This weekend Tim Wood and I will be presenting the first books from our Nine Frayed Leaves Press (more on that soon). If you are on the east end of Long Island, or feel like visiting Long Island’s green and bucolic and wine-drenched North Fork, here’s where we’ll be debuting our project as part of an exhibition of book arts:

Click the flyer to see it full size.

Jennifer Fortin (whose postcard poems we featured in Action,Yes) and her comrades are launching a new online journal (and perhaps more) that I’m really excited about. It’s called Leveler. Check out their About Us page. They plan to explain all their editorial choices, and to invite and publish the response of their readers. It will accomplish something similar to Dan Wickett’s “Source of Lit” posts at The Emerging Writers Network (which are a must read). The discussion around a work is often more important to me than the work itself, so I’m glad to see that there’s a poetry journal based on this very idea.

Send them your poems, but don’t do it if you don’t want to talk about it.

I’ve seen some very heartening gestures coming from many different sides of the publishing world recently. First PictureBox announces subscriptions for the upcoming PowrMastrs book from CF and Brian Chippendale’s epic If’n Off. First of all, the facts that PictureBox publishes work like CF’s and Chippendale’s and allows for such beautiful editions show how much smarter and insightful they are than even other smart comics publishers. PictureBox had to close down its storefront (which was very cool and not far from my apartment), and projects like Frank Santoro’s serial Cold Heat got put on the shelf for funding reasons. So now they are creating their market ahead of time. They are using the trust they’ve built among their readers (trust built with excellent project after excellent project), to ask readers to pony the money up front, to ensure that the company can survive putting out these amazing cut-no-corners books. And they’re throwing in extra treats from the artisits. This is an art-first, mature take on publishing. Let’s hope they do this with Cold Heat, as well.

Then some big publishing veterans (I think), one with an English accent that legitimizes the whole venture (and the other with a very sharp navy blazer), John Oakes and Colin Robinson, described the very smart publishing model for their new house OR Books. Their plan is sell books straight to the consumer, with a platform-neutral model (they’ll let you download the ebook immediately, or they’ll send you a hard copy, produced print-on-demand). They’re getting rid of the dying system of intermediate retailers that is pulling the publishing industry down with it. (It’s amusing when they look at the graveyard in this video and point at the tombstone for Harper Collins.) They’re also done with the silly print run system (still practiced by so many small publishers too) that leads to a glut of unread printed books, and the ultimate sin of pulping remainder copies. The world has changed, we have new opportunities, and these guys are taking advantage of it. This is not publishing for babies who want count how many books they’ve sold and what award they’ve been granted by some market-driven panel of judges.

OR Books from OR Books on Vimeo.

The OR guys’ ideas remind me a lot of how my own publisher, Geoffrey Gatza, runs BlazeVOX books. He’s understood the destiny of publishing for some time now. It’s not about ego and material; it’s about making good literature readily available to readers, and connecting authors to these readers. Geoffrey’s being doing this for years, though. They should do a news story about him.

Ben spoke with Brian Evenson regarding his recent Apostrophe Cast reading. They discussed books, film, and local news. Evenson’s answers are thoughtful and comprehensive. Go here to read it.

We just posted Action, Yes 10, and it’s a good one. We try to keep changing and offer something new with every issue, and I think this one is our most diverse yet. The abstract comics section, curated by Andrei Molotiu and Tim Gaze, is particularly exciting for me – I was completely unaware of a vast majority of this work. It’s blown my own mind wide open in the way I’ve been approaching my own comics pages recently. Our section features a preview of the anthology Abstract Comics which Molotiu edited and will be published by Fantagraphics next fall. I also selected several other image-text pieces to create a conversation with the abstract comics, including Chris Major and Nico Vassilakis’s visual poems, Brandon Downing’s collage poems, and even a work by Robert Grenier with a critical essay by Tim Wood (and Grenier’s annotated response).

Another must-read in the new issue: “Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy”: A special section devoted to the poetry and art of the scandalous cabarets performed by Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste in Weimar Germany.

Also included:
Translation of  writers Agrafiotis, Dragincescu, Froger, Lamat, Rubinstein, Sacré.
Per Bäckström’s essay ” “Crush the Aassholetters Between the Teeth”:
Språkgrotesk in Henri MIchaux and Gunnar Ekelöf.”
“Dead Can Dance,” Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle’s ruminations on Decadence.
As well as poetry and prose from Lundwall,  Yankelevich,  Schapira and others.

In the next few issues we’ll be featuring the fruits of our first open submissions period.

I went to MoCCA a couple of weeks ago. The only other comics festival I’ve been to is SPX, but MoCCA is my favorite of the two (NYC vs. Bethesda is kind of an unfair fight). It was at the Armory, which isn’t as cool a building as the Puck Building, but the weight of its history is pretty amazing, especially for a festival that celebrates independent and experimental work.

