Before Jules Verne’s flying machines and H. G. Wells’s spaceships, there was Frank Reade, globe-trotting inventor and original steampunk hero. Starting in the nineteenth century, Frank Reade magazines were the world’s first science fiction periodicals. Now Frank Reade and his progeny are back in a new book: Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention! To celebrate the launch of this stunningly designed book, authors Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett—of Boilerplate fame—are hosting a series of events that any Reade family member would be proud to attend.

The events will be held on three consecutive Wednesdays in February, at three Portland comic book stores. Each will have a different theme—Land, Sea, and Air—the three realms Frank Reade explores in his electric vehicles. The authors will also display each of the three model vehicles Guinan himself built for the Frank Reade book, which are rarely shown in public. Attendees will have the chance to talk with the authors and get books signed, as well as meet local steampunks (Land), pirates (Sea), and superheroes (Air).

BONUS: There’s a prize at the grand finale event! The first ten attendees who make it to all three events and get their “Land, Sea, and Air” passports stamped will receive a print of an original Frank Reade engraving signed by both authors, plus custom-stamped Frank Reade chocolate “gold coins” (which will also be available for purchase).

Publishers Weekly predicts Frank Reade will “satisfy even the hardest to please of readers” and praises it as “a stunning multimedia confection of the highest order that creates a detailed and delightful world.”

EVENT CALENDAR

Feb. 8, 6-9 pm: LAND
Location: Floating World Comics (www.floatingworldcomics.com)
400 NW Couch St., Portland, OR 97209
Guests: Rose City Steampunks, Local 23 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rcsteam/)
Vehicle: Frank Reade Jr.’s Valiant, an electric battle-wagon

Feb. 15, 6-9 pm: SEA
Location: Bridge City Comics (www.bridgecitycomics.com)
3725 N Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR 97227
Guests: PDXYAR (http://pdxyar.org)
Vehicle: Frank Reade Sr. & Jr.’s Centennial, an electric ironclad gunboat
Bonus: A mock battle between pirates and author Paul Guinan as Frank Reade Jr.!

Feb. 22, 7-10 pm: AIR
Location: Things From Another World (www.tfaw.com)
4133 NE Sandy Blvd., Portland, OR 97214
Guests: Alter Egos Society (www.alteregossociety.com)
Vehicle: “Wild” Kate Reade’s Aegis, a helicopter airship
Bonus: Prizes awarded to the first ten people who attend all three events, plus all attendees will have exclusive opportunity to purchase custom-stamped Frank Reade chocolate “gold coins.”

About the Authors:
Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett have been collaborating as storytellers since 1989, on works such as their Eisner Award–nominated science fiction comic book series Heartbreakers and their critically acclaimed book Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel. They live in Portland, Oregon.

For more information about Frank Reade, visit www.FrankReade.com or join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/232748148547/

Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention
By Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett
Abrams Image
U.S. $24.95
Hardcover, 176 pages / 8½” x 11″
100 full-color and 200 black-and-white illustrations

Also, after the talk, Frank will lead an informal FREE workshop focusing on formats available for the comic book maker in 2012. Everyone is welcome. Come see what Frank Santoro’s Correspondence Course is all about – or come on down just to argue with Frank – maybe even buy a book and get it signed.

LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Frank Santoro
WHAT: Frank Santoro’s Comic Book Layout Workshop
WHEN: Thursday Feb. 9th, 6-8pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

Frank Santoro is the artist behind the acclaimed comic books Storeyville and Cold Heat. His work has also appeared in Kramers Ergot. He has exhibited his drawings and paintings internationally. Based in Pittsburgh, Santoro is well known for his visionary colors and evocative sense of place.

http://franksantoro.tumblr.com/

http://www.tcj.com/layout-workbook/

Emi and Natalie have each created a brand new archival print which will also be available at the show.

LISTING INFORMATION:

WHO: Emi Lenox, Natalie Nourigat

WHAT: Art exhibit and print release

WHEN: Thursday Feb. 2nd, 6-10pm

WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

Art on display until Feb. 29

BIO INFORMATION:

Based out of Portland, Oregon, Emi Lenox is a comic creator widely known for EmiTown which was released into a printed collection by Image in Dec. ’10. She has also had work in Mike Allred’s Madman and Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth. She has just finished working on the second collection of EmiTown. Basically, she’s just a nutty girl with a case of the munchies and a deep fond love for comics, cats, bassets, and iPods.

