My Kickstarter campaign for SCHMUCK, the graphic novel

I've just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of my SCHMUCK graphic novel.  This has been a several year long labor-of-love project and your support of this campaign will not only help me make the book, but also allow me to distribute to retail stores, Amazon, etc., while keeping the whole thing independent.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sethkushner/schmuck-a-graphic-novel

Please see attached cover for the mass market version, illustrated by Joseph Remnant (Harvey Pekar's Cleveland) and designed by Eisner Award winning designer, Eric Skillman (Tales of Sand).  Details about the 168-page book, including a list of all 22 amazing contributing artists can be found on the Kickstarter page, along with a listing of all the reward incentives.

One final thing: I would greatly appreciate if you would share with anyone you think might be interested.

Your support means a lot.  Thanks!

HANG DAI Editions launch

Benton, Haspiel and Kushner launch HANG DAI Editions.

HANG DAI Editions was founded in Brooklyn, NY by Gregory Benton, Dean Haspiel, and Seth Kushner over their mutual dedication to comix art. The imprint focuses on limited edition comix, graphic novels, and art books, with an emphasis on personal interaction at events, conventions, and signings.

The three principals each have long histories with traditional publishing venues and have now decided to take on the challenge of publishing independently, under the HANG DAI Editions imprint, in order to retain full ownership and control over select personal creations.

The HANG DAI Editions line will debut at Comic Arts Brooklyn on November 9, 2013 with three limited edition comic books. Benton unveils his man vs. nature tale, FORCE OF NATURE, Haspiel brings forth his one-man anthology, PSYCHOTRONIC COMIX, and Kushner collects three shorts from his autobio web-series in SCHMUCK COMIX.

The three New York City based creators, who share a studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn, plan to evolve the line into self-financed and crowd funded hardcover books, and are actively seeking distributors with which to partner.

HANG DAI Editions - creator owned, independently-produced signature works.

Read an interview with Benton, Haspiel and Kushner about the new imprint at Bleeding Cool, by Hannah Means-Shannon

www.HangDaiEditions.com
Follow us on twitter: @hangdai_comix

Gregory Benton has been making comix since 1993. He cut his teeth on the political anthology World War 3, moving on to writing and drawing stories for Nickelodoeon, Vertigo, DC Comics, Disney Adventures, Watson-Guptil, Entertainment Weekly, as well as contributing to numerous alternate-press comix anthologies. A graphic novel, Hummingbird, was published by Slave Labor Graphics in 1996. Gregory has also produced numerous limited-edition mini-comix. Hopefully you have some. His illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice and Fortune, among others. Most recently, his book B+F was awarded the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s inaugural Award of Excellence at MoCCAFest 2013. An expanded version of B+F has been released through Adhouse Books (USA) and Editions ça et la (France). GregoryBenton.com

Emmy award winner and Eisner Award nominee Dean Haspiel created BILLY DOGMA, and THE RED HOOK, illustrated for HBO's "Bored To Death," was a Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, is a Yaddo fellow, and occasionally teaches comic book storytelling. Dino has written and drawn many superhero and semi-autobiographical comix, including collaborations with Harvey Pekar, Jonathan Ames, Inverna Lockpez, Stan Lee, and Jonathan Lethem. He's currently collaborating with writer Mark Waid on THE FOX for Archie/Red Circle Comics. DeanHaspiel.com

Seth Kushner is an award-winning photographer and writer.  His photography has appeared in The NY Times Magazine, Time, L’Uomo Vogue, Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker and more.  His published books include Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics, (2012, co-authored with Christopher Irving) The Brooklynites (2007, co-authored with Anthony LaSala) and the recently released, self-published fumetti anthology FORCE FIELD FOTOCOMIX VOL.01. and his semi-autobio comic SCHMUCK Comix #1. Seth's comics work can be seen at TripCity.net and for more info, visit SethKushner.com.

SPEAKEASY SURPRISE 40th BIRTHDAY

This past Saturday night, My lovely wife Terra concocted an elaborate scheme to surprise me for my 40th birthday.   I'd been feeling kinda bummed about my birthday for a while because I was trying to think of something different to do this year, but couldn't come up with any ideas.  Also, it'd been a bit of a tough year and I hadn't been great at keeping in touch with many of my friends, so I wasn't sure everyone had such positive feeling towards me.  So, I was truly touched that so many frineds, some of which I hadn't seen in a long while,  traveled from far away, got sitters, came pregnant, dressed in 1930s garb and devoted their Saturday nights to surprising me on my birthday.  I've never felt more loved.


Thanks to Cynthia Von Buhler for opening her incredible Speakeasy Dollhouse to us and pretending to hire me to take press shots as a ruse to get me there.  I highly recommend seeing Cynthia's fascinating family history played out as immersive theater.  We saw the show once before, last year and it's brilliant.



A special thank you to my wife, Terra, who somehow planned this whole shebang in secret, got me the best and schmuckiest birthday cake ever, (thanks for the awesome image, Gregory Benton!) feigned an ankle injury on the way there so we wouldn't arrive too early, and for just being an all-around wonderful wife.

Thanks to Carlos Molina for taking photos.  A full gallery of photos by Carlos Molina can be seen here.
 
Also, thanks to Hannah Means-Shannon, who will be reportied on the event for one of my favorite websites, bleedingcool.com in her beautifully written article, "New York’s Immersive Theatre Speakeasy Dollhouse Wows Comics Folks on Seth Kushner’s Birthday."
Here's an excerpt: "I run up the subway steps with only two minutes to spare until my appointment. Turning the corner, I start looking for some indicator of where I’m going but don’t expect to find any since the place isn’t really on any maps. But then I see an unusual number of people on the street trying to look casual about a block away. I mentally “tsk” them—not very subtle. If we get raided tonight it’ll ruin Seth’s birthday. The one he doesn’t know he’s having. Unless he sees all these people. I thought everyone was supposed to go around the back.  But the problem, I realize as I get closer, is that there are too many people. Seth has too many friends. And they are all here being unsubtle. Thankfully, his wife has noticed too, just in time, and faking a sprained ankle, has slowed things down. I cut the line to ask a bootlegger in the know what’s what. A fine lady in a very pale lace gown with an even paler complexion asks if my name’s on the list. I say some magic words, jumping the list. Suddenly everyone’s moving quickly. I keep getting pulled by the elbow, come this way, come that way. It’s getting confusing already until I’m not even sure how we got inside. It’s dark. We try to be quiet, but every so often there’s a solid metal thunking on the door and someone has to open it or Cynthia, who’s trying to keep us all in hand, says, “Don’t open it!” in sternest tones."
 Read the rest of the article here.
 

 

This past year had its challenges, but I've got lots of good things in the works for the upcoming one, so I'm feeling positive and looking forward to making 40 the new 39!