short! pants! press!

We are just a big Comics-Tease

2009-06-22T15:04:00.002-05:00

I know things have been quiet release-wise lately around these parts. Rest assured that Shortpants is working hard on new books for you. For one, there'll be another issue of Shuteye by the end of the summer. For another, we are working very hard on a collected edition of the Ouija Interviews, with some new material even!

We're also going to be working on a collection of Bone Closet comics with LOTS of new work in it as well! So stay tuned!

Some Art for Some Musics

2009-06-17T09:30:00.002-05:00

Been working on some art for silkscreen posters and shirts and demo labels for the band I'm in...

Al Gore has a Twitter

2009-05-06T10:50:00.003-05:00

Here is a comic I did for tonight's Encyclopedia Show. Are you in Chicago? You should go check it out!

Deep down maybe we are all shy little nerds

2009-05-05T10:07:00.004-05:00

I'm very excited about TCAF this weekend. I was going over the guest list yesterday and thinking, oooh I can't wait to meet Kate Beaton, oooh look Jeff Lemire will be there. And then oooh John Campbell will be exhibiting!

Campbell's one of my favorite webcomics artists, and in anticipation I was poking around his site, and noticed on his about page that HE LIVES IN CHICAGO. I'll be going all the way to Toronto to meet someone who lives in my own damn city.

At Stumptown this year I was chatting with Lucy Knisley, and asked where she was living - I think I thought she was still in the Northeast - and she says "Logan Square". That is MY VERY NEIGHBORHOOD. She seriously lives only a few blocks from me. Actually, quite a few comics artists live in Logan Square for some reason, and yet we rarely hang out with each other. A few years ago Grant and Neil and I were trying to hold regular comics-hanging-out-nights, but they fell apart pretty easily. Sara Bauer, also a Chicago resident, is one of the sweetest, nicest comictype people I have ever met, and as many times as we've threatened to get together it never seems to happen. Corinne Mucha was next to my table at Stumptown, and it was the first time I had seen her in months.

I'm as much to blame as anyone. I've got a pretty busy schedule and I certainly don't go out of my way to call anyone else up for a drawing night or comics get together. And I've joked multiple times that trying to get comics artists together to do stuff is like herding cats. And maybe it's the nature of the medium that we work better in isolation for the most part?

Who knows. I considered writing John Campbell to say hey, we both live in Chicago and make comics, but thought better of it, and decided to wait until we're both in Toronto to introduce myself. :)

I heart painting things

2009-04-28T12:02:00.003-05:00

I spent some time Sunday painting a banner to take to TCAF. This'll be the first time in a while that we'll have 3 feet of space instead of 6 or 8, and I had some spare blue canvas lying around (who doesn't, am I right?).

Once the spring calms down (officially, after the ManMan/Gogol Bordello Show on May 31st) I'm going to paint a banner for Shortpants Press, on the same material, for use on the 8 foot and 6 foot tables. It's incredibly dorktastic how excited I am to have a banner I can FOLD and put in a suitcase rather than one I have to roll up and carry in a geeky poster tube.

Stumps and Towns, part V

2009-04-27T09:29:00.002-05:00

I never remember to take many photos when I'm at a convention, and I certainly almost never get any of myself. But Richard Krauss of Midnight Fiction took a bunch of a lot of different creators there, and you can see them all on his site. Here's me!

Don't I look pleasant and approachable? Don't you want to buy comics from my table? :) Also note the guy in the hat, behind me. He had the most interesting faux fur jackets.

I spent much of yesterday painting a banner to take to TCAF. I'm tired of lugging a poster tube around to these shows, so I'm hand painting canvas banners for them, banners that can be folded and stashed in a suitcase. I'll have to get some pictures once they're done...

Stumps and Towns, part IV

2009-04-24T09:03:00.003-05:00

One of the things I picked up at Stumptown was this little gem.

Art Bureau puts out some really lovely stuff. Silkscreens, gorgeous little offset books like this one, all to promote artists and designers. The book I picked up has some great work from artists like Bubi Au Yeung and Catalina Estrada.

My pictures are terrible but the book is lovely, and so is all their other stuff. Go check it out!

