff at http://www.tripica.org.

Maria Sputnik says:  Right now I’m making the minicomic Monster Treasure/Lake of Mystery, collaborating with Connie Hockaday on a big project about the Floating Neutrinos, and writing a book about the clitoris, the menstrual cycle, and the neuroscience of female orgasm.  You can contact me at mariasputnik.com, and you can contact Connie at constancehockaday.wordpress.com.

Lori D is originally from a small farm town in central California.  She has lived in Portland for around 5 years in all. She does freelance illustration & animation and also teaches at PNCA, the Art Institute of Portland, and the California State Summer School for the Arts. She is currently painting, finishing an animation project, and starting on a new zine.

Sharknife has fought 100 battles and its time to level up! But at what cost? Will he face defeat at the hands of his nemesis, Ombra the Orcasword? Who is Daring Hallelujah? And who are the SCARS of REXIMUS? Find out in SHARKNIFE: DOUBLE Z! Complete with new villains, new heroes, and new transformations!

Corey Lewis will be down from Seattle to celebrate the book release and present an exhibit of original artwork.

LISTING INFORMATION:

WHO: Corey Lewis
WHAT: Sharknife 2: Double Z book release and art exhibit
WHEN: Thursday, Apr. 5th, 6-10pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

Artwork on display until April 25th

BIO INFORMATION:

Corey S. Lewis “The Reyyy” is a comic book artist / illustrator living in Seattle, WA, USA, EARTH. He has various comics works published and is considered to have a pretty lively art style. He is a child of the 80′s/90′s and likes pop culture multi-media things like MUSIC, VIDEO GAMES, MOVIES, STREET ART, ROBOTS, PYRAMIDS, BREAKDANCING, NINJAS– all of which above all are ART, which he likes the best. Of all the ARTS, comics has been the most native to REYYY, so that’s what he draws.

http://reyyy.com/

D.I.Y. MAGIC by Anthony Alvarado
40 b&w illustrations, cover design by Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy
First edition letterpress silver foil cover limited to 1000 copies, 176 pages, 5″ x 8″, $13.95
Shipping $5.30 US, $11 INTL, $8 CANADA
Now available to order

What is magic? It is the fine and subtle art of driving yourself insane! No really, it is just that. It is a con game you play on your own brain. It is the trick of letting yourself go crazy, and when it’s done right, the magus treads the same sacred and profane ground where walks the madman…

We can read descriptions of myths, of the practices of shamans, but the descriptions we might read by a Pentecostal believer, or a voodoo practitioner ridden by the loa, will be meaningless to us unless we have already been in the state they describe. These are wholly subjective experiences.

If you take these many practices, from across countless fields, cultures, religions, modes of being and systems of ritual (hypnosis, song and dance, duende, speaking in tongues, enchantment, faith healing, divination, out of body experience, sweat lodges, drumming, yoga, drugs, fever and on and on), we find that we are really talking about the same thing: a state where the mind lets go of the normal way of being and is opened up to an experience of existence as a whole that is bigger and without time. These states are all really different forms of the same thing, or if not the precisely the same thing, then near and adjacent territories in a realm that lies parallel to this one, reachable by many means.

In short, rather than advertise this as a book of magick, it could just as well have been labeled a book of psychology hacking. Or a cookbook. Think of it as jail-breaking the iPhone of your mind. Teaching it to do things that its basic programming was never set up for. Advanced self-psychology.

Featuring over 40 b&w illustrations by: Lala Albert, Farel Dalrymple, Ines Estrada, Maureen Gubia, Kevin Hooyman, Dunja Jankovic, Aidan Koch, Jesse Moynihan, Luke Ramsey, Ron Rege Jr. & more!

“What makes this book vastly different from many other books on magic is that there’s no doubt in my mind that the author has actually done the things that he says he has. What’s more is that he has derived a great deal of pleasure and meaningful experience from the doing. And, so will you.” – Aaron Gach, Center For Tactical Magic

“Anthony Alvarado has concocted a cookbook for vivid living: poetry that’s lived rather than written.
His “spells” are actually practical suggestions by which the reader may coax the extraordinary from
the everyday—and from themselves.” – Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy, author of The Affected Provincial’s Companion

“Few books are as immediately useful as this delightful, inspirational tips ‘n’ tricks tome. I’m having a backyard betel nut party in five minutes and everyone’s invited!” -Jay Babcock, editor of Arthur Magazine

Read some of the original articles on Arthur Magazine that inspired this book: http://www.arthurmag.com/contributors/diy-magic-by-anthony-alvarado/

LISTING INFORMATION:

WHO: Ananth Panagariya & Yuko Ota
WHAT: Johnny Wander book signing
WHEN: Wednesday, Mar. 28th, 6-8pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

Bio info:

Ananth Panagariya is a writer, designer and reader who has produced work for Oni Press, First Second and Dark Horse Inc., including comics, t-shirt & ad design and production work. He writes constantly, and is usually putting pencil to paper, analog or otherwise.

Yuko Ota is a cartoonist and illustrator who has worked with publishers like Oni Press, Dark Horse Inc., Lerner Publishing and Red5. She draws on the subway, in coffee shops, on the living room couch and in her cozy home office somewhere in Brooklyn, NY.

Joe is a catmaster, trained to use his cat as any tool or weapon. His best friend Pete falls in love with an alien he’s forced to sell into green slavery, while his ex Anna watches her Xombie War veteran boyfriend turn into the drug he’s addicted to. King City, an underbelly of a town Run by spy gangs and dark dark magic with mystery down every alleyway.

All 12 hard-to-find issues collected in a 400+ page graphic novel. Brandon will be at Floating World from 6-9pm to sign books, sell art and meet fans.

LISTING INFORMATION:

WHO: Brandon Graham
WHAT: King City book release and signing
WHEN: Friday, Mar. 9th, 6-9pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

BIO INFORMATION:

Brandon Graham initially made a name for himself with such revered classics as Pillow Fight, Perverts of the Unknown, Universe So Big, October Yen, Escalator, Multiple Warheadz and the Eisner nominated series, KING CITY. This year Graham relaunched Rob Liefeld’s, PROPHET, with artist Simon Roy, as part of 2012’s Extreme line.

http://royalboiler.wordpress.com/