New York Comic Con 2011 - Panel and Table B16

Curls Studio will be at New York Comic Con 2011 with a panel on the evening of Friday, October 14 and four full days at Artist Alley, Table B16!

We are BACK with a second year of the panel, "The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators." This year I got creators that expand the spectrum of comics into the digital world. I am very excited to have Raina Telgemeier - she recently won an Eisner Award for Smile, David Gallaher - of the Eisner nominated High Moon, Reilly Brown - who recently worked on Amazing Spider-Man and now has a creator-owned comic called Power Play, and myself as panelists with Joe Carabeo as moderator.

Some of the panelists have gracefully offered to do giveaways of their books. We will be offering a copy of Smile, Box 13, Carnival Anthology, and possibly more to active audience participants.


In addition, Dave Sim sent me a copy of his book, Ultimate Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing, which will be given away to one lucky audience member. Thank you to Dave Sim who even illustrated a custom title page for our panel.

Without further ado, here is more information about the panel. Please mark it on you calendars and join us!


The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators
Date: Friday, October 14
Time: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Location: 1B03
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. Join creators Raina Telgemeier (Smile, The Baby-Sitters Club), David Gallaher (High Moon, Box 13) Reilly Brown (Amazing Spider-Man, Power Play) 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 FOUR DAYS of the convention at Artist Alley, Table B16. See the map image above to locate us or use NYCC's Map Your Show to plan your weekend.

Professional Only Hours:
Thursday, October 13, 2011 -- Noon - 7:00 PM

Open to the Public:
Friday, October 14, 2011 -- 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Saturday, October 15, 2011 -- 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday, October 16, 2011 -- 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!

Tickets for the New York Comic Con are available right here.

XOXO,
Carolyn

Black Magic Tales in Indie Comics Magazine #4

Curls Studio is in a jolly mood to announce we will be in Indie Comics Magazine #4 with our story, Black Magic Tales: How Roxy and Dean Stole Christmas. The image above is a tease of the first page of our new Black Magic Tales story. For our previous BMT stories, please check the write-ups and previews here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/cartooncarolyn?section_id=5309960


Be sure to ask your comic store to order this special Christmas Issue! Here is some more info on Indie Comics Magazine #4:

Knights, college freshmen, comic book geeks, an undying engine of destruction, the world's most famous criminals, jazz singers, killer clowns and more will shock, uplift and entertain in Indie Comics Magazine #4, a special holiday issue, scheduled for preorder in Diamond Comic Distributors' October 2011 Previews catalog and available ONLY through Previews, announced Publisher Gary Scott Beatty.

Starring in this issue are some indie comic heavyweights. Ignatz Award winner Rich Koslowski produced a holiday story with his fan-famous characters, The 3 Geeks. Nationally syndicated Adventures of Aaron cartoonist Aaron Warner introduces A College Girl Named Joe in her freshman year. Mad magazine's Douglas Paszkiewicz makes merry with a quirky Arsenic Lullaby.

64 pages of done-in-one stories is wrapped in a beautiful, painted cover by award winning artist Douglas Klauba. "This indie yuletide issue will make great gifts for the mature readers on your list," said Beatty, "naughty or nice."


The Curls Studio team of writer Joe Carabeo and illustrator Carolyn Belefski present How Roxy and Dean Stole Christmas. Kevin LaPorte and Amanda Rachels' macabre Clown Town characters shuffle in to share the holidays. Anthony Cacioppo explores a tense meeting between Indestructible Man and Saint Nick. Gary Scott Beatty's jazz pianist tells is nephew a Christmas story. Students of the Unusual's Terry Cronin returns with a story of knights and magic.

"We continue to be lucky landing creators with a diverse range of storytelling styles," said Beatty. "This is a real cross section of indy comic book genius! With our done-in-one stories, we help readers cut through the reviews and hype to experience these creators' raw talent."

Short biographies and contact information are included with the stories so readers can easily seek out more of the creators' work, said Beatty.

Beatty explained he always loved the holiday editions of books from the early days of comics, from horror to superhero to funny animal stories. "This time of year is so busy for everyone it's a good idea to kick back and immerse yourself in some holiday magic."

Indie Comics Magazine is 64 pages of the best story and art from today's independent comic book creators. No huge overprint, no digital version, no back issue sales, October's Previews under Aazurn Publishing is the ONLY way comic readers can get Indie Comics Magazine #4, the Christmas issue! Visit Indie Comics Magazine online at Indie Comics Magazine.com.

Film: SPX 2011 Interview

On Sunday, September 11, 2011 Joe Carabeo and I were interviewed by Joe and Rusty of Full Sanction as press at SPX. They had a set next to the registration desk in the hallway outside the vendor area. We discussed comics, wrestling, podcasting, and so much more. A very fun interview! I hope you enjoy.



