Bethesda, MD: UK / Spain publisher Fanfare – Ponent Mon is bringing their line of award-winning graphic novels, manga  and nouvelle manga from Japan and France to the 13th annual Small Press Expo this Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5, 2008 at Booth W33.

Visitors to Fanfare – Ponent Mon’s table W33 at SPX will also have the chance to enter to win a prize pack of Fanfare – Ponent Mon graphic novels. No purchase necessary, and winners need not be present to win.

SPX is one of America’s premier shows for small and independent press comics and graphic novels, featuring over 450 exhibitors at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel and Conference Center at 5701 Marinelli Road in North Bethesda, Maryland. The show hours are from 11 am – 7 pm on Saturday, and noon to 6 pm on Sunday. Admission is $8 for one day memberships and $15 for weekend memberships.

Fanfare – Ponent Mon’s sophisticated mix of Japanese manga, nouvelle manga
and European graphic novels for grown-ups feature innovative, distinctive
artwork and personal storytelling that are far from the usual ninjas,
schoolgirls and giant robots that most mainstream readers might expect
from manga.  Some of the titles that will be spotlighted at SPX this
weekend include:

The Quest for the Missing Girl by Jiro Taniguchi
As featured in this month’s 2008 issue of Previews magazine, Fanfare -
Ponent  Mon’s latest release from manga master Jiro Taniguchi is a seinen manga (men’s comic) one-shot about a climber is called from his peaceful
mountain home to the streets of Tokyo to find his best friend’s missing
daughter. What he encounters is a city where danger lies wait in every
alley, school girls sell themselves for money and the truth can be a rare
commodity in a city of gleaming skyscrapers and gritty side streets.

First previewed at San Diego Comic-Con, The Quest for the Missing Girl
will be available in limited quantities at SPX.

Disappearance Diary by Hideo Azuma
“This manga has a positive outlook on life, and so it has been made with
as much realism removed as possible.”

What would you do if your editors were giving you hell, your deadlines
were impossible to meet and you’re just a few drinks away from killing
yourself? If you’re manga artist Hideo Azuma, you run away from it all and
become a homeless person. Disappearance Diary is the mostly-true,
mostly-humorous story about Azuma’s two attempts to ‘disappear’ from his
regular life, his pressure-cooker career as a manga artist, and his
eventual stint in rehab when his alcoholism got out of control.

Disappearance Diary is the recipient of the Grand Prize of the 2005
Japanese Media Arts Festival

Also available at SPX will be copies of Tokyo is My Garden by Frederic
Boillet, The Ice Wanderer by Jiro Taniguchi and Kinderbook by Kan
Takahama, a selection of Spanish language titles and much more.

For more information about Fanfare – Ponent Mon releases, visit http://www.ponentmon.com.