Kuš! It! Kuš! It Real Good...

Greetings from Riga, Latvia. As of last November, this has become my new home. This is my second time living an ex-pat life. The first time was in Ireland back in 2003-2005. The Latvian language and culture are less familiar for me then Irish culture, which is embedded into the American identity. I'm slowly learning Latvian and gain more of an appreciation of the deep and ancient cultural ways here. It is always good to keep your mind and heart open to new ways of living and looking at the world.

As an ex-pat, I'm also always searching for anything (books, movies, music) to cling to and give me some comfort when my brain has reached maximum saturation of the unfamiliar. Comics definitely fall into that category, especially of the small press variety.  I was fortunate to learn about kuš! komiks (kuš! (pronounced - koosh!), a Riga-based comics publisher, organizer of exhibitions, artist residency host and generally promoter of all things comics related. John Porcellino of King Kat fame had mentioned kuš! to me in an email and another local artist friend also had encouraged me to check them out.  On the publishing end, kuš! have two on-going projects; the Š! anthology collections put out a few times a year and mini-comics that are single artist, one-offs. I recently emailed kuš! asking where I could find their comics here in Riga and received a quick and friendly reply from David Schilter the founder of kuš!, letting me know about the one comic book shop in Riga that stocks their pubs and inviting me to visit kuš! HQ sometime! Wanting to sample some kuš! as quickly as possible, I made a visit to COMICS LV (in Latvian or Russian - use the Chrome browser to translate easily into English), a jolly, small shop packed with comics, graphic novels, figures and anything else a fan-human might want to buy. I inquired about kuš! and was guided to a box with a few dozen copies of Š! and mini-comics. I choose one mini-comic; (mini kuš! # 11 'All You Need Is Love', Emmi Valve, January 2013) and one Š! anthology; (#42 'Scientific Facts', August 2021). The story theme of friendship of "All You Need Is Love" grabbed my attention, as well as Emmi Valve's loose, personal drawing style and moody watercolor palette. The longer "Scientific Facts", is an international collection of a few dozen artists (as are all issues of Š!) featuring a wide range of art and writing styles, from the traditional to experimental, so there is something for everyone. I love the size and feel of both pubs, well-designed and printed on quality paper. I'm looking forward to visiting the kuš! HQ sometime soon and adding a few more pubs to my collection! I am actively seeking inspiration to get my creative life back on track. (book project update - don't ask)

kuš! ships internationally, but has distribution partners all over the world and lists all this towards the bottom of their shop page. I'm not surprised to see that John Porcellino's Spit and a Half is one of the many USA distributors, so my American friends, get over there and check out some kuš!

OK HW

PS - here's the title background. -  "Kuš! It! Kuš! It Real Good... "(sing as... https://youtu.be/vCadcBR95oU)