Hosted By: Star Clipper
When: Wednesday Oct 17, 2007
at 5:00 PM
Where: Star Clipper
6392 Delmar Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63130
United States
Description:
Star Clipper

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John Porcellino, Kevin Huizenga, Ted May and Dan Zettwoch at Star Clipper, October 17

These four trailblazers of independent comics will be available from 5 to 8 PM on Wednesday, October 17 to sign their work and original art in this extraordinary gathering of young talent. Small-press icon John Porcellino (King-Cat Comics and Stories) will be giving a slide show presentation in the Star Clipper Gallery at 6 PM. The slide show highlights John's new release King-Cat Classix with samples from the first seven years of King-Cat, and John will discuss the culture of zines, self-publishing, and making autobiographical comics.

John Porcellino was born in Chicago, in 1968. He began writing and drawing at an early age, compiling his work into small, handmade booklets. His first photocopied "zine" was produced in 1982 at age 14, and he began his current series, King-Cat Comics and Stories, in 1989. Since then, King-Cat has been his predominant means of expression. Porcellino's most recent book collection King-Cat Classix is a comprehensive overview of his zine's first fifty issues.

Star Clipper is the region's premier independent retailer of graphic novels, comics, and designer toy collectibles. Our gallery is committed to promoting the work of emerging and exceptional artists and writers, designers, and other creatives. Please call 314-725-9110 with inquiries.

Star Clipper is pleased to present the incredible original prints of Sam McPheeters and Neil Burke in the Human Hair show, running October 5 to November 5, 2007 in the Star Clipper gallery.

Sam McPheeters is a punk rock personality, performance artist, and frontman for the now-defunct legendary NY hardcore band Born Against and later influential acts such as The Men's Recovery Project and LA's Wrangler Brutes.

Neil Burke is a poster artist and graphic designer responsible for much of the look and feel of Vermiform records. Burke also played in Born Against, Men's Recovery Project and Life's Blood. He currently runs his own print shop, Monoroid, based in Philadelphia.

Star Clipper is the region's premier independent retailer of graphic novels, comics, and designer toy collectibles. Our gallery is committed to promoting the work of emerging and exceptional artists and writers, designers, and other creatives. Please call 314-725-9110 with inquiries.

Fans of the macabre, rejoice: Gary Friedrich, creator of GHOST RIDER, is coming to Star Clipper just before All Hallow's Eve for a Ghost Rider signing and event! Our skulls are burning with anticipation if you know what we mean!!

We know what you're thinking: it's not even September yet. How can we ready ourselves for Halloween? We ask: HOW CAN YOU NOT.

Gary will be available to sign GHOST RIDER books, DVD's, comics and his own beautiful limited edition prints from 1 to 5 PM on October 27. But wait, there's more: get your picture taken with Gary and GHOST RIDER himself!! That's right, GHOST RIDER will be accompanying Gary for his signing!!

A modest fee for picture-taking will apply. Don't miss this one- time supernatural event!

Star Clipper is pleased to present three of the funniest guys in the funnybook business– Peter Bagge (HATE), Jim Blanchard (TRUCKER FAGS IN DENIAL), and Johnny Ryan (ANGRY YOUTH COMIX) for a gallery reception on Saturday, September 8 from 7 to 10 PM. The show, collecting their prints, paintings, posters, books, toys and more will run until September 29, 2007.

Peter Bagge was born in Peekskill, New York. He studied briefly at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in the mid-'70s. After a stint as the managing editor of R. Crumb's WEIRDO, Bagge co-published three issues of COMICAL FUNNIES. Bagge then started his own comic NEAT STUFF for Fantagraphics Books. In 1990, NEAT STUFF evolved into HATE, chronicling the foibles of NEAT STUFF's most engaging and fully-realized character, Buddy Bradley. Hailed by critics for its brilliant characterization and its sharp dissection of 1990's hipsterdom, HATE continues under the title HATE ANNUAL.

Bagge's distinctive in-your-face illustration style has appeared on many record and CD covers and his comics have been featured in political and social commentary magazines like REASON and websites like Suck.com. Other comic work includes YEAH!, SWEATSHOP, APOCALYPSE NERD and more; illustration work includes HUSTLER, MAD and the OXFORD AMERICAN, and several animation projects. Bagge lives in Seattle.

