The Lutefisk Sushi Volume B site is live, and it is gorgeous. Thanks much to Big Time Attic and Ken Avidor for putting this together!
Monthly Archives: February 2006
The Bean Men
Conspirator Sean Tenhoff has started a daily or so comic strip online, the violent and/or hilarious Bean Men… You can subscribe to it here.
Donnie Danger, Corporate Cartoonist
Kevin Cannon’s original submission for the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume B show, Donnie Danger, Corporate Cartoonist, went berserk on him and ended up being 40 pages long… sounds like he is submitting something else instead.
Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you’ll miss the comic… in fact, it will be easy for you to read… he just announced on the Big Time Attic blog that he is publishing it online in 5 page chunks over the next 8 days.
As with everything else Kevin draws, you won’t want to miss it.
JAM WAR Declared!
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
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.
The Trademark Dilution Revision Act
An article on the wonderful blog Boing Boing today pointed out that corporate-owned legislators in Washington are currently trying to pass a horrendous piece of legislation called “The Trademark Dilution Revision Act” to further erode the first amendment. If passed this legislation would make it so using corporate owned trademarks (Like taglines, packaging, logos, etc.) from being used in any artwork. Read the linked article above for the gory details. Here are some quotes from it:
The Act contains certain anti-speech aspects which will directly affect illustrators, photographers and others.
It will serve to eliminate the current protection for non-commercial speech currently contained in the Lanham Act. It will prevent businesses (artists)and consumers from invoking famous trademarks to explain or illustrate their discussion of public issues.
For example, using the phrase “Where’s the Beef” could be actionable. Although you might use it in a non-commercial way, the (very) famous Wendy’s slogan when used to comment might not be protected by the fair use exception.
That said, there are a couple cartoonists (Kieron Dwyer and Stu Helm, aka King VelVeeeda) who have already been successfully sued in recent years for just this sort of thing (both were defended by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund)… so in a sense this sort of thing is already in effect.
How can Mad Magazine and Wacky Packages survive in such an environment? Even Superman satires will be illegal! Write your congressbastard… or senatorbastard, I guess! Write somebody, for pete’s sake. Specifically the above article suggests writing to Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 711 Hart Building, Washington, DC 20510 to voice your opposition to this bill.
Pink Elephants on Animation Archive
I’ve also been meaning to link to this excellent cartoon recently posted on the Animation Archive website, basically unseen for 50 years… Farmer Al Falfa in “Pink Elephants.”
Cool Online Cartooning Tutorial and Cheap Cartooning Book Reprints
Here’s a great little antique cartooning tutorial by Bill Nolan, “Cartooning Self-Taught” they posted recently on the excellent ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog.
Along these lines I recently noticed that Dover, excellent inexpensive publisher of wonderful reprint books and clip art books, has reprinted some old cartooning books, including one by the wonderful George Carlson, who wrote and illustrated one of the greatest comic series of the golden age, Jingle Jangle Tales. All of these books are extremely cheap, and look quite cool… I haven’t got them yet, but I plan to.