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"

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:

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 #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

Short Run 2014

Tomorrow I'll be flying west for the Short Run fest in Seattle, WA. I've been to Seattle once before, but literally breezed through on my tour of the mountain ranges of the Pacific NW earlier this year. I'm looking forward to taking the time to get acquainted this time around!

It's my first time at Short Run, but I've heard it's a wonderful show, and the folks who put it on are top notch! If you're in town, come out and visit me at table E-21

The main exhibit space is at Washington Hall, 153 14th Ave in Seattle, WA, but there are events happening all over the city over the course of the week! I'll only be there for the weekend though, so plan accordingly

MICExpo 2014

This weekend, October 4-5, the Hidden Fortress will be setting down in nearby Cambridge, MA for the 5th annual MICExpo (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo). Look for us at table C-125, in the Crumb room, with all the other crumbums!

We'll have all the MONSTERS, wrestling comics, t-shirts and stickers you could ever possibly want!

New Additions to the Hidden Fortress Catalog

We've added two new items to the Hidden Fortress Storenvy store:

the mighty SCREWJOB anthology is available for purchase! Featuring 64 pages of pulse pounding, intestinal fortitude building, four color offset printed comics by: Matt Leines, Box Brown, Pat Aulisio, Lale Westvind, Josh Bayer, Blake Sims, Brian Ralph, Paul Lyons, Mickey Zacchilli, Walker Mettling and featuring a grotesque cover by James "Gunsho" Quigley!

and this new gross-out Hidden Fortress shirt, three color silkscreen on black Anvil T. comes in all the most popular sizes!

James "GUNSHO" Quigley: SCREWJOB Cover Artist

I'm thrilled to be able to show off the cover art for our forthcoming anthology, SCREWJOB:

You've probably seen that sickening style before, it's the handiwork of good friend and local legend James Quigely, alternately known as GUNSHO! For years he's been producing some of the most wonderfully hideous prints, posters, record covers, shirts, etc and etc that have ever graced our fair city. He has an interview in the new issue of PORK Magazine that you should probably read, and if you're in Brooklyn on Friday, September 19, you should go to the opening of his Origins of Ooze show, presented by Scumbags and Superstars. It's at 16 Wilson Ave. Bushwick, Brooklyn, and the show will be up until October 5!

So exciting to see this book come together!

Jordan Crane

Jordan Crane is one of the best people working in comics; he's frighteningly talented,  incredibly kind and generous. in the mid 90's, he began editing and publishing (and contributing to) NON, which set the pace for all other comics anthologies of the time, and granted exposure to a number of unknown comics creators who would go on to be big-timers. the line-up for NON #5 alone reads like a Murderers' Row of funny book badassery: Jason, Brinkman, Megan Kelso, Nick Bertozzi, Chippendale, BRalph, Rege, Paul Pope, David Choe, Steven Weissman, Kurt Wolfgang, and many many others... now that's a heavy book.

and now, with a number of books under his belt, and two regular titles (Keeping Two and Uptight), and his regular production of beautiful prints and illustrations (seriously, check out all the stuff in his store), it's kind of shocking that he had time to send us this fantastic comic for the new MONSTER:

...but i sure am grateful that he did. actually, this is the second appearance Jordan has made in the pages of MONSTER, he did a story for a long lost, finished but never printed, volume of MONSTER about 15 years ago. wait, 15 years? it can't have been that long, can it?

well, if i can ever get the covers from BRalph, i'll be finally putting that lost MONSTER together and made available in the Hidden Fortress shop. i'll let you know how that goes.

STORENVY

there is now a Hidden Fortress storenvy store, which is a great place to buy all our comics, and whatever else we decide to make, like that shirt i made with this grotesque image on it:

i'll keep the Big Cartel store around for now, but truthfully, the storenvy store will be getting most of my attention.

http://hiddenfortress.storenvy.com/

CAKE 2013

the Hidden Fortress Press is thrilled to be returning to the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo on June 15-16th! Walker Mettling, of the Providence Comics Consortium, has been kind enough to provide this Providence comics family cheat-sheet for finding us all out there on the floor:

just looking at that map, and without even knowing who's at the rest of those tables, it's easy to tell that this show will be a tour de force. Leif Goldberg is one of the most talented folks i know, i'm sure he'll be bringing some wondrous wares to Chicago; i know that Cybele and Olivia will both have amazing new books; Walker has a talent for getting some of the best cartoonists alive to work on the PCC anthologies with him; Mike T and Mickey Z are two of my favorite people, and favorite artists. i'm sure they'll have new comics too, possibly a RAV8 from Mickey?; Caroline Paquita and her Pegacorn Press can work wonders with a Risograph; and Jo Dery is one of the greatest and most talented people i've ever met. oh, and she did all the promotional art for CAKE this year too.

