November 14, 2009
8th Annual Book Arts Festival
Today will be spent at the 8th Annual Book Arts Festival at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. The usual assortment of Uncivilized Books publications will be available for sale, including Gabrielle Bell's L.A. Diary and... a brand new mini-comic: Ancient Reading Device (pictured above). More on that after the festival. Stop by and say hello.
Posted by tomk at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2009
Handled With Care
Photo by Emilia Kaczynski
I wrote a bit about Handle With Care already. A little while ago, I was able to dispatch a reporter to the exhibition to document the exhibition before it closed. The intrepid reporter was my little sister, Emilia. She just happened to be in Paris studying all things French and she volunteered to go on a fact finding mission to Montauban. Undeterred by the six hour train ride (one way!) she brought back volumes of photographs of the exhibition. After seeing this virtual walk through I'm even more impressed by the breadth and depth of the exhibition. Bravo Laurent! Take a look.
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October 28, 2009
A Cat in Minneapolis
On Saturday (Oct. 24th) John Porcellino arrived in Minneapolis to promote his new King Cat collection, Map of My Heart. He rode in on a weird wind charged with spectral energies. The evening started out at Big Brain Comics, where John Porcellino & Zak Sally held a joint signing. Perhaps the ectoplasmic currents were stirred by the eerie juxtaposition of two old friends publishing work from roughly the same time period. Sally's Like a Dog and Porcellino's Map of My Heart exhume old material, reopen old wounds and release the ghosts of the past… ghosts which still haunt both authors… ghosts which haunted the small gathering that convened at the West Bank Social Center to see John speak about his life and work.
Zak Sally roused the poltergeist by a spirited reading of an epic letter (penned by Mr. Mike) from John's book. As if ordained by malicious spirits, the overpowering sound of a brass band emanated from the floor the moment John took stage to speak. Undeterred he pressed on struggling against the powerful oompa rhythms which permeated the air. I detected a presence in the room… was it the absence of Maisie Kukoc? As he read from the book and illuminated the comics with stories of his health struggles and divorce a change started taking place in the general mood. John no longer labored against the brass cacophony, just the opposite, it became the soundtrack to an exorcism. The painful memories of past struggle transformed via the alchemy of King Cat into a personal lapis philosophorum.
I took only a few pictures. They can be seen in my Flickr stream. Ghost are difficult enough to capture on film. Are digital pixels a better medium? But the presence of ghosts can be detected by the eerie juxtapositions they leave behind.
At the end of event, we learned that the artists who run the West Bank Social Center were about to embark on a ghost finding experiment by constructing a giant cardboard Ouija Board. I think their efforts were successful.
Posted by tomk at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2009
Rain Taxi Book Festival & Fallcon
L.A. Diary by Gabrielle Bell
A confluence of events almost as portentous as the alignment of the sun and the galactic center heralding the uncertain events of 2012 have caused the Rain Taxi Book Festival and Fallcon to share the same moment in time if not the same space. Both events will compete for your attention between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, Oct 10th) and I will attempt to have a table at both. At the Rain Taxi event, I (as Uncivilized Books) will be sandwiched between Big Brain Comics and Zak Sally's La Mano Books. Several great authors are scheduled to appear (Nicholson Baker, Lorrie Moore, Andrzej Zagajewski, etc.) but the main event as far as I'm concerned will be cartoonist Gabrielle Bell. In addition to gracing the Book Festival, Gabrielle teamed up with Uncivilized Books to produce a special mini-comic: L.A. Diary. The comic is a collection of diary strips published on her blog. It also contains sketches and an unfiltered glimpse at her real sketchbook diary. We also teamed up on a small Gocco print (pictured below). They will both be available for sale at the Rain Taxi festival and eventually next week copies will be made available online. Of course my comics will be available for sale as well, including the recently released Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009.
Meanwhile, I will also be tabling at Fallcon (Peter Bagge will be there!). On Saturday my presence will be limited, but on Sunday I will be joined by Gabrielle Bell and we will have her above mentioned mini-comic (and print) for sale in addition to my usual junk. Stop by and say hi!
Silver Gocco print by Gabrielle Bell
Posted by tomk at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2009
Handle With Care
Click to enlarge
Sometime in the late 90's, only a few years after I started self-publishing mini-comics, I got my first order from France from someone named Laurent Parson. Over the next decade he would keep ordering the odd mini-comic that I'd happened to be selling on my site. Then a few weeks ago he asked me to participate in a "DIY" comics exhibition that was going to take place at the library where he lived. How could I say no? After a few weeks of emails and idea exchanges I finally sent my artwork to Montauban, the location of the exhibition. Now the show is up and open to the public. It's called Handle With Care and features the work of several American cartoonists & zinesters: Ron Rege Jr., Jordan Crane, Mark Burrier, Aaron Cometbus, John Porcellino, Minnesota's own Vincent "King Mini" Stall, JP Coovert and many others.
