Category Archives: Minneapolis

Mike Sgier’s The Ballad of Toby & Sara

event, Events, gallery show, Minneapolis, mn

Conspirator Mike Sgier has been hard at work at MCAD getting his MFA. Celebrate with him at SooVAC on May 9, 2008. Here are the details:

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design MFA Thesis Exhibition 2008

Mike Sgier
The Ballad of Toby & Sara

April 23-May 11, 2008
Soo Visual Arts Center
2640 Lyndale Ave S, Mpls (612) 871-2263
Open Wednesday through Saturday or by appointment
Gellery hours at www.soovac.org

Reception: May 9, 2008: 6-9 p.m.
Ride the reception shuttle/ MCAD > Soap Factory > SooVAC
Departing MCAD every 45 minutes; first bus at 6 p.m., final bus at 9 p.m.

(this post copied verbatim from the Big Time Attic blog)

Print Your Own Lutefisk Sushi T-Shirt!

event, Events, gallery show, Lutefisk Sushi, Minneapolis, mn, t-shirts

Lutefisk Sushi Volume C Shirt
Kevin Cannon has instructions and files for printing your own Lutefisk Sushi t-shirt for our upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume C show (May 2, Minneapolis) here. I hope we’ll see a lot of these at the show!

He also posted some photos from the box printing they did last night. Here is the proud poppa below. Thanks much to Shad, Kevin, and Zander for printing these! I can’t wait to see the boxed in person!

Proud Poppa Kevin Cannon displays the fresh off the press Lutefisk Sushi Volume C Box

Jam Tonight (Thursday, April 3rd) in Minneapolis

Events, Minneapolis

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

Bus info here.

Please spend some money at Diamond’s while you’re there, even if it is just a cuppa coffee… they are excellent hosts, and we wanna stay welcome there.

Big Time Attic hosts our monthly jam meetings at Diamond’s… they will be supplying us with a big old plate of pastries or something. Thanks fellas!

MCAD brings ‘Off-Kilter’ cartoonists to Twin Cities

Events, gallery show, Minneapolis

 (note: the below is a press release… sounds like fun!)

Brunetti, Hankiewicz, Onsmith, Sally to appear at MCAD Gallery opening

MINNEAPOLIS—Acclaimed comic artists Ivan Brunetti, John Hankiewicz, Onsmith and Zak Sally will deliver a gallery talk at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) for the opening of “Off-Kilter Comics” at MCAD Gallery on Friday, April 4, 2008.

Curated by Onsmith, the MCAD Gallery exhibition “Off-Kilter Comics” runs through April 20 and also features work by Lilli Carré and Dan Zettwoch. These six cartoonists approach comic art in varied ways, including expressive line work, abstracted narratives, geometric drawings, diagrammatic layouts and easily digestible images.

The artists’ discussion begins at 6 p.m. in the gallery, with a public reception to follow until 8 p.m. The exhibition, gallery talk and reception are all free and open to the public. MCAD Gallery is open seven days a week: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

MCAD is located at 2501 Stevens Ave., south of downtown Minneapolis. It is adjacent to The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and The Children’s Theatre Company.

About the Artists

Ivan Brunetti‘s comic book series Schizo and anthologies HAW!, HEE!, and Misery Loves Comedy are published by Fantagraphics Books. Brunetti’s work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, Mother Jones, McSweeney’s, Fast Company, The Baffler, The Chicago Reader, The Comics Journal and In These Times. He is included in Houghton-Mifflin’s Best American Comics 2006 and 2007 and is editor of An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories (Yale University Press, 2006). A second volume is scheduled for Fall 2008. He has also taught classes on editorial illustration and comics at Columbia College Chicago and the University of Chicago.

 

Lilli Carré was born in Los Angeles and lives in Chicago. She graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied Experimental Animation and Print. Her first book, Tales of Woodsman Pete, was published by Top Shelf, and she is included in Houghton-Mifflin’s Best American Comics 2006. She also has several short animated films on the festival circuit.

 

John Hankiewicz has a BA in English from Roosevelt University and an MA in English from Ohio University. In 1995 he began self-publishing his Xeric Award-winning series, Tepid. His 2007 collection Asthma is published by Sparkplug Comic Books. His work has appeared in Kramers Ergot, Arthur Magazine and The Chicago Reader. He is also an accomplished printmaker.

 

Onsmith has work published in several anthologies, including Hotwire Comics (Fantagraphics), Flotation Device, SPX 2002, Studygroup 12, Modern Industry, Proper Gander, Graphic Classics, and the anthology series Bomb Time for Bonzo, which he created with Henry Ng and Ben Chandler.

