Self-published in 2012. Classic mini comix size: 4.25" x 5.5", 8 pages, with self-cover, black ink on grey stock, hand-stapled saddle stitch-style with hand-colored red eyeballs throughout.

I'm partial to classic minis like this to begin with, but Leonard does a great job scaling his wacky 6-page story to the format. Nice cartooning complements a dark, whimsical rhyme. It's just plain fun. And for $1.00 (postage paid) well worth supporting.

Get yours from:
Brian Leonard
50 Pebble Beach Cover #D116
Bluffton, SC 29910

Panels from Riptoid

Five and half years later . . .

An assignment for a class in Dreamweaver, with content fueled by Newave comix pages, soon took on a life of its own with comix, reviews, small press news, interviews and special features. MidnightFiction.com has served the small press scene nearly every week, since Oct. 2006.

It's been a good run, but I'm ready for a break. The site's biggest supporter has always been Bob Vojtko, a pal from the Newave I was lucky enough to reconnect with in 2006. Along with his unflagging support, Bob also provided The Supermen of Cleveland.

Joe Werhle Jr. contributed this early graphic novel, Stovepipe, which concludes next week.

Bruce Chrislip wrote about the history of City Limits Comix and Steve Willis' trip to SPACE.

Marcus Reed and several of his pals provided loads of background on Pastime Publications.

Allen Freeman provided his interview with Brad W. Foster from Slam Bang.

Brent Frankenhoff provided his interview with Jim Main from The Comics Buyer's Guide.

Anthony Davis provided his interview with Noah Van Sciver.

D.C. McNamara, Joe Wehrle Jr. and Lance "Doc" Boucher each participated in interviews via email.

Other key MF.com supporters include Sean Azzopardi, Rick Bradford, Wade Busby, Charlito, Bob Conway, Howard Cruse, Michael Dowers, Hunt Emerson, Dan Fish, Ron Fortier, Joe Gordon, Steve Lafler, Jim Main, Bram Meehan, Chuck Moore, Jim Siergey, Tom Spurgeon, Robert Sumner, Dan W. Taylor, D. Blake Werts and Steve Willis. Hopefully, I haven't left anyone out, but if you search on their name, they're sure to turn up.

And for the regular and sometime readers of the site, thank you for your visits and support. I'll continue to keep the site online as a resource, but after next week's conclusion of Stovepipe's first adventure, MF.com will for the most part be on hiatus. It you'd like a notification of updates down the road, drop me an email.

Lastly, I will be adding more items to the MF Shop regularly, and I'll update the homepage accordingly, so if you're into an eclectic mix of great comics and related material, at great prices, stop by from time to time to see how much has been added to the Midnight Fiction Shop. And now back to the news.

Baltic Comics Magazine #10 š! featuring sea stories is out. It's another gorgeous production and features the work of Ābols (Latvia), Akvilė Misevičiūtė (Lithuania), Andrea Bruno (Italy), Anete Lielpētere (Latvia), Anete Matvejeva (Latvia), Anna Vaivare (Latvia), Ansis Puriņš (USA), Box Brown (USA), Dace Sietiņa (Latvia), Éndrjü (Latvia), KJ Martinet (USA), König Lü.Q. (Switzerland), Laila Milevski (USA), Lars Sjunnesson (Sweden), Laura Ķeniņa (Canada), Luka Va (Lithuania), Maciej Sieńczyk (Poland), Maré Odomo (USA), Martha Verschaffel (Belgium), Martins Zutis (Latvia), Max Baitinger (Germany), Mikus Duncis (Latvia), Noah Van Sciver (USA), Oskars Veilands-Kustikovs (Latvia), Patryk Mogilnicki (Poland), Richard Short (England), Rūta Briede (Latvia), Simon H (Austria), Tetsu Kayama (Japan). Cover by Maciej Sieńczyk. 4" x 6", 148 pages, full color, perfect bound, in English. $12.00 (postage paid) from the KusKomikss Shop.

Mystery Scene Magazine's April Newsletter, At the Scene includes Jonathan Maberry's recollections on John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee.

