Featured on Kindness Activist

The work we've done with Cartoonists Draw Blood was recently featured on Kindness Activist.

This blog highlights KINDNESS ACTIVISM - purposeful acts of kindness. Kindness spreads when shared, so go out and be kind. Talk of the kindness you witness. Inspire others. Kindness is a super power that needs to be shared.

Thanks to Susan for spotlighting all the kind things people are doing in the world. You can read the full article here: http://kindnessactivist.blogspot.com/2016/07/cartoon-kindness.html

Speaking of Cartoonists Draw Blood, some of us were invited to draw during a Takoma Park City Counsel meeting last week and our art show continues until September 4 at Takoma Park Community Center. That means you have a little over a month to swing by and check out the show!

Reminder that our next blood drive with American Red Cross is Saturday, October 29 from 10:00AM to 3:30PM at Seekers Church (276 Carroll St NW, Washington, DC 20012). You can sign up to donate blood by emailing CartoonistsDrawBlood@gmail.com.

Illustration for Citizens of Natstown Project

I've recently provided illustration for Citizens of Natstown and their new project, "Every Nats Game's A Story." The feature enables fans to recall their memories and help tell the story of what it's like to be a Washington Nationals fan. There are already many stories posted about personal fan experiences -- and you can submit yours too.

I've been to three games within the past decade, but my main connection to Nationals baseball is walking the stadium for Team Cul de Sac during Moving Day (Parkinson's Walk).

Available for Freelance Work

If you are interested in my illustration and/or design skills, please email Carolyn Belefski at info@curls-studio.com. View my portfolio: http://www.carolynbelefski.com

Carabeo Interview with Washington City Paper

Mike Rhode posted his interview (Meet a Local Comics Writer and Filmmaker: A Chat with Joe Carabeo) today for Washington City Paper. Here is a sample of the interview followed by a link to the full interview.

Washington City Paper: What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Joe Carabeo: I'm a writer and creator for Curls Studio with fellow creator and illustrator Carolyn Belefski.

WCP: How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

JC: As a writer I have a pretty short and simple answer to that question, but I'm not gonna go down that route. I'm also a filmmaker AND I also love to read and watch interviews, these interviews through the years have basically become my teachings.

I remember recently just watching an interview with one of my biggest inspirations, the director and writer Billy Wilder, in which is he talks about how writing to him is hard work, coming up with the idea is fun and exciting and it's like the first time you fall in love, but then having to sit down and flesh it out and make it real, is hard damn work, just like any real relationship.

I even remember Gerard Way talking about writing and describing it as ripping your own guts out and spreading it out on the table and trying to find something from your insides that you can make into a story. I've always found those descriptions of being a writer the closest and the most relatable to me.

Continue to read the full interview here: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/visual-arts/2014/02/17/meet-a-local-comics-writer-and-filmmaker-a-chat-with-joe-carabeo/

Visit to Austin Books & Comics

I was lucky enough to take a rare non-comics related trip last month, yet still managed to get comics involved! Usually I spend my personal vacation time at New York Comic Con or other conventions along the east coast. This usually includes show prep, travel time, expenses, and loss of vacation days... so if I really think about it those aren't vacations in the traditional sense at all! Don't get me wrong, we do enjoy meeting fans at the shows, drawing commissions, and making Curls Studio more visible to the world, but let's face it - that's not a vacation. That's working.

So it was such a treat to enjoy a relaxing time at Austin Books & Comics in Austin, Texas. Their store is amazing and had an excellent selection of material including indie, self-publishers, all-ages, back issues, trading cards, buttons, shirts, newly released comics, and more. In addition, everything was clean and the aisles were easy to navigate. Several comic stores I have seen seem mildewy and dark with the front display comics damaged by sun, but at Austin Books & Comics the books were in good condition and it was a fun experience to shop there. They even put on a lot of in-store events and support the local community of artists. Many of the local creators are tagged with signs to indicate their books including Bad Cat Comics #1 which features a hand-printed silkscreen cover. The employees were friendly and guided me next door to their other shop, Guzu Gallery, which focuses on art books, special children's books, limited edition products, and designer toys.


In my eyes, Austin Books & Comics is doing it right by getting their customers excited and building a community base of fans and creators. The shop is beautiful and I hope more comic store head toward this direction. Even having a gigantic Hulk display is reason enough to come in the store.


Here is a photo of Jimmy Palmiotti's Queen Crab on the shelves. Shameless plug: I have a pin-up in that book.


