in the mix

Woo Hoo!  I've just been confirmed as an exhibitor for MIX, the Minneapolis Indie Expo!  I'll be sharing a table with my pal Sam Sharpe.  We exhibited last year and had a lot of fun in Minneapolis, and hope to repeat the good times.  Check out the exhibitor page, there are tons of really exciting folks at this year's fest, so if you're anywhere near the twin cities (AKA North America!), you should totally stop by the Soap Factory November 5 & 6. 

  I've been cramming my days with inking my new minicomic, the Plot #1, a Monster in the Forbidden Forest!  (see sample above) I'm on track to having it done by SPX, which is happening EXACTLY one month from today in Bethesda, Maryland.  It should be tons of fun, as I'm exhibiting with my partner in crime, Kenan Rubenstein (who's been acting as an editor for the Plot), and Matthew Ocasio who edits the zine the Matter.  We'll be the sharp kids with the awesome comics there, look for us. 

  In other news, the two festivals I help organize are both announcing their dates for 2012.  The Chicago Zine Fest will be happening March 9 & 10, and the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) will be taking place June 16 & 17.  So mark your calendars, and buy your train tickets, both shows are gonna be HOT!

  OK, enough gabbing.  Back to work, jerk!

chicago zine fest 2011

Registration for the Chicago Zine Fest 2011 is now open!

We've been working really hard to make a really great weekend in late March:

Friday, March 25

2-4pm Silver Tongue Reading series featuring readings by Columbia College students, and a reading/talk by Al Burian and Aaron Cometbus

5-6pm Kids Zine Reading at 826 CHI

6:30-8:30pm Adults Zine Reading at 826 CHI

9-11pm Opening Ceremony & Karaoke at Quimby's

Saturday, March 26

10am-5pm Exhibiting at Columbia College 

Two floors of tabling, workshops and a film festival.  We'll have almost 100 tables, which means we'll have nearly 200 exhibitors!

8pm -12am CZF (in)Formal

A party full of dancing, ice cream, nerding out, trading zines!  It'll be tons of fun.

Sunday, March 27

Probably some fun activities like Brunch and kickball.

oof!  It should be tons of fun.  You should totally come!  It'll be great.  Let me know if you need a floor to sleep on.  The kids I'm organizing this event with are all awesome.  We've got a really great work dynamic between the seven of us.  It should prove to result in a quality weekend.

I've also been drawing some, trying to increase production for the Minicomic of the Month Club 2011, and Sock-Monster.

chicago zine fest

oh boy.

I wish I liked swearing, because if I did I would be throwing some cusses from my mouth bay.  I'll manage, here we go:

SOMETHING SOMETHING! I am so SOMETHING SOMETHING excited for the Chicago Zine Fest and it's still (at the time of writing this exactly) 3 months, 21 days, 22 hours, 36 minutes and 18 seconds away!  Working on it right now is SOMETHING SOMETHING amazing, because it's like one SOMETHING SOMETHING tidal wave after another of really SOMETHING SOMETHING exciting developments that knock me on my SOMETHING SOMETHING!  SOMETHING SOMETHING!  I can't wait until I can tell you all about the fest. Your jaw will drop and you'll be all like SOMETHING SOMETHING!  And I'll be all like SOMETHING YEAH!

  Ah, It's nice to get that out of my system.

  No, but seriously, the Chicago Zine Fest is going to be a truly amazing weekend (not to over hype it or anything), we're lining up some great special guests, and then we're going to do a blast of strongly encouraging exhibiting to the zinesters we really want to be there.  The programming is going to be tons of fun, featuring both a Kids and an Adults reading on Friday night, followed by Karaoke at Quimby's.  On Saturday we'll have TONS of people showing off their zines at tables, and then a full slate of workshops and panels and a DIY short-film festival, curated by Eric Ayotte.  We'll have a fun after-fest event that night, and then some fun get-togther stuff on Sunday, probably Kickball.  If you're reading these words, I strongly encourage you to be in Chicago the weekend of March 25, and too then attend (or exhibit or volunteer at) the Chicago Zine Fest.  Registration for exhibitors opens December 15th!

  DIY CHI is hosting a benefit show for the Zine Fest at the Juicer the money from the door goes to the zine fest.  The money from the bake sale goes to DIY CHI, everyone wins.  Except for the baked goods that have been cursed with self awareness.