http://emitown.blogspot.com/

Natalie ‘Tally’ Nourigat, is a sequential artist living in Portland, Oregon. Natalie graduated from the University of Oregon’s Clark Honors College in 2010. Her first book, Between Gears, is about to be published by Image Comics. She is currently working on a new graphic novel and a children’s book series. She appeared in Image Comics’ anthology ‘This Is A Souvenir’ in 2009 and is a member of Periscope Studios.

http://natalienourigat.com/

I’ve been looking forward to putting this 2011 bestseller list, mainly out of curiosity. It’s been a strange year for print and comics. The new Kindle has a miniature incinerator which seems a bit aggressive. Yet our sales were up from last year. The business is still growing. I’ve noticed that customers are buying less monthly comics, but trade and graphic novel sales remain strong. Sales are also great for deluxe hardcovers and expensive omnibus collections. People will invest in quality.

But first let’s look at quantity. Which books brought in the most foot traffic?

Best selling DC title (by quantity): ACTION COMICS #1

Best selling Marvel title (by quantity): FEAR ITSELF #1

Best selling titles published by everyone else (by quantity): DIAMOND #6, LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN III CENTURY #2, NONPLAYER #1, LOSE #3, I WANT YOU #2, THB COMICS FROM MARS #2, CRICKETS #3, OPTIC NERVE #12, BOYS CLUB #4, A FIELD GUIDE TO THE ALIENS OF STAR TREK TNG, THICKNESS #2, WITCH DOCTOR #1, BUFFY SEASON 9 #1, HELLBOY THE FURY #2, MADMAN NEW GIANT SIZE SUPER GINCHY SPECIAL, GANGSTA RAP POSSE #2

Ok now the list of bestsellers by dollar amount. I multiplied the quantity sold by the retail price, and these are the books that made the most paper in 2011.

1. INCAL CLASSIC COLLECTION HC (Humanoids)
2. HABIBI (Pantheon)
3. MADMAN ATOMICA HC (Image)
4. ANYA’S GHOST (First Second)
5. EMITOWN (Image)
6. BIG QUESTIONS (D&Q)
7. IVY HC (Oni)
8. DAYTRIPPER (DC/Vertigo)
9. METABARONS SLIPCASE (Humanoids)
10. EYES OF THE CAT HC (Humanoids)

11. LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN III CENTURY #2 (Top Shelf)
12. WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM (Image)
13. PAYING FOR IT (D&Q)
14. ORC STAIN VOL. 1 (Image)
15. FINDER LIBRARY VOL. 1 (Dark Horse)
16. TEKKON KINKREET (Viz)
17. DIAMOND #6 (Floating World)
18. FABLES VOL. 15 (DC/Vertigo)
19. CRICKETS #3 (Self published/Fantagraphics)
20. SUPERGODS HC (Spiegel & Grau)

21. ACTION COMICS #1 (DC)
22. WE 3 DELUXE HC (DC/Vertigo)
23. CASANOVA VOL. 2 (Marvel/Icon)
24. CAPACITY (Secret Acres)
25. BATWOMAN ELEGY TP (DC)

Interesting observations about 2011′s list:

Three books by Jodorowsky, two of those are collaborations with Moebius. I think Humanoids had a good year.

Four out of the top five books made by Portland creators (pretty sure Allred was living in Portland at the time).

Not very many superheroes on the list. No Marvel books unless you include their creator owned imprint, Icon. Image had the most publications on the list.

I thought Alan Moore had left the comics industry? He’s still selling lots of them.

Omnibuses. Collect your single issues in a trade. Then collect your trades in an omnibus. Next publishers will offer something called a “Shelf”.

Capacity and Tekkon Kinkreet have made the list three years in a row. Hey Viz: NUMBER FIVE

We made the list with Diamond 6. I look forward to even more publishing in 2012.

Self publishing! Emitown, Big Questions, Ivy, Finder and Capacity all started as self published books that later got picked up by bigger publishers for distribution. Diamond 6 and Crickets #3 were straight up self published.

Seven titles on the list were more than $30. Only two were saddle stitched. One was unbound.

2012 predictions: Nobrow is working out their US distribution with Perseus. Once the books are readily available they are going to blow up even bigger. Humanoids brings a Moebius book back into print, it quickly goes out of print again. There will be more Brandon Graham comics in the world. Hopefully some new books by Julia Gfrörer and Theo Ellsworth. Michael DeForge, Lisa Hanawalt, Matt Furie, and Benjamin Marra continue their streak of awesome. I’m looking forward to McSweeney’s new children’s book imprint, McMullens, with new books illustrated by Matt Furie, Hanawalt, Jordan Crane, Jack Teagle. Koyama Press and Ryan Sands will deliver more excellent work. Jonny Negron and Uno Moralez are next. Battling Boy?

