"The Oven" makes Publishers Weekly's "Best of 2015" list!

Holy Guacamole, you guys! The Oven is one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2015!

I always worry about getting too personal in my posts, but to say I've been surprised and gratified by the response my book has gotten is a massive understatement. I never expected so many people to read and care about my book and even, in some cases, tell me so to my face with evident non-irony.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my book, or, even more remarkably, write something about it or tell me they liked it. I don't think there's any greater gift you can give a creator then your attention.

Read "Anniversary"!

Hey Friends,

My comic "Anniversary", originally created for the horror anthology Sleep of Reason went up on Study Group. Read it in full on their website, or, if you prefer, you can read it on my tumblr.

Happy Halloween!

SPX and Ignatz Awards last weekend, Topatocon this weekend!

Photo by Derek Royal

It was my great pleasure and honor to win two Ignatz Awards last weekend. My book The Oven won both the Outstanding Comic and Outstanding Graphic novel categories and I took home two new bricks. It's also the first year where women won in ALL CATEGORIES, which is pretty fantastic and I'm happy to have been a part of. If you want to read more about it there's plenty of coverage in The Washington Post.

This coming weekend I will be in Northampton, MA at the brand-new, never-worn Topatacon with Jenn Jordan. Come hang out with us if you're in the area.

House of Women, Part II Debuting at SPX!

FINALLY! House of Women, Part II is finished and off to the printer so I feel safe in saying I'll have copies at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda September 19th-20th.

A short description of House of Women, for those of you who may not be familiar with Part I:

Science fiction meets psycho-sexual drama when a group of women try to bring "civilization" to the natives of a remote planet on the fringes of the known universe.
Part two of a three-part series. House of Women, Part I received an Ignatz Award in 2014 for "Outstanding Minicomic".

Can't wait until then for a sneak preview? Click through for a 10-page preview!

Not going to SPX? You can pre-order Part II on my store page. Copies will ship after SPX.

Nom Nom Nominations!

I'm super pleased that The Oven got nominated for TWO Ignatz Awards this year. It's the little graphic novel that could.

This little book is goin' places.

I also had the honor of serving on the jury (I did not nominate myself, please see disclaimer in article linked below -Ed.) and I can say with assurance that indie comics is one small step from world domination.

For more details, check out the announcement in the Washington Post.

Small Press Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE) This Weekend!

I'm going to be at Small Press Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo - SPACE in Columbus, Ohio​ tomorrow and Sunday at table B15 with Carl Antonowicz​! If you are there you should come find me as I will have all sorts of fun and exciting things.

I will also be reading some comics pieces at Official Public After-Party on Saturday night. You will laugh you will cry you... will probably feel something unless you're a robot.
 

See you there!

New York Book Release Party for "The Oven" @ Bergen Street Comics This Friday!

See you there! <3 br="">

Next Up, HeroesCon!

Hey Friends. I'm going to be tabling at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina this Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the lovely and talented Jenn Jordan! We'll be at Indie Island along with my publisher, AdHouse Books and numerous other luminaries of the alt-comics scene.

I've been invited to be on a couple panels, which I'm extremely excited about because I have many opinions that I am happy to share with the world. Here are the panel details, from the convention website:

Saturday
3:00pm
Room 209
AT THE JUNCTION OF WORDS AND PICTURES: THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CENTER FOR CARTOON STUDIES
For this year’s MEGA-PANEL, cartoonist BEN TOWLE and critic CRAIG FISCHER celebrate the first decade of the Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS), the influential school for comics artists located in White River Junction, Vermont. Ben will begin with a slide show/talk about the history of “how-to” cartooning guides, including How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, Understanding Comics, and the CCS-sponsored Adventures in Cartooning books by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost. Ben’s presentation will be followed by a screening of Cartoon College (Josh Melrod and Tara Wray, 2012, 75 minutes), a lively documentary that chronicles CCS’s history while focusing on a group of students furiously working on long-form comics for their graduation projects. One added attraction of Cartoon College: interviews with such luminaries as Scott McCloud, Art Spiegelman, Françoise Mouly, and Steve Bissette.
To explore the issues and situations brought up in Cartoon College, we’ll then move into a panel featuring CCS alumni and students. Our guests will be CHUCK FORSMAN, Oily Comics publisher and creator of such recent graphic novels and comics as TEOTFW, Celebrated Summer, and Revenger; SOPHIE GOLDSTEIN, writer/artist of the Ignatz-winning House of Women and AdHouse’s graphic novel The Oven; and current CCS student ANDY SHUPING. Come get the inside story on CCS from those in the know! The panel will end with a display of original art to be included in a major CCS art exhibit at Appalachian State University in fall 2015.

