lights out in the little house
Hey guys!
Looks like we're going to have to shut the Little House site down until June.
Until then, every moment of Eleanor's (and my) time is going to be filled by turning this:
 into a finished book! These are Eleanor's thumbs for her upcoming kid's book, The Secret Science Alliance. I'm going to be inking it! And since Eleanor and I are about to enter super-deadline-crunch mode, and we're not going to have the time to fill orders, much less make new copies of all the minicomics we're low on. Don't worry, we'll be bringing it back, revamped and with a lot more original art for sale. But if there's anything you want now, you've got till Friday!
Busy busy
Once again I've neglected The Internet for over a month!
The rundown:
I've got a new Wulf and Merl comic in the current issue of Disney Adventures! It is a three page story, here is the first panel:
Eleanor is going to have some work in an art show at Giant Robot (the one in Los Angeles.) It's called "Panelists," and has got all kinds of hip comics artists. She's going to have a bunch of original art for sale, almost all of which was either in the most recent Mome or is going to be in the next one! You should stop by and take a look, if you're in the area! Buy something, hint hint.
Speaking of, have you seen the cover of the next Mome yet? Here it is:
It's definitely shaping up to be the year of Eleanor Davis! Grr.
We're both going to be out of the country for most of June! We're going on a walking trip in southern England! London to Winchester to Salisbury to Christchurch and back to London. This'll be the first time I've ever set foot outside of the country!
Anyway, since we obviously won't be around to be filling orders in the Little House shop, I'm going to go ahead and "close the shutters" on it till we get back. Don't worry, if you had an order in already, it'll get filled!
See you soon!
Running low
You might have noticed that we've got a bit of "sold outs" in our comics selection right now. Apologies! We've just managed to run short of copies when we're both slammed with work and haven't had time to make more - the silk-screening, cutting, copying, etc. is pretty time-intensive. We're definitely going to do new printruns in the future - we're just not sure when! On the other hand, we might expand the "original art" selection in the near future, so keep your eye on that.
A couple of our comics (Blar, The Beast Mother, Bugbear) got reviewed in the current issue of the Comics Journal. The review was basically positive, but maybe a little condescending. Oh well!
SPX 06
Welp, we got an email giving us our table assignment for this year's SPX, so I guess we've officially got a table! Hard to believe it's less than two weeks away (Fri & Sat, Oct 13/14, Bethesda, Maryland.) Look for "Little House Comics" at either C5 or C6. Maybe we're right up the middle? It's hard to tell. We'll be next to some friends of ours, and hopefully a few other friends will be there as well? We'll have almost all of our current comics, so come on by. This'll be my 6th SPX and Eleanor's 4th! This is a new convention space from the funky old Holiday Inn Select it's been in for so many years, so it's gonna be pretty different. I think the question we're all asking is: will they still allow booze on the floor?
Drew and I are proud to present a total of four brand new mini-comics available now in the Little House site! They comprise some of our newest and best work to date, and each has been lovingly hand-made using a variety of tricks, including silkscreening, die-cuts, fold-out covers and even hand-stiched binding.
Bugbear
Mattie and Dodi
The Beast Mother
How We SleepIn addition, we have reprinted the ever-popular Blar which was sold out for a time. 
Finally, we have prints of the Bugbear cover available that are are suitable for hanging!  Please check it all out!
Fluke 2006 Report!
