St Paul Sept 2012 jam

October is looking like a crazy month for cartooning events in the Twin Cities. Get out your planner, here’s the calendar for your convenience.

October 4th: (6:30PM-10PM or so) The monthly first Thursday Cartoonist Conspiracy Jam at Diamond’s Coffee Shop in Minneapolis. Watch this blog for further information.

October 6th: (10AM-5PM) Fallcon at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Education Building (1265 Snelling Ave, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108). The Midwest Comic Book Association‘s wonderful local conventions are always a great time, full of a huge variety of cartoonists… all generously given free table space. Admission $8.00 per adult. Children 9 & Under Free. Get $1.00 off with a canned food shelf donation. (Unfortunate note: Fallcon central online, The Midwest Comic Book Association website, is currently down)

October 13th: (10AM-5PM) Twin Cities Book Festival, organized by Rain Taxi. Held this year at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Progress Center (1265 Snelling Ave, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108). One of the featured guests is the great Chris Ware. Since there is no conflict with Fallcon this year, I’m guessing there will be a whole lot of cartoonists showing up for this. Free Admission, Free Parking.

October 18th: (6:30PM-10PM or so) The monthly third Thursday Cartoonist Conspiracy jam at Cahoot’s Coffee in St. Paul. Watch this blog for further information.

October 20-21: (10AM-10AM) 24 Hour Comic Day at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts! Watch this blog for further information. We haven’t registered on the international site yet, but that can be found here.

And finally, not in October, but very early in November:

November 2nd: (7PM-10PM) Lutefisk Sushi Volume E opening/release party. This edition’s featured artist is Zander Cannon. At some point in October, there will also be a collating party to put the bento boxes together.

Mpls Aug Jam

Mpls sept 12

We are looking for a few more volunteers to help us put our upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume E event together (reminder… deadline this Saturday September 15th!). Specifically, we are looking for:

– A person to help promote the event online, ideally someone who digs using the social networking stuff the kids seem to like using these days.
– A person to help make signs for the event
– A person to coordinate food for the event

We’ll also want additional help with collating the boxes when the time comes… but it is usually pretty easy to find people for that.

Thanks for considering helping out.

To volunteer, please contact lmcginty(at)alteredesthetics.org

The results of the poll are in.
The featured artist of next year’s comic art show at Ae will be

Brittney Sabo!

Britt is a Minnesota native and MCAD graduate, best known for Francis Sharp in the Grip of the Uncanny. If you’re not already familiar with her work, be sure to check it out!

Time to get drawing. Perhaps work on your Lutefisk Sushi contribution. Meet, talk and draw with a few of your fellow cartoonists at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. We’ll be at the coveted high tables, just past the MCBA store.

Hopefully there’ll be a coffee shop in the building for sandwiches, snacks and cold beverages. (There wasn’t one last month, but perhaps something has moved in since. If not, there’s a convenience store across the street for snacks.) There are handy outlets nearby for your electrical devices. Plus (again, hopefully) free, slow coffee-shop wi-fi.

Saturday, September 8, from noon until 4 p.m., Bindery (high tables)

This is an open studio — all are welcome.

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

Future Sat. Open Studios:
October 20 (It’s 24-Hour Comic Day) – Bindery and FlexiSpace starting at 10 a.m.
November 3 – FlexiSpace (metal tables)
December 8 – Bindery (high tables)

The Lutefisk Sushi Volume E Deadline is in Less Than Two Weeks!

And, gee… that is really more than enough time to get something together! We’re not building the freaking Taj Mahal, here! I’ve seen mini-comics masterpieces drawn and printed in under eight hours! What the hell are you freaking out about? Don’t make me slap you! I swear, I’ll do it!

We want your mini-comics!*

To participate:
-Draw, print and deliver 160 copies of a mini-comic (any format) to Altered Esthetics before September 15th.
-Show up for the opening gallery celebration November 2nd at Altered Esthetics and have a good time.

That’s it. All submissions are accepted until the unlikely event that we can no longer cram them into a box. Every person who submits 160 mini-comics gets a box.**

Lutefisk Sushi is a hand-silkscreened, limited-edition box set of Minnesota mini-comics. This is the fifth edition… previous editions have contained between 35 and 55 comics each. This year’s featured artist and box-cover creator is Eisner-Award-winning cartoonist Zander Cannon (Double Barrel, Top 10, Chainsaw Vigilante).

Read more about submission details here.

* You must be Minnesotan to particiapte.
** limit one per artist regardless of number of works submitted, and artists who team to create a comic must share a box

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.