#colonial comics

After talking with Jason Rodriguez about the Cats movie trailer, Midsommer, and Star Trek, we finally manage to discuss the OGNs he has edited: Voces Sin Fronteras, APB: Artists against Police Brutality: A Comic Book Anthology, Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened, and, my personal favorite, Colonial Comics volumes 1 & 2.

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Hello everyone! Today is the official release date of COLONIAL COMICS: NEW ENGLAND, 1750-1775. It's a beautiful book that I'm very proud of, and all of the creators involved have done a truly wonderful job bringing to life underrepresented stories from the period.

It's a really great book. A timely book. In an era of division and protest, it's nice to be able to draw parallels to a time when we came together as a series of colonies to form a new country. We didn't have all the answers then, and we have made a lot of mistakes since, but the COLONIAL COMICS series likes to celebrate the people and stories who were largely lost to our American narrative so that they can be celebrated as the heroes (and villains, in some instances) that they were.

Over on the FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/ColonialComics/) I've already shared previews from 10 of the stories, including stories about Nathan Hale's college days, young Benjamin Franklin, Crispus Attucks and Newton Prince, Colonial-era counterfeiters, Molly Ockett, the New England triangle trade, the Stamp Act riots, and Mercy Otis Warren.

I'll continue to post previews through Monday, as the stories get closer to the American Revolution and feature tales of grave robbers, the tea trade, civil disobedience, and a shot heard around the world.

Please feel free to share the FaceBook page (we're approaching 500 likes!), or any individual posts on the page. Tell your local bookstore to order a copy (we're published through Fulcrum Books and distributed through IPG), or order/share the book through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Comics-II-England-1750-1…/…/. If you're interested in a review copy, please reach out to me and let me know!

New and Notable

Colonial Comics, Volume II | Edited by Jason Rodriguez

This second volume of the Colonial Comics trilogy is an artful look at what life was like in the Pre-Revolutionary period, and illustrates how the Revolutionary spirit spread to the common man and woman, one gorgeous comic story at a time. A massacre in Boston. A tea party. A shot heard around the world. But who was the first casualty of the massacre? How did the tea get to Boston Harbor? What was the Battle of Concord like for a Minute Man? Colonial Comics: New England, 1750–1775 expands the frame of this important period of American history. 

I spent large chunks of the past three days with Jason Rodriguez, the editor of Colonial Comics, who was here in Walla Walla as part of Whitman College’s Sheehan Gallery’s semester long SEEING STORIES: Traversing the Graphic Narrative exhibition. He gave a two day workshop focusing on the way time works in comics in which both myself and my daughter T and a bunch of students participated, and it was awesome. And his talk, which centered around underrepresented narratives in comics, was one of the best I’ve ever seen. He discussed several different stories from Colonial Comics, especially Erika Swyler’s amazing “The Press’s Widow: Elizabeth Glover,” and then segued into his newest anthology, APB: Artists Against Police Brutality. The Q & A was fantastic and then we went out for dinner, joined by Jason’s friend writer/artist Chris Piers, who drew “Harried Out The Land,” Colonial Comics: Vol. I’s first story. And that’s when the real fun started. It’s hard to describe what a man armed with Jason’s personality and a giant check (long story) can accomplish on the fun scale, but lets just say it’s off the charts. If only all visiting educator experiences could be like this one was!

Drowned Town Press will be at Table B70 at this weekend's Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo. That's in the Bechdel Room just off the main hall. The show is FREE and open to the public Saturday 4 October 10 AM - 6 PM, Sunday 5 October 11 AM - 4 PM.

And this is a big one for me, because I've got stories in not one but two anthologies that are premièring at the show this weekend! Colonial Comics: New England, 1620-1750 will be available at the Fulcrum Publishing table D15. My story, "Thomas Morton: Merry Mount's Lord of Misrule", which you've seen various developments of here, will finally see light of day! What's more, original art for 3 pages from "Thomas Morton" are on the wall among the other comic art for the MICE Art Show. If you get all twelve Colonial Comics artists and writers featured on the Colonial Comics poster (including me) to sign, take it back to the Fulcrum table -- the first three such customers get a prize!

Hellbound V: End of Comics also premières at the show -- a mature-readers horror anthology and the last of the Hellbound series. "Consummation" is scripted by me with two-color art (and a fold-out page!) by Dead Meat writer-artist Clay McCormack. Clay's done a beautiful job on my script and I'm excited to see it in print.

On Saturday, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM, I'm on the History in Comics panel with two of the three Colonial Comics editors as well as one of my fellow Colonial Comics artists -- Chief editor Jason Rodriguez and Emily T. Crenshaw will be among my panel-mates, and the panel is moderated by Colonial Comics assistant editor J. L. Bell.

MICE is back at University Hall at Lesley University, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, on the second floor of Porter Exchange. There's a parking lot behind, and the Porter Square T station on the Red Line is a block away. Caution: There are shuttle buses running between JFK/UMass and Broadway on the Red Line this weekend, and the Fitchburg Commuter Rail is not running at all this weekend.

I don't want to reblog each one, so here're the features I posted for the first four stories in Colonial Comics: New England, 1620-1750.

Harried Out The Land by Nick Bunker, Chris Piers, Jason Axtell, and Jason Hanley.

Thomas Morton, Merry Mount’s Lord of Misrule by E.J. Barnes.

Troublesome Sows by Virginia DeJohn Anderson and Mike Sgier

Garden in the Wilderness by Matt Boehm and Ellen T. Crenshaw