Check out all the videos by "SmallPressExpo" YouTube. There are a bunch to view. Also read our SPX recap blog to see how the whole weekend was for Curls Studio.

Recap: Intervention 2011

This past weekend, September 16-18, 2011, Curls Studio exhibited at Intervention: The Internet Culture Convention in Rockville, Maryland.

You can check out more photos in the Curls Studio “Intervention 2011” Photo Album on Facebook.

Recap and Film: JellyVision Talk Show 9/15/11

For those of you who missed it LIVE on the air, here’s Joe Carabeo and I as guests on the talk show, JellyVision. Jennifer and Tim are cool hosts and we really dig the show that they put together. The other guest they had on the episode was Scooter from DC Geeks. We had a blast shooting with them and hopefully this won’t be the last you see of us on JellyVision. So please check out the episode on their USTREAM site here. We come in around 29:30.

If you’d like Curls Studio to be guests on your talk show or podcast, let us know and we'll make it happen.

Also don’t forget to check out our very own podcast, The Carolyn & Joe Show (now celebrating episode 140)!


Video streaming by Ustream
You can check out photos from the set on the Curls Studio "Guests on JellyVision Talk Show" Photo Album on Facebook.

Recap: SPX 2011 and Library of Congress

Small Press Expo was September 10-11, 2011 in North Bethesda, Maryland. We premiered the Curls: MASER book, which is the current ongoing storyline on www.curls-studio.com/curls right now. Those who purchased the book, got to read the story before anyone else.


Some of the highlights from SPX included the giveaway of the Curls Canvas (from Easy Canvas Prints). Here is a photo of Joe and I with baby Simon. Simon's mom, Casey, won the canvas and was able to pick it up in-person at SPX.


Saturday was a very busy day and SPX had record breaking attendance records. The crowd was so big that it was announced by Warren Bernard that the show will expand next year and the aisles will be wider. The Ignatz Awards on Saturday night was also bursting at the seams. I've never seen so many people gathered for the awards show before.


I got to draw a few fun commissions including a variant cover for The Dollar Bin's Buried Treasure Friends Assembled anthology. I believe they will be hosting a giveaway for the illustration I did.


Joe and I were interviewed by Rusty and Joe of Full Sanction, who were hosting their show and conducting interviews in the lobby with a full SPX backdrop. We will post a link to the interview once it is available online.

Another awesome thing that happened at this year's SPX besides the magical chocolate fountain is the Small Press Expo Collection at the Library of Congress. Curls Studio books were selected to be included in the collection and we are very happy to be included.

Here is some info about the collection (from http://www.spxpo.com/loc):

The Small Press Expo Collection at the Library of Congress was established to preserve the history both the artistic output of the creators who come to SPX, as well as the art that SPX itself generates as part of its yearly festival. The Collections scope was developed in partnership with the Prints and Photograph, and Serial Divisions of the Library of Congress, with the yearly gifts of donated works expanding the Library’s collection of comic books and comic art into the world of independent comics.

This collection at the Library of Congress firmly establishes independent comics as being both culturally revelevant and historically important enough for ongoing collecting and preservation.

Only those guests and exhibitors who have attended Small Press Expo are eligible for inclusion in the collection, with the scope focusing on the following areas:
- Mini-comics, comics, tabloid comic sections and graphic novels that are not sent for copyright deposits to the Library of Congress.
- All posters, flyers, banners ads and other collateral created to promote SPX, including the original art, where possible .
- All Ignatz Award nominees in the print categories.
- Original art by Small Press Expo exhibitors and special guests

In addition, both the winner of the Ignatz Best Online Comic as well as the Small Press Expo web site will become part of the Library of Congress Web Archiving Collection.

Small Press Expo has also created an SPX-Library of Congress Advisory Committee to work with Library of Congress collections and curatorial staff to identify works to be included in the collection. This is to ensure that a wide range of tastes is considered when assessing items for inclusion to the Small Press Expo Collection.

You can check out more photos on the Curls Studio "SPX 2011" Photo Album on Facebook.

Thanks to everyone who attended SPX. We look forward to next year - mark your calendars for September 15-16, 2012!

Recap: Bleeding the Narrative at UMD

"Bleeding the Narrative: Comics in Art and Culture" was on September 9, 2011. The University of Maryland gathered five creators who were in town the day before Small Press Expo: Jim Rugg, Robert Ullman, Monica Gallagher, Alexis E. Fajardo, and Carolyn Belefski.


The event started with each of us presenting about ten minutes worth of material. I talked about my influences, inspirations, design work, illustration, freelance work, and comics.


After our presentations, we took questions from the audience for about an hour more.



Guests were able to come up to us one-on-one to ask questions after the roundtable. They also served soda and cookies at the reception. I got enquiries about graphic design and was happy to give advice to the students. About half of the audience planned on going to SPX that weekend - an added plus was that SPX provided free passes to all roundtable attendees!



