cleveland, ho!

Tomorrow at noon, the doors will open for the very first time at the Genghis Con, an Independent Comics show in Cleveland, Ohio.  One of the schmoes behind a table there, hawking his wears will be this guy.  I jump on a megabus tonight at 11:59pm (after working at Quimby's until 10pm), ride through the night, and get to Cleveland at 7:30am.  I'm gonna make a detour to a much-recommended restuarant, Tommy's, and then up to the Beachland Ballroom, where the event will be held from 12-6pm.  After that?  WHO KNOWS!  I'll have about six hours until I need to be back at the bus stop, to head back to Chicago, getting in around 5:30am.  I'll be back at work at five and a half hours later.  Whew, I'm exhausted already.

Ahem. At the show I'll have all my standards, The Trugglemat, Spitting Pennies, What is This? both Alpha City Comicbooks, plus, In Anticipation of Hugs.  As always I'll also have a bunch of free things, comics, uncle envelope propaganda, stickers, and a brand new button.  This thing is probably the most impractical object I've ever affixed a drawing to.  Busy Beaver has started to make OVAL buttons, they're 1.75 x 2.75" much to big for the hipster chic of their standard 1" buttons.  I'm excited about them.

A note about the drawing above.  I drew it on the back of my exhibitor badge at the Windy City Comicon this year, as badges tend to turn around while hanging from your neck (this way people will always know who I am).  If you're hoping I'm gonna look like that tomorrow, sorry, I don't have a haircut (in fact I'm desperately overdue for one), my shoes aren't very new anymore, and I make no promises about having brushed my teeth, or wearing pants.  You never know, I may remember to wear pants.

milwaukee zine fest/pinstriped bloodbath release party

 Yesterday I trekked past the "Cheddar Curtain" to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Milwaukee Zine Fest.  It was so much fun!  I went up there with Matt, Leslie and Ramsey (see previous post for links to their blogs and awesome zines).  The fest was at Falcon Bowl, a local nest for the Polish Falcons, which features a bar, bowling alley in the basement and a community ballroom space.  The space housed about 30 tables, full of folks from Milwaukee, Chicago, and Madison.  They all had really interesting zines, and I think I left with more printed matter than I showed up with.

My travel companions/table mates were lots of fun, and I had a great time with them all day.  We ate food from the Riverwest Co-Op and then ate dinner at the Palomino, and had nice conversations.  Everyone at the table had a good day selling trading and giving their publications away.  I moved 85 different books off my table, 20 of which I got money for, the rest were trades or free comics.  I feel bad saying this (as I don't want to talk down any of the comics shows at which I exhibited this year), but it was probably the most enjoyable tabling I've done this year.

As we were leaving, Nicolle, one of the show's organizers asked our table when we would be organizing a Chicago Zine fest.  The rest of our trip was peppered with planning for a zine fest here in Chicago.  So, I'll keep you informed about those plans.

NEW TOPIC:

    This Tuesday I'll be participating in the release party for Pinstriped Bloodbath,  the Chicago gangster comics anthology I'm in.  It's at good ol' Quimby's Bookstore at 7pm.  I'll be there, before hand working and setting up for the show, but my shift ends at 7, then I'll be able to hang out, draw in your copy of the comic, and talk like a gangster, see?  Yeah, see?  On hand should be the following other creators:

Bernie McGovern

Nate Beaty

Rickey Gonzales

Neil "Neil Jam" Fitzpatrick

Sam Sharpe

Jeremy Tinder 

& Editor/Organizer Jeff Zwirek

It should be ton of funs.

freewheel

    Liz Baillie's comics are awesome!  I met her, and started reading her work right when she debuted her tenth and final issue of My Brain Hurts.  The story focuses on two middle schoolers growing up in New York City, and really gives a powerfully dramatic glimpse into an age just between childhood and adulthood.  The thing My Brain Hurts does so well, is it transports you into the characters' world,  and that is true on some degree with all of Liz's work.

    I've also really been enjoying her 2009 Minicomic of the Month Club. Each month she's sent a comic out to subscribers, experimenting with different story telling techniques, and genres.  It's been a fabulous companion to my other monthly subscription, Uncle Envelope.  Tiny little paper surprises at the beginning of the month, usually a day apart from each other, almost as a cure or reward for the misery of mailing out the Rent and utility checks.  I'm really happy I jumped on the MOTMC boat when I had the chance, because Liz is not planning on doing a 2010 subscription.

