Girls Club! Week One

Hello Clubbers, I hope all of you enjoyed week one of Girls Club. As Write Club heads into its second year, we'll be setting up a theme to coincide month by month with what's going on in comics. So for Women's History Month & Marvel's publishing of Girls Comics, we present Girls Club.

We kicked off the week on Monday with a new logo and article on Making Mini-Comics by the hilarious and talented Lauren Barnett of MeLikesYouComics.

On Tuesday we had Mike Mooch (who is not the DJ DaMooch) run down his pick for the top iconic female video game characters.

Wednesday, aka Comic Book Day, had our resident comic reviewers Jonathan Gelatt & Brian Bannen cover the week in comics. We even got quoted for Jon's review of Underground #5 over at Periscope Studios, home of Steve Lieber and others.

Thursday, Jayme Roxann Wright delivered unto us her first in a series of articles about Breaking Into Comics As A Female, busting down the doors on the boys club and preparing to take comic publishing by storm by showing it what it's been missing: a realistic approach to writing women.

That wraps up the first week of Girls Club, but stay tuned Write Clubbers, as we've got a lot more fun and excitement up our sleeves. This week we'll have a new episode of the podcast up where we'll talk to Nikki Cook about her process and Girl Comics.

While I prepare to deal with these two female hackers called DARK PHONETIX, I'll leave you with some links on Girl Comics.

Thanks for reading.

K



The Beat interviews Marvel Editor Jeanine Schaefer about Girl Comics

Video from Marvel.com with Jeanine Shaefer




Marvel's List of Women Characters

Comicbook Calendar - March - April

Hey Write Clubbers!

It's been a busy few weeks here at Write Club Central, and we've got a ton of surprises in store for you as we prepare to enter our second year of bringing you your Insider's Writing/Comicbook Podcast & Blog.

Last week I told you about networking at comic book events in Brooklyn, and while that's a great way to get to know people and worm your way into the industry, first things first. Learn your craft!

To that end I present the MoCCA Education Programs.

MoCCA stands for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, and it's located in the prime chunk of real estate that is Broadway just south of Houston in Soho. 594 Broadway, Suite 401 to be exact. It's a small gallery that has rotating shows. It just finished showing the Art of Archie Comics, but as of March 12 and running til May 30th, there will be two shows, NeoIntegrity: Comics Edition (which boasts an insane amount of insanely talented artsists) & Dash Shaw: Making the Abyss which focuses on Shaw's BodyWorld, Bottomless Belly Button, with animations and comic short stories.

MoCCA's hours are Tues-Sun 12pm-5pm and general admission is $5, while children 12 and under are free.

As well as the exhibits, MoCCA hosts panels and events ranging from creators speaking about Spider-Man or Wolverine to pitching animation projects. Starting this Tuesday Night there is a Master Class in Comic Writing featuring Chris Claremont on March 16th, Tom DeFalco on March 23rd, and Dennis "Denny" O'Neill on April 13th. It is a lecture format where they will impart to you the secrets of comic writing.

For all three classes, it's $100, $90 for MoCCA members, and each individual session is $40, $35 for MoCCA members.

If you miss that series, as it is filling up rather quickly, you could take the How To Write Comics & Graphic Novels course with instructor Danny Fingeroth. He used to, or perhaps still does, teach this course at NYU & New School University, and although I hear mixed reviews of it, you could take it at MoCCA for much less and Danny Fingeroth moderates most panels on comic books that I've attended in NYC so he's a good guy to know. The class runs 4 sessions, Tuesdays April 20 & 27, May 4 & 11

And for all the artists out there MoCCA will also host an Anatomy for Illustrators series on Mondays, April 19 & 26, May 3 & 10 with instructors R. Sikoryak & Kriota Willberg.

More information will be released on these courses, but friend Ellen Abramowitz on Facebook or check their website for updates. Oh, and don't forget the MoCCA Art Festival is coming up on April 10th & 11th, which for only $15 for advance tickets for both days, is well worth it. This is the cream of the crop of comics people.

And all Write Club's friends will be there.