Jim Blanchard was born in Houston, Texas in 1965 and spent his formative years in Alaska, Ohio, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Norway. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts in 1987. Since moving to Washington State in 1988, he has taken on a wide range of artistic roles, including: cover artist for books & CDs, spot illustrator for magazines, technical illustrator, comic book artist, silkscreen poster artist, logo designer & art director for Fantagraphics Books, and inker for Peter Bagge's much- lauded HATE comic series. He has also enjoyed success as a gallery artist with his large-scale, graphic art paintings.

Jim's graphic influences extend from "low brow" sources (mug shots, vintage record covers, "pulp" illustrations, movie posters, rock posters, underground comix) to "high brow" painters and print artists.

John F. Ryan was born in Boston, MA on November 30, 1970. The disgruntled, post-collegiate Johnny began drawing comics and sending them to his friends, who encouraged him to go legit with his badly scrawled (yet hilarious) artwork. He honed his craft in his self-published title ANGRY YOUTH COMIX, picked up by Fantagraphics Books in 2000 and since collected into two books (PORTAJOHNNY and WHAT'RE YOU LOOKIN' AT?!). AYC has since earned multiple Ignatz, Harvey, and Eisner nominations. Johnny is also the creator of a weekly comic strip, "Blecky Yuckerella", which appears monthly in VICE magazine and weekly in The Portland Mercury (as well as online).

Johnny's unmistakable and hilarious illustration work has appeared in MAD, LA Weekly, National Geographic Kids, Hustler, Cool & Strange Music, The Stranger, Nobleworks greetings cards, Rhino Records, FOX television and elsewhere. His drawings appear in nearly every issue of Nickelodeon magazine under the pen name "Hector Mumbly". He also collaborated with Peter Bagge on AYC and Bagge's HATE ANNUAL and SWEATSHOP titles.

Star Clipper is pleased to present an incredible posse of industry talent from Kansas City, reprazentin' some of the freshest new influences in comics. Be there to INCREASE THE PEACE! Respect to the WESTSIDE:

JASON AARON, WRITER(Scalped, The Other Side)

KELLY SUE DECONNICK, WRITER (30 Days of Night: Eben & Stella)

MATT FRACTION, WRITER (Iron Fist, Casanova)

JEREMY HAUN, ARTIST (Civil War: Iron Man/Captain America, New Excalibur)

B. CLAY MOORE, WRITER (The Leading Man, Hawaiian Dick)


SETH PECK, WRITER (Sorrow)


STEVEN SANDERS, ARTIST (Five Fists of Science)

And representing Missouri's EASTSIDE will be Matt Kindt (PISTOLWHIP, 2 SISTERS), signing his new book from Top Shelf, SUPER SPY. Matt will have an installation in our gallery at the time of the signing detailing his creative process, so swing by for a special look at his SUPER SECRET STUDIO! Check out the Star Clipper blog for more information on all the above.

Our guest creators will be available to sign copies of their published work and offer other merchandise for sale.

Check it out, Jeffrey is coming to the shop on Saturday!! We've seen the CHANGE-BOTS books and they look great. What's all the hype about?

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Just in time for The Transformers movie, the prolific Jeffrey Brown brings us THE INCREDIBLE CHANGE-BOTS! So, what's a Change-Bot you ask? Well, we imagine it's a Transformer with a lot of girl trouble! Fan favorite (and heartbreaker!) Jeffrey will be signing this new release at Star Clipper from 1 to 3 PM on Saturday, August 4.


Jeffrey's first self-published book, Clumsy, appeared seemingly out of nowhere to grab attention from both critics and comics fans. Established as an overly sensitive chronicler of bittersweet adolescent romance and nonsense superhero parody, Brown's current direction remains autobiographical, now examining the minutae of everyday life, the meaning behind our common experiences, and why it's all kind of funny if you think about it.


His works include Clumsy, Unlikely, AEIOU, Be A Man, Bighead, I Am Going To Be Small, Minisulk, and Every Girl is the End of the World For Me. He's also appeared in a host of antholgies from McSweeney's to the Drawn & Quarterly Showcase, as well as local newspapers such as the Chicago Reader and NewCity. Brown has been featured on NPR's "This American Life" and even created a short animated music video for the band Death Cab For Cutie.

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Call Star Clipper at 314-725-9110 with questions. See you there!