Oh, hey, one last thing.  If you haven't yet you should consider giving to my Mustaches For Kids campaign (I grow a mustache you help fund underfunded public school programs), give what you can.  Also consider signing up for my Minicomic of the Month Club.  You can sign up whenever, but it would be really great to start to get an idea of how many folks I'm making minicomics for.  If you do either of these things, you'll cheer me up.  My Tegan and Sara tape broke in my back pack today, that thing got me through a couple rough break-ups, I'm kinda bummed.

Chicago Zine Fest!

In one week we'll be smack-dab in the middle of the Chicago Zine Fest, Friday's reading & art show will have happened, and we'll be just about to open the doors to Saturday's exhibiting & workshops.  It should be tons of fun, I hope if you can you'll come.

We've had a good response from the press, there should be articles in the Columbia Chronicle and Time Out Chicago later this week.  Microcosm did a quick Q&A with us, and the Chicago Underground Library interviewed us on their blog.

In other news, as soon as the zine fest is over, I'll be preparing for the Museum of Comics and Cartooning Art (MoCCA) Arts Fest April 10 & 11 in New York City, and the Stumptown Comics Fest, April 24 & 25 in Portland, OR.

More upcoming events: In May I'm taking a trip to Tokyo to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.  August 21st I'll be exhibiting at the Minneapolis Indie Xpo!

The next few months will be a bit of a transition for me, as I'm moving down to the Fun House (home to half of the zine fest organizers) at the beginning of May and five close friends are planning on moving from Chicago.  This might be kind of rough, as I've already felt at least one of them pull away from me in expectation of moving to a new life in a new city.

the trash heap (that is my room) has spoken!

Oh sweet lord.  That's a long while since I've posted on the blog.  How embarrassing.  Whatever, that's the point of blogs right?  Just like webcomics, you're supposed to post a bunch, and then leave it to proof until doubled in size...or is that bread?  I don't know.  What I do know is I've been MIA for a while.

So the Milwaukee Zine Fest was pretty inspiring.  So much so that the four of us (Ramsey, Matt, Leslie and I) have been spending the past two months since the fest organizing a Chicago Zine Fest!  Let me tell you, it's a lot of work, but it's coming along.  Here's the info on a convenient poster:

It's totally free, and open to the public.  Registration is open for Saturday's exhibiting.

So yeah, that's what's going on.  If you're reading this, I would love for you to be involved some how, whether it's mentioning it to a stranger on a train, or devoting every second of the next month and a half to putting it together, or anywhere in between.

I've also started tweeting on Twitter.  I was signing up CZF's Twitter account, and I saw all of my friends on there, and I just couldn't resist.  Sigh.  At least I'm wasting my time on the internet for something somewhat productive.

Here's the rest of my life in brief:
• I'll be exhibiting at MoCCA and the Stumptown Comics Fest (this one's not confirmed yet, but the plane tickets are nonrefundable, so if I don't get a table, I'll volunteer) in April on opposite sides of the country.
• I got a new computer, which actually runs at a reasonable speed.  The last straw was when a website literally said "Your computer is too old to use this page."
• My bedroom is a complete and total disaster, I can not keep it clean, or devote enough time to make it clean in the first place.  It's really drafty too, and the low tomorrow is 4°!!
• I haven't been doing drawing any comics lately (not good if I want to have new stuff by April, which I do).  I've been working on character designs for my new 5-part minicomic series, Love Letters.
• Quimby's is AWESOME, today we launched a subscription service, so now you can have your favorite periodical put on hold for you for free!  I bottom-lined the project, and I'm really excited about it, hopefully folks will dig the idea and start subscribing.
• I've been training at Vocalo, to be a collaborator.  I'd direct you to my first audio piece I edited, but I compressed it incorrectly.  So you'll just have to wait until Friday evening.
• James P.B. Duffy is working on new songs!!  We're working on two songs simultaneously, a song I wrote while I was in Friendship is Terrible, and a song Josh wrote about having a crush on a barista.  Pretty awesome, with very different sounds, but some odd similarities.
• My sweetheart has been in Mexico for three weeks, and she's coming back soon (is she in for a weather shock), but I have absolutely no idea what day she's getting back.  No clue.  Does that make me a bad person?
• It's two o'clock in the morning and I'm going to bed.