Category Archives: Minneapolis

NightShift: Jim Woodring Performing at the Walker at Midnight on June 4th-June5th!

Rain Taxi is bringing Jim Woodring to town!

Jim Woodring: Artist Talk and Performance
Walker Cinema, Midnight
for directions, click here.

A man is drawing with a seven-foot-long pen. The nib is sixteen inches and made of brass-plated, cold-rolled steel. The handle is lathe-turned poplar, painted with black lacquer. The ink is a specially formulated acrylic blend. A large vase functions as the inkwell.

This isn’t a dream but rather a live performance with famed underground cartoonist Jim Woodring. At this special Nightshift event, the author of Seeing Things, The Frank Book and Weathercraft will draw live on-stage at the Walker with his handcrafted Giant Pen—an oversized version of the classic steel dip pen nib and wooden handle used by artists and calligraphers. Woodring will be making large ink drawings (up to 6 feet) while conversing with the audience as he works, and it will all add up to an in-depth tour through his surreal oneiric landscape.

Woodring’s Giant Pen was built with funds raised through United States Artists Special Projects.

Event info here.

View the poster here.

Drinking Liberally: The Art of the Political Cartoon This Thursday, May 19th

From The Cucking Stool blog:

This weekend is Art A Whirl in northeast Minneapolis. One of the patrons at the 331 Club asked me if we were doing an Art A Whirl edition of Drinking Liberally, and I thought that was a really good idea.

So this Thursday, May 19th, we’ll celebrate the art of the political cartoon with guests L.K. Hanson and Ken Avidor. We will be at the 331 Club from six to nine PM; the program with L.K. and Ken is going to crank up around seven. They will bring some examples of their work to show and talk a little about the process of taking an idea and making a memorable image.

More info at The Cucking Stool.

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.

Mpls. Sat. Open Studio, May 7, noon to 4 p.m.

[Artist large pencil]

Stop by to draw and chit-chat with your fellow cartoonists. The Open Studio is at the Minnesota Center for Books Arts in the Open Book building. They have chairs, tables, a nice coffee shop and free, semi-functioning wi-fi. It’s perfect for cartooning.

Saturday, May 7, from noon until 4 p.m., MCBA FlexiSpace (metal tables)

This is an open studio — all are welcome.

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

Future Sat. Open Studios:
June 4, Flexi Space (metal tables)
July 2, Bindery (high tables)
August 13, Bindery (high tables)

Psychic Cartoons at AE’s 7th Anniversary Party This Friday!

We will be drawing cartoons to raise funds for Altered Esthetics, the wonderful non-profit community gallery we collaborate with, at their 7th anniversary party next Friday. For a suggested donation of $5, we’ll peer into your soul and give you a drawing of one of the following:

Psychic Readings
Dream Interpretations
Fortunes
Spirit Animals
Inner Demons

Thanks to everyone who volunteered to participate in this!

Read more about the event here.

Pictured above: Local Hero Kevin Cannon’s fantastic art donation to the Altered Esthetics fundraiser. See a gallery of other donated artwork here.

Mini-Comics Day 2011 in Minneapolis

See our fun photo gallery from the Minneapolis event here.

We were welcomed to The Open Book this morning with our event up on the marquee.

The covers to the comics finished today can be seen in the photo gallery.

Two of of our participants already have their mini-comics not only printed, but online:

Lance Ward

Maxeem Konrardy

The winner of the Stapler prize for The Best Local Mini-Comic of the Day went to Dan Murphy for his mini-comic Elle Cirka. Along with the stapler, Dan won a copy of the book Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s, courtesy of Big Brain Comics, a Lutefisk Sushi box set and a copy of BIG FUNNY courtesy of Altered Esthetics, and a Cartoonist Conspiracy patch shoved in the back of the book that I forgot to tell him about.

Everyone who participated in the event got free supplies and paper courtesy of Wet Paint Art. Big Time Attic provided paper for the copier. Big Brain Comics put fifty bucks towards copier use, which made it so most of us got to print comics for free.

Thanks much to our extremely generous sponsors The Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Big Brain Comics, Wet Paint, Altered Esthetics, and Big Time Attic!

Thanks also to Britt Aamodt, Michael Drivas and Jamie Schumacher for judging the Best Local Mini-Comic of the Day!

Thanks to everyone who participated! I look forward to reading all your comics!

Complete coverage of Mini-Comics Day around the world can be found at minicomics.org.

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.

Mini-Comics Day is Tomorrow! (Saturday, April 9th)

Mini-Comics Day is tomorrow (April 9th)! 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.

We currently have sixteen sites listed around the world planning events for Mini-Comics Day. If you are interested in hosting an event, let me know… email me at webmaster(at)cartoonistconspiracy.com.

Here is the scoop about the Minneapolis event:

As with all our events, it is free and open to anyone who wants to participate. Table space is provided on a first-come, first-served basis. We hope to be getting started at 10:00AM sharp.

The copier on site, provided by our generous hosts at The Minnesota Center for Book Arts, will be available for use for a $5 donation… however, Big Brain Comics is giving us $50 to put towards this fee, so the first 10 people to use the copier will have their fee covered. Obviously, there will be a lot of demand for the copier at certain times of the day, so please be courteous of others and don’t bogart the machine. You’ll want to bring a $5 bill if you plan on using the on-site copier.

Wet Paint will be providing some free supplies, and will have useful items for sale for part of the event.

Big Time Attic will be donating some paper.

The Cartoonist Conspiracy will be providing some copies of our How to Make Mini-Comics mini-comic for folks to assemble and refer to.

We’ll be having an after party, where we will be giving out the prize for the Best Local Mini-Comic of the Day. This will be a block away from Book Arts in the side room at Grumpy’s Downtown (1111 Washington Ave. S.) from 5:30 to 9:00PM. We’ll clear out of the side room at 9:00 (a band will be taking over the space), and the fun will continue until whenever in the main room of the bar.

There will be a prize given out for the Best Local Mini-Comic of the Day. The prize will include a copy of the book Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s, courtesy of Big Brain Comics, a Lutefisk Sushi box set and a copy of BIG FUNNY courtesy of Altered Esthetics, and probably some other goodies.

Obviously, only comics made entirely on the day of the event will be eligible for the prize. To enter your mini-comic, drop 4 copies of it in the box we will have at the Book Arts event, or bring it before 6:30 to the side room of Grumpy’s Downtown. Make sure to include your name, address, email address and other contact information you think is pertinent with your submission. All submitted comics will also be included in a reading rack at the upcoming Art? show at Altered Esthetics in May.

The submitted comics will be read and a winner will be determined by three local non-cartoonists; author of Superheroes, Strip Artists & Talking Animals: Minnesota’s Contemporary Cartoonists Britt Aamodt, Big Brain Comics proprietor Michael Drivas, and Altered Esthetics founder Jamie Schumacher.

Please do spread the word to everyone you know who likes to make comics! If you use facebook, you may want to check out the Mini-Comics Day facebook page.

The Minnesota Center For Book Arts
1011 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
April 9, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
(in the Flexispace and Gallery Space)
Copier will be available on site.
Table space will be provided on a first come, first served basis.
We’ll also be having an after party, where we will be giving out a prize for the Best Local Mini-Comic of the Day. This will be a block away in the side room at Grumpy’s Downtown (1111 Washington Ave. S.) from 5:30 to 9:00PM. We’ll clear out of the side room at 9:00 (a band will be taking over the space), and the fun will continue until whenever in the main room of the bar.
Contact: Steven Stwalley
webmaster(at)cartoonistconspiracy.com