Happy Readers!

Hello!  I finally feel like I am out of the weeds here at the Fizzmont Auxiliary Division.  Convention season is slowing down and I'm starting to get into the flow of summer.  There are some big things planned here at Jon Chad HQ.  I'm working on a new Leo Geo book (!!!), a secret minicomic project, and getting back into the saddle with Bikeman thumbnails!

The conventions have been a blast!  Thanks to everyone that came out to the monster drawing workshop this past weekend in Maine!  I had a great time!  Seeing kids' reaction to my book and getting to talk to them has been a real joy.  Here are some of those happy readers from MOCCA and MeCAF!

I've heard that the first printing of Leo Geo is quickly evaporating, and that a second printing is on its way from the book mines!  How exciting!  I've got more to share, but I'll pace it out!  Have a great weekend!

MECAF Leo Geo Event!

Hello!  I hope everyone has been enjoying their May, thus far!  The Fizzmont Institute has been sending me hither and yon for all sorts of events.  Dr. Leo Geo has been away to experiment on the intensity of different hot sauces, so he hasn't been able to talk at any of the events that have been happening at the fine comics events like TCAF or MOCCA.  Well, it seems as if Projecto Muy Caliente is going to continue for at least another month or so, so Dr. Geo won't be able to make it to the event that is happening THIS WEEKEND!

This weekend, at the Maine Comics Art Festival (MECAF) yours truly will be attending with a vanguard of cartoonists from the Center for Cartoon Studies (including some of the AMAZING graduates from the recent class of 2012!).  While the GREAT comics that are always at MECAF should be reason enough to go, there are going to be 2 great programs that you won't want to miss!

SUNDAY, MAY 20th

1:00 PM- The Center for Cartoon Studies One Sheet Workshop

CCS faculty member Jon Chad and CCS Senior Sophie Goldstein present a CCS tradition: the One Sheet Workshop!  Learn how easy it is to make an eight-page comic without staples or glue!  The only thing that participants need to bring is their imagination.  Everyone will leave with a handmade comic!

2:00 PM-Monster Alert!  Junior Cartoonists Needed!
The Fizzmont Institute of Rad Science is looking for young, excited cartoonists that can draw ferocious monsters and deadly dwellers of the deep!  Our famed scientist, Leo Geo, has gone missing on his experiment to the center of the earth, and we need help drawing the monsters that might have taken him!  Join Jon Chad, from the Center for Cartoon Studies, as he leads a monster drawing session and an interactive reading from his new book, Leo Geo.

There you have it!  Two GREAT reasons to show up at MECAF!  Think of it as your duty to science!  Naturally, I will have copies of Leo Geo in tow, and I'm looking for young go-getters who are ready to throw their weight in the ring, for SCIENCE!

TCAF! A Reading! RADICAL!

Hello test subjec...er...I mean friends!  This has been a BEYOND busy week for yours truly here at the Fizzmont Institute!  MoCCA and NYC were a blast!  Thanks to everyone that came out!  The fun just keeps on rolling with TCAF in Toronto this weekend (!!?!)

I am going to be tabling with the infinitely talented Laura Terry, the gorgeously rad Julie Delporte, and the enamoring Josh Rosen.  Whew!  What a lineup!  Our table is RIGHT AT THE ENTRANCE, so you don't even need a map to RAD-ventures!

I'm also going to be doing a workshop this weekend that incorporates a talk on Leo Geo, a reading, different types of unfolding comics, and how to make your own unfolding comic!

SAT: 4:00pm-4:45pm: Facts, Fiction, and Unfolding Comics (Upstairs Kids Programming room)
If you thought that there was only one way to read a book, think again!  Jon Chad (Leo Geo) will talk about different kinds of books, incorporating science into comics, and how to make your own expanding comic!  Everyone will leave with their own handmade comic!

