NEW STARS anthology available now

The Trees & Hills Comics Group's latest anthology NEW STARS is now available for online purchase at Trees & Hills Comix Distro! The anthology debuted at SPX in October 2007, and since that month also marked the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, we took that as our theme. We're not some kind of fascists, though, so every piece didn't have to be about Sputnik itself - most of them do relate to space in some way, though. This all-ages anthology by the Trees & Hills Comic Group features an eye-popping full-color cover by Gregory Giordano and comics by Daniel Barlow, Marek Bennett, Miles Cota, Colleen Frakes, Cat Garza, Chris Grotke, Jade Harmon, Tim Hulsizer, Matt Levin, Keith Moriarty, Kathie Mullen, Raymond Prado, Matthew Reidsma, Colin Tedford, and Anne Thalheimer. 5.5" x 8.5", 52 pgs. $3.00

May 5th: Free Mini-Comics Day!

My second favorite holiday of the year (after 24 Hour Comics Day) just got a lot better... Free Comic Book Day on May 5th is now also Free Mini-Comic Day!
Read the information about how to submit your mini-comics here.

SUBMISSIONS

For 2007, FMCD has this list of guidelines those who wish to parcipate:

*All comics must be printed in mini-comic format. Anything ranging from 4.25 x 5.5 to 7 x 8 in size.
*Interior and exterior artwork may be in b&w, greyscale, or color. White paper is preferred for interior pages.
*Comics must be no less than 4 pages(covers included)to no more than 36 pages long. Binding options and choice of paper types are up to the creators.
*All entries can by either printed up by the creator on their own, or from any outside printer. Mini-Komix will be available to print out any comics for FMCD, but only until Apr. 13, 2007.
*Story content for each comic cannot contain sex, nudity, or explicit violence.
*Comics submitted may contain ads for the creators, artists, or publishers who printed them, or someone associated with them.
*Each issue must be actual comics, comic strips, or comic stories. No artbooks, sketchbooks or personal catalogs.
*The actual comic may be either original to FMCD, or a reprint of past material from the creators.
*Send in only completed submissions. No sample drawings or sketch art.
*All entries must have the FMCD logo printed somewhere on the front of the each comic book.
*The minimum accepted amount of copies per comic is 25. The maximum amount is 75. Send no more or less than that.
*Post all finished submissions to: P.O. Box 53113, Atlanta, GA. 30355
*All entries must be recieved no later than Apr. 23, 2007.
*No comics from the FMCD 2007 lineup may be distributed or given away prior to May 5, 2007.
*All who submit a title to FMCD can give them away on their own either through their own site, or at any store signing/convention on May 5, 2007 or afterwards.

If you need any further info about FMCD, please email us!

Don't know how to make a mini-comic? Download and print our How to Make Mini-Comics mini-comic to learn how.

How to Make Mini-Comics

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.

>23 and <25 Hour Sequential Art Event Box Set

The Minneapolis >23 and <25 Hour Sequential Art Event this weekend was a blast... Thanks much to Minneapolis Conspiracy Events Monkey Danno for all his efforts in making this a huge success. Thanks also to our sponsors The Minnesota Center For Book Arts, Wet Paint Art, Big Time Attic, Pizza Luce, Grumpy's, Sip Coffee Bar, Big Brain Comics.

I believe we had 34 cartoonists participating... not sure how many completed 24 pages, but I'm pretty sure it was a majority. I can't wait to read them. What will certainly be one of the best, Kevin Cannon's comic, is already online:

http://www.bigtimeattic.com/blog/2006/09/24-hour-comics-day.html

Kevin has done it for the past two years as well, and now has produced three of the best 24 Hour comics I've ever read... they don't read or look at all like they were produced in 24 hours. Kevin was born to do this stuff... I keep hassling him to do it once every month and he could have a 288 page best-selling graphic novel in a year. If you agree with me, you should hassle him too... I desperately want to read "The Ballad of Armatage Shanks."

Any of the rest of y'all who get your comics from the event online, send me the links and I'll post the links to them in the blog and the gallery.

We will be collecting all of the >23 and <25 hour comics from folks who want to collect theirs in boxes at the October Jam meeting at Diamond's on October 5th. To do this, simply print 100 of them into mini-comics and we'll collate them into a box with a groovy Bob Lipski cover. Boxes will be for sale (in limited quantities) to the artists for 50 cents each, after which you can sell them for whatever you want (ten bucks will most likely be the suggested retail) and hopefully recoup the costs of printing your minis.