Also coming up on April 4th is KGB Bar's Sunday Night Fiction reading series featuring Graphic Novelists & Comix. Located at 85 East 4th St in the East Village, this is the most literary friendly bar I've come across. I haven't been here quite often enough considering I lived in the neighborhood there for years before moving out to Brooklyn.

Write Clubber Emily Wernet will be making an appearance that night so let's all get out there and support her.

Speaking of girls making comics, it seems I've missed the Girls Comics signing at Jim Hanley's which was yesterday evening, but they will have an Art of Jaime Hernandez signing on April 9th at 6pm.

And while we're talking comic signings, Midtown Comics has three Marvel artists from Spain signing on Saturday, March 20th.

Enough of that Manhattan jazz, how about Brooklyn, you say?

Over at Rocketship Comics there will be an opening reception on Friday March 12th for the Reuben award winning cartoonist, painter, and illustrator Hermann Mejia, who's work is odd and breathtaking.

While Write Club favorite Bergen Street Comics doesn't have any other events scheduled just yet (probably still recovering from the Bens McCool & Templesmith Choker debut party, which I hear was a drunken & smashing success of a party, according to Tim & Reilly) I vow to not miss any more events there as I have just successfully moved to Clinton Hill, just a short walk from the shop.

Up on the other end of Brooklyn's G train is Desert Island, the stop for all things artistically offbeat. They have a few events listed on their main page. On Friday, April 9th, a triple book-release party for John Brodowski's Curio Cabinet, Clara Johansson's Lobster King, and Emelie Östergren's Mr Kenneth. And apparently Ms. Johansson and Ms. Östergren will travel from Sweden for the occasion. Color me impressed. I couldn't find sites for the ladies of Sweden, but I did come across this sample of an international comic art magazine CESTBON.

The following Thursday, April 15th, from 7-9pm will be the release party for Dash Shaw's BodyWorld and far off into the future on Friday, May 21st, Dan Nadel's release party and discussion of his book Art In Time.

Phew, that's about enough out of me. If you know of an event, or are planning one, please feel free to contact me and let me know and I will promote the hell out of it and make sure all the cool kids show up.

See you around the neighborhood.

K

Welcome King Con Peeps!

Hello all who came and stopped by Write Club!'s table at the fabulous King Con held this past weekend at the Brooklyn Lyceum in Park Slope.

It was a blast and we got some on-site podcasting done with a few creators we know and love and made some new friends along the way.

Firstly, big ups to dashing Rick Lacy & 'mazing Matt Loux who we shared a table with. Rick & Matt both have separate books out from Oni Press and they are awesome.

Rick draws the 'Big Lebowski meets James Bond' comedy/action book Labor Days, of which book 2 has just been released. Labor Days: Book 1 Preview & Labor Days Book 2 Preview.



And if you'd like a commentary to Labor Days Book 1, you can listen here as Tim & myself chat with Rick and write Phil Gelatt about all the behind the scenes info that went into Labor Days, and just what that title means.

Matt Loux writes and draws Salt Water Taffy a spiffy, children's adventure book that we had the pleasure of discussing with him on-air, as it were. Stay tuned for the King Con Write Club! podcast where Matt gives us his dream cast for Salt Water Taffy: the Movie! 8 Page preview of book 3 up at Oni Press.



He also mentioned a cool anthology of comics featuring video game characters called LIFEMETER in which he has a Maniac Mansion story. I need to get me a copy of this.

So if you saw two radtastic artists sitting besides us, that was them, or if you saw two weirdos sitting next to them and one of us shoved a business card into your hand, WELCOME TO WRITE CLUB!

We're a comics/writing podcast, but we really cover a wide range of topics, and we're all about promoting, not just ourselves but YOU! Yes, you! With your mini-comics, or comic themed band, or webcomic, anthology, etc., we want to help you build an audience (and maybe take a few readers/listeners for ourselves).

So please, send us an email with a link or information about your project and we'll talk about it here or on our podcast. You can reach us at
Write.Club1@gmail.com, or via Twitter TimX13 (Tim) & AgentFenris (Kurt). We're looking for consistent webcomic content, and as we're both writers trying to draw, well, it's a slow process, so if you have a webcomic and like to have a home for it, we'd be glad to post it up in our webcomics section.

