Category Archives: mini-comics

Mark Your Calendars: Participate in Mini-Comics Day 2013 on March 24th!


(Above image by Athena Currier)

March 24th, 2013 is the date for the third annual Mini-Comics Day, celebrating the art of cartooning and creating hand-made comic books (the first event was held April 9th, 2011).

On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists from around the world will write, draw, and print copies of a mini-comic, completing the entire process from start to finish in a day or less. Anyone in the world can participate.

Mini-comics have been democratizing the art of making comic books since the 70’s or earlier… with the popularization of photocopiers, it became apparent that anyone with an inclination and some spare change could print a little comic book. Wildly varying in both form and content, mini-comics are a wonderful synthesis of cartooning and hand-made art objects.

Guidelines: To participate, create a mini-comic from start to finish on March 24th, 2013 (including writing, drawing and printing it). You can make your mini-comic by yourself or with other artists.

Format: Your mini-comic can be any size, length and format you desire. A standard mini-comics size would be eight 4.25″x5.5″ pages (which can be made from one 8.5×11 sheet of paper printed on both sides).

Help: For more information on how to make a mini-comic, see the Cartoonist Conspiracy’s mini-comic tutorial How to Make Mini-Comics. More resources can be found here.

Submit: Optionally, you can post information and/or images from your comic on this blog. Contact for an account to post here.

Bonus points: If you are working with a group of cartoonists, you may want to consider collecting your mini-comics together to distribute as a set. Bags, rubber bands, or boxes all work great for this purpose.

Events: Mini-Comics Day events will be organized at different locations around the world. You can read more about how to organize an event in our FAQ. The purpose of Mini-Comics Day events is to provide a place for cartoonists to draw and/or print their comics, and possibly to trade or sell their minis if they choose to.

If you would like to organize an event, contact us at so we can promote your event and add it to our event listing.

About The International Cartoonist Conspiracy: Founded in Minneapolis in 2002, The International Cartoonist Conspiracy is a loosely organized group of cartoonists with cells all over the world. The Conspiracy has been responsible for many collaborative projects, including anthologies, gallery shows, and numerous jams every month. Any cartoonist anywhere can start a cell, and anyone with a desire to draw comics is encouraged to participate.

Here is the poster for the Minneapolis event by last year’s Stapler Award Winner for best Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comic, Athena Currier:

Lutefisk Sushi Volume E Deadline in Less Than Two Weeks!

The Lutefisk Sushi Volume E Deadline is in Less Than Two Weeks!

And, gee… that is really more than enough time to get something together! We’re not building the freaking Taj Mahal, here! I’ve seen mini-comics masterpieces drawn and printed in under eight hours! What the hell are you freaking out about? Don’t make me slap you! I swear, I’ll do it!

We want your mini-comics!*

To participate:
-Draw, print and deliver 160 copies of a mini-comic (any format) to Altered Esthetics before September 15th.
-Show up for the opening gallery celebration November 2nd at Altered Esthetics and have a good time.

That’s it. All submissions are accepted until the unlikely event that we can no longer cram them into a box. Every person who submits 160 mini-comics gets a box.**

Lutefisk Sushi is a hand-silkscreened, limited-edition box set of Minnesota mini-comics. This is the fifth edition… previous editions have contained between 35 and 55 comics each. This year’s featured artist and box-cover creator is Eisner-Award-winning cartoonist Zander Cannon (Double Barrel, Top 10, Chainsaw Vigilante).

Read more about submission details here.

* You must be Minnesotan to particiapte.
** limit one per artist regardless of number of works submitted, and artists who team to create a comic must share a box

#minicomicsday2012 is Today! (May 26th)


Pictured above: The 2012 Stapler Award for the Best Minnesota Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comic

You’re encouraged to use the hash tag #minicomicsday2012 for whatever you may want to use a hashtag for.

Cartoonists around the world will be drawing and printing a mini-comic in a day. Any cartoonist anywhere can participate.

There are event sites this year in:
Sacramento, CA
San Francisco, CA
Baltimore, MD
Minneapolis, MN
Keene, NH
Albuquerque, NM
Norfolk, VA
and McCleary, WA
(and we had a site in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the UK participate last month)

If you live near one of those locations, go here for the details of your local event.

