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Blog
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Gabrielle Bell on Uncivilized Books
As promised in the last post, Gabrielle Bell‘s new mini-comic, L.A. Diary, is now available for purchase on the brand new Uncivilized Books site. -
Rain Taxi Book Festival & Fallcon
L.A. Diary by Gabrielle Bell
A confluence of events almost as portentous as the alignment of the sun and the galactic center heralding the uncertain events of 2012 have caused the Rain Taxi Book Festival and Fallcon to share the same moment in time if not the same space. Both events will compete for your attention between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, Oct 10th) and I will attempt to have a table at both. At the Rain Taxi event, I (as Uncivilized Books) will be sandwiched between Big Brain Comics and Zak Sally’s La Mano Books. Several great authors are scheduled to appear (Nicholson Baker, Lorrie Moore, Andrzej Zagajewski, etc.) but the main event as far as I’m concerned will be cartoonist Gabrielle Bell. In addition to gracing the Book Festival, Gabrielle teamed up with Uncivilized Books to produce a special mini-comic: L.A. Diary. The comic is a collection of diary strips published on her blog. It also contains sketches and an unfiltered glimpse at her real sketchbook diary. We also teamed up on a small Gocco print (pictured below). They will both be available for sale at the Rain Taxi festival and eventually next week copies will be made available online. Of course my comics will be available for sale as well, including the recently released Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009.
Meanwhile, I will also be tabling at Fallcon (Peter Bagge will be there!). On Saturday my presence will be limited, but on Sunday I will be joined by Gabrielle Bell and we will have her above mentioned mini-comic (and print) for sale in addition to my usual junk. Stop by and say hi!
Silver Gocco print by Gabrielle Bell -
Aleja Komiksu
I came to the United States From Poland in 1987. I’ve traveled back to the home country a few times over the last couple of decades. A few days ago I had a different kind of homecoming. I was interviewed for the first time by the Polish comics community. The brief interview is now posted, along with a few pages of my comics, on the Aleja Komiksu site.
If you read Polish the rest of the Aleja Komiksu site is well worth checking. I especially recommend the extensive interview with Andrzej Klimowski, one of the most interesting figures in British comics. English speakers aren’t completely left out. The site posted a survey of recent comics by young British cartoonists. Take a look.
To celebrate this virtual homecoming, I’m posting one of my first ever comic-books. It may not be THE first comic, but it’s certainly the first total package: a stapled pamphlet, complete with a logo and print run number (it was customary for the print run to be listed on books in Poland at the time – in this case the print run was 1). I was 11 when I made this.
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Handle With Care
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Sometime in the late 90’s, only a few years after I started self-publishing mini-comics, I got my first order from France from someone named Laurent Parson. Over the next decade he would keep ordering the odd mini-comic that I’d happened to be selling on my site. Then a few weeks ago he asked me to participate in a “DIY” comics exhibition that was going to take place at the library where he lived. How could I say no? After a few weeks of emails and idea exchanges I finally sent my artwork to Montauban, the location of the exhibition. Now the show is up and open to the public. It’s called Handle With Care and features the work of several American cartoonists & zinesters: Ron Rege Jr., Jordan Crane, Mark Burrier, Aaron Cometbus, John Porcellino, Minnesota’s own Vincent “King Mini” Stall, JP Coovert and many others.
A still from video about the exhibiton.
The exhibition will be on display for the next seven weeks at the Biblioth√©que de Montauban. From what I can tell it looks fantastic. Take a look at this video. It’s a dizzying array of art and objects. It simply looks amazing. I wish I could go see it for myself. The video has the added benefit of featuring Laurent talking about the show. I don’t understand a word of it, but I can finally put see the face behind all the emails and letters he’s sent over the last decade.
More about the exhibition here and here (PDF 1.8 MB). -
Million Year Boom: Best, But Not Required
Eric Reynolds at Fantagraphics mentioned it a while ago, but I didn’t really believe it until I saw the book a few of days ago: Million Year Boom, my story from MOME 11 was selected for the 2009 edition of Best American Nonrequired Reading. I’m REALLY surprised and thrilled to have my work appear in such an amazing collection. Two other MOME contributors, Olivier Schrauwen and √âmile Bravo were also selected. Congratulations to all contributors!
For more about Best American Nonrequired Reading series and it’s selection committee check out their very own blog. A portion of the proceeds from the book go to benefit the 826 National youth literacy project.
The book should be available in bookstores at blog time. Or buy the book online via: Magers & Quinn, Amazon, Powells.
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Tornado
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A tornado hit some parts of Minneapolis this afternoon. I was able to take a few pics of the aftermath. Take a look.
UPDATE: Added a few more pics to the set. These are closer to home… a few blocks around Franklin and 5th.
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Big Funny: Opening Night
Friday night saw the opening of the Big Funny exhibition at the Altered Esthetics gallery. The exhibition features the art from the titular Big Funny: a big (48 newspaper sized pages) collection of comic-strips by an assortment of Minneapolis cartoonists. More info on the collection here. I brought a camera and acted like an annoying paparazzo. The results are here. -
Doodle Dump 012
Doodle Dump‚Ñ¢ returned once before… unsuccessfully. It returns again. Click images to enlarge them.
Above: a few doodles based on Jesse Marsh drawings. -
Resolution
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Dash Shaw already posted a small glimpse of our 15 page collaboration, “Resolution”. I wrote and Dash did the art, though the process was more fluid than that. When the piece comes out, I’ll do a post on the process. My layouts above correspond roughly to the page Dash posted on his blog. It will appear in MOME vol. 17.