The Conventions and the Unconventional

It is already August and convention season is just around the corner. First up is SPX. I didn't get to attend last year because I went out to California for APE and it would seem I can only manage to do one or the other. However I am glad I get to go this year because I am going to dork out hard (WARE! HERNANDEZ! CLOWES!). Also, making it even more awesome is the fact that I will be sharing and neighboring with these awesome artists: J.T. Yost, Cody Pickrodt, Box Brown, Josh Bayer, and Ian Harker. Another reason I am pumped for SPX is the fact that the DIGESTATE anthology will be making it's debut. It reached, and exceeded, its Kickstarter goals and I cannot overemphasize how excited I am to get my hands on a copy.

Perhaps even more exciting is the THE PROJECTS which will be happening in Portland, Oregon on October 19-21st thanks to the ingenious plotting of Jason Leivian, Dunja Jankovic, Lisa Magnum, and Jason Miles.  THE PROJECTS aims to take a radical approach to the whole concept of the convention. Actually I should call it a festival rather than a convention. Or an event? An experience? A happening? Basically they are taking the tables OUT and bringing in the art, the collaborations, the workshops, the seminars. It will be like human collage!!! The creators explain it intelligently and succinctly here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/floatingworldcomics/the-projects-experimental-art-comics-festival-in-p
I am buying my tickets to Portland this week and I highly recommended trying to attend if you can. First of all it is free, but most importantly I get a definite feeling that this is going to be something very special and very new (at least for most of us). A lot of the comics conventions I am familiar with (and keep in mind that I really enjoy conventions) try and take a new and different angle, but they are all essentially the same. Whether the show is at the Armory, Brooklyn, or San Fransisco, whether it costs, is free or is "curated", they all follow a particular script. So it is really invigorating for me that this will be an event where people don't just co-mingle, but where something, art, may actually happen. I'm excited that it may expand rather than exclude.
So if you can go, you should try and be a part of this. And if you can't go, or if you just love this idea and love comics you can support it here. 

E  X  P  A  N  D.

Digestate on Kickstarter

All right people! This ambitious and awesome anthology that I have been talking about here for while has just gone live on Kickstarter. It is an honor to be part of Digestate considering the caliber of the contributors and the passion J.T. Yost has brought to this project.
Check out the video and the cool incentive gifts HERE.

Also read up on the whole project on J.T.'s blog. Thanks for checking it out and helping to make it happen! 

Art Faccia Comic

I have been slow on the uptake these days, it would seem, because I totally forgot to post my comic "I Cannot Draw" which was featured on Artfaccia.com last month. I think I posted it everywhere but here. Oh well, you can see it here now.

This was comic that needed a home so I was very happy with how good it looks in the long format, which might not have been possible elsewhere.

High Low Review

Oh, the wonderful Rob Clough reviewed my comic for his blog High-Low! And somehow I missed it! But I was so happy to find it today, and post it here.
It is always exciting to get a review from someone you hold in such high esteem. Thanks Rob!

DIGESTATE IS HAPPENING.

Lettuce Girl Part 2 Review

Sheena McNeil of Sequential Tart posted a very nice review of The Lettuce Girl Pt. 2 today. You can read it HERE.
It definitely makes me want to get a copy of the third installment in her hands as quickly as possible.

New Comic & Tumblr

I have a new comic up at gURL.com. Click HERE to check it out.

Also I started a tumbler page (sophiadraws.tumblr.com). I'm not sure if it's redundant or not, but I like the way my drawings look on it and I think it will be a good place to put daily sketches and ideas. Enjoy it HERE.

Happy New Year!

Well now 2012 is upon us. And what does it all mean? Well, 2011 wasn't too shabby for comics making, but I hope I can be twice as productive this year. My plans so far for 2012 include tables at MoCCA (my 6th year!) and SPX. Also I am looking forward to wrapping up 'The Lettuce Girl' with its 3rd and final installment, as well as releasing a not-yet named mystery book. There will be anthologies and collaborations! Experiments and illustrations! I am looking forward to it all.

Here is a comic I did make recently, A cute piece for Gurl.com.

Not much else to report other than to wish all well and that I hope you are enjoying your plotting and planning as much as I am.

Happy 2012!


(requisite table shot from APE 2011)

COMICS FEST

EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT COMICS SHOULD BE HERE ON SATURDAY!

RIP Bil Keane

I know that we all love to make fun of it, but Family Circus was the stuff Sunday morning was made of for many of us. I always had a secret soft spot for it and I'm not sure why it never occurred to me before now that it may very well be because it resembled my own family in many ways: too many kids, an adorable mother, constant havoc. It was too precious by half which made it perfect fodder for critics and people who love to ape the nuclear family. In fact, when searching on-line for a panel to accompany this entry, I found just as many parodies as there were originals. But as sentimental as it is and as overly cutesy as it can be, it was genuine, heartfelt, sweet, and beautifully rendered. And it remains, rightly so, one of the great American funnies. RIP Bil Keane, the creator of all those circles, the father of all those children.

"There was something about the life on the other side of that circle that looked pretty good. For kids like me there was a map and a compass hidden in Family Circus. The parents in that comic strip really loved their children. Their home was stable. It put that image in my head and I kept it.
I’d always heard that great art will cause people to burst into tears but the only time it ever happened to me was when I was introduced to Bil Keane’s son, Jeff. As soon as I shook his hand I just started bawling my face off because I realized I had climbed through the circle." - Lynda Barry, New York Times Magazine