Here’s an interesting interview with Phil Foglio where his discusses his experiences with publishing his comics for free on the web.

“…For years people had been coming up to me and saying “I would like to get into comics” and I had been saying “Screw comics. Do a webcomic. It’s the wave of the future and your production costs are super low,” and eventually I realized that instead of just giving this advice I should take it.”

I thought I would call your attention to webcomics.com. For the last few months they have been posting a ton of excellent cartooning lessons… it is quickly becoming one of the best places to look on the web for this sort of information (along with our own Cartooning Lessons rss feed, which you can find here). Many of the articles are user submitted, so if you have information to share, it is a good opportunity to do so. Go check it out!

Modern Cartoonist: The Naked Truth, written by Daniel Clowes.

Fantagraphics has posted an essay by Daniel Clowes originally appearing as a bound-in booklet accompanying Eightball #18, originally published in 1997. Some interesting reading on modern comics and what they are and can be. It’s very cool that the whole book is hand lettered and illustrated in lovely two color illustrations.

Minicomics as Artist Books
with Will Dinski
Mondays: March 24, 31, April 7, 14
6-9pm
All skill levels welcome

With so many new comics going directly to the web, many minicomic
creators
have started making higher quality books with a lower print run.
Screen-printing, letterpress, inkjet as well as photocopying are three
trusted printing techniques of these artists. This workshop will review
these techniques and discuss their usefulness as a storytelling
vehicle. By
the end of the four weeks, students will have crafted their own
minicomic.

$170 ($155 members)
$10 supply fee
Mention the CARTOONIST CONSPIRACY to waive the supply fee.

Here are the videos Brian wanted to post here the other day.

On the BTA blog I wrote about my experience drawing the Rock Atlas for City Pages. The account is more technique than gossip, but still worth a look.

Saturday, June 30 and Saturday, July 14 | 10:00 am-4:00 pm | VSA North Fourth Art Center | Albuquerque, NM

7000 BC will be conducting two day-long workshops, open to the public ages 15 and up, that will guide participants in making their own comics. Participants will work with 7000 BC members and to create their own sequential art project. The suggested donation is $20. For more information, or to register, send an email.

Check out this inspiring commencement speech to the first graduating class of The Center for Cartoon Studies by the great Patrick McDonnell at Tom Spurgeon’s excellent Comics Reporter Blog.

Mr. Spurgeon has also reviewed a recent run (May 13-19) of McDonnell’s Mutts strips having to do with writing a commencement speech here, one of which can be seen above.

I’ve been using the Fountain Pentel as my pen of choice for many years, and I love them… The Fountain Pentel has a unique plastic nib which bends to draw a different thickness of line depending on how much pressure you apply. They are fun to use, and like no other pen I’ve ever experienced.

I actually bought a gross of them in the 90′s as I was afraid they would stop making them, as they were always a hard to find pen. My supply of this unique pen is dwindling.

Looking recently for replacements, I discovered that, horror of horrors, my premonition was accurate and they are no longer sold in the US… in fact, I couldn’t even find an image of the Fountain Pentels I use online, they are so out of date. Here’s one for you I just scanned:

Fortunately, in St. Paul we have Wet Paint, the world’s greatest art supply store. I contacted Tim Jennen, the marketing manager and buyer for Wet Paint (who also happens to be a member of the Conspiracy) and let him know about my dilemma.

Tim has a passion for hunting down obscure art materials, and he just emailed me some good news shortly after my inquiry:

Hi, Steve—

I’m still hoping to bring in the regular Fountain Pentel at some point, but I have brought in a different version of this pen that I found—the Tradio Fountain Pentel, which is refillable. Here’s some info on it:

Tradio Fountain Pentel TRJ50

Tradio Fountain Pentel

A fountain pen with the perfect combination of style and performance. A flexible plastic nib creates a variety of line widths, from thick to thin, depending on the angle and pressure applied. The innovative, see-thru free-flowing system delivers a consistent ink flow for smooth, effortless writing from the first stroke to the last. The ergonomic barrel design provides added comfort and writing control. Black ink. Uses Pentel’s MLJ20 refill in black.

TRJ50A-A

The pen is $10.00, but on sale during our Make Your Mark sale through the end of April at $8.50. The MLJ20 refill is $3.95.

The next time you’re in the store, check it out!

———————-

Tim Jennen, Marketing Manager/Buyer
Wet Paint: Artists’ Materials & Framing

Refillable! This is very exciting news to me, as my major gripe with the (disposable) Fountain Pentels I’ve used is that they fade with age… hopefully the ink in the cartridges is non-fading, or I can figure out a non-fading ink solution for this. I can’t wait to try one… I’m gonna try and make it over to Wet Paint this weekend, and I’ll give you a comparison to the disposable models once I try this out.

So now Wet Paint is apparently the only US supplier for two of the greatest cartooning tools ever created… the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (which we’ve mentioned many times before) and the Fountain Pentel. I believe they are also the last place left that you can buy supplies for gocco screen printing machines, which are quite wonderful.

If you’re looking for a specific art supply and can’t find it anywhere, contacting Wet Paint is a good bet… they have an online store with their wares as well, so you don’t have to live in the Twin Cities to get a hold of these wonderful tools. Their prices are great too… we’re very lucky to have them in the Twin Cities.

We recently completed work on the first volume of the Cartoonist Conspiracy L’il Library (to be used at this weekend’s Mouth Off event at The Center For Book Arts)… How to Make Mini-Comics. Click on the image below to download the pdf… then print it out, cut it up, fold it, staple it and learn. Please note that this is a pretty big (4MB) file, so please help conserve our bandwidth and only download it if you intend to use it.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License. It may be printed and distributed freely. It is intended to be an educational tool, and it is our hope that it will be widely used as a “textbook” for teaching how to make a mini-comic.

Thanks to Adam Wirtzfeld, Bob Lipski, Maxeem, Bud Burgy, Zander Cannon, Kevin Cannon, Dank!, and Eric Lappegard for helping me (Steven Stwalley) put this together.

Note that any cartoonist who is interested can contribute a volume to the new Cartoonist Conspiracy Li’l Library. This is intended to become a downloadable pdf library of cartooning tips and techniques in mini-comics format, all using the above creative commons license. Let us know if you’re interested.