Steve Lafler Catalog Update: New Series, Old Faves, and Cool T-Shirts

First and foremost, I'm delighted to offer my brand new comic book set in my adopted home town of Oaxaca, Mexico. But there's more, I've peppered this post with links to the major works from my entire comics career. Thanks for visiting! I can honestly guarantee a fun, weird and unusual ride from all of these here comic books and graphic novels.

Steve Lafler 

My new comic book Death in Oaxaca is here! You can get it from the publisher Alternative Comics or from Amazon at this link for $4.99.

The mundane, the sublime and the bizarre show up in their best party attire in the new comic book series from the creator of Dog Boy and Bughouse. Two expats move to remote Oaxaca, the fabled highland city in southern Mexico. Rex, earnest yet duplicitous, flees from mid-life crisis and fear of death. Beautiful Gertie, cynical but honest, is just plain bored and craves adventure. They contend with Lucha Libre wrestlers and an ancient vampire who prefers chicken, and enjoy the best fresh corn tortillas on the planet.

And of course you need the Death in Oaxaca T-Shirt to complete the experience! OK, so it's in Spanish, so it's really a "Los Muertos de Oaxaca" T Shirt. Here is the Design:

 Available at this link from my Redbubble shop for $26.97. Visit my entire line of shirts at Redbubble here.

My back catalog books El Vocho and 40 Hour Man are available from Wow Cool, the mail order arm of my new publisher. You can also order these titles from my Lulu shop. Here's the books:

 El Vocho. Love at the twilight of oil. Rosa the Latina hottie inventor and Eddie the geek artist meet in a fender bender. Tempers flare but sparks fly and they fall in love. Working together, they create the perfect clean energy motor while being tracked by goons working for big oil.

40 Hour Man. Is it a career, or a series of really lame jobs? Stephen Beaupre (author) and Steve Lafler (cartoonist) pose this timeless question in Forty Hour Man, a hilarious saga of one working stiff's three-decade journey into the minimum wage heart of the American Dream. It's all here - from scrubbing a steakhouse floor with a toothbrush to going bust in the Internet boom. Every bad boss. Every crazy co-worker. All the more shocking because it's true!

 Wait a Minute! What about Bughouse and Dog Boy?

Don't worry, I did not forget about the work I am best known for! I've published two huge legacy volumes with CO2, collecting every page of both series!

Ménage à BUGHOUSE collects the funky jazz noir BUGHOUSE trilogy by Steve Lafler in one volume. Tenor saxophone maestro, Jimmy Watts, leads his talented band of bugs from the swing era into the uncharted maelstrom of Bop. And as he and his band mates claw their way to the top of the jazz world, they must fight the temptation to be consumed by addiction to a substance known as "Bug Juice".

Read Bughouse online at CO2

Doggie Style: The Complete Dog Boy. Imagine an enthusiastic, ambitious young artist of the 1980s who happens to have an enormous golden retriever head on a human body. Given to flights of fancy and the odd meditation on the truly mundane, this Dog Boy searches for meaning, all too often via a six pack of Rainer Ale pounders! 

Steve Lafler sat down from 1882 to 1988 and drew nearly 500 pages of Dog Boy. Most of the time, he drew with no script, and in fact looked to emptying his mind before putting pencil to bristol board. 

The entire results are collected here in in the 488 page omnibus, DOGGIE STYLE The Complete DOG BOY! Now you can pay witness to the genius that flowed from Steve's streaming consciousness as he created one of the most truly independent comic works of all time!

Read Dog Boy online at CO2

AND, one more thing! We've looked at my print books and T-Shirts, lets go ahead and buy a copy of my Ebook, Cat Suit!

CAT SUIT. What kind of whack job would put on a mask and a skin-tight suit and head out into the city after midnight? I mean, what is this guy really up to? What pathology, what perverse proclivity are we dealing with here? Is he fighting crime? Of course not, he’s just going clubbing—and he’s frankly perplexed when the aggressive bar flies & drunks single him out. The guy in question is Manx, a costumed cat man. Available digitally!

