Kus! mono #11: This Year Is Next Year's Last Year by Christopher Sperandio
This Year Is Next Year's Last Year takes classic old school public domain comics – that look like they're largely from the 1950s, but maybe also some from the '40s and/or early 60s – and remixes them in all their newsprint saturated four-color glory in high quality scans repurposed via newly created (by Mr. Sperandio, we can only assume) text approriately rendered in a digital recreation of Leroy Lettering (or a close approximation therof) to create a caustic comics satire of the sad state of affairs that is the USA today. Everything is printed just right and really delivers that old school comics feel. Also on hand are equally caustic reworkings of comic book advertisements, gift listings and an apocryphal game journal all recreated in the appropriate manner. A real treat for the comics æsthete.
Here's from the publisher:
"An angry spirit searches for answers and purpose in Trumpworld. This Year is Next Year’s Last Year exorcises the tortured specters cycling through the contemporary psyche, countering corruption and death with defiant sarcasm. Mail-order magical objects and the rules of an ancient board game round out this treatise on inevitability."
Christopher Sperandio, born in Kingwood, West Virginia, has lived in Chicago, New York, Mexico City, Berlin, and Hong Kong. Sperandio maintains a daily drawing practice on Instagram @pinko_joe. Sperandio is a professor of art teaching comics and art at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Specs: A5 (6" x 8"), 68 pages, full-color, perfect bound. Printed in Latvia on FSC certified paper. ISBN 978-9934-581-72-4
ONE COPY ONLY
S! #49 'Chaos', December 2023
Cover: Noemi Vola (Italy) Contributors: Aidan Koch (USA), Bohdana Zaiats (Ukraine), Christopher Sperandio (USA), Dzelde Mierkalne (Latvia), Gina Wynbrandt (USA), Ivo Puiupo (Portugal), Jurijs Tatarkins (Latvia), Kaspars Grosevs (Latvia), Karlina Marta Zvirbule (Latvia), Konig Lu. Q. (Switzerland), Lukas Weidinger (Austria), Majenye (Venezuela), Mikkel Sommer (Denmark), Mogorosi Motshumi (South Africa), Noemi Vola (Italy), Oskars Pavlovskis (Latvia), Pauls Rietums (Latvia), Walker Tate (USA), xozusia (Latvia), Zane Zlemesa (Latvia).
Format: A6, 164 pages, full-color, perfect bound, environmentally friendly Munken paper.
Here's an issue where you can have your cake and eat it too! Not only is it filled with cool and quirky comics from all over, it is also chock-a-block with comics history, criticism, theory, and philosophy from a dazzling array of points of view. This is an issue you can really sink your (wisdom) teeth into!
Special issue in conjunction with the 'Comics Sans Frontieres' Conference at RICE University, Houston, Texas, 20-23 March 2025.
Cover: Art Spiegelman (USA), colors by Christopher Sperandio (USA)
Comics and Art: Andrew Kozlowski(USA), Mia Oberlander (Germany), Vera Bekema (The Netherlands), Liga Spunde (Latvia), Mingo Almazan (USA), Jessica Snow (USA), Augusto Mora (Mexico), Christopher Sperandio (USA), Joost Halbertsma (The Netherlands), Art Spiegelman (USA), Robert Pruitt (USA), Karim Oyazabal (France), Cheyenne Olivier (France), Sofia Adams-Giron(USA), Amelyn Ng (Australia), Jack Katz (USA), Dirk Verschure (The Netherlands)
Texts: David Messmer (USA), Amanda Focke (USA), K. Sarah Ostrach (USA), Rebecca Russell (USA), Jane Grande-Allen (USA), Christopher Sperandio, Naoko Ozaki (Japan), Jeffrey Kripal (USA), Caitlin McGurk (USA), Margarita M. Castroman Soto (Puerto Rico), Tesla Cariani (USA), Ofra Amihay (Israel), Martalisa Tsai (USA), Julie Fette (USA), Brian Baynes (USA), Pedro Moura (Portugal), David Schilter (Switzerland)
Guest Editors: Pedro Moura (Portugal), Ofra Amihay (Israel), Christopher Sperandio (USA)
Format: A6, 164 pages, full-color, perfect bound, environmentally friendly Munken paper.
Support: This project was supported in part by the following Rice University entities: Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication, Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Creative Ventures, Fondren Fellows program, Humanities Research Center, Program in Jewish Studies, Moody Center for the Arts, Religious Studies, School of Architecture, and Scientia Institute.
