Saturday, February 24, 2007

Inkslingers, Assemble!


Compliments of curator Idoline Duke of
  • the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, VT
  • comes this tasty portrait from
  • this past Wednesday's VT cartoonists gatherum in Burlington.

  • From left to right, back row: Jeff Danziger, James Kochalka, and yours truly; front row: Harry Bliss, Ed Koren, James Sturm. A fine time was had by all, and the dinner afterworks (at the Pacific Rim eatery) was delish and great fun.
    _______________

    Zombies Bios

    Here's the lineup of fellow American cartoonists I appear alongside in the upcoming Accent UK Zombies anthology. More info & images as May -- and the anthology's publication -- approaches!

    Daniel Bissette is a native Vermonter (b 1985) and has been drawing, writing and making music of one kind or another (drums, guitar, etc.) all life. His art appears in an Italian book on Lucio Fulci, onscreen in Lance Weiler's new feature film Head Trauma, on its companion alternative soundtrack CD Cursed, and his first self-published zine was Hot Chicks Take Huge Shits (2006). He lives in Brattleboro, VT, DJs for the local radio station, and he and his dad Steve jammed on a piece for the mini-comic Trees & Hills and Friends before re-teaming for this anthology.

    Chuck Forsman currently attends The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont where he researches how to sleep less and draw more. Visit
  • http://mcbuck.wordpress.com.

  • Jaci June is a student of the Center for Cartoon Studies, and a former resident of southern California. Comix for Jaci are what brains are for zombies: vital sustenance.

    Sean Morgan: Born a cowboy, raised a Creole, forever a Yankee. There's no button Mr. Morgan won't push. His artwork (including the monster cover/splash) graces the “Jersey Devil” minicomic packaged with the Heretic DVD release of The Last Broadcast.

    Bob Oxman was born in Ohio and raised in New Hampshire where he discovered his three loves: comic books, skateboarding, and beer. Bob started drawing comics in math class using graphing paper. At the University of California Santa Barbara, Bob and Mark Smith cofounded the Comic Book Creator’s Co-op, creating comics published in both campus newspapers and teaching a popular colloquium on graphic novels during their senior year. After college, Bob drifted through a series of uninspiring occupations (temping at a gel implants corporation, working for an insurance company, etc.), eventually moving back home to NH to attend classes at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Bob is currently hard at work on Smuttynose, a macabre retelling of the infamous Smuttynose Island, Maine axe murders of 1873, and he brews several fine beers featuring comic labels, as he works professionally in art crime prevention at the Hood Museum of Art for Dartmouth College.

    Against his wishes, Morgan Pielli was born in Connecticut. Here he began creating comics of dubious quality from the tender age of seven. At age twelve his cartoons began appearing in the school newspaper; and the tragic course he had set was clear. But in an unexpected moment of weakness, Morgan decided that a classical art education was needed. After four years of painting pictures of squares bigger than his head, Morgan physically pried a BFA from the cold unfeeling hands of Bard College president Leon Botstein. Dr. Botstein shook his fist and cursed Morgan, vowing to someday have his revenge.Currently Morgan resides in Vermont where he attends the Center for Cartoon Studies. His cartoons “The Dancing Paperclip of Tormented Souls” and “Morgan's Guide to a Fruitful Life” are read by several people world-wide and enjoyed by nearly as many. Morgan's work can be found at
  • http://morganpielli.rated-arr.net
  • if you're into that sort of thing.

    Jeremiah Piersol is a 2002 graduate of Art Center of College of Design, Pasadena , California (Bachelors of Fine Art). He is currently studying cartooning at The Center for Cartoon Studies, White River Junction, VT. His past endeavors including interning at the The Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, and volunteer work at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA. and The Water Street Rescue Mission, Lancaster, PA; he was born in Lancaster. Jeremiah’s interests include Art in all forms, comics, quantum physics, paranormal research, post-modern theory, and popular culture.

    Denis St. John (b 1981) heralds from most of the United States (California, New Orleans, Washington D.C., the Midwest, etc.). Denis was a local children’s show host in Indiana and co-host for a midnight horror show, often playing the creature for the creature feature, alongside the very real and cranky Dr. Calamari. Denis is currently a student at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, and is trying to move on with his life after the glamour of children’s show host fame has faded.

    B.C. Sterrett was born and raised in Ogden, Utah. His ongoing comic strip "The Sweetest of Dreams" has been published by Young American Comics, in entertainment rags like Melting Music and The Salt Shaker, and various other school papers, zines, and newsletters. He acts as founder and current director of the Lost Media Archive Museum and Library, salvaging and saving forgotten and obsolete media formats. Previous host of the long running "Oddity Rock Radio Show" on KWCR, he and has produced and hosted various broadcasts of rare and unusual music throughout the years (i.e. "Outsider Music" on live365.com). He is currently a student at The Center For Cartoon Studies, in White River Junction, VT. Contact: bcsterrett@gmail.com
    _________

    BTW, speaking of Blair and his creative and archival endeavors, the January 13th Lost Media Archive Museum and Library event I noted
  • in my January 13th post on this blog (scroll down to that day's posting, just below the glowering Varnae art) yielded photos by Blair's friend Janean Parker,
  • which are posted online here -- check 'em out!