Buy or Die! Holiday Catalog

I've created a killer catalog of my graphic novels and T-Shirts for the Holiday Shopping Season. Click on the art below to start shopping.
Happy Holidays,
Steve

http://stevelafler.com/2012/11/20/steve-lafler-catalog-graphic-novels-ts/

40 Hour Man -- Still Hilarious

Every so often I remember that the graphic novel, 40 Hour Man, by myself and writer Stephen Beaupre, is available as a free download at Lulu.

This is Beaupre's manic, hilarious account of his various working class jobs, with appropriately nuts illustrations from your truly.
If you've ever had a crap job or an insane jerk for a boss (who hasn't?), then this is the book for you.

The print edition of 40 Hour Man is also available from Lulu, along with other graphic novels from me including El Vocho.

Steve Lafler Catalog Update

Here are up to date links to help get your hands on Steve Lafler graphic novels and T-Shirts.

photo by Scott Hoover

I am searching for meaning and truth in a world ruled by, you know, the rulers. Only through these graphic novels and T-Shirts can each of us reach illumination (actual instructions embedded within each product).

I have a graphic novel store at Lulu.com, where you can find El Vocho, my 2010 graphic novel, 40 Hour Man by Stephen Beaupre and myself, and Tranny.

 I love bugs.

Yes, this graphic novel is about boys dressing up like girls. WTF? I guess you'll just have to read it.

Monster, Car and Guitar T-shirts are available at my Cafe Press store.

I would wear this Wolf Man on a T-Shirt! Would you???

My Bughouse trilogy of graphic novels can still be purchased at Top Shelf Comics.

Some people really like this Bughouse graphic novel, they says it's my best one.

I also have acrylic paintings for sale, generally in the $150 - 300 range for sizes from 8"x10" to 11"x14".
The price includes shipping via DHL, insured. Payment is via Paypal. If you are interested, let's talk. You can click the link of my highlighted name at the bottom of this post to send me an email. Or you can phone me at 503-213-3671.
I do commissions too -- I did a big painting last year for a friend on a Mexican theme (OK, so it was a $1,000 job), but we had a great time with it.

Who am I?! Here is a Steve Lafler interview with Robert Clough at the Comics Journal

Here is a link to an audio interview Steve Lafler with Robin McConnell of Inkstuds Radio.

My goal here, as always, is to buy the next tank of gas for my car, stuff like that.

Thanks!

Steve Lafler

Hey Hey My My, Cool Comics Will Never Die

This weekend brings another APE (Alternative Comics Convention) in San Francisco, and I feel the pull. From my post in Oaxaca, I long to be at APE.

For those of us who can't be there, I am happy to report that you can score the best of weird, small press and alternative comics from lots of entrepreneurial distributors and shops.

Wow Cool, the long running alt comics distrib run by Marc Arsenault, is alive and well with an updated site.

King Kat comics genius John Porcellino maintains Spit and a Half zine and comics distribution, featuring many great artists like Carrie McNinch.

Sparkplug Comic Books continues to publish and distribute great quirky comics by talents like Austin English despite the recent death of beloved founder Dylan Williams.

Another stop on the mini-comics/alt comics distribution tour is Poopsheet. I can't imagine a better name than that!

You can always rely on Last Gasp of San Francisco, the venerable publisher and distributor run by Ron Turner and his son Colin. I couldn't help but link to my recent graphic novel El Vocho at the Last Gasp site, whatcha gonna do!

By kicking around a bit at these links, you can set yourself up with enough cool offbeat comics to keep you busy for quite awhile.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

The conceit of my graphic novel El Vocho is that a clean energy car can run on air. Sounds impossible, right?

Wrong!

Check this out:

CAR RUNS ON AIR

Now that is good news.


El Vocho is online here.

El Vocho Review at Midnight Fiction

Richard Krauss writes up El Vocho. Thanks!

Painting Sale

It's the middle of winter and biz is DEAD in da SNOW! Buzzards & Wolves are circling the tents. So I just posted a painting sale on FB here.

We are talking ten canvasas (well, some are acrylic on board) that I have in stock from the past few years. All are fun and a bit bent, as you might imagine. And cheap! Shipping is 2 day DHL, and payment can be made via paypal. Take a look and enjoy, and lemme know if you just gots to have one of these.

love
STEVE

Kickstarter Successful

I am pumped! My kickstarter fundraiser for the El Vocho graphic novel is a success. I raised $1,255 to help fund production and shipping of the book. It's a tough market for the indie graphic novel right now, to say the least, but with a hybrid sales picture including various and sundry distributors, retailers and events, this book is in the black and garnering interest.

