plot #2

I've been quite busy helping plan the 2012 Chicago Zine Fest, and running around the Midwest to various comics/zine shows, and hanging out with my awesome parents.  So the Plot #2, Your Curiosity Will Get You Killed has been progressing very...very...slowly.  But I am still working on it, and yesterday I had a few hours on an Amtrak train up to Milwaukee, so I worked on some cover designs for the issue. Here are some of the better designs I've come up with so far:

onward!

Saturday, November 26th (which, depending on when you read this is tomorrow, today or in the past) is the date during which the 3rd annual Genghis Con will be strutting its stuff all over Waterloo Ave in Cleveland, Ohio.  I exhibited at the show during its first year, and am excited to return, this year (smuggling Sam Sharpe in my suitcase). 

Here are the "deets:"

The Genghis Con

Saturday, November 26, 2011

11am - 6pm

Beachland Ballroom

15711 Waterloo Rd.

Cleveland, OH, USA, Planet Earth (sorry Martians)

Flyer by Kevin Fagan (related to Matt?)

It'll be tons of fun, so if you're near the Cuyahoga river, follow it to Cleveland, and the Beachland Ballroom.

Sam will be sharing a table with me and have his brand new (and freakin awesome) comic, Viewotron #1, which will soon be a name that is mentioned in the same breath as Optic Nerve, or Ganges, or maybe Betty and Veronica Digest.

I will have the Plot #1 which I hope you will read and enjoy.

no debut

In my last blog I excitedly announced the debut of oh boy, COMICS! #2 at this weekend's Minneapolis Indie Xpo (free and open to the public, come one come all!).  Unfortunately that debut will not be happening.

UGH!  I was so close!  I staid up so late two nights ago, pasting up the master (and the master for a new free minicomic, Not Worth It, Number Fun!).   Looking at the past year's "extra" comics I had drawn (nearly 50 pages!), all together in one volume was really exciting.  It -along with Not Worth It, and a near-constant listening of They Might Be Giants' new Album Raises New and Troubling Questions (which is awesome)- had reminded me how important drawing unimportant comics is as a way to keep oneself fresh while working on larger more significant projects.

but then my backpack got stolen yesterday.

contents:
my sketchbook!

my computer! (if you see a dirty white macbook with a Quimby's sticker covering the Apple logo, that's mine)

some items not worth noting -like left over Halloween Candy, a zine I was reading, a CD I never got to listen to, oh and

MY MASTERS FOR THESE TWO COMICS I WAS NEARLY FINISHED PASTING UP!!!

I'm quite angry about this, but more than anything I'm really disappointed these comics wont be available at MIX.

The good news is, I will still be exhibiting at MIX with my good friend Sam Sharpe, and I'll have copies of the Plot #1, which is only a few months old, and I think a pretty good comic.

31773490715 17413 3x90

****EDIT: I wanted to let folks know MIX is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC THIS WEEKEND 10-5 Sat & Sun****
November 5 & 6 I will be exhibiting at the Minneapolis Indie Expo! I'm really excited for this show, last year's inaugural MIX was a highlight of the 2010 con/fest/expos I went to.  The folks up there in Minnesota are quite nice, and they seem to have a really supportive community of comics makers up there.  Something we seemed to notice last year was the number of folks who showed up to the show who said they weren't really into comics, but wanted to check the show out anyway.  That's a really pleasant difference from a lot of other comics shows or zine fests.

I'm excited to be able to show off the Plot #1 to more folks.  I'm also going to be debuting issue #2 of oh boy, COMICS!, my odds-and-ends anthology.  It will be about half the size of the ridiculously sized #1 (which itself may soon get a bit of a trim and rearrangement of material), but it's full of exciting stuff you probably haven't seen.

 

I'm excited too, because I'll be crashing at the home of Raighne & Meghan Hogan, two top-notch comics kids with whom I stayed last year (and then in March, Raighne crashed with me for the Chicago Zine Fest).  I'm excited to explore some new vegan options in the city.  I'll also be checking out on of the Twin Cities' two Roller Derby leagues, the North Star Roller Girls (I'm rooting for Minneapolis' other Roller Derby League, the Minnesota Roller Girls in the following weekend's WFTDA Championships)!  

So if you're near the Twin Cities come by the Minneapolis Indie Expo, I'll be at table 51 hanging out with fellow Chicagoans, Sam Sharpe, Corinne Mucha, and Sarah Becan.

the plot

Oh hey, I totally have a new minicomic!   

