Category Archives: Events

Lutefisk Sushi Opening Overview

Events, Lutefisk Sushi, mini-comics, Minneapolis, Projects

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.

Please Help Promote Lutefisk Sushi

Events, Lutefisk Sushi, mini-comics, Minneapolis, Projects

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!

JAM WAR Declared!

Events, Jam Comics, Minneapolis, Projects

Dank (aka Danno) has declared a Jam War in Minneapolis here… sharpen your pencils! Here’s the poop from Dank…

————————————————

Attn All Conspirators, and fit men and women of fighting age:

WAR has been declared on the cartooning world!!!
..no, no. Not that Danish Jihad business…

a JAM WAR!!!!

The people who bring you 24 HOUR COMIC DAY have decided that APRIL 1st, 2006 from 11am to 11pm is to be the first JAM WAR.

Basically, teams around the WORLD(US and Canada so far)have 12 hours to complete 8 pages on a theme to be chosen that day. The winning 3 teams recieve cash and prizes!
EIGHT PAGES!!!
TWELVE HOURS!!!
Minneapolis can so sweep this whole contest!

Big Brain has elected to sponsor us, and Book Arts will once again be providing us space(THANKS GUYS!).

What I need from you is a firm commitment to fight for truth, liberty, and cash prizes.
I also need you to “register”
Do so by sending a draft card(or a quick e-mail saying you’re in) to:
staplegenius@yahoo.com
Please respond by March 10th.

Michael Drivas over at Big Brain has asked we work in teams of 4, so on March 10th, all the registered participants will be randomly drawn into said teams.

If you wish to be a TEAM CAPTAIN, please also indicate
that in your e-mail of interest.(what will a team captain do? I dunno yet. But its always good to have a field commander in battle.)

Finally, Michael also requests a confirmation fee of
$5.00 from each soldier (to help offset the $150 he’s gotta throw down to sponsor us, as well as to help with snacks and such.) The fee will not have to be payed until after final teams are announced on the 10th of March, but please try to stop by Big Brain and pay up by St Patricks Day(the 17th).

Ummm…I think thats it. If you have any more questions, either
1) contact me, danno, at staplegenius@yahoo.com
2) check out comicsjamwar.com
or 3) read the info below

May Mohammed be with us as we lay waste to our hated cartooning enemies around the globe and(did i mention) WIN CASH PRIZES!!!!
–danno

Comics Jam War is a collaborative cartooning competition which will be held in comic book shops across the U.S. and Canada. Teams of 2 or more cartoonists will be given some starting information about the story they have to create, and will then each have 12 hours to create an 8 page comic book story. The stories will be judged by a group of comics professionals.

Prizes (all prizes are per-team):
First place: $300 US, plus copies of an anthology comic that includes all the winners and honorable mentions (50 copies or $395 worth at cover price, whichever is more )
Second place: $200, plus copies of the anthology (30 copies or $245 worth at cover price, whichever is more )
Third place: $100, plus copies of the anthology (30 copies or $245 worth at cover price, whichever is more )
“Honorable mentions” chosen to appear in the anthology (numbers to be determined): copies of the anthology (30 copies or $245 worth at cover price, whichever is more )
Teams can have anywhere from 2 to an infinite number of people on them.
Teams must work at an official sponsoring event host site.
At noon Eastern time (9 AM Pacific time), the details for the story content will be posted on the event website. 12 hours later, all work on the story must be complete, and the story must be 8 black and white pages (no more, no less) in the standard American comic book format.
The work should not include vulgarity, nudity, obscenity, or other material that would keep it from seeming appropriate for general audiences. It also should not violate any copyrights and trademarks.
Participants must promise not to publish their finished work in any form (including, but not limited to, print and online comics) until the judging is complete and the winners are announced. In the event that your story is selected for the anthology, you may not publish the work in any other form through December, 2007. About Comics retains the rights to publish the material in Jam War-related collections. (There will be a participant form at the event. All members of the team must sign this form or the work will not be considered in the judging.)
Each team must include a designated captain. All prizes will be sent to this captain whose responsibility it will be to distribute the money and copies to the team. About Comics takes no responsibility for this distribution.
Entrance fee (if any) and other details will be set by the event host.
NOTES ADDED JANUARY 28th:

Bring your own art supplies! Rather than supplying something that doesn’t meet your needs, we want you working with the materials that you’re most comfortable with. So bring your drawing tools, your favorite paper or board, or even computer. Just remember to keep the height-to-width ratio appropriate for the typical American comic book.
The food situation will vary from location to location, so if you don’t know that your store is supplying food, be sure to bring enough munchies to last you through the 12 hours.

Participate in MicroCon

Events, Minneapolis, Useful Information

MicroCon is coming up on April 30th this year at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The Minnesota Comic Book Association puts on some of the most creator-friendly comic conventions in the US, and they have invited the whole Cartoonist Conspiracy to attend. The MCBA continues to offer free space to ALL cartoonists at their conventions (they are also responsible for FallCon). That’s right, ANY CARTOONIST can get a space for FREE at a convention loaded with comic fans. It is very rare to have this sort of opportunity, I hope a number of you will take advantage of it. At most conventions you have to pay for space, and it isn’t cheap.

For more information, and a form to send in asap so they will reserve you a space, download this pdf.

PARTICIPATE IN THE WEINER ROAST!

Events, Lutefisk Sushi, mini-comics, Minneapolis

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

Events, Lutefisk Sushi, mini-comics, Minneapolis, Projects

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