New York Comic Con 2010 - Panel and Booth 2485

Curls Studio will be kicking off New York Comic Con 2010 with a panel on the morning of Friday, October 8 and three full days at Booth 2485!

Some of you may ask yourself, "What? Who is driving? Bear is driving? How can that be??!!" But you heard right. Yes. Let me repeat, We have a table AND A PANEL. I pitched the panel idea to NYCC this past summer and it was greenlit - so we will now rock NYCC. I spent quite awhile molding and organizing the panel into perfection. I hope you find the concept interesting and check it out. I wanted to make sure everyone on the panel is a pure creator and world builder who takes the extra effort to market themself by appearing at conventions and working above and beyond just creating a book. I also wanted to include writers who work with artists and artist/writers, so everyone on this panel does more than just draw pretty pictures. I am happy with how the panel shaped up and very excited to have Jimmy Palmiotti, Raina Telgemeier, Bryan J.L. Glass, Carla Speed McNeil and myself as panelists with Joe Carabeo as moderator.


In addition, Dave Sim sent me a copy of his book, Ultimate Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing, which will be given away to an audience member. Thank you to Dave Sim who really went out of his way to illustrate a custom title page for our panel. What a nice man! I want to meet him one day.

Without further ado, here is more information about the panel. Please mark it our your calendars and join us the morning of Friday, October 8 to kickoff NYCC 2010!


"The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators"
Date: Friday, October 8
Time: 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Location: Room 1A21
Creating your product is only half the work it takes to succeed in the comics industry. What about the other half that we don't see as clearly after the product is released to the world? This panel will explore what it is like to be on the other side of the table, as a creator. We will discuss what it takes to exhibit at conventions, promote yourself, and gain a loyal audience - from the POV of professionals already behind the table. We will be giving away a signed copy of Ultimate Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing by Dave Sim to one lucky audience member. Join creators Jimmy Palmiotti (Painkiller Jane, Jonah Hex, The Pro), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, The Baby-Sitters Club), Bryan J.L. Glass (The Mice Templar, Thor: First Thunder) Carla Speed McNeil (Finder) and Carolyn Belefski (Curls, The Legettes) in this conversation, moderated by Joe Carabeo.


Join up at "The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators" Facebook page to get the conversation rolling: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Other-Side-of-the-Table/158861870794106

In addition to the panel, you can find Curls Studio ALL THREE DAYS of the convention at Booth 2485 near the border of The Cultyard. See the map image above to locate us or us NYCC's Map Your Show to plan your weekend.

Professional Only Hours:
Friday, October 8, 2010 -- 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Open to the Public:
Friday, October 8, 2010 -- 1:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Saturday, October 9, 2010 -- 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday, October 10, 2010 -- 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

New York Comic Con is the East Coast's biggest and most exciting popular culture convention, located at the Jacob K. Javits Center at 655 West 34th Street. We hope you can join us there!

Individual tickets for the New York Comic Con are available right here. Order your tickets online to avoid the lines on-site and save some dough, as prices will be more expensive at the Javits Center. Online ticket prices are: Weekend Pass - $50, Friday Pass - $30, Saturday Pass - $40, Sunday Pass - $30. Don’t wait until the last minute. Get yours today!

XOXO,
Carolyn

Black Magic Tales: Reunion

In honor of our high school reunion, which was yesterday... here's the Black Magic Tales story Joe and I created for Magic Bullet #1. We hope you enjoy it. Click the image above to read and click again to zoom in closer or press command + on your keyboard.


Magic Bullet is a Washington, DC based comics newspaper that you can find around town - at music stores, eateries, comic shops, metro stations and other hip locations.

Crafty Bastards (Oct. 2) and Capicons (Oct. 3)

Visit Curls Studio at two different events next weekend - - Crafty Bastards on Saturday and Capicons on Sunday.


Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair
Visit Curls Studio at Tent 80
Saturday, October 2 -- 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The fair is outdoors on the grounds of the Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th & Wyoming in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. We will be sharing a tent with Spiderbite Boutique. See the map image above to find us at Tent 80.

Now in its 7th year, Crafty Bastards is an exhibition and sale of handmade alternative arts and crafts from independent artists presented by the Washington City Paper.

Admission: FREE!

