MoCCA Fest THIS WEEKEND!

My friend Nadia "Toughspirit" Burgess and I will be sharing a table at MoCCA Fest this weekend! Table D153 ... on the FIRST floor this time! Not 4th like last year... the new venue only has 2 floors thank God. It's at "Metropolitan West" 639 West 46th St, right by the Highline and the Intrepid! Only $5 per day to get in! Kids under 12 are free. Saturday April 2 and Sunday April 3 from 11A-6P both days.

A major special guest this year is my former cartooning professor, Phoebe Gloeckner!! Her work The Diary of a Teenage Girl, an account of her teen years in prose and pictures, was recently adapted into a critically-acclaimed and award-winning film! The book "received notable recognition as well as controversy for its honest portrayal of teenage sexuality with themes of drug use and childhood traumas.She'll be part of the official programming, going on at Ink48, around the corner from the fest (653 11th Avenue at 48th Street). VERY EXCITING!!

But MoCCA Fest isn't an April Fool's - that's happening for real ;)

Comic Book Music Film Fest THIS FRIDAY!

Looks like Lovecraft Bar is becoming one of my favorite places! This Friday March 4th they're having another small festival that combines comics, music, and film! I also designed the flyer for this one and will be exhibiting again. Here are some fun-sounding names of other people who will be there: Comic art by Ninja Express and Dionisios Kavvadias, and music by Sunshiner and Bad Mary. My friend and fellow exhibitor Nadia Burgess (aka Toughspirit) will also be showing one of her films: "Black." If you've liked her other art at NYCC, MoCCA Fest, or Special Edition (which btw isn't happening this year), now's the chance to see her film work.

Comic Book Music Film Fest is 7P-11:45P 3/4. Lovecraft 50 Ave B. Here's the facebook event. Please take any train to the Delancey-Essex stop, then walk north. $5 admission and it's encouraged to get either 1 drink or food item. Every $5 entry fee goes to the Goodwill Rescue Mission, striving to end homelessness. You can rest assured your $ will go directly to feed and shelter the homeless, instead of it possibly being spent on "other" things if you just give to panhandlers. Homelessness is a huge issue in NYC, and even though I'm not sure the problem will ever be totally solved, at least we can help a little in our own way with fun fundraising events like this.

See you Friday!

We all hate getting charged with a surprise fee for anything. Sometimes there are fees we expect, but it really kicks you in the pants when there's a big random one that somehow, for some reason, you didn't see until it was too late. It's important to try to stay on top of everything, which is why I'm trying out this thing called a "weekly review," something I learned from David Allen's book "Getting Things Done" or GTD for short. I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone, but especially artists, who often struggle with project management. Basically, the GTD method helps you to:

1. Do a "brain dump" where you write down literally every task or project you have to do. 2. Break down projects into small steps. 3. Actually DO the steps. Part of this process is the weekly review, to review all the projects and steps to make sure you're on top of things, including everything from bank accounts to comic projects to what you'll cook for dinner. I feel like I could write all day about GTD because it's helped me immensely, but more on that later.

Big Apple Con This Saturday!

The first comic convention of the year is this weekend! The first day of spring brings the Big Apple Con at the Penn Plaza Pavilion featuring our favorite Tommy the Green Ranger (Jason David Frank) and many other guests and artists! I'll be sharing a table with Nadia Burgess of Tough Spirit Creations.

Big Apple Con http://www.nycbm.com/ Saturday March 7th from 10A-6P. Tickets are $20. 401 7th Ave & 33rd St.

See you there!

Philly Zine Fest and SH4H this weekend!

Breaking news! I just found out about the Philly Zine Fest, and got in last-minute! Very exciting! I've never been to Philly before, and am looking forward to the famous cheese steaks :) My friends Joseph Carlough at Displaced Snail Publications http://www.josephcarlough.com and Dre with her comic "Dee's Dream" http://www.deesdream.net/ along with many other awesome peopl

Philly Zine Fest 2014 will be held on Sunday, November 9 from NOON to 6PM.