As you can see in the photo above, my (not so secret) stash from Austin is filled with many goodies that I look forward to reading. I also purchased a card game called Nuts and a pack of old ALF trading cards!

If you are interested in seeing more images from our trip, head on over to the Curls Studio Facebook page and give us a "like" while you're there: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Curls-Studio/50763422380

Curls Studio will be at WWE RAW Tonight

We're going out tonight
To kick out every light
Take anything we want
Take everything in sight
We're goin’ til the world stops turning
While we burn it to the ground at night





YES! YES! YES! Curls Studio will be at WWE Monday Night RAW Live tonight April 9, 2012 from Washington, DC. We have even made signs in advance with your favorite characters CURLS and TOAST from http://www.curls-studio.com/curls and took photos so you can spot us in the crowd (we are in the 5th row off to the side corner), so record the show and if you see us send us a screen capture for a free gift of comics goodness from us. Email info[at]curls-studio.com to get in contact with us! You can watch live on your TV at 9PM eastern on USA Network. Enjoy the show.

MoMA Presentation at AIGA DC

On Thursday, April 5, 2012 I attended August Heffner's presentation "An INitiative Event: Why In-House Designers are Smarter, More Creative and Better Than Everyone Else" hosted by AIGA DC. August is an In-House Designer and Associate Creative Director of Graphic Design and Marketing at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was very interesting because the MoMA design team does such great work with some limitations (mostly one typeface and limited, but very bold color palette) and their design encompasses exhibition, display, advertising and promotions to get people to come to the museum. It is best to look at their work in this link to see for yourself, or even better make a trip up to NYC and see for yourself. Here are some tidbits of knowledge I learned at the event that I can share with you:

• MoMA mostly only uses the Franklin Gothic typeface and otherwise creates their own if needed (like Tim Burton's based on his handwriting or the Marina Abramovic typeface)
• Did a rock poster show and used wheat paste to put up the signage, but hired the person who does the wallpaper at The White House to install the display, which I thought was an interesting combo of punk rock and high-class
• Marina Abramovic was at the museum every day for 3 months sitting in a chair
• They do not work on MoMA exhibit book publications
• Summer attendance is typically slow at museums
• In general, most people are afraid of modern art
• Original template design by Paula Scher, Pentagram
• At first many people were upset about the lowercase "o" in their branding, but now they own it
• They silkscreen their walls (no vinyl) so people don't peel the graphics
• Working with the artist estates can be hard because they can't use the art in advertising sometimes, so they have to come up with other solutions to "problems"
• I felt like it's good that they showcase their work online because the museum is constant changing with exhibits and their work doesn't last forever on the walls, everything gets painted over and refurbished after each exhibition
• Team promoted summer exhibits last year with really fun handouts at Times Square - http://momadesignstudio.org/Summer-Campaign-2011
• They are starting to do more with video and online ad campaigns
• Breaking "branding" guidelines – Tim Burton does MoMA logo - http://momadesignstudio.org/Tim-Burton
• Pixel Art they did for exhibition, received 50/50 reaction (some people upset they were re-creating art from art), but they were still able to do it - http://momadesignstudio.org/Talk-to-Me


The photo above is a picture of me at MoMA during the time of Tim Burton's exhibit near the end of 2009. That exhibit was amazing and I just realized now that I never wrote a blog about it during that time. It was probably one of the best exhibits I have been to along with Van Gogh's Van Goghs at National Gallery of Art in 1998. Make sure you check out the Burton exhibit photographs in the link to MoMA's design studio. I really appreciated this event because it renewed my vision for design and also makes me embrace limitations at this time.

Freedom of Comics: Trip to the Newseum

Recently I went on a spontaneous trip to the Newseum in Washington, DC. Being that free tickets were available to use only for that day it was a last minute chance to use or lose. Since I had wanted to check out the new Newseum out for awhile, it was a perfect opportunity to take advantage and save on the $21.95 admission fee. I had previously been to the old location in Arlington many years ago.


This museum is highly recommend, not only because it recognizes journalism, but also because of the reminder it placed on me about the Five Freedoms of Americans (Speech, Press, Religion, Petition, Assembly). In addition I am impressed with the value the museum placed on visual art and how that relates to our society and communication.


I didn't realize cartoons and comics would get as much exposure as they did at the Newseum, which is a welcome surprise. They had a section all about comic strips called "The Funny Pages" and another focusing on the editorial cartoons of Doug Marlette. It was refreshing to see cartoons get as much respect as Pulitzer Prize winning photographs or pieces of the Berlin Wall.


