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.

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 #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!

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 #2

Well, it's been an uncomfortably humid, and at times torrential, week down at the Hidden Fortress Press, which is not an ideal situation for printing in. The ink takes forever to dry, paper sticks together, and the machine is constantly barfing out paper jams and ink clots. But without a moment to spare, the second issue of SCREWJOB is FINALLY DONE!

Look at this amazing cover by Jimmy Giegerich:

Remember that time Stan Hansen stuck his finger in Vader's socket and just flicked that eyeball out of there? And Vader had to push it back in and keep wrestling for like another 15 minutes?! That moment in time has never looked more beautiful.

This issue features 10 sinister tales of the squared circle, from the warped minds of Blake Sims, Paul Lyons, Melissa Mendes, Box Brown, Guy Benoit and Rick Altergott, Walker Mettling, Josh Bayer, Beaver, Pat Aulisio and Clark Jackson, with endpages featuring portraits of some of the most Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling by Julia Gualtieri.

More scenes from the past two week's blitz of printing:

after the printing comes the cutting, folding, collating, stapling and trimming

Stan Hansen's handiwork ad infinitum

 I love this detail from Beaver's Great Muta vs Kabuki comic

Sugar Cane Diaz by Guy Benoit and Rick Altergott

Bret "the Hitman" Hart, doing what he does best, by Pat Aulisio

If you're in Chicago this weekend, come find the Hidden Fortress table at CAKE for first shot at getting your hands on this book, otherwise you'll have to wait a week or so until I put it up in the Hidden Fortress store

SCREWJOB #2

This past week we saw a great review on Sequential State of the first issue of SCREWJOB, got some love from UltraMantis Black, and spent the weekend with Box Brown and Pat Aulisio in Philadelphia watching some live wrestling and talking about SCREWJOB #2!

The first issue of SCREWJOB was a great success for us, it's a beautiful book, with some amazing comics in it, and it's selling well, so it's a bit of a no-brainer to greenlight a sequel. Apparently there really is an audience for gross-out wrestling comics!

Box gets the party started with this grim "what if?" take on the death of Vince McMahon:

Pat gives us a glimpse into some of the little known nocturnal activities of Bret "the Hitman" Hart:

And Blake Sims brings us the tragic story of the Death of Bruiser Brody:

you can buy a sweet T-shirt of Blake's Bruiser here

SCREWJOB

I think maybe it's finally time to start talking about SCREWJOB, our new comics anthology devoted to those glorious combatants within the squared circle: the professional wrestler! Over the past couple of months I've leaked some previews of Box Brown's Abudllah the Butcher comic, Pat Aulisio's Goldust and Lale Westvind's Wild Wanda, and here are a few more:

Josh Bayer was the first person I asked to work on this book, within minutes of having the idea for it pop into my head last year at Comic Arts Brooklyn. Of course I had to ask him, he's a brilliant cartoonist and a connoisseur of the wrestling arts, the perfect blend for creating something as beautiful as this Classy Freddie Blassie comic:

As a wrestler and a manager, Freddie Blassie was one of the greatest heels the wrestling world has ever seen, and had been known to take a nail file to his teeth, sharpening them so that they could more easily penetrate the tough skin around his opponent's skull

About a week ago, Pat Aulisio sent me a link to some of Blake Sims' rad wrestling comics, suggesting that I contact him to work on the book. Of course I did, because his stuff is so sweet, but with the art deadline looming I felt pangs of guilt about not having asked him months ago... but somehow this dude cranked out an epic Hulk Hogan vs Kevin Sullivan and his Dungeon of Doom comic in a weekend! What a badass

I'm really excited about how this book is coming together! There are more comics coming in every day, all of which I'll be previewing soon, James Quigely (aka GUNSHO) is hard at work on the cover, and I just got some amazing Tigermask and Mr Fudo pinups from Matt Leines. This book is looking beautiful!

If all goes according to plan, SCREWJOB will be available at the Hidden Fortress table at SPX in September!

Showtimes

I'm starting to fill out the Hidden Fortress travel plan for 2014, and it's shaping up to be a pretty exciting year...

April 12th we'll be making our west coast debut at Linework NW in Portland, OR. I think this is the inaugural year for this show; it's being organized by Zack Soto and Francois Vigneault, and I get the sense that it's going to be one of the really good ones. Plus I've never been to Portland! I've heard that I will dine like a vegan prince while there...

On the weekend of May 10-11 we'll be making our triumphant return to TCAF in Toronto ON. Last year was my first visit to TCAF, and I was blown away! Such a good show, with fantastic programming, and a huge turnout. And Toronto is absolutely beautiful.

We'll be traveling to Chicago on the weekend of May 31 - June 1 for CAKE. This will be CAKE's 3rd year, and I'm proud to say that we've been with them from the beginning. It's always one of the most fun shows of the year; so many good, talented folks in Chicago!

September 13-14 is SPX weekend. Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD is the premier indy comics show on the east coast, maybe in the whole country, and I'm psyched that we'll be participating in it once again. SPX is so important to our scene, on so many levels, it's hard to imagine a world without it... I'm looking forward to being a part of this show for a long, long time.

There are a couple more shows on the horizon that I'm hoping to add to my calendar, like the Rhode Island Indy Publishing Expo this summer and Comic Arts Brooklyn in the fall, but they both seem to be in a developmental stage right now. I'll have more information about them in the future.

The Hidden Fortress is working on a number of projects for release in 2014, which we'll be rolling out over the course of the year at these shows. Here's a preview of one of those new books, an anthology honoring those glorious combatants of the squared circle:

Box Brown has been slaving away on a highly anticipated Andre the Giant biography which will finally be seeing the light of day sometime this year. I'm thrilled that he drew this harrowing tale of Abdullah the Butcher (the greatest blader in wrestling history) for our book! He has a number of beautiful portraits of wrestling superstars for sale at his store, go check em out