  One of the prime examples of stepping into the Liz Baillie world is her super meta-comic Sing Along Forever, a comic love letter to her favorite band, the Bouncing Souls.  The comic is of her and fellow comics artist, Robin Enrico, going to a summer-time outdoor punk music festival to meet the band.  The comic's mission is to tell Liz's personal history with the band's music.  The comic version of Liz's mission is for that day's events to be the narrative of the comic book, with her reminiscence of the Soul's impact on her life as flashbacks.  Your reading a comic book of characters of comic book creators creating a comic book. What?  Ugh, that came out far more complicated than it really is, and totally dragged me off course.


    Ahem.  I remember reading Sing Along Forever on the bus heading to work one day.  We got to my stop, so I had to close the book, and get off the bus.  As I pushed the doors open, it felt not as if I was stepping off the bus, but as if I was stepping out of Liz's world, and back into the streets of Chicago.  Sing Along Forever is out-of-print, though I think the Bouncing Souls actually have a limited quantity available to sell.  Do you see a foreboding pattern emerging here?

   FREEWHEEL!  Liz's follow up serial to My Brain Hurts. One part extension of Liz's oeuvre, both visually and thematically ("at risk" youth living without a support network, losing her only true friend, and the struggle to get him back) - one part complete departure!  The protagonist, Jamie has bounced around abusive and neglectful foster homes, but has always had her older brother as an anchor of support.  One day she finds her brother is gone, on his way to Ithaca (no wonder, it's GORGES!  Am I right?  Am I right?  This bumper sticker knows what I'm talking about).  She sets out on her own to find him.  Jamie is younger than My Brain Hurts' main character, Kate, and her adventures are more light-hearted, less grounded in reality, as she becomes entwined with a secret village of forest-dwellers.
Visually, Liz is taking so many more risks with page layout, which adds to the whimsical nature of the story.

    Issue three of the minicomic came out in September, each issue has been better than the last.  Today I found out there wont be a fourth issue. See?  Foreboding pattern solidified.  When I read Liz was ceasing production of Freewheel minicomics, my little minicomic heart sank. Then I thought, "we should totally jack the prices up on Freewheel at work!"

    I've failed to mention that Freewheel was originally a short-lived webcomic on Fall of Autumn's website.  That got nixed, and restarted as a minicomic series, as My Brain Hurts was wrapping up.  Now Liz is reverting BACK to webcomics for Freewheel's publication, and launching http://www.freewheelcomics.com.  The comic will update every Tuesday and Thursday, and is starting with the first issue.  So check it out!  It's totally worth it.  A great webcomic died to make way for a great minicomic, which in turn has died for a great webcomic.

It's the ciiiiircle of liiii-eeee-iiiiife! 

Elton John, ladies and gentlemen.

another last minute show!

robot headache

 I've been drawing everything except comics right now...AAAARGH!  I gotta get sequential, or I'll be that robot, my head exploding.

  It's not official, but I think I'm definitely hopping into a last-minute vacancy at my friends Leslie, Ramsey, and Matthew's table at the Milwaukee Zine Fest this upcoming weekend. Here's the basic info:

Milwaukee Zine Fest
Saturday, November 14, 2009
11am-6pm
 @ Falcon Bowl

801 E Clarke St

Milwaukee, WI

 

This'll be my first zine fest, which I'm super excited about.  I get the feeling that zine fests are more aligned with my personal values than with standard comics show.  I don't mean to knock comics shows, I love those things, but the impression I get is that comics shows are more business, and zine fests are more about the heart-power of self publishing.

 

genghis con

Oh, Hi...Oh.

Last minute decisions have been made, megabus tickets have been purchased.  I've decided to exhibit at an Indy Comics Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Saturday, November 28.  It'll be really exciting to be exposed to folks who may not trek out to some of the shows I've been to this year.  Plus, I've never been to Cleveland (the bus depot doesn't count), so I'm excited to check out the sights.

  So if you're near Cleveland, or are looking for an excuse to visit the Forest City come to Genghis Con!

be there or be square twice!

  Monday! The 5th!  That's today!  Liz Baillie (My Brain Hurts, Freewheel), MK Reed (Cross Country, Americus), and Ken Dahl (Welcome to the Dahl House, Monsters) will be at Quimby's (1854 W North Ave) reading and signing their brand new books.  It'll be awesome, you should totally come, shortly before 7pm, so as to enjoy the event in its entirety.