This is the last program of the day, so stop on by before we close shop!  Sorry for such a hasty post, but science waits for NO ONE, and...er...I think I left the model of Mt Rushmore that I made out of peeps in the Fizzmont Microwave Studies Suite.  It should be fine, right?

Notes for New Scientists

As I get ready for the onslaught of conventions that are coming up, I'm trying to put a couple last things together!  One of my secret side projects precipitated this weekend was the Fizzmont Institute New Scientist Orientation Notebook.  I've been really enamored with Scout Books recently and thought to myself, "Jonch, you could probably MAKE these yourself," so I put my mind to putting one together for Leo Geo.  I got this REALLY sweet paper from Joann's Fabrics that had a canvas-like texture to it.  As I was laying out the notebook, I couldn't bring myself to just throw some blank pages into a cover and call it a day, so I drew a comic that prompts the bearer of said notebook to run some experiments.  I also threw in some spot illustrations.

"But how can I get my marinara-covered mitts on one of these beauts?" I hear you cry.  First, WASH YOUR HANDS!  Second, this, as well as other Fizzmont / Leo Geo related prints and minicomics will only be available at shows, so drop on by!

Spring Conventions!

Happy Wednesday, internet!  Things have been (as always) busy here at Fizzmont HQ.  I've been getting my ducks in a row for all the spring conventions that are going on.  I will FOR SURE be at the following conventions:

MoCCA, NYC: April 28-29
TCAF, Toronto: May 5-6
CAKE, Chicago: June 16-17

At MoCCA, superstar Robyn Chapman and I will be holding a workshop about accordion and unfolding comics:

Sunday the 29th, 12:30 CCS Presents: The Expanding Comic Workshop

If you think that a comic book is just a bunch of pages between two
covers, think again!  There is a wide variety of book making
techniques that allow you to fold, flip, and turn your comics in
unusual ways. Jon Chad, author of Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey
Through the Center of the Earth, will team up with comics educator
Robyn Chapman to introduce three unique book forms. Then the workshop
participants will construct and illustrate their own expanding comic
books! ROOM B


Alec Longstreth and I will be tabling together for MoCCA, and we'll have a new issue of our pinball zine, Drop Target, fresh from the zine-making oven!  Naturally, I'll be toting around copies of Leo Geo, some Leo Geo extras, and some chapters from my Bikeman graphic novel.

Phew, between that, and CCS commencement, I'm going to be a tired buckaroo.  That's a lot of chances to see Jon Chad!!

Can you dig it?!

OH GEEZ! Bobo is DONE

The Fizzmont Auxiliary Imaging Division is pleased to announce that our joint efforts with the Human Gross-Out and Sadness Coalition have turned out to be a complete success!  Last night, at 6:15pm, while listening to THIS SONG, I finished page 180 of my newest graphic novel, The BAD-ventures of Bobo Backslack!!  This book chronicles the horribly unlucky life of North Dakota's most wretched resident, Bobo Backslack.  It seems like EVERYONE hate Bobo; humans, animals, ghosts, YOU NAME IT!

I've been working on this book seriously since last fall, but the first 21 pages were done as part of the second I Know Joe Kimpel 4Square anthology, "NO" back in 2009 (?)  The book was written very episodically, so the hardest part was lacing up everything snugly into one over-arching narrative. 

Is this book weird?  Assuredly.  Is it a total gross-out story?  Most definitely.  It's just FUN!  I was lucky enough to get my ducks in a row in order to apply to the last Xeric Self-Publishing Grant.  For the time being, I'm playing the waiting game, but a book is designed and is forthcoming, it's just a question of WHEN!  I'll keep you all in the loop!

Dear Baha Men, please don't sue me!

Eyes bustin' out of glasses is the funniest thing ever!

The happy book-daddy.

Photos from a reading!

Hello!  The signing at the Center for Cartoon Studies went well last week!  These aren't pictures from that, though.  These are pictures from that reading I did in Winooski!  Look how animated I am!  Look how my limbs fling about like a scarecrow in the wind!