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!

MY NEXT BOOK

I'm very excited to announce the upcoming release of my next book, NEW YORK COMICS, which is also my second collaboration with Christopher Irving and the follow-up to our 2012 book, LEAPING TALL BUILDINGS: THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN COMICS.  This new book is being published by Muttpop, the same French publisher who last year put out DES COMICS ET DES ARTISTES, the French language edition of LTB.  The book is scheduled to be released this coming fall in France.  It's being printed in both French and English, with the plan to find a US publisher to release it here in the States as well.  

How is this book different from our previous one? It's actually very different.  This book will focus on iconic locations in NYC that have been prominently used in comic books, superhero movies and in comics history.  The location photos will all be shot by me and the essays will be written by Chis.  Plus, there will be comic art throughout and my photos of comics creators with their quotes about NYC.

The schedule is tight for a fall release, so we'll be working had to meet our June deadline.  I've already started my part and I'm enjoying the hell out of traversing the city with my camera, Peter Parker-like.  I'll post some photos along the way.  In the meantime, see the press release Muttpop put together using my photographic impression of Hell's Kitchen, which has been utilized so vividly by such artists as Frank Miller in Marvel Comic' Daredevil.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED FOR KIDS SHOOT

It was a beautiful autumn day when my assistant Kathleen Ching and I drove down to West Chester, Pennsylvania to photograph 10-year old runner, Nikolas Toocheck for SI For Kids. Photo editor Annamrie Avilla's directions were to make it "colorful and fun" and shoot him somewhere "beautiful."  I spoke with Nickolas' mom weeks in advance and asked her where her son usually runs and she described a park by a lake.  Perfect.  

While I tried all kinds of posed shots, I knew THE SHOT had to be one of him running.  But, it had to be a portrait not an action or a sports shot and it couldn't be taken from across the lake with a super-long lens.  So, my concept was to have him run towards the camera, so I'd catch him close and he'd be relating with the camera.  Kathleen and I marked a spot on the ground and set up portable strobes on either side of the spot.  I pre-focused on the spot so Nikolas would be in focus and "frozen" when he hit his mark.  I also had an on-camera flash to add some front fill on my subject.  I had Nikolas run back and fourth about 20 times, which he was more than happy to do, and happily, most of the frames were pretty good.  The above selected image which ran in the magazine provides, for me, (and I assume the photo editors of SI) the perfect balance between portrait and action shot.

Thanks to the Toocheck family for taking great behind-the-scenes photos!

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.