Hey artist,

The second Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco meeting of 2009 is on Thursday Jan 29th at the Church St. Café at 6:30pm.

Info: The Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco (CCSF) meets twice a month at 6:30 pm on the second and last Thursday of the month at the CHURCH STREET CAFé in San Fransisco CA.

WHEN: Thursday Jan 29, 2009 6:30 pm to usually sometimes between 9 and 10 pm.
WHERE: Church St. Cafe 260 Church Street San Francisco, CA 94114
MATERIALS: Bring your favorite drawing tools, paper, etc.

Keep your ink from freezing — draw indoors.
Sat., Jan. 24, noon to 4 p.m., MCBA Bindery (the high tables)
Join us at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and draw for a while. If you can’t find us in the MCBA building, ask the friendly person working in the MCBA bookstore. This is an open studio — all are welcome.

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

Sat. Open Studio schedule:
February 21 in the Bindery (the high tables)
March 7 in the Flexi Space (the low tables)
April 11 in the Bindery (the high tables)

Now available for download — the latest issue of string, the regular anthology of comics from 7000 BC. In honor of the dark season just passed, this issue features Courtney Angermeier’s Solstice.

Download a PDF of string #11 and check out future issues every month.

Previous issues: string #1 | string #2 | string #3 | string #4 | string #5| string #6 | string #7 | string #8 | string #9 | string #10

Good God has it been cold up here! We had been hovering around the minus 20 degree mark all this week and cartoonist STILL showed up to the jam! More than the signature page would have you believe as well! So, what’s keeping you from showing up to the next one?

Is it our long standing feud with the LARPers? Don’t worry. We have a truce. Is it because you have better things to do? Like what? I doubt there is anything better to do than to travel to St. Paul and create a jam comic. So, quit kidding yourself and show up to the next one!

If you’d like to participate in the next St. Paul jam, just show up on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 to Cosmic’s Coffee! Bring yourself and bring your friends, by force if you have to! Some cartoonists forced there friends to show up last time! What’s stopping you?

Want to see what we do while at the jams? Click on the image towards the bottom of this post to view our latest creation!

With President elect Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony this Tuesday, we decided to pay tribute to this historic event. Also, there is a guest appearance by your favorite neighborhood web slinger!

Check it out!

Kirk Anderson has another presentation coming up Saturday, January 31st…

Saturday, Jan. 31, 10:00 am
Book talk and cartoon presentation
“Is Your Country a Banana Republic?”
Banana Republic: Adventures in Amnesia, by Kirk Anderson
St. Martin’s Table
2001 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis

“Is Your Country a Banana Republic?”: Local author and political cartoonist Kirk Anderson will show cartoons from his latest book, BANANA REPUBLIC: Adventures in Amnesia, discuss its timely themes and sign and illustrate books. With America’s funny little banana republic quirks like torture, rendition, surveillance, secret evidence, indefinite imprisonment without charge, an unstable currency and unsupportable foreign debt, we’re not getting rid of our banana republic ways, we’re only getting used to them — even as our republic gets a new top banana.
BANANA REPUBLIC is a collection of the weekly, quarter-page cartoons of the same name that ran on the Star Tribune’s opinion page for years. Come on down for a fun, provocative and irreverent presentation.

For more about the book, visit Molotov Comix Press at www.MolotovComix.com

I thought I would call your attention to webcomics.com. For the last few months they have been posting a ton of excellent cartooning lessons… it is quickly becoming one of the best places to look on the web for this sort of information (along with our own Cartooning Lessons rss feed, which you can find here). Many of the articles are user submitted, so if you have information to share, it is a good opportunity to do so. Go check it out!

Selby Avenue, St. Paul – looking west circa 1962. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

Out with the old and in with the new! Ring in 2009 with a bunch of crazy comic creatin’ cats at the next meeting of the St. Paul Cartoonist Conspiracy Cell! Just bring some drawing utensils, an idea for the jam, and a few bucks to get a tasty beverage — the baristas really do appreciate that.

The jam will start promptly at 6:30 and run until…whenever.

The meetings are open to anyone who wants to draw with us, and the results are posted here sooner rather than later.

To join us come to:
Cosmic’s Coffee Shoppe
189 Snelling Ave N.
St. Paul, MN 55104
(Northwest corner of Snelling and Selby)

More not than often we head on over to grab a brew at:
O’Gara’s Bar and Grill
164 Snelling Ave N
St. Paul, MN 55104
(Southeast corner of Snelling and Selby)

Bus info here.

Any questions? Ideas for the jam? Don’t have a clue who or what Krampus is? Please discuss on our message board.

