Low Key Comics will be premiering Snug Comics #1 at their rock show/party party Saturday at heroes Con: Details below but more info here.

Low Key Comics presents: Snug Comics
featuring Calabi Yau, Young Tom Fury, Battle Beasts, and the Lights, Fluorescent
Saturday, June 21st 9PM
Snug Harbor
1228 Gordon St.
Charlotte, NC 28205
www.snugrock.com

18+ $7 – 21+ $5; free minicomic with admission!

Calabi Yau: http://www.myspace.com/calabiyau
Young Tom Fury: http://www.myspace.com/youngtomfury
Battle Beasts: http://www.myspace.com/battlebeaste
The Lights, Fluorescent: http://www.myspace.com/thelightsfluorescent

They’ll also be premiering two comics at the show:

Everyman #2: Justin Crouse’s satiric look at superheroes continues when James Johnson, our garbageman-turned-superhero, tries to turn his luck around by using his newfound powers for fun and profit…but first, he’ll have to tangle with the town’s protector, Titan. Check out the book that PLAYBACK:stl’s Byron Kerman says is “not just LOL-funny…it’s gloriously subversive.”

Journal Sanders: Kentucky Fried Sketchbook vol. 1: Juan Ruvalcaba left behind his hometown of Chicago for a career in Hollywood, and this daily sketch-diary is the result. This first 100-page collection is a look at a Spring packed with the pangs of Hollywood corporate politics and general boredom in the big city. Think American Elf for the sarcasm generation.

Dan Barlow sends word of a spring tour for this New England cartoon collective–frankly we didn’t know there were two conventions in New Hampshire alone!

The Trees & Hills comics group will celebrate the end of a long winter this year by hitting the road for a spring tour.

The 2008 SPRING THAW TOUR features the debut of several new comics by members of Trees & Hills - a social cartooning group for creators in Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts - and a chance to meet with local comic fans and other creators.

Trees & Hills members will appear at two conventions in New Hampshire in May before trekking out to New York City for the MoCCA festival in June.

First up is the Granite State Comicon in Manchester, N.H. on May 18. Trees & Hills co-founders Dan Barlow and Colin Tedford will be on hand for the event while Mimi’s Doughnuts creator Marek Bennett leads the crowd in a massive comics jam

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Via the email:

The Maisie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration rewards a self-publisher of small-press, hand-made comics (sometimes called “mini-comics”), on the basis of merit and financial need. The 2008 Kukoc will be awarded at Guapo Comics and Coffee on April 24th, 2008, to coincide with the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR, and includes a cash prize of $400. Voting for the Kukoc Awards begins today (April 7th) and ends April 24th. This year’s nominees are:

* Rina Ayuyang Doodle Daze
* Liz Baillie My Brain Hurts #7, Layover
* Jon Chadurjian LEO GEO Acquires Ancient Knowledge, Shortstack: The Journal Comic Card Game
* Sarah Glidden How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less
* Alex Holden Magic Hour Sketchbook
* David King Danny Dutch and The King of the Aliens

To vote, email Jesse Reklaw at reklaw@slowwave.com if they read mini-comics and want to be sent a ballot.

The Comics Reporter reports that Andy Hartzell won the Maisie Kukoc Award for mini-comics at this weekend Stumptown Comics Fest.

Dick Hyacinth asks in interesting question on how to buy small press comics:

I was looking over the Ignatz nominees, and was struck by how many were books which I’d wanted to read but haven’t been able to find. Does anyone know of a good site for ordering stuff from a bunch of different small press publishers (by which I mean non-Fantagraphics, D&Q, or NBM–I can get that stuff at my LCS), or am I just going to have to break down and order direct? I’m looking for stuff by the smaller publishers listed–I checked out khepri.com, but that seems to be mostly on the Brian Wood-Warren Ellis axis, which is really not what I’m looking for (that stuff is also available at my LCS).

We thought of Global Hobo and Bodega Distribution to start. There’s also USS Catastrophe but they are on hiatus. Anyone we’re missing?