2010 will mark the fifth year of our anthology MOME and we've got some good stuff lined up for the next few issues. We just sent MOME 18 (Spring 2010) to the printer and are already prepping MOME 19 (Summer 2010), and I thought I'd share the covers to both.
The MOME 18 cover is by Nate Neal, who delivers "The Neurotic Nexus of Creation," a 15-page explication of the creative process that calls to mind his "Reality Comics Quartet" from MOME 12. The MOME 19 cover is by Josh Simmons, and the issue will feature the first part of his psychedelic extravaganza "The White Rhinoceros," written by co-conspirator The Partridge In a Pear Tree.
I don't want to give up too much about either issue, but MOME 18 also includes the first new comic in several years by Dave Cooper, the MOME debuts of Tim Lane, Ivan Brun, Joe Daly, and Jon Adams, as well as returning stalwarts Lilli Carré, Ben Jones, Frank Santoro, Jon Vermilyea, Nicolas Mahler, Ted Stearn, Renée French, Conor O'Keefe, Derek Van Gieson, and T. Edward Bak.
MOME 19 will have some very exciting surprises, including an all-new, 12-page story by some guy named Gilbert Hernandez, as well as returning regulars such as Dash Shaw, Tom Kaczynski, and Olivier Schrauwen. Plus, an amazing 21-page debut by Seattle cartoonist DJ Bryant, riffing on an old horror comic by Steve Ditko.
I recently calculated that with MOME 18, we have now published over 2000 pages of comics in the series over the last four and half years (2109, to be exact). By our count, this may be a record for an English-language alternative comics anthology (and no, I'm not counting Dark Horse Presents).
UPDATE: Olivier Schrauwen has a preview page up from his 25-page story for MOME 19 here. This guy is amazing.