More Great Press for Lutefisk Sushi

The Lutefisk Sushi show and box got a great review from Peter Scholtes this week on page 39 of the current issue of the City Pages (dated March 29th). Unfortunately, it hasn't made it online at this point, so you'll probably have to seek out a print copy yourself to read it.

Lutefisk Sushi Opening Overview

Well, the Lutefisk Sushi Volume B opening was a roaring success... we had a great turnout, lots of fun, and a lot of sales. Best of all, we put together a fantastic box set of comics... you should all be proud. When you tell folks about it, make sure to mention that they can still check it out on Saturdays until April 21st from 11-4, or by appointment with the gallery.

We had a great write up in Minnesota Monthly... we were also written up in the Pulse and we were mentioned in the Pioneer Press, the Star Tribune, on the front of mnspeak.com, on a City Pages blog, on the Comics Reporter, and on the Minneapolis public radio station The Current by Mary Luccia on Thursday (and on the MPR website calendar)... and probably some other places. If you know of other press that we received for the show (or have any clippings you want to give me, including of the stuff mentioned above), please let me know about it.

Also, I encourage you all to send your digital photos from the opening my way so we can put them on the website... suggested captions encouraged, in case we don't know who is pictured in the photo. You can view some photos from the opening by Shad here and by Nik Arnoldi here.

Participants can pick up their boxes at Big Time Attic any time (make sure you cross your name off the list when you get it)... if you haven't made it over by April 6th, that is a good time for it, since the monthly Cartoonist Conspiracy meeting will be taking place at Diamond's Coffee in that building that evening.

For those of you who participated in the Weiner Roast, I'm hoping to get those dropped off at BTA very soon as well so you can pick up your ten copies... I have them rubber banded between cardboard with your names on them.

It is possible we may be having a closing party as well, which would be a very good thing to harass people you know that missed the opening to show up for... I'll keep you posted.

And now that we pulled this thing off, some thank yous...

Thanks to everyone at Big Time Attic for their extensive efforts putting things together, in every part of the process... the website, the silkscreening, putting up money for printing Weiner Roasts, collating, making signs and tags, laying out and printing the postcard, helping hang, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.... and etc. Shad, Kevin, Max, Zander, Tim, Brett, Brittany and John all did a tremendous amount of work to make the show happen and look great.

Thanks to Ken Avidor for being an exceptionally good sport and letting us further soil his bad reputation with the Weiner Roast, for putting together a fantastic display of his life's work, and for making us all look good with his art for the box and website.

Thanks to Lonny Unitus for doing such a gorgeous job screen printing the boxes with Shad in deep, rich, velvety colors... they really couldn't have turned out better.

Thanks to Danno, as always, for helping make so many of the comics look so much better than they would have without his knowledge and expertise in the zine arts, and for helping with putting together 400 Weiner Roasts!

Thanks to everyone who helped with setup and hanging... Sean, Andrey, Quillan, Bob, Danno, Shad, Kevin, Seamus, Chris, Tim, and anyone else who helped that I'm more than likely forgetting.

Thanks to Sean for putting together his Shitty Art display in the bathroom.

Thanks to Dave, Jenny, Karl and Kurt at Creative Electric for providing such a great venue for our chaos, for helping extensively with setting up, for dealing with the crowd and for manning the sales at the show.

Thanks to everyone who helped promote the show on websites, blogs and through word of mouth. Please continue to do so until it closes!

And, of course, thanks to all the artists who participated in the box and the Weiner Roast and made the whole thing possible.

Help promote the Lutefisk Sushi show part 2

Here is an easy to use animated gif banner for you to post around the web...



And an image of the box...



Link these to http://www.cartoonistconspiracy.com/sushi

Please Help Promote Lutefisk Sushi

We're doing a lot to promote the event (we've contacted a lot of local media, posted on message boards, printed up 1000 postcards which are being distributed all over the Twin Cities, & did some other miscellaneous stuff)...

BUT WE COULD REALLY USE YOUR HELP GETTING THE WORD OUT!

Here are some ways you can help promote the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi show...

If you have a website, you can download a banner for the Sushi show to add to your site here:

http://cartoonistconspiracy.com/sushi/lutefisk_sushi_banner.zip

If you have a blog, please blog about it.

If you have friends, please invite them and tell them to invite people.

If you know journalists, please encourage them to cover the opening.

