Small Press Heroes

by Bantam House Comics

Packets containing 3 randomly inserted micro-comics each, with stories involving zombies and superheroes and ogres and sea monsters. . .all kinds of stories, y’all! 24 comics total, so you might need to do some trading with friends to get them all. With work by a ton of small press creators including Floyd Lewis, Steve Shipley, Tony Lorenz, Micah Liesenfeld, Doug Freeman, and Micro Adventures’ publisher Joe Bagdon.

_{2.5″ x 3.5″ packs. $2 a pack. $25 for a box of 12 packs (guaranteed complete set of books, one sketch/art card and at least one checklist card). Contact Joe Bagdon at bantamhousecomics@gmail.com for shipping and availability.}

Sample pages:

Jason‘s thoughts:

When awesome talent Tony Lorenz (not to be confused with awesome talent Tony Lawrence) posted on Facebook about Joe Bagdon’s Micro Adventures comics, I was intrigued. And then I got two of the packets in the mail and I was in love! Growing up in the ’80s with limited access to pop culture stuff, one of my favorite things was when my mom would let me get a pack of the trading cards that were displayed at the checkout of the local country store. This was back in the days of the first TMNT explosion, Tim Burton’s “Batman”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”. . .you get the idea. It was always so exciting to carefully open up that wax cover and see what cards were included (and maybe even a sticker!).

Well, Micro Adventures scratches that itch I didn’t know I still had. In each packet are 3 randomly selected micro-comics with stories by a talented roster of small press veterans that range from sci-fi to horror to humor. Some are self-contained stories, some are continued in digest comics you can order separately, some are a gag-a-page. The concept is fantastic and I’m fascinated how so much art and story can be packed into these tiny delights.

And the production on these things is top-notch. Joe does all of this in-house and everything is so well-crafted, both the comics themselves and the packets they come in. The whole project really highlights the innovation and ingenuity of the small press.

For Halloween, I give out comic books. If I hadn’t already bought so many comics to prep (and really, it was just an excuse to buy comics), I would totally stock up on these to hand out instead. Kids would absolutely love these. Having said that, some of the comics are not completely kid-appropriate, which is clearly marked on the packs, but I’m hoping with the next series (PLEASE let there be a next series), Joe will lean into the kid market because these would make great Halloween gifts, stocking stuffers or just fun presents. The 8-year-old me would have gone nuts over these. The 48-year-old me is currently going nuts over these.