Then, exactly 24 hours later, at the same frickin' spot in the exact same store, Chicago's own Grant Reynolds will be signing his new book Comic Diorama, from Top Shelf Comics.  Tuesday! The 6th! 7pm!

  These four folks are all awesome individuals, and stellar artists, their books are all really good, and they deserve our support.  So if you can, help show them a proper reception here in Chicago and come over to Quimby's.

  October is actually FULL of events at Quimby's including a stop on John Porcellino's tour, so check them all out.

ok bye.

sock-monster #592

http://www.sock-monster.com

sock-monster #591

http://www.sock-monster.com

spx

 

this is what I'm really thinking about

Tomorrow morning I'm jumping in a car with Jeff Zwirek (whose anthology Pinstriped Bloodbath will debut there -I have a piece in there), his brother and Sam Sharpe, and heading down to Bethesda, Maryland for the Small Press Expo!

At one point, SPX's organizers talked about having some of its returning volunteers (including me) write about creators they were excited to see at the show.  I started several of them, but nothing ever materialized, so I deleted what I had written.  There's really too much awesomeness to write about in advance.  I promise to write a recap.

Sock-Monster wont be updating until Tuesday.

I am definitely excited to return to Sticky Fingers Bakery for breakfast cinnamon rolls.

back to life!

It feels like I've been running on hyper-drive lately, and have missed a few important posts.

Alpha City Comics Issue Two has been published!  It's big, blue, and AWESOME!  I'll be posting it for sale soon on both Etsy and from the well.  I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I hope you enjoy it too.  Kevin and I will be launching a website soon, that will publish Alpha City pages twice a week.

Windy City Comicon was this past weekend.  It was lots of fun. I got to meet a number of really neat people, both from behind my table and in front of others'.

There are a ton of amazing comics events happening in Chicago in the upcoming couple of months, take a look on the right side of the screen.  If you live in Chicago, go to these events.  If you don't live in Chicago, move here!

As you can see below this post, I've started drawing Sock-Monster comics again.  They'll be coming out fairly regularly now, as I write new print comics.  I'll try my hardest to not let print comics obstruct Sock-Monster's schedule.

sock-monster #590

why is ed mad?

 Why is Ed mad?

Is it because this woman is talking on her phone while ordering an espresso?  Is it because she is using poor grammar?  Is it because Ed's store, Century Repair and Supplies is not a coffee shop?  OR IS IT BECAUSE I MISSED MY DEADLINE TO FINISH DRAWING ALPHA CITY COMICS ISSUE TWO?!

Consider that my official "kicking myself in the butt" moment.  I missed the deadline by three days, but I set the deadline with a buffer, to guarantee the comic would be ready for the Windy City Comicon on Saturday (the drawing is done, everything's been printed, all I have to do now is bind the books).  Really, anything is better than last year, when I was still drawing the cover of issue one hours before the comicon.

in other news:

(or "you can't have varying degrees of flawlessness") 

In anticipation of the Windy City Comicon, the good folks at the Onion's AV Club decided to highlight  the "most flawless" and "most troubling" comics from a few of the con's exhibiting publishers.  Short Pants Press was honored with a mention. Sarah Becan's Ignatz nominated Ouija Interviews was listed their "most flawless," and my Sock-Monster collection, In Anticipation of Hugs was listed as their "most troubling."  It's probably my favorite Sock-Monster review to date.  I promise I'll be drawing more "grayish hellscapes" soon.

who...what...huh...how...(too much awesomeness to express)

Holy Cow and a half!  Have I got some news.

First of all, guess who's starting to work here:

on Wednesday. Here's a hint, it's me!  I've been in love with Quimby's since I first arrived in Chicago six years ago, and now I get to work behind the scenes.  I sure hope I don't suck at my job, because I'm expecting to learn a lot from it, and hoping to put a lot of energy into it as well, so I'd like to keep it for a long while.

Also guess who's playing their first show outside of my living room?

These guys!

Here's the flier:

 If you do the math, that's the day after the Windy City Comicon.  That's gonna be a CRAZY weekend.

You tell 'em, Charles "The Ox" Reiser! There's some hard work going on around my drafting table.  I had to halt production on Alpha City Comics, Issue Two (ACC #2 for those in the know), in order to meet a deadline for a comic that'll be in an anthology debuting at SPX (more on that LeightR).  Not only did I meet the deadline, I BEAT it!  So now I'm back on the ACC train, and barrelling through, since yesterday morning, I've completed three pages, and am on schedule to complete two more today!  My plan is to print the comic on the 14th, so I pretty much got two weeks to get it done.  But I'm gonna try to beat this deadline too.  We'll see what happens.

