Last year at SPX, a comics artist named Corinne Mucha stopped by the Shortpants table and asked, "do you do trades?"
Shortpants is gonna let you in on a little secret, reader. We're actually kinda reluctant to do trades. Firstly coz we're trying to pretend like we run a business, and secondly because nine times out of ten, we seem to get the short end of the stick. You know, some crudely drawn, crudely photocopied comic about a bunch of manga type ninjas, or a badass trenchcoated dood who has mystical powers and curses the greatness that was thrust upon him. Yawn. Usually we'll still make the trades, because frankly, no one knows who we are yet, and also because we're really polite.
With Corinne Mucha, though, we not only didn't get the short end of the stick, we actually found a real gem. After devouring the book she gave us (Buzz #1), I sent Shortpants's boyfriend Niles to track her down and get more. He returned triumphant, with a book called "I Lived in Alaska."
Mucha's drawings are quirky, charming, and infinitely approachable. As personal as her content gets, the books never read like diary entries as much as they do like cleverly funny instructional manuals:
"I Lived in Alaska" is the story of how Mucha and her boyfriend Sam spent a season working at a bed & breakfast in Soldotna, Alaska. It's told in little staccato vignettes, documenting conversations, misconceptions, preparations, the journey, events at the bed & breakfast, adventures exploring Alaska itself, and their return to the conterminous states.
After last year's SPX, I went to spend a week on Nantucket at the hostel my brother managed. I'm pretty sure I made at least two dozen people there read "Alaska."
This year, Mucha stopped by our table again with some new books. Like "Alaska", "I Hate Mom's Cat" is pretty straightforward, about Mucha's mom's cat Teddy, who has everyone (but Mucha) fooled. It's very cute, it's charmingly self-referential, and Shortpants (custodian to two kitties ourselves) likes stories about cats.
Mucha's "Buzz" comics are just as adorable. Maybe more so.
Shortpants has Buzz #s 1 and 2 now, but for some reason couldn't find them this morning. (We stole this pic from Mucha's site.) She bills "Buzz" as "a collection of random musings and observations", and it's here that her dark and quirky sense of humor and style really gets a chance to shine. These comics are laugh out loud funny, and they made Shortpants want to share them with everyone we could find.
Your homework: get yourself some Corinne Mucha comics. She rules.
ATTN: Hairy Nipples comics night fans! Offhandedly, before she left our table, Mucha hinted that she might be moving to Chicago soon. There's always room for one more at Clarke's Pancake House, right? :)
One of the books I bought at SPX this year was the new Drawn & Quarterly collection of Tove Jansson's "Moomin" comic strip. It's beautiful, it's gorgeous, it's a really lovely book all in all, but it's so nice to see Jansson's fluid and imaginative drawings all in one place.
Here's the Mymble and Snork Maiden discussing pirates:
And here's Moomintroll, Sniff and Snufkin reeling from the abdication of Moominmamma and Moominpappa:
I was very happy to see this book come out, and I was more than delighted to read all of these strips, it's definitely a worthwhile purchase. But as wonderful as this collection is, it just really can't begin to compare to Jansson's books.
My siblings and I grew up with the Moomin books, and from the looks of it, we might have been the only kids in the US who did. The Moomins are well known almost everywhere else in the world - hell, there's an amusement park based on them in Europe. There've been books, cartoons, movies, and crazy merch out the wazoo. And almost none of it ended up in the US.
My parents read these books to me and my siblings as bedtime stories. We knew all the characters, and even nicknamed one of my sisters "Little My" for her fiery temper. In college, I named the stray cat that hung out on my dorm's back porch after Snufkin.
Now that we're all older, I still turn to the Moomin books on nights when I'm lonely or depressed, and they never fail to cheer me up. They're for children, sure, but they're filled with such poetry and wisdom that they'll move you at any age. Start with Moominsummer Madness, or Tales from Moominvalley, and work your way up to Moominpappa's Memoirs and Moominvalley in November. Jansson's books are transcendent. They're tender, they're sweet, they're funny, they're profound, they're sad and jubilant and lonely and clever in a way that only the Scandinavians can truly be.
I do recommend the comics, I truly do. But they don't reveal the sheer exquisite beauty of Jansson's imagination like the Moomin books do.
The handful of you guys that come here regularly might have noticed that I've gotten rid of the links to the funnypants page and to the forum. Both features had gotten fairly inactive, and at any rate, I'd already been thinking we should focus more content on the comics that we put into the catalog, and the comics that we're reading.
So, if all goes according to plan, blog posts will be a lot more frequent. We'll post reviews, works in progress, upcoming titles, news about St. Louis and Chicago comics meetups, and anything else that strikes our fancy.
Another announcement: if you're outside the US and want to order something for the holidays, order it by November 3 in order to guarantee delivery before Christmas. People living in the US, place your orders by December 14.
We have much to discuss re: SPX. Reviews of other people's comics that we picked up, especially. But Shortpants Press has been under the weather, so we've been dozing through Nyquil-induced trances instead of updating. In the meantime, we thought we'd treat you to some cocktail napkin drawings that were made for yours truly at SPX.
(click the image for the full comic) Shortpants Press's big brother Jeff drew this one, documenting his and his friend Cedric's trip out to the Expo.
Shortpants's good friend Kristin drew this one, while our posse were stuffing our faces with seafood at J. Paul's dining saloon in Georgetown after the Expo ended. :)
The third issue in the Shuteye series tells the story of a young couple, on a hike through the northern Midwest, who stumble upon an abandoned house in the middle of the forest. Or maybe it's about relationships between two very different people and the strains placed on them by outside influences, and doing whatever one needs to do to bear those strains. We're not sure right now, because immediately after getting home from SPX, Shortpants Press succumbed to a nasty headcold. We have much to tell you about the goings-on in Bethesda, but for now you'll have to content yourself with a new book.
Just in time for the Small Press Expo, we present the first series of artist-designed Shortpants Press 1" Pins! There's a Sadie pin by Grant Reynolds, a treasure map by Drew Crowley, and a happy skeleton by Sarah Becan. Over the next several months we'll be releasing a number of limited edition series of Shortpants Press pins, designed by some of our favorite artists.
Want your own handful of the first set? They're only a buck! Want to get in on the designy action and have your art on a future Shortpants Press pin? email us!
So things have been quiet on the Shortpants front lately, huh? That's mostly my fault, I've been working like a dog getting ready for SPX, practicing with my band, learning how to dance flamenco-style, and trying to finish my new comic. There's lots of great stuff waiting in the wings; by the end of SPX there'll be a brand new issue of Shuteye, and a brand new series of exclusive Shortpants Press 1" pins for you too! AND once SPX is over, expect to be wowed with a series of reviews of awesome things I found to buy there. We're still here, I promise.
