Small Press Expo 2017

Well, it's been a strange year so far for me and the Hidden Fortress Press. In April I had a severe pancreatic attack and had to be hospitalized for 2 weeks; apparently my gall bladder had been spitting gallstones into my system for months and I didn't realize that's what was causing all those terrible stomach pains. Well, one of those stones got real bold and lodged itself in my pancreatic duct and blew out my pancreas, leading to about 45% of my pancreas becoming necrotic.

So in between recovering from that episode, and then the subsequent surgery (to remove my gallbladder and the necrotized tissue), this has been something of a lost year for the Hidden Fortress. But I'm not willing to write it off as a total loss yet!

I had to cancel out on TCAF and CAKE because of all this, but I think I'm healthy enough to make the long journey to beautiful Bethesda MD for the Small Press Expo. I've had to delay all the projects I had in the works (SCREWJOB 5 has been sitting, half printed, at the print shop for the last 6 months), so I'm embarrassed to say I won't be debuting any new books at SPX. But I will be there, which is a step in the right direction for me.

Come visit me at table A-1, right next to Marc Arsenault's Alternative books (Marc was also betrayed by his guts this year). We'll be comparing surgical scars with any and all takers.

I'll be joined by two of the most talented young cartoonists working out of Minnesota, Marina Harkness and Peter Faecke! 

From Tinderella, by MS Harkness

From HairGuy, by Peter Faecke

You don't even know how happy I'll be to see you all there.

SCREWJOB #4 in Stores Now!

The first time I attempted to print the covers for SCREWJOB #4, everything on my press seemingly broke at once, and I struggled to get them printed. And much to my dismay (and probably due to all the technical challenges), the cover printed way too dark. I think I've got the press running properly now, so I've spent the last week perfecting these prints, and I'm happy to say the book is now done! You can find it here in the Hidden Fortress store, along with Peter Faecke's Major Bummer, the first in the new line of SCREWJOB Presents comics.

Tony Astone's SCREWJOB cover was a pain in the butt to print! But I love how it turned out

Pat Aulisio's Bull Nakano comic, alongside Macho Man working on his tan, by Box Brown

Big Fridge Frankenstein vs Pimplepuss Grody, by Tom Toye

New Jack mistreats the Dudley Boyz in Peter Faecke's "Two Justifiable Homicides"

Screwjob Presents: Major Bummer

Hidden Fortress is debuting a new anthology series at CAKE : Screwjob Presents! Each mini-sized issue will focus on the work of one SCREWJOB artist, and we're psyched to have Peter Faecke's Major Bummer as the inaugural book! 

 

I met Peter at last year's CAKE, he was wearing a repulsive shirt he'd made depicting the Iron Sheik doing terrible things to the Million Dollar man's manservant Virgil, and was psyched about what we were doing with SCREWJOB. I got him to do a comic for the next issue (which is only now coming out), and we started talking about working on another project. I think he had most of Major Bummer already drawn, I loved it and jumped at the chance to print it under the Screwjob Presents banner!  

Major Bummer is a top military operative, a true One Man Army Corps, tasked with smashing a South American Nazi enclave. No easy task, especially when the Nazi commander has turned himself into some kind of acid-spewing wolf/beastman! 

I'll have a big stack of Screwjob Presents at CAKE, after which they'll be available for purchase in the Hidden Fortress store!