 

Duluth native Zak Sally is creator of Recidivist and Sammy the Mouse and owner/operator of La Mano Press in Minneapolis. Other La Mano artists include John Porcellino, Jason T. Miles, William Schaff and Nate Denver. A longtime contributor to indie comics and ‘zines, Sally also played bass in the band Low.

 

Dan Zettwoch is creator of acclaimed self-published comics such as the Civil War tale Ironclad and the series Redbird. A member of USS Catastrophe with Kevin Huizenga and Ted May, Zettwoch is also an accomplished screenprinter. His work has been featured in Drawn & Quarterly, Kitchen Sink, Impossible, Kramers Ergot and EXPO 2001.

About MCAD

 

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) has been creating art on the cutting edge since 1886. Recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative approaches, MCAD is home to more than 800 students pursuing Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Science and Master of Fine Arts degrees. The College offers majors in Advertising, Animation, Comic Art, Drawing, Filmmaking, Fine Arts Studio, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Painting, Photography, Print Paper Book, Sculpture and Web and Multimedia Environments. The College has earned the highest accreditation possible for an art and design school and has been named a “Best Midwestern College” for four consecutive years by The Princeton Review. MCAD also offers continuing studies courses; certificate programs in Graphic Design and Sustainable Design, as well as a Post-Baccalaureate certificate; online learning; and youth programs, as well as free exhibitions and lectures.

 

www.mcad.edu

 

Lutefisk Sushi Volume C Deadline, Sideshows

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


Mark your calendars! Our recurring big box of Minnesota mini-comics project, Lutefisk Sushi Volume C, will be happening this May 2nd (and during Art-A-Whirl!) at Altered Esthetics. As with the two previous Sushi events, the show features a huge, limited-edition box set of tons of Minnesota mini-comics, as well as original art by the artists participating in the set. Click on the image above to visit the event website for more information on the event and on participating.

The deadline has been extended to March 31st (previously March 15th) for mini-comics submissions to the box. The deadline for original art and other stuff to sell at the gallery (Altered Esthetics) has been set at April 12th. We are planning on having a pot-luck for artists to meet and socialize April 12th as well. More info about that will be forthcoming. You can drop off stuff at Big Time Attic during regular business hours, or up until 7:30PM on March 21st.

We’ve got some fantastic submissions coming in… we’re going to have a whole lot of participants. WE HAVE LIMITED SPACE IN THE BOX, so if you want to insure you get your work in there, handing it in sooner rather than later would be a very good idea.

If you’re participating, please remember to hand in the two forms with your submission, so we don’t have to hassle you for them.

There are two sideshow events that we’d love to have you participate in as well:

The Amazing Zoetrope: Conspirator Ken Avidor has built an incredible hand-cranked zoetrope for our use during the event. We’d love to have more folks make animated strips for this. Here are the specs:

Strips are 37 inches long (with one inch extra to go behind the other end), so 38 inches total. There should be 12 evenly spaced drawings in the 37 inches (3.08 inches per panel). They should be 5.5 inches to 6 inches high. Note that this is a hands-on thing, so if you care about your originals getting pawed and potentially mangled, you’ll want to submit a copy of them.

The Potty Humor Exhibit: We want to hang your utterly inappropriate and anti-social original art in the bathroom. Frame it or matte it, and get it to us by April 12th.

Other sideshows will include The Art of Kevin Cannon (who will premiering a special limited edition of his fantastic graphic novel Far Arden) and The Art Vending Machine. We are wide open to suggestions for other sideshows as well… particularly if you have good ideas for events you would like to take on organizing during Art-A-Whirl. Suggest ideas in the comments, or email me. Note that we are much more likely to pursue sideshows that individuals are willing to personally take on organizing.

PLEASE DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO HELP PROMOTE THIS EVENT. Let’s make this the best attended Sushi show yet (the last two were both packed houses).

  • Grab one of the banners at the bottom of this post and put it on your websites, blogs, social networking sites, and message boards you frequent with a link to the Sushi site.
  • Write about the upcoming show and your preparations for it on your websites, blogs, social networking sites, and message boards you frequent with a link to the Sushi site.
  • We’ve got a ton of beautiful postcards at Big Time Attic and Altered Esthetics that we could use your help distributing… please pick some up when you drop off your submission to hand out to friends and put in your favorite coffee shops, bars, bookstores, etc.
  • Know reporters? Hit them up for a story. Let us know if you need contact information, we will have a press release available very soon.
  • Most importantly: TELL YOUR FRIENDS in person or via phone or email and tell them to spread the word.

