I just wanted to remind you that we are having an opening party for our newest art show, Beast Masters of the Universe, on Saturday, May 30th. I previously said this was on Friday, but only because I was flaking out and couldn’t count the days right.
So see you SATURDAY.
Jeremy
So we’re trying to do regular art shows at the store. Next week, we’re debuting the newest show, “Beast Masters of the Universe” curated by our friend Sean Christensen and featuring a ton of awesome local artists. The opening reception is May 30th (Saturday) and goes from 7pm to 10pm. There will be drinks and snacks.
The 33 1/3 books published by Continuum part of one of my favorite series. Even though they are music books (not comics) we sell them because I am such a big fan. And customers seem to really like them as well. For those who haven’t checked out this series, each book is typically a “making of” a classic album. Sometimes, it will be a meditation on the albums themes via an essay, fiction, or autobio.
I was very excited to see the latest batch of accepted proposals announced:
Portishead’s Dummy, by RJ Wheaton
Johnny Cash’s American Recordings, by Tony Tost
Television’s Marquee Moon, by Bryan Waterman
Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville, by Gina Arnold
AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, by Joe Bonomo
Ween’s Chocolate and Cheese, by Hank Shteamer
Radiohead’s Kid A, by Marvin Lin
Dinosaur Jr.’s You’re Living All Over Me, by Nick Attfield
Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace, by Aaron Cohen
Slint’s Spiderland, by Scott Tennent
The Rolling Stones’ Some Girls, by Cyrus Patell
I’m definitely going to have to get myself personal copies of the Johnny Cash’s American Recordings, Radiohead’s Kid A, Rolling Stones’ Some Girls, and Portishead’s Dummy books. I’m also pretty interested in the Television, Liz Phair, Aretha Franklin, and Slint books.
I believe the Radiohead and Rolling Stones books mark the first time a band has been covered more than once in the series. I’m especially excited to see this second Radiohead book, because the first (on Ok Computer) was one of the worst I’ve read in the series. Plus, Kid A is a better, but underrated album. This also opens the door to them putting out a second Beach Boys book, an idea for which I’ve been writing and daydreaming on since before the Pet Sounds book came out. I guess I’ll have to get busy on my proposal!
I’ve read 13 or 14 in the series so far (I think there’s 66 out) and my favorites were The Ramones’ Ramones, Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, and Love’s Forever Changes. The most popular one these days, which I hear endless good things about is the book on Black Sabbath’s Master Of Reality by indie rocker John Darnielle (from the Mountain Goats).
Anyhow, if you’re a music fan I highly recommend the series. It’s consistently great and even the books I’ve read about artists I’m a minor fan of have been very rewarding.
Jeremy
Thank you to all our customers and friends who came out to this year’s Free Comic Book Day. It was another great success! I thought I’d share with you some photos from the day and my recounting of the event.
Allie is ready to sell you comics.
This year we did have a few special guest however. At 12pm, Dylan Williams, cartoonist and publisher from Sparkplug Comic Books, came by to promote the Free Comic “Bird Hurdler” which he co-published. At the same time, “Bird Hurdler” contributors Andrice Arp and Lisa Eisenberg, both Portland cartoonists, showed up to sign copies of the book from 12pm to 3pm.
Dylan Williams and Lisa Eisenberg are ready to give you comics!I was beat by the time the day drew to a close. I’m not used to working nine hour days at Guapo anymore. It was a lot of fun though and sales were great. On the coffee side, Megan actually broke her daily sales record which is an awesome feeling.
Our next event at Guapo will be a new art show debuting May 30th, curated by local cartoonist Sean Christensen. Stay tuned for more info.
Jeremy
PS I’m sorry the font sizes are so messed up on this. Only the photo captions are itended to be small. I just don’t have the patence to fix the rest.
As I mentioned before, we had a great time this last Stumptown. Our party was a reall succes and I’d like to thank Jesse Reklaw, Dylan Williams, & MacTarhnahan’s for everything they did.
One of my favorite parts about the party is the Maisie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration. The award was created by Jesse four years ago, and goes to a cartoonist selected by her peers. The main qualification for eligibility is that you have to hand-make your own mini comic (and your peers have to actually like it). I think it’s a great award because it encourages up and coming artists, it encourages DIY culture, and it spotlights exciting and new (relatively) cartoonists. These are all things very important to us and our store mission. The award comes with a cash prize which was $450 this year. This year’s winner was Vanessa Davis for her mini “Spaniel Rage 2008,” a comic collecting her charming, personal, and wonderfully illustrated journal comics. I’m a very big fan of Vanessa’s comic and recomend her book and mini-comics, all available at Guapo. Here’s Vanessa posing with her award at Stumptown.
