JANUARY UPDATE

Hi all,

Trying to get back into the swing of things and keep the ol' blog updated more regularly.  In real life, I've been hustling to finish The Hospital Suite book in time to have it out for SPX.  Also, beginning to schedule a tour of the Northeast and Midwest to follow the book's release in September.

Out here it's been a very cold, very snowy winter so far.  Which is good for getting comics done.

I'm also working hard at getting my 2013 comics "best-of" list written-- it's about twice as long as any other list I've compiled in the past.  Anyhow, it's always best to get it posted long after everyone else, so it's dutifully ignored...  I'll try to have it up in a week or so!

Meanwhile, if you haven't picked up the new King-Cat yet, it should be in all the usual stores, and if not, feel free to order a copy direct! Info here.

Thanks everyone!
John P.

2014: YEAR IN PREVIEW

Hey dudes,

2013 was a year.  It came and went.  The high point for me was getting Gibby Dog, who has become my BFF, and his sister Iris, and attending the PFC Retreat in Minneapolis (of which the long awaited photo-journal will be going up on this site shortly).  We all know what the bad stuff was (Kim, RIP).

Gibber Dee Dawg

Late into 2013 I finally managed to get King-Cat 74 out, after it had lingered nearly-finished on my desk for three months, and hopefully that has kickstarted me into motion again.  2014 is the King-Cat 25th Anniversary, and I'm going to do my best to have a lot of work done for it...  2014 should see the release of three new comics from me --

• South Beloit Journal -- the complete journal strips from early 2011 (from La Mano 21)
• King-Cat 75, the All-Maisie Issue -- which will be a special double-sized edition
• and The Hospital Suite -- an all new three-story collection (from Drawn and Quarterly)

Additionally, the King-Cat documentary should be debuting at SPX (along with Hospital) and afterwards I'll be travelling throughout the Northeast and Midwest signing books and screening the film.

Aside from the aforementioned tour, I'll be out on the road again, with stops scheduled so far in Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Bethesda, and Fort Wayne.  But in many ways I'm hoping to stay home a bit more and get a lot of drawing done.  It's about time.

I'll leave you now with this lovely mini-movie History of King-Cat, by good ol' Jason Cooley.  Thanks everyone!

John P.

KING-CAT #74 IS HERE!

Hey all,

King-Cat #74 arrived late last night.  I'll be packing subscribers' copies and pre-orders all afternoon, so look for them to ship out tomorrow.  Shipments to stores will happen after Christmas.

If you're not a subscriber, SINGLE COPIES of the new issue can be purchased from me as follows:

USA: $5.00 cash/check/mo OR $5.45 via PayPal
CANADA/MEXICO: $6.00 USD via PayPal
REST OF WORLD: $7.50 USD via PayPal

NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS (4 Issues) can be purchased at the following rates:

USA: $20.00 cash/check/mo OR $20.88 via PayPal
CANADA/MEXICO: $24.00 USD via PayPal
REST OF WORLD: $30.00 USD via PayPal

Checks/MOs payable to:

John Porcellino
PO Box 142
South Beloit, IL
61080 USA

PayPal: kingcat_paypal AT hotmail DOT com

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King-Cat Comics #74:  Moving Day, Lying in Bed, Bridges of South Beloit, Body Odor Blues, Travel Comics, Bowser, Bat Love, Letters, Top 40, and more.  32 digest pages, b+w.

Thanks!  John P.

YEAR TO DATE

Saturday was the Milwaukee Zine Fest, my last show of what was a very busy year, show-wise.  I told myself I was gonna stay home in 2013 and try to get a bunch of drawing done and just go to shows in the Midwest, no big road trips... but I still was on the road seemingly every other weekend from March to November.  It kind of burned me out, to tell the truth.  Luckily, the Milwaukee Zine Fest may be my favorite show of them all, so it's nice to go out on a positive note.

Spit and a Half table

View from the ledge

MZF is held in the Polish Falcon's Lodge in the Riverwest neighborhood.  It's a classic Midwestern lodge, all wood paneling, linoleum, and beer.  In the basement is the 4th oldest bowling alley in the United States.

It's hard sometimes to describe to people why I love the Midwest so much, but the feeling here in the Falcon Bowl is why.  It's a feeling made up of hard work, laughter, humility, and appreciation.  People are genuine.

Browsing with Ren.

Unknown doggie in backpack

This was my fourth year of attending MZF, and it was the best one yet.  People came through steadily all day, I had some good conversations, bought some cool books, and sold a bunch of comics and zines to cool people.  It doesn't get any better than that...  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm trying desperately to summon up the gumption to print the new King-Cat.  It's been all done, sitting there on my drawing table, for the last two weeks.  I just need to scan it, clean it up, and send it to the printers.  But I'm in one of those conditions where I simply don't care if I ever publish another comic in my life.  This will change though, and the book will come out.  Look for it around the end of the month!

Yours, from Sunny Beloit,

John P.

