Realm Riders

Roby also debuted a new mini-comic at BCGF, a real life tale of Halloween debauchery called Realm Riders. It was a beast to print, but I think it came out beautifully in the end!

 

Also, the great Jake Austen reviewed two of Roby's minis, Fantasmancer and Rise Up Friends, over at the Roctober blog. Thanks, Jake!

Some Giants Have Sad Eyes

Another experiment with the Ryobi; I made this adorable little book for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. The title comes from the mind of my nephew, Shinichi, who after looking through my sketchbook, turned to me and solemnly stated that "some giants have sad eyes"

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. 

Pressing Issues

the Hidden Fortress Press just keeps rolling along... we should be wrapping up printing this weekend, then on to chopping, folding and binding.
 

we found a red the shade of dried blood, the blue is kinda veiny too

Jon Vermilyea's sinister crow lends some encouraging words

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!