Marvel At The Museum event cancelled

CB Cebulski posted on his Twitter this afternoon that he's unable to attend the Marvel At The Museum portfolio review event at the Cartoon Museum this weekend. 

CBCebulski 

Sad news, London... I won't be at the Cartoon Musuem or Kapow this weekend after all. First time I've ever had to cancel an event. So sorry!

Unfortunately this has resulted in the event being cancelled. The Cartoon Museum are attempting to contact everyone on the attendee list but they can be contacted themselves at  info@cartoonmuseum.org

Jennie "SKAL" Gyllblad was one of the artists who had been accepted for a portfolio review. She's expressed her reaction to today's news in comics form on her blog - see it HERE

SFX Blogger Stace interviewed for SFX Blogger's Week blog!

Stace aka Gorgeous Stace aka The Whittle

As well all know Stace is one of the bloggers for the SFX website and this week is Blogger's Week on the site with new bloggers introduced and new blogs every day. In addition the bloggers have all interviewed each other in a round-robin stylee. Stace is interviewed by friend, fellow Van Dyke-lover* and saviour of Being Human Narin Bahar and you can read it HERE!

Love dicks? Love dykes? 

Love vans? Then Dick 

Van Dyke is the man 

for you!

*that's Dick Van Dyke of Mawry Puppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Diagnosis Murder fame. Here's a picture of the comedy legend ----->

Why am I jabbering on about Dick Van Dyke** you ask? Well its probably because my brain's gone into meltdown from having to go on about blogs, blogging and blogging bloggers! Gnnyahh! The word has lost all meaning! Anyhoo, click the link - Stace rocks! Factamundo!


**A man so awesome they named DVDs after him!

Stephen Downey is a busy chap!

High speed Slaughterman's Creed artist Stephen Downey updated his blog and his Twitter with loads of brilliant info yesterday.

His blog has news on his appearances at BICE, KAPOW! and FanSciCon as well as some juicy info on a new comic he's working on called Jennifer Wilde. I have to say I'm loving the sound of it already and the cover (left) is absolutely bloody brilliant (no pun intended). Here's the synopsis as posted by Stephen:

"At the start of the Jazz Age in Paris in 1921, young French artist Jennifer Chevalier becomes embroiled in death, espionage and revolution which takes her across the three nations of  France, England and Ireland - ably assisted by the ghost of Oscar Wilde."

For more info & updates check out www.stephendowneygallery.com regularly.

Stephen's Twitter was also a fount of great comicy wisdom when he posted a series of great tweets regarding portfolio preparation for artists. I hope Stephen won't mind me reprinting them here for posterity...

I've been to quite a few portfolio reviews in the last few years so gonna tweet a couple of things editors have recommended for preparation.

1/ Size: 9-12 pages broken into 3 scenes. Eg. 3 sequential action pages, 3 talky & 3 featuring something you're good at, like backgrounds.

2/ Don't include pages that feature bad art just because you really like one panel. The editor will notice and point out your flaws.

3/ If you're making excuses as you add in pages (Tight deadlines, feeling sick...) take them out. Excuses are no good to an editor.

4/ Don't point out your flaws to an editor. If they choose to look past (or don't spot) your bad perspective don't bring it to attention.

5/ Show process if possible. Pencils, to inks and even finished pages. Editors may spot potential in one area that another covers up.

6/ The odd splash page/cover is OK to add, but they shouldn't take the place of your 9 - 12 sequential pages.

7/ Order: Best pages first (good first impression) & end on a really strong piece. This will likely be the page the editor will leave open.

8/ Variety: Try to feature both male and females characters (you need to show you can handle both) as well as different locations.

That'll do for now, If I think of any more I'll tweet later. BTW, These aren't my opinions but things I've heard directly from editors.

You can follow Stephen on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenmdowney

SPBM recommends: In Fetu

Another fantastic free comic online, kids! In Fetu is a very creepy horror story written by Si Spurrier (Lobster Random; The Simping Detective) and illustrated by Christopher Mitten (Criminal Macabre; Wasteland) 

The 8-page strip was originally published in MySpace Dark Horse Presents #6 but can be read in full HERE

Mini Comics Day at the Star & Shadow

Here's a fun sounding event for all you comics geeks up in the North East! From their facebook page:

9th April at The Star And Shadow Cinema 11am-5pm


The Paper Jam Comics Collective join up with the Star & Shadow's own Canny Little Library to bring this year's International Mini Comics Day to Newcastle.

Everyone can make a mini comic, and it only needs one piece of paper! So come along, all ages & drawing styles welcome - no formal charge but a small donation is appreciated for the use of the building and the photocopier.

Everyone's finished mini comics will be photocopied and shared around, so all you have to do is draw one, and you might end up going home with 50!

This event is a part of the International Cartoonists' Conspiracy. They say :

"On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists from around the world will write, draw, and print copies of a mini-comic, completing the entire process from start to finish in a day or less. Anyone in the world can participate.

Mini-comics have been democratizing the art of making comic books since the 70′s or earlier… with the popularization of photocopiers, it became apparent that anyone with an inclination and some spare change could print a little comic book. Wildly varying in both form and content, mini-comics are a wonderful synthesis of cartooning and hand-made art objects."

Guides on how to do mini comics are available on their website. 

The international facebook event page is HERE:

A very nice part of this conspiracy is the 'Mini Comix Co-op' - you post off 10 copies of your mini comics to the co-op, and they post you back 10 other people's mini-comix.

For this event, bring your favourite vinyl that you never listen to anymore and we'll use the star & shadow record player for our backing tracks. Drinks & snacks available during the event.

***

If you've got a comics event you want to plug drop us an email or say hello on Lee or Stacey's twitter

SPBM recommends: Adams, Giraud & Kubert art jam

Back in 1972 three legendary comics artists Neal Adams (Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow), Jean 'Moebius' Giraud (Arzach, Blueberry) and  Joe Kubert (Tor, Sgt Rock) appeared on a French TV programme Tac Au Tac (which I think translates as Tit For Tat) and improvised a series of large joint drawings - one on the theme of Pandora's Box, another on the theme of Monsters and another on the theme of Heroes. 

Videos of the sessions are online and they make wonderful viewing. I love watching artists draw and seeing these three amazing cartoonists work together is a rare treat. Click the links under the pics to be taken to the videos.

PANDORA'S BOX

MONSTERS and HEROES

SPBM recommends: Sunset On Sunset

The LA Times is hosting a cracking short noir webcomic called Sunset On Sunset - written by American crime novelist Don Winslow (The Death And Life Of Bobby Z; Savages; Satori) and superbly illustrated by British artist Sean Phillips (Sleeper; Criminal; Marvel Zombies) 

Read it free HERE