The fundraiser runs through December 26 if anyone still wants to order El Vocho, or get some cool art from me.

Classic Dog Boy comics, Cat-Head Imprint

I've added a complete seven issue run of my classic Dog Boy comics as a reward to my Kickstarter fundraiser.
I was fresh off the truck and ready to take over the multiverse with this title! These first Dog Boy comics (there were ten more later from Fantagraphics) helped define the cutting edge of 80s alternative comics.
All seven issues are available for a $55 pledge, a real steal no matter how ya slice it.

I have four sets available, then I'll take Dog Boy off of my Kickstarter page.


Click here to go to my Kickstarter campaign.

Facing Hard Time in Oaxaca

Why did I write a graphic novel where the main character is a VW Bug?

Part of the story is here.

Photo of my 'n my Vocho in Mitla, Oaxaca by Carrie McNinch

El Vocho Kickstarter Campaign

I'm doing a Kickstarter fundraiser to help offset printing and shipping costs for my El Vocho book. You can check out the project by clicking through the icon posted below. Basically, the book is available for a $15.00 pledge, and you can go hog wild and pledge more for other cool stuff like T-shirts, acrylic paintings and the like.
There's a video in there too, with me coming on like one of them NPR geeks, begging for cash. This is publishing in the cyber age, I guess!

Here's a link to the El Vocho Kickstarter page.

Ripe Pineapple Drunk live - the Dick Nixon Experience

July 22, 2010, the Mercury Cafe, San Francisco.



We rocked this one half decent, maybe because it finally got dark!

Brazen Marketing Overkill

Dick Nixon Experience Redux

More Dick Nixon Experience from the El Vocho party last July at the Mercury Cafe in San Francisco. Bean Song, Six Days on the Road, and You Got That Hair. Our drummer Jeff reports that his mom helped Dave Dudley write Six Days on the Road, no kidding!



Video by Norm Rosenberger

El Vocho Party, July 2010, with The Dick Nixon Experience

I held a publishing event last July 22 in San Francisco at the Mercury Cafe for my El Vocho graphic novel. My pal Scotty Hoover helped put together a pick up band, the Dick Nixon Experience, for the party. Another friend, Norm Rosenberger, shot this video of us playing the blue grass standard John Hardy. Thanks for the video clip, Norm!



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My new graphic novel El Vocho is currently in the Diamond Comics catalog: Page 290 of October Previews, order code OCT101061 EL VOCHO GN (MR). Diamond has listed El Vocho as “Certified Cool”.

Ballad of the Bug - The Video

I've posted a homemade video for Ballad of the Bug on you tube. Written by myself and Todd Spiehler, the tune is the official theme song for my new graphic novel El Vocho. The video captures the flavor of Oaxaca just enough to whet your appetite for a visit.

I'm not expecting to make it on to MTV, but I will say it's a lot of fun to put a little video together.



The one and only Mr. Todd Spiehler, with Bill Stair, another local musical genius, lurking in the background. Photo by Jeff Charles.

Interview with Inkstuds

I did an interview with Robin McConnell / Inkstuds -- Robin is a broadcaster who specializes in interviewing indie and underground cartoonists.

Here is a link to the interview.

It is an honor to do an interviewer with a broadcaster of Robin's stature, and boy it's well timed too, as my new book El Vocho will be in the Diamond Comics catalog next month.

Ladies & Gentlemen, the Dick Nixon Experience

Here is the audio of the Dick Nixon Experience from the El Vocho publishing party at San Francisco's Mercury Cafe last night. Recording compliments of Sir Dave Soule. Scotty on bass, Jeff on Drums, Jon on electric guitar, Jeff 2 on fiddle and alto sax, Steve on acoustic guitar and vocals.

This Thurs Night!

I'll be at the Mercury Cafe in San Francisco this Thurs night with my new book El Vocho. We made two posters for the event!



Scott Hoover, our bass player, made this one and dubbed our band "The Dick Nixon Experience".