Ho12 Monthly #2 emerges!

Holy Shit, it's actually out!

That's right folks, after a nearly summer-long series of "discussions" with the powers that be, House of Twelve Monthly #2 is actually available for your viewing pleasure. You can get the new issue two ways. You can get the e-book for your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad through the app, Comics (by Comixology, Inc), it's sort of an itunes for comic books. Once in the app, click on browse, and type House of Twelve into the search bar. Or you can now purchase the title through Comixology's new web based comic reader (Direct link here). Issue number two is over 70 digital 'pages' and costs a measly $1.99.

Ho12 Monthly#2 is an amalgam of two separate issues, combined to make one super-sized, super-awesome, super-nerdy extravaganza containing stories by Kate Lacour, Fred Noland, David Paleo, Cheese Hasselberger and Dave McKenna. Adventures a-plenty in this massive installment; explore the hidden lives of licensed properties to a look into a wondrous world beneath your feet.

Now go out and buy this goddamn thing, and remember to rate it!

Cheese

Oh, here are some samples...

From Dave McKenna's Creeple

From kate Lacour's McThology

From Fred Noland's Big Green

From David Paleo's I Haunted My Mother's Womb:

From Cheese's Richard Sharver and the Hollow Earth:

So, what's the story on Ho12monthly#2???

Hey, that's a good question. Here's the deal. After about 2 months of back and forth with the powers that be, we've finally gotten the go ahead for issue #2! The book will be a supersized spectacular featuring new work from five great artists: Kate Lacour, Dave McKenna, David Paleo, Fred Noland and myself. You can expect it in about 2-3 weeks via Comixology's Comics app (would have been sooner, but I've been bed-ridden with the flu all week).

Here's a peek at the cover, I'll do a whole post on this next week...

News, News, News!

So the clock is counting down for the release of House of Twelve Monthly. Our target date is April 1st, no foolin'. From then on you'll get a monthly dose of Team 12 the first week of the month, just like unemployment checks, as a matter fact, you should spend your stimulus checks on digital Comics from comiXology, specifically (wait for it) House of Twelve Monthly. Call your senators and congressmen and let them know, you want more House of Twelve. Tell them, you're really fucking lazy and you want not only a iPhone to view it on, but you want the book itself paid for and installed on the device when you get it, and so do every other unemployed American.

In other news, the next Ho12 Comic Jam will be Thursday April 15th, 2010. I know, I know, usually we're like clockwork, the first of the month. Well, I'm going outta town for a few weeks and I won't be around, so y'all are going to have to wait. In the mean time, check out the facebook fan page and my rarely used twitter feed to stay up to date with all the Ho12 goings on. As a special gift, here's a little sample from Dave McKenna's story for issue 3 of Ho12Monthly, it's a gassssssss.....

Ho12 on ISR!

Today's Indie Spinner Rack podcast features Dave McKenna and I talking up Ho12#5, Monstaland and the iPhone deali-o. Check it out, we were hungover, but I think that only enhanced the love.

Direct Link: mp3

The Cons of 2009

Miss, Cheese and Kevin at Tcaf 2007

With exception to the NYCC, (which isn't cool enough to be San Diego*, and too high-end to be about actually interesting comics) I love me some comic-con action.  I really get a thrill piling Team 12 into a van and driving out in the wilds of the great adventure that is North America. 

This year we have a metric ton of material coming out, so much so in fact that there should be a new book or debut at every one!  Lucky you, the Ho12 consumer! Here are the shows and crew members you can expect to see this season...

Tcaf

The Toronto Comic Art Festival

May 9-10, 2009

Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St. 

Toronto, Canada

Every other year we treat ourselves to this wonderful show, crossing borders to sell dick and fart comics is the most honest thrill an artist can feel. I feel I am helping America by contributing to down-paying the national trade deficit.  

Attendees: 

Cheese, Miss Lasko-Gross, Kevin Colden, Brian Musikoff, Dave McKenna

New Stuff: 

• Miss is debuting her latest opus A Mess of Everything at Tcaf!  Come on out and get your filthy hands on one of the first copies off the presses!  AMoE is the sequel to her 2007 graphic novel Escape from Special, both are available from Fantagraphics, and from Miss herself at the con. 

• Brian Musikoff will have copies of the latest in his Mauled! series, Mauled! #4: Mauled by Machines, which I would explain, but it kinda explains itself. 

• Kevin will have copies of his Xeric Award winning Fishtown graphic novel that has been burning up the review charts.

• And I'll have copies of House of Twelve Goes to War! (#4), a collection of autobiographical stories of our intrepid cartoonists in the heat of battle!  All amazingly true, right down to the last detail!  Honest to god!  

MoCCA

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival

June 6-7, 2009

The 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington and 25th street

New York, NY

This one's the no-brainer, it's our hometown show.  This year at a new location I talked up a few months back, the 69th Regiment Armory, the show needed a new venue and they found the perfect on here. 

Attendees: 

Cheese, Dave McKenna, Miss Lasko-Gross, Kevin Colden, Kate Allen, Jenny Gonzalez, and more.

