thar be buzz...

WOW. This is unusual but i'm alreaady getting buzz about escape from dullsville.

First I was contacted by the blog Comics and...Other Imaginary Tales for more info on my upcoming book. See what they had to say about my book in their indie preview section of the blog.

And then i got a Psychedelic A.P.E. award for 2009 from the website Psychedelic Central, an international music magazine focusing on psych music. You can see their A.P.E. review here. The review is written up by none other than John Thompson, who was not only one of the pioneers of San Francisco underground comics in the 60's but whom talking to was one of my personal highlights from last years wondercon.

-a

Reviews and interviews!

Hi-fructose vol. 10 and Coilhouse issue02 are availible at your local magazine spot now. I was very happy to leaf through (and purchase) these great magazines both featuring guest appearences by the Babysitter (which is currently on sale at the slg website.

Hi-fructose vol. 10 and Coilhouse issue02 are availible at your local magazine spot now. I was very happy to leaf through (and purchase) these great magazines both featuring guest appearences by the Babysitter (which is currently on sale at the slg website.

I was honored to have Attaboy of Hi-Fructose magazine review the Babysitter in issue 10. the review went something like this. (and i quote)

"With his new The Babysitter Collection, Andy Ristaino shows that his mind's eye is a limitless anti-void, constantly surprising us at its reach. Sure, some of his work takes work to figure out. But it's always worth it. And for those who can't summon the synapses to focus on the story can just peel back their eyelids a page at a time, suck a thumb, and get lost in the purty picture spreads at a measured pace.

In Babysitter, Andy grabs the now common "Japanese schoolgirl" theme and holds it at ransom, as Ristaino approaches the comic format like no other, at least not since the days of Little Nemo in Slumberland. His boxes aren't just storyboard containment devices, so much as constructed boxes. Platforms with dimensioin: portals from which his stories constantly spill out and borders offf of with his characters bounce their diatribes. This makes the nature of his projects more Charlie Kaufman-esque than anime-inspired. the characters are conscious enough of these boxes to physically use them, but don't care to "wink" at us.

Ristaino's previous Slave Labor Graphics series, Life of a Fetus, a graphic novella about a um...runaway fetus, always left me wide-eyed, bewildered and awestruck. And i'm guessing i wasn't alone, as SLG decided to print a Guide to Life of a Fetus to reveal the series' many Naked Lunch-type turns and narrative trickery.

With literally hundreds of character extras, guest cameos, and multi-dimensional planetary chaos, a Ristaino book shows the universe to be a very crowded place and his babysitter's world expands just as the story does. And like the real world, if you focus to hard, you'll miss something "

here's the review in the back of vol.10

AND... as i've mentioned in a previous post, my good friend Meredith interviewed me for Coilhouse issue 02 I'm not going to type out the interview but let me say there are some nuggets to be found in the interview and coilhouse is an awesome magazine.

below are the pages in coilhouse.

-a

babysitter recommended!

i was surprised as anyone to find that my book "the babysitter" made i09's 10 graphic novels that make thrilling gifts list. TOTALLY AWESOME! io9 is a webblog dedicated specifically to science fiction.

Graeme McMillian says " You probably won't have heard of Andy Ristaino's mind-bending story of Setsuko Kagaku, the Japanese schoolgirl who happens to be the world's greatest babysitter, but once you've seen this amazing, mind-bending book that gleefully rewrites the rulebook on how comics work and questions the nature of reality, you'll never be able to forget it."

click the link to above to check out the other 9 comics!

-a

record...cover...review...?

Nate Seltenrich at the east bay express reviewed the new assemblehead album...and spent most of the review talking about the cover art.

-a