You can listen to the podcast here on our blog, which will feature, articles, reviews, and webcomics, or you can get Write Club! from iTunes. You can also chat with us on our Write Club! official thread up on the TenTonStudios forum, or you can hit us up on our Write Club! Facebook Page.

For those of you who may be interested in my upcoming graphic novel with the talented Chris Chua (as seen in Marvel's Strange Tales #3 out last Wednesday!), you can see the preview of it up at our studio's site TenTonStudios.com. As pages are lettered I will be posting them up at the link below.

LIQUID FURY PREVIEW!



You can also get your Chris Chua fix at his Controlled Chaos Caricature Blog and read his original webcomic-graphic novel HYPER DEMENTED TURDLE SHOWDOWN.

As for Timothy Mucci, you may have seen his TOM SAWYER from Sterling, but also available soon is THE ODYSSEY and you can pick up STAR WARS CLONE ADVENTURES Vol. 3 in which he has a short story.

So, that's us. Now, you tell us who you are and what it is you do. We'd like to help you in any way we can.

We Are Write Club! (and so are you)

K

Mobile Comics Report - Comixology

So, as it goes with technology, the comics scene in regards to digital technology, keeps on growing and expanding and reinventing itself. So here's a quick breakdown to keep up with what's going on out there as comics transform from "floppies" (monthlies) to trade paperbacks/graphic novels to whatever this new medium of sequential art will be called. For now, it's Mobile Comics.

Comixology. The easiest to explore and the most out there in the digi-cosmos. An App download-able from iTunes lets you download comics all within the context of one App on your iPhone/iPod Touch. The App originally cost a few bucks, but since Apple has changed their tune, the App is now free. Originally Apple didn't want any App where you could purchase other things through it, as if that was somehow tricking the customer. Thankfully instead of the limited free App, you can now get the full version for free.

Within it you can view lots of first issues for free, and the subsequent issues range from $.99 to $1.99. I haven't purchased one myself, as I'm still working through all the free comics, but with the likes of Matt Wagner and Mike Allred available up there, well, I might just need to catch up on my Madman Comics and this seems like a cheap option right now (seeing as there's no torrent giving me the whole discography).

There's also a new (I believe but cannot confirm via website) weekly installment of their first official FREE comic by David Gallagher and Steve Ellis, called Box 13. I've read the first issue and it's very intriguing storywise, utilizes the technology very well, and has great art. This is the thing that should be keeping Mobile Comics customers coming back to the App Store every week.

They plan to offer the comics on their site (as well as other formats/phones/technologies) but for now their site is more a promotion for their comic pull list App, where you can go through the week's comics, sync up to your local (Comixology-friendly) comic store and have them pull your comics for you. That's actually pretty awesome. Along with reviews/previews, they offer spotlighted items with an occasional podcast, and some columns. It's a nice looking site and will blossom quite nicely I believe. Oh, and the App (man I'm tired of writing that word) has been in the Top 10 Apps for books since it came out, and I believe was the top download for comic Apps overall.

Oh, and PS...Jenette Kahn (of DC Comics) and Milton Griepp (of ICv2.com) are now on their board of advisors.

Pop Culture/Mass Media Intiation Ritual

Film:


Pi allows you to observe the true nature of reality, a first glance into the abyss of eternity, the pattern revealing itself before your eyes. Be mindful not to become obsessed.



Fight Club organizes the masses, allows for detachment of the self from the body, and removes all obstacles from your path. Be wary of subconscious, nihilistic desires.



Donnie Darko reveals the supra-natural events that unfold about us all, our individual role living amongst the savior, as well as the essentials of life and the destiny of those destined to perish.



Unbreakable reveals the potential hidden within us all, the power and responsibility of the powerful, and how we can make a difference on a personal level with the people around us.



Special. Once we have broken the fourth dimension and traversed the skyways of infinite possibility and wonder, we must come home. This film will re-ground the self with the masses.

Comic Books.
Invisibles -
Promethea -

Marvel Mainstream Links

MADE - MTV Shows

http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83588/amazing-incredible-uncanny-oral-history-marvel-comics.html

http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.9281.Spider-Woman_Blasts_Onto_iTunes_Charts

http://marvel.com/motioncomics