POP-UP KENOSHA

The other day I was invited to come out to Kenosha, Wisconsin to participate in a "pop-up gallery" event.  Kenosha is a city of about 100,000 people, right on the Illinois border along Lake Michigan.  Like many small to medium-size towns in the Midwest (and America) its downtown area has seen happier days.  In an effort to bring art to the residents, the Kenosha Art Association has been having pop-up events in several of the vacant storefronts downtown.

For my part, they exhibited oversized prints of every page from my Thoreau at Walden book.  It was pretty exciting to see them all up, lining one entire wall of the venue.

I really didn't know what to expect, but there was a nice crowd coming in throughout the night, everyone was friendly, and I sold a bunch of stuff!  The audience was truly interested, and willing to engage with the art and the artists, which was refreshing.

At the end of the evening I spoke to Francisco Loyola, the main force behind the pop-ups, about the amount of work he's done to bring these arts events to downtown Kenosha.  It hadn't been easy, with years of effort just beginning to bear fruit.  I was really impressed with how devoted these folks were to improving the quality of life in their town.  It was inspiring.

Chalk drawing on the sidewalk outside.

John P. and cool upholstered bicycles.

Thoreau at Walden

Dean Tawwater

Bess Yontz

Comics by Ryan Pagelow.

John Hambrock

Children's drawings

Mary Pat Andrea and friend.

All photos courtesy Francisco Loyola

LIFE WITH CATS #2,462

This Saturday, July 13, from 4-9 PM, I'll be hanging out with some other artists in Kenosha, Wisconsin, at a Pop-Up Gallery, on the first floor of the unnamed building at 5715 6th Avenue.  Come one, come all!

Facebook Event

AMERICAN GROUNDHOGGERS

Photos by SD

CAKE TOPPING

John P. at CAKE with Alex Nall

(Photo by Jeff Zwirek)

Hey all, I'm way beyond behind on blog updates, but I thought I'd chime in with a very quick CAKE report.

As I mentioned last year, I'm very happy that AT LAST, my home sweet home of Chicago finally has an alternative comics con that seems to have staying power.  Having moved to a new location for its second go-round (Year One was at Columbia College in the South Loop, where I and several other souls were trapped in the Classroom of Despair), everything about CAKE Mark II seemed better.  Now, CAKE I was a fun show, and I was impressed with the number of swell comix folks who made the journey last year, but this one was special.

I can't begin to count the talented cartoonists and wonderful publishers at this year's show, but off the top of my head:  Koyama, D+Q, Uncivilized, Tugboat, Retrofit, Secret Acres, Zak Sally, Michael DeForge, Noah Van Sciver, Joseph Remnant, Jason Shiga, Chris Cilla, Lilli Carré, Laura Park, Trubble Club, Revival House, Leslie Stein, USS Catastrophe, Oily, Phoebe Gloeckner, Collective Stench, Caroline Paquita, Kim Deitch, Fanta, Ed Luce, Gabby Gamboa, Josh Simmons, Paper Rocket, Picturebox, 2D Cloud, Josh Bayer, Pat Aulisio, Cara Bean, Onsmith, Julie Delporte, and I even saw Bald Eagles and Becca Marie wandering the aisles.  Don't get mad but I'm gonna stop there.  You get the idea.

Day One started off slow, but I ended up having a steady stream of visitors throughout the day.  One nice thing about the location was the Whole Paycheck® located on the first floor of the Center on Halsted, which made for easy access to drink and grub.  I usually starve at these things with my low-blood sugar causing me to get cranky and/or shaky-weird, but this show was more comfortable in that way.

Saturday evening my main concern was finding someplace to watch the Blackhawks game, which after some to do I managed to accomplish (sob).

Sunday morning I expected there to be a big lull, as hungover cartoonists stumbled in bleary-eyed and ragged.  And that's what happened.  Sunday was a little slower for me, but I also spent time away from my table to try to check things out.  And if there's one thing I've learned about shows it's I don't sell anything when I'm away from my table.  I managed to make it down the first one and a half aisles before having to jet back to Spit and a Half HQ.  There were so many high-quality exhibitors there, there was no way to table and still see everything.  I was really impressed by how GOOD everything I was looking at seemed.

Sunday after the show a bunch of us headed over to Joy's Noodles for dinner.  It was fun to get to hang out with people outside the show, and watch my pal Ray go head-to-head with Jesse Reklaw in the mental agility sweepstakes.  (Jesse's amazing series COUCH TAG will finally be collected in book form by Fantagraphics this fall!)

After that people wanted to go to a bar.  I wanted to go to sleep.  So it was a quiet night reading comics and chatting at my host Laura Park's house.

Monday, Laura, Noah, and I had breakfast and then I took Noah to visit Chicago Comics and the Picasso.  Then back on the road home.

Excellent.  I look forward to next year...

- - -

(I didn't manage to take a single picture, but if you're on Facebook, here's cartoonist/CAKE organizer Jeff Zwirek's photo album.)

