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!

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. 

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.

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.

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.