KGB Bar - Live Comics Reading

On Sunday Night I dropped by KGB Bar in the East Village to check out the vaguely listed Comix and Graphic Novelists. About the Series: KGB Bar Sunday Night Fiction. The KGB Bar Sunday Night Fiction showcases the finest in contemporary fiction from new and emerging writers.

I knew Emily Wernet had done a turn back around when I reviewed her comic 'Moonlighting', but other than that I hadn't heard of it or where I could get info. Afterwards I stumbled across Tom Hart's blog, the organizer and teacher of cartooning, which provided me with the names of the night's artists and their spots on the web.

Just as an aside, I have one of Tom Hart's 'Hutch Owen' books and I really dug it, one of my first indie cartoonist books I ever bought.

So I stumbled in with my girlfriend Laura Lee (on our third anniversary, and yes, that's months thank you), grabbed a Baltika, a huge Russian beer that is, and we tried not to stand in the way. I had no idea who was going to come out, but I recognized Alex Robinson in the corner, so I knew this would be good.

(I love Box Office Poison and have a sketch inside my copy, hell yeah.)



First up came Lisa Hanawalt, who you can meet tonight at Desert Island Comics in Williamsburg as she signs at her launch party for I Want You #2 and her window display at Desert Island.

She warmed up the crowd with her twisted lists from Bad Pets, to Awesome Hats, and How To Tell Martha Stewart's Drunk. Her art style is a wonderfully chaotic balance of fine line illustration and madcap absurdity, bordering on the grotesque at times, though always able to provoke, often into laughter.






Next up was Mike Dawson who was sitting over by Alex Robinson, and I guess that makes sense as they have very similar sensibilities.


He read a selection from his comic Troop 142 which is about as accurate a portrayal of young male life in America as I've seen. It's juvenile and possibly even nonsensical, but absolutely genuine and pure in its delivery of innocence as it lingers for those last few years before being a teenager truly kicks in.

Then there was a brief intermission so we could grab more beers. After we were settled in, then came the closer...Kate Beaton ladies and gentlemen!


I mean, if there's a cartoonist out there that has more buzz on them besides Kate Beaton, well then point them out dammit! From her Aquaman which has made the rounds on Tumblr, the Gatsby's, the Mystery Solving Teens...I mean, just go to her site and prepare to lose at least an hour as you take it all in. It's consistently funny, in the art style, and delivery of every punchline. You know what's even better than that though? Having Kate herself deliver the lines. Her voice, perfectly gravelly and deadpan as she hits every beat, knowing her strips through and through.

This was definitely a great event that I'd like to see more often than just every three months. Let me see what I can do, maybe wrestle up a venue, certainly know enough artists that'll show their work. Hmmmm...

In the meantime, check out these artists, as all are very top notch indie creators, and come swing by Desert Island tonight and say hello.

K

Twitter

Lisa Hanawalt

Mike Dawson

Kate Beaton

Cowboys at the Taco Party: the CBLDF BEA Welcome Party

Last Tuesday night, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund held a party/fundraiser to welcome the BEA (book expo of America) to the CBLDF's home, the wondrous isle of Manhattan. Using several incriminating photographs involving lightsabers and a microwave, I managed to blackmail Rick Lacy into attending the party with me. To keep some sense of structure with this lil' "in the field" report, first we'll go with the good, followed by the bad, and then we'll round it out with the completely inane.

The GOOD: First off, when they said it's a party sponsored by Image and DC, and that there's a gift bag involved, I expected to get some sort of free promotional material that would end up at the bottom of my "to-read" pile, where it would stay for several years. I was wrong. First, there was the $1 reprint of Walking Dead #1; alright, pretty cool, but nothing to pitch a tent over. The second gift in the bag? The recently released hardcover collection of Morrison's Batman & Robin #1-6. Shit, really? I had to double check to make sure I wasn't being duped. Like most fans, I have them all in single issue format, but damn, this HC collection goes for about 25 bucks retail. So yeah. The gift bag was a spoonful of sweet gravy.

As you can tell by the picture above, the Hudson Terrace is pretty fancy, which was both good and bad (more on the bad in a second). We saw some notables (Paul Levitz for about a minute, Ivan Brandon modeling the latest in cargo shorts), talked to some WC friendlies (Hi Nikki Cook!), saw another WC friendly (Hey Amy from Bergen St!) and ate some delicious mini-burgers (screw you Lacy, them shits was tasty). Plus, we were supporting CBLDF, and that just feels right, like arm-wrestling Communism (and winning).

The BAD:

Like I said before, the Hudson Terrace is a pretty fancy place. And if you live in NY, you know that a pretty fancy place = overpriced drinks. $9 for a gin & tonic? Lady bartender, you're lucky I just got a free Batman & Robin hardcover. I wouldn't have a problem if there was any chance that part of the bar tab went to the CBLDF, but I'm almost 100% sure that was not the case. I guess I'd have to say that in general, I'm more inclined to say that comic book fundraisers are better suited for low-rent dive bars or comic book stores. That way I can spend my extra cash on buying books instead of booze cause we all know books > booze, right? Right...

