Monthly Archives: March 2008

MCAD brings ‘Off-Kilter’ cartoonists to Twin Cities

 (note: the below is a press release… sounds like fun!)

Brunetti, Hankiewicz, Onsmith, Sally to appear at MCAD Gallery opening

MINNEAPOLIS—Acclaimed comic artists Ivan Brunetti, John Hankiewicz, Onsmith and Zak Sally will deliver a gallery talk at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) for the opening of “Off-Kilter Comics” at MCAD Gallery on Friday, April 4, 2008.

Curated by Onsmith, the MCAD Gallery exhibition “Off-Kilter Comics” runs through April 20 and also features work by Lilli Carré and Dan Zettwoch. These six cartoonists approach comic art in varied ways, including expressive line work, abstracted narratives, geometric drawings, diagrammatic layouts and easily digestible images.

The artists’ discussion begins at 6 p.m. in the gallery, with a public reception to follow until 8 p.m. The exhibition, gallery talk and reception are all free and open to the public. MCAD Gallery is open seven days a week: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

MCAD is located at 2501 Stevens Ave., south of downtown Minneapolis. It is adjacent to The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and The Children’s Theatre Company.

About the Artists

Ivan Brunetti‘s comic book series Schizo and anthologies HAW!, HEE!, and Misery Loves Comedy are published by Fantagraphics Books. Brunetti’s work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, Mother Jones, McSweeney’s, Fast Company, The Baffler, The Chicago Reader, The Comics Journal and In These Times. He is included in Houghton-Mifflin’s Best American Comics 2006 and 2007 and is editor of An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories (Yale University Press, 2006). A second volume is scheduled for Fall 2008. He has also taught classes on editorial illustration and comics at Columbia College Chicago and the University of Chicago.

 

Lilli Carré was born in Los Angeles and lives in Chicago. She graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied Experimental Animation and Print. Her first book, Tales of Woodsman Pete, was published by Top Shelf, and she is included in Houghton-Mifflin’s Best American Comics 2006. She also has several short animated films on the festival circuit.

 

John Hankiewicz has a BA in English from Roosevelt University and an MA in English from Ohio University. In 1995 he began self-publishing his Xeric Award-winning series, Tepid. His 2007 collection Asthma is published by Sparkplug Comic Books. His work has appeared in Kramers Ergot, Arthur Magazine and The Chicago Reader. He is also an accomplished printmaker.

 

Onsmith has work published in several anthologies, including Hotwire Comics (Fantagraphics), Flotation Device, SPX 2002, Studygroup 12, Modern Industry, Proper Gander, Graphic Classics, and the anthology series Bomb Time for Bonzo, which he created with Henry Ng and Ben Chandler.

 

Duluth native Zak Sally is creator of Recidivist and Sammy the Mouse and owner/operator of La Mano Press in Minneapolis. Other La Mano artists include John Porcellino, Jason T. Miles, William Schaff and Nate Denver. A longtime contributor to indie comics and ‘zines, Sally also played bass in the band Low.

 

Dan Zettwoch is creator of acclaimed self-published comics such as the Civil War tale Ironclad and the series Redbird. A member of USS Catastrophe with Kevin Huizenga and Ted May, Zettwoch is also an accomplished screenprinter. His work has been featured in Drawn & Quarterly, Kitchen Sink, Impossible, Kramers Ergot and EXPO 2001.

About MCAD

 

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) has been creating art on the cutting edge since 1886. Recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative approaches, MCAD is home to more than 800 students pursuing Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Fine Arts degrees. The College offers majors in Advertising, Animation, Comic Art, Drawing, Filmmaking, Fine Arts Studio, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Painting, Photography, Print Paper Book, Sculpture and Web and Multimedia Environments. The College has earned the highest accreditation possible for an art and design school and has been named a “Best Midwestern College” for four consecutive years by The Princeton Review. MCAD also offers continuing studies courses; certificate programs in Graphic Design and Sustainable Design, as well as a Post-Baccalaureate certificate; online learning; and youth programs, as well as free exhibitions and lectures.