Floating World Comics presents its latest publication – Violence Valley, a 56 page odyssey of animated absurdity by Jesse McManus.

A bright, dumb, gap-toothed lad goes rambling out-doors, inevitably finding himself within the deepest bowels of a living, breathing dog. His passage out the other end involves homespun dental work, a transforming pan-flute and the kind of reverse infestation which will make anyone look twice before they flush.

This comic, told with a void of verbiage that would make Franz Masreel howl at the moon, writhes with rubbery ink while doing a frenetic dance on the fence between classic cartooning and op-art abstraction. If you shoved John Kricfalusi in a blender with Mat Brinkman and successfully dared Bridget Riley to drink the mixture, her resulting stool would look identical to this comic book.

For some, it will recall the joys of freestyle walking down curved pavement, greeting dripping dogs and cross-eyed children. For others, it will recall their lunch as it lurches onto their tongue. In either case, the cyclical structure and ingrained velocity of Violence Valley will instigate the kind of reading experience that leaves folks wet and grinning.

Violence Valley 10 page preview:

56 pages saddle stitched, 7.5″ x 7.5″, $8

500 Portraits collects for the first time over two decades of portrait work by the beloved and award-winning creator of Drinky Crow’s Maakies, Sock Monkey and Billy Hazelnuts. Tony Millionaire’s gorgeous fountain pen illustrations, which mingle naturalistic detail with strong doses of the fanciful and grotesque, include the famous (Bob Dylan), the infamous (Abu Ghraib soldier/model Lynndie England), the fictional (Yoda), the animal kingdom (a cockroach), and everything in between. Literary figures (Hemingway), literary characters (Don Quixote & Sancho Panza), Hollywood legends (Steven Spielberg), comics icons (Hergé) and historical figures (Hitler) also figure prominently.

Millionaire’s impeccable linework resembles that of Johnny Gruelle (creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy), whom he cites as one of his main sources of inspiration along with Ernest Shepard and “all those freaks from the ’20s and ’30s who did the newspaper strips.”

Many of these 500 portraits were created for The Believer, the magazine founded by Dave Eggers that Millionaire has helped define visually with his signature portraits of interview subjects in every issue since the magazine started. But it also includes dozens if not hundreds of illustrations from various other publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Ephemera Press Historical Maps, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Tony Millionaire
WHAT: 500 Portraits book release and art exhibit
WHEN: Thursday Jan. 5th, 6-10pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

BIO INFORMATION:

“I think Tony Millionaire can only do important things.” — Dave Eggers

“Buy 500 Portraits by Tony Millionaire and see me with hair.” – Peter Landau

Tony Millionaire was born in 1956 and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He grew up surrounded by a family of artists. His mother teaches art to Junior High School students, while his father is an advertiser and designer. Two of Millionaire’s grandparents were artists (one of his grandfathers was friends with the cartoonist Roy Crane). Millionaire’s mentor/grandfather was also an illustrator for the Saturday Evening Postand various adventure books and magazines. Millionaire also picked up his predilection for drawing ships and ocean scenes from his grandfather.

Millionaire attended the Massachusetts College of Art in 1974 for four years. Until the age of 35, he made extra money by drawing people’s houses for about $50.00 a piece. Before achieving fame and fortune with Fantagraphics, he also did illustration work for The New York Press and The New Yorker, and animation for Saturday Night Live.

Tony Millionaire’s Maakies is one of the most popular weekly comic strips in America, running in over ten of the largest U.S. weekly newspapers, including The Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Seattle’s The Stranger. Maakies features the comical adventures of a drunken crow on the high seas, blending vaudeville-style humor and a breathtaking line that hearkens back to the glory days of the American comic strip. He has won numerous Eisner and Harvey Awards, including “Best Syndicated Strip” in 2004.

Tony Millionaire lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife, the actress Becky Thyre, and their two daughters.

The film features the most extensive interview Ellis has ever given, and spans his life, from his first memory watching the moon landing as a child, to his recent cross-media success with the film adaptation of Red. Along the way, Ellis’s acerbic wit and core belief in humanity comes across like never before.