I think that's it...got anything else to say, Ox?

OH SNAP!

ed luce nominated for ignatz award

I was very excited a couple days ago, looking at the nominees for this year's Ignatz Awards, hoping there'd be a fun surprise, a friend or artist whose work I really like being nominated.  Or maybe Achewood wouldn't get nominated for best online comic, and someone else could win for a change.  Well, I wasn't disappointed (besides the fact that Achewood in fact was NOT nominated), as in the Promising New Talent category, tucked in the middle was the name Ed Luce.

I personally have never met Ed Luce, but his work was an influence on mine early on, as he and I share in the history of the Untouchable Leader Lampoon.  The Leader Lampoon is the comics & humor section of SUNY Fredonia's school newspaper.  While a student at Fredonia, I was a regular contributor to the Lampoon, and in my Junior Year became the editor, a title I held until I graduated from Fredonia in 2001.  When I first got to Fredonia, the Editor was a Senior, Chris Bishop.  He took me under his wing as a cartoonist, and made me fall in love with large areas of black from the tips of sharpies.  Following Chris' editorial tenure, Rich Fancher took over for a year, and then I got to take up the mantel. 

The Lampoon (which earned its "Untouchable" status my Freshman year, after Chris "dodged" a lawsuit for one of his comics), is one of the only papers from a SUNY school that had an active comics section.  Other SUNY papers that would come in to our office often had syndicated strips the papers would buy to print in their pages.  Usually they could only afford one strip.  The Leader Lampoon sometimes had FOUR whole pages of comics, by tons of students from a variety of majors, and points of view.

As an editor, I actually had a desk -the one right by the door, what were they thinking?!- and access to the filing cabinets full of old issues of the Leader from years past.  I used to spend hours, when I should have been drawing mine and Kevin Sciretta's first comics collaboration, SUPERFANTASTIQUE, reading through the old Lampoons from long before I arrived on campus.

That was where I first found the comics of Ed Luce.  I definitely remember the name, and that I really liked his stuff, though I can't now be sure what his work was.  I do remember a strip I'd like to think was his, a very surreal comic that involved photocopied characters, such as a photograph of a fish, and maybe a distiller?  Now I think I'm making things up.  

Ed's newer project, Wuvable Oaf comics is in its infancy, issues zero and one have been self published, and it's pretty awesome.  It follows the comedic hijinks of members of a gay bear community, the title character truly being a wuvable oaf, who runs a home for wayward cats.  The art is fantastic, and the humor is top notch.  Ed is certainly deserving of the Ignatz nomination.

I'm really excited a fellow Leader Lampooner has been nominated for an Ignatz. Go Blue Devils!

posting when i should be drawing

I just wanna post real quick about the upcoming WINDY CITY COMICON, so
when mid September comes around, nobody's all like "WHAT?! Nobody told me about this?!" Consider yourself warned. The Windy City Comicon is Windy City Comicoming!

This show will be super awesome! I'll be there with all my books, so will Short Pants Press (towing behind them, at least Sarah Becan, Grant Reynolds and Bernie McGovern). Jeff Lemire, Jeffrey Brown, Art Baltazar, Matt Kindt, Andy Jewett, and Nate Powell will all be there! Plus a ton of people whose reputation I really should know better, but don't. Check out the guest list. Also, I'll be smuggling Kevin in my back pack, so you can meet the dude who writes Alpha City Comics, as we unveil issue two!

Not to single him out, but Nate Powell needs a little spot lighting. This'll be his first year at Windy City, and he should get a big Chicago welcome. His work is AMAZING! His latest graphic novel, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf), won (and rightly so) the 2008 Ignatz for outstanding debut, and the 2009 Eisner for best graphic album. It blows my mind! Well, the book blew my mind when I read it, and it totally blows my mind that it's damn near IMPOSSIBLE to find it in Chicago right now! Luckily, Windy City has hooked you up, because with admission to the show, you have the opportunity to buy the book, as well as meet the dude. And meeting Nate Powell is an opportunity all on its own, because this guy is one of the nicest guys ever. He's super friendly and nice, and has some really funny arm gestures what's not to like?