 

www.mcad.edu

 

Lutefisk Sushi Volume C Deadline, Sideshows


Mark your calendars! Our recurring big box of Minnesota mini-comics project, Lutefisk Sushi Volume C, will be happening this May 2nd (and during Art-A-Whirl!) at Altered Esthetics. As with the two previous Sushi events, the show features a huge, limited-edition box set of tons of Minnesota mini-comics, as well as original art by the artists participating in the set. Click on the image above to visit the event website for more information on the event and on participating.

The deadline has been extended to March 31st (previously March 15th) for mini-comics submissions to the box. The deadline for original art and other stuff to sell at the gallery (Altered Esthetics) has been set at April 12th. We are planning on having a pot-luck for artists to meet and socialize April 12th as well. More info about that will be forthcoming. You can drop off stuff at Big Time Attic during regular business hours, or up until 7:30PM on March 21st.

We’ve got some fantastic submissions coming in… we’re going to have a whole lot of participants. WE HAVE LIMITED SPACE IN THE BOX, so if you want to insure you get your work in there, handing it in sooner rather than later would be a very good idea.

If you’re participating, please remember to hand in the two forms with your submission, so we don’t have to hassle you for them.

There are two sideshow events that we’d love to have you participate in as well:

The Amazing Zoetrope: Conspirator Ken Avidor has built an incredible hand-cranked zoetrope for our use during the event. We’d love to have more folks make animated strips for this. Here are the specs:

Strips are 37 inches long (with one inch extra to go behind the other end), so 38 inches total. There should be 12 evenly spaced drawings in the 37 inches (3.08 inches per panel). They should be 5.5 inches to 6 inches high. Note that this is a hands-on thing, so if you care about your originals getting pawed and potentially mangled, you’ll want to submit a copy of them.

The Potty Humor Exhibit: We want to hang your utterly inappropriate and anti-social original art in the bathroom. Frame it or matte it, and get it to us by April 12th.

Other sideshows will include The Art of Kevin Cannon (who will premiering a special limited edition of his fantastic graphic novel Far Arden) and The Art Vending Machine. We are wide open to suggestions for other sideshows as well… particularly if you have good ideas for events you would like to take on organizing during Art-A-Whirl. Suggest ideas in the comments, or email me. Note that we are much more likely to pursue sideshows that individuals are willing to personally take on organizing.

PLEASE DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO HELP PROMOTE THIS EVENT. Let’s make this the best attended Sushi show yet (the last two were both packed houses).

  • Grab one of the banners at the bottom of this post and put it on your websites, blogs, social networking sites, and message boards you frequent with a link to the Sushi site.
  • Write about the upcoming show and your preparations for it on your websites, blogs, social networking sites, and message boards you frequent with a link to the Sushi site.
  • We’ve got a ton of beautiful postcards at Big Time Attic and Altered Esthetics that we could use your help distributing… please pick some up when you drop off your submission to hand out to friends and put in your favorite coffee shops, bars, bookstores, etc.
  • Know reporters? Hit them up for a story. Let us know if you need contact information, we will have a press release available very soon.
  • Most importantly: TELL YOUR FRIENDS in person or via phone or email and tell them to spread the word.

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Further questions about this event are hopefully answered in this document.

Random Generators

There you are at the Comic Jam and you have no idea what to draw and write. What do you do? Well if someone has access to the internet there are lots of resources to generate Random Stories and Ideas or you can print them out and take them to the group. These can really come in handy when doing the 24 hour comic book jam!

Evil Overlord Random Plot Generator – evil plots and what NOT to do.
Random Log-Line Generator: Random Story and Scene ideas. Example: A committee of nerdy art dealers gets endowed with superpowers or A fairy is secretly replaced by a superstitious cowboy in a factory.

digital propp: Proppian Fairy Tale Generator

When Vladimir Propp created his theories of structural analysis in the 1930’s it is unlikely that he foresaw the advent of the computing and information age, yet his concern with structure and the modularity of his construction of narrative anticipate that of computing models and languages today.

You have reached the Proppian Fairy Tale Generator, an experiment in electronic (re)writing and an exploration of the retranslation of modernist theory within the electronic environment.