Allie actually designed and made the trophy Vanessa is holding, It’s based on the “King-Cat” logo by John Porcellino (the award was named after his cat Maisie).
Mini-comics and zines are very important to us at Guapo. They do not always sell like crazy (although they do sell well) but it’s very much something we love and want to support. We always spend most of our earnings at Stumptown stocking up on mini comics. Here’s what we got in this year, most of it is self-published:
NEWLY RELEASED ITEMS, OR NEW TO GUAPO ITEMS
ANTICIPATION OF HUGS MINI
BLACK TEA #2 BY JASON MARTIN
BUZZ #2 MINI BY CORRINE MUCHA
CALVIN & HELLENS BOGUS JOURNEY BY HELLEN JO & CALVIN WONG
CROSS COUNTRY #2 BY MK REED
CYCLE TOURING PRIMER ZINE BY SHAWN GRANTON
DEPARTMENT OF ART #1
DESPERATE FOR ATTENTION MINI
FALLING CAN BE DEADLY MINI
FINDER VOL 01 HC BY CARLA SPEED MCNEIL
FUNDAY SUNNIES
MORE COMIX ABOUT PORTLAND & BICYCLES BY SHAWN GRANTON
MYRTLE WILLOUGHBY MINI BY MK REED
HAND HEWN #1
HEY 4 EYES #3
HISTORYONICS GN
I HATE MOM’S CAT MINI BY CORRINE MUCHA
JOBNIK! GN
LIFE & TIMES OF BABY OTTO ZEPLIN #3 BY BT LIVERMORE
LIFE & TIMES OF BABY OTTO ZEPLIN #4 BY BT LIVERMORE
MIRANDA BABY BY SEAN CHRISTENSEN
MONKEYNAUTS MINI
NERDEGADE MINI
OUIJA INTERVIEW #1
OUIJA INTERVIEW #2
UIJA INTERVIEW #3
PAPERCUTTER #9 BY ARON NELS STEINKE & HELLEN JO
PAPER MASK MINI BY TREVOR ALIXOPULOS
PUMP UP THE VOLUME JAM! BY SEAN CHRISTENSEN, THEO ELLSWORTH, & MORE
REICH #6 BY ELIJAH BRUBAKER
ROBOTS PINE TREES & BROKEN HEARTS
ROUGH GROCERY DIGEST BONANZA #1 BY MAX CLOTFELTER
SHITHOLE MINI BY CORRINE MUCHA
SHORTPANTS OBSERVER #1
SHUTEYE #1 MINI
SHUTEYE #2 MINI
SHUTEYE #3 MINI
SHUTEYE #4 MINI
STEWBREW #2 MINI BY BY KELLY FROH & MAX CLOTFELTER
TRAINS BIKES & AUTOMOBILES MINI BY SHAWN GRANTON
URBAN ADVENTURE PACK ZINE BY SHAWN GRANTON
VITTLE CHIN MINI BY MAX CLOTFELTER
WHY WE CALL THEM ROBOTS MINI
YOU PAY AS YOU LEAVE MINI BY MAX CLOTFELTER
RESTOCK
BEE FINGER MINI BY GARIET COWIN
BLACK TEA #1 BY JASON MARTIN
CONTROLLER MINI BY ROBIN ENRICO
DUMPSTER MINI BY MAX CLOTFELTER
FIVE YEAR ITCH OF DOROTHY BARRY BY KELLY FROH
HEY 4 EYES #2
I WILL FEAST ON YOUR WHORE HEART BY MK REED
LIFE & TIMES OF BABY OTTO ZEPLIN #2 BY BT LIVERMORE
STEWBREW #3 MINI BY KELLY FROH & MAX CLOTFELTER
STUPID & UNKIND BY ROBIN ENRICO
THINGPART (I WISH YOU WERE DEAD) MINI BY JOEY ALLISON SAYERS
ZINESTERS GUIDE TO PORTLAND
Here’s what we got int his year. Anyhow, it was a great weekend and we look forward to next year. Our next event will be tabling at the Portland Zine Symposium in July.
Jeremy