Also I encourage you to give these threads a "bump" to help with Sushi show promotion...

http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubb/Forum1/HTML/011307.html

http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubb/Forum1/HTML/011304.html

http://comicon.com/index.html

http://www.sequentialtart.com/community/Forum7/HTML/001512.shtml

You could also post the word on other message boards you frequent.

Thanks much for your help!

The Lutefisk Sushi Volume B site is live, and it is gorgeous. Thanks much to Big Time Attic and Ken Avidor for putting this together!

PARTICIPATE IN THE WEINER ROAST!

As part of the Lutefisk Sushi Volume B show, we are featuring the work of Roadkill Bill artist Ken Avidor. We are also doing a mini-comic "roast" of Ken and his work... the Weiner Roast. For those of you who don't already know, KEN AVIDOR, transit-obsessed, sensitive, tree-hugging environmentalist, political agitator and bicycle enthusiast is also KEN WEINER, former Screw art editor, party machine, devil may care ne'er-do-well and alcohol enthusiast.

For Ken's perspective on his duel nature, see this cartoon.

Both Kens plan on making an appearance at the Lutefisk Sushi Volume B show.

To participate in the mini-comic, send your submissions to us at:

Weiner Roast
c/o Big Time Attic
1618 Central Ave NE Suite 216
Minneapolis MN 55413

or email them (as minimum of 300dpi B&W jpgs) to:

cartoonistconspiracy@mn.rr.com

The deadline for participation is January first.

It is not necessary to participate in the Sushi show to participate in the Weiner Roast. Ken encourages us to be brutal with these, although I'm not sure which Ken.

LUTEFISK SUSHI VOLUME B CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

LUTEFISK SUSHI VOLUME B CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

While we don't have an official date yet, Lutefisk Sushi Volume B will be happening, with the opening at Creative Electric Studios some time early next year. For those of you who aren't familiar with the previous event/compilation, you can see more about it here.

We need submissions!
The focus of the show will again be around a big ol' fancy hand-serigraphed box of mini-comics with a cover by Roadkill Bill artist Ken Avidor. It will be limited to 150 copies... every participant will receive one.

To participate:
1) You must live in Minnesota or be Doug McNamara or Jesse McManus. It has something to do with the Mc, apparently. Persons named Andy Singer will also be accepted.
2) You must provide us with 160 copies of your comic. Not 161, not 159, not 2,364. 160. Your mini-comic can be no larger than 5.5" x 8.5", or it won't fit. It can be any format and length. Last year we even had a scroll hand-silkscreened in invisible ink.
3) You may also include other comics you wish to have sold at the gallery. Make sure your name is in the comic somewhere and put a price on the cover. Comics that have no price on the cover or somewhere obvious will not be sold.
4) You must matte, frame, or otherwise make presentable and hangable any originals you intend to have displayed. Kevin still has papercuts from last year. It is not required that you display originals, but it is encouraged. Put your name and the price of the piece on the back (remember the gallery takes a cut when pricing).
5) You must submit everything by no later than January 1, 2006.
6) You must include the form with your submission.
7) You must show up on opening night to pick up your Bento Box, or you must make other arrangements before then if you plan on getting one.
8) You must pick up your remaining original artwork, unsold comics and money (if any) at the end of the show. Any money not picked up by the artists will be kept by the gallery to buy beer... and any artwork or comics left behind will be peed on by feral, unneutered, violent cats in heat.
9) While it is not required, your assistance would be greatly appreciated collating the Bento Boxes at the collating party. Hopefully we'll only have to collate them once this time.

We intend to include ALL submissions that meet ALL the criteria in the box. Entries not meeting ALL of the above criteria will most likely NOT be included in the box, and we will make our best attempts to be cold-hearted bastards about this. No previous comic book making experience is necessary to participate. While we plan on having all entries meeting the criteria included in the Lutefisk Sushi Volume B Bento Box, if we get a whole hog slaughter of entries, we may have to cut it off somewhere- we'll let you know if the limit is getting close on the conspiracy website. We had 35 participants last year, and the box was packed to overflowing. We will use a bigger box this year.

In addition to the boxes, there will also be a lot of original artwork from the participating cartoonists on the walls. Using the artwork from the comic you submit to the Bento Box is preferred, although it is not required. ALL artwork should be priced for sale... let's make the gallery some money, they have a mortgage to pay. Submitting multiple items for display is fine. Due to limited space, we may not get all artists in the box represented on the walls, but we'll give it a shot.

