Smash Pages Q&A | Taki Soma on ‘Sleeping While Standing’

The artist of ‘Rapture,’ ‘The After Realm,’ ‘Sinergy’ and more discusses her deeply personal new graphic novel, her creative process and more.

Taki Soma is a writer, artist and colorist best known for comics like Rapture, The After Realm, Sinergy, Bitch Planet, The Old Guard: Tales Through Time and many others. But her new book Sleeping While Standing, which is out now from Avery Hill Publishing, is a departure from what she’s done previously.

A collection of stories four pages or less, it’s a deeply personal work, as Soma explores her father’s suicide, moving to Minnesota as a child and her complicated relationship with her mother, among other events in her life. It also looks at the horrifying way she learned that she has MS, features laugh-out-loud stories about pets and children, and shows her deep and complex storytelling skills.

It’s an incredible work by a talented creator, and Soma was kind enough to talk about why she made the book, her creative process and why she makes comics.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Explore history with ‘Superman: Space Age,’ ‘Ant-Man’ and more

Check out new comics and graphic novels this week by Noah Van Sciver, Luana Vecchio, Taki Soma, Peter David, Chris Claremont, Cullen Bunn, Vicente Cifuentes, Mark Russell, Michael Allred, Al Ewing and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. The past is very much the future in several new series that debut today, including Superman: Space Age, Ant-Man, Gambit and more.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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Fund Me Monday | Help bring Avery Hill’s Spring 2022 line to life

Fund new titles by Taki Soma, George Wylesol and Claire Scully.

London-based publisher Avery Hill needs about $16,000 to publish their Spring 2022 line-up, and they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds.

Avery Hill Publishing came into being about 10 years ago, when Ricky Miller and Dave White began self-publishing comics like Tiny Dancing and Reads. Eventually their small-press efforts evolved into a full publishing house, bringing comics and graphic novels by Tillie Walden, George Wylesol, Zoe Thorogood, Tim Bird and more to press. They describe themselves as a publisher that “helps aspiring creators reach their potential and is a home to the geniuses that the mainstream has yet to recognise.”

Their Spring books include three titles: 2120 by Wylesol, Sleeping While Standing by Taki Soma and Outer Wilderness by Claire Scully.

Continue reading “Fund Me Monday | Help bring Avery Hill’s Spring 2022 line to life”