THE BOSTON COMICS ROUNDTABLE: a community of comics creators, meeting weekly since 2006.

Category: News

Spellbound: An Urban Fantasy Comics Anthology

Spellbound: An Urban Fantasy Comics Anthology

Edited by Olivia Li, Heide Solbrig, Ben Doane, Jamie Koh
40 pages ~ $ 8 | Black and White | 7 x 8.5 inches

The latest installment in the Boston Comics Roundtable’s ongoing anthology series, delves into city life through the lens of urban fantasy. This collection contains over a dozen stories by Boston-area independent comics creators who challenge the way we view the world by adding a dash of the supernatural into life in the big city. Visually diverse, these tales reveal the magic in both the extraordinary and the mundane of life in Beantown. The stories span from imaginative solutions for the challenges of the immigrant experience, to the dark rites of Patriots fans, to larger-than-life musings of inanimate objects along a Boston skyline. This anthology takes our city and pulls it through the looking glass, and along the way creates a sometimes serious, sometimes silly wonderland of local comics.

Spellbound contains work from L.J. Baptiste, J.L. Bell, W.B. Clem, Patrick Flaherty, Mehitabel Glenhaber, Levon Gyulkhasyan, Paul Hanna, Youngjin Hur, Patrick Jordan, Anthony Lathrop, Dan Mazur, Greg Moutafis, John Quirk, Roho, Catalina Rufin, and Adam Tutkus. The anthology was edited by Olivia Li, Heide Solbrig, Ben Doane, and Jamie Koh.

Buy from Storenvy | Previews | Read Press

July 18, 2015
Boston Creators Recognized by Harveys and Eisners

It’s awards season for mainstream American comics, and several of our local friends are getting attention from both Harvey and Eisner Award jurors.

At the San Diego Comic Con, the gorgeous, gigantic anthology Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream (Locust Moon), won the Eisner for Best Anthology and Best Design; among the star-studded list of contributors to the book is long-time Roundtabler Jerel Dye, whose stories have appeared in BCR anthologies Inbound 5 and Gulp!; Jerel also co-edited BCR and River Bird Comics’ Hellbound III:Darkness. Also in the Little Nemo anthology is Raul Gonzalez, whose stories appeared in the BCR’s Inbound 4, Inbound 5, and In a Single Bound #1, as well as Boston-area cartoonists Maris Wicks, Joe Quiñones, and Andrew MacLean. The Harvey awards have recognized Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream in their nominations as well, with a chance at both Best Anthology and the Special Award for Excellence in Presentation.

A panel from Jerel Dye’s entry in the anthology Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream

Another friend of BCR received an Eisner nomination this year: comics writer and scholar A. David Lewis (who co-edited the Colonial Comics anthology in which several BCR members were represented) got the nod for his tome American Comics, Literary Theory, and Religion: The Superhero Afterlife (Palgrave Macmillan).

Bob Flynn has contributed stories to Inbound 4, Inbound 5, and Gulp! a monster comics anthology for KIDS! (which he co-edited); he’s also a frequent contributor to Spongebob Comics, which was nominated for a Harvey Award in the Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers category — we wish the best of luck to the two Bobs!

An excerpt from Bob Flynn’s story in Spongebob Comics #37

Congratulate Bob and Jerel in person — buy their comics and even get a sketch! — when each appears as Featured Artist at the BCR Table at the Boston Comic Con (Bob Flynn from 4:00-5:00 on Friday, July 31st; Jerel Dye from 4:00-6:00 on Saturday, August 1st).

July 17, 2015
The Super Wizard Returns

Joey Peters demonstrates the value of recycling for cartoonists:Peters mines the detritus of the Golden Age, namely the weird sequential outbursts of the mad genius Fletcher Hanks, using them to build his own comics empire from spare parts. Bringing his own contemporary sensibility to the material, Peters has actually drawn more pages using Hanks’ characters (including Fantomah, Stardust the Super Wizard, and Big Red Maclane — all in the public domain), than Hanks himself did in his brief, meteoric career. Peters’ newest Hanksian saga, The Super Wizard Returns, Chapter. 1, is now available as a digital download on Comixology.

For more comics by Joey Peters and more comics visit Superwizard.net

July 10, 2015
Roundup: Comics Confection

The Comics Confection, held on Saturday 20 June, marked the first event for the Boston Comics Workspace (see more here). There were mounds of baked goods for consumption, comics to examine, doodles to draw, and excellent company.

A number of BCR members and friends were in attendance (pictured are Patrick Flaherty, David Marshall, Cathy Leamy, Catalina Rufin, Heide Solbrig, Donna Martinez, James Mobius, Olivia Li, Dan Mazur, Ludgy Jean-Baptiste, Jesse Schuh, and Jesse Lonergan, among others). Quite a few people brought their own work to share and add to our growing comic library. The collection contains not only BCR anthologies, but also the work of our members, some of which includes Inaction Comics published by Kimball Anderson, The Jenergan Solution by Dan Mazur, Highland Girl by Catalina Rufin, The Dandelion King by Heide Solbrig, Late August by Neil Johnson, Inky Stories #4 by David Marshall, and so many more, all available for perusing and purchase in one convenient location! Is your book not featured? Feel free to stop by the Workspace and drop a few copies off.

Besides flipping through comics, those in attendance took up ink and crayon and set to doing what they do best! It was wonderful to see the doodles and collaborations decorating our table. The food was good, the comics were many, and the conversation was engaging and plentiful, running the gambit from brush strokes to Doctor Who. I cannot think of a better way to have spent an afternoon. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open for news of our next event!

Photos are courtesy of Dan Mazur (danmazur), David Marshall (inkydavid), and Olivia Li (lovianart).

June 23, 2015
Boston Comics Workspace!

The Boston Comics Roundtable is pleased to present the Boston Comics Workspace. Working in tandem with the media and comics artist Heide Solbrig (also known as Whatever Floats Your Boat Productions), BCR now has access to a spacious studio and event space, conveniently located at 561 Windsor Street in the TAZA Chocolate Factory building outside of Inman Square in Somerville.

The Workspace will operate in addition to our regular weekly BCR meetings in the Cambridge Public Library and will provide access to studio work and event space as well as printing resources for the group. We hope the Workspace will grow the Boston comics community and further the professional development of our members. (more…)

June 3, 2015
BCR Policies Announcement

The Planning Group of the Boston Comics Roundtable has written and adopted a policy on interpersonal behavior and speech, which will apply to our weekly meetings and online forums. While our group has been generally characterized by harmony and mutual respect, we ask that all BCR members please read these policies, and bear them in mind.

The policies are posted here:
http://bostoncomicsroundtable.com/policy/

The Planning Group is also in the process of finalizing conflict resolution procedures, which we are confident will be rarely needed!

Any comments or concerns, please address to any member of the BCR Planning Group, or email to concerns@bostoncomicsroundtable.com

April 17, 2015