Stumps and Towns, part III

2009-04-23T14:45:00.002-05:00

What else was I going to tell you about Stumptown? I bought a bunch of books that I will be writing up over the next few days, but in the meantime, here are some random photos:

This is my favorite photo from the weekend. Our hotel rooms had painted the doors with chalkboard paint, and Saturday night this showed up on the door across from ours. Mr. Onstad was at the festival for a signing, I was excited guessing that the room was his; Niles thinks it was maybe a fan. Either way, awesome chalking dood:

This is a bucket o' donuts that someone brought in Saturday morning. I'm sure they were day-olds but they were still fabulous. (that's Corinne Mucha's fabulous quilt under the bucket)

AAANd here is a robot, for some reason.

Stumps and Towns, part II

2009-04-22T14:06:00.005-05:00

Whilst in Portland, Shortpants and the Shortpants Boyfriend happened upon a thrift store, where this amazing shirt was purchased:

Don't you wish you had this shirt? 1940s Superman is vastly superior to modern day Superman, and this shirt is evidence. Note the dashing ubermensch in question, macking on a hot piece of lady:

Also note the swiftness with which he rebuffs critics:

Oh, you think Superman is not everything he promises to be WELL NO ONE ASKED YOU BITCH! Snap! Damn straight. Now be off before you get your smart mouth SUPER-PUNCHED.

Stumps and Towns, part I

2009-04-22T08:48:00.002-05:00

I have lots of Stumptown stories for you people now that we are back in the Middle West, but first, take a look at this rockpants shirt we got from Lucy Knisley.

Niles claims that he has eaten every cheese on that shirt, except for one. He also says that the cheeses are drawn exceptionally well, and he is an avid cheesemonger, so that is pretty high praise, coming from someone with considerable experience monging cheese.

I hope we don't die of dysentery

2009-04-16T15:15:00.004-05:00

Hey, guys, did I mention we're going to be at Portland's Stumptown Comics Festival this weekend? It is Shortpants's first time at Stumptown, verily, our first time in Oregon at all! Shortpants is pretty jazzed.

So if you are in the Pacific Northwest, you should come see us at Stumptown, and then tell us which microbreweries to check out while we're in town.

Oh no everything is different

2009-04-13T10:22:00.004-05:00

So if you're reading this, you've probably already deduced, with your Holmesian cleverness, that we redesigned our website! Welcome to the new www dot short pants press dot com. We've spiffied up the catalog, added quick links to our flickr and twitter thingies, and generally made everything lots shinier and prettier.

Many, many, many bazillions of thanks go to Dr. Ogres for the programming of the new site!! Go to his site and buy records, they make nice musics over there.

Anyway, it's still pretty new, and there are still a number of kinks to work out, so please be patient with us as we put the finishing touches on everything.

Uncle Envelope is here!

2008-12-01T10:24:00.005-06:00

Hey everyone! Say hi to Uncle Envelope!

He travels the world looking for cool, artsy, comicksy, papery things to send you. Comic books, mazes, games, papercrafts, all sorts of wondrous objects. And you can get a year's worth of his mailings for only $36!

Certain Shortpants artists and Shortpants known associates are involved in this project, so you know it's good. A subscription to Uncle Envelope is probably the coolest Crimbo present you could get for your favorite niece or nephew, you know. And if you're an artist that wants to participate, you can submit your work here.

Thanx and thanx again...

2008-11-15T11:26:00.002-06:00

The beta version of mythanx just launched! Go check it out, it's chock full of illustrations by Shortpants Press's Sarah Becan.

A song for Joshua Ray

2008-10-27T09:54:00.004-05:00

Hey guys. So at the Windy City Comicon - speaking of which, by the way, how cute is this?

Anyway, at the convention, Kristin hands me this book:

It's called "The Moth or the Flame", and it's by Joshua Ray Stephens. And quite honestly, it is a Thing of Unimaginable Beauty.

I really can't remember the last time I got so excited by a book. The presentation, first of all, is fantastic. The cover is hardbound with a lovely texture that immediately reminded me of being a little kid sitting on the floor in a closet at my grandparents' house reading their copy of Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley. The cover is simply and gracefully adorned with a simple small illustration on the front and back, and the title on the spine. I turned it over a few times, and then I opened it.

Ooooh.

(Click on the pages for a link to larger versions:)

"Wow," I told Kristin. "I kinda wanna make out with this book. Kinda really."