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Further questions about this event are hopefully answered in this document.

Minneapolis – a Mecca for Cartoonists?

Minneapolis

In her popular comics blog The Beat, Heidi MacDonald today asks the question “Minneapolis – a Mecca For Cartoonists?” (in reference to this webpage). If you are a Minneapolis cartoonist, you probably already know the answer to this… you can share your opinions on the subject in the comments on her blog.

For those of you pondering the question, I refer you to this previous post on this blog on the last five years of activity of the Minneapolis cell of the Cartoonist Conspiracy.

UPDATE: I think Heidi got the link from Tom Spurgeon’s excellent Comics Reporter blog… unfortunately, Tom doesn’t have a commenting system.

Art School Summer US Premiere

animation, Events, Minneapolis

Conspirators Dave and Mary Sandberg have completed a feature length cartoon, Art School Summer, which is having its US premiere in Minneapolis on the 12th! Bill Plympton is the only other animator I’m aware of that has made feature length animated films basically on his own (although their probably have been some others), so big congratulations to them on this amazing and rare accomplishment.

Art School Summer
Saturday Jan 12th at 7:30
Premiering at:
MCAD
2501 Stevens Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55404
In the big auditorium 150

The screening is free but seating might be in short supply.

Note that my understanding is that the film contains a whole lotta content that is not suitable for people under 18… so if you are under 18, please don’t try to attend. If you are 18 or over, you won’t want to miss it.

There will be a reception afterwards in NE… information on that at the event.

The Twin Cities Rock Atlas in this Week’s City Pages

comics, Minneapolis

If you’re in the Twin Cities, do yourself a favor and don’t miss this week’s City Pages (December 19, 2007). Kevin Cannon has done an absolutely stunning spread on pages 50 and 55 titled The Twin Cities Rock Atlas that has to be seen to be believed. It highlights numerous music oriented locations around the Twin Cities. It isn’t currently online, which is good, because only print could do this justice. The text for the piece is written by City Pages’ Peter S. Scholtes (and written well, although it unavoidably and painfully covers the art!)

One of the most outstanding things about Kevin’s work is his vast skill at distilling things down to the bare minimum of what they need to be effective. This has never been more evident than in this piece. If you think of icons of Minneapolis, you probably think of the big Grain Belt Bottle cap, the cherry in the spoon, and maybe First Ave. (pictured in the tiny excerpt above from the spread). This spread makes it seem like icons are everywhere, as Kevin beautifully distills the architectural souls of probably a minimum of 50 Twin Cities structures. Not many cartoonists could pull this off, and Kevin makes it look easy.

Happily, City Pages is apparently going to make it into a poster… I don’t yet know how they will be making them available, but I sure want one.

I just got an update from Kevin on the posters:

I think CP is going to give away the posters for free.
Word is that they’ll be available at the venues that
are on the poster. I’m working on a (Big Time Attic) blog post that
shows the process of making the poster, and there
you’ll be able to see all the easter eggs hiding
behind the text (actually there aren’t many easter
eggs, but I do have a little Conspiracy guy standing
next to diamond’s)…

24 Hour Comics Day Minneapolis Coverage

24 Hour Comics, Events, Minneapolis

I just wanted to note that if you are reading this blog, you will not automatically receive event coverage of the Minneapolis event which happened this weekend… and David Steinlicht did a phenomenal job covering it, so I really encourage you to check it out.

Thanks much to David for foregoing drawing to blog on our behalves… thanks much to Danno for organizing the event and talking me into doing it for the fourth year in a row… thanks to our extremely generous sponsors The Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Big Brain Comics, Wet Paint, Pizza Luce, and Grumpy’s for sponsoring this again this year… and, of course, thanks to everyone who participated.

24 Hour Comics Day Minneapolis Banner

24 Hour Comics, Events, hype, Minneapolis

Here’s a banner for the Minneapolis Cartoonist Conspiracy cell’s blog to cover our local exploits during the international 24 Hour Comic Day event this weekend. I encourage all you participants out there to put it on your websites, and go check out the blog by clicking the banner, if you haven’t already.

You can subscribe to the Twin Cities event blog here.

Here is the international event site for 24 hour comics day.

Here is the group blog for the international 24 hour comics day event.

You can subscribe to the international event blog here.

Thanks much to David Steinlicht for blogging for us during the event!