Saturday was amazing, starting right off the bat in high gear. For a few hours, we sold steadily books upon books, selling out of many Dungeon titles quickly as well as Sky Over the Louvre and Geary’s new Sacco & Vanzetti.

By the end of the show we had sold out of substantial quantities also of our premiere of the Stargazing Dog which was warmly received and, with Brooke Allen signing, of the many copies we brought of her Home for Mr. Easter.

The energy around the show is wonderful to see, the Ignatz Awards were SRO with many unable to fit and the post party went on into the wee hours. Gotta say, I love the forgiving hours of the show, starting at 11 on Saturday and even noon on Sunday.

A fun experience worth the trip and this show should attract attendees from farther than the DC area alone, it deserves it!

Many thanks to Brooke, Rick Parker who held up the Papercutz side, and Jesse Lonergan for appearing at our booth and talking with fans.

For the SPX Expo this weekend, come and meet us at tables G7-8. Here’s our schedule of artists appearing at our booth:

BROOKE A. ALLEN (A Home for Mr. Easter) will be at our booth throughout much of the show.

TED RALL (To Afghanistan & Back) is a bit tentative at this point in that he just returned from vacation finding Irene made quite a mess in his backyard, nothing major, but… if he can come, he’ll be appearing Saturday from 4-6, Sunday noon to 2.

RICK PARKER (with our sister co. Papercutz: Tales from the Crypt: Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid, Slices: Harry Potty and Breaking Down) Saturday noon to 2, Sunday 2 to 4.

JESSE LONERGAN (Flower & Fade, Joe & Azat): Saturday 2 to 3, Sunday 4 to 5.

And don’t forget we’re premiering the bestselling Japanese manga Stargazing Dog and Ernie Colon’s Inner Sanctum with signed sketches by him. See more.

Next week on the 10th and 11th is the annual Small Press Expo in Bethesda, in the Washington DC area and as every year, we’ll be there with some exciting new stuff!

The biggest news is we’ll be premiering right off press our first manga, the moving and inspiring Japanese best-seller Stargazing Dog. It’s sold over a half million copies in Japan and been made into a movie there just released this summer. See the preview of pages.

The other special we’ll have for the show is a preview of Ernie Colon’s Inner Sanctum with signed copies including a free signed sketch by Colon for the 1st 20 to buy!

Appearing at our booth:

Brooke A. Allen with A Home for Mr. Easter

Ted Rall

The irrepressible Rick Parker signing the Papercutz spoofs of Harry Potter, Twilight and Percy Jackson

Jesse Lonergan

We’ll have a good choice of recent books. Find us at G7-8, come say hello! Publisher Terry Nantier will be there and happy to chat with you.

Joe & Azat in the Smithsonian?

Indeed, a nice review of Jesse Lonergan’s Joe & Azat at the Smithsonian site:

“Joe’s best guide is local Azat, “the computer expert at the education department” – never mind that the entire department has but one computer. Azat, “the greatest dreamer [Joe] ever met” is also his best friend in Turkmenistan. Azat makes sure Joe gets his stolen passport back, tastes the best cooking (including his mother’s manty), meets a few of the local girls (at least one of whom Joe should marry), and enjoys every wedding with or without an invitation. In return, Joe puts up with Azat’s bully-of-an-older brother, listens to Azat’s nonsensical schemes to get rich, commiserates with Azat’s yearning for a girl he can’t have, and patiently tries to answer one absurd question after another.”

Publishers Weekly had six critics round up the best of 2009 and our Story of O and Year of Loving Dangerously made the list. Also, Augie De Bliek, Jr. at Comic Book Resources puts Trondheim’s Little Nothings 2 in the top of 2009.

Speaking of CBR, Jason Sacks there says of Royo’s newly remastered collection Malefic: ”You can’t ask for a more beautifully produced collection of fantasy art than Malefic.”   And Andrew “Capt. Comics” Smith , syndicated in many papers through Scripps says of it:

“A very beautiful book, both in format and content. Royo is an absolute master of his craft, creating incredibly gorgeous and expressive women (and sometimes men), and switching easily from fantasy to sci-fi to horror.”

