Reluctantly reunited, Tyler and Rose have rejoined the S.Q.R.L., the covert agency that nearly destroyed them. Now, in Los Alamos, the discoveries they make about the organization’s history will lead to even more mystery — and greater danger.
This book collects issues 8 through 11 of Raised By Squirrels, a gallery of new art, and the first four Squirrel Tales.
Available, along with volume 1, at the Raised By Squirrels site.
Fantagraphics, one of the world’s finest publishers of comic art, is seeking financial aid to help battle their current legal woes with writer Harlan Ellison. You can read more about it here.
Here’s a small excerpt…
Here’s how you can help:
1. BUY OUR BOOKS. Yes, we know you’re probably already doing this, but surely this is a good time to give all your friends and relatives gifts. Seriously, we have a web site full of beautiful books and the sale of our books helps pay our lawyers.
2. GIVE US DOUGH. You can donate money to the Fantagraphics Defense Fund if you’re so inclined. This money will be deposited in a separate account and used exclusively to pay our lawyers. We know that there are hundreds of good causes to contribute to; we know that most of our readers are on a budget; we know you have your own problems; we know your life does not revolve around helping Fantagraphics; and we appreciate that you have probably bought our books in the past and will probably continue to buy those books that interest you. No pressure. But, if you have the money and want to support us, we will be deeply and sincerely appreciative of anything you would be willing to donate — from five bucks to, well, the sky’s the limit. A handful of big donations from the well-off would help us immensely. Small contributions, even letters of support, will boost our morale.
My second favorite holiday of the year (after 24 Hour Comics Day) just got a lot better… Free Comic Book Day on May 5th is now also Free Mini-Comic Day!
Read the information about how to submit your mini-comics here.
SUBMISSIONS
For 2007, FMCD has this list of guidelines those who wish to parcipate:
*All comics must be printed in mini-comic format. Anything ranging from 4.25 x 5.5 to 7 x 8 in size.
*Interior and exterior artwork may be in b&w, greyscale, or color. White paper is preferred for interior pages.
*Comics must be no less than 4 pages(covers included)to no more than 36 pages long. Binding options and choice of paper types are up to the creators.
*All entries can by either printed up by the creator on their own, or from any outside printer. Mini-Komix will be available to print out any comics for FMCD, but only until Apr. 13, 2007.
*Story content for each comic cannot contain sex, nudity, or explicit violence.
*Comics submitted may contain ads for the creators, artists, or publishers who printed them, or someone associated with them.
*Each issue must be actual comics, comic strips, or comic stories. No artbooks, sketchbooks or personal catalogs.
*The actual comic may be either original to FMCD, or a reprint of past material from the creators.
*Send in only completed submissions. No sample drawings or sketch art.
*All entries must have the FMCD logo printed somewhere on the front of the each comic book.
*The minimum accepted amount of copies per comic is 25. The maximum amount is 75. Send no more or less than that.
*Post all finished submissions to: P.O. Box 53113, Atlanta, GA. 30355
*All entries must be recieved no later than Apr. 23, 2007.
*No comics from the FMCD 2007 lineup may be distributed or given away prior to May 5, 2007.
*All who submit a title to FMCD can give them away on their own either through their own site, or at any store signing/convention on May 5, 2007 or afterwards.If you need any further info about FMCD, please email us!
Don’t know how to make a mini-comic? Download and print our How to Make Mini-Comics mini-comic to learn how.
Chapter five of Far Arden, Kevin Cannon’s 288 Hour comic featuring Armitage Shanks, Arctic Pirate (which you can read more about here) has been posted! You can start at the beginning here, or click on the image below to start at chapter four if you already read the first three.
I recommend starting at the beginning even if you’ve already read it, as even in its incomplete state (currently one third completed!), the story is complex and layered, and already greatly rewards rereading.
Make sure to leave comments and encouragement for Kevin on the Big Time Attic blog here!
There is a Cartoon Jam in San Francisco tonight starting at6:30 pm. It will be at Cafe International on Height st, so bring your drawing materials and jam with us.
WE NEED YOUR JAM ART: if you have pages, corpses and other art created at the SF-Cell Jams please bring it tonight so that we can figure out what to use for our APE publication(s).
Meet:
Start at 6:30
address: 508 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117-3407View Map
4155527390
The Cartoon Art Museum will have a benefit and opening on the first day of Wondercon 2007, March 2. The show features 12 artist and the worlds they have created through their art. The cost for those who are attending Wondercon and have their badge with them (and museum members too) is only $5.00. Thats a savings of $1 on the regular admission and you also get to have some refreshments, meet some talented artist, and help a unique institution.
From the website:
February 24 – June 17, 2007
Opening Reception:
Friday, March 2 from 8:00 to 11:00pmA great comic builds a world for its readers. Whether it’s futuristic adventure or medieval fantasy, the farthest reaches of reality or a someplace tantalizingly close to home, comics offer an escape into an unforgettable world. The Cartoon Art Museum’s latest exhibition, Worlds of Wonder, explores twelve different comic-book and comic-strip illustrators and the worlds built from their imaginations. Their work runs the gamut of fantasy, science fiction, folk legend, magical realism, and stories almost too good to be the truth.
