Upcoming show at Tokyo Manga Festival, new keychain for sale and sunset

I will be tabling at the Tokyo International Manga Festival on October 20th 2013!

I am assuming this is what it looks like. (From Comicsbeat)

The festival is at the Tokyo Big Sight and I will be in the artist alley.
I plan on selling Running Through Dreams as well as other books.

Also, I just put up an acrylic keychain for sale through Zazzle.com.
You can purchase it for $9.95 (plus S/H):

 

Finally,

here is a photo of a river at sunset.

Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo this Saturday

I will be exhibiting at MICE, the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo. (website) It takes place in Kenmore square. Come and stop by!

(The above logo is something I made early on for the convention, but it was never used by the organizers.)

MIT, Show Opening, Boston Bazaar photos

Thursday at MIT's Craft Fair, Dan and I find that our table is in a strange corner of Stata Center. While it makes for an interesting photo, foot traffic was low.

We decide to make a sign that clearly states what we are selling.



Friday, we get a better location, near the center of Stata.


We also take advantage of the blackboard behind the table.

Below: more Stata shots. It was a bit slow overall, but it was interesting to interact with students and people at MIT.





It was fun when people came over, eyes wide and arms open in curiosity, asking out loud -- "Comics?" I had a good time chatting with people.

At one point, two gentlemen looked interested in the comics and came over, while continuing to discuss something. They kept up the discussion (about the recent climatology scandal?) at the table for about 10 minutes, before they finally started browsing.

I had a new minicomic for this shows, a series of cartoons about things I'd seen at MIT. One of the gentlemen was very critical of this minicomic, particularly on one cartoon about how I watched students electrocuting a pickle in the hallway. I had to explain it was a real experiment that Prof. Bulovic occasionally performed for people, which his grad students were replicating.

I also sold the minicomic to researchers who had come into Boston for the Materials Research Society meeting that week, as well as to many other people.



Saturday -- reception for Inbound 4's debut and the corresponding art show at Atomic Bean Cafe!





Sunday --- Boston Bazaar Bizarre!

Above: someone looking at my minicomic... with a suspicious expression?

Above: people looking at my "Bored Angel" book.

Eric B, who organized the table at this event.

Portland Maine comics festival

Back from Portland Maine Comics Arts Festival! I sold and traded books, met a lot of people and had a lot of fun. The festival hall was one of the nicest indoor places to meet, with a huge glass wall facing the ocean.

Portland is an interesting misty place, from what I could see coming in. Also very cute place to walk around.

Below, photos of the festival.

(An entire row and some more of Boston comics people...)

Below: convention goer with an amusing bag.



I meant to sell some silver figurines at the festival. Mostly, I ended up showing people how to torch-fire and burnish silver-clay sculptures (it's really fun).

I may have inspired a little girl to try creating bronze sculptures. Bronze or copper clay is a much less expense material, and allows for more experimenting. She mentioned she has a kiln at her school, so she should be able to fire her sculptures. She still needs to get the special containers and materials to fire bronze or copper clay, though.



Also at the festival, I debuted a new comic:




This might look familiar.... (link)

Color has been added and a few dialogue and details tweaked -- but here is the 24 Hour Comic from last October, finally in print. I added the "Being kicked out by the police for drawing comics at 3 AM" story on the back page. (see blog entry for details.)

(That's what I was planning to put as a title on the inside back page -- "Creating KATTAN: Being Kicked Out by the Fuzz at 3 AM for Drawing Comics". But I figured it was a little too jarring of a title to read, after finishing the story.)

I'm looking for a slightly more economical way to print this color comic, since it's still expensive right now.

Minor update: Among the many people I traded books with was Marek Bennet... Here's his blog post. There's a picture which shows all the kinds of books at the festival. (And in the right hand side is "Outbound" and "Kattan"!)



Woops, I forgot to mention I was going to the Portland festival in earlier blog posts. Well, I guess I should mention: next week I'm at Anime Boston. I might have a few things for sale at a table or two, but mostly I'll be wandering around.



Also, the weather turned cold again. Kate will probably ask why I'm still suprised at this random New England weather.

Boston Comicon, Atomic Bean Cafe, Squirrel

Very important blog update: no birds at the bird feeder on my window, but a squirrel poked its head in my open window. Too bad I was right there, staring at it in surprise; the squirrel freaked out and ran away.


