Pangaea

After a long summer hiatus, the Pangaea crew is back in action to wreak havoc, fight jellyfish, insult Foxtrot,destroy horticultural plagues, and gripe about stuff. Stay tuned Monday through Friday for new strips!

Apparently I have gained God status amongst geeks. Check out the interview I did for Pangaea here at:

http://ihogeek.com/2011/06/27/kevin-wolf-god-of-pangaea/

Revisiting childhood in comic-zine form has never been so sweet as it reads in the pages of Matt and Jeanie Bryan’s Moses & Bean. As the titular characters take turns starring in each issue, readers are treated to a charming and honest look at growing up in rural Missouri. Bean ventures through summer camp, older siblings, and a menagerie of strange animal friends, while Moses struggles with bullies at grade-school, scary teachers, and the dreams and disappointments of being in a teenage metal band. Like any great ‘slice of life’ comic, Moses & Bean is both sad and hilarious. It creates beautifully rendered vignettes into those odd memories that always resurface when we think back into our adolescence. Jeanie Bryan writes with an alluring candor, and Matt Bryan’s artwork gets more intricate and expressive with each issue.

But beyond great stories and artwork, Moses & Bean has a certain magical quality about it. The stories contain just enough text and details that you have that feeling of floating through a pleasant memory. The whole picture may not be clear, but all of the key elements and emotions are there to sift through and enjoy. My only real gripe with Moses & Bean is that there isn’t enough of it. But I do hope to one day sit down with a thick graphic novel with hundreds of pages of Moses & Bean adventures.

I suppose I can cut Matt and Jeanie a little slack with the multiple side projects they’re working on, leading the Urchin Sketch Collective of St. Louis comic artists, running the online Urchin Sketch blog, and publishing the Mixed Feelings comic anthologies once a year. This creative couple is well on their way to local notoriety and beyond. Check out all their great work at:

http://mosesandbean.blogspot.com/

and

http://urchinsketch.blogspot.com/

Okay a bit late on the convention review, but here is my take on SPACE 2011! (Small Press and Comics Expo)

Accompanied by fellow STL comic creators
-Aaron James Ford –Golgotha–
-Matt and Jeanie Bryan –Moses & Bean–
-Mike McCubbins –Big List of Dead People–

We all packed into my parent’s Buick Rendezvous (thanks dad) and crossed the desolate lands of southern Illinois (cringe), Indiana, and western Ohio. Then we arrived at Packrat Comics in the suburbs of Columbus Ohio for a meet and greet dinner! Packrat Comics alone was a rare treat with an entire basement full of back issues, old toys, and neat stuff. Then other comic artists started showing up and we ate pizza, drank beers, and talked with like-minded folks about independent comics. The 7 hour drive was well worth it for the relaxed dinner, networking, and just the chance to say hello to people before the show. This was our first time at SPACE, and this event started the convention on a nice upbeat. Something you don’t necessarily get with other shows. Plus a neat drawing jam with SPACE founder Bob Corby.

After getting semi-lost amongst the highways of Columbus, we found our way to the Ramada Inn, and crashed for the night. On Saturday, we did a fair amount of business at each of our tables, and talked with quite a few indie-comic artists including:

-Rafer Roberts –Plastic Farm–
-Ed –Peculiar Comics–
-Eric Glastetter –G2 Comics– (an unknown ally from St. Louis!)
-Justin Stewart –Quarantine Comics–

There was a ton of creators. Around 150 or so. I’d say the total amount of people who came by our tables was split pretty evenly between exhibitors and guests. So while SPACE definitely could have used some more attendees looking to buy some independent comics, there was no lack of really good comics to choose from. My only real complaint about the show was that I kept wanting to get up from my table and go buy stuff and talk to all these amazing artists. I’d get up to use the restroom or refill my water bottle, and every row of tables seemed overflowing with awesome new comics and cool peoples. But I didn’t sell much, so I didn’t buy much.
Jeanie however did a great job on STL public relations duty, mingling and trading with artists all over the room. Aaron kept the day interesting by yelling stuff about ultraviolence in his comics. Matt invented the premier comic character of the decade, ‘Shark Jumper’. Mike ate Starburst and sketched a story for my brother’s wedding comic (more news on that later).

