Long before Denver Comic Con packed the halls of the Colorado Convention Center with fans of comics and geek culture, a small band of artists was carving out a comics scene in town. “We used to do a little comics fanzine and did some comic cons back in the ’80s, and a comic book called Acme Comics and another one called Near to Now — all small-press comics,” says Phil Normand.
The group continued putting out its small-press comics for more than a decade, until the difficulties and cost of self-publishing derailed things. Luckily, it’s hard to keep a good geek down, and after twenty-plus years of inactivity, the old group — along with some new blood — is back with Acme Comics Redux, a show of brand-new material.
Art from all three new books — the sci-fi of Near to Now, the dark fantasy of Crimson Dreams and the catch-all Acme Comics — will be on display, as well as the books themselves, each offering something a little different.
“Everything has sort of a fantasy element to it,” Normand says. “Some of it is surrealistic. I think of some of it as symbolist poetry. A lot of different styles and different ways of handling stuff.”
The show kicks off tonight at 6:30 p.m. with an opening reception at Coffee at the Point, 710 East 26th Avenue, and runs through July 30; admission is free. For more info on the history of Acme Comics, visit near2now.com/acme.
Sat., June 7, 6:30-9 p.m.; June 7-July 26, 2014