The May issue of Funny Times is out. 12 issues for $25 makes a great gift subscription for you or your peeps, from Funny Times.

The 2012 Hugo Award nominees were announced this week. See the list at
The Hugo Awards website.

(News to me department.) Mineshaft #27: Featuring many new drawings by
R. Crumb, a Special Crumb orange centerfold section, Crumb back cover, plus more amazing stories from Robert Crumb's "Dream Diary"! Beautiful front cover art by Nina Bunjevac. Peter Poplaski, Jim Blanchard's "ICON SOUP", Pat Moriarity, Christoph Mueller, Rika Deryckere, Mary Fleener, Dennis Eichhorn, Aleksandar Zograf, William Crook Jr., & More! ; First printing.
52 pages. Cover printed on beautiful French Paper Company "Whipcream" and
R. Crumb centerfold printed on French Paper Co. "Poptone Orange Fizz"! $7.95 from Mineshaft Magazine. (Where you'll also find many back issues still available.)

Gerry Giovinco posted the fourth part of Stop The Presses this week on the CO2 Comics Blog.

(Press release) Hellbound 2: Limited Art Edition is out. Only 25 boxes produced. Sealed and numbered, each box was handcrafted on custom paper created exclusively for Hellbound at the Boston Paper Collective in Charlestown by the writers and artist of this year anthology. The two color art drawn by our Story Editor Jesse Lonergan was screen printed at the New Hampshire Art Institute under the guidance of Joel Gill (Foundation Chariman). Each box contains two hand bound books (The Tooth book and The Hammer book or viceversa). These books also have covers made of paper handmade by the creators and hand-stamped on black ink. The interior of each book contains Horror stories by an assortment of independent comics artists and writers, most working out of New England: Nathan Kitler and Jerel Dye, Clayton McCormack, John Hilliard, Joshua Hoaglund, JL Bell and Andy Wong, Caitlin Plovnick, Ansis Purins, Gabriel Robinson, Patrick Flaherty and EJ Barnes, Logan Faerber, Gregery Miller, and Lindsay Moore and Alex Cormack. The book also features illustrations by the artists Bob Flynn, Erik Heumiller, Carl Tsui, Nate Furman, Cherry Ogata, Laurel Leake, and Roho. 12 horror stories, 104 pages total in a rich variety of styles. The art is reproduced in Digital High Quality on a Butcher White 50lb paper created by the French Paper Company based on everyday utilitarian papers. Available for $75.00 (plus $10 shipping and handling) from the Boston Comics Roundtable.

MF.com enthusiast Clark Dissmeyer recommends the work of Harry Stephen Keeler, particularly, I, Chameleon, which is available through Ramble House, where you can sample the first chapter. Clark describes it as "mind-blowing."

Mystery Tribune interviews CJ Lyons, author of Blood Stained.

Top March 2012 February 2012

Attic #2, *PPFSZT! Annual from Main Enterprises
Small Press News of April 7, 2012

The Attic #2: more tales of horror, fantasy and suspense told by the quirky, charming and mysterious Allistair Grimsby, caretaker of the Thorndyke Manor. Also the abode of the equally mysterious Sir Gregory Thorndyke, who has a passion for collecting some of the oddest curios ever—the most interesting of which are housed in The Attic! This issue spotlights more fascinating items in stories by writers Roger Keel and Robert J. Sodaro and artists John Lambert, Tony Lorenz, Kevin Duncan and Hal Jones. Also, fiction by Sam Gafford, with accompanying art by Jamie Chase! Interior art by Scott Shriver, front cover by Dan Taylor and back cover by Hal Jones. $5.00 (postage paid) from Main Enterprises.

The first ever annual for *PPFSZT! also debuted this week. A 56-page, full color, blockbuster from cover to cover. Front, inside front and back covers by Robert (Floydman) Sumner, Miguel Guerra and Jamie Chase, in that order. Interior illustrations by Jack Bertram, Mike Pascale, Brad Foster, Jamie Chase and Steve Shipley. Comics by Steve Shipley, Scott McClung, Mister Roberts and Simon Mackie, Rock Baker and Jeff Austin, Angelo Furlan, Nik Poliwko and Jason Kimble and Brad Foster. Plus fiction by Troy Boyle, with accompanying art by Troy, with inks by Jeff Austin. $9.75 (postage paid) from Main Enterprises.

