asemic editions: my small press for abstract graphic novels & similar

here's a page from my new edition of Michael Jacobson's The Giant's Fence, which he describes as a visual novella... written in a trans-symbolic script:

Asemic editions is a small press with a tiny budget, devoted to publishing novel-length works of asemic writing, abstract comics, Lettrisme & so on.

Currently available:
The Giant's Fence (large format edition), by Michael Jacobson [view sample]
100 Scenes, by Tim Gaze [view sample]
written in prose, by Alain Satié [view sample]
with 2 more in the pipeline. I'm not looking for submissions at this time.

"Une histoire pour les sourds" de Jean-Jacques Tachdjian

Visitez le site de Jean-Jacques.  It's well worth your time, even if you don't speak French.

San Diego wrap-up: Kirby, Modernism and Abstraction

The session that Mark Badger and I gave at Comic Con on "Jack Kirby, Modernism, and Abstraction" went really well, and we got some excellent feedback on it.  (Unfortunately, we blabbed on for too long--my fault!--to take questions from the audience, but many came up to discuss it with us afterwards).


The session was covered (though without mentioning our names!  Grrr!) in two paragraphs of one of Seth Stevenson's dispatches from SDCC.  As you'll be able to guess once you read it, I find his take rather problematic.  Fortunately, I was also interviewed, on the same subject, by the San Diego Union-Tribune's Susan Myrland, and I'm quite proud of our exchange, I must say:  Susan's sensitivity to comics and her knowledgeable questions place it head and shoulders above most newspaper comics coverage.  I think we should get more art critics out there to write about comics!  Also check out the rest of Susan's pieces on comics; I especially like her interview with Scott McCloud, and her post, "Is Comic Con our Art Basel?"

Since the interview is largely a follow-up to my presentation, I should briefly summarize my argument here:  I analyzed, through a variety of comparisons, the formalizing/abstract aspect of Kirby's post-1965 art, and I argued that Kirby may have been prompted in that direction (among other causes) by his competition with and artistic dialogue with Roy Lichtenstein.  I already have publication plans for the piece (though it might take a while for it to come out), but this together with the interview should give you the basic traits of the argument.  See the relevant comparisons here and here.

pages from Apeiron, by Miroljub Todorović

a couple of pages from Todorović's unfinished verbo-visual novel (verbalno vizuelnog romana) Apeiron or Apejron, created from 1973 to 1975. In an email, he told me that some pages had been published in literary magazines in the 1970s & '80s. 2 more pages are visible here & here (12th one down).

Miroljub was the founder of the Yugoslav avant-garde movement Signalism (or Signalizam), & was active as a visual poet, mail artist & publisher, as well as wearing other artistic hats. More information: >>>***>>>.

I'm interested in the idea of a visual novel, which is a cousin of the graphic novel, but emerging from somewhere other than comics.

[Added on 9 May 2013:
 Mycelium samizdat publishers has published excerpts from Apeiron here, including verbal sections translated from Serbian into English by Sibelan Forrester. With the verbal sections included, it has a feeling of poetic science fiction.

According to Wikipedia, the term visual novel is used in Japan to describe digital graphic novels which include some minimal sections where you play a game, & sometimes including non-interactive moving images.]