SPX Spotlight 2013: AdHouse Books

Welcome to another entry in the 2013 SPX Spotlight series!  For the next month, I'll be highlighting creators and publishers who will be at the best convention, the Small Press Expo.  You can check out all of my spotlights for SPX from both this year and prior years here.

I've been reading AdHouse Books titles from the first night I went to SPX, picking up Panel Patter favorite Joey Weiser's The Road Home (review here) and reading it while Erica made copies of her late, lamented mini-comic. Every year, I look forward to seeing what Chris Pitzer has to offer, because while it won't always be to my taste, I can guarantee that the quality of the work, both in terms of content and publication quality, will be top notch.

Pitzer has been the brains behind AdHouse for 11 years now, and has quite the stable of creators over that time. In addition to Weiser, he's also published books by Jim Rugg, Tom Scioli, and Stuart Immonen, among many many others. This year, Ethan Rilly's Pope Hats is nominated for two Ignatz awards, adding even more prestige to AdHouse, all of it well-deserved.

I'm a bit behind in reviewing recent work from AdHouse, but you can find my past reviews and praise for Chris and his work here. I'll just quickly note that last year, I picked up White Clay and Pope Hats and enjoyed them both quite a bit. They're very different in their approach and subject material (one is experimental while the other is more straightforward storytelling) but both are excellent examples of the range of comics in general and Pitzer's curating of his label. He looks for the best examples of comics and when possible, puts them in AdHouse.

For this year's show, Pitzer is proud to present Delusional, from SPX Special Guest Farel Dalrymple. Dalymple illustrated Jonathan Letham's Omega the Unknown for Marvel, one of my wife's favorite mini-series. He's also the creator of Pop Gun War, a series I've been meaning to read for some time.

Here's Chris's description of the new book:

Delusional is a book of comics and drawings by cartoonist Farel Dalrymple. You might have seen them in various anthologies, or posted on the internets, but now they are collected into one beautiful tome. Farel's previous work includes Pop Gun War, Omega the Unknown and the occasional Prophet.

What I love about AdHouse is that there's always something for everyone. You can find wildly experimental work next to all-ages fare and homages to comics eras gone by. A beautiful sketchbook collection might be right next to a comic that tells its tale with only the simplest of lines.

That's AdHouse for you--almost an SPX in miniature. It's a publisher you shouldn't miss when you go to the show in September.

Staying in your own house and not going to SPX? Boo!  But you can find AdHouse on the web here and buy books directly from Pitzer.