IFP MN and the Walker are looking for short films (30 minutes or less) made in the last couple years to be featured on TPT. “The showcase is a series of three one-hour broadcasts on TPT, featuring short films by Minnesota filmmakers of all levels of filmmaking experience.” There is no fee to apply, but the deadline is coming up soon–June 16th! Click here for more info.

Northeast CDC is looking for artwork celebrating Northeast Minneapolis to be featured in a calendar for 2012. If you have artwork that would be a good fit for the project, submit it online, and it could appear in print (and even win you a little cash!) Follow this link to learn more.

NORDEAST COMICS SUMMIT
Summary: Dan Olson led a prop-heavy discussion on how to have a successful convention season, focusing on how to make your table attractive to patrons, dos & don’ts of interacting with potential buyers, how to deal with a blowhard table neighbor, and much, much more. As always, we videotaped the Summit, and those videos will be posted online eventually.

The topic of the next Nordeast Comics Summit will be announced toward the end of the month. If there’s a topic you’d like to see or even lead yourself, contact me at nordeastcomics [at] gmail.com.

Follow us on Twitter! handle: NORDEASTCOMICS

INTERNATIONAL CARTOONIST CONSPIRACY
This month’s “ripped from the headlines” theme is a no-brainer, considering the monster who just lost his epic game of hide & seek:

Monsters from the ID!

Click image for pdf — a water-logged 5.8 mb!

Please enjoy.

 

The Minneapolis Cartoonist Conspiracy meets at 6:30 until 10:00 the first Thursday of every month at Diamond’s Coffee Shoppe in Northeast.

Generally, we draw collaborative “jam” comics, socialize and drink caffeinated beverages. Afterwords, we often have uncaffeinated beverages somewhere else.

The meetings are open to anyone who wants to draw with us, and the results are posted here sooner or later (and sometimes even printed).

Diamond’s Coffee Shoppe
1618 Central Avenue Northeast
Minneapolis, Minnesota

But before that…

TOPIC: Convention Etiquette & Table Set-Up
MODERATOR: Dan Olson
DATE: Thursday, May 5, 2011
TIME: 6 – 6:30 pm (right before the Cartoonist Conspiracy Jam)
LOCATION: 1618 Central Ave NE, Ste. 216, Nordeast MPLS

SpringCon is just weeks away, so it’s the perfect time to discuss how to have a successful convention. Dan Olson will tackle everything from “How can I set up my table to attract more customers?” to “What do I do if the guy sitting next to me is a complete blow-hard?”

Come with questions, come with ideas, or just come to listen. As always, we’ll have Nordeast beer on hand, and you can grab a bite downstairs at Diamonds. The Summit starts right at 6pm, so come a little early if you want to grab a seat on what’s been called “The most comfortable couch in Nordeast.” Then, after the Summit, wander downstairs and draw your heart out at the Cartoonist Conspiracy Jam (6:30-10pm)!

We will be filming the Summit, but no word on when those videos will be posted. And if you have an idea for a future Summit, or would like to lead a particular discussion, let me know in the comments!  Follow us on THE TWITTER for updates on future Summits!

And don’t forget…

Theme: Imaginary Friends

Just classic black & white or gray-scale.

1-4 pages.

The deadline for submissions is Thursday, May 5th

If possible please send a bitmap or a tiff with a resolution of at least 300 dpi to me electronically. If you do not have access to a scanner, I can do the honors for you. Keep in mind your comic will be reduced down to a 5.5×8.5 half page mini-comic format. Please include the name you would like associated with your submission, the title (if any), and any blog or contact information for the table of contents.

Your comic can be emailed to me at: nicholasstraight@gmail.com any time before the deadline, or dropped off at Diamonds Coffee Shoppe during the Minneapolis Cartoonist Conspiracy jam on May 5th from 6pm to 10pm. Each person that makes a submission will get one free copy of the anthology.

The anthology will have a print run of a 100 copies. It will be on sale at the opening reception of The Imaginary Friends art show on Friday, June 3rd at Infinitea Teahouse in Minneapolis from 7pm to 11pm. A “formal” facebook event will be created at a later date and will feature information on the artists included in the show and anthology.

The remaining issues will be distributed throughout most of the Twin Cities’ comic retail stores. As a bonus any proceeds of the sales will go back to the Cartoonist Conspiracy in the form of a pizza party at the Minneapolis Jam in July!

Thanks everyone,
Nick Straight

Hey MN cartoonists, I hope you’ve got some free time set aside, because in addition to the Just Add Ink comic cookbook, now CITY PAGES is looking for comics for their annual COMIX ISSUE. This is a great opportunity to get your art printed on actual newsprint and spread out over the metro area. Plus, there’s money involved!

Download the submission guideline HERE.

Deadline is July 27.

I unfortunately did not pace myself well today – either getting up in the morning or actually plotting the comic – but I will have you know I officially finished the print-ready PDF at 11:55pm – well before the midnight deadline. 😀

And the inking was done back at 6pm – I just got caught up in hippie-style singing and drinking party at the place I call home. Blah blah, suffice to say I am late. But better than never. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

This month we started up a (hopefully) regular feature called the Pre-Jam Summit, where cartoonists can come hang out in the Big Time Attic studio a half hour before the regular jam starts and have a sort of round-table discussion about a particular topic. For the inaugural event we picked LETTERING and had a pretty lively discussion amongst the 20+ cartoonists who showed up. Of course there’s a TON of information we didn’t touch on, so we’ll aim to have more lettering discussions in the future, as well as a variety of other topics that affect the lives of we humble cartoonists.

Oh, and if you missed the Pre-Jam Summit, a video of the event will find its way online at some point, and I’ll post a link here on the Conspiracy blog. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a fun event!

And of course once the shenanigans up in Big Time Attic were over, people made their way downstairs into Diamonds Coffee Shoppe and produced another gem:

Bunnies and Jesus and Working on Your Lettering

Click image for pdf — a bold & italic 10.5 mb!

Please enjoy.