The WHATEVER:

As my cowboy compatriot and I were about to find out, having a CBLDF shindig in such lavish surroundings meant that we'd be occasionally joined by confused club-bunnies from the party outside, a gathering Lacy lovingly referred to as the "pretty lady" party. Now, as you can see from that picture above, there were quite a few comic book ladies around (such as the lovely Ms. Cook and Bergen Street's own amazing Amy Adams), but every few minutes, a rail-thin waif in a cocktail dress and cringe-worthy heels would aimlessly wander into the CBLDF party, no doubt surpassing the donation table. These lost lilies were greeted by a bevy of drunken 1st amendment fighters, which was at times amusing, and at other times downright awkward, like having the high school cheerleader walk in on your Halo party (if only that happened).

After an extended period of Bogarting the bar, me and my comic book cowboy started talking to other people, namely people we did not know. We met some fun people, and one or two straight up dickheads. Here's a tip: if somebody at an industry party ever asks you, "is there anybody here worth knowing?," you are required to stop talking to that person. Why? By asking that question, they have proved that:

A. he/she is an asshole, and therefore

B. he/she is not worth knowing.

Sure, I get it: this is an industry party, so you want to make contacts, but it's also a party, so you should just shut your yap and get to know anybody who will talk to you at all. Nobody likes that kind of bare-faced networking, especially when the party is also a fundraiser. One good thing did come of this conversation though: while I desperately tried to get away from this guy, Lacy overheard somebody mention a "Taco Party" that was happening upstairs. As you can imagine, there's not much in this world that sounds better than a Taco Party, so we quickly absconded up a flight of stairs only to find this:

That is not a Taco Party. That is a Vodka Party. Nice hair-flower though.

Somewhere along the line, we were duped. Lacy's reaction looked a bit like this.

Cowboys don't drink Vodka. Never promise a cowboy Tacos and then not deliver. This makes a cowboy sad.

Faced with an existensial meltdown brought on by a lack of tortilla shells, we did the only thing that made sense: fled the Hudson Terrace, highjacked the Intrepid, and took our personal brand of lawless stank to the high waters of the Hudson River.

Ever since then we've been living a life of Top Gun shenanigans, complete with singalongs and nearly constant high-fives.

See you next time CBLDF...

Wednesday's What Up With Comics

Here at Indie Club, we like to keep track of the happenings all across fandom, so to that end here are some things that are popping on the internets...

ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO LINK.

New Comic Day TUESDAY?!?! My world is rocked.
iFanboy The Beat Comics Alliance

Parents Are Up In Arms Again:
'Bone' Isn't An All-Ages Book?
Boobs in a 1987 Spectre comic? Inappropriate!

I'd Still Go See A Spider-Man Theatrical Performance...
Alan Cumming Drops Out of Broadway Spider-Man

DC's Preventative Measure Against Image 2.0
Artists Become Writers at DC Comics

I Like To Think My Comic Writers ARE Pop Stars
Pop Stars Writing Comics

Here's A Perfect Example...The COMICS DESTROYER himself...
Paul Pope Q&A @ AICN

Oh Snap...Ebert Hates On Qbert.
Video Games Will Never Be Art by Roger Ebert

We Really Should Be Doing More To Support the CBLDF
New Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Website

Above swiped from the forerunner of Comic News The Beat.

Some Of The Best Fake Viral Comic Covers
Great Comics The Never Happened

Fan Passion Can Lead To A Dream Come True
Serenity Fan-fiction Webcomic Gets Published, w/Exclusive Strip

Above from my new favorite comics site COMICS ALLIANCE

Never Read The Series, Not A Big Rucka Fan, But JH's Art...*shivers*
Batwoman Ongoing Series - Rucka steps down, JH steps up

Comics Alliance Interview with J.H. Williams About Writing Batwoman

Read It Online Or If You're A Disciple Go Purchase This...
Warren Ellis' Print Edition of his Bleeding Cool Column 'DO ANYTHING' ships today

TOR Seems Pretty Interesting, This Bears Further Investigation.
Tor.com Kicks Off Ongoing Webcomic: Dan Goldman's 'RED LIGHT PROPERTIES'

And as always check out DC's blog THE SOURCE, Marvel's NEWS, the badass BLEEDING COOL, and for all your C2E2 information (there's a LOT) check COMICBOOKRESOURCES & NEWSARAMA.

Oh, and for lots of Comic Creator Twitter Highlights and tons of comic movie news, check out MTV's SPLASH PAGE.

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NEW VIDEOS GOING VIRAL

Tim Gunn Crits Superhero Costumes


Batman: Under the Red Hood trailer


Marvel vs Capcom 3 trailer


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COMIC CALENDAR

Midtown Comics Grand Central store is hosting a signing on April 22nd from 4-6PM featuring Brian Wood, Rebekah Isaacs, and special guest Becky Cloonan. And over at their Times Square store there's a Gilbert Hernandez signing on April 24th from 2-4PM.

