I post somewhere else now

Check out all the art I've been posting at the Mysterious Transmissions blog! And check out our sick website!

Sock-Monster commission

Here's a drawing I was lucky enough to get to do for my comic book pal Neil Brideau, of his Sock-Monster character and my Dead Man Holiday protagonist Thad. Neil lives in Chicago, where he works at the great Quimby's Bookstore, and I happened to meet his brother all the way out here in Massachusetts where we coincidentally live in the same town. He hired me to draw a picture for his brother for Christmas, so I busted out what you see above.

Paint and Pixel Festival 2011

Mysterious Transmissions (being myself and cohort Mark Velard) exhibited at the Paint and Pixel Festival last weekend. Here's a shot of the view of the floor from our table, Dan Berger visible in the foreground:

Here are the books Mark and I both premiered:
Not Comics #1, my long-promised anthology of short stories made in collaboration with people who don't read comics. (The cover is meant to look like a book so that normal people don't have to feel ashamed while reading it in public.) The whole thing will be available to read online... eventually. Heck, it may even be available for purchase online at some point.

A Bosnian bootleg of Mark's eight page story Marooned at High Noon! The Bosnians sure do love bootlegging Mark's comics. Before the books are even released. I don't know how they get his pages into the hands of their children to crudely trace over to produce their own versions, but they do it. Time and time again. And then customs forwards them to Mysterious Transmissions secret headquarters and we sell them at shows.

It was a lovely little show (it's first year) full of pleasant, enthusiastic people. It was my second show as an exhibitor, and my first time exhibiting at a show with any kind of comics focus. That was the highlight for me; meeting other comics folk as a fellow creators and talking shop with them. Hans Rickheit jogged by our table not as a shopper, but to boldly hand us fliers for his excellent comic Ectopiary, as he did with all the vendors (we managed to load him up with our books on his way through). I saw him doing this same thing at NEWW2- the guy knows how to promote! I scheduled a portfolio review with Jon Chad, a professor at the Center for Cartoon Studies whose work I bought and enjoyed at the last two MoCCA Fests. Only when I walked into the review and he asked "Are you thinking about applying to the school?" and I answered "Uh... no?" did I realize that the portfolio reviews were maybe intended for prospective students! (Read: not me.) But Jon was super nice, very enthusiastic about my work and even presented me with a couple of thoughts about composition that are going to come in handy going forward. Best of all, I got to meet with one of my art heroes Jim Lawson. His distinctive style broadened my horizons as a kid, and I continue to enjoy his work to present day.

Here are the few pictures I took throughout the day. I mentioned in the Mysterious Transmissions bio on the Paint and Pixel site that we'd be fabricating our wares mere minutes before the show, but Mark proved me wrong- he was assembling books until about three minutes into the show. That's not cutting it down to the wire, it's biting the wire in half! Here he is displaying the poise and grace of a true professional.

Here are a few shots of our table before customers TORE IT ASUNDER:


Too much color?

This kid got all of the ex-Mirage Studios artists in attendance to draw the Ninja Turtles on his Ninja Turtle hoodie:
Looks like he got Dooney top left, Lawson top right, I think Peter Laird on the bottom left (they must have been lucky enough to catch him when he stopped in) and Berger bottom right. Here's Lawson sketching his contribution:
And that, ladies and gentleman, is the difference between comic book artists and rock stars.

Huge thanks go out to Paint and Pixel organizer Peggy Twardowski for letting the weird kids table and Mysterious Transmissions official buttoneer and hang-outer Jahmai Hill!

MoCCA Fest 2011 report

My MoCCA Fest 2011 haul:


1) Secret Prison #4. Haven't read it yet, but at initial glance looks like an improvement over previous editions.

2) Symptom of the Universe webcomic promo card.

3) Ghost Throat webcomic promo card.

4) Heather Benjamin promo flyer. I wanted to buy something from her, but her promo card was my favorite thing on the table!

