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.

Wally Wood Said It Best...

If you haven't seen a lot of posts from me and Zander in the last year, we apologize! We've just been very, very busy with really cool projects, and stuff like blog posts have fallen to the wayside as a result.

Wally Wood summed up our current situation very well in the last few panels of the premiere issue of "Cannon":

...Except that it's not "the end" of our blog! Keep checking back because we'll eventually post some sneak peeks of these projects that are eating up all of our time...

Lutefisk Sushi: Volume E -- The Ballot Boxes Are Open!

Hey cartoonists!

Minnesota's premier comics art show LUTEFISK SUSHI is back for its fifth season in 2012. While the opening reception is over fifteen months away, we need to decide on a featured artist ASAP! As in past years, the featured artist will design the sushi box, and will have a whole wall devoted to their artwork during the gallery show at Altered Esthetics in November, 2012. See websites of past shows here.

NOMINATION PROCESS:

To nominate a cartoonist, please send the following info to nordeastcomics [at] gmail.com:

- The artist's name
- The artist's website (if there is one)
- The artist's email (so we can contact them to confirm if they want to run)

NOTE: Artists must reside in Minnesota or have some strong connection to the state.
NOTE: If an artist does not wish to be nominated, or does not respond to us before August 25, they will not be listed as a nominee.

CALENDAR:

August 15: Nominations open
August 25: Nominations close; Voting begins
September 1: Voting closes at noon; Winner is formally announced at 6pm at the Nordeast Comics Summit, and online.

VOTING PROCESS:

As in past years, voting will take place on www.cartoonistconspiracy.com/conspire. So jump on that site between August 25 and September 1 to vote! Voters must register on the Cartoonist Conspiracy website (it's free). Voters may vote only once.

Past featured artists are Vincent Stall, Ken Avidor, Kevin Cannon, and Danno Klonowski.

Questions? Post them in the comments section below.

Mealtime Hero Viral Video

Nearly two years ago Zander and I were asked by Lunds & Byerly's to create a superhero character for their Mealtime Hero campaign. The campaign launch coincided with the revamp of their Golden Valley Byerly's store, and they printed some life-size cardboard cut-outs of our character for the grand opening event.

Here's a small jpeg of the cut-out as well as a screencap of the online comic we produced:





Today I stumbled upon a youtube video showing another aspect of Byerly's campaign -- a surprise in-store musical put on by U of M opera students. Quick eyes will spot our cut-out at 0:07 and also at the end of the video. For those of you with slow eyes, here are some screencaps:





And here's the full video, for your viewing pleasure. Turn up your speakers:


To date, this is the most musical theater I have ever been a part of.