Innsmouth Free Press interviewed Jason Voss on March 30, 2012.

Gary Fields posted a fabulous cover he created on spec for Mineshaft #29. Unfortunately, it wasn't selected.

Spinetingler Magazine announced the 2012 Spinetingler Award Nominees on March 30, 2012.

The Regular Man by Dina L. Kelberman is out. (2011, Important Comics)
64 pages in full color, plus covers. 7" x 8.5" with perfect binding. $15.00 (postage paid) from Important Comics.

This full color collection presents all 23 issues of the eclectic The Regular Man comix/zine by Kelberman. Here's a sample of what's inside. (Note: sample pages scanned from the original pamphlets.)

Ken Meyer Jr. reviews the Bay Con 1 program book edited by Tom Orzenchowski from 1975 in Ink Stains #40 on ComicAttack.net.

Gerry Giovinco posted part three of his Stop the Presses essay on the
CO2 Comics Blog.

Disgestate, edited by J.T. Yost, will be released by Birdcage Bottom Books in September 2012. Contributors include Jonathan Baylis, Marc Bell, Marek Bennett, Berkeley Breathed, Neil Brideau, Box Brown, Josh Burggraf, C. M. Butzer, Kevin Cannon, S.Y. Choi, J.T. Dockery, Nate Doyle, Renee French, Nicole J. Georges, Ayun Halliday, Danny Hellman, Sam Henderson, Adam Hines, Paul Hoppe, Charlene Jean, K. Thor Jensen, Victor Kerlow, Keith Knight, James Kochalka, Hawk Krall, Minty Lewis, Jonas Madden-Connor, Aaron Mew, Pranas T. Naujokaitis, Tom Neely (cover), Hazel Reed Newlevant, L. Nichols, Al Ortiz, Tod Parkhill, Dan Piraro, Liz Prince, Brian Ralph, Alex Robinson, Jungyeon Roh, Jess Ruliffson, Anuj Shrestha, Ben Snakepit, Aaron Nels Steinke, Jeremy Tinder, James Turek, Noah Van Sciver, Sophia Wiedeman, J.T. Yost and Jeff Zwirek. Check The Holy Yost blog for more details.

Black Squirrel Books announced a multi-volume series collecting The Complete Funky Winkerbean. Volume 1 will cover 1972 to 1974. Read more about the first book and cartoonist Tom Batiuk at The Kent State University Press. Thanks to Mike Lynch for covering this item.

Lauren Barnett announced Me Likes You Very Much, the best of five years of her always hysterical daily webcomic collected into a softcover, 192-page book from Hic and Hoc Publications. Release date: April 19, 2012. Available for pre-order for $14.00 from Hic and Hoc Online Shop.

Megan Abbott interviews Elmore Leonard for the LA Times. As fans of Justified might hope, Raylan and Boyd are a big part of the conversation and there's news of Leonard's next novel.

Alterna Comics has released their April eNewsletter. Contents include the announcement of Complex, a new distributor (Liber Distro), Alterna Originals trading card set, appearances, and publisher Peter Simeti's Publisher's Pit. Read it online at Alterna Comics Newsletter.

Bob Corby has posted five webpages of the comics premiering at the upcoming SPACE 2012.

The Mystery Tribune ran the International Thriller Writers (ITW) 2012 Thriller Awards Nominees on Friday, April 6, 2012.

Top March 2012 February 2012

Mark Orr's New Novel
Small Press News of March 31, 2012

Smarter Than the Average Werewolf by Mark Orr is now available through Belfire Press. It's an urban fantasy/paranormal story with a twist of gritty detective thriller. Harvey Drago, the Intangible Private Eye, is hired to track down a serial killer known as the West End Werewolf. Little does Harvey know he will be hunting an actual lycanthrope, but surely his ability to pass through solid objects will protect him. Or will it? Available through ($2.99) Smashwords and ($11.99) Amazon in print and ($2.99) Kindle. Read an excerpt from Smarter Than the Average Werewolf.

