Come on down to see Shad, King Mini, Tim Sievery and a bunch of great artists and designers from Minneapolis screen print over top of each other’s stuff.

There is also a cool gallery show with BTA spin-off PUNY showcasing blunders and over-prints…live music..and booze:

Scott McCloud’s Making Comics 50 State Tour is coming through Minneapolis April 11th… here’s the info.

April 11
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
One day workshop
Not open to public

April 11
Minneapolis, MN
Dreamhaven Books
912 West Lake Street
Discussion & Signing
7:30 pm
Details | Directions

Speaking of McCloud’s Making Comics, it is the best book I’ve ever read on making comics… you’ll probably get a lot out of it whether you are a seasoned cartoonist or a beginner. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Huzzah! This month’s chapter of Kevin Cannon’s epic 288 hour comic, Far Arden, is online! With this chapter, we reach the halfway mark in our narrative.

Click here to start reading at chapter six.

Click here to start at the beginning.

Click here to read more about Kevin Cannon’s mad, mad project.

Click here to cheer Kevin on in his comments.

I’ve been using the Fountain Pentel as my pen of choice for many years, and I love them… The Fountain Pentel has a unique plastic nib which bends to draw a different thickness of line depending on how much pressure you apply. They are fun to use, and like no other pen I’ve ever experienced.

I actually bought a gross of them in the 90’s as I was afraid they would stop making them, as they were always a hard to find pen. My supply of this unique pen is dwindling.

Looking recently for replacements, I discovered that, horror of horrors, my premonition was accurate and they are no longer sold in the US… in fact, I couldn’t even find an image of the Fountain Pentels I use online, they are so out of date. Here’s one for you I just scanned:

Fortunately, in St. Paul we have Wet Paint, the world’s greatest art supply store. I contacted Tim Jennen, the marketing manager and buyer for Wet Paint (who also happens to be a member of the Conspiracy) and let him know about my dilemma.

Tim has a passion for hunting down obscure art materials, and he just emailed me some good news shortly after my inquiry:

Hi, Steve—

I’m still hoping to bring in the regular Fountain Pentel at some point, but I have brought in a different version of this pen that I found—the Tradio Fountain Pentel, which is refillable. Here’s some info on it:

Tradio Fountain Pentel TRJ50

Tradio Fountain Pentel

A fountain pen with the perfect combination of style and performance. A flexible plastic nib creates a variety of line widths, from thick to thin, depending on the angle and pressure applied. The innovative, see-thru free-flowing system delivers a consistent ink flow for smooth, effortless writing from the first stroke to the last. The ergonomic barrel design provides added comfort and writing control. Black ink. Uses Pentel’s MLJ20 refill in black.

TRJ50A-A

The pen is $10.00, but on sale during our Make Your Mark sale through the end of April at $8.50. The MLJ20 refill is $3.95.

The next time you’re in the store, check it out!

———————-

Tim Jennen, Marketing Manager/Buyer
Wet Paint: Artists’ Materials & Framing

Refillable! This is very exciting news to me, as my major gripe with the (disposable) Fountain Pentels I’ve used is that they fade with age… hopefully the ink in the cartridges is non-fading, or I can figure out a non-fading ink solution for this. I can’t wait to try one… I’m gonna try and make it over to Wet Paint this weekend, and I’ll give you a comparison to the disposable models once I try this out.

So now Wet Paint is apparently the only US supplier for two of the greatest cartooning tools ever created… the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (which we’ve mentioned many times before) and the Fountain Pentel. I believe they are also the last place left that you can buy supplies for gocco screen printing machines, which are quite wonderful.

If you’re looking for a specific art supply and can’t find it anywhere, contacting Wet Paint is a good bet… they have an online store with their wares as well, so you don’t have to live in the Twin Cities to get a hold of these wonderful tools. Their prices are great too… we’re very lucky to have them in the Twin Cities.

Recently, 7000 BC was approached about participating in Izzy’s 50 States Jam — and Danny stepped up and created New Mexico’s contribution.

Just a friendly reminder.

Please join us on March 24th from 2:00 – 4:00 PM at Cafe Driade* in Chapel Hill, NC.

Currently weather conditions for Saturday are for partly cloudy skies and 84°.

*if the weather is nice, otherwise we will meet at Open Eye Cafe in Carrboro, NC. Same time.

ncwccc.com

The 700 projects have greatly expanded since my last post… the 700 Things group was started to create 700 lists of 700 things to name and draw. Here is the current list of 700 projects you can participate in:

700 Things
700 Hoboes
700 Zombies
700 Pirates
700 Underwear Clad Vigilante Mutants
700 Bunnies
700 Unicorns
700 Robots

We’ve previously mentioned the 700 Hobos Project on a few occasions. ApeLad, by far the most prolific drawer of hobos (and also one of the best) recently completed his interpretations of all 700 of John Hodgman’s 700 hobos (plus change). Without missing a beat, he announced the new 700 Underwear Clad Vigilante Mutants project. I’ll definitely be participating. This time the names are all user submitted… they have 640 at the time of this post. Then the drawing begins!

In addition, a 700 Bunnies Project just popped up. I’ll probably start a 700 Gangsters project when the Vigilante Mutants comes to an end, unless someone beats me to it.

I recently found out about the search engine goodsearch.com, which donates a penny for every search you make to the charity of your choice. This is an easy way for comics enthusiasts to help out the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The search engine is powered by yahoo, so it should work pretty well. Here’s a news video about it.

You can see on the site how much has been raised so far for the charity of your choice… so far, in the history of the search engine, a total of $1.89 has been raised for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. We can do a lot better than that. Get searching! I just made them four cents!

Obviously, one person doesn’t make a ton of difference doing this, but an organized effort definitely can. The above video mentions one charity that made over 2 grand.

Unfortunately for the Fantagraphics Legal Defense Fund, only non-profits can earn money from goodsearch… otherwise I’d suggest searching for them, since the CBLDF has unfortunately decided not to assist them with their current legal troubles. However, you can still do yourself a favor and support Fantagraphics by buying some of their numerous excellent books!

Saturday Open Studio