New Stuff: 

• I'll be debuting my first solo art book, MATH, some of which I posted right here on this very blog not too long ago.  The final version has several new pieces and more fun notes from Dave's high school calculus notebook.  

• Miss' sequal to Escape from Special, A Mess of Everything will also be available in mass quantities.  

• Kevin's Fishtown will be right there, on the table for all to gaze upon.

SPX

The Small Press Expo

September 26-27, 2009

The Marriot Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center

Bethesda, MD (Actually, I think it's Rockville)

My favorite show, we kill at this gig every year. This is where the big Ho12 guns come out and play.  This year you have three new releases as well as the always popular Strike Team Dodecca Sales Experience managing the table. 

Attendees:

Cheese, Miss Lasko-Gross, Kevin Colden, Dave McKenna, Kate Allen and a special guest, Pete Townsend (no relation).

New Stuff:

• House of Twelve #5: Touching Children Stories - Ho12 is proud to announce the latest in it's always popular, cutting edge anthology series with this awesome collection of all-ages stories meant to tickle the funny bone of both adult and child alike. 

• Dave McKenna's long awaited adult comic debut, Monstaland will finally see the light of day.  Dave has take his two favorite things in life, porn and giant monster movies and combined them into one of the most amazing adult comics you'll see this decade. 

• The second issue of Kate Allen's fabulous Milk-Teeth will make it's first showing at SPX 2009! The first issue of M-T was a grand-slam, out-of-the-ball-park smash, selling every copy we had with us. 

Add to this Miss's A Mess of Everything and Kevin's Fishtown and whatever other junk we can fit on the table and Ho12 is looking to murder each and every one of you with our amazing line up of great comics. 

So keep your peepers peeled for the 2009 line up coming from Ho12 Industries and it's affiliated partners. 

* On a side note, I was having a drink or nine with buddy Chris P. the other night and he mentioned that at the last San Diego comic con there was a huge booth, one of the mega booths, a booth usualy reserved for an entire big time movie company, for the TV show 'The Office.'  Y'know, I get it, but FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOOOOUUUU, Mr. or Mrs. The Office. Go have OfficeCon 2009 somewhere.  Y'assholes. 

The Beards of SPX

If you have gone to the Small Press Expo over the last few years you've more the likely noticed the abundance of BEARDOS. As a tribute to the men of SPX, young and impressed with their own puberty, Team 12 went on safari. A Weird Beard Safari. Each of us was tasked with hunting down and capturing the most impressive display of beardism at the show. Here are the results:

First up is Kate Allen's entry, "The Beau"

Note the stringy hair and the 'is that a beard or is it chocolate cake' soul patch, all wonderful, but it's the wispy, curly-cue mustache that really tops off this history honoring beard/mustache combo. 1870, here we come!


Kevin Colden's "Beard on a Wire"


A bold and truly American beard, with a french twist! Part Grizzly Adams, part North American Indie Rocker; this ensemble is as classic as it is beautiful. Since it's inception in the mid 1990's it's become one of several "standard uniforms" for nerds everywhere; this particular variant includes a nod to our E.U. brothers with it's distinctive French Flip on the mustache. Here, Kevin captures the beard at it's most pure, needing no wearer, the beard stands alone.



Cheese with "Science Hair of the Face"



The chaos theory has never been so proven as with this amazing representation of the American Nerd. It's distinctive frizz and texture communicates, "I am comfortable with my face and hair resembling a pile of steel-wool and pipe cleaners." A bold statement, indeed. What truely brings the whole package together here is the addition of the safety goggles. Who hasn't been to a comic book convention and said to themselves, "Y'know, what I really need to bring next year is some safety goggles." BE PREPARED!

Dave McKenna, "Piltdown Man, Alive!"



Nowhere in a the annuls of fashion does it say that one's hair should be symmetrical, in fact some of modern style makers are renown for their off-center daring. Here is a perfect example. What Mom wouldn't be proud of her little angel sporting this inventive and heart-warming combination that screams both, "I am thirty cents from being homeless!," and "I am on discount, Canadian medication!" equally loud and with such conviction. A masterpiece!


Miss Lasko-Gross, "Big Rock Nerdy Mountain"



SPX has it's fare share of fatties, but to tell the truth, compared to other comic book events it's pretty sickly. It is here that a true man of girth can take a stand and shout out with pride, "You're all poseurs!" Such is the case with the above subject. Not only does he outdo the 16th President with his stylish "Lincoln++" chin defining neck-beard, but he subtly lets his preposterous size speak volumes about the state of the geek community. He says, where'd all you hipster bastards come from, take your motherfucking girls and go home. Leave comics to the fat and unwashed, as nature intended!" He is a statesman.


In the car on the way home, the entries were studied, examined for authenticity and voted upon. It was a close race, but in the end, Dave McKenna's "Piltdown Man, Alive!" won the day. Mr. McKenna was awarded a copy of a book I can't remember the title of, but he seemed to enjoy it. Congrats Dave!

We all look forward to next year when we can again go on another WEIRD BEARD SAFARI!