After knocking off for the day, we snarfed down some salads and sandwiches at some local sandwich place, then grabbed the victory beers at a Mexican grocery store by our hotel. We started drinking victory while watching some crummy cable tv in Matt and Jeanie’s room, mostly the NCAA tournament. This was not victorious enough, so we meandered downstairs to a room party Jeanie had heard about. There we found an amazing drawing jam party hosted by Justin Stewart where we drew rocks, aliens, robots, batman, caveman, tacos, penises, weapons, monsters, portraits, ninjas, and rounded out the night by vandalizing the room’s Gideon bible with comic illustrations. Good times.

Sunday was pretty similar to Saturday. Light foot traffic, but more good conversations and trades with other artists. I went to the webcomics panel in the afternoon with Jeanie, and despite the presence of one annoying full-of-himself arse who was also annoying the whole weekend at the table next to Matt and Jeanie, the panel was very informative and helpful. I’ve been meaning to redesign the Pangaea site for awhile now, but now I know what to do and how to do it. Stay tuned for details.

So at 4:30pm eastern time, we packed our stuff and headed back west on highway 70, taking with us memories of Brain Child and Shark Jumper, Drawing Jams and $1 back issues. SPACE wasn’t a big commercial success, but we did make a lot of connections and learned a lot about indie comics.

And we managed the 13 hour round trip drive without killing each other. Chalk one up in the W column.

Awesome Things at SPACE:
-Having tables next to friends
-Having a table across from King Cat
-Drawing Jams
-Shark Jumper
-Brain Child
-Victory Beer
-Beach Boys song interpretations (bomb Iran….)
-Jeanie yelling ‘Comics! Candy! Cartoons!’
-Aaron yelling ‘Get your Ultraviolence!’
-PackRat Comics Meet & Greet
-Webcomics Panel
-All of the great people we met, talked to, and exchanged books with.

Not-so-Awesome Things at SPACE:
-Me forgetting my computer for Mike
-Driving across southern Illinois (me hates ye)
-Kinda slow foot traffic and sales.
-Not being able to turn Aaron off.
-Stupid Pirate cosplay guy. He just sucked.
-That girl who kept bugging me to give her my stuff for free AFTER I bought her crummy zine
-Mike hogging the blankets

The first convention of 2011 has been conquered!

Aaron Ford and I drove down to Chatanooga Tennesse last Friday, and set-up in the artist alley for the weekend. Originally the two of us were sharing one 6 foot table, but I snagged an open table from an author who didn’t show by mid-Saturday, and after that we both had ample room to sell our comics and merchandise. For us being first timers at Con Nooga, I think we did fairly well in the Artist Alley over the weekend. The con was more of cosplay-anime-party with your friends sort of deal than a comic convention, but we still had a good time meeting people and basking in all the weirdness that was going on around us. And the drive between Nashville and Chatnooga was gorgeous forest mountain scenery( a novelty for us plains dwellers). Check out the link below to see my Con Nooga cosplay pictures!

Con Nooga Photos!

List of Awesome Things at Con Nooga
-Reasonable table and hotel rates.
-Overall impressive cosplay for a medium-sized convention.
-Cobra Commander guy!
-Predators!
-Roller Derby Chicks!
-Theme parties on Saturday night.
-Free booze at the parties.
-Aaron’s rantings in the car.
-WaffleHouse!
-Seeing Jennie Breeden selling ‘Porn’ at her table.
-Friendly folk aside us in the Artist Alley.
-People-watching from my table.

List of Not-So-Awesome Things at Con Nooga
-Overall Con set-up. Exhibitor hall far away from events.
-Unnecessary drapes and empty tables in exhibition hall.
-U.F.O panel got canceled at the last minute.
-Driving through Southern Illinois.
-Aaron being moody.
-A lot of people just walking around and not even browsing.