The Fest showcases local artists and zinesters, as well as zine distros, bringing DIY, radical, whimsical, and artistic small press publications to the public. Ranging from bike repair to poetry to crafts, the Zine Fest is a great place to go to learn new things, connect with local writers, and get involved with creating new forms of accessible media.

It's at The Rotunda
4014 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

FREE and open to the public!

More info at http://www.phillyzinefest.com/ and search for "Philly Zine Fest 2014" on facebook.

And Saturday November 8th, I'll be doing Super Heroes for Hospice again in New Jersey! Lot's of traveling ahead for me :P Also FREE! 10AM to 6PM.

It's at 95 Old Short Hills Road, West Orange, NJ 07052

Super Heroes for Hospice is a charity event. Since I've first started doing this show, it's grown in popularity, and lots of my friends are in it too, including Nadia Burgess, Paul Castiglia, and Paris Cullins. See you there!

NYCC STARTS TODAY!

It's after midnight on Wednesday night, so it's officially Thursday. LET THE NEW YORK COMIC CON CRAZINESS BEGIN! Visit me and Nadia Burgess in Artist's Alley at table W4! Also, my friend Ellen has a really fun scavenger hunt game http://www.ellesaurarts.com/#!follow-the-ellesaur/caos where you can visit different artists and get discounts on her stuff as prizes!

Get ready for NYCC - next week!

I can't believe it's only ONE WEEK til the mega-event New York Comic Con! Check out Nadia's and my listing on the NYCC official site! I've been trying to get a new mini comic together in time... hopefully I can make it! Thursday tickets are still available for NYCC fyi.

I've also been selected to be a panelist for a talk about comics and business at Berkeley College! Very excited! The room is open to Berkeley students, but everyone can watch online live at tinyurl.com/BCGeekWeekLive. I love talking about stuff like this and hope people will find it helpful.

Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhh so y'know how I got that new adjustable drawing table? We're still settling the living room in the new apartment, so no couch or dining table yet, so I've been eating in my room with the table on a level position. TO MY HORROR, even when I put a magazine underneath the dinner plate, the drawing surface got all bumpy! Luckily, I explained the situation to the manufacturer and they're sending me a replacement part THANK GOD. I spent so much time putting that thing together, and it was hard carrying it from the store to the subway and up 6 flights of stairs... no way in hell am I returning it and going through all that again.

NYCC Super Week!

Not sure if I mentioned, but I got into NYCC's Artist Alley! I'm sharing a table with Nadia Burgess again, and am very excited! We're table W4 in Artist Alley. There's still time to buy tickets for Thursday October 9th for $35! But if you can't take the day off work or miss class, you can still go to all these cool new SUPER WEEK events! What is Super Week?! NYCC has wised up to the fact that they've grown so much that people who are casually interested cannot easily get a ticket. Tix are selling out earlier and earlier - it's freakin' 3 weeks away and only Thursday tix left?? So they created Super Week packed with comic-themed events all around NYC! There are over 100 things going on for free, cheap, or $$$ to fit anyone's budget. Events range from a free Muppets and Superheroes thing at Housingworks Bookstore, to lots of $10 improv comedy shows at bars, to more expensive talk shows with the stars (I reeeeeeaaaaaaalllly want to go to Neil DeGrasse Tyson's talk!!! But $45..... hmm.....) Anyone can go, and I'd like to go to some of the free/cheap ones to mingle and talk with people about my Artist Alley booth! I went to an event last week at Brooklyn Brewery (yes last week, it was that early... the hype is getting like that of the Super Bowl's), and found out that a lot of people don't even KNOW about Artist's Alley. For shame. http://www.newyorksuperweek.com/Home/ Super Week goes from October 3rd thru 12th. Ok that's more than a week but "Super Week" sounds better than "Super 10 Days."

Since moving, there are the obvious places you need to change your address officially with - the post office, credit cards, and banks are the first things that come to mind. But then there are the zillions of other smaller things you forget about that need your address, like every online shipping address for starters, and stuff like insurance and aauuuughhhhhh!!!!

MoCCA Fest was AWESOME!

Charlie Brown, licking his lips about to feast upon all the MoCCA-festers.

