This January 5th we are proud to present a book signing and art exhibit with Tony Millionaire for his new book, 500 Portraits.

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.

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Join us and special guests, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick (close friends of Warren who are featured in the film) for an exclusive screening of the new documentary by Patrick Meaney, WARREN ELLIS: CAPTURED GHOSTS. We will have DVD copies of Meaney’s previous film for sale, GRANT MORRISON: TALKING WITH GODS.

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.

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PRESS GANG PUBLISHERS/COLLECTIVE

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)

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Floating World Comics presents its latest publication – Violence Valley, a 64 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.

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/

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