"I know," she said.

"But then I'd get your book all slobbery," I mused.

"Oh, that copy's for you," Kristin told me.

"Well then. I can just molest it in the privacy of my own home," I decided.

The artwork is spellbinding. It reminded me a little of Paper Rad and a little of Theo Ellsworth. Quirky, charming, and endlessly imaginative, and every page is filled filled filled with the kind of obsessive linework that we here at Shortpants love. Patterns, textures, wallpapers, cloth, grasses, wood grain... every inch of every page has been lovingly decorated by a careful and patiently meticulous hand.

The story is amazing too. A sweet and delightful love story between Tealeaf Wallowrose and Tempest McGillicutty, filled with smartly named characters and a mesmerizing setting. My heart fell when Tempest thought Tealeaf didn't want to see him again, and it got all warm and fuzzy when the two were reunited.

And I won't spoil anything for you guys, but the ending, ah the ending. It surprised me enough that I had to put the book down and ponder it silently for a while. And that's always the test of a great book, isn't it? That it doesn't end, even when it ends? That it sticks with you and pesters you for a while, buzzing around in your brain, wanting to play long after you close the cover on that last page.

And I know Shortpants is gushing like a schoolgirl here. But to be frank, a lot of mediocre comic books cross our desk here, and we've probably been guilty of putting out one or two half-assed projects ourselves. It is a shamefully rare thing to come across a book so lovingly, so meticulously, so daringly and adoringly put together. And from what we can gather, it's the comics world's best kept secret right now. It's worth every penny of the $18 Joshua Ray's asking for it (that includes shipping, kids), and is absolutely a must-have for the discerning indie comic book fan.

You can get your copy here, and Shortpants highly, highly recommends that you do.

Now for a little Tongue

2008-10-26T20:08:00.002-05:00

Have you guys seen the latest Bull Tongue?

"Got a few eye-pleasing graphics anthologies here. The Shortpants Observer #1 (Shortpants Press) is a sweet, square-cut collection of artists from Chicago. The printing quality is a little odd, but the contents are excellent. Longer, weird stories in a variety of styles."

Also, Windy City Comicon was freaking fantastic. I'll have a full report, along with some great new artists and projects for you to check out, later this week.

BiMonSciFiCon!

2008-10-24T12:56:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! The Windy City Comicon is TOMORROW, Saturday October 25th. It's only $5 to get in! Come get some comics!

Shuteye #1, Vea, Reprinted!

2008-10-20T12:14:00.002-05:00

Shuteye #1 Reprinted!
23 pages in a 2-color hand silkscreened cover. $4.00

Just finished reprinting Shuteye #1! This is the first issue of the Shuteye series. It's a dreamy story about a soldier who deserts his company of explorers in the Banda Oriental, and finds himself adopted by a native tribe with a mysterious secret. It's been sold out for a while, but I finally got around to silkscreening some new covers and now it's back in stock! Come get some!

Ong Ong Ong Ong Ong Ong

2008-10-13T10:20:00.005-05:00

Hey folks. Que tal? Shortpants and the Shortpants Boyfriend just got back from a great trip to Seattle where we drank many fine Seattle beers and ate lots of great Seattle seafood. The only thing we didn't do? Pick up lots of great Seattle comics. Why, you ask? Not for lack of trying. We hit three different comics stores, a few book stores too, and found NOTHING. wtf?

Finally, our last day there, we found ourselves at a record store in Ballard, and while the Shortpants Boyfriend was digging through used CDs, I approached the very helpful girl at the counter and asked her why I was having such a hard time finding independently produced comics and zines. Didn't Seattle used to be Zine Central, back in the days when giant herds of riot grrrls roamed the hillsides and the grunge was plentiful?

She said, yes, it used to be. "Back in the day," she said, "even I had a zine. I guess a lot of us sort of grew out of it or something?"

Fortunately though, there's still at least one person keeping the faith. Helpful record store girl was kind enough to point us towards the latest issue of Ong Ong: a Seatlle-based zine that collects stories and essays and comics and art from lots of talented people, and does it in style too.

Issue #4 was great company on the flight home; there's a very sweet short story called "The Apartment," an essay on combating sexism, music reviews and recommendations, a few pages of charming antique photos from Victrola Favorites, and of course, comics. Yay comics!