The Plot #1 A Monster in the Forbidden Forest debuted at SPX, and I got rid of all 40 copies I brought down (a trash can helped).  Kenan (who has taken on the job as my editor, even though I'm not paying him) has already written his review of the comic in a larger post about SPX. He summed up the story  better than I've been able to.  While you're on his blog, definitely read more of his posts, he's far more eloquent that I am, and pretty insightful with his observations, while I putter around with tweets like "Roller Derby is cool."  

 

  It's 40 pages of adventure with a stamped cover (I got custom stamps made for this thing)!

My website is in complete disarray, so I'm not going to make any promises to make it available for purchase on my web-empire any time soon.  BUT!  You can order it from Quimby's Bookstore, I spend 40 hours a week there, so there's no chance of it going out of stock any time soon.  While you're there, order more great comics from the store, we've got TONS, and the shipping rate doesn't change until your order goes over $30.

I will also be selling/trading it at the following events this fall: Madison Zine Fest, Milwaukee Zine Fest, Minneapolis Indie Xpo, and any other events that start with the letter M (I'll even bring some to the WFTDA's North Central Division Regional tournament, Monumental Mayhem).

 

 This comic is going to be at least 10 issues long, and the more I write, the more I realize it's probably going to be longer than that. I'm in for a loooooooong involvement with this story, and I am quite excited about that.  

Actually, maybe I should take a minute and explain where this comic came from.  I was flying back to Chicago from the Stumptown Comics Fest, thinking about my comics plans, as I really hadn't had time to draw any comics since the Fall (organizing a zine fest is really hard).  I had grand plans for a year-long comics experiment, inspired by Liz Baillie's Minicomic of the Month Club, and writing a dark, scary, gruesome graphic novel about the things that scared me as a child and as an adult.  To be honest, I was not excited about these serious endeavors.  Reading the few minicomics I picked up at Stumptown, I started dreaming of what I would enjoy drawing, images came to my mind. A bug the size of a house! A stranger falling from the sky! Telepathic abilities! Aliens! A strange secluded town! After thinking of these things, I couldn't shake them, and over a few weeks of working it out on paper, a story developed (though not all of these elements made it into the story).  So I dropped the serious comics I was going to make, and started drawing fun comics!  And that's what the Plot is.

I'm currently writing issue 3, and editing issue 2.  I'm actually kind of editing it while I draw it, and have 24 pages penciled.  Here's the first one:

Great!

x-men

I promise my SPX blog is coming soon.  Maybe not at 1:30 in the morning.

Today I had kind of a rough 2nd half of my shift at work.  I finally got out of work and headed over to my favorite coffee shop.  Got a coffee, and a lemon poppy seed scone, and read some fun comics (even though I had my newly procured copy of Habibi on me).  I read the latest issue of Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire and the first volume of the new printing of Grant Morrison's New X-Men (I know I'm supposed to be boycotting Marvel, especially their Kirby titles...sorry) comics from the early (mid?) 2000's until they kicked us out of the shop.

So when I got home I drew this drawing of Wolverine and Cyclops fighting a (baby?) Sentinel.  I'm not super impressed with the outcome, but the process was a lot of fun:

dylan williams lives

 

Most people involved in the indie comics scene knows by now of the passing of Dylan Williams on Saturday.  Like many people, I learned about it Saturday night at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD.  It hit those of us who knew him really hard, even those like me who only had the good fortune of a handful of encounters.  Dylan's death is devastating to those of us who knew him, even more painful for those who were close to him, and is felt by those who have read, enjoyed and been influenced by the comics he facilitated for the past two decades.

But Dylan lives in every resourceful zinester who wants to take publishing into their own hand.

Dylan lives in the disembodied laughter you hear coming from the din in the spaces -large or small- that for a weekend host an indie comics convention.

Dylan lives in the cartoonist who is better at promoting their friends' comics than their own.

Dylan lives in the pages of comics put out by publishers he'd humbly call his peers, who in turn would call him a role model.

Dylan lives in the electric pride felt in the applause at the Ignatz award when we celebrate one of our own for their outstanding work.

Dylan lives in the packages mailed out by distros who -if they were doing it for money- would have stopped a long while ago.

Dylan lives in every trade made between two self-publishers.

Dylan lives in the satisfying moment when you close the back cover of a comic book and think to yourself, "that was really good."

That is how I will remember Dylan, who I jump at the chance to call a friend, an inspiration and a role model. The pain of his passing will last a long time. The love he had for comics, its creators and its community will far out last that pain.

Dylan's family still needs help paying for medical bills and now, his funeral.  Consider supporting Dylan by buying some fantastic comics. For more reflections on Dylan's life and passing, visit the Comics Reporter's Collective Memory page. 

You are missed, Dylan.