Up With Smoke

If the Swedish Academy gave out medallions for hard work and dedication to the advancement of comic Gabe Fowler would be short listed every year.

For some reason I think he might be like a Ghandi, Dorothy Day or Bertolt Brecht -such an obvious choice, never the winner.

In addition to running my neighborhood comics shop, Desert Island, he's just published the fifth edition of Smoke Signal an 11 x 17 comics newspaper.

The cover is illustrated by Lisa Hanawalt.  It appears to be a portrait of studio cat, Begemot, in a yellow checked shirt.

The free 28 page publication features contributions by 26 artists with a full color centerfold and backpage.

Publications like this become legendary after their time.   Someone might come across this years from now -like a low-fi "Raw"- and say "It must have been so cool to be a cartoonist back then.  Hell, I'm gonna make my own comics paper!"  And a whole new generation of artists might get to make something just as fun.

Contributors include: Matthew Thurber (who emailed me once and I forgot to get back to him), Noah van Sciver, Travis Millard, Sam Henderson, Gabrielle Bell, Michael Kupperman, Vanessa Davis, Jesse McManus, Inés Estrada, Michael DeForge, Ben Marra, Jason T. Miles, Nate Gelgud, James Turek, Taylor McKimens, Tom Gauld, Joel Skavdahl, Tim Sinaguglia, Kris Mukai, Joshua Ray Stephens, Puppi, William Cardini, Leah Hayes, Malachi Ward, Ken Brown, Tim Lane.