On Tuesday 22nd September, fresh from his appearances at SPX and the Brooklyn Book Festival this weekend, Peter Kuper visits New York City’s finest book store for the official launch of his hotly anticipated new graphic novel Ruins. The event takes place at 7pm in the Strand Book Store‘s beautiful 3rd floor Rare Book Room.
Kuper has created over a dozen graphic novels, including The System, Sticks and Stones and an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. He is co-founder of the political graphics magazine World War 3 Illustrated and, since 1997, has written and drawn “Spy Vs Spy” for MAD Magazine. His comics have appeared in TIME, The New York Times and many other publications. He has been teaching comics courses for over 25 years and is a visiting professor at Harvard University.
Ruins tells the story of a New York couple who launch into a sabbatical year in the quaint Mexican town of Oaxaca. In tandem, the remarkable and arduous journey that a monarch butterfly endures on its annual migration from Canada to Mexico is woven into Ruins, creating a parallel picture of the challenges of survival in our ever-changing world.
Here’s what Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer has to say: “With a monarch butterfly serving in the role of all-seeing observer flying poetically above it all, the constantly remarkable Peter Kuper details the travels and travails of a creative NY couple who move to Oaxaca to find inspiration and revitalize their lives. Kuper’s art is, page after page, astonishing.”
And Publishers Weekly: “Magnificent… a beautiful, epic roman à clef about the importance of seeking the new and questioning the old.”
Peter Kuper will be joined at the Strand by Karen Green, librarian of both Graphic Novels and Ancient and Medieval History at Columbia University. To attend the event, you’ll simply need to buy a copy of Ruins or a $15 Strand gift card.
This Sunday, 20th September, we’ll be exhibiting at our very first canalside comic con. Our friends at Comica Festival have teamed up Floating Cinema to create the wonderfully named CanalCon, which is happening from noon until 6pm on the canalside steps at Granary Square in Kings Cross, just minutes away from SelfMadeTowers.
This Sunday, 20th September, we’ll be exhibiting at our very first canalside comic con. Our friends at Comica Festival have teamed up Floating Cinema to create the wonderfully named CanalCon, which is happening from noon until 6pm on the canalside steps at Granary Square in Kings Cross, just minutes away from SelfMadeTowers.
Expect the full SelfMadeHero spread: new titles (Ruins, Aama 4.& One Year Wiser), limited-edition book plates and an SF & Horror flavoured selection from the backlist. In addition, there’ll be House of Illustration workshops, an interview with Comics Laureate Dave Gibbons and more – all for free! For more information, check out COMICA’s blog.
In just over a week, we’ll be heading to Bethesda, MD for SPX – the USA’s premiere small press convention.
At tables W21-W22 you’ll find the full SelfMadeHero spread: new releases, limited edition prints, discounted masterpieces from the backlist… Plus, we’ll be joined by two very special guest creators, Frederik Peeters (Aama) and Peter Kuper (Ruins).
Following his event at Busboys & Poets Takoma on Thursday evening (details here), Frederik Peeters will visit SPX to mark the launch of the fourth and final volume of his Angoulême-winning series Aama, You Will Be Glorious, My Daughter.
He’ll be signing all day Saturday, as well as joining Jennifer Hayden (The Story of My Tits) and Derf Backderf (My Friend Dahmer) on a panel. “Life, Death, Comics, & Everything in Between” takes place on the Sunday, 12.30-1.30pm, in the White Flint Auditorium.
What’s more, we’ll be giving away this rather lovely series book plate with every copy of Aama:
Peter Kuper, whose brand new graphic novel Ruins we publish this month, will also be joining us. Jules Feiffer, last year’s guest of honour at SPX, has said of the book, “With a monarch butterfly serving in the role of all-seeing observer flying poetically above it all, the constantly remarkable Peter Kuper details the travels and travails of a creative New York couple who move to Oaxaca to find inspiration and revitalize their lives. Kuper’s art is, page after page, astonishing.”
Kuper will also appear alongside Ted Rall (Snowden) and Chris Kindred (The Response) on a panel: “Drawing the News: Comics Journalism” takes place on Saturday, 5.30-6.30pm, in the White Flint Auditorium.
The aforementioned butterfly features on these two beautiful book plate designs, created by Peter Kuper and available for the first time at SPX. We’ll be giving away a signed, numbered plate with every copy of Ruins.
The Small Press Expo takes place on Saturday 19th (11am-7pm) & Sunday 20th (noon-6pm) September at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel. See you there, I hope!
This month, Frederik Peeters visits Washington DC to launch the final volume of his award-winning science fiction series Aama. Ahead of his first US convention appearance at The Small Press Expo, the Swiss graphic novelist will discuss his work at an exclusive book store event.
On Thursday 17th September, he’ll be speaking at Busboys & Poets Takoma at an event co-hosted by Washington’s finest book store Politics & Prose. Chaired by SPX coordinator and Comicosity writer Sam Marx, the event takes place at 18:30 and will be followed by a signing. Full address: Busboys & Poets Takoma, 235 Carroll Street NW, Washington, DC, 20012. Nearest metro: Takoma (Red Line).
Frederik Peeters has received five nominations in the Best Book category at Angoulême. In 2013, he won the Best Series prize at the same event for the first two volumes of Aama. Peeters is also the author of Blue Pills, Pachyderme and Sandcastle (with Pierre-Oscar Lévy). The event marks a unique opportunity to see one of Europe’s most gifted comics artists discuss one of the landmark series of recent years.
A gripping blend of existentialism, mystery and action, Aama follows the story of Verloc Nim, an amnesiac and addict, who wakes up in the middle of nowhere. As Verloc begins to piece together the events of his recent past, the misery of his former life reveals itself – but also the beginnings of something new and unexpected. Because on the last inhabitable planet to be discovered, at a forgotten scientific colony, impossible things are happening.
Culminating in an incredible final volume, You Will Be Glorious, My Daughter, Aama is a beautifully realised and intriguing vision of the distant future.
Watch this space for more information on SelfMadeHero’s activities at the Small Press Expo, which is happening at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel on Saturday 19 (11am-7pm) and Sunday 20 September (12pm-6pm).
For more information about the book store event, and to order your copy beforehand, click here.
Our first release of the autumn, One Year Wiser by Mike Medaglia, is hot off the press – and it looks beautiful! You can join us at Gosh! Comics to celebrate its release on Wednesday 9th September, 7-9pm.
Mike Medaglia is the creator of oneyearwiser.com, where he’s been posting weekly illustrated meditations since January this year. A practicing Zen Buddhist, Medaglia also tackles subjects from presentness to self-doubt in a Meditation Comic for The Huffington Post.
One Year Wiser collects 365 of Medaglia’s illustrated meditations, bringing the wisdom of the world’s great thinkers to life through beautiful hand-drawn illustrations. From Rumi to Roosevelt, the Buddha to Martin Luther King Jr., the meditations that fill this book will help you beat stress, be positive and appreciate the moment.
So, join us from 7pm at Gosh!, 1 Berwick Street, London, W1F 0DR. There’ll be all the usual Gosh! trimmings – free booze, incredible company – but also… cupcakes!
