These guys actually confirmed last week, but I didn't want to steal the limelight from Steve Saffel's big signing. Plus, I wanted you to be able to really savor this news: Matt Wagner is the creator of Grendel and Mage, as well as the writer and/or artist of a million other things, including Batman & The Mad Monk, The Sandman Mystery Theatre, Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity, and a bunch of others over the year. His Grendel/Batman was one of the first books I ever bought when I started shopping at Heroes way back in the early 90's, and I spent the first few years of my employment here hunting down issues of Grendel for my collection. Which, for my money, is one of the most well-realized creator-owned books ever, just in terms of the sheer scope of the thing--especially the last ten issues or so of the Comico series. While it's hard to believe, Matt's probably better known these days for his work on Batman books, as well as his many covers. It was actually hard to figure out whether he should "go" with Indie Island, but Shelton has assured me that Matt's definitely one of the founders of the original indie movement of the 80's, and as such is, if anything, an Elder Statesmen of Indie Island. That's a lot of metaphors to juggle, but I'm with it.
But what about Alec Longstreth? Like Matt Wagner, I talked to Alec at SPX about coming to the show--Alec is a mainstay of the indie and minicomics scene at conventions, and won this year's Ignatz Award for Outstanding Debut for his work on Tugboat Press' Papercutter #6! He's also been self-publishing his own Phase 7 minicomic since, um, forever, and is so nice he'll make you blush. Not me--I'm tough--but I'm sure he'll make you blush.
That's still not it for new guests: maybe more by the end of the week!
3 comments:
Will you be getting copies of Papercutter or Phase 7 in the store?
Alec is going to send me some Phase 7's, but he's in the middle of moving right now, so it might be more toward the middle of the month. However, unless I miss my guess he has them all in print, which is cool. I've never read one before.
I can't get a reply from Tugboat Press, who publish Papercutter, although I haven't tried Diamond yet. Either way, if I can't get them, you can borrow mine.
Andy, I also recommend the Dvorak Mini comic. I never thought that a comic about typing could be so interesting!
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