A still from video about the exhibiton.
The exhibition will be on display for the next seven weeks at the Bibliothéque de Montauban. From what I can tell it looks fantastic. Take a look at this video. It's a dizzying array of art and objects. It simply looks amazing. I wish I could go see it for myself. The video has the added benefit of featuring Laurent talking about the show. I don't understand a word of it, but I can finally put see the face behind all the emails and letters he's sent over the last decade.
More about the exhibition here and here (PDF 1.8 MB).
Posted by tomk at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2009
Big Funny: Opening Night
Friday night saw the opening of the Big Funny exhibition at the Altered Esthetics gallery. The exhibition features the art from the titular Big Funny: a big (48 newspaper sized pages) collection of comic-strips by an assortment of Minneapolis cartoonists. More info on the collection here. I brought a camera and acted like an annoying paparazzo. The results are here.
Posted by tomk at 12:34 AM | Comments (1)
July 31, 2009
ZAK SALLY / FEAR of SONG RELEASE / LA MANO BENEFIT SHOW / ZINE BOOK POSTER FEST
About a week ago Eclipse Records in St. Paul hosted the ZAK SALLY / FEAR of SONG RELEASE / LA MANO BENEFIT SHOW / ZINE BOOK POSTER FEST event. Zak seems to have the predilection for long names and acronyms. This is especially apparent in his musical side project named T.O.G.P.T.F.F.S.O.T.W.O.T.E.R.A.T.S.Y.O.A or Three Old Guys Play The First Five Songs Off The Wipers' Over The Edge Record And The Song Youth Of America. Anyway it was a pretty fun party. I posted a few pics for posterity, take a look. Check out Zak's take on the event, plus some video of budding stage talent. I was hoping to hear some of the Fear of Song material played live, but alas, it was not to be. Still, the album is fantastic. Check out a track here and get your self a copy. In the age of the immaterial MP3, it's nice to see beautifully packaged music. While you're there check out the rest of the La Mano publications.
I also happened to have my little concert sketchbook and scribbled a few drawings of the action on the stage. Drawing conditions were not ideal which I think is reflected in the drawings. Here they are:
Jim and the French Vanilla (left). Paul Metzger (right) was a revelation!
Posted by tomk at 12:56 AM | Comments (0)
July 30, 2009
Twin Cities Zinefest 2009 in Photographs
The annual Twin Cities Zine Fest took place little over a couple of weeks ago. Zinefest has been around for a few years, but I've only been able to attended over the last couple of years. It's a small and inexpensive show, but that's exactly its charm. While the hype from San Diego Comic Con is still smoldering, lets remember that small can be beautiful too. Click on the pic above to see some snaps from the floor.
Sarah Morean, who's been running the show for the last couple of years, shared some valuable organizing lessons on The Daily Crosshatch.
Posted by tomk at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2009
Twin Cities Zinefest 2009
I'll be spending much of this weekend hanging out at the Twin Cities Zinefest. Check out the poster. It was designed by Will Dinski and screen printed by Pat Callahan and drawn by me. Come by and say hello. The details are here.
Posted by tomk at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2009
Going to MoCCA?
"A Slight Attack of Third Dimentia Brought on by Excessive Study of the Much Talked of Cubist Pictures in the International Exhibition at New York" by John Sloane
The MoCCA Art Festival is upon us again. This year it will take place this weekend at the 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 25th Street (in New York City of course). It is the very same Armory that in 1913 hosted the legendary Armory Show (aka. International Exhibition of Modern Art) and introduced America to 'crazy' new Art from the old continent. I will miss the old Puck building, but somehow this seems appropriate...
I will be tabling with Jon Lewis, Karen Sneider, Derek Van Gieson and Joan Reilly. Also I will be on a 'panel' or rather I will converse on stage with Kent Worcester about comics and stuff. The panel is on Sunday, June 7 from 11-11:50 am. More details here. Come by, say hi and see me freeze on stage. It'll be fun!