Finally am recovering from MoCCA Fest. It was SO GREAT this year! Met some inspiring indie comic creators, reconnected with old friends, sold some of my comics, got some interest in my freelance services. I heard there were over 4,000 attendees on Saturday alone, which was more than both days last year! I felt very honored to be a part of such an amazing festival. Everywhere you looked there was someone's comic/merch/fun stuff they poured their heart into.

Thank you to everyone who got any of my mini comics, got a sketch, or just stopped by to say "Hi!" Shared a table with my friend Nadia again. We both had new merch! She had new bookmarks and prints, and I was promoting my custom comics (in the frame) and finished my new story in time! Literally spent all of the Friday before finishing it up. Thank God for 24-hour Staples ;)

This is a page from the 5 page mini comic: "The Lucky Penny: Unlucky in Love?" I made sure not to title it "The Lucky Penny 2" because "The Misfortune Cookie 2" doesn't sell as well as the original "Misfortune Cookie" even though it's a self-contained story, people think you have to get the first one and aren't gonna buy the second one alone. "Unlucky in Love?" sold pretty well! I'm very proud of this story - the main character expresses thoughts I'm going through, and I challenged myself with drawings (those hands at the bottom were tricky) and perspective. Super glad I finished it on time and had something "hot off the press" I could tell people excitedly about :)

Also did my usual sketching. It wasn't as crazy non-stop like NYCC, but it was pretty good. This one came out the best, and the kid was absolutely thrilled :)

Ever since the Society of Illustrators took over MoCCA Fest, it's gotten better and better. I think my favorite part this year was such a nice reception with free food and booze for all the creators and volunteers. It was wonderful to be treated to something like that and I got to make friends and network and just talk about comics and animation and all that cool stuff. I wish MoCCA was more than just once a year, because it has an underground, artsy vibe that NYCC or the more "fanboy" shows don't have. I want to get into more indie fests. Didn't get into SPX this year to exhibit, but maybe I'll go just for fun.

MoCCA Arts Fest THIS WEEKEND!

I'm going to exhibit in MoCCA Arts Fest this weekend! This year the fest looks 10 times more amazing than it did last year! Check it out: http://www.societyillustrators.org/Mocca_Event.aspx?id=10561

It's Saturday and Sunday April 5th and 6th from 11AM to 6PM. ONLY $5 ADMISSION! That's crazy cheap compared to previous years, and there's a whole lot more going on. Fiona Staples of "Saga" fame will be a special guest, Art Spiegleman is giving a talk on Saturday at 2PM, the Macy's parade Charlie Brown balloon will be INSIDE the fest, lots of affordable food, a new Wacom lounge (!!!!!) and Kid Zone. Take a look at the map:

I'm sharing a table with my friend Nadia Burgess at table D9 - right smack dab in the MIDDLE of everything! Being right on the corner of the main aisle is an amazing opportunity for prime exposure.

MoCCA Fest is held in Manhattan at:

The 69th Regiment Armory

68 Lexington Avenue

between E. 25th & E. 26th Street

New York, NY 10010

Take the 6 train to 23rd or 28th St.

Also, this week is COMIC & CARTOON ART WEEK! Check out the list of all these crazy events going on leading up to MoCCA Fest! http://www.societyillustrators.org/Mocca_Event.aspx?id=11290

So yesterday I included color in The Daily Misfortune as something different for April Fool's, but I kind of like it. I AM a colorist, after all, and I do have a bit more time recently to play with it. We'll see how long I keep up different crazy colors... In the meantime, gotta prepare stuff for MoCCA Fest this weekend - hope to see you there!

New York Comic Con!

So did I mention I got into New York Comic Con this year after all? Late last month they said a space opened up in Artist's Alley, and I coordinated with another artist, Nadia Burgess, to share a table! Nadia does cool crossover illustrations and AMAZING comic themed cakes! We're very excited to be in NYCC this year and have much to prepare. Find us in the North Pavilion at table V15. This is a slightly better spot than last year when I was in aisle Z.

You can still get a Thursday ticket to NYCC, but all other days are already sold out. Hope to see you there!