5) Rat Bastard promo card. I read this comic as a kid, but hadn't seen it around for years. They were selling shirts, but no comics. I never saw them at their booth, so I couldn't ask them what the deal was.

6) Benjamin Marra's The Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd (A Work of Satire and Fiction). Marra's always a must-buy.

7) The infamous Comics Issue of the Village Voice. Sub controversy: I'm pretty sure that 85% of the "comics artists" featured in this issue are actually illustrators.

8) Maser by Jon Chad. Bought his comic The Ruby last year, loved it, bought this.

9) Quatro Monstro. $1 anthology featuring Jon Chad and three more. Bought based on cover alone.

10) The BAD-ventures of Bobo Backslack. Another Jon Chad.

11) They're Just Like Us! Making fun of the "Celebrities! They're Just Like Us!" sections of tabloids is something I probably would have gotten around to sooner or later, but Mindy Fisher does a fine job beating me to it.

12) Diamond 5. I haven't read this one yet, but the new issue has a killer lineup.

13) Miss Chris by Mickey Duzyj. Not a lot of exhibitors put more thought into their display than slapping a bunch of books down on a table and *maybe* sticking a funky tablecloth in between, so it was easy to fall instantly in love with Duzyj's eye catching and elegant perfume themed display for his book Miss Chris. Here are a couple of photos I took of it:
Here's a better photo that someone else took. Note the lipstick stained cigarette butts. Do you think Duzyj had to put lipstick on himself and smoke a pack to get them? One can only hope. And if so, the book itself was worth the effort; very Clowes-ian in content, but somehow simultaneously less and more overtly humorous. Goregous art and design, presenting an absurdist comedy insisting it's a deeply felt tale of being lost, and doing a great job of it. My book of the show.

14) Two Eyes of the Beautiful II by Ryan Cecil Smith. Bought because I heard Sean T Collins or Groovy Age of Horror or someone raving about it. Really loved it.

15) My week in Bologna by Katie Turner. Free and adorable.

16) The Comix Reader #1.

17) The MoCCA Fest program.

18 and 19) Meat Haus #6 and 7. Bought for $3 total! They were selling these insanely cheaply, sold out immediately and claimed they didn't know the demand would be so high. One of the most well regarded comics anthologies period for about 15% cover price? Duh.

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Random notes about the show:

*I paid $1 for a ticket through Megabus to get there and at no point, as I suspected might, did gas start coming in through the vents leading to me waking up chained to a rock in the desert while being yelled at to dig with all the other passengers.

*I only attended Saturday.


*This was my second MoCCA, and second alt-comics fest ever. Call it a sophomore slump, but I wasn't feeling it.

*Even before the show, I noticed a much lower amount of online buzz about this year than the year before, from the comics blogosphere and even from MoCCA itself. The guest list, programming and poster were announced with little to no fanfare. Afterparties were barely mentioned online, and no posters for them were visible at the show itself. Compared to last year's explosion of Dash Shaw and Paul Pope appearances and posters, this seemed rather subdued. As someone who worked for years at a prominent film festival, I'm fully aware that some years you're able to catch lightning in a bottle and others it can get away from you.

*My main objective at MoCCA Fest is to wander around the floor and discover new and exciting talent I've never heard of before by scooping up interesting looking minis. I struck gold three times last year with Michaela Zacchelli, Jon Chad and Mark Todd. This year I found one, maybe two. That said, I still got a bunch of good shit.

*There were a number of names absent from the floor that would leave a conspicuous hole at any alt-comics show, like Frank Santoro and Mike Bertino. Ben Marra was still out in force though. Why doesn't Jim Rugg exhibit at this show?

*Again, I'm willing to chalk all this grumbling up to my very personal experience of it being my second show.

*I brought a number of non-comics readers to the show, and they seemed to all find something to get really excited about. A friend who is a traveling educator caught a bit of the Brecht Evens/ Dash Shaw conversation, and was impressed enough with Evens to actively seek out his book The Wrong Place, the most coveted of all of our purchases. A friend who's an abstract painter bought Yuichi Yokoyama's Travel from the Picturebox booth, an area I made it a point to show him. Here he is mulling over his purchase:
His girlfriend bought Ken Dahl's Monsters, which they both immediately read and seemed completely absorbed by. They also bought a book of drawings of Portland (they're transplants) but I can't remember what it was called.

