Stumptown + More This Weekend!

Family Style will be making a splash at our new hometown show this weekend... We've been coming to the Stumptown Comics Fest almost since it began, and we're delighted to be here again, with lots of new work and involvement in some awesome events, too!

On Friday, 4/15, Jonas Madden-Connor, ELFWORLD cover artist Daria Tessler, and many others will be reading from their recent work at the Stumptown Comics Fest Friday Night Party at Guapo Comics & Coffee! We'll be officially debuting ELFWORLD issue #2 that night, featuring Daria's story as well as work from lots of other indy-comics luminaries. What's more, François Vigneault will have some art in the "Haunted Cartoon Vaults" group show opening that night! Whew! And there's much more to draw you out early, including the awarding of the Maisie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration.

All that weekend, you can find both Jonas and François at the Family Style table, #D14. We'll be sharing space with the fantastic Julia Gfrörer, who has a brand new mini-comic coming out for the Fest! We'll of course have ELFWORLD, Bird Brain, Ochre Ellipse, and more for your viewing and purchasing pleasure.

On Saturday night, don't miss the Stumptown Afterparty, at the Jupiter Hotel. Be there at 8:00pm for the Stumptown Comics Art Awards, where you'll get to see ELFWORLD #1 get trounced in the Best Anthology category (unless, of course, YOU vote for it!).

Okay! See you there!

Elfworld #2 Out for Stumptown, Elfworld #1 Nominated for Best Anthology!

Well, when the good news rains, I guess it pours (what did I expect here in Portland?): I just finished up with the layout of Daria Tessler's awesome cover for Elfworld #2, and I wanted to officially announce that Family Style will be premiering the book at the upcoming Stumptown Comics Fest, when I heard that Elfworld #1 was nominated for a Stumptown Comic Art Award! Yay!

We're just wrapping up the final work on the upcoming issue... it looks to be a rad one, with comics by cover artist Daria Tessler, Dylan Horrocks, Jeremy Tinder, Matthew Reidsma, Marek Bennett, Eve Englezos and Josh Moutray, and yours truly, François Vigneault! Clocking in at a whopping 40 pages, this issue is full of magic and monsters... a lot of ogres and trolls in this issue, for some reason! Just like the first issue, this will all come wrapped up in a beautiful 2-color letterpress cover with French flaps, printed this time around by the very talented James Tucker (he's got a fantastic solo show of his prints up in Aspen, CO at the moment, you should check 'em out!), and endpapers designed by illustrator Anna Hurley. All in all this is gonna be a great book, and I am so proud to be bringing it out for Stumptown, my new hometown show!

Elfworld #1 was nominated for Best Anthology in the Stumptown Comic Art Awards, where it is in good company (and fierce competition!): Study Group 12 #4, Gazeta, AX: Alternative Manga, and Nix Comics Quarterly. I'm extremely honored that Elfworld is in with this top-notch crowd, and my thanks go out to all the contributors, readers, and store owners who have helped Family Style and Elfworld out over the past few months. If you enjoyed Elfworld, I certainly wouldn't dissuade you from voting for it to win!

I'll have more EW news in the coming month as we countdown to Stumptown, including some sneak previews.

Nice Review of Elfworld

Rob Clough over at The Comics Journal reviewed the new Elfworld #1! Nice, thoughtful look at the issue, with positive things to say about the design ("The... Sammy Harkham cover is eye-catching and distinctive, as are the endpapers and cleverly-designed table of contents"), the stories ("Dash Shaw’s story about an orc about to be executed near the end of the issue is a nice bookend to its grim beginning") and the overall effect of the book - "Elfworld is a welcome refinement to what has now become a trend, and a challenge to others to come up to its level of craft, attention and care." I'm delighted!

Read the full review!

ELFWORLD Returns in October!

The long-awaited follow up to the indy-fantasy comics anthology ELFWORLD will be premiering at the Alternative Press Expo on October 16 + 17! Yowza!

ELFWORLD is back, in a new, deluxe small-press format: An ongoing series of meticulously hand-crafted, 36-page comics, each featuring unique and exciting takes on the fantasy genre from a mix of established indy stars (including Jeremy Tinder (Mome, Black Ghost Apple Factory), Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button), Dylan Horrocks (Hicksville), Alec Longstreth (Phase 7), and more) and dozens of up-and-coming cartoonists.

The first issue features comics by Dash Shaw, Alec Longstreth, Ben Costa (Xeric Grant winner, Pang, the Wandering Shaolin Monk) and J. R. Parks, Eve Englezos and Josh Moutray (Icecreamlandia), Jane Samborski, and David Enos (Peter Magazine), and comes wrapped in a letterpress-printed cover by Sammy Harkham (Crickets)!

With hand-printed covers, French flaps, and patterned endpapers, each limited-edition issue of ELFWORLD is simultaneously a delightful art object, an homage to one of comics' best loved genres, and a showcase for the best in indy cartooning. The stories range from comedic shorts to serialized mini-epics, and the series will follow a regular publishing schedule, allowing readers to build a connection to the ELFWORLD title and the amazing artists featured in it. The second issue (including comics from Jeremy Tinder, Daria Tessler, Matthew Reidsma, François Vigneault, and more) will be released in April of 2011, with further issues in Summer and Fall of that year.

Drop by the Family Style booth at APE, #207, and pick up your copy for just $6! And check back in here at the Family Style site for more sneak previews of this and future issues in the coming weeks!