Windy City was a great success last year, there were tons of folks, and everyone had a good time. The ticket price has increased from $5 to $10, BUT! You're getting 30 more creators to meet than you would have last year, plus, the program is expanding from a half-sheet of paper, to a FULL COLOR COMIC BOOK! Each creator got a page to do whatever they want with. I drew a brand new comic, and you can only get it in that program!

This'll also be the first show that I'll be selling What is This? my children's minicomic. I'll also have buttons and stickers and free comics for you. That's all I gotta say. go to the friggin show.

i just read a great book

So today, I finished lettering Alpha City Comics Issue Two! It's a time consuming endeavor, especially when you use a brush, and have a different font for every main character. It can also be a little painful on the fingers when you have a grip like mine on a brush. But I'm pretty excited that I can now ink the actual drawings.

Though I'm even more excited that I finished reading THIS:Johnny Hiro by Fred Chao, published by AdHouse Books. It's a trade paperback collection of minis Fred put out, as well as some unreleased work connected to the Johnny Hiro (half asian, all hero) world. This was my first contact with Johnny Hiro, and I've gotta say,

THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC!

I haven't laughed out loud as much as I did from this book in a while. It's humor was so smart! The comic timing was right on, and it looked like Fred had a lot of fun drawing it. The book really dances upon the line between comic book realism, and the impossible world of comics, as well as that between absurd comedy and heartfelt drama. One story seemed to drag a little, but maybe that's because Johnny wasn't being chased by samurais for once. Otherwise, every page of this book f'ing rocked my socks off. Luckily I was reading it at home. Definietly the most enjoyable read for me in a long while. Go read this book!

that's all.

pencils down

Tonight I finished primary penciling on Alpha City Comics Issue Two. There are tons of spaces left in the pages that need more detail, but those will be filled in as I ink, which I will start doing tomorrow morning. I'm very excited about this book, the pages are screaming for ink, or maybe it's my brush that's dying to make marks over my pencil lines. Regardless, I'm really excited to get started.

I feel like Kevin and I are learning to make comics together. He and I discussed changes to the scripts as he wrote them, and I sought responses from him over character and style designs. One day I drew a panel with perspective that I'm pretty proud of:Then I drew a whole page that just made my brain hurt:The perspective is off, the and the characters are small and, I think, awkward in their anatomy. Kevin's script calls for a second page of panels from the same point of view, so I decided to nip it in the bud. I caught Kevin on Gmail, and asked him for help. After a brief conversation, I went back to the drawing board (literally), and produced this:


So that's team work for ya.

i have books

I wasn't sure how to follow up my previous post, as it was so serious. It seemed like anything I could possibly write would seem shallow compared to it.

SO I'VE DECIDED TO SHAMELESSLY PROMOTE MY WARES!

I started an etsy account, it's a more public means of selling my books, over my website's store. I have my four comic books for sale, The Trugglemat, Spitting Pennies, What is This? and Alpha City Comics Issue One.

I've also changed how I am producing my books, i used to sew the interior pages together, and then use rice paste to glue the covers to the pages. Every time I would glue my books, I would get nervous, thinking my recipe was somehow wrong, and the books would fall apart. They never seemed to fall apart, so I kept on making my books that way. Then finally, at MoCCA this year, I put a BUNCH of copies of What is This? together, to give away, and show off. Sure enough, some of the covers started to fall off, and I was super embarrassed handing them out to people. One woman ran up to me at one point waving the book, telling me how much she liked it and as she opened the book...crack! I could hear the brittle dried glue breaking.

While I was in New York, I decided to stop using glue on my books. And as if the Universe wanted to make sure I meant what I said, it drove the point home: My favorite pastime on the way back from a convention is to sit on the Amtrak train, and read read read all the comics I got at the show. So, I sat down in my seat at Penn Station, and opened up my first read of my trip, Kazimir Strzepek's The Mourning Star, Vol. 1 (which, by the way, is AWESOME). As I read the book, the glue gave, and chunks of the book dropped one by one into my lap. I pulled out my needle and thread, and went to work sewing it back together, which took me until Albany.