Complimenting Ellis’s own words are interviews with his artistic collaborators, friends and admirers from across all media, including actress Helen Mirren, Director Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), comedian Patton Oswalt, Adult Film Star Stoya, Musician Claudio Sanchez (of Coheed and Cambria), comics writers Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue DeConnick, and Antony Johnston, and futurist Jamais Cascio. Ellis’s comics collaborators like Marvel Comics CCO Joe Quesada, artists Darick Robertson, Ben Templesmith and Phil Jimenez also provide insight into Ellis’s mind and creative workings. The film features numerous ambient interludes that spotlight Ellis’s prose and writing from both his online columns and his comics.

LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Matt Fraction & Kelly Sue DeConnick Q&A after the film
WHAT: Free screening of WARREN ELLIS: CAPTURED GHOSTS
WHEN: Friday Jan. 6th, 7-9pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

Bio info:

Warren Ellis sees the future. He is a comic book writer and cyberpunk philosopher living on the edge of tomorrow. He speaks to a cult audience of artists, journalists, scientists and fans who hail him as INTERNET JESUS.

The film was shot over the course of 2010 and 2011 in England, San Diego and New York. It was completed in Fall 2011 and will premiere at the Napa Valley Film Festival in November 2011, before a worldwide theatrical and special engagement run. DVD release will follow in February 2011.

The film was directed by Patrick Meaney, shot by Jordan Rennert, and produced by Respect Films and Sequart, as a followup to the critically acclaimed Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods.

FAMILY STYLE
FLOATING WORLD COMICS
STUDY GROUP COMIC BOOKS

BOUND TOGETHER/INK IS THE NEW BLOODS

Press Gang publishers’ party… A trio of like-minded publishers banding together to increase the awesomeness in a variety of as yet super-secret ways and shapes.

LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Zack Soto, François Vigneault, Aidan Koch, Jennifer Parks, Chris Cilla
WHAT: Studygroup Magazine book release and art exhibit
WHEN: Wednesday Dec. 7th, 6-8pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

BIO INFORMATION:

The long-running Studygroup12 anthology has mutated once again. Now known as Study Group Magazine, it’s a hybrid magazine of cartooning excellence and comics journalism. Printed in vivid two-tone throughout and co-edited by series creator Zack Soto and former Comics Journal editor Milo George, our 64-page debut is a thing of fucking beauty.

Featuring comics and art by:

TREVOR ALIXOPULOS (Hot Breath of War, Mine Tonight)
CHRIS CILLA (The Heavy Hand, Kramers Ergot)
MICHAEL DEFORGE (Lose, Thickness)
DAVID KING (Lemon Styles, Crime World)
AIDAN KOCH (The Whale, Astral Talk)
JONNY NEGRON (Chameleon, VICE Comics)
JENNIFER PARKS (The Lone Wolf, Studygroup12)
ZACK SOTO (The Secret Voice, Ghost Attack)
DARIA TESSLER (Elf World)
MALACHI WARD (Expansion, MOME)

With the features:

BRECHT EVENS profiled by Greice Schneider (The Comics Grid)
ELEANOR DAVIS interviewed by Zack Soto (Studygroup12)
And a monster interview with CRAIG THOMPSON by Milo George (TCJ Library)

A bright, dumb, gap-toothed lad goes rambling out-doors, inevitably finding himself within the deepest bowels of a living, breathing dog. His passage out the other end involves homespun dental work, a transforming pan-flute and the kind of reverse infestation which will make anyone look twice before they flush.

This comic, told with a void of verbiage that would make Franz Masreel howl at the moon, writhes with rubbery ink while doing a frenetic dance on the fence between classic cartooning and op-art abstraction. If you shoved John Kricfalusi in a blender with Mat Brinkman and successfully dared Bridget Riley to drink the mixture, her resulting stool would look identical to this comic book.

For some, it will recall the joys of freestyle walking down curved pavement, greeting dripping dogs and cross-eyed children. For others, it will recall their lunch as it lurches onto their tongue. In either case, the cyclical structure and ingrained velocity of Violence Valley will instigate the kind of reading experience that leaves folks wet and grinning.

LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Jesse McManus
WHAT: Violence Valley book release and art exhibit
WHEN: Thursday Dec. 1st, 6-10pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.

BIO INFORMATION:

Jesse McManus was born in 1986 and lives in Portland, OR. Though Violence Valley is his first solo comic book to be published, he has appeared in the anthologies Kramers Ergot 7 and Dan Quayl as well as a slew of mini-comics.

His recent animation work has been shown in the Floating World Animation Festival DMTV2 and the Eyeworks Festival in Chicago, IL. He spends daylight hours working at Bent Image Lab as a character designer and production assistant.

http://www.heyfu.com/