10/25/07 - October Group Meeting Set

Drum roll please...

Join us for the next meeting of the Lexington Kentucky Comic Creators Group this Sunday, October 28th from 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM at the Tates Creek Branch of the Lexington Public Library. The Tates Creek Branch is located at 3628 Walden Drive. Should you need driving directions or additional information, please click here.

We will be meeting in the Josephine Staples Emrath Community Room (their large meeting room). As it's the Halloween season, drinks and treats will be served in honor of the holiday and the meeting!

Bring your creativity, your projects, your skills, your needs and anything you want to share with the group. We look forward to seeing you there!

Nashville Horror and Comic Book Convention

Howdy all.

I just spent the weekend in Nashville, TN. attending and promoting my comic book series at the "Nashville Horror and Comic Book Convention." It was a blast.

I met several nice people and made many new contacts. In regards to where the promoters of the convention placed me and my table, I got really lucky. The other vendors and presenters near me were extremely pleasant and down-to-earth folks. Across from my table was none other than Jackson Bostwick. Who? Bostwick played "Captain Marvel" on the CBS Saturday morning show, "SHAZAM!," in the early 1970s. He was a great guy and I talked to him quite a bit over the two days of the convention. He had his three-year-old daughter with him... who I ended up baby-sitting periodically when Bostwick would disappear to go hob-nob.

The star of the show was B-Movie/TV legend, John Saxon. He still looked just as intimidating as he did in every movie and TV show he appeared in in the 70s. I didn't get a chance to talk with him... but others assured me he was a really nice and charming man.

I ended up selling over 20 copies of "the Experts" and gave several copies and contact info to a marketing guy from Marvel Comics. Who knows? I think I blew about $150 on comic books and action figures.

All in all... it was a very fun and informative time. I'll definitely do more conventions in the near future.

-Kenn

10/11/07 - Process of The Process & 24-Hour Comics

This story is taken from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog and looks to be an excellent workup of one web comic cartoonists working process.

"The Process" is the work of Joe Infurnari (self portrait at left) whose work is reminiscent of comics legend Will Eisner!

On Joe's blog he details the steps involved in creating his web comic.

PS: The CCG mini 24-Hour Comic Event location has been confirmed. Watch the CCG Calendar link for full details coming soon! All around the world Cartoonists will be creating various 24-Hour Comics on Saturday, October 20th 2007. Here is a link to some of the activities that SCAD Atlanta is up to that day. The idea for this event is the offspring of famous comics theory author Scott McCloud.

Thanks to Stevie Moore for managing this event while I am out of town!

10/07/07 - Two Greats Caught on Video at Baltimore Comic Con

This is a really cool video that I saw over at Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog (one the best blogs for this field along with Lines and Colors by Charley Parker) with John Romita Sr. and Joe Kubert busting out a little spiderman/hawkman pin-up. The footage is during last months Baltimore Comic Con. The cause is The Hero Initiative (see previous posts about this worthwhile charity). The result - a fun video for a good cause that brings together two legends in the field of comics. Enjoy! And thanks to whomever posted this!

10/05/07 - OSU Festival of Cartoon Art Update

Way back in December of 2006 [link] and again in April of 2007 [link], Jonathan updated everyone on the OSU Festival of Cartoon Art. The event is set to take place in a couple weeks (October 26-27th, 2007) in Columbus, Ohio.

If you are planning to attend, there have been some line-up changes. In a recent press release, the OSU Cartoon Libaray announced that Jules Feiffer, Guy Delisle and Mark Siegel have cancelled their appearances. The release goes on to announce that Arnold Roth, David Saylor (creative director for Scholastic) and Paul Pope will be joining the festival.

You can get all the details on the event here.

10/04/07 - Conan Tut, Squidoo and Drawing Board.org

This is a jam packed post as I am going to talk about at least three different entities but they all related: as being great educational resources. Leave a comment if you like this post! Lurkers tolerated but not advocated!! Join in and let your voice be heard!

www.drawingboard.org
This is a great forum based site that deals with comics and illustration. There are a ton of great categories, I especially enjoy the the Superhero Jam discussion moderated by Euan MacTavish out of Scotland. He is a wonderful digital illustrator and great at capturing celebrity likenesses and applying dramatic and novel color schemes to his digital paintings. Check out Euan's blog for some way cool art and a peek into how he digitally creates his work. He appears to have a very efficient work flow - something a lot of digital artists lack (you will see them make major edits halfway through a finished piece - BAD, VERY BAD!!). Here is the link to the drawing boards' page about Squidoo.com.

www.squidoo.com
This site uses a format called LENS to create web pages (follow this link if you want to create a lens!). I guess there is a reward system for building and then having web visitors go to your lens (or single web page) - but they seem to have some good art instruction pages? You get royalties from each visit and can disperse those as you wish. Seems like a creative and benevolent exercise in capitalism! I will update this post once I get a better handle on this technology. IF anyone else can explain it better please post a comment!

Gannon Beck - Illustrator http://gannonbeck.com/
Gannon has a cool Conan Illustration Tutorial (http://www.squidoo.com/conandrawing) using the LENS format on squidoo.com. And I really appreciate his sentiments about sharing knowledge and mentoring - Bravo Gannon! Help make Gannon independently wealthy - send all your friends to his page!! (LOL)

10/04/07 - How does something I draw get into a magazine?

Mike Lynch (caricature pictured left), in addition to being a blogger, is a magazine cartoonist. His clients include Reader's Digest, Playboy, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, TheLadders.com, the New York Daily News and many others. He's also the National Cartoonists Society National Representative.

In a recent article on his blog, Mike shares the answer to the question "How does something I draw at home, on a board, get into a magazine like Harvard Business Review?" The article is a bit cartoon focused, but many of the points raised would be equally applicable to making a comic pitch. Good reading on either side of the creator fence.

Check out the full article here.

10/02/07 - Self-Publishing Secrets Revealed, A Six Part Series

Over on Comic-Con's Pulse website, Jane Irwin has spent the last few months posting a solid six part series on the art of self publishing. Letting Jane explain...

"When I first started work on my comic, ten years ago, my journey down the road to Self-Publishing received an enormous push-start from several professionals, including Mark "M'Oak" Oakley, Carla Speed McNeil and Jim Ottaviani. I realized what a huge gift of time and firsthand knowledge these creators were giving me, and I vowed that if I were ever in a position to do so, I would return the favor."

She returns the favor in this series. Here are the links to all six parts...
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Jane Irwin is the creator and publisher of the Vögelein series.