“Lonergan’s clean, sharp lines, minimal backgrounds, and pure black and white (no grays, not even via shading) make another story of a youthful, probably temporary relationship vivid and affecting.
Altogether excellent.”

See more on Joe & Azat and Jesse Lonergan.

“He was more interested in well-stocked refrigerators than impending sexual adventures. Realistically illustrated in soft colors by Callejo, of Bluesman (2004–06) fame, and maximally unbuttoned in some places, Rall’s sympathetic account of his life on the edge encourages identifying with a situation so desperate that his outrageous choices seem necessary.”

And Publishers Weekly thought Jesse Lonergan’s Joe & Azat equally charming:

“Lonergan follows his graphic novel, Flower & Fade, with this charming and engrossing study of a friendship that transcends cultural borders. A simply illustrated charmer that grips readers from its opening pages and remains on the mind well after it has been read and absorbed.”

When you have absolute power in a country, you get to do a lot of things that most other people don’t. For example, you get to have a lot of medals on your jacket.

Just a few of the awards presented to Turkmenbashy: Hero of Turkmenistan (six times), Medal for Labor Heroism, Order of Friendship of Peoples, Medal for Love of the Fatherland, The Award for International Understanding, Order Galkynysh, Silk Road Prize for Outstanding Achievement, Order Bitaraplyk, Gold Medal for the International Informatization Academy, Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the World Strengthening and Understanding among Nations, First Class Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Duke Daniel of Moscow, Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise First Class Order, Medal of the Turkmen-Turkish Frienship Society, Order of Saint Mesrop Mashtots…

… and so many many more (and none of these are fictional).

It’s good to be the king, or at least the President for life.

Check out Joe and Azat for more about Turkmenistan and what it’s like living in a place with a president like this. And check out this review from Publishers Weekly. Check out my blog, too.

I don’t really do caricatures of people, so I was a little nervous about drawing Turkmenbashy in Joe and Azat. I suppose that Turkmenistan being the out of the way country that it is I could probably draw just about anything and most people in the U.S. wouldn’t question it, but I knew that at least some people who had been to Turkmenistan were going to see it and I didn’t want them saying, “You totally botched the bashy.”

So I kept things simple and I think it turned out all right. I also always liked Ted Rall’s drawings of Bush which weren’t the most accurate, but definitely gave you a clear impression of what Ted thought of him. So my Turkmenbashy is just a little bit cross eyed even though he wasn’t in real life.

I was an English teacher and Turkmenistan and before every class I heard the sacred oath chanted by students. Starting from the very lowest grades they new it by heart. It was kind of like the pledge of allegiance, only…

Turkmenistan,

My beloved motherland,

My beloved homeland,

You are always with me

In my thoughts and in my heart.

For the slightest evil against you

Let my hand be lost.

For the slightest slander about you

Let my tongue be lost.

At the moment of my betrayal

To my motherland,

To her sacred banner,

To Saparmurat Turkmenbashy the Great

Let my breath stop.

… it’s a little bit more grim than the pledge of allegiance.

Check out Joe and Azat for more about Turkmenistan.

And check out these photos of the pit of hell (one of Turkmenistan’s most bizarre tourist attractions) by John Bradley.

“The art of Joe and Azat is deceptively simple. Black and white images, mostly of faces and places, do an adept job of telling the story. On the surface it represents the simple way of life for the people of Turkmenistan. However, when you study the images in adjunct with the text, the complexity of this style becomes apparent. Longerman utilizes juxtaposition to explore perception and reality. People would like things to go one way, but the reality is that they must go another. For example, the Peace Corps administrators would like for Joe to follow the rules given to him for navigating Turkmenistan, but the reality is that he would never survive if he did.

If you like graphic novels with strong characterization and crisp art, determined to open your eyes and your heart, definitely grab a copy of Joe and Azat.”

Sequential Tart, giving it an 8 out of 10.

And one of Canada’s main papers, the National Post, picked up the piece on this book that ran in the Wall Street Journal.