Posted by tomk at 06:03 PM | Comments (2)
May 13, 2009
TCAF 2009: Highlights
Yoshihiro Tatsumi signing A Drifting Life at TCAF
TCAF is easily becoming the best event of it's kind in North America. I shared a table with Mike Dawson and Brett Von Schlosser. The whole event was pretty much non-stop fun. Highlights:
• Even though I was exhausted from a 17 hour drive, the Concepts in Comics panel I was on with Dash Shaw, Jason Shiga and Scott McCloud (moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos) turned out to be a real pleasure and the discussion went off into interesting territory.• Frank Santoro's 3 boxes of back issues. Frank continues to champion great largely forgotten and under-appreciated comics. I picked-up some Brendan McCarthy and Shaky Kane comic-books. It's a reminder of the pleasures of flipping through comics in short box and actually finding something interesting… except in Frank's collection everything was interesting.
• Dan Nadel's portfolio full of amazing Yuichi Yokoyma originals.
• The Doug Wright Awards were a refreshing change of pace from most award events. Only three prizes were awarded! The rest of the event was given over to a discussions of Doug Wright's cartoon career, the new D&Q book on that subject and a tribute to Canadian great Jimmy Frise.
• Josh Cotter's sketchbook.
• Realizing on the second day that Joe Ollmann was our table neighbor.
• Alec Longstreth's amazing/terrifying beard!
• Yoshihiro Tatsumi's hat.
Here are a few pictures from the event.
Posted by tomk at 11:51 PM | Comments (3)
May 07, 2009
TCAF 2009
I'll be at TCAF this weekend. I'm tabling with Mike Dawson and special guest Brett Von Schlosser. I'll also be on the Concept Comics: Abstract Comics Ideas Panel. Stop by and say hello.
Posted by tomk at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2009
Post-MOMEntum: Gallery Talk
The MOMEntum exhibition is drawing to a close, but before it's over me and Zak Sally are giving a Gallery Talk about the show. So come to MCAD tonight at 6:30 pm and see me stumble around the gallery trying to sound articulate. Apparently MCAD is holding their annual Mini-Comics Expo at the same time.
Posted by tomk at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2009
Hey, 4-Eyes!
A few of my drawings (illustrating some key moments in the history of eye glasses) will be on view at at the Hey, 4-Eyes! show at the CCS gallery in White River Junction, Vermont. Here's the full details:
Hey, 4-Eyes!
A Glasses-Themed Gallery Show
The Center for Cartoon Studies
94 South Main Street
White River Junction, Vermont
Gallery Hours:
Saturday March 21, 11am-5pm
Saturday March 28, 11am-5pm
First Friday Event April 3, 6pm
The Center for Cartoon Studies is proud to present an exhibition of artwork from Hey, 4-Eyes!, the world’s most popular zine about eyeglasses. CCS will showcase original work by acclaimed artists Jason Lutes (Berlin), Sarah Oleksyk (Ivy), Jim Medway (Shorty Loves Wing Wong), Joseph Lambert (Turtle, Keep it Steady), and many more.
Hey, 4-Eyes! is a self-published journal (otherwise known as a “zine”) dedicated to eyeglasses. Filled with original comics, interviews, history, and keen observations, Hey, 4-Eyes! celebrates the continuing evolution of the accessory you can’t live without.
Please join editor/publisher Robyn Chapman as she debuts the third issue of Hey, Four-Eyes! in conjunction with White River Junction’s First Friday on April 3. This event will include book signings, live readings, and educational slide shows.
The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is America's premiere cartooning school and studio located in the historic village of White River Junction, Vermont. Faculty and visiting artists include many of today's most celebrated cartoonists. CCS has received national acclaim for its work and prominent mention in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and scores of other publications. For more information, visit http://www.cartoonstudies.org/
Posted by tomk at 12:30 AM | Comments (2)
March 08, 2009
MOMEntum: Opening Night
At the risk of turning this blog into into an all-MOMEntum-all-the-time-blog, here are some pictures from Friday night's opening party. I'm still adding descriptions, etc. If you have a Flickr account feel free to comment and help me identify everyone.
Posted by tomk at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2009
Tonight: MOMEntum: The New Comics
Posted by tomk at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2009
Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair
Click to enlarge.
This is kind of late… but better late than never. On Saturday (Feb. 21), The Walker Art Center hosted the Multiples Mall event. Subtitled 'A Bookish Fair', it featured the work of artists who make 'book-related multiples'. It was a pretty fun event and I hope the Walker keeps doing it every year. Here's the pile of stuff I picked up. I took this picture with my Nokia 6300. It's not the greatest, but my Canon is dead, so it's going to have to do. 3 Minute Egg has some video of interviews from the floor.
