Hey All!

The “Big Book of Space Sheriff & Happy Space Boy” Graphic Novel is complete! I’ll be debuting this HUGE book at the upcoming @MNCBA SpringCon (May 18th – 19th). Advanced digital and print copies and  are available through my website, www.spacesheriff.com

Twitter: @dataredcomics

Space Sheriff and Happy Space Boy Big Book Graphic Novel

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

After a long break from not posting much on the web, I’ve decided to start posting with appalling regularity. I figured I should start here with some shameless self-promotion.

On Mondays, I will be posting a new Soapy the Chicken strip on the Soapy the Chicken site. (you can subscribe to Soapy the Chicken here… you can read the previous Soapy strips here… or you can buy the collected Soapy in book form here). Click the image below for the first one…

On Fridays, my new collaborative comic with my good friend Ben Zmith, Monkey’s Paw, will be updated. The first four weeks have already been posted, actually. You can see them by clicking on the below images.

You can subscribe to the feed for Monkey’s Paw here.

I’ll also be posting whatever I feel like on the Stwallskull blog, whenever I feel like it. The posts moving forward will mostly be focusing on my personal comic work, rather than stuff relating to the history of comics and animation. You can subscribe to Stwallskull here, if you’re inclined.

Thanks for checking my comics out, if you decide to.

Collecting the webcomic Soapy the Chicken (soapythechicken.com). If you prefer packing peanuts to bubble wrap, work in the rodeo clown industry, or are simply a fan of the whole mentally-deficient chicken genre, it is conceivable this could possibly be the comic for you.

I recently put together a book collecting all of the Soapy the Chicken strips to date in a convenient, old-fashioned paper edition (you can also download it as a pdf for a considerably lower price… or just read them for free on the website here, as always). It has a brand-new introduction by my friend, fellow cartoonist David Steinlicht.

You can order it here.

Until September 30th, you can get a 15% discount by using the ordering code FALLREAD305.

In the unlikely event you want to do Soapy a good turn, here is a chicklet advertising the book that you can post on your social networking profile, blog, website, a tattoo on your bicep, or what have you.

Please link it up to the book at: http://www.lulu.com/product/12663702

Thanks much to those of you foolhardy enough to promote or endorse such a dubious cause.

Also note: Love her or hate her, you can now rate her (and review her)… be the first to review Soapy the Chicken!

Maxeem pulls ahead (for now) in the RACE TO END EPIC FANTASY EXTREMELY RAPIDLY (Updates continue at: http://comiclusion.blogspot.com )

WARNING: This comic is NOT work/religion/science/family friendly

But that should probably be expected from our crowd. ;P

Now available: “Cornered!” A collection of comics from the Pioneer Press newspaper by David Steinlicht — published by Nodin Press.

This Saturday, from 4 to 6 p.m., you can buy the book and get it signed by the author, at Big Brain Comics in downtown Minneapolis.

Great Christmas gift. Excellent Chanukah gift. Perfect Kwanzaa gift. Super solstice gift. Nice stocking stuffer. Use ‘em for holiday party favors. Just the thing for grads. Mom will love it — Dad, Sis and Junior will, too.

And at $19.95 per copy, it’s budget friendly. Color cover, 274-page B&W interior.

(Note to those of you who purchased the self-published edition of “Cornered!”: Don’t get all worked up. It’s the same book, mostly. There are 11 additional comics, one more intro page, another index page, a Library of Congress number, a ISBN number, a bar code, an author picture and a snappy new cover design.)

BIG FUNNY was just A-Listed in this week’s City Pages…read it here.

Also, Painter extraordinaire Amy Crehore just reviewed us on her wonderful Little Hokum Rag blog. Read it here.

We’ve been doing really well on getting the word out about BIG FUNNY so far… for a list of places that have mentioned the show or the publication, check out the ongoing list on our Facebook page.

That said, the BEST promotion is word of mouth. Please help us to make the opening a huge success! Some suggestions:

1) Please do tell your friends, family, co-workers, associates and potential love interests, you sly dog. In person, via email, via a social network invite, using two tin cans and one taut string, or by serenading outside their windows at three AM. Here is the Facebook event to invite friends to.

2) Please do tell your readers. If you have a blog or website, please post about the event this week. Here is a “chicklet” for your site, if you want it:

3) Please consider distributing some of the postcards and newsprint posters that can be picked up at the gallery.

4) If you know members of the press, please consider directing them to our press release.

5) Please consider hassling strangers on street corners, wearing sandwich boards promoting the event, floating over the city in a BIG FUNNY painted dirigible, or using other means of guerrilla promotion as your fancy dictates. Due to their lack of implements of modern communication, we anticipate an unfortunate shortage of hillbillies… so if you wish to hike the Appalachian Trail with a bullhorn, please contact Jamie.

Please don’t forget to direct folks to our website.

Thanks for your help, and thanks much to those of you who have already done some or all of these things (although it was taking it a little too far shaving the logo in your chest hair, Kevin).

Here is the BIG FUNNY press release. Please do spread the word.

Got this posted too late for the first event, but there are two more coming up. From the Twin Citites own Kirk Anderson:

Dear friends,

I’ve published a book of all the Banana Republic cartoons that ran in the Star Tribune, and I have a few book events coming up, at Mayday Books, Amazon Books, The Resource Center of the Americas, and hopefully others soon.

If you enjoy tasteful humor about political dissidents getting their eye sockets melon-balled by a well-meaning generalissimo and his mischievous, fun-loving death squads, come on down, and bring all your friends and neighbors. What’s that you ask? “But Kirk, how can I help to bring in hordes of rabble to your high-minded forum?” Why, you can download a flyer at http://molotovcomix.com/flyers.html and slap it up at work or at your favorite coffee shop. Thanks for askin’!

Here are the upcoming book talks/cartoon presentations/artist signings:

Saturday, Dec. 6, 4:00 pm
Mayday Books
301 Cedar Ave. South, on the West Bank in Minneapolis
below the Hub Bicycle Co-op
(612)333-4719

Thursday, Dec. 18, 7:00 pm
True Colors Books, formerly Amazon Books
4755 Chicago Ave. South, Minneapolis
(612)821-9630

Coming January 17
Resource Center of the Americas

What’s that you ask? “How can I be sure I’ll have a fun time?” Why, if you bring five friends, you’ll be virtually assured of merriment! “No, really — what’s this book like? Will the evening rank up there with the birth of my first child?” You can check out the book, view sample pages and more online at www.MolotovComix.com and make your own call.

Thank you all for enduring this shameless act of self-promotion. Through your help and friendship, I will find the inner strength to admit that I am powerless over this shallow hucksterism, and stop before I become a full-blown self-loathing marketing pariah. But first, just a few more months hawking the book…

- Kirk
(651)698-4799
www.kirktoons.com
www.MolotovComix.com