I'm not just a little excited to tell you that Scott McCloud is going to be here at Star Clipper on Friday, July 13! When we first heard that Scott was launching an ambitious 50-State Tour to promote his new book MAKING COMICS, we waited with bated breath to see if we'd make the cut for Missourah. Well if there's a patron saint of comics, he or she came through in spades because the groundbreaking author of UNDERSTANDING COMICS, REINVENTING COMICS, ZOT and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN will be stopping by with the whole family from 4 to 7 PM for an informal question and answer session, followed by a book signing.

Star Clipper would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of HarperCollins Publishing, the people behind Scott's book and his 50 State Tour, for providing us with some really fantastic prizes for his visit! Come join us for his Q & A and be eligible for a prize drawing of three packs of UNDERSTANDING, REINVENTING & MAKING COMICS!

Call us at 314.725.9110 for details.

The Virgin Comics Art Show opened last night and it looks great, if we do say so ourselves. We've got 24 pieces of original art up from such books as JOHN WOO'S SEVEN BROTHERS, SADHU, DEVI and Deepak Shopra's KAMA SUTRA. It was a real thrill as we were hanging the work to be able to peer through the printed works as we held the raw art in our hands.

The gallery looks terrific right now. Get in there and check it out-- we've got a nice, formal layout happening, and the Virgin work is really easy on the eyes. We've got the trade paperbacks in stock for DEVI and SEVEN BROTHERS right now along with the KAMA SUTRA book, not to mention all the individual comics in stock.

For pix from the show head here.

For any South Asian grocery needs you have and then some, if you're in the greater St. Louis area, you go here. Seriously. Ashwin Patel over at Seema Enterprises was the greatest pleasure to work with imaginable on the Virgin Comics project and I think every show we do from now on should have some Indian flavor, don't you? Thanks Seema!

Super7 is a design collective based out of San Francisco's Japantown. Their storefront and magazine feature the latest trends in graphic art and limited edition toys, with a particular focus on Kaiju and Kaijin toys (humanoid monsters or insect characters from post-war Japanese entertainment). Super7 recently celebrated its 6th anniversary as a publication, and 3rd anniversary as a hip design boutique.

Although the members of this group often recruit a variety of toy specialists to curate shows and organize features, they too have a reputation for being aficionados in their own right. Super7 quenched every Kaiju nerd's thirst for these VERY rare and VERY expensive toys when they began releasing contemporary versions in 2001.

Their two reproduction methods are brilliant to say the least. Often produced in limited editions of no more than 100, contemporary artists and sculptors are invited to interpret their own versions of these vintage beauties by re-envisioning everything from the colorways + structural design to its packaging. Their second methods demands an overwhelming amount of research and sleuthing. Members of the Super7 collective track down the original artists and sculptors in an effort to gain access to the toys' molds. The result is an original toy released with a new combination of colors + sprays! GENIUS!

I nearly fainted when I was able to acquire two Kittyfires for Star Clipper. This Mirrorman Villain stands 15" tall and comes in a super cool black matte box with gold styling! We were able to acquire one of each colorway left from San Diego Comic Con: purple with gold spray + orange with teal spray. Kittyfire is fully licensed from Tsuburaya Productions of Japan, designed by Mark Nagata, with surprise display packaging designed by Super7's Brian Flynn .

Here is a contemporary version + the original character below:

Mr. clement is an emerging Hong Kong artist currently based in the UK. His first graphic novel, "PHOBIA," features the adventures of a curious mushroom figure named Mr. Yeah Kou (pronounced yay-goo), and the problems that arise when this gentle creature becomes overwhelmed by the pressures of a modern city.

In "PHOBIA," mr. Clement re-builds the city in which he lives. Illustrated through the perspective of Mr Yeah Kou, mr. clement divulges his honest impressions of London, and the alienation he experienced as a foreigner. Throughout "PHOBIA" Mr Yeah Kou becomes increasingly frustrated with his inability to communicate effectively- an obstacle we all encounter. But some of the most resonating images are those that mr. clement so brilliantly articulates with comic relief:

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Mr. Yeah Kou has since appeared in "Yeah Kou PHOBIA vol. 2," limited edition gift products and hand produced, badges, t-shirts, and ceramic figures. . . and let's not forget his recent segue into the modeling industry!


Mr. clement currently plans on self-publishing 6 volumes in total with 6 figures to match. HOW CUTE!