CHICAGO CHICAGO

Hey Kids,

It's been awhile since I updated here.  Turns out I will be attending a bunch of events in my Windy City over the next few weeks, so I thought I'd give you the info:

Sun. June 9, 2013: Printer's Row Lit Fest
From 2-3 PM I'll be signing books with Zak Sally at the CAKE table, Tent HH3 on Polk, between Dearborn and Federal.

Sat.-Sun. June 15-16: CAKE
I'll be tabling 11 AM to 6 PM both days, with tons of Spit and a Half stuff;  alongside Noah Van Sciver and Joseph Remnant at Table 82.

Sat.-Sun. June 18-29: American Library Association Conference
I'll be tabling in the Zine Pavilion from 10 AM - 4 PM both days!

See you there!  (Look for real bloggages soon...)
JP

WORD UP

Just a quick one guys and gals.

If you're in Toronto this weekend for the wonderful TCAF show and want to pick up a copy of the most recent King-Cat (#73) you can do so at the Koyama Press table.  I sadly won't be there.  Also drop by Blank Slate's spot and pick up the new Oliver East book Swear Down.  No one does what Ollie does, and in this age of instant fad bullshit and copycat high fives, that's saying something.

I'm not going to Toronto, but I will be in Downtown Beloit for Artwalk, tonight, May 10 from 5-9 PM and tomorrow Sat. May 11 from 10 AM to 2 PM.  I'll be upstairs at "My Apt.", 429 E. Grand Ave selling (and signing) some comic books to the masses.  Come on down!

Lastly, may I introduce you to the newest member of the family, Mr. Gibson P. Dawg (The "P" is for "Puppy") AKA Da Woofman, Li'l Hustla, Coach Gibs, and Dat Ding Dong Dog from Kalamazoo:

Ain't he cute?

GO BULLS

GO HAWKS

SPACE RECAP

I made my annual spring trip to Columbus Ohio a few weeks ago for the 13th iteration of the Great Midwestern SPACE Comics Fest.  I love Columbus, and I love SPACE.  I've never had a bad time coming out for this show, and after thirteen years it's taken on a kind of family reunion aspect for me, as it has I think for a lot of other longtime attendees.  Plus, in the last few years, folks from the coasts have begun making the trek and that's cool too.  (Last year saw my pals MariNaomi (SF) and Colin Upton (Vancouver) come out, and this year Joseph Remnant (LA), Eamon Espey (Baltimore) and Tom Hart and Leela Corman (Florida) made the trip.)  Excellent all around.  I had a great time.

Spit and a Half corner

Mark Rudolph, J.T. Dockery, Eamon Espey

Joseph Remnant, Tom Hart

I was delighted to see Tom Spurgeon in the hallway when I first walked in.  I am a big fan of his writing on the Comics Reporter, and I didn't expect him to be there.  Happily, I got to spend a good amount of time chatting with him.

Penina Gal, Tom Spurgeon, Carol Tyler

Saturday night after the show, everyone went out for Vietnamese food and then headed down to a coffeeshop on High Street to see Eamon Espey perform his story "Ishi's Brain," as a puppet show with his partner Lisa Krause.  It was a beautiful thing.  Later, Leela and Maddie played music and JT Dockery wowed 'em, but I was on 4 hours sleep, so had to turn in early.

Saturday night performance of "Ishi's Brain".

Sam Spina flyin' the flannel on Sunday morning.

Detroit's Finest: Parisel

Nate McDonough, Nils Balls, Dan McCloskey: Pittsurgh represent

J.T. Dockery, whose balls out rock n roll performance Saturday night I unfortunately missed.

Bryan Moss, Ed Piskor

Cleveland's Kevin Czapiewski

Marnie Galloway and husband Tom

Leela Corman and Tom Spurgeon

The great Larry Blake, who kept things lively with a boombox jamming The Ramones and Sweet all weekend.

Whoa, I got this great original marker drawing of the Ramones from Larry for only $10!

Comics as Memoir Panel moderated by John Steventon, with Tom Hart, Nate Powell, Chris Monday, Dara Naraghi, and yours truly.

Sunday evening everybody cleared out quick.  I had some more Vietnamese food for dinner, and then sleep, blissful sleep.

James Thurber House, 77 Jefferson Avenue

Monday morning I kicked it around Columbus.  I had a couple days off, so I spent them book buying and sightseeing.  First stop, the James Thurber House, a Columbus attraction I had somehow never visited in all my trips there over the years.  Enjoyable.

Then I made my usual stops: Used Kids Records, the Wexner Center Bookstore, Laughing Ogre (where I picked up some nice 70's Marvel horror comics), and a couple Half Price Books where I loaded up on cheep comix/GNs etc.

Tuesday I went back into town to visit Gib at the Ogre, and yes, buy more comics.  This time the Wally Wood bio "Wally's World" and a copy of "Pussey!"  Why not.  That evening, on the way back to my lodging, I went for a walk in the woods, where the Dutchman's Breeches, Toothwort, and Rue Anenome were all in bloom.  Then: Rain.

Dutchman's Breeches

(Dicentra cucullaria)

Wednesday Morning I was picking up Stephanie at the Columbus Airport and we were heading east to Pittsburgh together, for the Drawing Power Conference at the Carnegie Library.  More on that next time!

Columbus, O.