Exploring all the small press channels with Mike Dawson

Scottish-born Mike Dawson moved to Leighton Buzzard, England as an infant and at the age of 11 emigrated to the United StatesRed Bank, New Jersey. His cartooning career took off when he started drawing a daily strip for The Daily Targum newspaper at Rutgers University, where he studied at the Mason Gross School of the Arts.His first real “breakthrough” in the small press world, however, was the off-kilter humor comic Gabagool! with humorist Chris Radtke. The series lasted for six issues before falling prey to a difficult marketduring this time, though, the series became associated with Radtke’s “Carny Barker” selling approach at comic conventions.Since these early works, Mike Dawson has gone on to explore many of the different channels comics creators and fans have available to them. In fact, his career is a great primer for anyone interested in “learning how to learn” about small press comics.First, Dawson has been a regular contributor to comic anthologies over the years. One of his earliest appearances was in the 2003 SPX Anthology, published by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (“a non-profit organization created in 1986 to protect the First Amendment rights of comics creators, publishers, and retailers,” from Wikipedia). He also appeared in AdHouse Books’s Project: Superior, a 2005-published book in which various alternative, non-superhero artists contributed stories about superheroes. Other contributors included Dean Haspiel (a frequent collaborator of Harvey Pekar), Scott Morse (best known for his epic genre-bending title Soulwind), and Nick Abadzis (a British cartoonist whose work has been serialized in The Times).Dawson has also written his own full-length graphic novels, many of which have crossover appeal for mainstream audiences. His first major work, Freddie & Me: A Coming of Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody, is a memoir of his childhood fascination with Freddie Mercury and Queen. Ace Face: The Mod with the Metal Arms, is a collection of short stories related to his satiric superhero from the Project: Superior anthology. His 2011 work Troop 142 is another full-length graphic novel (for mature readers) about one week at Boy Scout Camp in 1995.Finally, Dawson cohosts The Ink Panthers Show! Podcast, along with Box Office Poison author Alex Robinson. Other creators like Tony Consiglio, Andy Runton, Dylan Horrocks, and Matt Fraction have made appearances on this podcast, making The Ink Panthers Show! a great way to learn about the up-and-coming names in the independent comics industry.If you want to thank Dawson for all his hard work, go ahead and buy one of his books, or visit him online at mikedawsoncomics.com.