Breakdown Press

New Releases for Spring 2021

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 17:22:03 +0000

Hello Tumblr… Anybody home? Thought we’d scream into the obsidian scrolling abyss for the first time in a few years, kick some digital tumble®weed and check in on anyone who’s still kicking it in the old neighbourhood. Breakdown Press is thrilled to announce the release of three new books in Spring, 2021 (and here you were thinking this year was going to be as unrelentingly bleak as 2020). Free Fall by Alexis Beauclair, Haway Man, Klaus! by Richard Short and Tummy Bugs by Leomi Sadler will be released on the 29th of March, and are available to pre-order from our online shop, here.

Haway Man Klaus by Richard Short
Haway Man, Klaus! is the first full-length collection of comic strips charting the un-adventures of Klaus, Richard Short’s pensive, anthropomorphic cat. Reinvigorating the classic comic strip, Short salutes Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, Tove Jansson’s Moomins and Japanese cartooning masters, before veering quickly into an original, strange and utterly unique world of screwball comedy and poetic rumination. Haway Man, Klaus! is available to buy here.

Tummy Bugs by Leomi Sadler
The stories in Tummy Bugs are by turn absurd, surreal and funny. Short luridly coloured vignettes transport the reader into a deeply individual landscape, populated by strange creatures, where the line between fantasy, reality and science fiction is constantly shifting. Leomi Sadler has been a cult figure in the alternative comics scene for over a decade, running the critically acclaimed publisher Famicon Express. Sadler’s commercial illustration work has seen them collaborate with Givenchy, Nike and Vice Magazine as their artistic tendrils continue to extend beyond comics and into the worlds of fashion and contemporary art. Tummy Bugs is available to buy here.

Free Fall by Alexis Beauclair
Free Fall collects nine stories by Alexis Beauclair, originally published in various anthologies over the last decade. Beauclair’s comics are wordless thrill-rides where form and landscape shift perception from image to image. The reader is propelled from one beautiful image to the next at breakneck speed, a rollercoaster ride across the landscape of one of the most singular and important comics artists working today, at the forefront of the French Abstract Formalist Comic Movement. Free Fall is available to buy here.

If you are a retailer and are interested in stocking any Breakdown Press titles, please contact Turnaround Publisher Services here if you’re in the UK, or email us at editors@breakdownpress.com if you’re anywhere else in the world.

Free Fallby Alexis Beauclair240 x 300 mm – 128 pages...

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:47:44 +0000

Free Fall

by Alexis Beauclair

240 x 300 mm – 128 pages – offset printed – paperback – ISBN 978-1-9110811-3-5

Free Fall collects nine stories by Alexis Beauclair, originally published in various anthologies over the last decade. Beauclair’s comics are wordless thrill-rides where form and landscape shift perception from image to image. The reader is propelled from one beautiful image to the next at breakneck speed, a rollercoaster ride across the landscape of one of the most singular and important comics artists working today, at the forefront of the French Abstract Formalist Comic Movement.

Free Fall was printed by offset lithography at Printon Trükikoda AS in Estonia.

Available to pre-order now from the Breakdown Press online store.

Tummy Bugsby Leomi Sadler190 x 260mm – 96 pages –...

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:46:03 +0000

Tummy Bugs

by Leomi Sadler

190 x 260mm – 96 pages – offset printed – paperback – ISBN 978-1-9110811-2-8

“You never know what you’re gonna step in next.”

The stories inside Tummy Bugs are by turn absurd, surreal and funny. Short luridly coloured vignettes transport the reader into a deeply individual landscape, populated by strange creatures, where the line between fantasy, reality and science fiction is constantly shifting.

Leomi Sadler has been a cult figure in the alternative comics scene for over a decade, running the critically acclaimed publisher Famicon Express. Sadler’s commercial illustration work has seen them collaborate with Givenchy, Nike and Vice Magazine as their artistic tendrils continue to extend beyond comics and into the worlds of fashion and contemporary art.

Sadler’s comics work has previously only seen the light of day in glimpses. Small print runs of self-published zines and in prestigious anthologies like Kramer’s Ergot or Lagon Revue. With Tummy Bugs, Breakdown Press aims to bring Sadler’s unique vision to its widest audience yet.

Tummy Bugs was printed by offset lithography at Printon Trükikoda AS in Estonia.

Available to pre-order now from the Breakdown Press online store.

Haway Man, Klaus!by Richard Short175 x 155 mm – 232 pages...

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 19:43:08 +0000

Haway Man, Klaus!

by Richard Short

175 x 155 mm – 232 pages – offset printed – paperback – ISBN 978-1-9110811-1-1

Haway Man, Klaus! is the first full-length collection of comic strips charting the un-adventures of Klaus, Richard Short’s pensive, anthropomorphic cat.