Over in Brooklyn, Desert Island will host Bjorn Copeland, from Black Dice, for an Artist Music Journal release party and signing on Wednesday April 28th from 7-9PM.

In just a week and a half it'll be FREE COMIC BOOK DAY once again. We'll try and keep track of the events at various comic stores in the NYC/Brooklyn area.



Fresh from his Facebook status, Matt Loux will be signing at Rocketship Comics where you can get a FCBD version of Salt Water Taffy, which will make you want to buy the first three volumes of the book published by Oni Press from him as well.

Over at Bergen Street Comics from 5-7PM they have some activities for kids planned to celebrate First Second's new Young Reader titles.

There's also Forbidden Planet, St. Marks Comics in Brooklyn & East Village (who's site seems woefully out of date), and Cosmic Comics.

Seems my favorite NYC comic store Jim Hanley's Universe is having a comedy night the night of May 1st, which is pretty cool, with "some huge signings and events for Free Comic Book Day set to announce in the coming days". They're also running a buy-one-get-one-half-off trade paperback sale this weekend.

If there's anything we should know about, an event, news, a new artist, comic, band, book, game, movie, etc. hit us up and let us know, or feel free to leave your opinions in the comments section below.

K

Comicbook Calendar

Hey 'clubbers!

Just throwing a few events your way as you plan your social calendars for the next few weeks.

If you know of or are planning any events, please let us help spread the word. And if you attend any of these events and would like to do a write up and/or take pictures please let us know and we'll post it up here at Write Club!

K

HOTWIRE Carousel at MoCCA on March 25th at 7PM.

The Brothers Timony Book Release Party for Nite Owls at Rocketship Comics on March 27th at 8PM.

Rabid Rabbits anthology release party at Bergen Street Comics on March 27th at 8PM.

Penny Arcade Signing at Kinokuniya Bookstore on March 30th at 5:30PM.

KGB Comix Reading held at KGB Bar on April 4th at 7PM.

The Art of Jaime Hernandez signing at Jim Hanley's Universe on April 9th at 6PM.

The MoCCA Festival will be held at the 69th Regiment Armory on April 10th & 11th from 11AM to 6PM.

Reinhard Kleist's Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness signing at Jim Hanley's Universe on April 14th at 6PM.

Brooklyn Comic Events

So you want to break into comics (or maybe just socialize with creators), and the best way to do that is to network, be a friendly face that people recognize, and talk about the medium with them, mention your work casually, make friends with people. The convention scene can be too much mayhem and sensory overload puts most creators into a state of shock and awe, so the best alternative is to attend comic book events.

And if you live in Brooklyn, well you're in luck. There seems to be a new comic book event happening every other week. For instance, Tim, Reilly and I all hit up the release of Demo Vol. 2 at Rocketship Comics on January 31st. We chatted with Becky Cloonan, and although I missed Brian Wood, we made the rounds and chatted up the local talent and fans. You can see some pics from the event here.

The next Saturday at Rocketship had Ms. Raina Telgemeier doing a live visual reading and signing copies of her new coming of age graphic novel 'SMILE', while the Friday after that had Bob Fingerman and friends celebrating the release of 'FROM THE ASHES'.

While I was unable to attend those events I did jam pack one night with two events. The first was an art show for the Fantagraphics Anthology 'HOTWIRE', held at the Scott Eder Gallery in Dumbo. You can see a sampling of the artists' work here. If you like your comics alternative, then you'll love this book. The show will be on display until March 31st. It's a smaller gallery but always a fun time, as I did attend the Jim Mahfood show there about two years back which was great. And there's always free booze.

The second event that night was held at the lovely Bergen Street Comics, by far one of the most inviting and stylish of comic book stores. Ferbuary 12th saw the release of Heads Up Display's awesome puppet music video for their song 'FORMULA VS PERFUME'. The band features artist Kevin Colden and was co-directed by Seth Kushner, the photographer for Graphic NYC and Culture Pop Productions. The pair have also teamed up to create a comic SCHMUCK for webcomic collective Act-I-Vate.

This Friday night at Bergen Street Comics, February 26th at 8PM, you can meet Ben McCool and Ben Templesmith and have a few drinks with them to celebrate the release of their comic CHOKER as part of their US tour to promote the book.

If you're a little closer to Williamsburg, or just like hanging out in hipster-ville, you can swing by one of the best alternative comic book shops Desert Island to celebrate their two year anniversary featuring a 15% off sale, and get a signed copy of WE WILL BURY YOU, the historical zombie book by Brea & Zane Grant from 7-9PM.

And if you're free on Saturday February 27th, why not swing over into Manhattan to attend Mike Carbo's New York Comicbook Marketplace, which has a good selection of creators and is being held at Penn Plaza Pavilion, the former location of the National Big Apple Con, in Midtown.

While I won't be attending these events this weekend, in preparation for moving to Prospect Heights to be closer to the comic scene there, you can probably catch Write Club's favorite artist, Reilly Brown at Bergen tomorrow night, and you can count on seeing me and my cohort Tim Mucci at future events which you can find out about right here at Write Club.

See you around the neighborhood Brooklyn!

K