Friday, December 31, 2010

Recap: Curls Studio's Year of 2010


Today is the last day of the year 2010. This past year has been the busiest year I've had in my life. A lot of things happened to me professionally and personally. All the activities we've done with Curls Studio are no exception, as we've kept pushing harder with our creations. We also had 13 tour stops this year, with a total of 18 days dedicated "behind the table." Below is our 2010 tour schedule with links to event recaps and/or photos to each event, so you can click to read all about the events.

2010 TOUR

MAY 2 • DC Comicon
MAY 23 • Handmade Mart
AUG 8 • Philadelphia Alternative Comic Con
AUG 28-29 • Baltimore Comic-Con
SEP 11-12 • Small Press Expo
OCT 2 • Crafty Bastards
OCT 3 • Capicons Comic Book & Pop Culture Con
OCT 8-10 • New York Comic Con
OCT 16-17 • Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo
OCT 24 • DC Counter Culture Festival
NOV 17 • In Between The Panels: DC's Emergence on the Graphic Novel Scene
NOV 21 • Holiday Heist
DEC 19 • Rock-n-Shop

In addition to listing appearances, I'd thought it would also be nice to recap specific projects of 2010.

I kicked off January with Sketch Before Sleep, where I've been doing a digital sketch everyday with a tablet. I am happy that I will soon have 365 sketches and it is such a landmark look back on all those sketches. In February, I used social media more and ran the first Curls Twitter Contest. Much of March, April and May was spent working on my design career. In June, I was selected to attend the AIGA Leadership Retreat in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was really exciting and exhausting to go from our AIGA DC AIGA 50 exhibit one evening then catch a flight the next morning to take part in a jam packed weekend full of meeting design professionals from across the country. July was probably the most relaxing month of the year... I still remember working, but we did enjoy ourselves by catching The Dead Weather at 9:30 Club. In August, we premiered the trade paperback Black Magic Tales, Volume 1: The Adventures of Roxy & Dean, World Famous Criminals at Baltimore Comic-Con. Our comic Black Magic Tales: Reunion was published in Washington DC's Comics Newspaper, Magic Bullet. September was a handful! We premiered our first Comic Anthology, Carnival, at SPX and I was interviewed for Washington City Paper. I was also nominated for a Lulu Award in the category of "Kim Yale Award for Most Talented Newcomer." Although I did not win, it was awesome to be recognized for my comics. October kept pounding the punches with a tour date almost every weekend! We went to DC, New York and Pittsburgh. At New York Comic Con, we were interviewed by Derek Gordon and also organized a panel called "The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators." It was fun to see James Franco and M. Night Shyamalan at NYCC. October also included a handful of freelance design and illustration projects including illustrations for National Geographic's Great Migrations. In November I was asked to take part in another panel, this one presented by the Women’s National Book Association. I also got to have fun as a guest blogger for Jimmy Palmiotti's Sexy Monday. As 2010 came to a halt, we took part in two holiday shows. December included a storyline in the Curls Webcomic with Curls receiving a Clive Owen and Keith Urban GPS for christmas. Washington City Paper also asked me to select my favorite Curls comics for the year.

I hope you enjoyed all the activities Curls Studio has done this year. I have received a handful of emails or DMs from people thanking me for my sketches everyday, which is very nice to receive. I hope 2011 is an even more accomplished year as I hope to continue progressing and creating.

Thank you to everyone who ever smiled at a Curls Webcomic, reposted any of our work online, told a friend about us, purchased any of our products, came by our table to say hi or supported us in other ways. We truly appreciate all of the recognition and enjoyment.

Curls Studio loves making people happy. Happy 2011 to everyone.

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