There's pieces by Theo Ellsworth, a Portland-based artist with a great eye for detail...

...there's some stuff by Kirill Tolypgo, called "Wizard Island", which I can't find anywhere online and of which I would very much like to see some more...

...art from Sarah Anderson,and there's even a wonderful collage by Susan Boren of Clip Tart, one of Shortpants' very favoritest zines.

Ong Ong is everything that a good zine should be. It's got a healthy mix of everything, it's loaded with pleasant surprises (there's a CD in the back of this issue, of "recovered children's, educational, and spoken word LP obscurities"), and even with the wide variety of content the overall look is cohesive, attractive and well designed. We're also big fans of the wraparound silkscreen cover.

You can get a copy for yourself at a number of stores in Seattle, Portland, San Fran and even Minneapolis (not Chicago though, methinks someone should give Ong Ong the address for Quimby's), or online at their site. Go check it out, it's absolutely worth the price!

Les Pods sont Cast, mesdames et messieurs

2008-09-29T10:26:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! Shortpants did a podcast with the good folks at Around Comics about politics in comic books. It's here if you have an hour or so to blow today. I mean, if you have an hour to spend listening to intelligent and erudite conversation. :)

A comicon in Chicago that's not in Rosemont??

2008-09-10T16:02:00.002-05:00

Hey guys, we're going to be at the Windy City Comicon late next month, with many many books and other tasty things for you. It's Saturday Oct. 25th, from 10:00am to 6:00pm, it's at The Center on Halsted (3656 N Halsted) which is so much easier to get to than Rosemont, and do you know how much it is?? I will tell you, because it is ONLY FIVE DOLLARS. Why, that is so cheap, you can't afford NOT to go.

Everyone has a different favorite

2008-09-05T15:33:00.002-05:00

Hey folks. PlaybackSTL just reviewed the Observer!

"Finding high quality minicomics can be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack, so it pays to have a friend with good taste to dig out those diamonds in the rough. You couldn't ask for a much better friend on that front than Sarah Becan, whose imprint Shortpants Press specializes in scooping up some of the finest unsung artists of the Midwest and publishing them together under one banner. Becan's latest publishing venture, The Shortpants Observer, serves as a sampler, collecting work from four of the finest minicomics makers Chicago has to offer, with Becan promising to branch out to other Midwestern locales if the series proves a strong seller."

In other news, I know we've been quiet lately. I promise that we're still around and selling books and things. It turns out that it's not so easy to run an entire publishing concern when you have, like, a full time job and stuff. But plans are in place to get some help in certain areas, and we are hard at work behind the scenes here with some great new books in the wings and a complete overhaul of the website.

The Shortpants Observer, #1!

2008-07-10T14:26:00.003-05:00

The Shortpants Observer, #1
$8.00

At long last, we present to you the first issue in a series of short anthology books, a project we’re calling The Shortpants Observer. We’re knocking on the doors of artists we know and like, artists that we think you should also know and like (if you don’t already), and asking them to draw things for us. This first issue is utterly beautiful, and showcases some extremely talented comics artists, all of whom live in Chicago: Anya Davidson, Corinne Mucha, Becca Taylor and Jeremy Tinder. Assuming this first issue doesn’t completely bankrupt us, there are many future issues to come that will include some more of the Middle-West’s best and most interesting artists.

72 pages, all previously unpublished material. Get yours now!

Here's a pdf of Jeremy's full comic!

Oops!

2008-06-25T11:26:00.002-05:00

Do you know, I completely forgot to post this Optical Sloth review for Neil's Sock-Monster Book??

"Ah, if only all minis with one panel strips were like this... this is how it’s supposed to be done... It’s funny, that lettering is downright hypnotic, and there’s some serious inking going on. A lot of one panel strips rely on characters sitting mostly in a blank environment, but Neil clearly spends a solid chunk of time on each panel. This is well worth your time to seek out, proving once again that Short Pants has a damned near perfect track record in publishing quality comics."

Oh, blushes. :) You can get the book here.

My card...

2008-06-23T09:47:00.003-05:00

We have some new gocco-printed Shortpants cards! You can get one by finding us at a convention or ordering something from the catalog.