(1) A Labor of Gratitude is a collection of 4 small zines designed and put together by a group designers associated with the Walker itself. Each booklet is a tribute to a significant public figure or artist that the designers felt was under-appreciated by the culture at large. Michael Chang, Major General Michael Collins, Levi Eshkol and Anaïs Nin. Their significance is examined through quotations, reflections, images and statistics. My favorite booklet was the Michael Collins one. It's filled with poetic descriptions of Collins' time in space excerpted from Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys. Now I know what Roy Batty's final monologue in Blade Runner was inspired by!
(2) Cipher Text by Brian Aldrich. A small booklet filled with text that's been enciphered using an unknown (to me) encryption system. I liked the newsprint paper it was printed on and the idea of text I could not decipher.
(3) Texas ++ by Sean Lynch. A brief western melodrama drawn inside of an old Borland C++ technical book. I believe the characters were based on some kind of chart from that book. Occasionally, elements from the book become part of the story. It's an interesting experiment. I really liked the colors. Sean had some really cool stuff in that Borland Book/Sketchbook. I want to see some of the other strips to surface from it. Especially the post-apocalyptic one.
(4) Me No Like by Josh Journey-Heiz. A series of images paired with short text pieces that act as a critique of life in late-capitalism. The images feature hairy primitive neanderthal-ish creatures wreaking havoc on emblems of capitalist modernity: office buildings, golf courses, Hard Rock Cafe, Hummer limousines, etc. Like some kind of archaic luddites they hurl their stone-age weapons at tanks and security cameras in a futile attempt to keep technology at bay… but, they seem to know enough about modern ways to hunt frat boys using booby trapped beer kegs. With accompanying phrases like: "The ghosts of high-capitalism haunt those not shopping", what's not to like!? Josh is also part of Knife World. See #6 below.
(5) Befoul'd by Hardland/Heartland. I assume the art is done by different members of the Hardland/Heartland collective. I couldn't tell if there's an overarching theme to the drawings… but who cares! The art was compelling enough for me to pick up the book.
(6) Knife World by Knife World. The record as a physical object is stunning. The wraparound artwork is printed in old-school red-blue 3D. To view it in its three-dimensional glory, you don't need a set of 3D glasses… the blue-red lenses have been built into the center of the vinyl disc itself! The cover depicts a desiccated wasteland populated by piles of toys and a looming Mt. Rushmore re-carved into some sort of rock 'n roll monument. The music is fast and frenetic… I keep wanting to say it's vaguely reminiscent of a '60s psychedelia inflected Lightning Bolt… But that's not a very good description. Check out some of their stuff online.
(7) Manny + Bigfoot by Meghan Hogan. A surreal little fable of… well the titular characters and a bunny. A nice eco-conscious package with a velcro seal for safe keeping. Meghan & Raighne publish the Good Minnesotan.
(8) Opolis by Elisabeth Workman and Erick Brandt. Opolis is a prose poem pamphlet exquisitely printed (in Doha, Quatar) on very thin (think phonebook paper thin) translucent pink (or yellow, or blue, or green) newsprint. Each part of the the poem is paired with a photograph. The poem reads like an illicit stream of consciousness love affair colliding into strange unfinished urban neighborhoods built on top of forgotten ancient red light districts haunted by specters of angular furniture designed by lonely architects permanently exiled to little known oriental mega-cities… it's probably my favorite bookish object from the Multiples Mall. More info here.
Posted by tomk at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2009
MOMEntum
It's been a little quiet on this blog over the last few days. It's hard to post through the painful haze of clogged sinuses! The regularly scheduled programming should return this week. Meanwhile, a quick reminder that the MOMEMENTUM: The New Comics exhibition opens on Friday (March 6th). I hope it's already in everyone's calendars! A few pages of my comics (from MOME vol. 12) will be displayed among gems from many other awesome MOME contributors (listed in the graphic below). I will also be giving a 'Gallery Talk' with Zak Sally on April 9th. Check out the details here. Come and say hello!
Posted by tomk at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2009
Building MOMEntum
Fantagraphics got the first word out. Watch this space. More details coming soon.
Posted by tomk at 12:00 AM | Comments (3)
November 18, 2008
Book Arts Fest 2008
I spent Saturday and Sunday tabling at the 7th Annual Minnesota Book Arts Fest at the Minnesota Center for the Book Art. The event is scheduled just in time for the great month-long consumer frenzy known as Holiday Shopping. Most people come looking for handmade gifts, cards, envelopes, prints and calendars. They found plenty to choose from. I shared the table with cartoonist Will Dinski. We valiantly attempted to flog paeans to smoking and voodoo economics fantasies onto the unsuspecting public. Together with Lacey Prpic Hedtke, Sarah Morean, and The Good Minnesotan we formed a Zine-to-Comics-multi-table-continuous-almost-commerce-free-semi-autonomous Zone. At some point Matt Peiken came by and video taped some of the proceedings. He posted some of the footage online. I made the cut despite being nearly incoherent.
