Conspirator Dr. Dan McNamara (founder of the currently inactive Mini-Comics Co-op) has successfully funded his kickstarter to tell the world about nematodes using cutting-edge pamphlet technology. That, however, does not mean you will not want to support his noble efforts. You still have a week to support his cause. Go here to learn more, and illuminate yourself by viewing the video below.

We’ll be collating the Lutefisk Sushi Volume E boxes this Thursday at 8:00 at AE. We could use some extra hands getting the boxes filled… just show up if you want to help out and get a sneak preview of the amazing contents of the box.

Okay so recently Rain Taxi decided to launch a literary journal and is including COMICS! The deal is that on Aug 25th at the Cedar the event will launch with art making and local bands, and all the content for the issue will be made between noon and midnight, which is old hat for you comic jammers. They asked me to be the comics editor and I thought of you guys immediately. Who better to do this than 24 hour comics day veterans?

The deal is though, that Rain Taxi is crowd funding the project in the style of Kickstarter. And the funding seems to be creeping so it is going to need all the help it can get to become a reality.

The main reason that I am campaigning so much for this project among many other equally worthy projects is that I think it is a VERY IMPORTANT step in Minneapolis art/print scene that Rain Taxi from the get go decided to give COMICS an equal billing along with the more familiar short stories, poetry and non fiction. I think if this project makes it it will be another step towards comics being seen as an integral part of such anthologies and not an afterthought or oddity.

So that all said, if this sounds like something you’d want to participate in or help support here is where you do it. (Also read more about the details)

Firecracker Art magazine Seeder Page

Also if your work is selected this is gonna be a really nice book on the resume

Emerge Community Development is seeking an artist to do caricatures at the FLOW Northside Arts Crawl Saturday, July 28th, from 2-6pm. FLOW is a free, self-guided art tour in North Minneapolis, featuring performers and visual artists working in a variety of mediums. If you are interested in drawing caricatures at this event, or if you have any questions, please contact Miles Johnson at Johnsonm4@emerge-mn.org

Altered Esthetics gallery is celebrating their 8th Anniversary this Saturday, and we will be drawing pictures there for donations to help support the gallery. Anyone in the Conspiracy is welcome to show up and help out… the more the merrier.

Above: Some conspirators drawing “cankeratures” for a packed house at the previous Iron and Candy fundraider for AE.

Altered Esthetics has been our partner for a number of gallery show/anthology projects (2 Lutefisk Sushi boxes, the Alley Cat benefit, Big Funny and last year’s Just Add Ink comic cookbook)… and a better partner I honestly can not imagine. We are doing another Lutefisk Sushi box set project with them this November. It simply would not be feasible to pull these kind of projects off without Altered Esthetics for a collaborator. They are a unique, non-profit, community-centered gallery… they are extremely well-organized, and we are extremely fortunate to have them supporting our mad ventures. Show up Saturday and thank them!

Below: Photos of some of the “cankeratures” drawn at the Iron and Candy fundraiser at AE hung on the wall. (click them to see them larger)

Underground Cartooning Great and Zap Comics contributor S. Clay Wilson (renowned for such creations as The Checkered Demon and Captain Pissgums and His Pervert Pirates) suffered a traumatic brain injury a couple years ago (the details of which you can read here). He is severely brain damaged and can no longer draw. Being an underground cartoonist, he obviously has no retirement plan. He recently underwent surgery to help with a build up of spinal fluid in his brain. Few cartoonists have blown so many minds or melted so many eyeballs. It is a testament to the power of his work that things he created 40 years ago remain some of the most wildly offensive art ever created to this day… and some of the funniest and most outrageous comics ever created. He could really use help… go here to donate to his trust.

Dennis Steele asked me to post the following:

I’m helping a friend of mine with a benefit he’s organizing for an employee at his company who’s battling ALS. The benefit is on Dec. 10th in Hopkins, and features martial arts of various forms and disciplines. There will also be a silent auction. Which brings me to the reason I’m emailing you, I was wondering if you knew of anyone that would be willing to donate some art work for the silent auction.

You can contact Dennis at dsteele(at)mntalent.com

The calendar will be full-color and professionally designed – a piece of artwork in and of itself! It will also be a bargain – just $5 for pickup or $10 shipped directly to you! (We saw calendars not nearly as awesome for $15 at Target! Wouldn’t it be way cooler to buy and support your local arts nonprofit?)

We’d like to make this Halloween all about treats, no tricks. Please help us make this Kickstarter project successful! You can check out the project at: kickstarter.com/projects/469564467/help-print-altered-esthetics-2012-artists-calendar.

Thank you – and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hey! Are you looking for a cool art calendar for your wall next year for less than the price of a pair of chattering teeth?

Please consider supporting Altered Esthetics’ Kickstarter campaign to print their 2012 calendar (disclaimer: the campaign ends in three days, none of which will be included on the calendar).

It will feature art by the brilliant Zander Cannon, among others. Zander will be the featured artist for Lutefisk Sushi Volume E, the fifth box set of Minnestota mini-comics put together by The International Cartoonist Conspiracy (in collaboration for the last two volumes with Altered Esthetics… who also collaborated with us on Just Add Ink, Big Funny, and Alley Cat among other things).

Unlike inferior digital calendars, this one can also serve to cover the unsightly holes you punched in your wall.

Altered Esthetics is not only unarguably the single greatest art gallery in the entire world that there has ever been, but it is also a non-profit, community-centered art gallery that does a tremendous amount to support not only artists, but cartoonists, in the Twin Cities area!

You’re only a Lincoln away from mastering time in 2012. If Lincoln had only had one of these, perhaps the ugly night in Ford’s Theater could have been avoided completely.