Consortium is a book distributor whose clients include small press graphic novel publishers such as Koyama Press. They put out a nice thick catalog twice a year, and leafing it is a good way to check out up-and-coming indy graphic novels that might get lost in Previews (most of these publishers are also carried by Diamond). Here’s a look at some intriguing titles from some lesser known publishers on Consortium’s Fall/Winter 2019/2020 list.
De Jongh is a Dutch artist with a clear, expressive style. Her debut graphic novel was The Return of the Honey Buzzard, and she is also the illustrator of the delightful French graphic novel Blossoms in Autumn, both published in North America by SelfMadeHero. Taxi weaves together the conversations de Jongh has with four different taxi drivers in four different cities: Los Angeles, Paris, Jakarta, and Washington, DC. Each encounter starts out with a different tone, but they all offer insight and humor, as well as some commentary on the prevalence of Uber and Lyft. The book is a 96-page black-and-white trade paperback with an MSRP of $17.00.
Roberts won an Ignaz Award for her comic Powdered Milk, and Rat Time follows in a similar vein: A wry docu-comic about everyday life—kid, pets, mental illness—drawn in a clear, very readable style. The 124-page black and white trade paperback will have an MSRP of $12.00.
DeForge has been nominated for two Eisner Awards and won several Ignatzes, and he worked as a designer for Adventure Time for six years. In Stunt, he depicts an actor who enlists the help of a stunt double to sabotage his own career. The odd-shaped (8” x 3.25”), two-color trade paperback will have an MSRP of $15.00.
While it is fiction, this graphic novel falls into the category of Graphic Medicine, which is drawing increasing interest from readers and scholars. Martin Peters is a teenager with Type 1 diabetes who lets his disease take over as he struggles with romance and friendships. The 80-page black and white trade paperback has an MSRP of $15.00.
A hard-boiled action manga in the tradition of Golgo 13 and Crying Freeman, Gambling Apocalypse: KAIJI is the story of a young man who gets mixed up with the yakuza (the Japanese organized crime syndicate) and is forced to become a gambler. The manga launched in 1996 and won the prestigious Kodansha Manga Award for Comic of the Year in 1998. It is still running, and it has spawned several anime, which are available on Crunchyroll, and inspired the Chinese live-action film Animal World, which is available on Netflix. The first volume of Gambling Apocalypse: KAIJI is a hefty 544-page paperback with an MSRP of $21.95; the next two volumes are scheduled for December 2019 and March 2020.
Fawkes is well-known in indy comics circles; she has won two MoCCA Festival awards and her comics have appeared in The Comics Journal, The New Yorker, and Strumpet. Persephone’s Garden is a collection of short stories, and it’s not the only book she has coming out this fall: Her biography Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre will be published in September by Hyperion as part of the Center for Cartoon Studies Presents series. She will be doing a North American tour to promote both books. Persephone’s Garden will be a 272-page full-color trade paperback in a 6”x 8” format with an MSRP of $21.95.
This is just one of three illustrated stories that Biblioasis will publish in October; all are in a small, 4” x 6” format, 80 pages, with five black and white illustrations and a gorgeous cover by Seth. The others are Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Old Nurse’s Story and R.H. Malden’s The Sundial. Biblioasis calls them “Christmas Ghost Stories,” and they look like they would be great stocking stuffers for Seth fans. Each one has an MSRP of $6.95.
This horror tale of two women encountering a sinister presence in the wilds of Hungary has a Lovecraftian feel to it, and that’s no coincidence: Lovecraft himself said the original novella, first published in England in 1907, was his favorite story. The 72-page black and white trade paperback has an MSRP of $14.95.
Pierre abruptly drops his architecture studies and travels to the Swiss Alps to visit the thermal springs complex, designed by a noted architect, that had been the topic of his thesis. Arriving there, he discovers that there’s more to the underground springs than meets the eye, and his quest for the truth leads him in unexpected directions. There’s a spareness and a noir quality to this graphic novel that will appeal to fans of Drawn and Quarterly and Nobrow books. The 152-page full-color trade paperback has an MSRP of $24.95.
Like DeForge, Passmore is well known in indy circles and beyond. His Your Black Friend was nominated for an Eisner Award and won an Ignatz, and Fantagraphics just published BTTM FDRS, co-created by Passmore and Ezra Claytan Daniels. Passmore has a way with satire, and this story starts out in a post-Super Bowl riot that morphs into an actual war. The 8.5” x 11” two-color, 60-page trade paperback will have an MSRP of $15.00.
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