Posted by tomk at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2008
Fallcon 2008 Report
I believe there was a human in there somewhere.
Posted by tomk at 12:23 AM | Comments (1)
October 03, 2008
Hot Ink: Comics Art in Minnesota
The Minnesota Museum of American Art is proud to announce the opening of its fall exhibition, Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota on September 28, 2008.
The MMAA will host an opening party on October 3, 2008. The party will open up for MMAA members only at 7pm and open for the general public at 8pm. DJ Justin Olson will spin a live set and complimentary refreshments will be provided.
Admission for this event will be $10 for the general public and $5 for students and MMAA members.
Here's a list of artists included in the show:
Kevin Cannon
Zander Cannon
Will Dinski
Tom Kaczynski (that's me!)
Reynold Kissling
Lars Martinson
King Mini
Tyler Page
Evan G. Palmer
Brittney Sabo
Zak Sally
Barbara Schulz
Tim Sievert
Andy Singer
Tom Spence
Steven Stwalley
A bunch of my originals will be on display along with other artifacts and sketchbooks. I'll be at the event tonight so stop by and say hello.
Posted by tomk at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2008
Minneapolis Zine Fest 2008
The Minneapolis Zine Fest happened a couple of weekends ago and it was pretty fun. The modest space of the SSCA was populated with zinesters, mini-comics artists, small press publishers and various denizens of the book arts. The walls were crammed full of historical zine artifacts. Most were generously loaned too the SSCA by the vast archives of the city of Mt. Holly. I took a few pictures. More pics and stories below the fold.
The Mayor of Mt. Holly didn't want to stop speaking.
The Crap~O~Mat represents the latest in zine dispensing technology. From the laboratories of Mt. Holly.
Mt. Holly researchers have been able to achieve a high level of zine miniaturization.
The Mayor doesn't like it when top-secret ciphers go missing. JP Coovert plays innocent.
Will Dinski shows off his high pressure sales tactics.
And there's more here.
Posted by tomk at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2008
Twin Cities Zinefest 2008
Happening right now: Twin Cities Zinefest 2008. I have a table selling my wares. Come and say hi.
Posted by tomk at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2008
TCAF 2007
Daniel Libeskind's Royal Ontario Museum Expansion in Toronto
Here's another event I failed to write about after it was over: TCAF. Hard to believe it's been almost a year...! I was excited to visit Toronto, the city of Seth, Chester Brown & Joe Matt! Sadly, I missed their appearance together. Still the show and the city were amazing... and as ususual I managed to take very few pictures at the actual show. Instead, during brief moments away from the table, I filled the camera with images of unbuilt luxury condos, monumental residential building and deconstructed museum sharkitecture. You know... the usual stuff. All this was just blocks from the show! Someday, I would like to go back and see the rest of the city.
Posted by tomk at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2008
Lutefisk Sushi 3
From Ransom Strange: Voodoo Economics
Here's another event I participated in, but failed to mention on the blog. Lutefisk Sushi 3 is an (almost) annual comics event in Minneapolis. Practically every able-bodied cartoonist in town makes a mini-comic, makes 150 copies of it and they all end up packaged together in a fancy box. This year the box was designed by Kevin Cannon of Big Time Attic. On top of that there is also a nice exhibition of some of the art held at the Altered Aesthetics gallery. My slice of sushi is a short 8 page Ransom Strange story titled Voodoo Economics. Check out the excerpt above. The Ransom Strange character first appeared in Swindle Magazine No. 12 (and he may appear in some future comics...). The original art from that story is now available for sale and viewing at the art show. The exhibition is open until the end of May. Anyway, click on the pic to see some blurry pictures from the opening event:
Mike Toft of Brainfood checking out the art.
Posted by tomk at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2008
Stumptown 2008
Stumptown is at this point gone from most people's minds... but I just uploaded all these pictures I took while attending the show to Flickr... only I neglected to take pictures of the Stumptown Comics Festival itself so instead you get bunch of pictures of the Willamette river front, the Red Lion Hotel and the Stumptown after-party held at the excellent Pony Club gallery.
Posted by tomk at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2007
Book Arts Festival
Bath and The Flâneur, 2.5 x 3.75 inches, 2 color Gocco prints
I will be at the Minnesota Book Arts Festival this weekend. I'll have all my mini-comics as well as two new micro-prints pictured above.
Posted by tomk at 11:24 AM | Comments (2)