Sunday

12:00 pm
Room 209
INDY CREATORS
JOE MOCHOVE and RUSTY ROWLEY talk with some of the best talents on the independent publishing scene: ALEXIS ZIRITT & FABIAN RANGEL JR (Space Riders), AARON CONLEY (Sabertooth Swordsman), ANDREW MACLEAN (ApocalyptiGirl) and SOPHIE GOLDSTEIN (The Oven).

 I hope I see you there!

Book Release Party @ Copacetic Comics in Pittsburgh Tomorrow, 7pm!

This is happening tomorrow on my home turf in Pittsburgh, PA! Preceding the 7pm signing party and hangout extravaganza Copacetic will be celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of the 3138 Dobson Street Cultural Complex in regards to which I quote their website: "We'll be offering a mountain of deals, and will be making an extra effort this year to assemble an amazing selection of $5 items in honor of completing our fifth year here."

So, lots of reasons to join in! I hope to see you there.

celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of the 3138 Dobson Street Cultural Complex (and we'll be continuing on with the celebration here at Copacetic through Sunday 14 June, as well!).  For our part, we'll be offering a mountain of deals, and will be making an extra effort this year to assemble an amazing selection of $5 items in honor of completing our fifth year here. - See more at: http://www.copaceticcomics.com/#sthash.SxMk3fWS.dpuf

"The Oven" Available on Amazon.com!

My new book The Oven, just out from AdHouse Books last month is now available for sale on Amazon. For those of you who don't have access to a local bookstore this is a great way to get a copy.

If you haven't heard much about The Oven yet, Publisher's Weekly did a short write-up on it that covers all the basics and has some preview pages.

I'll also be at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival next weekend! TCAF is a really wonderful convention and this will be my third year attending. You can find me at the AdHouse Table from 1pm to close both days.

I'll be at MoCCA this weekend in NYC!

Hey Friends! I'm going to be at MoCCA in NYC this weekend with my pals Jennifer Jordan, Sylvan Migdal and my BRAND NEW BOOK The Oven! Come find us at table 352!

More Podcasts! First book review of The Oven! New comic!

Hello Friends,

It was my immense pleasure to be a guest on another podcast, one of my very favorites, "Make It Then Tell Everybody" with Dan Berry.  I enjoy Dan's charming accent and sometimes-wry-sometimes-silly sense of humor.  He always seems to bring the best out of his guests. Unfortunately the audio quality on my end of the podcast is a little poor but I hope you'll brave the static to give it a listen.

Also, for those of you who missed it I had a comic go up on The Nib:

The comic tackles how the media criticizes women's voices and how that interferes with actually hearing what women have to say.  It was great/infuriating to research this comic and so far the response has been great. I've been especially touched by the women who have reached out to me with their personal stories of people telling them their voices are somehow flawed.  What a ridiculous world we live in where strangers feel they have that right.

I was also really excited to see the first review of The Oven, on Panel Mania no less!  Although the turn-around for this book was pretty swift I still feel like I've been waiting FOREVER for it to come out and I am SO excited that I'll have copies of the book at the MoCCA Festival in NYC next-next weekend, April 11th and 12th. If you're going PLEASE PLEASE come find me!  I'll be at table 352.

Thanks for tuning in!  Take care.

Cheers,
Sophie

Gutter Talk with Adam Greenfield and Jenn Jordan

I’m on the Gutter Talk podcast with Adam Greenfield and “Darwin Carmichael is Going to Hell” co-conspirator Jennifer Jordan!

Listen to us discuss creative collaboration and hoverboards:

http://www.makingcomics.com/2015/02/20/ep60-sophiegoldstein-jennifer-jordan/

Read "Strands" in full!

I've posted all of "Strands", a 22-page comic originally drawn for Dog City #3.  You can read it and many other comics I've done by going to my comics page or by clicking here.