Other sights that were of interest to me were Tom Russert's office, the Unabomber's cabin house, 9/11 gallery featuring the top portion of the Trade Center, some John Dillinger stuff, Daniel Pearl's personal materials, a blurb about Matt Drudge, and a small exhibit on the President's First Dogs. We had a great time and judging from spending over six hours in the museum, I'd say the value is worth the time to recognize our freedoms.

I was reminded of the great independence and privilege cartoonists have about getting their message and stories out and will soon be implementing this more with my comic strip, Curls.

Guest Blogger for Jimmy Palmiotti's SEXY MONDAY

Today I did a guest blog for Jimmy Palmiotti's Sexy Monday - which you should certainly subscribe to. Normally he selects images of sexy ladies, but this week I mixed things up and added some men.

Jimmy is the writer of Painkiller Jane, The Pro, Jonah Hex, Power Girl, the upcoming Queen Crab, and more!

Check out today's SEXY MONDAY #96: http://jimmypalmiotti.blogspot.com/2011/11/sexy-monday-96-special-guest.html

Also be sure to check out last year's Sexy Monday if you missed it.

Thanks again to Jimmy for the opportunity. Let us know which image is most sexy to you in the comments on Jimmy's blog.

Al Butler interviews Curls Studio at NYCC 2011

Al Butler dropped by the Curls Studio table in Artist Alley to interview Curls Studio (Joe Carabeo and Carolyn Belefski) at New York Comic Con 2011. We discuss the comics we are into, as well as our comics (Curls, Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales, The Legettes).


Here is the link to the interview, take it for a read: http://iknowwhypeoplehateme.blogspot.com/2011/10/carolyn-belefski-and-joe-carabeo.html

And here is Al's full NYCC 2011 recap: http://iknowwhypeoplehateme.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-york-comic-con.html

Photos by Al Butler.

Starburst Magazine: All Comics Are Created Equal

My comic strip Curls was mentioned today in the column "Adventures On Alternate Earths" by P.M. Buchan in Starburst Magazine, the UK's longest running Sci-Fi magazine, first published 1978.

The article is titled "All Comics Are Created Equal" and features Lizz Lizz, Adam Cadwell, Andi Ewington, Marc Ellerby, Rachel Pandich, and many more creators to discover!

Please read the full article here: http://www.starburstmagazine.com/columns/adventures-on-alternative-earths/753-all-comics-are-created-equal

I respect that even though it's not the author's cup-of-tea, he is able to see the appeal:

"On a completely different note, I’ve been talking to artist Carolyn Belefski about her webcomic Curls recently and she could seriously teach you a thing or two about self-promotion! Given my fondness for Maakies and Hubert Selby Jr novels it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I found Curls too innocent and lighthearted for my taste, but damn that lady can draw! With an art style reminiscent of Frank Cho’s Liberty Meadows Carolyn has an accomplished pen that was made to draw nationally syndicated newspaper strips. Working on the assumption that not all of my readers can be black-hearted cynics like me then some of you are going to LOVE Curls because it’s an adorable strip featuring a character shaped like a piece of toast and if there’s any justice in the world Carolyn will get the chance to keep on making comics like this for the rest of her life and have them collated into massive telephone-directory sized books."

What a great quote. Thank you so much to Starburst Magazine and P.M. Buchan.

365: Make Something Every Day

Last Friday, my SKETCH BEFORE SLEEP project and interview was featured on 365: Make Something Every Day by Noah Scalin. I made an illustration every day for a year using a Wacom tablet. An important thing to know about SKETCH BEFORE SLEEP is that the project has been recently approved by Kickstarter for a fundraising campaign to publish all 365 sketches in a book. You can read more on the SKETCH BEFORE SLEEP Blog.

Read the full 365: Make Something Every Day blog post here: http://makesomething365.blogspot.com/2011/03/sketch-before-sleep.html

Art for Aardvark Art Bazaar

I recently teamed up with Anthony Dihle from Fire Studio to produce screenprinted posters for The Harbor School's Aardvark Art Bazaar event. (You might remember my recent blog about a visit to Anthony's studio at Pleasant Plains Workshop.)


The client originally wanted an aardvark wearing leg warmers with a letter "A" similar to an alphabet card. So I drew that in my sketch concepts above. I also came up with another idea to have the aardvark surfing on a artist palette, so I decided to present that was well... and I'm happy to say they went with that for the final. I love concepting! I hope seeing the above sketch will give you a glimpse of my first steps when I design or illustrate a project.