Reinvigorating the classic comic strip, Short salutes Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, Tove Jansson’s Moomins and Japanese cartooning masters, before veering quickly into an original, strange and utterly unique world of screwball comedy and poetic rumination.

Short’s wit, at times gentle, at times acerbic, is expressed through his mastery of clear-line cartooning, revealing a tapestry of relatable human emotion through a cast of offbeat characters. Occupying a wholly original space in the current landscape of cartooning, Haway Man, Klaus! breathes new life into the comic strip format.

“[Short] creates beautiful, funny and thoughtful comics … Short’s comics start from a Charles Schulz template but grow increasingly complex, philosophical and beautiful … endlessly entertaining, plumbing the character’s emotional depths and providing the fodder for some remarkable punchlines … this is really excellent work and is highly recommended for readers who like their humour mixed with poetry.” Rob Clough, High Low Comics

Haway Man, Klaus! was printed by offset lithography at Printon Trükikoda AS in Estonia.

Available to pre-order now from the Breakdown Press online store.

Fukushima Devil Fishby Katsumata Susumu135 x 268mm – 268...

Tue, 01 May 2018 19:41:29 +0100

Fukushima Devil Fish

by Katsumata Susumu

135 x 268mm – 268 pages – offset printed – dust jacket

More than twenty years before the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors in 2011, Katsumata Susumu was using his cartooning skills to alert Japanese to the dangers of nuclear power.

Inspired by Katsumata’s research trips to the now notorious facility and his background in physics, Fukushima Devil Fish begins with two stories from the 1980s on the subject of “nuclear gypsies,” the men who labor under oppressive conditions to maintain Japan’s fleet of nuclear power plants. The book then cycles back to the late 1960s and 1970s with a group of stories, originally published in the legendary alt-manga magazines Garo and COM, populated with creatures from Japanese folklore and lonely young men bereft of home and family.

At turns haunting and endearing, Fukushima Devil Fish reveals Katsumata as both a master of comics as a poetic form and a true friend to the victims of Japan’s modernization. The collection is rounded out with a suite of essays by the artist, historian Asakawa Mitsuhiro, and critic Abe Yukihiro, which illuminate Katsumata’s life and career and the importance of his work in a post-Fukushima world.

Fukushima Devil Fish was printed by offset lithography at DeckersSnoeck in Belgium.

Available to buy now at the Breakdown Press web store.

Generous Bosom 3by Conor Stechschulte180 x 255mm – 62...

Tue, 01 May 2018 19:38:57 +0100

Generous Bosom 3

by Conor Stechschulte

180 x 255mm – 62 pages – Risograph printed – perfect bound

The latest work from Chicago-based cartoonist Conor Stechschulte (The Amateurs) is an erotic psychological thriller charting the fallout following a stranded motorist’s unexpected encounter with a strange, isolated couple.

This is the third in an ambitious series, several years in the making, that has already been described as Stechschulte’s best work to date by such critics as The Beat’s Heidi McDonald who called Generous Bosom 2 the “most mindboggling comic of the year”.

Generous Bosom 3 was printed by Risograph at Ditto Press in London.

Available to buy now on the Breakdown Press web store.

Escape to the Unfinished 3by Dash Shaw135 x 190mm – 26...

Tue, 01 May 2018 19:35:54 +0100

Escape to the Unfinished 3

by Dash Shaw

135 x 190mm – 26 pages – Risograph printed – saddle stitched

The third in Breakdown Press’s series of artist’s sketchbooks, Escape to the Unfinished 3 showcases the work of Dash Shaw.

Escape to the Unfinished 3 was printed by Risograph at Victory Press in London.

Available to buy in the Breakdown Press web store.

Good News Bible: The Complete Deadline Strips of Shaky Kane by...

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 12:48:31 +0100

Good News Bible: The Complete Deadline Strips of Shaky Kane by Shaky Kane is now available for pre-order from our web store! Orders will be dispatched after August 15th 2017. Copies will also be available from the Breakdown Press table at Safari Festival on the 12th August, held at Protein Studios, Shoreditch, London. Let us know you’re coming here!

‘For the first time ever, Good News Bible: The Complete Deadline Strips of Shaky Kane collects Shaky Kane’s complete comic strips and illustrations from the ground-breaking British counter-culture magazine, Deadline, which between 1988 and 1995 spawned Jamie Hewlett’s Tank Girl and launched dozens of cartoonists’ careers. Drenched in wry wit, Kane’s politically charged, hallucinatory, Jack Kirby-infused punk cartoons crackle with intensity and bombast, remaining as relevant now as when they were first published 30 years ago. Zone in, tune out and get ready to meet God’s own cops: The A-Men, The Sadistic Prowler, Pinhead Aliens invading Russia, trans-dimensional subhuman entities The Shadowmen, Pagan P.I.: Wiccaman, Dannii Minouge, and the man of destiny himself: The Space Boss SHAKY KANE. With an introduction from writer David Quantick, foreword from cartoonist and writer Nick Abadzis, afterword from cartoonist and comics academic Frank Santoro, and annotations from Shaky himself, this is the ultimate tome for baptising oneself in the perverse and psychedelic world of Britain’s cosmic comics shaman… There is only one Shaky Kane.‘

223 x 312mm – 240 pages – offset printed – softcover

Showtime by Antoine Cossé is now available for pre-order from...