We hope to see you!

Just one more reminder, since it is the second Thursday instead of the first this month. More info here.

Our good friends at the Midwest Comic Book Association (organizers of FallCon and MicroCon) are looking for lots of people to make posters for MicroCon 2009. What fun! Here is the scoop:

Hello Everyone!

The new year is upon us and the mighty MCBA is gearing up! Initial preperations are under way for both MicroCon & FallCon so we thought it would be a good time to send out this special request! 

Over the years, we’ve had many dedicated creators that have generously volunteered their creative super powers to help promote and enhance MCBA events. A perfect example was last years awesome MCBA FallCon Sketch Card promotion. The positive feedback from that effort was nothing short of spectacular and given that success and the many more recent requests that we’ve received from our creative community, we thought it would be a good idea to offer a new volunteer opportunity for creators to get involved.

Every year, for MicroCon and FallCon we distribute about 15,000 flyers & 150 posters into local/regional comic book stores, libraries, book stores, community centers, music stores, night clubs, tattoo parlors, etc. Once again, this year we’ll not only be following that pattern, but expanding it significantly. That’s where you come in…

In response to many comic book folk requests, we’d like to officially invite anyone of you would like to do a flyer for MicroCon 2009 to participate. Generally speaking, we’re looking to distribute flyers promoting MicroCon that are designed and created by the people who make the comic book media magic happen. All flyers & posters donated will be distributed and everyone is welcome to participate! Here’s the particulars…

All flyers should probably include the following:

* MicroCon Comic Book Party
* Sunday April 26, 2009
* 10AM to 4PM
* Minnesota State Fairgrounds
  1621 Randall Avenue
  St. Paul, MN 55108
* Tickets available at the door! $7.00 per person. Children 9 & Under FREE!
  Get $1.00 Off Admission with a canned food shelf donation!
* MCBA logo (e-mail us for a high res copy)
* Some sort of call to action!
* For More Info: email MNCBA at aol.com (replace the at with an @)   www.MNCBA.com   612-237-1801
* Creator acknowledgement. Your name & website and/or contact info

Other elements of interest:

* Over 60 Comic Book Creators in Attendance! 
* Huge Comic Book Marketplace!
* Door Prizes & Prize Drawings!
* Gigantic MCBA Grab Bags to the First 500 Attendees!
* Free Parking!

Format notes:

* Flyers will be printed in black & white (8.5″ X 11″). Posters in color (11″ X 17″).
* High res Jpegs are preferred.

Creative notes:

We are not 100% committed to a specific style or content, format, layout or presentation. We encourage you to design and implement a concept of your own creation and that you’re happy with! If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to e-mail us!

Timeliness:

The sooner the better! We’re planning to send out our first wave of flyers on January 31st, 2009

Please submit to:

MNCBA at aol.com (replace the at with an @)

So there you have it! Thanks in advance to those of you who will be participating and  for those of you who can’t or are unable, please remember this is strictly a volunteer thing and it ain’t no thang!

Thanks! Hope to hear from you soon!
 

Midwest Comic Book Association Volunteers   

SOMETHING YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO CHECK OUT!
Local comic book artist extraordinaire Christopher Jones is involved in a way cool event! Seriously, take the time to check this out!
 

 
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=55426038472 

2009 MCBA MICROCON & FALLCON DATES

For those of you who like to plan way in advance, here’s the 2009 MCBA event dates & times.
 

MCBA MICROCON COMIC BOOK PARTY

Sunday April 26, 2009 – 10AM to 4PM

Minnesota State Fairgrounds

1265 Snelling Ave

Saint Paul, MN. 55108

MCBA FALLCON COMIC BOOK CELEBRATION 

Saturday & Sunday, October 10 & 11, 2009 – 10AM to 5PM Both Days

Minnesota State Fairgrounds

1265 Snelling Ave

Saint Paul, MN. 55108

INFORMATION BITS:

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, comments or concerns!

E-mail

MNCBA at aol.com (replace the at with an @)  

Myspace

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=102936863

Facebook
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8300987767  

Comic Art Fans
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=32061   

Website 
www.MNCBA.com 

Saturday, January 10 | 3:00 | New York Pizza Department | 2nd and Central | Albuquerque, NM

The January 7000 BC meeting will be held at New York Pizza Department on the northwest corner of 2nd and Central.

Start time is 3:00 so that if it turns out the Rail Runner is operating this weekend, Santa Feans can ride the train.

Among other things, we’ll be collecting comics and making our last-minute preparations for 7000 BC’s appearance at Phoenix Cactus Comicon.

New members are always welcome. Send an email with any questions.