You can also vote for Curls Studio in the The Craftiest Bastard Contest! Thanks in advance. Feel free to spread the word to your friends.


Capicons Comic Book & Pop Culture Con
Guests Carolyn Belefski and Matt Dembicki
Sunday, October 3 -- 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Hall
2148 Gallows Road
Dunn Loring, Virginia


OCTOBER 2010 GUESTS:
- Carolyn Belefski, Curls Studio Artist/Publisher and 2010 Lulu Award Nominee!
- Matt Dembicki, Artist/Publisher and Editor of Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection
- DC Conspiracy, a collective of DC comic creators, writers, publishers and artists

Admission: $3 - Kids FREE!
FREE admission for those in costume. Costume Contest starts at 1:00 PM.

VOTE CURLS - 2010 Lulu Award Nominee

I found out today that I'm a nominee for the Friends of Lulu Awards. The award category I'm up for is the Kim Yale Award for Most Talented Newcomer. This is a very exciting opportunity and thank you to anyone who nominated me for this honor. I am thankful to be recognized for my comic efforts.

The Lulu Awards showcase the people and projects that helped to open eyes and minds to the amazing comic and cartooning work by and/or about women.

Friends of Lulu is a non-profit, national charitable organization in the United States, founded in 1994 to promote readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry.

I looked up Kim Yale on the internet and found out this information about her: Kim Yale was an American writer and editor of comic books for multiple comic book companies, including Marvel Comics, DC Comics, First Comics and Warp Graphics. She was heavily involved with the Friends of Lulu, working as a member of the board, an organization promoting women in comics. The award for the Best New Female Comics Creator has been named in her honor. Yale died of breast cancer in 1997, aged 43. (via Wikipedia)


On a related note, the image above is a Curls sketch card I did for the Comics for Cures Sketch Card Benefit Auction for The American Cancer Society in 2009.

Vote for your favorite contenders here - http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2010/09/friends-of-lulu-voting-starts-today.html

Voting is open to the public. One vote per person, per email address. Votes are due September 27th. The Lulu Awards will be held October 29th at Long Beach Comic Con.

Please feel free to repost and promote the voting information on your blog, tweet about it on Twitter or tell your friends on Facebook. Curls needs your vote! Thanks in advance.

XOXO,
Carolyn

Recap: SPX 2010

This past weekend was Small Press Expo in North Bethesda, Maryland. It was so amazing that I'm still blown away from it. The most exciting part of the show was premiering our Carnival Anthology. Above is a photograph of everyone in the anthology who was at SPX - The Carnies are: Ava Ann Vrooman, John Bintz, Carolyn Belefski, Joe Carabeo, Terry Flippo, Rafer Roberts and Jim Coon. Elizabeth Watasin, Else Tennessen, Kris Black, Nick DeStefano, Kenneth Rocafort, Rob Levin and Rafael Navarro are in the anthology, but were unable to attend SPX. I know for sure Rafael was there in spirit!

It was so exciting to premiere a book with so many artists and writers involved. The book means a lot to me because I gathered the creators and it feels great to know that they were willing to use their free-time to do a story for the book. It's not easy. Everyone has life and jobs, but we made it happen and even sold out of all the "indy" handmade premiere issues that were at the show! The book is now being sent to the printer and we will have "professional" issues soon. You can pre-order for a mere cost is $4 with shipping to any location in the USA and $5 International. We have already had an order from France, so I'm pumped to mail that issue out. I love going global.


Another cool tidbit about the anthology is that the book represents Elizabeth Watasin's comeback to comics. Her comic book Charm School is one of my favorites and over time I began to connect with her. I would have never guessed a few years ago that I would have her be a part of my first anthology. It's awesome that she is returning and creating original work. I am curious to see what she is up to with her new creations and I adore her style. She is definitely a great asset to the anthology by illustrating the back cover and a two page Darque Towne story. I look forward to and wish her good luck with her endeavors.



Now back to SPX. The crowd was consistently great. Hardly ever did the mood get slow or draggy. I did a lot of fun sketch commissions including a piece for a Firefly sketchbook (in which I drew Mrs. Reynolds AKA the lovely Christina Hendricks) and a 'favorite movie' sketchbook (in which I drew The Wizard of Oz). I also drew a wolf on a golf hat... and learned that drawing on hat is kinda hard because of the fabric! I gave the wolf a bowler cap and a pipe. He reminded me of the Blacksad world, which is pretty rad. I also drew Gwen LeGette from The Legettes on a sketch card.

