Via Jenna Fisher at the Utne Reader's "From the Stacks: January 19, 2007" feature:

 

The Small Press Review is a no-nonsense tool for independent press junkies and writers in search of small publications. More of a crib sheet than a fancy artistic endeavor, the bimonthly newsprint magazine gets down to the business of shedding light on small presses, books, and magazines with short, lightning-quick reviews. In addition to dishing out the skinny on everything from the biography of avant-garde "polyartist" Brion Gysin, to RubberStampMadness magazine, the Small Press Review's November-December issue highlights recent magazine and press start-ups by featuring their contact and submission info.

The Small Press Expo (SPX), a non-profit organization, is proud to announce the 13th annual expo to be held October 12 and 13 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

SPX is proud to announce as its first major guest, Jeff Smith. Jeff is the author/writer of the groundbreaking and multiple award winning series “Bone”. This February will see the release of his adaptation of the Golden Age Captain Marvel story “The Monster Society of Evil”, to be published by DC Comics.

In the following weeks, additional guests and other SPX news will be issued in forthcoming press releases.

For more information, visit the SPX 2006 web site here.

The SPX is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comic books, alternative political cartoonists and discovery of new creative talent that attracts thousands every year. SPX brings together more than 300 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers and distributors each year. Graphic novels, political cartoon books and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. A series of panel discussions will also be held of interest to readers, academicians and creators of graphic novels and political cartoons.

A pilot marketing project would give the bulk of its budget to the Chapters/Indigo chain, independent bookstores complain reports James Adams at the Globe and Mail, (via Ron Silliman's blog):

Representatives of a consortium of six medium-sized Canadian-owned publishers are scheduled to meet today in Toronto with members of the Canadian Booksellers Association to try to resolve a dispute over a controversial book-marketing "pilot project" scheduled to start next month and largely targeting Chapters/Indigo stores.

The $120,000 scheme by the consortium -- whose members are McArthur & Co., McClelland & Stewart, Raincoast Books, House of Anansi Press, Cormorant Books and Thomas Allen Publishers -- would put themed displays of the publishers' books in high-traffic areas in Chapter/Indigo outlets on four separate occasions throughout the year.

Five or six backlist titles from each of the publishers would be featured at any one time, for a duration of at least four weeks, with Chapters/Indigo ordering as many as 3,000 copies of each title. Chapters/Indigo representatives will choose the books to be presented from lists supplied by the publishers.

Almost 70 per cent of the $120,000 would be used to purchase ads in various Chapters/Indigo publications and on its website, while the balance would be used for advertisements in Canadian newspapers.

The four-color funnybooks have, for years, been a medium of escapism. Over time, they've grown from adventure/fantasy stories to encompass all genres (once again, after a whittling down in the 1950s) as well as becoming a means of political expression -- usually in an anti-establishment way, as best demontrated in the heyday of underground comix produced by the master of that niche, Howard Crumb.

Creator Mike Mackey makes no bones about his series, Liberality For All as being propoganda for conservatives. It's a peek into an alternate history and future where political liberalism is taken to its ideological extremes.

Rasha Mourtada of the Globe & Mail profiles Joanne Saul and Samara Walbohm, who took on the big chains with their independent bookstore and art gallery in Toronto:

Joanne Saul and Samara Walbohm first met in the stacks at the University of Toronto's Robarts Library in 1995. They were both doing their PhDs in literature, so they were always surrounded by books. "We'd have these fantasies about what we might do if we didn't end up pursuing academic careers—about doing something related, but different," says Saul.