Mini-Comics Day Minneapolis 2012 (This Saturday, May 26th) Info… You Could Win the Stapler Award! Judges Announced.


Pictured above: 2011 Stapler Award Winner Dan Murphy holds his prize.

The self-descriptive “2012 Stapler Award for the Best Minnesota Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comic” will be given out around 8PM or so in the side room at Grumpy’s downtown after the event at Book Arts. You will need to submit three copies of your completed-that-day comic to enter.

This year’s judges for the “2012 Stapler Award for the Best Minnesota Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comic”

Eric Lorberer, Editor of Rain Taxi Review of Books
Courtney Algeo, Editorial Director of Paper Darts and Marketing Coordinator at The Loft Literary Center
Miles Johnson of the Read My List blog and Altered Esthetics gallery (hosts for the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume E project)

UPDATE: Besides the award, there will be cool prizes for the winner… a $25 gift certificate to Big Brain Comics courtesy of Big Brain Comics, and a free pass to the Northeast Ride ($25 value), courtesy of the Northeast CDC.

Here is the previously posted event info:

Mini-Comics Day is this Saturday! On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists draw and print a mini-comic in a day. Any cartoonist in the world can participate in the event… if you would like to host an event in your community, contact us and we’ll get you set up.

Here is the information for those of you participating in the Twin Cities:

The Minnesota Center For Book Arts
1011 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
May 26th, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
A copier will be available on site. Copies will cost $.02 each, but Big Brain Comics and Big Time Attic will generously be helping defray some of the expense.
Table space will be provided on a first come, first served basis.
Bring your own drawing materials.
Afterwards, we will move a block over to Grumpy’s to give out “The Stapler Award for the Best Minnesota Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comic 2012.” To enter we will need three copies of your mini-comic before 7:30PM.
Grumpy’s
1111 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
Contact: Steven Stwalley
webmaster(at)cartoonistconspiracy.com

This may be a good opportunity for you to get a mini-comic ready for the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume E project happening at Altered Esthetics in November.

Help promote the event! Here are assets for the Minneapolis event by 2011 Stapler Award Winner Dan Murphy.

Here is a poster you can print and hang.

Here are flyers to leave around town.

Here are graphics for your website, social-networking site, etc.:

If you use facebook, you may want to sign up here.

Mini-Comics Day 2012 is this Saturday! (May 26th)

Mini-Comics Day is this Saturday! On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists draw and print a mini-comic in a day. Any cartoonist in the world can participate in the event… if you would like to host an event in your community, contact us and we’ll get you set up.

Here is the information for those of you participating in the Twin Cities:

The Minnesota Center For Book Arts
1011 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
May 26th, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Copier will be available on site.
Table space will be provided on a first come, first served basis.
Afterwards, we will move a block over to Grumpy’s to give out “The Stapler Award for the Best Minnesota Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comic 2012.” To enter we will need three copies of your mini-comic before 7:30PM.
Grumpy’s
1111 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
Contact: Steven Stwalley
webmaster(at)cartoonistconspiracy.com

This may be a good opportunity for you to get a mini-comic ready for the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume E project happening at Altered Esthetics in November.

Help promote the event! Here are assets for the Minneapolis event by 2011 Stapler Award Winner Dan Murphy.

Here is a poster you can print and hang.

Here are flyers to leave around town.

Here are graphics for your website, social-networking site, etc.:

If you use facebook, you may want to sign up here.

Mini-Comics Day 2012 in Minneapolis, MN (May 26th)

Mini-Comics Day is in less than two weeks! On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists draw and print a mini-comic in a day. Any cartoonist in the world can participate in the event… if you would like to host an event in your community, contact us and we’ll get you set up.

Here is the information for those of you participating in the Twin Cities:

The Minnesota Center For Book Arts
1011 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
May 26th, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Copier will be available on site.
Table space will be provided on a first come, first served basis.
Afterwards, we will move a block over to Grumpy’s to give out “The Stapler Award for the Best Minnesota Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comic 2012.” To enter we will need three copies of your mini-comic before 7:30PM.
Grumpy’s
1111 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
Contact: Steven Stwalley
webmaster(at)cartoonistconspiracy.com

This may be a good opportunity for you to get a mini-comic ready for the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume E project happening at Altered Esthetics in November.