Featured artists include Charlie Adlard (Astronauts in Trouble: 1959), Tom Beland (True Story Swear To God), Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha (Fables), Gene Colan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Pia Guerra (Y The Last Man), Shepherd Hendrix (Stagger Lee), Kevin Huizenga (Ganges), Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon), Patrick McDonnell (Mutts), Linda Medley (Castle Waiting), Lark Pien (Long Tail Kitty, Flight), and Gene Yang & Thien Pham (Three Angels).
Many of the featured artists will be appearing at San Francisco’s two major comic conventions, WonderCon and The Alternative Press Expo (APE). For more information on these events, please visit Comic-Con International’s official website, www.comic-con.org
The opening reception for Worlds of Wonder will be held on Friday, March 2, 2007, from 8:00 to 11:00pm. Admission to this ticketed event is $10 to the general public and $5 for members of the Cartoon Art Museum and any WonderCon attendee (with WonderCon badge). Many of the featured artists and special WonderCon guests will be in attendance. Please check back for special updates as the convention approaches.
We recently completed work on the first volume of the Cartoonist Conspiracy L’il Library (to be used at this weekend’s Mouth Off event at The Center For Book Arts)… How to Make Mini-Comics. Click on the image below to download the pdf… then print it out, cut it up, fold it, staple it and learn. Please note that this is a pretty big (4MB) file, so please help conserve our bandwidth and only download it if you intend to use it.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License. It may be printed and distributed freely. It is intended to be an educational tool, and it is our hope that it will be widely used as a “textbook” for teaching how to make a mini-comic.
Thanks to Adam Wirtzfeld, Bob Lipski, Maxeem, Bud Burgy, Zander Cannon, Kevin Cannon, Dank!, and Eric Lappegard for helping me (Steven Stwalley) put this together.
Note that any cartoonist who is interested can contribute a volume to the new Cartoonist Conspiracy Li’l Library. This is intended to become a downloadable pdf library of cartooning tips and techniques in mini-comics format, all using the above creative commons license. Let us know if you’re interested.
February 24 | 6:00-11:00 PM | Heights Community Center | Albuquerque, NM
7000 BC will have a table at the Breakin’ Hearts hip-hop jam and b-boy competition, presented by the Albuquerque League. Fakin’ the Funk will be available, along with other books from the group.
Update: Some of what went on there.
Mark your calendars if you want to learn some tips and techniques for drawing for Flash:
Minneapolis based animation and design studio PUNY presents “CLEAN STROKES: Digital Drawing Techniques For Flash.” This presentation will feature various digital drawing techniques for creating art that is used in animation and video game art for clients like Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Presentation includes digital inking techniques for traditional artists using the inexpensive 4X6 Wacom Graphire tablet and a “sculpt and stroke” technique using the mouse. Extensive Q&A to answer particular questions about importing or creating art in Adobe Flash.
http://www.punyentertainment.com
When: February 21st 6:30 social 7:00 Presentation. Admission is free and open to the public. Free pizza and refreshments.
Where: FlashMN at Easel Training
More info and directions here: http://www.flashmn.com/
This month, some members of the Minneapolis Cartoonist Conspiracy cell embarked on the Gross Comic Project at our monthly Saturday Open Studio. It isn’t what it sounds like.
Like 24 hour comic day, the goal of the Gross Comic Project is to produce a certain number of pages in a certain amount of time… in this case 144 pages in 144 hours… a gross of pages, get it? 12 hours a month for a year.
Unlike 24 hour comic day, however, the goal of these comics is quality more than speed… if we are going to invest this much time in it, we want to produce something fun, readable and well-drawn, rather than just quickly produced. To that end, we allow all the planning, drawing, and even working on actual pages outside of the monthly 12 hour sessions that a cartoonist chooses to do. However, the 12 pages should be completed by the end of the 12 hours.
If you go over, that’s fine, just get it done as quickly as possible after that… if it takes you until the next month, though, I’d say that would be a definite failure.
Here are the completed first month’s 12 pages from this weekend:
Here are the first 12 pages of Kevin Cannon’s Oceanis.
Here are the first 12 pages of Zander Cannon’s Heck.
Here are the first 12 pages of Steven Stwalley’s Ezekiel Fishman Versus the Martians.
Note that this project was inspired by the stellar work Kevin Cannon is doing on his 288 Hour Graphic novel Far Arden. Since he is doing a Gross Comic this year as well, I think he will probably hold some sort world’s record for this sort of thing (he probably already does). That’s right, Kevin will be doing (at least) 432 pages in an hour this year… more pages than there are days in the year!
We have at least 6 other cartoonists joining us in this undertaking next month… Dank!, Shad Petosky, Tim Sievert, Maxeem, Curtis Square-Briggs and Eric Lappegard.
You can join us too!
We’ll link to all participants from this blog… just send the link to us, or put it in the comments.
Our next 12 hour session in Minneapolis will be at the next Minneapolis Saturday Open Studio (where it will be every month). The Saturday Open Studios happen on a different day every month, so you’ll have to check the site for the dates. The next two are March 17th and April 21st at:
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
Those of you participating other places may want to consider doing it on the same day, because it will be more fun to have all this stuff hit at once, but it isn’t a requirement.
Judging from the pages so far, I think this is going to be a pretty amazing project to look back on in a year.
