$15,000 Advance for a Kid’s Comic by New Artist. Hey, you!

Graphix, the young adult and children’s comics imprint of Scholastic announced a contest at Comic-con. Some contests are scams; they charge high entry fees, or insist you give up rights to your characters at time of entry. This one looks wonderful. It is only for unpublished creators. The prize is publication and a $15,000 advance.Continue reading “$15,000 Advance for a Kid’s Comic by New Artist. Hey, you!”

A Man of Few Words: DAVID WIESNER

The great children’s book illustrator Davis Wiesner (WEEZner) came to Kutztown to talk at the 16th annual KU Children’s Literature Conference. The 3-time Caldecott Award winner visited a Communication Design class to share his art and creative process. Oddly enough, he considered attending Kutztown University but was put off by our art test used inContinue reading “A Man of Few Words: DAVID WIESNER”

Get Down: BOX BROWN is on a roll

COME SEE BOX BROWN! “How to Make Comics Every Day and Still Be Alive” -Box Brown, Sept 17th Sharadin Arts Bldg. Kutztown U, Rm 120, 7pm. Free! This is the same talk he is giving at the Library of Congress earlier in the week. I met cartoonist Box Brown at MOCCA. He is the creatorContinue reading “Get Down: BOX BROWN is on a roll”

Andre the Giant is BIG!

  I was reading multiple great books: a novel set in Mexico; a literary biography; a history of the U.S invasion of Iraq. Then I opened a padded envelope to find a review copy of Box Brown’s Andre the Giant: Life and Legend. Those other books got thrown out of the ring. Looking at theContinue reading “Andre the Giant is BIG!”

The Man from The Thought Cloud Factory

We are all different, but Theo Ellsworth is more different. I met the artist at Pittsburgh’s Toonseum where his enchanting one-man show hangs through April 30. He calls his studio The Thought Cloud Factory. He came to Pittsburgh from his home in Montana to participate in PIX, the Pittsburgh indy press expo. Big Sky countryContinue reading “The Man from The Thought Cloud Factory”

Nils Balls and The Ship of Soiled Doves.

“Soiled Doves” is Civil War slang for prostitutes. Hold that thought. We’ll get back to the prostitutes shortly. Meet Nils Balls. He is the guy wearing a tin foil helmet in the Carnegie Library on Pittsburgh’s Northside. He’s seated with a fairy princess and a teen zombie who has a knife through his head, drawingContinue reading “Nils Balls and The Ship of Soiled Doves.”

Thieves at Etsy: SpecialPrints

Jon Shafer is a recent KU illustration grad. He found this cute print on sale on Etsy. It seemed familiar because he drew it over a year ago. Below is Jonathan’s original art as featured on his web page. Jon wrote to SpecialPrints. I asked him to keep me posted. “She said she found itContinue reading “Thieves at Etsy: SpecialPrints”

Opportunity Knocks: Grab Bag for Illustrators

The Sequential Arts Workshop, SAW, in Gainesville, Florida is once again offering two mini-grants of $250 to artists working on a comic or graphic novel project. True, this is not a lot of money, but if you need to buy time to work on your art every cent helps. What I like about this grantContinue reading “Opportunity Knocks: Grab Bag for Illustrators”

The Lady Loves to Cut: Maude White

I met artist Maude White at Grit N Glory on NYC’s Lower East Side at an opening reception for Carrier Pigeon Magazine. Her medium is cut paper. She illustrated “The Girl Who was Struck by Lightning,” a quite peculiar short story by Chris Stanton. If there is a literary genre called Backwoods Surreal Noir, this storyContinue reading “The Lady Loves to Cut: Maude White”

Traces of Lucidity

When I was a grad student I asked my teacher Marshall Arisman how to use the ancient lucigraph tracing machine in SVA’s illustration studio. He cocked his head back and laughed in my face. “You never used one of these? Good for you, I am not going to teach you!” I can’t find a picture ofContinue reading “Traces of Lucidity”