First off, Seth is a brilliant man. His talk was considered and hilarious. And the fact that he rang a little hand bell between anecdotes was the icing on the cake. Whenever I begin to think that his narratives are staid and stale, he does something that reminds me just how tight he is. This talk was one of those things. And the sublimity of his sketchbooks drawings which ran as a slideshow behind him as he spoke was humbling. Wait: look at the cover of his beautiful new book:

Anyway. His description of the difference between the act of writing and cartooning really connected with me, as I spend a lot of time doing both. Writing is focused and intense. With drawing, he talked about a sense of “reverie.” Your mind can be more removed, but the emotionalism of the process is often much more intense. When writing you are much more outside of yourself. Another excellent point he made is that he said he thinks comics are often incorrectly described at a combination of the arts of film and literature. Instead, he said, considering the rhythms, condensing of time, and stacks of images, comics are more like the interpolation of poetry and graphic design. That seems right to me.

(The panel was supposed to be a conversation between Seth and Adrian Tomine, but, instead they did separate presentations, which was fine by me, because Seth’s talk was so well done. Tomine … well … less so. He read aloud the introduction available for $20 with the new repackaged boxed set of minis, 32 Stories, which you could easily read in the comfort of your own home if you’re interested in learning how Tomine was “crushed” after learning that his first collection would be reprinted, and then, for some reason, he went ahead and okayed the project even though his publisher did not insist. This book actually has some very good work in it. Tomine’s line still had life and anxiety in it as a kid. He’s developed into an incredibly proficient draftsman and illustrator since then. He did say one thing that seemed inexcusably falsely modest and disingenuous – besides the whole premise of his pitch/address – he said, “Every day it’s becoming more uncool to talk about anything on paper, especially Xeroxed books.” What?! I can’t think of anything cooler and hipper and more rightfully in vogue than creating little art editions. Every time I go on the internet, I end up at Etsy or some other place where someone’s got some beautiful new letterpress imprint or screenprint project going on. Tomine should take a look at Ugly Duckling Presse in his own Brooklyn backyard or read The Chapbook Review. By the way, he also said this at a festival where about 93% of participants and attendants were carrying around a stack of amazing, self-published mini-comics in the messenger bags. Tomine does seem like a genuinely nice guy, though.)

After that was the main event, for me, at least: Gary Panter and Frank Santoro with their buddy Ray Sohn. This panel ended up being decent. They “riffed” (their word) about fine (read “gallery) artists and their connection to comics. They introduced a ton of connections and tangents but analyzed few. Would have liked some digging. Not exactly the mind-blowing, eye-opening display I was hoping for from these incredible talents, but it was fun at least, like a rambling discussion with a friend who likes the same books that you do after a couple beers. Go here to listen to it while you draw (doesn’t take close concentration) or run, and check out this visual companion to the list of artists that Panter touched upon (which is actually more interesting than the conversation itself).

All in all, good time at MoCCA. Good feelings about the future of art and comics, and even art-comics, if that’s your thing.

She wants me to read these to her. Merz fairy tales.

I expect she’ll be reciting “Ursonate” by kindergarten.

Big one for us over at Apostrophe Cast. This episode features Brian Evenson reading “Younger” from his upcoming collection Fugue State. Go and enjoy it.

Bonus coverage: Blake has written this excellent essay about “Younger” and he’s working on essays about every other story in the collection.

Extra-bonus on Fugue State: Zak Sally illustrated this book. That’s bang for your buck.

The “schwag editions” of The Complete Collection of people, places & things were all claimed (and then some) in less than a day. I truly did not see that happening. So I’m doubling the silkscreen print run from 50 to 100. Which means, if you’ve already ordered the book, you’re getting a print and an inscribed bookplate and all that. And, if you’re still interested, with this “less limited edtion” run of a hundred, I still have several prints left to give away with pre-orders. So $12 gets you the book, the print, and a personalized bookplate. And, once those sell out, the discounted price will be available for anyone who pre-orders until July 15.

And thanks to all of you who bought this thing. I really appreciate it. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.

My novel, The Complete Collection of people, places & things, is coming out from BlazeVOX Books next month. To celebrate, we’re offering the book for $12 with free shipping (that’s 25% off) to everyone who pre-orders by July 15. AND, the first 50 people who order will also receive:

- a signed and numbered silkscreen print, to commemorate the book’s release

- a personalized copy with a signed, limited edition book plate

Click this button to go ahead and get yours:

And feel free to share this link with the world: http://www.johndermotwoods.com/book/

Among other delights, you’ll find these guys inside: