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.

Philly Small Press Faire

Tonight after work, I'll be driving to Philadelphia with a carload of books for the first ever Philly Small Press Faire.

The Faire is the brain child of Pat Aulisio, who was generous enough to extend the Hidden Fortress an invitation to display our goods (despite the fact that my press broke down and I was once again unable to finish printing his Rotaderp book. It's so good! I can't wait to fix that machine so I can bring it into reality).

Here's the poster that Box Brown did for the show:

This is going to be our last show of the year! So if you're in Philly and haven't already got whatever it is we make, please stop in and visit! Or just stop in and visit, I'd love to see you.

RIPExpo 2016

RIPExpo poster by Marcel Mensah

I'm about to embark on a lovely mid-morning stroll to the downtown library here in Providence, for the third annual RIPExpo. It's one of my favorite shows of the year, and not just because I can walk to it. Good show, run by good people. Special guests this year include Ben Passmore, Hellen Jo, local hero Xander Marro and the lovely Kevin Czap of Czap Books

I'll be tabling there with an assortment of SCREWJOBS, Major Bummers and MONSTER books for sale. This little dude is going to be there, and is finally available for purchase in the Hidden Fortress store once again:

I'll see you 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!

SCREWJOB #4!

The Hidden Fortress has been buzzing with activity the last couple of weeks, madly printing SCREWJOB 4s for CAKE next weekend in Chicago! Look at this insane cover from my favorite mad genius, Tony Astone:

SCREWJOB 4 Cover by Tony Astone

SCREWJOB 4 offers another fifty pages of pro wrestling debauchery, lovingly illustrated by the likes of Peter Faecke, Bunny Bisoux, Box Brown, Pat Aulisio, Tom Toye, Hiromi Ueyoshi, Blake Sims and more!

From Pat Aulisio's Bull Nakano comic

Bi-valves engaged in a deadly ballet, by Hiromi Ueyoshi

Young Bucks superkicking their way through history, by Blake Sims

Dudley Boyz, about to get murdered, by Peter Faecke

Look for this book at CAKE, and then soon after in the Hidden Fortress store, and other fine retailers!

Hidden Fortress Print Club and the ICONS of Pro Wrestling!

I've been loving my time working at local print shop the Headlight Hotel. We're already feeling the heat of the summer concert season, as a steady stream of psychedelic tour posters for jam bands I've never heard of are piling up. I'm forever grateful that they've allowed me to indulge in my latest print obsession in the hours after dark:

The American Dream, by Box Brown, 2016
Edition of 50

RVD 420, by Pat Aulisio, 2016
Edition of 50

The Hidden Fortress Print Club is a semi-regular (I'd love to make it monthly) series of limited edition silkscreen prints. Our first two editions are by Box Brown and Pat Aulisio, who both decided to use fluorescent inks in their designs (I'm going to have to figure out how to photograph them under a blacklight, they look sick). 

I'll be bringing these prints to Philadelphia, where tomorrow, Pat, Box and I are going to be tabling at the ICONS of Pro Wrestling show.

Photo courtesy of Box Brown

It's a pro wrestling/comic book "collector fest", which seems like it's exactly in our wheelhouse. Plus it's taking place in the old ECW arena, which is just too perfect. Pat is so excited to show RVD his print. And I'm going to be trying my best to keep Shawn Michaels from seeing Pat's "Hitman" comic from SCREWJOB 2.

 

If you can't make it to the show in Philly, these prints will be up in the Hidden Fortress store as soon as I get home. The first of many!

Comic Arts Brooklyn 2015

Well I'm just about to hop in the car, trunk overflowing with comic books, and drive down to Brooklyn, NY for the 2015 edition of CAB, the Comic Arts Brooklyn. It looks like they've put together a hell of a show, once again. We'll be downstairs at the Mt Carmel Gymnasium, tabling next to Mickey Z, Mike T and Walker M!

MICE2015 and SCREWJOB Second Printings

The good news is we sold out of the first printing of SCREWJOB #1! Obviously, that's good for a number of reasons, but most importantly, I've been wanting to get a second crack at printing that cover; I never felt like I got the colors right the first time around... So I just wrapped up the official second printing (yesterday, the ink's still a little wet), and I think the colors are much better!

Trying to make Gunsho happy

We'll be in Cambridge, MA for the MICE (the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) this weekend, come grab your SCREWJOBs, hot off the presses!! If you're looking for us, we'll be at Table 43 in the Atrium, right next to Robyn Chapman and her Paper Rocket press:

Cartoon Crossroads 2015

This weekend the Hidden Fortress will be traveling west for the first ever Cartoon Crossroads in Columbus, Ohio! They're trying to spin it as a "trial" or "beta" run of the show, but with three days of awesome events and programming, and special guests like Bill Griffith, Art Spiegelman, Francoise Mouly, Jaime Hernandez and Jeff Smith (among others!), they already seem to be rolling with the big dogs. I'm really looking forward to being a part of it all!

Not sure exactly where the Hidden Fortress table will be located (here's where I'd typically attach an incredibly useful floor map), but there are so many good folks in the room, we're sure to be sitting next to somebody good! The exhibit hall will be located at the Cultural Arts Center, 139 W Main St, from 11AM until 6PM on Saturday, October 3.

At the very least, I'm psyched to check out the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum while I'm there!

On the Road to SPX 2015

The car is loaded with SCREWJOBs, Monster books, comics, zines and T-shirts, and we're south-bound for beautiful Bethesda, MD for the Small Press Expo! You'll be able to find us at table K2, right next to the amazing Michel Fiffe and Kat Roberts:

I've spent the past couple of weeks jamming away on this new issue of SCREWJOB, here are some photos from the production:

Piles of Screwjobs, waiting to be boxed up

Handsome looking beasts

Bruiser Brody getting physical, by Paul Lyons

Eric Bischoff, hating life by Box Brown

Ultimate Warrior, defender of Earth, by Lukasz Kowalczuk

New Screwjob shirts, print and photo by John Hunter of Local 401

Hopefully we'll see you all there!!

SCREWJOB #3

It's hard to believe, but in just two weeks, SCREWJOB 3 will be debuting at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD! I know I'm finding it rather hard to believe, I've got a TON of production work over the next 14 days to get there... But let's not think about that now! Instead, let us bask in some of this beautiful, beastly art!

Check out this SIIIIICK cover by Jon Vermilyea! One of my favorite illustrators working today, and the sweetest of dudes

Pat Auliso, Blake Sims and Box Brown will be forming the nucleus of the SCREWJOB heel stable, and are joined once again by BEAVER, who welcomes the greatest wrestler to ever preside in the oval office into the fold:

I'm super excited to welcome Ed Luce into the SCREWJOB stable! And I'm so psyched that GOTEBLUD and the demented Cock Rocker are finally gracing our pages! 

JB Roe and Brett Williams bring us a tale of the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes, running afoul of the 4 Horsemen in a terrifying post-apocalyptic wasteland. Bringing some of that good Fist of North Star-inspired ultraviolence!

Now look at this deliriously amazing Ultimate Warrior spread that will be gracing the centerfold of SCREWJOB 3, by Lukasz Kowalczuk creator of the amazing Vreckless Vrestlers!!

I'm also bringing these grotesque SCREWJOB shirts to SPX, a loving homage to Dick "the Destroyer" Beyer, so come find us on the showroom floor! We can meet all your pro wrestling gross-out comics needs! 

Entering a Room Full of People, by Tom Toye

If you've been following Tom Toye's Tumblr, then you've probably seen bits and pieces of his epic project, ENTERING A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE (EARFOP). Well, Tom came up and visited us at the Hidden Fortress last weekend, as we put the finishing touches on the book:

EARFOP is a joint production of the Illogical Comics Estate and Hidden Fortress Press, it features 44 pages of stomach churning, brain-breaking comics printed in 2 colors on the offset press, wrapped up in a beautiful and insane cover, silk-screened by Tom himself. 

I spent two weeks printing this book, and spent most of that time in the shop blasting early 80's Teutonic thrash metal (the unholy trifecta of Kreator, Destruction and Sodom), so it's no surprise that in talking about EARFOP I keep dropping descriptors like "corpse-ripping", "morbid" and "total destruction", but it's really a thing of beauty. Like a fragrant, pallid night-blooming flower, grown from a carcass that has rotted and become fertile.

See what I mean?

It was awesome having Tom join us in the shop! It was a real nose-to-the-grindstone weekend, and I was thankful to have him there for the tedious chore of folding and collating...

Tom will have copies of EARFOP for sale this weekend at the Paper Jam Small Press Fest, and is now available to purchase in the Hidden Fortress store!

SCREWJOB debuts at CAKE!

This past weekend the Hidden Fortress relocated to Chicago for CAKE, and debuted the new issue of SCREWJOB to the unsuspecting masses there. If you missed the show, that's ok, SCREWJOB #2 is now available in the Hidden Fortress store!

CAKE was a great success, and I was psyched to meet a lot of other folks making wrestling comics! Check out Hiromi Ueyoshi's WWWF book for some amazing panther vs gator wrestling action

Matt Reints made some dreamy mini-comics about the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes, Aaron Poliwoda gave me some of his intense Ultimate Warrior and Chris Benoit comics, and JB Roe's Suplex Superstars Volume 1 is a thing of beauty!

Tom Toye was also at CAKE with a prototype of the Illogical Comics/Hidden Fortress Press collaboration, Entering a Room Full of People, which he's been working on for the past year, and it's mind-numbingly beautiful!! I'm psyched to get started printing this book, it's incredible!