Now available for download — Traces, the jam comic produced at the July 7000 BC meeting.

This jam was produced on a pad of tracing paper, with each artist picking up on the shapes and themes from the panel underneath. Through the magic of Technology, that effect is reproduced in the PDF.

(You can find graffiti like this near the intersection of Snelling and Selby; near Cosmic’s)

Come and see Kevin McCarthy take part in his last St. Paul Conspiracy Meeting (that is unless he comes to visit)!

The St. Paul cell meets on the third Thursday of every month, from 6:30PM - 9:30PM. 

All are welcome to join us in the creating a “jam comic” and smack-talk each other at:

Cosmic’s Coffee
189 N. Snelling Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55104

Afterwards, but not recently, we get our drink on across the street at:

O’Gara’s Bar & Grill
164 Snelling Avenue North
St. Paul, MN 55104

It is hard to believe almost a year has passed since the Vegan Ninja, Eric Lappegard, left the planet. Please come and raise a drink or three to his memory with us August 9th at Grumpy’s downtown (1111 Washington Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN), and do take some time to revisit his wonderful comics. Below is an open invite from Eric’s family.

Hello to everyone,

I can’t believe a year has gone by. We think about Eric everyday and have decided that we would like to have a get together with his friends to remember him. We would like to get together with as many of his friends that can make it on Saturday August 9th. We have reserved the party room at Grumpy’s downtown that evening starting at 7:30 pm. We hope that you can make it and if you know of anyone I may have missed please pass the word around. We want it to be a fun time remembering Eric and in the way that he would have enjoyed. Hope to see you there.

Cindy, Boyd & Jessica Lappegard

I’m happy to report that we now have Lutefisk Sushi Bento Boxes volumes B and C available for sale online here (or by clicking the below picture). The Lutefisk Sushi boxes feature an enormous quantity of mini-comics by Minnesota cartoonists… around 40 minis in Volume B and around 50 minis in Volume C. You can buy them online for thirty bucks each, which is one hell of a deal.

Both boxes were limited to 150 copies, and both are getting close to being sold out, so if you want one, order soon. They can never be reprinted, so when they are gone, they are gone for good. All profits from the Sushi boxes go to support Altered Esthetics, a wonderful non-profit Minneapolis gallery that we collaborate with.

Note that in addition to the Sushi boxes, you can buy our 2006 and 2007 collections of 24 Hour Comic mini-comics for $10 each.

Sat. Open Studio this Saturday at Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis. Noon - 4 p.m. Full post further down in the blog.

Above: A teeny view of Zander Cannon’s contribution to the Comix Issue.

Due to some confusion at City Pages, a number of excellent entries to the previously mentioned City Pages Comix issue did not make it into the print and, initially, the online edition. Some have now been added to the online edition… go check them out!

“Five Blind Elephants” by Zander Cannon
“Republican Party Loyalists” by Andy Singer
“The Republicans are Coming… To Get you!” by Spanky Cermak
“When the Elephants Come to Town” by King Drowns

The Cartoonist Conspiracy will be participating in another comic art extravaganza with our friends at Altered Esthetics gallery in Northeast Minneapolis next August. We want to get input from our membership about the two different directions we are considering pursuing for this event. If you are a Minnesota Conspirator, please vote in this poll, and give us your opinions in the comments. Please only vote if you are a Minnesota cartoonist who plans to participate in the event.

Direction one: Lutefisk Sushi Volume D
Another big limited edition box set collection of Minnesota Mini-comics. To read about the last one, go here.

Direction two: Newspaper Project (working title “Big Funny”).
This would be a large newspaper full of full page comics, funded by grants and sold cheaply. The plan would be to have a broader scope than the Sushi shows, and to include Conspirators from around the world rather than just regional artists if we pursue this direction.

Note that voting for direction two DOES NOT mean that direction one will never happen. In fact, direction one will almost certainly happen some time in the next couple of years. The question is whether that should be what we pursue for the show next August or if we should mix it up and do something else before the next Sushi show. Note that the Sushi shows have never been annual in the past… it has merely been assumed that they are annual. In fact, a year and a half to two and a half years has passed between these events. People just assume they are annual. They will most likely continue to do so whether we do a Sushi show next year or not.

GO HERE TO VOTE.

Note that the poll expires July 16th.

For something completely different and by member vote, we are jamming and movie watching my place.  The location change is for this month only.  Call 320-492-0475 for directions on how to get there.

Here’s our report on how the last meeting went:  Enjoy!

The fifth annual Twin Cities Zinefest is happening this weekend. This time around Conspirator Sarah Morean is the main organizer. Ryan Dow of Introspective Comics will be there representing for us (thanks, Ryan!)… please do stop by his table and say hi!