Welcome to the first edition of this year's Panel Patter SPX Spotlights! As we used to do when the site was more active and was picked up again last year, I'm highlighting some cool creators who are scheduled to be at the show this year. For those who don't know, the Small Press Expo is an annual comics show that focuses squarely on independent comics and creators. It's the show that changed how I read comics and the one where I formed some lasting connections.
This year's show is September 13th and 14th.
Today's column is dedicated to a few of those lasting connections. These are some (but not all) of the great comics that are debuting at SPX this year by people I know. I'm going to try to do a second column about debut books if I can focusing on creators I'm personally unfamiliar with. When looking over the SPX Debut Books section, I was so pleased to see how many of my old friends in the comics world are still out there putting great comics into the world.
A note here: I have met some amazing people in comics since I first got started with Panel Patter in 2008. There are many I call "panel pals" because we've come to know each other over the years. But the people in this column are more than that to me. These are people I know more personally. We've had long talks, gotten dinner, gone to a ball game, things like that. I don't think I missed anyone with a debut book that I would put in this category, but please know it's just my age, faulty memory, and trying to make the infinite scrolling work. I really am sorry if I missed you! Anyway, these are some of the best people I know, and I know a lot of great people.
And what's the use of having a site you 100% control if you can't use it to plug the books of your friends?
So let's do it!
Fizzle #5
by Whit Taylor
published by Radiator Comics
I first met Whit at SPX in either 2010 or 2011 (I can't remember which) and am proud of being (I think) one of the first people to review her work, which I continued to do until I decided to take a break from the site for awhile. Whit even wrote a few posts for the site, which was extremely cool (you're welcome to do so again any time!). She's gone on to so many great things! Fizzle is a series she started back in 2020, if I remember right, and it's now on its 5th issue.
Fizzle follows the adventures of Claire, a young woman whose life is a bit directionless and her boyfriend, who is directionless but has money. Claire eventually hits on a potentially winning concept, but there's more to the story than that, as Whit deftly explores her main character's life. By issue 5, she's realizing that maybe some life decisions were poor ones while spending time with a co-worker's family.
Whit's linework progressions from (yikes) almost fifteen years ago in Watermelon to her time with Fizzle is really something to see. Here's a sample of her current work:
I'm a little behind on Fizzle due to taking a hiatus. Go pick up the entire series at SPX this weekend if you can!
Can't make SPX? Whit's website is here.
Whit also has the third print issue of her webcomic available, Dead Air #3:
Wait, Luke!
by Rafer Roberts
Rafter Roberts has such a vivid, creative brain, and when he turns it on established characters (Archer and Armstrong, Thanos and Darkseid), it's always a great ride. This time, he's going to a galaxy far, far away and seeing what happens when the camera is off and poor Kenobi, R2, and C3PO are stuck waiting for that stupid kid to get back with their ticket out of a Jawa graveyard.
It's parody aplenty with Rafer's distinctive visuals giving this a look guaranteed to ensure hilarity ensues as the pages go on:
I always love how Rafer uses everything to make a page work, like how the word balloon in the second panel is as claustrophobic as being stuck listening to a protocol droid. Just so much fun and well worth grabbing for fans of Roberts and Star Wars.
Can't make SPX? Rafer's website is here.
Iron Scars Book 2
by Colleen Frakes
The first collection of
Iron Scars was one of
my favorite comics in 2018, and I'm super-excited that the second book, collecting issues 6-10 of the series, is finally coming out. For those who didn't read the first collection (shame on you!), Colleen's world is a group of people living in an island setting where there is a ton of magic and a lot of unfriendly fairies.
I haven't read this one yet so I don't know what happens, but I can tell you that of all the creators from her time frame, I think Frakes is one of the best at using the black and white comic medium to amazing effect, like the page below:
Just look at how the solid blacks are used to set the mood of the flashback and draw a contrast to the current narration. The fifth panel and its white lines where we'd normally expect black works so well here. Frakes is a great storyteller. Make sure you pick up both volumes of Iron Scars at the show.
Can't make SPX? Colleen's website is here.
If you're more into something shorter, Colleen also has a second show debut, Cursed 1, about two witches squaring off against the Baba Yaga:
Taekwondo: A Fanzine
by Maia Kobabe
Like Whit, Maia is a former writer for the site. E also was a big part of the Prism Awards for many years, and took me along for the ride as a Judge. Maia's most famous work is probably Gender Queer, a book challenged frequently in libraries for its queer themes. But in this case, Maia's dedicating a book to eir study of Taekwondo. I wasn't able to find a preview but the description talks about how the discipline helped Maia with eir mental health over the course of the past eight years. Maia's introspection is top notch and getting to see inside eir perspective of using a sport as a way to feel better mentally as well as physically will be a great mini-comic - exactly the type of thing that SPX is great at spotlighting.
Join us next time when I plan to look at some "random" debut books. See you there!
