Sunday, May 20, 2012

gimme some cake! a play in one act.


MARK:
Hey Neil, what have you been up to?

NEIL:
Oh, Y'know, like this and that.

MARK:
Oh yeah?  Like what?

NEIL:
I don't know, bustin' heads, feedin' pigeons.  That sorta thing.

MARK:
Cool.  Cool.

NEIL:
Oh, I'm also organizing CAKE, the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo.  It's taking place June 16th & 17th at 1104 South Wabash (8th floor, jerks!), from 11am and 6pm.

KNIGHT #2:
A comics show?!  Ah man, those things cost so much money!  And I don't have any!
[turns, kicks the dirt]

NEIL:
Not CAKE.

ORKA:
Whaaa-????

NEIL:
Yeah, you didn't hear? CAKE is FREE and open to the public, and the space is wheelchair accessible!  We're gonna have nearly two hundred guests & exhibitors from all over Chicago, the U.S., and abroad!  It's the first alternative comics fest in Chicago in over 15 years!  We've got a full slate of really great programming, tons of debuts, not to mention a wicked awesome poster drawn by Chicago's favorite comics artist, Laura Park!

MARK:
You put this together all by yourself?

NEIL:
No way, man.  I'm just a part of a large group of people putting this together.  The other organizers are Ignatz Award winner Edie Fake, Ignatz Award nominee, Jeff Zwirek, Line Work co-editor, Max Morris and zinester extraordinaire, Grace Tran!  We also have an advisory committee made up of members of Chicago's alternative comics community.  And we've gotten a lot of support from Quimby's Bookstore, Columbia College Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, Mortville, the Hideout, Maria's Packaged Goods & Community Bar, and a bunch of folks who have donated to our IndieGoGo campaign.

ANDERS NILSEN:
I, along with Jeffrey Brown, Lilli Carré, Closed Caption Comics, Paul Hornschemeier, Lucy Knisley, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Corinne Mucha, Laura Park, Pizza Island (RIP), John Porcellino, Nate Powell, and Chicago's own Trubble Club will be special guests.

ORKA:
I'm hungry.
[eats everyone]
  
fin.





Friday, May 4, 2012

free comic book day is tomorrow!


Free Comic Book Day is a really exciting holiday for me (mainly because of the "free" and the "comic book" components of the equation).  Often times it's official, sanctioned free comics that are handed out from larger publishers, but each year it seems more and more smaller publishers are taking it upon themselves to publish free comics.  This year, Tugboat Press has Runner Runner & Sparkplug Comicbooks, Teenage Dinosaur, Revival House & Floating World Comics released Bad Trip.  

Last year, Sam Sharpe, Erik Schneider and I released a minicomic, Handout Comics,

This year, Sam and I coordinated a second issue of Handout Comics (don't worry, Erik is in this one too!).  We had it offset printed by 1984 Printing in Oakland, and had a rubber stamp made by Lakeview Stamp Company for the title.  But the contents is the exciting part!  We got 11 awesome Chicago-based comics artists to contribute to the comic:













Jeremy Tinder!
(who also did the cover!)






They'll be available at the following stores:

& I sent a handful of copies with my friends from 2D Cloud to TCAF this weekend in Toronto!

So check them out, pick 'em up, they're 100% FREE! Happy Free Comic Book Day!