Food Fight!

I'm happy to report that I've got some artwork in November's Altered Esthetics "Food Fight" show! While I've been behind the scenes for the AE comics shows over the last few years, this is the first time I've submitted work to a NON-comics show -- you know, like as a regular Joe Artist. So it's pretty exciting to have work accepted by the curatorial team.

This is "XOLOTLAN" and it's pretty much the most fun I've ever had drawing anything. Please click on the image to view it in detail. See if you can find the caricature of Louis CK.

This piece is part of my CMYK phase, where I'm trying to draw color images only using cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. So a while ago I bought microns and pitt brush pens with those colors and have been experimenting with trying to get different colors like green, brown, etc.

In XOLOTLAN, above, the first thing I laid down was the yellow base with a yellow pitt brush, and then used a magenta micron over it to make red, and used a blue micron over other parts to make green. The same blue micron was used in the center, but since I was drawing over white paper and not yellow, it just stayed cyan.

Anyway, this piece will be part of AE's "Food Fight" show, which opens on Thursday, but the big opening reception is on Friday night. Because MIX parties are also happening on Friday, I will probably start at AE at 7pm, hang out for a little while, and then wander down south to Pink Hobo.

Help print Altered Esthetics' 2012 Artists Calendar!

Altered Esthetics, a community-run art gallery here in Nordeast Minneapolis, has bent over backwards to help the local comics scene, and now we have a chance to help Altered Esthetics! Please consider donating to their Kickstarter fund which will go toward printing AE's 2012 calendar.

Our very own Zander Cannon drew the image for November, as he will be the featured artist for "Lutefisk Sushi: Volume E." Yes, that's "E" as in "E"veryone should chip in. As an added incentive, if AE reaches their goal, we'll post Zander's image here on the blog. If not, well, it will disappear into the ether...

So, please go HERE to donate!

... And here's more info from our good friend Lupi:

Hi, I’m Lupi. I help direct press and communications at Ae, and I’d like you to check out the kickstarter page for Ae’s 2012 calendar. Ae didn’t have a printed calendar for 2011, and a lot of people missed that. I hope we can raise funds to print one for next year.

As you know, Ae is the non-profit gallery in Northeast Minneapolis that collaborates with the Cartoonist Conspiracy each year on a comics exhibition. The Ae board is made up of volunteers who donate hundreds of hours of their time to organize 14 group exhibits each year, plus workshops and a solo exhibitions program.

We work hard to keep our shows inexpensive and accessible for artists, and we encourage all styles and media. If you appreciate what Ae does for the artistic community (and the cartooning community), show some love by helping us print our 2012 calendar. A pledge of only $5 gets you an art calendar, which you can pick up at the gallery. For a pledge of $10, we’ll mail it to you. That’s a fraction of the cost of driving to a store and buying a mass-produced calendar. If you plan on participating in Lutefisk Sushi or any other Ae events next year, this calendar is nice to have, because it lists openings, deadlines, and workshops.

MIX Sponsorship Map

As you're well aware, I'll jump at any chance to draw a goofy map of the Twin Cities, so fortunately Sarah Morean didn't roll her eyes too hard when I pitched the idea of drawing a map of all the sponsors of the Minneapolis Indie Xpo. So here is the finished product!


This map will be printed on the back of the catalog, so go to MIX early on Saturday morning and get a hard copy for yourself. The first 500 attendees will also get a free MIX ballpoint pen so you can fill out the scavenger hunt game on the bottom there.


Speaking of MIX, I am also sponsoring two celebrity cartoonist panels that you should attend on Saturday and Sunday. They involve Pizza Island star Sarah Glidden and local digital guru Gordon McAlpin. Full details on the Nordeast Comics site. See you there!

MIX is a little over a week away! November 5 & 6 at the Soap Factory.

Big Time Attic Featured in The Journal

Jeremy Zoss wrote a great profile of Big Time Attic in this week's Journal (we found it in the NE Journal, but I'm told it's printed in the SW Journal as well). Anyway, thanks for the ink, Jeremy!

Click on the image below to see a larger version. But if want to actually read the text, go to the Journal's online version of the article.



If you're local, go pick up a copy! It should be on news stands until October 23.

Huge Convention Weekend Summary

... or more appropriately, "Summary of Huge Convention Weekend."

You have a ton of options for comic book conventions this Saturday, and I highly recommend the three that I know about. In no particular order:

1) RAIN TAXI BOOK FEST

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 10am-5pm
Minneapolis Community & Technical College
1501 Hennepin Ave, Downtown Minneapolis

This one is actually a book festival with an increasingly heavy emphasis on the sequential arts. Big Time Attic has had a table there for most of the last seven years, and it's been great to watch the evolution of book lovers' reactions from "What's a comic book?" to "These are awesome! I'll take one of each."

This year I'll be premiering a brand new book, not a comic book mind you but an honest to goodness illustrated long-form poem, written by my old friend and mentor Tom Hegg.


Little Dickens is the story of a boy who sets off to Revolutionary France to prove his worth, and ends up encountering friends and villains from Charles Dickens' world of novels, including Marley's ghost, Madame DeFarge, and the Artful Dodger, among others. It's a fun read, and I'm heading out in twenty minutes to see the printed book for the first time -- it's literally hot off the press.

To that end, I'll be signing books with Tom Hegg at the Nodin Press table from 2-3 pm. You should buy lots and lots of copies. Your Christmas shopping could be finished by Saturday afternoon.

Also catch me on a panel discussion about the subject of "place" in literature from 12:30-1:30 pm. The panel is made up of poets, photographers, artists, novelists ... and they even let a cartoonist sit up there to provide some color commentary.

The entire day, from 10 am to 5 pm, Big Time Attic, the Cartoonist Conspiracy, and Altered Esthetics will all have a table together in the comics alley. I'll be selling the aforementioned Little Dickens, as well as Far Arden & Evolution, but you should really stop by and pick up a copy of Just Add Ink, the comic cookbook that came out in August.

Also, bonus, Ben Katchor will be at Book Fest, and will be giving a talk at 2:30pm! The man is a genius, and his Julius Knipl book is one of the first comic books I read after college and it really made me rethink the modern punchline. Click this little image for more info:


2) FALLCON

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 10am-4pm
MN State Fairgrounds, in the Progress Center
1621 Randall Ave, St. Paul, MN

I am sad to miss this one as there are going to be many cool comics creators there, and the MCBA always puts on a great show. If I were you, I would spend the morning at Fallcon, and then jet over to the Rain Taxi Book Fest for the afternoon.


3) NEW YORK COMIC CON

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13-16
Javits Center, Manhattan

I don't know much about the New York con except that Zander Cannon will be there showing off his brand new vinyl banner, so go say hi and buy some books from him so he doesn't have to lug them back on the plane.