SPX Spotlight 2013: Anne Thalheimer

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.

Anyone who loves monsters, Halloween, roller derby, or cats is going to have an easy time making it into my wheelhouse, and Anne Thalheimer is all of those things, so being a fan of her work is a no-brainer.

Thalheimer might have a bigger reputation within the zine community because her work is not strictly comics only. Her signature work, Booty, is a mix of comics and text, loosely chronicling her life by capturing moments. It's not the same as the other diary comics that were so popular for many years, where the creator talked about everything, no matter how mundane. Instead, Booty talks about a variety of things that happened to Thalheimer over whatever period of time the issue covers As you can see from the cover image above, her linework is thin and sketchy, but easily gets across the point, not unlike, say, early Jeffrey Brown or Kate Beaton. (For more details, see this review I did of issue 22.)

In addition to Booty, Thalheimer likes to create one-off minis like this one on Halloween costumes, which work within a given theme. She's also well-known for being the creator of the Monster Hats, which debuted at a They Might Be Giants show and have spun out into their own project. It's always fun to watch the number of people with Monster Hats on increase slowly but surely over the course of a day at SPX.

This year, in addition to having copies of Booty (the newest, Booty 27, is scheduled to be ready for SPX) and the Monster Hats, Thalheimer will have a full-length graphic novel, "What You Don't Get." She describes it as being a story of life, death, and cats. It's really cool to see her branch out to a longer work, and I'm looking forward to seeing it for the first time myself at the show.

Can't make SPX? I am so sorry, because the show is awesome! You can still get a Monster Hat by ordering one here or pick up Anne's graphic novel here. Booty should be available at any good zine distro near you.