Thursday, April 18, 2024

Paige M. Gutenborg, the Harvard Book Store book-printing machine, will soon be put into service making copies of a store comics anthology called Minimum Paige. (Photo: Mazarine)

The artists of Cambridge and Somerville who put out comics and graphic novels are getting another local venue for their work: an anthology called Minimum Paige that will be printed and distributed by Harvard Book Store.

The area’s Boston Comics Roundtable, which meets each Thursday in Harvard Square, has regular anthologies called Inbound and Outbound, and for every Maris Wicks, Dave Ortega and Raul Gonzalez putting out their own material there seems to be a Joe Quinones and Pat Davidson working for the big two comics companies, DC and Marvel.

But now the 79-year-old, independent Harvard Square bookstore is adding its comics cred (its downstairs used-books section does a healthy turnover in humor books and graphic novels) and in-house Espresso book-printing machine to the art form. (The name of the anthology, Minimum Paige, is a play on the name of the store’s machine, Paige M. Gutenborg, which itself is a play on the name of the inventor of movable type, Johannes Gutenberg.)

The store is “putting out the call for your talents in cartooning and graphic storytelling for inclusion,” store officials said Saturday. “Whether it’s a few humorous comic strips, an autobiographical mini or a tale of superpowered vengeance, we want your submissions.”

If being published under the store’s imprimatur isn’t enough to get artists motivated, those chosen for the anthology will also be entered automatically to win a store gift certificate.

The deadline for submission is 5 p.m. Aug. 19. Here’s the calendar item and submission rules.