Category Archives: Minneapolis

Jam War!

Events, Jam Comics, Minneapolis, Projects

Jam War was a blast… much blood and ink was spilled, but many gorgeous pages crawled from the wreckage at the end of it. I wish I could post some, but can’t until after judging is completed.

We want to print a book of all the Minneapolis Jam War losers as a mini-comic, so email me if you want to participate in this mini. My team almost certainly will be included… we had a blast losing, though.

Thanks! to Danno for organizing!
Thanks! to Shad for handling everything computery!
Thanks! to Drivas for funding and involuntarily lending us all his lovely visage!
Thanks! to BTA for the paper!
Thanks! to Jeff Rathermel and Book Arts for giving us such a great space to work in!
Thanks! to Wet Paint for providing supplies and letting us stock up at a discount!
Thanks! to Reiner and Grumpy’s for the drinks and discounts!
Thanks! to Nat Gertler for conceiving and organizing the national event!

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.