comics

Taking stock

Boston Comics Roundtable, Comics, inktober, Projects

It’s difficult to believe that 2017 is nearly over. True, there are five or so weeks left. But in the last 47 weeks, I’ve had an incredibly productive year for comics.

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights:

  • Edited Spellbound vol. 2 and oversaw the art direction for the cover
  • Attended the Graphic Memoir workshop at the Center for Cartoon Studies
    • Made my memoir comic Starman
    • Met incredible cartoonists from around the country
  • Created five mini-comics/zines that are available for purchase
    • Anxiety Diaries vol. 1
    • Anxiety Diaries vol. 2
    • Anxiety Diaries vol. 3
    • Kitchen Witches
    • Immature Language
  • Launched a (now on hiatus) web comic.
  • Took part in Inktober and created the Kitchen Witches comic
  • Tabled my first con (MICE in Cambridge, MA)
  • Had two pieces picked up for anthologies
  • Received two rejections for anthologies

There’s still a month left, and I think it will be a productive one.

I’m designing/co-editing Spellbound, Volume II: Modern Magic

Boston Comics Roundtable, Comics, Projects, Spellbound, Volume II
legalizemagic

Legalize Magic by Oliver Tacke // cc 2.0

Not content with one project of a literary bent, I’ve somehow found myself roped into working on an anthology with the Boston Comics Roundtable, the Boston-area indie comics creator group.

Spellbound II is “Modern Magic.” Where tech meets hex, touch screen Ouija boards exist, and the WiFi fairy is the godmother we all need.

My role will be selecting the comics with my co-editors, and designing/laying out the book itself. I’m very excited to be part of this project. The BCR releases excellent anthologies. The aim is to have the book in hand by early June, just in time for the convention season.

Specifications:

Dimensions: Trim 7” x 8.5”, image safe area 6.5” x 8” — no bleeds
Color: Black & White or Grey scale
Page count: 1 – 6 pages

Submission information:

Please send a complete script and at least the first page in tight pencils to spellbound.anthology@gmail.com.

Important dates:

3/3 – Script deadline.

3/31 – Final art deadline. Expect us to bug for updates before this deadline.

Beginning Samizdat

Comics, Samizdat

In the beginning, there was a joke. A ‘literary vigilante’ who is a Batman for the written word. Stopping bad poetry in its tracks, correcting split infinitives and terrifying those who dared submit to a literary magazine without a cover letter. As the editor and art director for literary magazine Far Off Places, Annie Rutherford and I had seen it all and longed for a force to at least make sure prospective writers included a cover letter.

But from that joke came the inkling of an idea, of a female driven comic book adventure we have titled Samizdat, after the Russian underground newspapers. Written and illustrated by women, starring women as the heroes and villains, this endeavor would give us the stories we wanted to see. Intelligent women using their brains to solve problems, with a literary bent. Drawing inspiration from the Kindle deleting 1984, from the ‘death’ of print media, and the closure of mom and pop bookstores, we developed the basic premise for Samizdat. Such is our love letter to stories, to adventures, to Edinburgh.