*After the show my friends and I headed over to the Limerick House, the annual meetup spot of the comics podcast Indie Spinner Rack. I had a great time catching up with host Mr. Phil and perennial Canadian tourists Bill and Brittany, who always have the best stories. Things seen at the Limerick: a stylish old man (striped shirt, blazer and coke-bottle horn-rimmed glasses, certainly in the mob) eating a huge serving of burger and fries all by himself and immediately slipping into a mild coma, a girl looking up at the sign out front and telling a friend she was at the "Imperial House", a bachelorette party, a girl eating a banana (my first sighting on fruit eating in a bar, no jokes please), and the weirdest, longest blank stare I've ever gotten when asking someone for a lighter.

*I'm again amazed that when looking at other people's pictures of the event, I recognize virtually nothing.

*For some possibly more fair views of the show, here's Tom Spurgeon's round-up of other people's blog about the event.

*For good measure, here's my MoCCA 2010 report.

There went Twist V!

Hey! Twist V happened! Last weekend! It was my and my table-mate Mark Velard's first show. It was a learning experience. We felt like we were starting out at Level 11- Twist is, from what I can tell, the biggest and hippest art/ craft show in the area and we did a lot of work making sure that we had a good number of substantial stuff to sell at our table so that we didn't look like we broke in a threw a bunch of crap on the table. I think we did a good job, but the show wasn't a great fit for us. I originally applied to it because the marketing material remind me of the Atomic Holiday Bazaar in Sarasota FL, which would fit us like a glove. But Twist was actually a bit more jewelry-oriented. And while I hate to generalize, suffice it to say that people out shopping for jewelry don't often decide to impulse buy a comic book. As I said all weekend "This is a classy, girly show and we're selling trashy, not-girly stuff." BUT, we got our books into a few hands that were really excited about them, and that felt great. There was a lovely woman who did her thesis on horror movies, an artist gentlemen who was looking for some "vague, dark shit" (thanks for coming up with Dead Man Holiday's new tagline!) and even a little kid who is really into monsters. Even better was the stoned gentlemen who threw down Mark's Future Space, casually decrying "I don't get it" and the overweight family trapped in front of our table looking at our wares as if they were slowly driving by a car accident. We didn't win financially, but we feel pretty equipped to take on any size or type of show, and we made some great connections and friends. In the end, it was totally worth it. I would like to thank the Twist staff for selecting us to be a part of the show- we were deeply honored, had a blast, and were happy to freak out so many passerby. On to pictures!

The Mysterious Transmissions table. Unfortunately, our mascot (the "Little Man") on the front of our banner (better view here) failed to hypnotize people into buying our books, but his unblinking gaze did manage to mildly entrance Rob Cartelli Ceramics across the aisle from us.

Closer view of our wares. From left to right: Dead Man Holiday collections, Mark's Refractor Industries poster, our collaborative A Dream of Sheep poster, Twist exclusive Dead Man Holiday poster, Mark's Future Space mini, Mark's Talk Show two pager, Mark Velard buttons and Dead Man Holiday single issues. This was before the shipment of Bosnian bootlegs of Mark's book Bang! Pong! Pow! (titled Rang! Pong! Pow!) arrived.

A closer view of the middle of the table.

Mark showcasing his winning smile and hobo beard that managed to sell so many books for the camera. Notice our port neighbors Rachel Pfeffer Designs, who did a great job not smacking me every time I complained that we were "selling comics at a jewelry show".

My sales pitch: "Uh, sir, look over here? Please?" The lovely and amazing ceramicist Karissa Chase visible in the background.

Hanging with our starboard neighbor, the great t-shirt artiste Miss Wit! I don't often wear T-Shirts, but come on. (Photo ruthlessly stolen from Deb Klein.)

