NBM at SPX: The Broadcast premieres.

The weekend following Labor Day is when the next SPX show happens in Bethesda, MD, in the Washington DC area. As every year, we’ll have our tables and a few of our artists appearing including a premiere!

Here’s who you can meet, at tables H7 and 8, Sept. 11 and 12:

ERIC HOBBS premiering The Broadcast which is just shipping as we speak! The buzz on this has been excellent, the book an engrossing noir thriller with the Orson Welles famous War of the Worlds broadcast as a backdrop.

BROOKE A. ALLEN signing her irresisitible A Home for Mr. Easter. Remember: we’ve got a Twitter contest going until the end of this month.

GREG HOUSTON signing his Elephant Man just out as well as Vatican Hustle. He’s a native Baltimorean, not from far away.

TED RALL, fresh back from Afghanistan, if he’s still alive. Always a popular guest at this show.

And then this year, NBM publisher Terry Nantier will be there as well.

COME AND SAY HI, GET OUR LATEST!

Boneyard, Axe-Man of New Orleans, A Home for Mr. Easter news.

“Written with charm and wit, as well as action and passion, Boneyard vol.7 will not disappoint fans of the series yet is also a sufficiently accessible and self-contained story as to be a serviceable jumping-on point for new readers. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!”

The Midwest Book Review

& Richard Moore is interviewed by Newsarama about this volume and his coming plans.

The Onion’s AV club on Rick Geary’s The Axe-Man of New Orleans:

“Outstanding! A-”

..and they give very few A’s…

 On this same title, here’s what Andrew ‘Capt. Comics’ Smith had to say over at Scripps Howard Papers including The Minneapolis Star Tribune where it appeared:

“His stories are illustrated in his attractive faux-woodcut style, which suggests a bygone time, with stiff people wearing rictus grins, standing with perfect posture in impeccable clothing, covered in blood. It’s great fun.”

“A Home for Mr. Easter is defined by its chaos. Tesana feels attacked on all sides, and then she actually is. The plot follows the logic of a dreamer, so magical things are suddenly allowed. The laws of the real world are stretched and twisted.

The range of emotion is powerful, taking one through disbelief, righteous anger, fear, and pathos. Allen is clearly talented and confident in her craft.”

The Feminist Review

More on the outrageous Elephant Man!

The latest on Greg Houston’s recent GN Elephant Man comes from Sequential Tart:

“As a broad parody of Superman, I thought this first issue was spot on. I thought the humor in Elephant Man was great, the writing is definitely the comic’s strongest asset. The over-the-top dialogue was outstanding, particularly the rants of Handsome Dirk. All the characters are ludicrously drawn and really matched well with the humor. My favorite side characters were the Big Hair Tough Girls.”

Grade: 7 out of 10.

The Gutter Geek blog at The Comics Journal says:

“In the end, the book is little more than an extended Kurtzman-and-Elder-era-Mad magazine spoof on superhero comics, but who needs more than that. And Houston’s line work, which crackles with just a little bit of genuine crazy on top of the rigorously enforced wackiness, is a frenetic and occasionally grotesque delight. Houston suggests on the cover that this might well be the first in a series. I suspect he is joking, but I will confess I am kind of hoping he means it.”

Rob Clough, elsewhere at The Comics Journal said:

“There isn’t much that’s subtle about Greg Houston’s new comic from NBM, Elephant Man #1, and I don’t think the artist would have it any other way.”

But he regretted that: “I would have preferred more time being spent on the oddities of Baltimore, like The Big Hair Tough Girls.  These ass-kicking donut shop workers are exactly the sort of thing Houston does best: a loving caricature of something ridiculous and unpleasant.  The Ralph Steadman/Bill Plympton/Mort Drucker qualities to his line remained in full effect, as the reader was rewarded on page after page with funny & gross drawings.  This is a comic to be looked at more than to be read, other than for conceptual context.”

Alternative Views on ‘Networked’

From ComicMix, picked up by the big site IMDb:

“Privacy Activism is a non-profit company designed to make people aware and give them knowledge and tools to determine how much they want to share or to protect. To educate the younger masses, they created Carabella, a hip, blue-skinned college-aged woman and have used her in several outreach programs. For her third appearance, she has been turned over to master graphic novelists, Gerard Jones and Mark Badger, for Networked: Carabella on the Run.

There are some strong messages here and plenty of food for thought. Presenting this information embedded within an entertaining graphic novel was a great approach. With luck, we’ll be seeing Carabella again.”School Library Journal was not so complimentary, calling it possibly heavy-handed but did allow: “For classes that are exploring the topic of privacy, Carabella and her college-age buddies can offer students a valuable lesson. A Teachers’ Guide is offered at PrivacyActivism to assist.”

Our first Twitter contest: A Home for Mr. Easter!

Starting today and running through September 30th we’re going to be running our first promotional campaign on Twitter, to celebrate cartoonist Brooke A. Allen‘s A HOME FOR MR. EASTER.