Gerry Giovinco brings us the second installment of Stop the Presses on the CO2 Comics Blog, and sent a link to a post called All This and Heaven and the Dead City on Raine Szramski's The Watcher Tree, where she writes about painting her webcomic Heaven and the Dead City.

Get the Message #2 is out. Previously published by Main Enterprises, this mini comic brings the message of peace, tolerance, and understanding for all peoples and walks of life. The great talents within include: Brad W. Foster, Ron Clyburn, Simon Mackie, Andy Nukes, Vincent Wright, Quinton Hoover, Jason Yates, Carrie Taylor, JWThinktankrx, Dan W. Taylor, and Ken Struck. 4.25" x 5.5" mini comic, 28 pages with color cover, $2.00 (plus 50¢ postage) from Weird Muse Productions.

Carrie Taylor's award-winning art comic, Karmic Book #2 is out, featuring her zen inspired art and meditations. Come see how easy it is to get pulled into the peaceful ebb and flow of her drawing. 16 pages with card stock cover. $2.00 (plus 50¢ postage) from Weird Muse Productions.

Get the whole run of Dan Taylor's popular Newave Comix series all under one cover in The Collected Shortoonz. This 48-page (6" x 9") trade paperback collects the entire run of five issues of Taylor's Shortoonz mini comic series from the late 1980's. Long out of print, this collection provides a great opportunity to own it without paying the huge eBay prices the original issues draw—if you can find them.

The collection includes all five of the original mini's covers. Each page has liner notes at the bottom, and as an added bonus, never before seen art from the series! This is the series that introduced such iconic characters as Freddy Freshkill and Badgirl!

Full color cover with b&w interior pages, it's available for $6.95 (plus $1.50 postage) from Weird Muse Productions. Adults only, age statement required with your order.

Wildside Press launched a new forum on the ning platform last week. At launch, categories included Movies & TV, Book & eBooks, Audiobooks, Wildside Press Authors and Wildside Press Magazines. Join at Movies.ning.

Marc Palm and friends of Swell Zombie have launched Intruder a new comix paper up Seattle way. Free on locationor by $10 subscription elsewheres.

Mystery Tribune is on an aggressive growth path to become the premier online mystery magazine on the web, already a leading outlet for mystery news, commentary, and reviews of the notable books, movies and video games in the genre. With a heavy focus on fine writing and original thought in mystery literature, Mystery Tribune provides readers with unique coverage of short stories, fiction, and news of promising new voices, as well as some of the most distinguished names in the genre of mystery and suspense.

With a strong belief in the value of keeping mystery literature classics alive, the website also re-issues out-of-print mystery novels now in the public domain, first paperback editions and short stories from masters of the crime genre, free of charge.

Crime fiction writer Lisa Black discusses her novel Trail of Blood at the Mystery Tribune.

Clark Dissmeyer has a new collected out, Meteorite the Annotated Complete Incomplete Complete Comic Strip. From the intro: "In the winter of 2001-02, I was adopted by a beautiful black cat I named Lucky. With her as my muse, one night I got the vague idea of doing a strip about a cat from outer space—hey, maybe it could even be a commercial, syndicated newspaper strip! Cats are always popular, and science fiction is steadily becoming more so, if a bastardized form. It was a natural! (I was not discouraged to find, shortly after this, a novelization of the bad 70's Disney film The Cat from Outer Space in a thrift store—they couldn't own the idea—and besides, my concept was quite different.) That same night I had a dream about Sun Ra, which I interpreted to mean that he approved of the idea, so I got to work on it:"

The 12-page, b&w collection includes 26 comic strips and 3 full comic pages in a 7" x 8.5" pamphlet with self-cover. To get your copy send a couple of bucks or a comix in trade to:
Clark Dissmeyer
917 E. 25th St. #5
Kearney, NE 68847

Bad Roommate Zine, edited by Nicole Georges is out. It's a 72-page anthology of comics and prose stories about some of the most awkward, bizarre, maladjusted, disgusting and depraved roommates she could find. Funny, it will make 90% of humans feel better about their living situations. (The 10% who still feel bad, please send Georges your stories for the next issue!)