Hey, what's up? we've been pretty busy in the last week or two. Eleanor and I spent a good amount of time getting some new minicomics together for Fluke... we spent a solid couple of days silkscreening, photocopying, assembling. We had two new minis to debut at the show - Elo's Mattie and Dodi, and our joint "anthology" mini, Bugbear. Not to mention printing up the official poster. We're improving our silkscreening technique bit by painful bit - our prints all turned out really well, though we thought the whole thing was going to be a disaster about halfway through. It was the first time we've done a three-color print. All three of the new minis should go on sale over at Little House by early next week! Plus Blar will be back in stock. You can get the Fluke poster right now, though. With no further adieu, here's our Fluke 2006 "con report." All of these photos and more were taken by Antar, who'll probably have something to say about them on his own blog as well! --- Hey folks! Fluke was awesome as usual! If you didn't know, Fluke is a minicomics and small press expo that takes place every year in Athens, GA. It's always at Tasty World, which is a bar. Here's our belated photos and commentary:  CHECK THIS MOTHER OUT! We made a ton of Fluke posters, and whether you were there and didn't get one, or want another one, or wish you had been there, or just think it's a cool poster, YOU CAN BUY ONE FOR YOURSELF FOR A MERE $8! Holy cow! All proceeds go to Fluke!   Here's me and Drew with the poster. My hair is totally greasy and gross. Also, I am in my pajamas.  Our table at Fluke! Boy, it sure looks a lot less scrappy with the bigger, prettier new books on there!  Drew is handsome.  Mary Jessica is awesome! Also her new issue of Halloween has the cutest cover EVER  Patrick Dean's new Giant Big Deal is so great! I read the whole thing right away, and then I pretended I hadn't read it yet and read it all over again! Also: Eloise is the current cutest baby of America. When Mary Jessica and Robert's baby comes it will have to fight Eloise for the title of #1. WHO WILL WIN?!?!?  Our Savannah buddy David Yoder and Robert Newsome, Fluke organizer extraordinaire.  The Dean Trippe! JP and Steven, of One Percent Press (with Kevin between them!)  J Chris Campbell! The talented Mandy at the Fluke admission table (behind her - th' poster you want.) Opening night at Dear Diary, the awesome art show that Mary Jessica curated!!!!  Antar and Antar's Art.  Me and Drew lookin' shaggy next to our shaggy art.
So now we are home from the Small Press Expo, and it was pretty amazing. We decided to write our con report together so that you will get the full real-life stereo effect of us interrupting, contradicting, and arguing with each other.
Only read this if your are interested in the minutiae of our lives!!! TOTALLY BORING.
Elo: SPX is our one big con, so we've been prepping for it like mad for literally the past three months. It took some work to convince Drew that he cold NOT draw 60 pages of Set To Sea in half as many days, but thankfully he decided to work on Blar instead. I myself ripped my heart out getting The Beast Mother done on time for Fox Kit (19 pages in 40 days).
What our table looked like! That's Eleanor behind the table, with a little bit of Michele to the left.
Drew: Despite our best intentions, Eleanor and I ended up working on stuff till the very last minute yet again. The special paper we ordered for the Blar covers ended up coming in first a day late, and then cut to the wrong size. We finally got the right paper Thursday morning, ran it out to Kinko's where it promptly jammed the copier, ran back home to run through the laser printer, got halfway out to Kinko's again before realizing I had forgotten to print the inside of the cover, and then came back home where Eleanor and I had to gently push the paper through the laser printer, due to it acquiring a slight curve from the first trip through that the paper feeder didn't like. Then, finally, out to Kinko's yet again to get it cut, and on the road at 12:30, practically buzzing with Rockstar energy drinks.
The rest of the our block - that's Chris, Matt, and Joey behind the table (in that order)
Elo: Meanwhile David Youngblood, the man behind the Fox Kit anthology (where The Beast Mother was supposed to be printed), was the victim of a disgruntled airline worker who sent a whole planes worth of luggage all over the US. So, no Fox Kit, which was going to be my only new thing at the show!!! Without it I looked totally lazy even though I've been working like a crazy person all year!
Drew: This seemed to be the SPX for mis-shipped items. I heard about a good half-dozen different books or posters that ended up missing for the show. Anyway, we got to D.C. past ten, and went straight to Eleanor's aunt and uncle's house, about 20 minutes away from Bethesda in an imposingly new & ritzy Rockville housing development. Eleanor's aunt & uncle were both ridiculously welcoming and generous, especially to two bums like us who would've been happy sleeping on the floor. Anyway, we decided to head to the Holiday Inn to see what was shaking on Thursday night. We found our Savannah friends Joey, Michele, David Yoder and the recently expatriated (read: he's living in Vermont) Chris Wright, who had already polished off half a bottle of rum and was stewing about David Youngblood and the status of Fox Kit.
The view from our table, looking left. Our neighbors seemed pretty cool.