i'm sad to say that i won't be able to make it this year; the show looks to be a great one, with so many wonderful people under one roof! in my absence, Roby Newton will be there to run the Hidden Fortress table. you should stop by and see her, she's the bee's knees

Lale Westvind

Providence was recently visited by the comic book dynamo known as Lale Westvind, and I'm pleased to announce that the Hidden Fortress Press was able to add her to the roster of artists working on the over-sized (it's still growing...) new issue of MONSTER! Lale is incredibly talented. Hot Dog Beach #2 won an Ignatz at last year's SPX, and she has a beautiful comic in the new issue of Arthur magazine. Check out her blog here, or better yet, buy her comics here!

Here's a preview of her 8 page MONSTER comic:

like everything she does, it is awesome.

BCGF and Kevin Hooyman

we spent last weekend at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, selling comic books. it was an amazingly sweaty show, we met wonderful new friends, rediscovered some old favorites, and came home with a treasure trove of books. thanks to everyone who visited us, and to all the good folks who put on the show!

alongside our Hidden Fortress books, we had the pleasure of displaying a series of posters from the Worldword project by Peter Glantz and Becky Stark at our table. i can't even count how many times i had to tell people who the genius is that created this:

Kevin Hooyman has been making some of the most beautiful, mind-numbingly intricate comics and prints for years and years, and is one of the sweetest dudes i know. seriously, look at his website, it's full of wondrous things.

also, check out a page from the comic he did for the new Monster:

SPX 2012

This weekend, Hidden Fortress Press manifested at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. We brought the first volume of the Monster 2012 anthology with us, with a super limited edition SPX exclusive dust jacket. Monster 2012 is just under 200 pages long and will be collected in three volumes, each with a beautiful letterpress cover printed by Roby Newton and designed by Heather Benjamin, who is also designing the slipcase that contains the three books.

That's Roby Newton and Ignatz award nominee Mickey Zacchilli representing at the Hidden Fortress Press table. We were psyched to also have Ignatz winner Lale Westvind parked at our table; Hot Dog Beach is well deserving of it's accolades, and Lale is pure badass. 

It was an incredible weekend, we met a ton of wonderful people, saw some dear old friends, met a lot of our heroes, discovered some new heroes, and brought home suitcases full of beautiful books. 

First pages

The first pages of this MONSTER anthology came off the press today. After much experimentation, trial and error, we've settled on two colors that look good and behave the way we want them to. The stickiest wicket has been getting these two colors to register nicely, on a press that really wasn't meant to handle that... but I think we found a sweet spot.

Zissy and Rita

long-time Monster and Paper Rodeo contributor Seth Cooper has launched a Zissy and Rita website! this is great news; his comics are wonderful, and incredibly hard to find. and now they are gathered here for your amusement:

http://i-m.co/zissyandrita/zissyandrita/home

this is the best news of the day!

Andy and Leif

Here now are two of the true Monster Comics OGs: Andy Neal and Leif Goldberg

Andy had a comic in the very first issue of Monster, and now he brings us this tale of mycological horror

check out more monsters at Andy's website

he also runs the best comic book store in the Carolinas, Chapel Hill Comics

Leif Goldberg returns with this Cronenbergian creep-out entitled "They Came From WithIN"

you can find lots of sweet stuff by Leif at Picturebox, and check out his ExplodedView project!

CAKE - Chicago Alternative Comics Expo

Hidden Fortress Press, representing at the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo this past weekend.

Roby and I issued each other a challenge: to create a new comic for Chicago on the Ryobi press, as part of the learning/breaking in process. I would say we had mixed success, but success none the less. Her comic, Fantasmancer #0, came out a lot cleaner than mine, and I had to supplement my pages with some help from Mickey Z's Risograph.

CAKE was a good time, with the greatest people. let's do it again next year

Seth, Jon and Mollie

more fantastic MONSTER comics!

finally, the long awaited return of Zissy and Rita, courtesy of Mr. Seth Cooper, AKA Libythth:

 check out this sweet video of Zissy and Rita rippin' some Sabbath

this comic from Jon Vermilyea is awesome and creeeeepy. and really, really beautiful...

 check out more of Jon's work at his site

and a fantastic new comic by Mollie Goldstrom!

check out more of her work at the closed caption site