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 11:50:58 +0100

Showtime by Antoine Cossé is now available for pre-order from our web store! Orders will be dispatched after August 15th 2017. Copies will also be available from the Breakdown Press table at Safari Festival on the 12th August, held at Protein Studios, Shoreditch, London. Let us know you’re coming here!

‘A road trip with strangers. From out of the gloaming, shapes emerge; suburban visions with all the power of a desert mirage. Are they instances of real magic or of self-fulfilling prophecy? Such a large crowd of spectators can’t all be wrong about the heavy sheet that hung in the sky, unsupported, can they? How is it that scenes from a nocturnal fever dream can re-emerge in a simple card trick? And what about the boat that flew? Antoine Cossé’s cinematic tale of a world-famous magician known only as ‘M’ blurs the lines between what is real and what is the trick.’

170 x 240mm – 176 pages – offset printed – softcover with dust jacket

Klaus Magazine 3 by Richard Short is now available for pre-order...

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 11:27:20 +0100

Klaus Magazine 3 by Richard Short is now available for pre-order from our web store! Orders will be dispatched after August 15th 2017. Copies will also be available from the Breakdown Press table at Safari Festival on the 12th August, held at Protein Studios, Shoreditch, London. Let us know you’re coming here!

‘Containing the epic story “It’s A Lush Life, Klaus” and a raft of new material, including guest bits from Brie Moreno, Anna Haifisch, Lando and many more. Klaus Magazine 3 is the most satisfying slice of Klaus yet, for Klaustafarians old and new.’

180 x 260mm – 76 pages – Risograph printed – perfect bound

John’s Worth 3 by Jon Chandler is now available for pre-order...

Fri, 21 Jul 2017 11:22:30 +0100

John’s Worth 3 by Jon Chandler is now available for pre-order from our web store! Orders will be dispatched after August 15th 2017. Copies will also be available from the Breakdown Press table at Safari Festival on the 12th August, held at Protein Studios, Shoreditch, London. Let us know you’re coming here!

‘From the mind of Jonathan Chandler, Britain’s most isolated cartoonist, comes John’s Worth 3. Described as “a parasitic-AR, scorched-earth sex-nightmare”, this latest instalment of Chandler’s twisted opus is rife with Cronenbergian monstrosities, intrigue and death.’

148 x 196mm – 40 pages – offset printed – saddle stitched

safarifestival: SAFARI FESTIVAL RETURNS 11am to 6pm, Saturday...

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 18:50:44 +0100

safarifestival:

SAFARI FESTIVAL RETURNS

11am to 6pm, Saturday 12th August 2017

PROTEIN, Studio 2, Shoreditch, London

Free entry

————————————————

Safari Festival is a celebration of the new wave of alternative and art comics from the UK and beyond. Safari is an opportunity for a curated group of cartoonists and publishers to exhibit and sell their artwork, prints and, primarily, comics, and for attendees to experience the best of UK comics’ avant-garde. The artists exhibiting have been selected for their innovative, fearless, diverse approaches to making comics; approaches to cartooning that Safari intends to champion.

EXHIBITORS:

2dcloud

Aisha Franz

Animal Press

Anya Davidson

Babak Ganjei

Bergen Street Press

Black Hook Press

Breakdown Press (Joe Kessler, Antoine Cossé, Richard Short, Alexander Tucker, Zoe Taylor)

Brie Moreno

Charles Forsman

Colorama

Decadence Comics (Lando, Stathis Tsemberlidis, Emix Regulus)

Disa Wallander

Disinfotainment (Mark Pawson)

Famicom Express (Leon Sadler, Stefan Sadler, Jon Chandler)

Gabriel Corbera

James Jessiman

Joseph P Kelly

Kuš! Komiksi (Evangelos Androutsopoulos)

JMKE

Kyle Platts

Landfill Editions

Lane Milburn

Laura Callaghan

Luke Overin

Luke Stuart

Matthew Pettit

Matthew Thurber

Mega Press

Melissa Mendes

Narves1biblioteket

One Beat Zines

Otto Press

Paul Waak

PRJTS

Retrofit Comics

Roman Muradov

Shaky Kane

Short Box

Silica Burn (Liam Cobb, Tom Kemp, Will Tempest)

Simon Moreton

Super-Structure

Uncivilized Books

Wai Wai Pang

Will Sweeney

Let us know you’re coming!