Topics include: Vermin, bad pets, stealing, lying, bodily fluids, food stealing, attempted murder, and more. All stemming from our simple desire to save money and/or live with other humans.

Contributors include: Carrie McNinch, Lisa Eisenberg, Kat, Ali Liebegott, Max Clotfelter, J.T. Yost, Marc Parker, Leda Zawicki, Cooper Lee Bombardier, Alex Buck, Jameson Gardner, Kelly Froh, Lacey Prpic Hedtke, Gabby Holden, John Isaacson, Laura Moulton, Sky Nash, Nicole J. Georges, A.M. O'Malley, Lilly Pepper, Woodrow White and more.

Bad Roommate Zine #1 is available for $5.00 from Georges' Etsy Shop. Adults only. Warning: Do not eat while you are reading this zine!

Top February 2012 January 2012

Needle #6 and Grift #1
Small Press News of March 24, 2012

Two exciting developments in crime fiction publishing, leveraging the new digital publishing models, were announced this week and last. Needle Magazine #6,
edited by Steve Weddle, is out. $7.50 from Needle Publishing. And Ed Gorman interviewed John Kenyon, publisher of the new crime fiction journal,
Grift Magazine this week at the New Improved Ed Gorman.

The Brooklyn Zine Fest, coming up on April 15, 2012, has posted interviews the most of its exhibitors. (Click on the Q&A links to read them.) Thanks to Jenny Gonzales-Blitz for the tip via Poopsheet Foundation.

Write to Done's Mary Jaksch interviewed Jim Kukral about his new venture the Author Marketing Club, a free resource to help market your eBook.

Chase #14 Picking up from the conclusion in the previous issue, we find out more about the mysterious woman at SCDF Chief, Stan Winslow's house. Also, Liam, Christian and Amanda visit an old friend, former agent Thor Gustavson, to see if he's willing to re-activate. All this, plus an interesting conclusion that will ...no, you'll just have to read it. Story by Jim Main, art and lettering by John Lambert, production by Marc Haines and a special pin-up by Tony Lorenz. $4.40 (postage paid) from Main Enterprises.

Annie Murphy Paul reports on Your Brain on Fiction in the March 17, 2012 edition of the New York Times. The article caught the attention of D.P. Lyle, MD who commented on it at The Writer's Forensics Blog.

Marlyn Beebe reviews Before the Poison, the latest from Peter Robinson, at Crime Fiction Collection.

Gerry Giovinco talks form and format in Stop the Presses Part 1 this week at the CO2 Comics Blog.

Joe R. Lansdale joins Tommy Hancock and Barry Reese to talk about Edge of Dark Water on the March 21, 2012 Pulped! Podcast. You can read Chapter One on the publisher's website, Mulholland Books, where you can also find an interview conducted by Mulholland Books.

Bob Corby made the SPACE Anthology 2012 available as a free PDF (with an iPad version in the works). Details at Back Porch Comics.

Brian John Mitchell over at Silber Media has a new stack of micro mini comics out. Titles include Astronaut Jane #1 with artwork by Jason Strutz, Built #2 with Joe Badon, Cerebus Refection with Jason Young, Marked #3 with Jeremy Johnson, Mobil Zombie, Promute: Origin, REH #1-3 with Andrew White, Star #2 with Kurt Dinse, and Vigilant #2. Mitchell's micro mini are only $1 each. You can load up at Silber Media Comics. You can also get a collection by supporting his Kickstarter fundraiser, that runs until April 7, 2012.

The March 14, 2012 edition of Willamette Week features an awesome cover (and several interior cartoon illustrations) by Hawk Krall. Stumptown locals may be lucky enough snag a print copy off the free stacks around the metro area, while those who've chosen for some reason to live elsewhere, can savor it online at Willamette Week.