In addition to the main show, there will also be a "sideshow" similar to the King Mini exhibit last year. This year we are featuring Ken Avidor (creator of Roadkill Bill). As part of this we also plan to produce a mini-comic featuring Ken's work and works submitted by participants that are inspired by, satirizing or commenting on Ken's work or Ken. Think of it as a comic "roast." This comic will be included in the boxes. Everyone is encouraged to contribute a page to this comic, although it is not required.

Profits from the originals and comics will be split with the artists and gallery last year it was 60 (artists), 40 (gallery)- it hasn't been negotiated yet but it will most likely be in that neighborhood this year as well. Profits from the Bento Boxes will also be split with the gallery, and our part will go into covering supplies and other miscellaneous expenses, including the collating/decorating/hanging Afghani party pizza... remaining funds will be donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in the form of paid memberships for participants- we hope to get memberships for all participants, but in the event we don't make enough money to do this we'll draw the appropriate number of names at random.

Lutefisk Sushi Volume B is being sponsored and organized by The International Cartoonist Conspiracy (www.cartoonistconspiracy.com), Creative Electric Studios (www.creativeelectricstudios.com) and Big Time Attic (www.bigtimeattic.com).

DOWNLOAD THE SUBMISSION FORM HERE

The Mini-Comix Co-op has Moved

The Minicomix Co-op has moved into its new address in Brooklyn, NY.

All trades should now be sent to:

Minicomix Co-op
113-1/2 2nd Pl., Apt. 1
Brooklyn, NY 11231

www.minicomixcoop.com

The Mini-Comix Co-op is an excellent free service provided by conspirator Doug McNamara to offer cartoonists an easy way to trade their minis for a bunch of other minis... see the website for the details.

The Mini Comix Coop

Conspirator Doug McNamara was conspiring with other cartoonists long before he joined us... his Mini Comix Coop provides a very useful and fun service for cartoonists. You can simply send Doug 10 copies of your latest mini, and he will trade your comic for you with a bunch of other cartoonists who have sent their work in... generally you'll get about 10 unique mini-comics from different artists for the ten you sent in. You can read more about how he arranges it here.

24 Hour Comics Box

Last year, the participants in the Cartoonist Conspiracy's Minneapolis 24 Hour Comic Day event took their completed comics and published them the Sunday after the event in an almost 200 page book (the first time any of us read them all was in book form).

This year, we're thinking of taking a different approach.

Using the "box full of mini-comics" format we used in the Lutefisk Sushi show last September, we plan to have interested participants contribute copies of a mini-comic of their completed 24 hour comic to collate into a limited edition box set.

Doing this is easier than you might think (although doing it on the tight timeline we are hoping to do it in is NOT easy).

You can order blank boxes online here:

http://www.uline.com/Group_29.asp

We will be getting this one for our project:

http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-159&ref=1403

Here are a couple other good inexpensive options:

http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-650&ref=1403
http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-156&ref=1403

For a box cover, you could silkscreen it, use a sticker, or use a rubber stamp.

Here is our plan:

1. Each person who participates in the box MUST complete the full 24 pages. Besides the comics completed within the 24 hours, noble failures will also be accepted.

2. Each box participant must print up 100 copies of their comic by 1:30 PM Sunday and deliver them to a location to be announced. That gives you 4 hours from the end of 24 Hour Comics Day to get them printed and delivered. Yikes.

3. Each participant must sign all their comics.

4. Every participant must help collate the boxes, starting at 1:30PM Sunday. We're all going to be loopy as hell, so we'll have to double check the collated boxes.

5. Participants are encouraged to join us at MicroCon to sell boxes as soon as they are collated on Sunday, assuming we finish in time. Microcon closes at 4:00PM.

6. Each participant will be able to buy copies at cost (which will be cheap... they should be under fifty cents each). The number each person will be able to purchase will be limited, and will depend on how many people participate.

7. Leftover copies, if there are any after participants buy their copies, will be sold. Out of the 100 copies, at least 10 will be sold at Big Brain, and at least 10 will be sold elsewhere (probably Microcon if we make it in time).

8. Any profits made will go into the hosting costs of the Cartoonist Conspiracy website.

Groups around the country participating in 24 Hour Comics Day are encouraged to imitate this method. It is a great, fairly simple way to give participants a cool memento of the event.

(Participants in the event should note that participation in the box is not required)

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or post them on the board.