Also Boston Comicon and all that.





Some of the more colorful guests I saw.



Actually, this person below is not colorful, technically speaking. Kind of mostly grey and black.




From the Saturday night reception at the Atomic Bean Cafe.


Nice crowd.

We ended up putting the inside inkwash pages of "Mark and the Aliens" on display, because it was a complete short comic. I don't have a very good photo of my pages on the wall, but I'll try and get a picture soon.

Anyway, the Atomic Bean Cafe show will be up for at least this month. Copies of "Inbound" (1-3) as well as "Mark" (and possibly other minis) will be available for purchase at the cafe. The cafe will put 20% of sales into a charity to support artists.





And finally --

This is not the squirrel at my window, but it's similar to what I saw.

Photo I took of a squirrel at Harvard University.

Two gallery shows, online art auction and Boston Comicon

* So next weekend (April 4th and 5th), I will be at the Boston Comicon (Back Bay events center), selling books with the usual Boston Comics Roundtable people. Debuting at the event will be Boston Comics Roundtable’s Inbound No. 3, which has my story “Puppy Love Eternal” in it.

* Atomic Bean Cafe: Now, not only is the BCR celebrating the release of Inbound 3, we are also celebrating our first café art show! Saturday night (April 4th), after the Comicon, there will be an opening reception at the Atomic Bean Café (902 Mass Ave, between Central and Harvard). The show will feature original comics and artwork. If you’re in the area, stop by and say hello!



* UMass Boston: Meanwhile… another gallery show! April 16 (Thursday night), join me at the UMass Boston gallery opening reception of an exhibit of local comics creators' work. Like the Atomic Bean Café, the UMass show will have original pages from my story “Puppy Love Eternal” on display. I think there will be the original watercolors from “Mark and the Aliens”, as well. Also there will be free food.

Here’s some more images from the new story....







* And also, here I am on the internet, selling mini-cards of original art in the Comics for Cures charity, benefiting the American Cancer Society. According to the site, there will be a public exhibition of all the minicards at Comics 2 Games (Florence, KY location) on April 4th 2009.

Meanwhile, visit this link to buy cards and help raise money. Here’s my cards:

An ink of a Dragon creature




The other card is a black and white brush ink of a creature… glowering at you. Or the person next to you.



And some possible news regarding me and Anime Boston, but I'll save that for when I get more details.


Also no birds at window. What gives.

SPX 2008: House of Potato Gormandizer

Small Press Expo 2008!

Below: set-up time early Saturday morning, and a later shot.


On the first day, I saw no less than three people wearing Tintin t-shirts!



I was pretty excited. Then someone pointed out to me that a Tintin movie was in the works, which would account for the shirts. That made it less coincidental, but it was still cool.

Dirk and I carpool'ed to SPX. Here, Dirk risks all to unveil the "Pope? Yes!" conspiracy.



Below -- Alex and Jaime staffing the BCR table!


Anyway, SPX was a lot of fun. I traded for a bunch of mini's, including "10 Things To Do With a Fake Moustache".



On other news, last night my housemates played presidential-candidate bingo during the debate. Sam won within the first 9 minutes.

MoCCA and Improv Story

I am going to the Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art Festival (MoCCA) next weekend! I will be part of the Boston Comics Roundtable. Apparently we have a table in the corner on the second floor.


And now, a (typical) story by Alex and me....

The Mouse and the Pickle: A Cautionary Tale

Once upon a Crowned Pickle there lived a tiny mouse. The mouse ate bits of the Crowned Pickle. The Crowned pickle did not like this. He went to the racetrack where he hired a seedy jockey to get rid of the mouse.
The mouse took action, and went to the blue forest, which was the natural homeland of the pickles. The mouse took hostage the pickle ambassador. The mouse negotiated to live among his own kind, while still enjoying delicious crown pickle.
“But how will you do that?” asked the ambassador.
“Tofu,” replied the mouse. “Crowned-Pickle-Flavored tofu.”
And so they lived sort-of-maybe-kind-of-possibly happily ever after.

The End.

(In case you couldn’t tell, this was an impromptu spoken story, with each person adding three words at a time.)