The recently resurrected Alternative Comics has announced its full list of comics for the spring and summer of this year. They include:

  • The Big Feminist BUT, edited by Joan Reilly and Shannon O'Leary. An anthology featuring work by folks like Lauren Weinstein, Jeffrey Brown, Sarah Oleksyk, Gabrielle Bell, Justin Hall, Ron Rege Jr. and Vanessa Davis. (March)
  • Sunbeam on the Astronaut, by Steven Cerio. A collection of Cerio's psychedelic comics, art work and illustrations. (April; you can see a preview of the book here)
  • (Mostly) Wordless, by Jed Alexander. An all-ages collection of short stories, told using as few words as possible (hence the title). (April)
  • Ritual 3: Vile Decay, by Malachi Ward. A sci-fi story involving an old woman relating to her grandson how exactly everything went horribly wrong. (June)
  • Magic Whistle #14, by Sam Henderson. Henderson returns to his long-running, one-man humor anthology. (June)
  • Sugar Booger #2-3, by Kevin Scalzo. Scalzo's dayglo all-ages series continues. For more on this comic, see my interview with Scalzo. (March and July)
  • Unspoken, by Megan Kelso. A newly "remastered" version of Kelso's 1990s-era zine collecting various short strips that haven't been collected elsewhere. (August)

In addition, the company also plans to offer digital releases of Megan Kelso's seminal Girlhero series (all six issues); Backwards Folding Mirror by Forming author Jesse Moynihan (three issues); Cat Suit by Steve Lafler; Subway Series and Queen's Day by Leela Corman; The Vagabonds by Josh Neufield; and More Mundane by Noah Van Sciver.

You can read the full press release below.

Cupertino, California — Thursday, February 20, 2014 — Independent comic book and graphic novel publisher Alternative Comics has planned its largest array of new books in over a decade — for release in print and digital formats. Several veteran and emerging artists are joining Alternative for their first solo releases with the imprint.

Imminently due to comic and book stores are four previously announced titles. In March: The very well received Kickstarted anthology Big Feminist But will be issued in a second edition published by Alternative with additional material and a new afterword; and, Kevin Scalzo’s Sugar Booger materializes for a second regular issue with environmentally conscious kid-friendly sugary snot drooling from both nostrils. In April: Jed Alexander’s full color children’s comics collection (Mostly) Wordless makes for an odd companion with Steven Cerio’s over-a-decade-in-the-making compilation of obsessively detailed psychedelic comics Sunbeam on the Astronaut.

Coming in June is the 14th issue of Sam Henderson’s long-running funnybook Magic Whistleand Ritual Three: Vile Decay by Malachi Ward – the first comic from Revival House Press to be co-presented with Alternative Comics.

July will see the release of the third Sugar Booger by Kevin Scalzo as well as the first widely-released edition of Megan Kelso’s Unspoken — a collection of little seen short strips from the creator of Artichoke Tales — newly remastered from the original art, featuring several more recent strips not included in the long out of print first edition, which was self-published by the artist.

The spring season also sees a great expansion of Alternative’s digital offerings beyond its own front and backlist. In the first of an ongoing series of ‘digital singles’ — presenting mini, diary, sketchbook, 24-Hour and other limited edition comics to a larger audience at a low price — Alternative releases Noah Van Sciver’s More Mundane – a full-color collection of diary comics originally printed by the artist in an edition of 100.

Steve Lafler — a name long familiar to readers of indie comics for his long-running seriesDogboy and Bughouse — has his first ever release with Alternative Comics in the form of the genre-bending story of a man in a manx Cat Suit.

Alternative Comics will also be bringing two classic series back in new digital editions – Megan Kelso’s Girl Hero and Jesse Moynihan’s Backwards Folding Mirror.