Secret Acres

Secret Acres is an independent comics publisher in Brooklyn, New York. New York, after all, is home to the medium’s two goliaths—Marvel and DC. Hmmm . . .

Best Independent Comics Publisher: Secret Acres
“It can be hard making your way in the big city, and life as an independent comics publisher is no different. But even the presence of such monopolistic entities hasn’t deterred the efforts of Barry Matthews and Leon Avelino. This Queensbased publishing house came seemingly out of nowhere in 2006, and has been producing vibrant and essential works by

the likes of Ken Dahl, Minty Lewis, Theo Ellsworth and Eamon Espey, ever since. Suck it, Batman.”
- NY PRESS Best of Manhattan 2010: Arts & Entertainment

“Not so secret anymore” (Douglas Wolk, Publisher’s Weekly), Secret Acres is a comics publishing company, founded in 2006. Currently, the company publishes story collections and original graphic novels. Secret Acres sells and distributes its creators’ mini-comics and other self-published works. Secret Acres can be seen exhibiting at better comics conventions. Secret Acres’ titles include:
- The multiple Ingatz Award winning and Eisner Award nominated Monsters by Ken Dahl
- Theo Ellsoworth’s Capacity, now in its second printins, listed among the best comics of the year by The Village Voice, The Huffington Post (small press) and the Comics Reporter
- Wormdye by Eamon Espey, counted among the best 25 comics of the decade by The Comics Journal

Secret Acres was made by Barry Matthews and Leon Avelino. Barry Matthews claims rural Vermont as his place of origin. He pursued and captured an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Cornell University and was named a Best New American Voice. He has worked for a large dot com ever since. Leon Avelino was born in the Philippines and raised on New York’s upper west side. Also possessed of fairly useless degrees, he has been working in comics companies large and small for the better part of his life. Says Comics Now:

“They look for talent that's spurred by love of the medium; SA was created to support that talent. Content is the priority; SA simply publishes books that its owners think people should be reading… In the end, they want to be the publishing house with which their creators most want to work, a very laudable goal. a publisher that exists to enable further works by creators it admires? That, perhaps, could be the definition of ‘independent sensibilities.’”

Secret Acres comics are available for purchase on the Secret Acres website, at comics conventions in which the company exhibits, from amazon.com and at the finest comics retailers and booksellers.

09/12/2023

We survived the Small Press Expo 2023 and all we got was horrendous separation anxiety. You try dealing with all the love in the world and two or three kids. See how you like it. We nearly made good on all our promises for this year in comics, finally kicking Sean Ford's Shadow Hills, L. Nichol's I Am Only a Foreigner Because You Do Not Understand, Robert Sergel's Satan's Kingdom and Joakim Drescher's Motel Universe 3 out of the nest already. You guys must have been feeling deprived because you took them all home with you. SPX, while being the most communal of comics shows, remains a feeding frenzy. Somehow, with four debuts, plus Ignatz nominee Gabe Howell, Adam Griffiths, Keren Katz, Eamon Espey, MK Reed, Glynnis Fawkes, Special Guest Nicholas Offerman and our extended family showing up in dozens, the crowd outnumbered us. We survived, but barely, so Secret Acres goes on extended vacay starting right now (and now you can be right, Josh Bayer). Thank you, everybody who showed up at SPX, at every show, all year this year. We owe you big time. Read all about it right here on Scuttlebutt: http://secretacres.com/?p=6145

09/06/2023

We take it back to Scuttlebutt and Camp Comics, aka the Small Press Expo, complete with a real live Ignatz Award nominee, our one and only, Gabe Howell. The Judges handed Gabe's Forget Met Not the nom for Outstanding Comic, which is the best Ignatz. GO VOTE right this instant. Joakim Drescher drops in from Denmark with the latest and last installment of his Motel Universe sci-fi trilogy. Sean Ford casts Shadow Hills, a dozen years after his classic Only Skin, keeping the horror and sins of the father going. New father Rob Sergel stays home but his killer Eschew collection, Satan's Kingdom, comes to get you this SPX. L. Nichols takes you to some other kind of true story style, dark places, with (deep breath) I Am Only a Foreigner Because You Do Not Understand, a sort of sequel to their autobio perennial Flocks. AND! We host Special Guest Nick Offerman; Adam Griffiths hosts a gallery show; Glynnis Fawkes get grilled on a panel; Keren Katz has a panel and even a workshop - and Eamon Espey deal outs a tarot deck. See? It's fate! You gotta go to the show. Deets right here:

http://secretacres.com/?p=6125

08/06/2023

Well, this'll be one hell of a summer...

I arrogantly recommend... is a monthly column of unusual, overlooked, ephemeral, small press, comics, and books in translation reviews by our friend, bibliophile, and retired ceiling tile inspector Tom Bowden, who tells us, 'This platform allows me to exponentially increase the number of people reac...