HOME + AWAY

Hey Kids,

I got back from the Madison Print and Resist Festival last weekend, so that means only one more show of the year -- MKE Zine Fest Nov. 9.  John P. loves tabling, but he's getting old and tired, and he's chomping at the bit to find out whether he still knows how to make comics, so he's looking forward to a nice, long winter of STAYING PUT AND DRAWING.

Good ol' Spit and a Half table

Print and Resist was so good that afterwards I had that kind of shaky, is this real? kind of pure joy that makes me feel inevitably like when's it all going to come crashing down-- but I'll take what I can get.

I love the Midwest, I love zines, I love weirdos, so I loved Print and Resist.  It was held in the Helen C. White Library at UW-- I mean literally in the library -- my table faced the New Magazine Releases ( I read a great Discover article about OCD during down times).  Picked up some nice books and zines, a cool anti-Walker poster, talked to a lot of swell people and got a workout dragging my 100+ pounds of books eight blocks from the closest parking I could find (apparently, overnight, the library had become besieged by construction).  My arms and shoulders still hurt!   And I can feel muscles in my thighs I didn't know I had! But I sold lots of Kool Komix to awesome people, so that's why I was born.

Visit Art Is Dead Productions 

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(Look for King-Cat 74 to go to press next week, if I can shake this depression...)

ON THE ROAD AND OUT OF MY MIND

Well, my fabulous readers, John P. is going to drive to Minneapolis again this weekend, for the Rain Taxi Book Festival.  If you're in the Twin Cities, do us both a favor:  come on down and buy a book or two off your humble Used-Paper Salesman.

Then the next weekend I'll be at the Madison Print and Resist Festival -- but please don't resist your urge to drop by and check out all the cool zines and comix I'll have on hand there!

My last show of 2013 is the Milwaukee Zine Fest, held Nov. 9.  This is one of my favorite shows of the year, and I'm looking forward to going out on a high note.  So all you zine-hungry Milwaukeeans, don't let me down, OK?

Other that that I'm going CRAZY because I never seem to have time to draw anymore.  Right before leaving for PFC/Autoptic in August I had the whole issue of King-Cat #74 drawn, save the cover.  Guess, what?  It's two months later and I'm in the exact same spot.  After all the inspiration I got working with the world's greatest cartoonists at PFC, I have managed to draw exactly nothing.  But this shall change.

Look for #74 to be out maybe late October, with a special Halloweeny cover.  Then I'm going to stay at home all Winter and just draw.  You can't stop me!

* * *

Sat. Oct. 12: Twin Cities Book Fest

Sat. Oct. 19: Madison Print and Resist

Sat. Nov. 9: Milwaukee Zine Fest

A BOX

The other day I went on a quest to locate some old artwork for a show coming up in Sheboygan this November--  I was looking for the oversized original pages for "Suburban Dreams" from King-Cat #59.  I found them in a large flat box that had all sorts of other cool stuff in it that I hadn't seen in a decade, if not more...  Most of these date from the late-Elgin period of 2000-2002, but some are earlier.  I thought I'd post some of it here.

Spread from "Suburban Dreams."  I usually draw at 100%, but this is one of the few cases where I drew oversized (each page is 11.75" x 18").  I drew it in black colored pencil, and had to use the blueprint machine at Kinko's to reduce to King-Cat size.

Julie Doucet silkscreen, printed on the stock pages of the Globe and Mail.

Another Julie Doucet poster.

"Listen Close," my 9/11 comic, reformatted to fit the pages of Chicago's New City newspaper for their annual comics issue.

Another oversized comic that I'd completely forgotten I'd drawn.  Never published.

Original drawing for Comics Journal #241 cover, 2002.

Hand-colored photocopy mosaic of 1923 USGS topographical maps from the Elgin area.

My comic for TCJ's Cartoonists on Music Special.  I guess I was really into drawing oversize at this point!

Photocopy of artwork for cover of Denver's Hooligan magazine, 1994.

Oil pastel drawing of one of the saddest moments of my life, late 80's.

Charcoal drawing of Marshmallow and the Old Man, before she became my cat, 1989. 18" x 24".

Pre-King-Cat comic drawn after discovering Julie D.'s comics, never published.  18" x 24" 

Charcoal and acrylic study for a painting, probably 1987 or 88.

Original art for Newshole #4 cover, ink on photocopy, 1992.

 Non 5 promotional poster by Brian Ralph

Original pages from early King-Cats that were included in a show at Angouleme, 2002.

More Angouleme pages (with Maisie hairs).

18" x 24" painting with collage on paper, circa 1988?  You can see how the charcoal from the Marshmallow drawing (above) transferred to the paint, as they were stored facing each other.

Acrylic on paper study for "Belmont Harbor" (painting, 1988?)

Page from Seattle's The Stranger, 1995, with me and Archer Prewitt.

Baltimore City Paper, 1993.

Wraparound cover for Cake magazine, by Mr. Mike.

Old Virgo Snakes flyer.

Poster for one of the Felt Pilotes' last shows, 1995.

Promo poster for Flywheel's Dirty on the Shovel CD, 1996.

(Artwork by David Nichols)

Promo poster for the Virgo Snakes CD, 1996.

Original art for Virgo Snakes poster.  It's called "paste-up," kids!