Elo: Which Chris is also in. Anyway despite (or maybe because of) being such a great artist Chris can be pretty intense when sloshed, so when Youngblood showed up we spent a good amount of time peeling Chris's fingers off of his throat. (Not a joke.) Friday was the first day and of course I was thinking "Why was I even looking forward to this horrible nightmare?" Because it was stressful etc. We had a good set up this year, though. We shared two tables with our friends Joey, David, Hunter, Chris Wright, and Chris's friend Matt. Also the incontestable Michele did these great tiny puzzles for our gumball machine!
The view from our table, looking right. The glowing, disembodied head of Joey Weiser floats in the foreground.
Drew: We spent a couple hours that night assembling the Blar components into finished books, so we we ended up trucking off to the con with only a few hours sleep. What was a twenty minute drive late last night, turns into a 45 minute drive in the morning traffic. And after we get parked (at the nearby parking garage, which was approximately 75% cheaper than the ridiculous hotel valet parking they've instituted since last con), and start setting up, we realize we forgot the three bolts that hold together our Little House standee. Eleanor tried to convince me to drive back to her uncle's house for them, but using my natural ingenuity, I found a nearby Asian convenience store that happened to sell a small assortment of bolts (on only my second try, too!) So near-disaster was averted.
Chris and Matt looking pensive.
Elo: I'm (completely unfairly) crabbing at Drew, and there's so many people, and the room is so big. But we did get to see Max for the first time in a couple years! That was cool even though he booked it after about 2.5 seconds.
Drew: He did manage to get his Olde English 40oz signed by Harvey Pekar before he went, though. The first day was pretty stagnant in terms of turnout, so I remembered to take a few pictures of our table and friends. which was good, because I completely forgot about the camera later on. That night we ended up eating dinner at Sala Thai with some of David Youngblood's friends.
An unflattering picture of David Yoder.
Elo: Saturday went better, even though both of us were close to collapsing from exhaustion the whole time. We didn't have much time to look at the other tables, though, which was probably for the best because we spent an insane amount of money as it was. We missed seeing a lot of people we wanted to, but we did get to say hello to some cool folks like Ed Brisson, Robyn Chapman, Kelli Nelson, Dan Zettwoch, Dean Trippe, Kevin Huizenga, Vanessa Davis, Hope Larson...
Drew: All of the Flight kids, a crew of Daily Grinders, Dave Roman, Jeffrey Rowland, Zack Soto, Alvin Buenaventura, Alec Longstreth... but we ended up being too intimidated to talk to Ben Jones or Harvey Pekar. I'm sure there's tons more we're forgetting, thus offending somebody out there. We sold out of all of the Blars we had assembled the night before, so I ended up crouching behind the table with a long-neck stapler and the paper cutter, desperately assembling more. At lunch time the lack of food and sleep started to get to me, so I made a bleary, seemingly endless trip to find the nearby Subway, and hit up the 7-11 for some more Rockstar energy drinks. Ah, Bethesda 7-11... you have saved my life on so many occasions.
Joey Weiser is enthused.
Elo: By the end of the con I was so exhausted that I started to hallucinate, so I missed seeing the Ignatz. I would have liked to have seen Alec Longstreth win best mini. (Alec's beguiling Dovorak mini is single-handedly responsible for these last three sentences taking approximately 45 minutes to type while I try to learn what I now know is a better typing system. Be convinced!!!) But I did reconstitute in time for us to hang out a bit longer with Chris (and to have a tearful goodbye)...
The lovely Eleanor Davis.
Drew: And we completely slept through the picnic the next day (they did a good job of keeping the time and location of it secret, though.) That's alright though, Eleanor's Uncle Matt and Aunt Zoe treated us to a tapas dinner that evening. We passed around tiny plates of food and spent the evening talking about comics and art... It's pretty rare to find "grown ups" who are interested in that sort of thing. When we got home they pressed bottles of fancy beers (Negra Modela, Oatmeal Stout, Heffenweizer) upon us, while Elo's Uncle Matt showed us his collection of eastern European prints - exquisite, surreal depictions of religious and symbolic scenes. the linework was so tiny and perfect that it's hard to fathom it being produced by human hands. Then he forced us to pick one out and take it! We couldn't wriggle out of it.
Drew Weing with Beard Action.
Elo; Yeah my whole family is the hippest. So now we are home again and I still have a three page story about gangsters to do by monday. Sigh... it was an awesome weekend though!
Drew: We partied like rockstars.™
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