Sorry that the image is a bit blurry, but i’m no photographer. But there it is, in all its glory! The first 20 pages of MOTRO!
It’s a pretty little package.

Right now, some are being sold with MK Reed (malaisia ) at SPX, i think i only  havelike 20 left after that. Dang. Perhaps i’ll make more. 

Officially, they’re being sold with the_bear_party . I should probably explain what that is btw. 

First, what it isn’t: Gay Porn…or related to Paul Maybury’s (paulmay ) party bear. I think it was more of a subconcious influence when i came up with the name and all. Anywho, Bear Party is sort of an experiment pet-project of mine for an alternative form of distribution for new and exciting artists. 

This is the basic setup. Small group of artists band together to sell their books, crafts, etc, anywhere they can, dividing the costs of organization, transportation, etc.! Be it at conventions, festivals, street fairs, or just on the street as a local vendor. Slowly, it begins to make enough money to sustain itself indefinitely. Large profits aren’t the goal. This is more of an organization than a corporation in that respect. 

After one group gets large enough, and can sustain itself, it takes a percentage of the small profits it makes to help set up another group elsewhere. Ideally, in an isolated separated region from the first group. This group does the same thing as the first, beginning with a singular mind reaching out to local artists, to create a small network community that fosters and encourages new artists to make beautiful comics and things.  Now there are two groups that develop in different directions, creating little individualistic bear parties, that resists the sameness of the current scene, and also encourages friendly competition for awesome innovative items.

These separate bear parties can now come to realize on the larger network of other bear parties to trade inventories and help other artists and meet and chemically react to work that you might never see. So you get the benefits of a large distribution company without all the crap that goes along with it (high costs, low exposure, close to zero profits, disconnection from your community, disconnection with local artists, snootty pretentiousness, and working with a network that care about your work, doesn’t just put in on shelves to rot away). 

I really don’t like how industry affects what should be seen as a purely artistic pursuit. Yes, we would all love to make money off of our work, but we shouldn’t sacrifice quality for that goal, we should strive for a new model that benefits artists the most. This isn’t an end-all model, more like a first stage. I also don’t like that i can go to a comic store in LA and a store in NYC, and buy the same things, at the same prices. Comics are not fast food, and they should reflect the individuals that make them, and also, the environments and places they come from. There’s nothing better than tasting the genuine flavors of a genuine restaurant in a genuine neighborhood.  So, i think, there’s nothing we can do about making bad art if we simply accept it and buy it for lack of better choices. So better choices have to be made, and presented, and accessible. Relying on a small shelf, in a non-descript corner at a comic store isn’t presenting choice, when the rest of the store is dominated by men in spandex (or in more hip neighborhoods, self-absorbed surface level biographies)

Ok, enough ranting. That’s sort of my basic plan. Welcome tothe_bear_party .