I did the illustration and Anthony did the design. Last weekend Anthony printed all the posters at his studio. I hope you enjoy the process photos he took. It's really a treat. He did an amazing job!

Anthony says: It's a "seven" color screenprint in three layers. The second layer is a split fountain (color fade) of five different inks. A plop of each color is dropped on the screen and mixed progressively with each squeegee pass. The challenge wasn't so much mixing the five colors on the screen, but mixing each color so that it would have a similar amount of transparency over the dark background color, so that no color band stands out as too bold. It's 13"x21", printed on 80 lb. Cougar Opaque white.

Friday, March 11 is the 1st annual Aardvark Art Bazaar from 11AM to 4PM at The Harbor School. A fun and funky art bazaar featuring local artisans, live music and a craft/activity corner for kids!

Available for Freelance Work
If you are are creative director, art director or designer interested in my illustration and/or design skills, please email me at info@curls-studio.com.

Visit to Pleasant Plains Workshop

What happens when Fire meets Curls? A couple Saturdays ago, Joe and I swinged by Pleasant Plains Workshop to visit my fellow AIGA DC board member, Anthony Dihle from Fire Studio and check out his workspace. Pleasant Plains Workshop is studio space with a storefront that features works by its resident artists along with a rotating lineup of works and projects by other DC-based artists and designers.


Anthony designs and screen prints concert posters for many bands and events in the DC area. You may remember he did this poster for Rock-n-Shop at the Black Cat. We also got to meet Kristina Bilonick, who shares the studio with Anthony. They gave us a tour of the space and we got to see their storefront gallery.


Now you can Meet Anthony too! AIGA-GMU is presenting Anthony this Thursday in their "Spotlight on DC Design" series. The event is free, so stop by SoA Room 1007 4400 University Drive in Fairfax, VA from 7:30PM to 8:30PM.

Washington City Paper: The Year 2010 in Cartoons

Mike Rhode posted his "Year in Cartoons" for Washington City Paper. He writes:

Other papers may pick what they think were the best cartoons of the year. Here at the City Paper, we're doing it differently. We've asked some local cartoonists to pick their favorite piece that they made over the past year and share it with us.

David Hagen, Steven Artley, Michael Cavna, Donna Lewis, Carolyn Belefski, Nick Galifianakis, Kevin 'Kal' Kallagher, Ann Telnaes, Molly Lawless, Matt Dembicki, Joe Sutliff, Richard Thompson and Matt Wuerker are all featured.


Read the full article here: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2010/12/27/arts-in-review-the-year-in-cartoons

Guest Blogger for Jimmy Palmiotti's SEXY MONDAY

Today I did a take-over of Jimmy Palmiotti's SEXY MONDAY feature on his blog. For those of you who do not know, Jimmy has written the comic books Jonah Hex, The Pro and Power Girl... just to name a few. Every Monday he has been posting photos of sexy women in a feature called SEXY MONDAY.

Today was the day the ladies got to have some fun with SEXY MONDAY for the first time and I got to select some imagery for the gals. I hope you enjoy it. If I could add one more photo, it would be of Criss Angel, but I will save that for my next blog post.

Check out today's SEXY MONDAY: http://jimmypalmiotti.blogspot.com/2010/11/sexy-monday-one-for-ladies-by-carolyn.html

Please comment on Jimmy's blog and let us know which photo is the sexiest. Thanks in advance.

XOXO,
Carolyn


thanks Carolyn...everyone, I think she did a great job... thats me and Carolyn [ above] from the NYCCC...check out her link and her work. A real special lady in so many ways...and so cool...we need more like her.

JIMMY

PS: NEXT WEEK...Sexy monday 50.

Carabeo Interview with Washington City Paper

Mike Rhode posted his interview (Meet a Local Comic Book Writer: A Chat with Joe Carabeo) last week for Washington City Paper. Here is a sample of the interview followed by a link to the full interview.

Washington City Paper: What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Joe Carabeo: At this point in my comic book career, I’m focusing mainly on writing and character creation for Curls Studio.

WCP: Who are your influences?

JC: If I can name a few writers that I have influenced me the most just as a writer, I would have to say Billy Wilder, Joss Whedon and Rod Serling.