And don't forget to top it all off with a trip to the best Italian restaurant in Mexican restaurant clothing, Joe's Cafe! (Photo mercilessly poached from Deb Klein.)

It's over! I have a life again!

Here comes Twist V!

Tomorrow (today, technically) and Saturday I'll be exhibiting at Twist V, and alternative craft fair in Northampton, MA. It the first show I've ever tabled at, and I'll be sharing it with the great Mark Velard. You can find us at table #133 exhibiting under the name Mysterious Transmissions. (Check out the Mysterious Transmissions website for a peek at the MT banner that Mark and I put together.)

At the show I'll have the following items available for purchase:

The Dead Man Holiday collection! All three issues, plus eleven pages of dvd-style bonus features, under one cover all for ten bucks. Here's what it looks like, thanks to Kristen Smith who collaborated on the kick-ass cover illustration with me!:

A Twist-exclusive Dead Man Holiday poster! It looks like this:

And lastly, another poster, this one in collaboration with Mr. Velard. He wrote it and laid it out, and I inked it. I've been tearing the face off his style and wearing it as my own lately, a la Leatherface. As a result, my stuff actually looks good now:
What will Mark have for sale? Well, it's 1am the night before the show and he's sitting five feet away from me working like a madman, so your guess is as good as mine!

New England Webcomics Weekend 2

I attended the New England Webcomics Weekend 2 this weekend. It took place in the Eastworks building, which is about a twenty minute drive from my house. The Eastworks building is an old factory awkwardly (in a good way) retrofitted to be a shopping mall and office space. It's also the permanent home of TopatoCo, who sell merch for most of the biggest webcomics artists on the internet- I never stop learning about this area's importance the the comics world.
The show... I won't say that it was poorly organized, but it was certainly lightly organized. I could not find the registration table to pick up my passes all weekend. It wasn't a problem, not having a pass didn't raise any eyebrow from anyone. I had assumed that they were just not collecting tickets until I finally did happen across it on my way out. Panels started over half an hour late with seat-of-their-pants tech setups. My favorite part was that it took place in the halls of the building, rather than in any of the from what I can only assume are hundreds of empty rooms in the building, and the stores were still open. Women in the salon sporting freshly did hair staring out in a kind of confusion over the circus outside. I wasn't turned off by any of this however, only charmed. All the biggest names in webcomics had traveled from all over the world to exhibit at what essentially looked like a weekend flea market. This thing has every reason to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years, and I can't wait to snobbily regale people with stories of how I was there when it was so small.

Here's our haul, comprised exclusively of free takeaway promos and items purchased by my girlfriend, as my bank account literally reads $0 at present. Clockwise from top middle: Pugs dressed like peppers salt and pepper shakers (not purchased at show), beautiful pin and postcard from Tiny Kitten Teeth, horrifying postcard from Andrew Bell, those hard to find passes with artwork from Girls With Slingshots creator Danielle Corsetto, Coffee Time sticker from Bad Machinery creator John Allison, card and a copy of French Milk by Lucy Knisley, Hourlies 2010 mini and Darwin Carmichael is going to Hell cards by Sophie Goldstein, free four page mini from Erika Moen, Ectopiary promo by Hans Rickheit (who wasn't exhibiting, we just happened to pass him in the hallway and he handed us this- wish I realized who he was and said hello before he sped away), and Rice Boy promo card (a comic I will surely be checking out some day).

Some exhibitors.


Girls With Slingshots creator Danielle Corsetto, Dr McNinja colorist Anthony Clark and Dresden Codak creator Aaron Diaz (who apparently has three days to live), speaking on the Coloring is Awesome! panel.

Girls With Slingshots creator Danielle Corsetto talking about coloring her strip.

Inking is Awesome! panel with Gastrophobia creator David McGuire (who inks in Flash!), Octopus Pie creator and NEWW organizer Meredith Gran and The Abominable Charles Christopher creator Karl Kerschl.

Meredith Gran shows us some Octopus Pie art files.