I was very impressed with my fellow panelists and their quality work. I left the event feeling inspired to create after our discussion.



You can listen to audio of the roundtable here:
http://curls-studio.com/media/bleeding/umbc1.mp3
http://curls-studio.com/media/bleeding/umbc2.mp3

Here is my presentation, so you can follow along with the visuals: http://curls-studio.com/media/bleeding/umbc_presentation_carolynbelefski.pdf
(All personal work, comics, and freelance design projects © Carolyn Belefski and Curls Studio)

Thanks to all who attended the event or who are listening to it now. Drop me a line at info[at]curls-studio.com, if you have any follow-up questions.

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.

Intervention is September 16-18, 2011

How much of your day do you spend on the internet -- looking at comics, watching videos, reading blogs, connecting with friends, tweeting, or just surfing?

At Intervention - The Internet Culture Convention - you can meet, talk with, learn from, and party with the people you see online everyday.


Curls Studio will be hanging out in Artist Alley this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday -- and would love to meet you at Table 40 (see map above).

This is our first time at Intervention and the con is in it's second year. Check out the programming schedule... there's so much to attend -- Cosplay Burlesque, Dating Advice For Nerds, Creative Marketing 101, and Balancing Your Commitments are just a handful of topics Intervention has in addition to comics, gaming, podcasting, and anything else cool on the internet and in real life.

I'm looking forward to this convention and to learn more about LARP.

Intervention
September 16-18, 2011
Hilton Washington DC/Rockville
1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852

From Friday at Noon to Sunday at 4PM

Here are the hours Curls Studio will be at Intervention in Artist Alley, Table 40:
Friday: 2PM to 8PM
Saturday: 10AM to 7PM
Sunday: 10AM to 3PM

Speaking at University of Maryland 9/9/11

I was invited to speak at the University of Maryland this Friday, September 9, 2011 from 1-3PM.


Bleeding the Narrative: Comics in Art and Culture

Panelists: Jim Rugg, Robert Ullman, Monica Gallagher, Alexis E. Fajardo, Carolyn Belefski

The University of Maryland is in College Park, MD, 20742. The roundtable will be in the Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture, which is on the 4th floor of the Art-Sociology Building.

I will be discussing my work, visual style, technique, inspiration, storytelling, career background, art direction, graphic design, illustration, freelance, and comics.

Open to the public. Hope to see you there and at SPX this weekend! Fear the turtle.

Article about Curls in The Connection newspapers

Michael O'Connell interviewed me for The Connection newspapers. The article is called "Drawn to the Web: Comic strip artist Carolyn Belefski finds a home and an audience on the Internet" and discusses digital comics, with focus on the Curls comic strip, and promotes the upcoming SPX show this weekend.

Click to read the full article here: http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=354019&paper=61&cat=104

Guest on JellyVision 9/15/11

On Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 7PM, I will be a guest on JellyVision, an experi-Mental Talk Show. You can join the live studio audience and meet the guests at The Soundry or watch at the same time on USTREAM.

The Soundry
316 Dominion Road
Vienna, VA 22180

See you there!

Appearing at SPX 2011

Small Press Expo
Visit Curls Studio at Table F3B
Saturday, September 10 -- 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday, September 11 -- Noon - 6:00 PM
Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center
5701 Marinelli Road
North Bethesda, Maryland 20852

Admission (collected at the door the day of the show):
1-day Pass: $10 per person
2-day Pass: $15 per person


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 us at Table F3B. We will be tabling with Jim Coon.

RSVP to SPX 2011 and share with your friends on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=194903257244021

Curls on Canvas (from Easy Canvas Prints)

I am excited to present to you this amazing canvas of my Curls illustration I received recently from Easy Canvas Prints. The canvas is 20" x 16" with a 1.5″ wrap around the side.

The canvas material Easy Canvas Prints uses is archival quality. If using a photo of your own, Easy Canvas Prints also offers a variety of enhancements including Black and White or Sepia Conversion, Retouching, and Photo Collages. Take a look – these could make fantastic personal and affordable gifts, especially for a special occasion!


Curls Studio is tag teaming with Easy Canvas Prints to give away one free 20" x 16" canvas. If you win, you can decide between receiving the Curls canvas above or the ability to upload your own image or photograph.

HOW TO ENTER
1.) Like Easy Canvas Prints on Facebook (www.facebook.com/easycanvasprints)
2.) Follow Easy Canvas Prints on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/easycanvas)
3.) Like Curls Studio on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Curls-Studio/50763422380)
4.) Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/carolynbelefski)
5.) Tweet the following message: "Read CURLS Comic Strip at http://www.curls-studio.com/curls and enter to win free @easycanvas. Pls RT. #CURLScomic"

The winner must be located in the contiguous US. Winner will be announced this Saturday, September 3 at 10AM EST. Tell your friends!