Help promote the event! Here are assets for the Minneapolis event by 2011 Stapler Award Winner Dan Murphy.

Here is a poster you can print and hang.

Here are flyers to leave around town.

Here are graphics for your website, social-networking site, etc.:

If you use facebook, you may want to sign up here.

Participate in the 2nd Annual Mini-Comics Day: May 26th, 2012


(Above image by Dan Murphy)

May 26th, 2012 is the date for the second annual Mini-Comics Day, celebrating the art of cartooning and creating hand-made comic books (the first event was held April 9th, 2011).

On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists from around the world will write, draw, and print copies of a mini-comic, completing the entire process from start to finish in a day or less. Anyone in the world can participate.

Mini-comics have been democratizing the art of making comic books since the 70’s or earlier… with the popularization of photocopiers, it became apparent that anyone with an inclination and some spare change could print a little comic book. Wildly varying in both form and content, mini-comics are a wonderful synthesis of cartooning and hand-made art objects.

Guidelines: To participate, create a mini-comic from start to finish on May 26th, 2012 (including writing, drawing and printing it). You can make your mini-comic by yourself or with other artists.

Format: Your mini-comic can be any size, length and format you desire. A standard mini-comics size would be eight 4.25″x5.5″ pages (which can be made from one 8.5×11 sheet of paper printed on both sides).

Help: For more information on how to make a mini-comic, see the Cartoonist Conspiracy’s mini-comic tutorial How to Make Mini-Comics. More resources can be found here.

Submit: Optionally, you can post information and/or images from your comic on this blog. Contact for an account to post here.

Bonus points: If you are working with a group of cartoonists, you may want to consider collecting your mini-comics together to distribute as a set. Bags, rubber bands, or boxes all work great for this purpose.

Also, you may want to consider trading copies by submitting some to the Mini-comix Co-op.

Events: Mini-Comics Day events will be organized at different locations around the world. You can read more about how to organize an event in our FAQ. The purpose of Mini-Comics Day events is to provide a place for cartoonists to draw and/or print their comics, and possibly to trade or sell their minis if they choose to. In 2011, we had 17 event locations participate internationally.

If you would like to organize an event, contact us at so we can promote your event and add it to our event listing.

About The International Cartoonist Conspiracy: Founded in Minneapolis in 2002, The International Cartoonist Conspiracy is a loosely organized group of cartoonists with cells all over the world. The Conspiracy has been responsible for many collaborative projects, including anthologies, gallery shows, and numerous jams every month. Any cartoonist anywhere can start a cell, and anyone with a desire to draw comics is encouraged to participate.

Come to the Art? Show at Altered Esthetics This Friday and Read the Minneapolis Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comics

If you’re curious what people made locally for Mini-Comics Day, you can read the comics this month at Altered Esthetics as part of their Art? show. The show opens this Friday, May 6th.

Above: Carlos Merino’s Mini-Comics Day mini-comic. Click to visit his site for the full Spanish version… the English version will be available to read this Friday at Altered Esthetics.

The featured Mini-Comics Day comics are by:

Alex Bodine
Talia Carlton aka Talonman
Douglas Cox
Susan Cox
Athena Currier
Ryan Dow
Earl Luckes
Lupi McGinty
Carlos Merino
Dan Murphy
Erik Nelson
Pedal
Jamison Penny
Bill Prendergast
David Steinlicht
Steven Stwalley
Mike Toft
Lance Ward

More info about the Art? show can be found here.

Behold! The Stapler!

To add a little extra excitement to our Mini-Comics Day event in Minneapolis tomorrow (Saturday April 9th), we are giving out a prize for The Best Local Mini-Comic of the Day… also known as The Stapler.

In addition to The Stapler, the winner will get some cool prizes from some of our sponsors. The prizes will include a copy of the book Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s, courtesy of Big Brain Comics, two Lutefisk Sushi box sets full of Minnesota mini-comics (volumes C and D) and a copy of BIG FUNNY courtesy of Altered Esthetics, and possibly some other goodies.

For all the info about our event in Minneapolis go here. To find an event near you go here. And, of course, you can just participate at home or your local copy shop if you don’t have an event happening near you.

Mini-Comics Day just stared in Indonesia! Hopefully we will have lots of posts from around the world as the day commences at the Mini-Comics Day blog.