To participate, please tweet about this book @NBMPUB, and be sure to use the Hash Tag #READMREASTER

And if for some reason you haven’t read A HOME FOR MR. EASTER yet, now is your chance to get it at 20% off at the NBM site through August 31st (or call us at 800-886-1223, M-F 9-6 ET, mention code EAS for the discount)

The contest is simple, the top three people promoting the book will each win a copy of a NBM published book of their choice and the person who promotes the book in the most interesting way (including reviews, blog entries, etc.) will win an original sketch from Brooke.

 Viva la comics!

 Stefan Blitz, social media publicist

Elephant Man: “Come for the art, stay for the derangement”

What they’re saying of Elephant Man , Greg Houston’s latest:

“Come for the art, stay for the derangement, and release most notions of “plotting.”

SF Site

“Cheerfully grotesque. Has its sweetly offensive moments.”

Bill Sherman, Blogcritics and picked up by the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

And this one just in!

“I can see it now: “I am not an animal! I am a superhero!”

You’d think turning John Merrick — aka the severely deformed, so-called Elephant Man — into a comic-book character would be tasteless. And in Greg Houston’s ELEPHANT MAN, it certainly is. But it’s also fairly hilarious, so consider some slack cut.”

Rod Lott, Bookgasm

Booklist on Networked

“This cautionary tale—a project of PrivacyActivism, a group dedicated to online privacy education—outstrips simple purposefulness to provide a rip-roaring good story. Offers much for casual readers as well as book groups and curriculum designers.”

Booklist On Networked, Carabella on the Run, at your store now, and from us.

2 for Mr Easter: Midwest Book Review and VOYA

“Allen‘s quirky book with its unconventional heroine may not be for everyone, but any teen who has rooted for the underdog, likes fantasy, and doesn’t need a heroine who is shapely and beautiful, will enjoy it a lot.”

Kat Kan in VOYA, both of which are influential amongst libraries.

“Vivid and action-packed, keeps the story moving at a breathless pace. Witty and fun to read.”

Midwest Book Review

NBM in October: Miss Don’t Touch Me is back!

Here’s what we’ve got coming in October and being solicited for now at your comic bookstore:

MISS DON’T TOUCH ME, Vol. 2
Hubert & Kerascoet
Blanche tries to leave the Pompadour, the high class house of call-girls, but their hooks are in deep. Nevertheless she encounters what could be her ticket out: a very handsome and very respectful young rich man, Antoine. She also reunites with her long-lost mother. It all seems rather idyllic but Antoine may be a little too respectful and how come her mother suddenly reappears?
61/2 x 9, 96pp., full color trade pb.: $14.99, ISBN 978-1-56163-592-4

See the previews.

Here’s what they said of the 1st one which is presently sold out, back to press for October as well:

“Would make a heck of a movie. Hubert’s writing is first-rate, Kerascoet’s storytelling and character designs are vibrant, and the overall look of the book is delightful. That’s why Miss Don’t Touch Me earns the full five out five Tonys.”
-Tony Isabella, Comics Buyers Guide
“A more orthodox piquancy infuses Miss Don’t Touch Me, a charming, Gallic twist on the murder mystery… and anything but prudish.” -Carlo Wolff, Boston Globe
“Call me twisted, but this book is, in fact, charming. Kerascoet moves the story forward breathlessly, and his disarming simplicity keeps “MIss Don’t Touch Me” feeling like a light-hearted bedroom farce when it could easily veer into into horror or soft-core porn.”
-Andrew “Capt. Comics” Smith, Scripps Howard News Service
Miss Don’t Touch Me is really nothing more than a murder mystery and period piece, but it sure is a good one—so good, in fact, that you may find yourself needing to be reminded how un-ambitious an unpretentious it actually is.”
Newsarama
A BOOKLIST TOP TEN GRAPHIC NOVEL 2009.

New From Eurotica:
The Diary of Molly Fredrickson:
PEANUT BUTTER, Vol. 4
Cornnell CLARKE
Molly’s back in San Diego studying, falling into amazing orgies with the basketball team for one, including some seriously hot women but boy is she missing her hot latina bff Erica… Clarke’s fully painted art just keeps improving to amazing new levels!
81/2 x 11, 48pp., full color trade pb.: $11.99, ISBN 978-1-56163-595-5

See previews in Coming Up in Eurotica.

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Meanwhile, over at Papercutz, the Hardy Boys have an all-new look and new great writer, Gerry Conway:

Graphic novel sale

A reminder that, besides our $3 sale on many fine NBM and Eurotica graphic novels, we also have a 50% sale going on on graphic novels from Pantheon, First Second and others!

These include CHRIS WARE, EDDIE CAMPBELL, HARVEY PEKAR, FLIGHT, BEN KATCHOR, ART SPIEGELMAN!

Some great books at truly fantastic prices. Quantities are very limited.

And our $3 sale has seen books sell out but we still have graphic novels by MATTOTTI, KUPER, SCHUITEN, PRADO… besides plenty of goodies in Eurotica…

get ‘em before they sell out!

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