Jessie Duke from Punch Drunk Press reports a lifetime subscription to everything Adam Gnade releases (books or records) for the rest of his life(!) for a one-time payment of $99. And it starts off with an impressive bundle of CDs and books from the Adam Gnade Store. But hurry, this offer ends soon!

The April issue of Funny Times is out. 12 issues for $25 makes a great new year's subscription from Funny Times.

Top February 2012 January 2012

Colin Upton: 2011 S.P.A.C.E. Prize Winner
Small Press News of March 17, 2012

Bob Corby announced the 2011 S.P.A.C.E. Prize Winners this week at Space Guy 13. Congratulations to the winners!

And Mr. Corby reports Oh, Comics! #20 is at print. This years edition of the annual Small Press Anthology finishing the elements run with "Air". Featuring 14 strips by David Baxter, Pam Bliss, Mike Carroll, Brian Canini, Kel Crum, Robert Gavila, Canada Keck, Sue Lenses, Matt Levin, Steve Myers, Steve Peters, D. Skite and Bob Corby. Cover by Max Ink. 74 pages $5.00 available soon from Back Porch Comics.

Portland author April Henry announced her twelveth novel, The Night She Disappeared, and the paperback edtion of her previous mystery, Girl Stolen on
April Henry Mysteries.

Tribute #4 The cartoon characters issue of the popular pin-up gallery publication from Main Enterprises is out. 40 B&W interior illustrations printed on glossy paper plus two full color covers and two interior B&W covers. Illustrations of timeless characters from various studios of the past. A tremendous group of illustrators such as Gary Fields, Terry Pavlet, Joe Martino, Rusty Gilligan, Dan Taylor, John Lambert, Jason Yates, Jamie Chase, Wayne Gibson, Scott Shriver, Troy Boyle, George Leon, Michael Grassia, Mike Tuz, Jeff Plotkin, Jeff Austin, Michael Anthony Carroll, Ray Tomczak, Will Meugniot, Robert (Floyd) Sumner, Carrie Taylor, James Abels, and Jim Taylor. $4.99 from Main Enterprises.

Steve Lafler's Dog Boy #5 is being presented on CO2 Comics. Steve made the announcement on Self Employment for Bohemians.

This week on the CO2 Comics Blog, Gerry Giovinco writes about the importance of the comic medium in teaching.

Top February 2012 January 2012

Alternative Comics News

Forbidden Planet International Blog
Daily reports on comics of all types, with a special affinity for indie works.

The Beat
by Heidi MacDonald
All things comics are covered at The Beat:
• News
• Commentary
• Gossip
• Convention coverage

Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald also edit the weekly eNewsletter:
PW Comics Weekly
Subscribers receive reports on comics and graphic novel publishing, business trends, artist and publisher profiles and more.

BugPowder
a collaborative weblog produced by and for the UK small press comics community.

Alternative Comics News

Forbidden Planet International Blog
Daily reports on comics of all types, with a special affinity for indie works.

The Beat
by Heidi MacDonald
All things comics are covered at The Beat:
• News
• Commentary
• Gossip
• Convention coverage

BugPowder
a collaborative weblog produced by and for the UK small press comics community.

Blog Archive

Midnight Fiction Comix

Illustrations

Riptoid by Brian Leonard Small Press News of April 14, 2012

Five and half years later . . .

Attic #2, *PPFSZT! Annual from Main Enterprises Small Press News of April 7, 2012

Mark Orr's New Novel Small Press News of March 31, 2012

Needle #6 and Grift #1 Small Press News of March 24, 2012

Colin Upton: 2011 S.P.A.C.E. Prize Winner Small Press News of March 17, 2012

Alternative Comics News

Alternative Comics News

Riptoid by Brian Leonard
Small Press News of April 14, 2012

Attic #2, *PPFSZT! Annual from Main Enterprises
Small Press News of April 7, 2012

Mark Orr's New Novel
Small Press News of March 31, 2012

Needle #6 and Grift #1
Small Press News of March 24, 2012

Colin Upton: 2011 S.P.A.C.E. Prize Winner
Small Press News of March 17, 2012