Seventh Sanctum:

Here you’ll find tools for writers, gamers, and artists; randomly assembling names, concepts, and more for when you need inspiration, or just a bit of amusement.

Click here to check out the writing section, to get some new ideas.

Lee’s (useless) Superhero name Generator

50 Random Superhero Names (with secret id too).

So you want to be a hero?…All the answers are right here. Let Lee’s (Useless) Super-Hero Generator set you on the right track. Simply answer the questions on the form below and keep at it until you find the perfect name for yourself, your team, or your foe(s). Good luck, hero!

Behind the Name: random names by culture.

Sat. Open Studio, Mar. 15, noon – 4 p.m.

Leprechaun

Saturday Open Studio
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner
Sat., Mar. 15, noon to 4 p.m., MCBA flexi-space

Please join us at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts for cartooning and talk. If you can’t find us in the MCBA building, ask the friendly person working in the MCBA bookstore. This is open studio time — all are welcome.

Minnesota Center for Book Arts
(Just down the street from Big Brain Comics)
1011 Washington Ave S, Suite 100
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone: 612-215-2520

Upcoming Sat. Open Studio:
April 5 – in the Bindery (the high tables!)

CCSF Comic Jam Thursday March 13, 2008


Hey everyone! The last meeting of the Cartoonist Conspiracy of San Francisco was fantastic with over 11 people in attendance and the art that came out of the night was really great. But it would be even cooler to get even more folks this week. So grab your favorite drawing tools and head on down to the Church St. Café at 6:30 pm this Thursday and draw with us. You’ll be glad you did, or possibly amused you did.

We meet on the second and last Thursday of each month at the Church St. Café from 6:30 pm to sometimes between 9 and 10 pm.

WHEN: Thursday March 13th, 2008

Where: Church St. Cafe
Description: The San Francisco cell of the International Cartoonist Conspiracy meets twice a month from on the second and last Thursday of the month from 6-10PM at Church St. Cafe. Church St. Cafe 260 Church Street San Francisco, CA 94114 Transit info for San Francisco can be found here: transitinfo.org

Here is where we are: (the green cabin is the café and the blue markers are MUNI bus stations)

View Larger Map

Cartoonists in the newspaper

Ken Avidor and Andy Singer are featured in a front page story in Saturday’s St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The Minneapolis and St. Paul cartoonists bring a new perspective to the usual “Auto Show Is Now Open” preview.

The story, written by Richard Chin (an avid bike rider, but not a cartoonist), allows Avidor and Singer to get in a few shots.

Avidor, outside the convention center: “All this space, and there’s no bike stand.”

Singer, entering the convention center: “The formaldehyde new car smell.”

(I want to see those photos of the two sitting in the front seat of a Hummer.)

The story plugs Singer’s “CARtoons” book and Avidor’s upcoming “Bicyclopolis.”

If you’re reading online, don’t forget to click on the Readers Comments link. Laffs galore.

Alan Moores ‘TWILIGHT’

I’m probably in the “last to know” category on this one, but…

I found out today from an article on the ONION’s AV CLUB (http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/primer_alan_moore) that in the late 80’s following the success of WATCHMEN Alan Moore was asked to construct and write a universe-spanning crossover for DC.

I think we all know that DC and Alan Moore went their seperate ways pretty soon thereafter, but not before he could write-up a pretty cool sounding synopsis–which can be found here:
http://fourcolorheroes.home.insightbb.com/twilightfree.html

Not surprisingly its pretty detailed and lengthy(it prints out at 19 pages).
Alan Moore–never the slacker.

Enjoy!

March meeting of the NCWCCC

The March meeting of the NCWCCC will be at Padgett’s Station in Carrboro, NC from 2:00 until 4:00 on Sunday March 16th.

ncwccc cover

The North Carolina WebComics Coffee Clatch, founded by Larry “mckenzee” Holderfield of Sinister Bedfellows, is a monthly gathering of webcomic and comic creators from central North Carolina. It provides a real life social network for webcomic and comic creators within central NC. The purpose of the meetings is to make contacts, exchange marketing ideas, discuss work ethics and creative processes, and most importantly just hang out. We recently published our first anthology, now available on Lulu.com