So short story long, I'm sewing all of my books together now, and I think they look and feel better than ever. Alpha City Comics now has a shiny foil tape spine. And Spitting Pennies will eventually get a black tape spine, if I can find some good black tape. I'm also making a more conscious decision about what color thread I'm using for each book. I'm far more satisfied with the finished product.

in loving memory of oscar patriarco

My friend Oscar died last night. I've known a lot of cats, I mean a LOT, and Oscar was one of the best (perhaps second only to his adopted brother, Skitch). He was wicked smart, really patient with younger or more bossy cats, and quite a handsome gent. He also had to overcome a lot of obstacles in his life. He was declawed long before I knew him (Dear everyone on the face of the earth, DO NOT DECLAW CATS!), which led to litter box issues. It's believed he was abused in an earlier home, sometimes when he wasn't paying attention, the sudden sight of me with a broom would scare him. He also had issues with peeing on furniture (sofas and beds). Taking all of that into account, he was still one of the best cats I've ever known, and I loved him a whole lot. He was lucky to have some really caring human friends for the better part of his life, though, particularly Leah and Laura, who were very loving and patient with him, and allowed him to grow out of a more difficult past.
Oscar, from one skinny red head to another, you were awesome, and will be missed.

KAPOW!

I spent the day yesterday drawing at my friend Ryan's temporary digs. I say temporary, because he got into town late June, and he's leaving Chicago for New York City tonight. Bon voyage, sir! Drawing with Ryan a couple times while he was in town made me remember how much I love being social while drawing. In college, I constantly had folks I could bounce off ideas with, or at least pass the hours of creating with. Alone in my room, I get antsy quickly, which often makes it difficult to get anything done. Alpha City #2's original release was supposed to be just after Stumptown in APRIL, the delay has primarily been my inability to sit still -or say no to other projects.

Speaking of other projects! I'm planning on entering Oni Press' Talent Search competition (by mail), and I've started formulating a script full of safe cracking and corsages for an anthology Jeff Zwirek is putting together for SPX.

drawing again!

Woo hoo! I'm drawing a fair amount of stuff these days. Above are some panels from a comic I drew for the Windy City Comicon, the program for which will be a full color comic book, with each guest getting a page to show off their skillz. When you come to the show (you are coming to the show, it was awesome last year), you will get to read the whole thing.

This weekend, I also drew the first installment of Bot Bakery Comics (see above sketch). Over two years ago, I heard about this crazy new vegan, gluten-free food company starting up, that was going to sell baked goods, packaged with comics about robots that made vegan baked goods. WHAT?! Who crawled into my brain and mapped out my dream job for me? I scammed my way into the start up before they even started producing food with promises of hard work and a competent drawing hand. Heh heh heh, SUCKERS! I'm love my job, and soon you'll be able to walk into select Chicago stores and buy delicious, organic, vegan, gluten-free baked goods with a cute comic by me hiding inside (the packaging, not the baked good).

And finally (both in this post, and for the anticipation felt by me and Kevin Sciretta for too long), I'm penciling issue two of Alpha City Comics! I'm having a lot of fun, and I hope you will too.

minimal site updates

I've updated the front ages of From the Well, and Sock-Monster, to let folks know I have a blog. Hopefully, this will allow me to make announcements easier, keep people's interest in my work. I'll also be posting Sock-Monster comics here, so everyone's who's been bugging me about an RSS feed ('cause, you know, I'm a little inconsistent with my publishing) can finally get one, though they'll have to also receive other news updates. Hope folks enjoy this stuff.

summer reading recap

Last night was the zine reading/fair at the Fun House, and it was AWESOME! All the readings were super super sweet, and I ended up going last, which made me really nervous. I enlarged copies of pages from What is This? and read it out loud with sound effects, and a funny voice for Lucy, the alien. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Then I traded for a bunch of zines, and a couple of folks insisted on giving me money for my comics, so I made back about half of the printing costs, which was an added bonus I wasn't planning for.

I'll add it to my "I Just Wanna Draw Comics Fund" savings account I'm gonna try to reopen today.

I've got the day off from work, so I'm running some errands, and then heading down to Hyde Park to have a drawing date with Ryan Alexander-Tanner. I'm drawing my page for the Windy City Comicon program, which is a full-sized comic book, with each creator getting a page. I'm also working on Alpha City Comics #2, I'm 10% done with penciling the book.

summer reading and zine fair

On Thursday I'll be participating in a reading of zines and comics at my friend Leslie's place. I've never read a comic out loud, so it should be an interesting experience. I tried looking into the works of the other readers, so as to provide links, but all I could find were myspace pages. Leslie is reading, and she's pretty cool. So that's reason enough to show up to her event.

There'll also be a concurrent vegan baked good swap going on! How could you NOT go?!

1743 Mozart Thursday, July 2, 2009 7pm. Be there!