06/07/2023

Imagine being frozen for the last four years and then thawed out just in time to make it to your birthday party, which you are hosting for thousands of guests in an entirely new home that you have never seen before. Now imagine that the party rocked bells. This sounds like sci-fi, but the folks running CAKE, aka the Chicago Alternative (K)omics Expo, pulled off exactly this, and missed not a single beat. We found the whole thing eerie, in retrospect. The crowd seemed right at home in the new digs, coming around in waves to catch up with Eric Kostiuk Williams, Adam Griffiths, Gabe Howell and Zak Sally, and pick up their 2AM Eternal, Washington White, Forget Me Not, and Recidivist IV - NONE of which had previously set foot at the Windy City's finest fest. We owe a great deal of thanks, not just for the the solid sales, but for bringing the gang back together. Though it could be fun to wait until 2027 and see if CAKE is right where we left it, we cannot wait till next year. Read all about it right here: http://secretacres.com/?p=6112

05/31/2023

Let 'em eat CAKE 2023! After four years off, presumably to get a degree of some kind, the Chicago Alternative (K)omics Expo returns this very weekend, albeit to new digs, and having gained a few pounds. We bring you four horsemen of the apocalypse in the forms of Adam Griffiths and his CupCAKE Award winning Washington White, newly-re-minted Chicagoan Gabe Howell with Forget Me Not, Zak Sally riding Recidivist IV, and Eric Kostiuk Williams going out at 2AM Eternal. At long last, we sport a full Secret Acres gang, with no car wrecks and no Corona, for once. We plan to pack CAKE's new home at the Broadway Armory with a ton of history. Plan on being there yourself - or meet up with up with Eric, live in NYC as he keeps the tour going from the Windy City to our our hometown. Find every last deet right here on Scuttlebutt: http://secretacres.com/?p=6093

04/27/2023

The crisis continues at Secret Acres, but we got it handled and we're up on Scuttlebutt ahead of this weekend's Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Yours truly ran back to Germany to prop up his better half after he totaled the family car (and, yes, everyone dodge all the major bullets). L. Nichols takes the helm for (and the goods to) TCAF, including Eric Kostiuk Williams' 2AM Eternal. Unlike last time, COVID-free Eric comes to party in his hometown with his latest masterwork. Zak Sally joins him, also for the first time at TCAF with his Recidivist IV (after years of cancellations and puntings thanks again to the 'Rona). Adam Griffiths makes it a gang of four, bringing his Washington White back to the great north. Don't worry about our TCAF rundown scuttlebutt! We return in a week with everything TCAF, courtesy of none other than L.'s expert reportage. That oughtta be interesting. Meanwhile, find all the deets at the link here: http://secretacres.com/?p=6080

04/05/2023

Okay, so we got screwed at MoCCA. First, Satan's Kingdom, the latest collection from Robert Sergel, got stuck on its way to New York between paper stock issues and delivery speeds. Eric's 2AM Eternal showed up, but Eric did not, because he caught the 'rona. Again. So much for a return to normal. Or is this new normal? Meanwhile, Sean Ford and L. Nichols both signed up for the no-show list, claiming too much homework. All was not entirely lost, as Robert Sergel made the trip, and Gabriel Howell never loses. The two of them moved the most books off our table at what appears to have been the most packed Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art Festivals ever. We promise you we will make it all right. We will repair all the psychological damage in a couple weeks, up north for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, this time with Eric Kostiuk Williams, L. Nichols - and even Zak Sally. Not bad, huh? You can catch up with all our catchings up right here: http://secretacres.com/?p=6072

03/29/2023

We return to our Scuttlebutt blog for the first post of our sixteenth year on the occasion of our fourteenth trip to the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art Festival, hosted by the Society of Illustrators, at the Metropolitan Pavilion, this weekend in our hometown New York City. H at Secret Acres, we love to count things - as well as multiply. Mostly due to one helluva baby boom, we rejiggered our schedule for 2023. Joakim Drescher will not be joining us for MoCCA with the final installment of his Motel Universe trilogy. Joakim heads stateside this fall to the Small Press Expo, which means that this MoCCA weekend, we have none other than Robert Sergel and his latest, Satan's Kingdom, which contains (per Rob) “eight disquieting stories about the hells we construct for ourselves and others.” Not bad! In addition, Eric Kostiuk Williams gets his 2AM Eternal pre-game going ahead of his Toronto Comic Arts Festival debut. Sean Ford steps into the light a couple months before his SPX debut, the very-very-very-long-awaited Shadow Hills. L. Nichols comes out of the valley to test the waters before their SPX debut, I Am Only Foreign Because You Do Not Understand. AND! Gabe Howell, fresh off last year's Toronto debut, Forget Me Not, makes his way to his first American Secret Acres table appearance. That's way too much, but hit us with questions. Or just come to MoCCA already. It's easier. See the deets at the link here: http://secretacres.com/?p=6057

09/21/2022

We return to Scuttlebutt with a wrap on the Small Press Expo. This SPX took us all the way back, with just about everyone we hadn't seen in decades and people we haven't seen before anywhere ever. We released Adam Griffith's Washington White to a swarming, voracious crowd. For the first time, our hero, Zak Sally camped out at the Secret Acres tables with his perfected masterpiece, Recidivist IV. We rolled into restaurants with mobs at least ten deep for family banquets that restored our faith in community. We even found time to say goodbye to AdHouse, but not Chris Pitzer, we hope. As promised, there's a look ahead to next year. That feels like an accomplishment. We can't wait to get back out there. Thank you, all you beautiful people, for making our show, and our year. You are the best. Read all about it right here... http://secretacres.com/?p=5933

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