In the early days of Birdcage Bottom Books' scrappy existence, an artist could come to us with a comic and see it published within the month. As we've grown, we've had to plan and budget years in advance.

BUT, now that we have access to risograph printing machines, we're able to throw off those shackles and print beautiful color comics on the fly! We plan to debut these two new comics at SPX (Small Press Expo) in mid-September. 

You may remember Robert H. Stevenson's Comfort Creatures (we published it in 2021) or Plantimals (self-published). Well, get ready to be blown away by a deluxe version of his newest, Spaced Out Inner Galactic Beings. We're printing with metallic gold risograph ink on black, oversized paper throughout. 24 pages, 8.5" x 11". This will be a limited edition of 500 copies. 

"Robert H. Stevenson completes his trilogy of illustrated rhyme collections with Spaced Out Inner Galactic Beings. SOIGB explores themes of subconscious thought, creativity, inspiration, and dreams through silly, psychedelic deep space imagery."

We first discovered Desmond Reed when he sent us his underground comics influenced Those Dark New Hampshire Woods for our distro. When the pandemic hit, he shifted gears and started drawing more personal work. The Funnies and Apples focused on the members of The Cola Pop Creemees, a (fictional) psychedelic pop band. Using a bold, simplified drawing style with a Todd Parr childrens book style color palette, Reed delved deeper and deeper into each band member's psyche, past traumas, and motivations. 

We'll be publishing his The Cola Pop Creemees: Opening Act collection next year, but in the meantime, you'll laugh uncomfortably while reading LEFTY, a comic focused on songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mona Gertrude's struggles with her family’s and her own mental illness, creativity, connection, and physical injury.

Undeterred after injuring his drawing hand, Desmond Reed drew this Cola Pop Creemees spin-off story with his non-dominant left hand! This limited edition (500 copies) will feature a 2-color cover with black & white interior. 40 pages, 5.5" x 7.25". 

With your help, we can cover the cost of printing these beautiful comics. Because of supply-chain issues, we had limited options for paper. We ended up going with a high-quality black cover stock and interior paper for the Spaced Out comic. It was only available in large sheets, so we cut it down to a size that would work with the risograph machines (11" x 17"). We're happy to report, the gold printed beautifully on the deep black paper. 

Since we printed and assembled these comics ourselves at the RisoLab here in NYC, the only cost to be covered is the paper and ink. Once printing costs are recouped, we'll be able to immediately start paying royalties to these artists!