Billy Wilder’s razor sharp dialogue, his use of environments, and the importance of objects to motivate and push the story is something to this day that I don’t see storytellers fully capitalize on, and it’s a device I try to fully utilize in all the tales that I spin. To me, there’s more to writing than just people talking and running. We have objects that we can touch, that make sounds, they can even tell time and reveal memories. The ideas are endless for their use in storytelling.

I grew up on an extreme healthy dose of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Twilight Zone. I feel that when it comes to creating a world and characters that you’d want to follow to the end of time, Joss Whedon has been my biggest influence. The TV work that he did almost became a lifestyle. I felt that the audience grew with his characters, as viewers invested time and the characters became introduced into their daily lives. The characters that he created became friends to the audience, and people to this day still want them around. His work resonated that strongly with its audience because of how rich they were, and that is something I have always thrived to achieve with whatever I create. Something that people really love.

The influence that Rod Serling and his Twilight Zone TV show had on me is pretty unbelievable. I could go on a massive long tangent on this subject, but simply, the Twilight Zone is in my blood — it was one of the first shows that I even remember watching. There is so much I’ve learned from it. It’s always been to me a show that truly had no rules and if it ever did, it creatively broke them. The show was the best commentary on life ever, and the fact that Serling was never afraid to have the stories and characters on the Twilight Zone go astray has always been influential to everything I create.

WCP: What work are you most proud of?

JC: In the comic world, I’m proud of the characters that I have created with Carolyn Belefski for Curls Studio. They are all definitely not what they seem and I think the readers will find that with the more they follow the comics’ journeys, and I’m really excited about that. I believe we’re really getting a hold on who these characters really are and I’m proud that we’re at that point.

Continue to read the full interview here: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2010/10/22/meet-a-local-comic-book-writer-a-chat-with-joe-carabeo

Belefski Interview with Washington City Paper

Mike Rhode posted his interview (Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Carolyn Belefski) today for Washington City Paper. Here is a sample of the interview and a link to the full shebang.

Washington City Paper: What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Carolyn Belefski: Dangerously adorable cartooning. I write and draw the webcomic Curls. I also collaborate with Joe Carabeo on the comic books Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales and The Legettes. I have also been doing a sketch everyday since January in my Sketch Before Sleep blog.

WCP: When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

CB: I grew up being woken on Saturday mornings by Pee-wee’s Playhouse. I was born in Virginia.

WCP: Why are you in Washington now? What neighborhood or area do you live in?

CB: I’m in the greater Washington area now because after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University, I landed my first freelance design gig in Northern Virginia. My career has been in the city and surrounding area ever since.

Continue to read the full interview here: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/general/2010/09/07/meet-a-local-cartoonist-a-chat-with-carolyn-belefski

Handmade Mart Vendor Profile Q&A

Curls Studio Vendor Profile Q&A is featured up on the Handmade Mart Blog. You can read all about it here or click the image above: http://handmade-mart.com/?p=559

We hope to see you this Sunday at Handmade Mart.

WHAT: 2010 Handmade Mart
WHEN: May 23, 2010 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
WHERE: Ellsworth Drive in Silver Spring, Maryland (between Fenton and Georgia Avenue)
ADMISSION: FREE!

Use this handy map to locate Curls Studio's tent at booth #19.

Sketch Before Sleep

This week I created a new blog called Sketch Before Sleep as an outlet to experiment with my new Wacom Tablet. I will try to spend a few minutes before I go to sleep to create something everyday as my gift to you. The images above are some examples of what I have been posting.

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed! If you are interested in purchasing any prints of my Sketch Before Sleep entries, contact info@curls-studio.com and tell me what you'd like. Or if you are an Art Director or Creative Director in need of illustrations or spot art feel free to contact me about future assignments.

UPDATE - March 11, 2010
If you see Sketch Before Sleep entries you'd like to purchase as prints, email info@curls-studio.com or contact me on Etsy and I will try to make them available to you in the following sizes: 5" x 5", 8" x 8", and 10" x 10"

"Toast of the Town" Doll featured on Etsy Finds

My handmade Toast of the Town Doll was featured on the December 3, 2009 edition of Etsy Finds by Emily Bidwell who works with the Etsy Merchandising Team. She writes:


Etsy Finds: The Limited
One of the great things about handmade is that artisans are constantly playing with their designs, often resulting in mini boutique lines and limited editions. All year round I enjoy hunting these nifty little numbers in hopes of finding something extra special. For today's Etsy Finds, I have put together a collection of some of my favorite limited editions currently for sale on Etsy. If you see the perfect gift, or something you just have to have, get it while you can! These items are hot and won't be in stock much longer.