If part of your 2018 goals is to read more comics by people you may not already know, I can think of no better way than to kick that off by taking advantage of the subscription offer by Youth in Decline, which features 4 comics by the creators listed above. I really wish I'd been watching this series before, as the list of prior creators is a who's who of folks who I really dig: Eleanor Davis, Mike DeForge, Jilian Tamaki, Emily Carroll, and Sam Alden, just to name a few. This gives you a good idea of the quality of the creators they've selected in the past, so that you have an idea going in, even if you aren't familiar with the creators.
Here's what Youth in Decline had to say about the upcoming artists:
I'm particularly excited about Ako Castuera, as I find that creators like Shing Yin Khor, who work in multimedia as well as comics, often provide paper work that brings a new dimension to the panels, no pun intended.Frontier #15: Tatsuro Kiuchi
Tatsuro Kiuchi is an illustrator living and working in Tokyo. He has created work for such varied clients such as Royal Mail, Starbucks, and numerous publications. Tatsuro is the author of the picture book “The Lotus Seed” and the comic “The Earthling.” He is the owner of studio PEN STILL WRITES and teaches illustration at AOYAMAJUKU.Tatsuro has an unparalleled eyes for capturing the subtle and sublime details of moments in one’s daily life, whether a quiet domestic tenderness between a couple, or the feeling of traveling through a wide open landscape.Frontier #16: Ako Castuera
Ako Castuera is painter, sculptor, and textile artist working in Los Angeles, California. Her sculptures and paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the US, her work can be seen in “Adventure Time,” for which she was a storyboard artist and writer for several seasons.A native Angeleno, Ako’s roots carry rich material and intangible cultural heritage from Okinawa and Mexico into contemporary American culture. Ako’s most recent are ceramic sculptures that combine animal, human, landscape and architectural elements, describing an interwoven profusion of life that calls into question our hierarchically ordered beliefs around human / non-human, animate / inanimate.Frontier #17: Lauren Weinstein
Lauren Weinstein is creator of the Ignatz nominated weekly strip, “Normel Person,” and author of “The Goddess of War” and “Girl Stories.” Currently she is working on a new book called “Calamity.” For Frontier, Lauren will be sharing personal reflections on the hopes & fears of a parent, directed as a time capsule to her children about these surreal, turbulent times.Frontier #18: Tiffany Ford
Tiffany Ford is a cartoonist and animator in Los Angeles. She worked previously as a color stylist on Steven Universe, and as a storyboard artist for Clarence -- and is currently working on a new project for Cartoon Network. Tiffany’s personal comics are a hilarious glimpse into the fun & frustration of contemporary daily life.
Here's an example of work from each creator, and having done the research on this, I'm even more excited than I was before I went ahead and subscribed:
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| Cat Power by Tatsuro Kiuchi |
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| Ako Castuera |
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| from Normel Person by Lauren R Weinstein |
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| Tiffany Ford |
As you can see, these are all great! So now that you're ready to subscribe, here's the options, if you live in the US:
$10 gets you digital versions of the books
$36 gets you print versions, shipping included
$40 gets you print and digital versions, shipping included
Canada and Worldwide pay a bit more, but it's still pretty reasonable from my limited experience. I really dig that the digital tier has a nice, affordable price point for those who either don't have room for physical media, prefer digital, on a budget, or aren't ready to drop 9 bucks an issue for artists they aren't big fans of--yet.
I love subscription services, as long-time readers of the site know, and I'm super-excited about this one. If you are, too, don't delay--this is only available today and tomorrow, New Year's Day. Check it out here, and look forward to four books that should be pretty keen.