DJs will play throughout the day and we will have several satellite events and an after-party at the Shacklewell Arms in Dalston. For more information about these events and much more, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and right here!

Safari Festival Returns, August 12th 2017.

Anna Haifisch will be a special guest at this year’s ELCAF!Anna...

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 19:00:34 +0100

Anna Haifisch will be a special guest at this year’s ELCAF!

Anna will be in attendance all weekend and will have her own table with smash German cartoonist, Max Baitinger.

We’ll have copies of Anna’s book, The Artist, for sale at the Breakdown table on Saturday and Sunday.

Anna will also be doing a talk on the Saturday:

Anna Haifisch: How to Get Rich
The Talks Marquee, Saturday, 1:45pm - 2:45pm
£3 entry

If you can’t make it to the Festival you can get a copy of The Artist from our web-store.

Antoine Cossé will be launching a new edition of his...

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 18:00:28 +0100

Antoine Cossé will be launching a new edition of his previously out of print comic, NWAI, at ELCAF, this weekend, complete with a smashy new cover.

As well as hanging around the Breakdown table to sign copies, Antoine will be a special guest at the festival, alongside Anna Haifisch!

Anna and Antoine will both be giving talks on the Saturday as part of the Festival’s wider programming:

Anna Haifisch: How to Get Rich
The Talks Marquee, Saturday, 1:45pm - 2:45pm
£3 entry

Antoine Cossé Talk
School Rooms Talk Space, Saturday, 2:45pm - 3:45pm
Free entry with ELCAF Festival Day/Weekend Pass

Breakdown will be in attendance, selling NWAI and all our other books, on the Saturday and Sunday. Come on down!

NWAI and our other ELCAF debut, Windowpane 4 by Joe Kessler, will go on sale on our web store shortly after the festival.

Windowpane 4 by Joe Kessler is debuting this weekend at...

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 10:29:21 +0100

Windowpane 4 by Joe Kessler is debuting this weekend at ELCAF!

Breakdown will be in attendance on the Saturday and Sunday. Drop by the table to get your copy. Joe will be in attendance to scribble on copies if you so desire.

Several other Breakdown artists will be in attendance, including Anna Haifisch and Antoine Cossé who are special guests of the Festival.

As well as hanging out at the Breakdown table, Anna and Antoine will both be giving talks on the Saturday as part of the Festival’s wider programming:

Anna Haifisch: How to Get Rich
The Talks Marquee, Saturday, 1:45pm - 2:45pm
£3 entry

Antoine Cossé Talk
School Rooms Talk Space, Saturday, 2:45pm - 3:45pm
Free entry with ELCAF Festival Day/Weekend Pass

Drop by and say hello!

Anna Haifisch.You can purchase the Los Angeles Times Book Prize...

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 16:13:29 +0100

Anna Haifisch.

You can purchase the Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominated The Artist by Anna Haifisch from Breakdown Press, here.

2dcloud: 2dcloud & TCAF present ALTCOMICS 10 Rita...

Fri, 12 May 2017 14:59:57 +0100

2dcloud:

2dcloud & TCAF present

ALTCOMICS 10

Rita Fürstenau
Xia Gordon
Anna Haifisch
Simon Hanselmann
Eli Howey
Carmen José
Juliacks
Joe Kessler
Carta Monir
Brie Moreno
Tommi Parrish
Nadine Redlich
Jake Terrell

Saturday May 13th, 7PM, FREE!
Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel
Marriott High Park Ballroom 90 Bloor St E, Toronto, ON

poster by Eli Howey

Breakdown artists Joe Kessler, Brie Moreno and Anna Haifisch will be reading at this alongside a smash line up of alt-comic’s finest. If you’re in Toronto come along. Should be a good one.

Breakdown are coming to Leipzig! UK Comic wizards Richard Short...

Tue, 21 Mar 2017 11:26:04 +0000

Breakdown are coming to Leipzig!

UK Comic wizards Richard Short and Joe Kessler will have an exhibition at Mzin, Friday 24th to Sunday 27th March, as part of The Millionaires Club. We’ll be there all weekend selling books, too! Come along if you can.

oldfogdraws:Made a tower comic for @vncntfrtz Super Towers...

Sun, 19 Mar 2017 22:38:25 +0000

oldfogdraws:

Made a tower comic for @vncntfrtz Super Towers Anthology involving 70+ artists, debuting at The Millionaires club Comic and Graphics Fest, Leipzig.

Alexander Tucker, 2017

UK Comic wizards Richard Short and Joe Kessler will have an...

Tue, 14 Mar 2017 16:00:33 +0000

UK Comic wizards Richard Short and Joe Kessler will have an exhibition at Mzin, Leipzig, Friday 24th to Sunday 27th March, as part of The Millionaires Club. We’ll be there all weekend selling books, too! Come along if you can.