Archive for the 'Events' Category

MIX + Minneapolis / St. Paul Comics Scene Report

mix 2011 poter by tom kaczynski

My Minneapolis / St. Paul comics scene report went up over the weekend on Frank Santoro‘s Riff Raff column over at the Comics Journal. Frank asked for 400 words. I pretty much ignored him and turned in 2000. Not on purpose Frank!

After having lived in New York for almost a decade I expected a hard adjustment to a smaller Minneapolis scene when I moved back three years ago. But it became quickly apparent that the Minneapolis/St. Paul comics scene was nothing to sneeze at. In fact, the Twin Cities really are one of the great comics places in the US. Anyway, I’m sure I missed a lot of people in my report, so feel free to point them out! Heck, if you think you can do a better & more exhaustive Mpls/St. Paul report go for it! And Let me know when/if you do it. Actually, wouldn’t it great if there was a sort of ‘annual report’ that summed up the comics scene every year? I’d love to see something like it. Check out my effort out if you haven’t already.

As part of the report I was also going to do a MIX 2011 report, but things got wordy and I’m sure Frank appreciates that I didn’t include it in the piece. Instead I was going to detail my impressions on this blog. However, in the meantime, cartoonist Dustin Harbin wrote a great exhaustive report on the eXpo. He pretty much nailed it. Instead of wasting more pixels on yet another report, you should all just read his. I really appreciate his honest take. From my local perspective it was a great show. An amazing array of guests (Koyama Press! Adhouse! Top Shelf! Jim Rugg! Dustin Harbin! Ander Nilsen! Sarah Glidden! Julia Wertz! John Porcellino! Mike Dawson! Eamon Espy! Jon Lewis! Karen Sneider! Robyn Chapman! Rina Ayuyang! David Huyck! Microcosm! + more!) arrived and seemed to have a great time. I made decent money, but it’s hard not to do that at you local show when you don’t have travel expenses to contend with. My main concern was with the out of town guests. I really wanted them to do well, have a great time and come back in the future. I hope they will. Kudos to Sarah Morean for pulling off a great show. Check out Dustin’s report. Oh and I uploaded all my MIX pics to Flicker if anyone cares.

mix 2011 banner by tom kaczynski

MIX 2011 Poster

I’m really excited about the Minneapolis Indie eXpo this year. Last year turned out great and this year promises to be even better. There are some amazing guest coming to town for that weekend. Make your plans to attend the show now!

This year I was asked to do the poster for the show. My poster idea was to turn MIX into some a of World’s Fair. Here was an early idea which seemed not grand enough. It got turned into a banner for the site:

MIX Art by Tom Kaczynski

This is the final poster art:

mix poster art by tom kaczynski

It’s a bit of a mash-up of traditional architectural forms and the kind of work I’ve been doing for my Structures project.

 

San Diego Diary

San Diego Diary by Gabrielle Bell

Lot’s of Gabrielle Bell happenings over at my mini-comics-label Uncivilized Books:

Spring Con 2011: The Pictures

Spring Con 2011

Clockwise from top-left: Noah Van Sciver, Iron Man, Spider-Man, José Luis García-López

Spring Con 2011. This was the wrong comics show for the kinds of comics I make. Most of the attendees ignored my books (or the books of other creators of not interested in what passes as mainstream in comics). And, yet… I left the show tired but giddy… a pile of mid-80′s comics (from one of the many $.25 boxes) under one arm, an original José Luis García-López page in the other and Noah Van Sciver’s new mini (published by 2D Cloud and printed by Zak Sally) in my back pocket. I took a few pictures too.

Spring Con 2011

I’ll be attending Spring Con this weekend. It’s held at the historic St. Paul State Fair grounds. It’s a treat to see the desolate grounds off season. I’ll have all the Uncivilized Books stuff and will be sharing the table with Dan Wieken. Stop by and say hello.

Pics from Sweat Stains, Beer, And Cigarettes

by bill hauser

I was digging around in iPhoto for something and I found a few pics from the closing party to the Sweat Stains, Beer, And Cigarettes show from a few weeks back. I promptly uploaded them to Flickr. My big discovery of the show was the art of Bill Hauser. He works primarily as an illustrator and creates a ton of cover art for a variety of bands. I really like his old school, cartoony take on horror… and he has the chops to pull it off very well. I also really like his hand-made typography. Again, it’s cartoony, but the type is always tight, well arranged, with interesting letter forms.  More Pics here.

TCAF

I’m about to hop in a car with Zak Sally and drive to Toronto for TCAF. Please come to check out some new mini-comics from me, Gabrielle Bell, Jon Lewis and Dan Wieken (Me & Zak will be camped out at table 116).

On Sunday I’m also going to be participating in a panel on Print Culture (1:15 – 2:00). The panel will be moderated by Zak and will also include John Porcellino and Dylan Williams! See you in Toronto!

Sweat Stains, Beer, And Cigarettes

Sweat Stains, Beer and Cigarettes

Some of my sketches from concerts are on display at the SSCA Gallery over the next few weeks. I’m in good company, surrounded by a stellar group of artists including Dan Wieken and Mr. Mike.

Check out the work and come to the closing party April 16th:

CLOSING NIGHT RECEPTION and PARTY on SATURDAY APRIL 16 (from 7-11 pm), featuring free live music by THE BLIND SHAKE, THE KNOTWELLS, and DJ’d by [kramerica industries].

More info here.

Blood Folke at Kitty Cat Club

blood folke by Tom Kaczynski

Dan Wieken‘s metal band, Blood Folke (pictured above), played at the Kitty Cat Klub in Minneapolis last night. Their epic folky doom-laden sound was the perfect antidote to the madness known as St. Patrick’s day.

The Night (pictured below) opened. I feel bad for opening bands I draw. The drawings I make of them tend be my warm ups… and result in a couple of awkward images.

The Night by Tom Kaczynski

A couple more drawings of the Kitty Cat Klub:

Kitty Cat Klub by Tom Kaczynski

Guttural Visions: The Pictures

guttural visions

The Guttural Visions show was pretty fun. A few pictures were taken. Take a look.