  • Check it all out, please, and savor the beauty of it all.

    Have a Great Saturday, One & All!

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    Monday, February 19, 2007

    VT Cartoonists Descend on Burlington, Wednesday Night, 2/21!


    As promised, a follow up on this week's activities.

    Yo, big time in the big town (Vermont's only city!) this week -- Wednesday, to be exact!

    James Sturm and I are off to Burlington on the afternoon of February 21st for the Cartoonist’s Panel and Informal Public Cartoon/Comic Critique Session. The evening event will be moderated by James Sturm, Director of the Center for Cartoon Studies and cartoonist/graphic novelist; panelists will include Harry Bliss, Jeff Danziger, Ed Koren and yours truly.

    The panel discussion is during the dinner hour, 5:30 pm – 7 pm, followed by an informal public critique session from 7–7:30pm. All this for just $5 at the door; we'll be in the Lorraine B. Good Room at the Firehouse Center.

    This will be a special evening, so be there --
  • all the particulars are here, at the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts site,
  • -- see you up on the second floor at 135 Church Street, next to City Hall in Burlington, VT, 05401.



    Contact info:

    Phone: 802-865-7166

    Contact: Melinda Johns
    mjohns@ci.burlington.vt.us


    Directions: The Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts is located in downtown Burlington next to City Hall on the Church Street Marketplace,
  • and here's a map for those of you not familiar with Burlington who are planning to come!

  • For further information, please contact Idoline Duke, 802-253-8538, Director of Exhibitions, Helen Day Art Center --
  • for more info, including the poop on the current Fine Toon: The Art of Vermont Cartoonists exhibit at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, click here!


  • Upcoming events linked to the exhibit (including my April 17th lecture at the gallery) are cited here.


  • More info tomorrow!

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    Friday, January 26, 2007

    Time Didn't Permit...

    ...me to post again yesterday. However, that's for the best, as I kept Mark so preoccupied, meaning he had less time to obsess over whatever bile Bill O'Reilly (the Morton Downey Jr. of the 21st Century!) is spilling these days. What a putz (Bill, not Mark).

    Yesterday turned out to be a pretty intense day at the Center for Cartoon Studies, though all good. I was nowhere near a computer until, uh, now.

    Anyhoot, CCS: Glad to be at last into the new semester, it's all open sailing ahead! The biggest treat of the day was the afternoon session with my amigo and fellow VT cartoonist Skip Morrow, whose two hours with the students proved most engaging and illuminating. Skip was a bit frustrated that he didn't get to everything he'd hoped to cover, but still, an excellent and comprehensive kick-off for the semester's impressive lineup of visiting artists -- thanks, Skip! For those of you interested, click on over to
  • Skip's website,
  • and enjoy.



    Skip and I will also be at tonight's opening at
  • the Helen Day Art Center site,
  • from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. This follows up on last year's Brattleboro Museum exhibition of Vermont cartoonists for a more expansive gallery showing of Green Mountain cartoonists's work via "Fine Toon: The Art of Vermont Cartoonists," curated by the charming Idoline Duke. She scoured the state and has pulled together originals by yours truly, Skip, Alison Bechdel, Harry Bliss, Jeff Danziger, Gareth Hinds, James Kochalka, Edward Koren, Hal Mayforth, Frank Miller, Tim Newcomb, and my old buddy Rick Veitch and fellow inky compadre James Sturm.

    I'm really looking forward to seeing what the gallery has brought together. This is, bar none, the most extensive and comprehensive collection of Vermont cartooning in any gallery to date, and as such worthy of notice. Stowe's a great town to visit any time of year -- this should provide some of you a destination worth the trip.

    Tonight's event is just the beginning; the show runs from January 26th through March 31st, and spills over a bit into my scheduled April 17th presentation on VT comics and graphic novels (more on that later). Anyhoot, for more info and a complete schedule, click
  • here,
  • or contact: Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, Vermont; phone: 802-253-6131.

    Alas, no time as yet to get into Pan's Labyrinth; I'll get to that this weekend. Got a full day ahead, including breakfast with my son Dan -- so, later, gators!

    PS: Mark, I haven't followed the Vermont case O'Reilly has made into a national hubbub. I read a bit about it last year in our local papers, but not enough to knowledgeably comment on it, much less get into the substance of it. All I know is a judge was more lenient than O'Reilly, torture-loving right-wing hate-mongering fuckhead he is, thinks the judge should have been. In the dreams of O'Reilly fans everywhere, they'd prefer to see O'Reilly on the bench, no doubt, doling out true American justice -- which would be fine in that (a) we wouldn't have to stomach his presence in the pop culture "journalism" landscape if he were a judge, 'cuz none of us would have heard of (much less from) him if he were a judge instead of a media screed monkey -- unless, that is, (b) you were the poor sonuvabitch who found themselves facing Judge O'Reilly. The man is an insufferable braggart and a bully. 'Nuff said!

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