I really enjoy doing sketchbook commissions and I think it's a great collection for someone to have. In fact, you may remember my Baltimore Comic-Con recap post from two weeks ago when I started my first ever convention sketchbook. I added two new sketches to the book at SPX. One was from Rusty of Full Sanction and the other from Roger Langridge, who does The Muppet Show Comic Book.

The Ignatz Awards after party was crowded! I think it was because of Raina Telgemeier's SPX 2010 poster depicting the legendary chocolate fountain. I even overheard someone say that the actual fountain looked dinky and that they were actually expecting a huge fountain. I guess they thought people could swim in it or something. People and their expectations! Either way, the party was rocking. I got to meet the creator and producer of Red Moon, David McAdoo and Steve Kozak! I actually connected with them many years ago on MySpace. They are awesome guys who have a schnauzer terrier in their book. How could I not like that? I have been waiting to buy the book in person at SPX and finally the time came. I still have yet to read the book, but I can tell it is one of those things that I'm going to like. Sometimes there are just things that are right up your alley and I believe Red Moon is one of them for me.


As far a food goes, Joe and I discovered the east coast equivalent to Pinkberry within walking distance. We got tart melon and strawberry frozen yogurt with mochi, raspberries and pineapple. We went there on Saturday and Sunday nights. So good. We also ate at Vegetable Garden with some new SPX friends on Sunday night. It was great to be a part of SPX. I think it gets better every year.

Thank you to SPX and all the returning fans who visited the Curls Studio table as well as new people we met!

You can see more photos of Curls Studio's adventures at SPX on our Facebook Fan Page. Click and join up with us.

XOXO,
Carolyn

Curls Studio Presents Carnival Anthology

I am extremely excited to announce that the Curls Studio Carnival Anthology will be premiering at Small Press Expo 2010 this weekend.


Check out the mini site to pre-order and look at contributor bios: http://curls-studio.com/carnival.html

The idea came to me in the fall of 2009. The goal was to publish a book featuring the work of people I had met at comic conventions or people I admired. With the carnival theme in mind, I contacted everyone I wanted to contribute and asked them to contribute a two-page story with a beginning, middle and end. The book represents overall diversity in the comics format and shows what fantastic storytelling can be done with a minimal amount of pages.

The book is dedicated to showcasing how each of us tell our stories and our individual artistic styles. Sample the taste of 14 different writers and artists as we take you on an eclectic journey. Check out the amazing team roster below. I am so excited to have all these talented people contribute to the anthology.

The book is $4 with shipping to any location in the USA and $5 International. Books will not ship until after the premiere at SPX (look for Table H3 to purchase in person).

Stories in Carnival Anthology (in order of appearance):

Joe Carabeo and Carolyn Belefski – Kid Roxy: Carnival Life

Elizabeth Watasin – Darque Towne

Ava Ann Vrooman – a2alien in the Foe Show

John Bintz – A Moment of Clarity

Else Tennessen and Kris Black – Charlie & Chip: Lost at the Carnival

Rafer Roberts – The Stuffed Bear

Terry Flippo – Gyro and Scoot

Jim Coon – Peeps the Four Eyed Clown in a Visit from Timmy

Nick DeStefano – Ball Toss

Kenneth Rocafort with Rob Levin – Party Whistle

Rafael Navarro – Payasada


Thanks to all the contributors and Andrew R. for helping code most of the website. I really appreciate the effort of 15+ people in making this book happen.

Enjoy the carnival!
Carolyn

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

Appearing at SPX 2010

Small Press Expo
Visit Curls Studio at Table H3A
Saturday, September 11 -- 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday, September 12 -- Noon - 6:00 PM
Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center
5701 Marinelli Road
North Bethesda, Maryland 20852

Admission:
1-day Pass: $10 per person
2-day Pass: $15 per person


This year's SPX poster is by Raina Telgemeier and is based on the chocolate fountain treats everyone enjoys after the Ignatz Awards ceremony. Raina did a great job conveying the vibe of that moment. I hope to see you as we celebrate the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comic books and the discovery of new creative talent at SPX. Please click the map above to locate Table H3A.