Hello comics people! Welcome to our roundup of news, events, and opportunities for April 2023!
News
HEX AMERICANA by Bree D. Wolf is now available for preorders! Read the solicit below.
A boy-meets-ghoul story at 100 miles-per-hour!
Ken’s one dream in life is to follow in the footsteps of Dante, his long-departed racing idol, and compete in the ultimate monster derby grand prix – the legendary Hex Americana! The one problem is he doesn’t have his license . . . or a car . . . aaaaand his mom definitely doesn’t approve. (So, three problems.) But when Ken stumbles upon a town mystery he learns the ghost stories about Dante he grew up on are true, and he’s burning for a comeback from the great beyond. Dante’s car is still around (barely), but he needs Ken’s flesh and blood to drive it. This trans-dimensional duo has a lot of work to do, and their past and future racing glories are on the line!
Bursting to the brim with crazy monsters, blazing automotive action, deep-rooted mysteries, and small-town secrets, HEX AMERICANA is the race everyone’s dying to win!
Happy belated book birthday to Archie Bongiovanni’s MIMOSA! Powell’s Books in Portland, OR will be hosting a conversation with Bongiovanni and Sarah Shay Mirk on April 8. Read the solicit below.
Best friends and chosen family Chris, Elise, Jo, and Alex work hard to keep themselves afloat. Their regular brunches hold them together even as the rest of their lives threaten to fall apart. In an effort to avoid being the oldest gays at the party, the crew decides to put on a new queer event called Grind–specifically for homos in their dirty thirties.
Grind is a welcome distraction from their real problems: after a messy divorce, Chris adjusts to being a single parent while struggling to reconnect to their queer community. Elise is caught between feelings for her boss and the career of her dreams. Jo tries to navigate the murky boundaries of being a supportive friend and taking care of her own needs. And Alex is guarding a secret that might change his friendships forever.
While navigating exes at work, physical and mental exhaustion, and drinking way, way too much on weekdays, this chosen family proves that being messy doesn’t always go away with age.
Opportunities
The Latinx Archive has submissions open for Not Your Papi’s Utopia. They are looking for original and unpublished short stories, poetry, plays, and graphic arts that take classic utopian ideas and reexamine them through a radical Latinx lens and create something compelling and new.
Deadline is August 1, 2023. Place your name, contact information, and word count at the top of the document. Send submissions to the editors as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf fie to latinxarchive@gmail.com.
Submit to the Zine Library at Trenton Free Public Library here.
Submit to the American Library Association’s Zine Pavilion. Submissions are due by June 20; send your zines to Woodridge Public Library (Attn: D. Murray, 3 Plaza Dr, Woodridge, IL 60517)
KNIFEBEETLE is a curated webring for longform, narrative-driven webcomics. “Curated” means members must apply or be invited, “longform” means the comics are eked out over months if not years, “narrative-driven” means the stories have a focus on being stories, and “webring” means we list webcomics for you to find, read, and hopefully fall in love with. By joining KNIFEBEETLE, our creators can promote each other and find new readers just by linking back to this hub site.
Apply to have your work featured here.
Events
April 17, 7-9pm at Bat Haus (459 Grand St, Brooklyn)
Pros, hobbyists, students, first time makers, come draw and talk comics!
Masks required (except for eating and drinking)
$10 at the door, BYO supplies, snacks, and drinks
Here’s the status of some upcoming conventions:
SLICE: St. Louis Independent Comics Expo is on October 14, 2023. Applications open on April 4.
SPX: Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD is on September 9-10, 2023. Apply for the table lottery here (submissions close at 11:59 EDT tonight!), and apply to the Ignatz Awards here (submissions close May 31).
Summer Story Fest: Join Outlet and Honeyed Words for a summer celebration of storytelling on June 24-25. Applications close tonight!
MICE: The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo is on September 30-October 1, 2023. Apply here (submissions close April 10 at 11:59pm EDT).
Plastic City Comic Con: Plastic City Comic Con in Fitchburg, MA is on August 19, 2023. Applications can be found here.
Member Accolades
Haley Boros was awarded Sequential Magazine’s Favorite Cartoonist of 2022!
Reimena Yee‘s The God of Arepo has been shortlisted for Best Webcomic for the 2023 Cartoonist Studio Prize!
