True Swamp by Jon Lewis

just preordered

feest bomp to yoo

got to see the galley proof of the TS book this weekend at a comics fest, and it looks totally great.

Yay!

at APE, I guess? Uncivilized was there w/Gabrielle Bell.

That galley doesn't even have the art corrections or the bonus stories.

Only a couple weeks to go til Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Fest!

yeah, i met tom at APE - great guy, and definitely ambitious as a publisher. he only had one galley there, but it was enough to get me excited about the hardcover version.

Let me spam u deeply

http://trueswamp.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/confirmed-sighting-in-minneapolis/

http://trueswamp.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ts-just-in-11.jpg

can't wait! i like the new title font as compared to the galley version.

Book release party/signing this Friday at Desert Island in Williamsburg, also with James Romberger and his awesome new book Post-York. Should be a much more manageable crowd than BCGF, to say the least. Would love to meet any of y'all.

http://www.facebook.com/events/455316491191871/

Finally got my copy! So excited:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A925ohJCAAA7vIW.jpg

Yay!

The signing on Friday was really nice. Good turnout, great vibe.

I made an ipod playlist beforehand for gabe to play in the store during the signing, then over the weekend I decided to do a Spotify version of it. Consider this the True Swamp soundtrack for now:

http://open.spotify.com/user/1213493496/playlist/7lU2Z6yQ8HoRZpMIt5waQ4

Neat. Thanks for the playlist. I will listen while I read.

If I bring this with me on my next trip to NYC can I get it signed?

But of course! Where do you live, anyway?

Dallas at the moment. Planning a tour?

I wish. I have a full time day job unlike my more successful labelmate Gabrielle with her epic tours.

Some day. Even a short one would be cool. Have you made it down to SPX or anything?

Oh of course, I almost always do SPX. APE once in a while. Stumptown last year, would do again.

cool. I wonder if I met you at SPX back in the day; I went in 97, 98 & 99, when I was living in Baltimore.

Probably yes, then. I was there all three of those years (was living in Gainesville FL at the time). The Chris Oarr era. Loved those shows.

I loved it too. Intimate and friendly. It's very cool to have this collected hardcover, Jon. I lost the few issues I had way back when in a flooded basement in the late 90s and never replaced them.

Yeah I haven't fully gotten over the sheer niceness of the edition yet, myself!

true swamp soundtrack rules btw -- i'm glad to know that someone else thinks cluster sounds like animal noises.

^_^

Yeah for some reason vintage Cluster and its imitators (Eno instros off Another Green World, etc) are THE sound of a swamp for me. Anything sort of innocently tuneful played on cheap or defective-sounding electronics...

The playlist for the signing had several bits of T Dream's The Keep score, sadly it does not exist on spotify or anywhere besides weird bootlegs...

Nice interview at CBR. I look forward to a second hardcover for the 200-2001 series.

Oh, it's up! I've barely been online the last couple of days. Cool!

If anybody's coming to the Mocca festival in manhattan this weekend, come see me at the Uncivilized Books table! I'll be hanging out there with Gabrielle Bell and James Romberger, and of course all our respective books.

gonna try to come by and continue to quietly crush on gaby and loudly talk shit with you
i should make you a lenny or hale cup sometime

tree stump cup!

I wish I could make it but not this year. But I'm totally brining my snazzy hard cover for personalization on my next trip to New York.

Lemme know! WKIW.

I'm also gonna be at TCAF next month.

I hope to hit New York before the end of the year. Will definitely drop you a line when it happens.

super posi review in TCJ
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/true-swamp-choose-your-poison/

i got that! it's great. also saw it prominently placed, face-out, at a barnes & noble in harvey, louisiana.

That is a very solid review. Kudos.

I saw it at Malaprops in Asheville last weekend.

Yeah that review was good for my heart b/c tcj never reviewed True Swamp back in the print mag era.

Btw, not gonna make it to TCAF after all :( but there's a good chance I'll be going to CAKE in Chicago in June.

tcj never reviewed True Swamp back in the print mag era.

surely this isn't correct

I would be happy to be proved wrong about that but I'm pretty certain... Definitely not during the original run.

I think I read at least a columnated review if not a feature. UFL's index only goes up to #142 though (Arnold Roth ish, 1991)...

Got my copy of Choose Your Poison last week -- this thing is cool as hell! Diving into this world is like a straight injection of O_O.

:)

Working on two stories for two anthologies right now. Both of them are process-driven anthologies with 'play' between the contributors built in. Dense and fun. Back to TS after this.

Super bummed about the demise of Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Fest.

sounds like it's messy
http://www.tcj.com/the-brooklyn-comics-and-graphics-festival-ends/
i get the sense someone with money is gonna figure out how to make this work. clearly, there's an audience. Maybe fanta will invest?

that would be insane, they are on the other side of the continent and in no position to commit

there are plenty of other indie-ish conventions in NYC these days; if MOCCA continues to improve and thrive under its new ownership then there may be no notable gap in the market - is billyk still doing programming for SPX too?

I can't remember if he's still working with spx or not.

Bill and Gabe are both friends and both capable of plenty stubbornness. I dunno any more detail than what's in that tcj article. I feel like Gabe should just keep doing the exact same show, change the name to Desert Island Comics Festival to obviate this conflict, the end.

i haven't been to MOCCA before, but just looking at the guests, exhibitors, and post-show reactions, it is waaaaay off of where it was a few years ago. maybe new yorkers disagree with this perception? it seems like it isn't just new york that's contributing to this new crop of outstanding indie festivals - minneapolis, chicago, LA, portland, and seattle all have them. (and bethesda, MD of course.) the only city with a high density of cartoonists that is incapable of putting on a good festival is san francisco.

gabe hinted on facebook that he might just start another show from scratch. it's a shame, since i have a lot of respect for all three of those guys, and no one came out of that article looking good.

This year's Mocca felt much more professional and worth it than the previous... three or so? years. The Society of Illustrators has taken it over and they did a good job. BUT the table price was yet again more expensive than the previous year, which was already ridic expensive. I heard chatter that they were already locked into the Armory for this year's show and that they will switch venues for next year. Maybe that will enable a reduction in table price, I dunno. Anyway it's never gonna be a replacement for BCGF.

On the posi side, Gabe just signed a new 5 year lease on the store, which was something that was up in the air/touch and go for months.

Is it okay that I'm disappointed that you aren't doing the graphic novel with John Lewis? Not that your style would be exactly what the civil rights legend is looking for, but the continual John/Jon mixups would have been fun.

Ha! I have a book signed by John Lewis (and I met him! He's very nice) so clearly I should be trying harder to get a signed Jon Lewis on my shelf?!

Clearly!

Now only the leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet and the British retail titan lack graphic novels!

ha, congrats on the escapist thing!