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!

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?!

T Minus 6 Days!?

EEP!  Things are getting pretty tense here at the Institute.  In less than ONE WEEK, Leo Geo and his Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth will be out and ready for consumption by the scientific public!

The gallery talk that I gave last Friday went very well.  It was a lot of fun to articulate how I made the book, and the narrative and visual restrictions I put on myself.  It was also really interesting to compile the images for the talk and look at the early, EARLY drafts of LG, alongside the finished images.  Here is a pic of yours truly jabbering away!  I recorded my talk, but found out later that the camera I was using was sub-par.  Next time I'll get a good video, though!

Tomorrow I have a special treat from you all that will gingerly sit in the center of my venn diagram of interests.  Stay tuned!

Let the Games Begin

Things are starting to pick up steam here at the Fizzmont Auxiliary Imaging Division.  In LESS THAN A MONTH, the first official fully-illustrated Fizzmont experiment is going to be released in Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth.  I can't tell you how excited I am.  I'm serious, I CAN'T.  The Fizzmont Secrets Squad is watching me super duper closely!

Also, I'm pleased to announce that I will be doing an artist talk as part of my show that I have up at the Center for Cartoon Studies with CCS alumni and all-around great guy, Joe Lambert.  There will be open gallery hours FRIDAY, MARCH 2nd from 5-8pm with a talk from yours truly at 6pm.  NERVOUS!!  I anticipate that I am going to be trying to do as many events and whatnot as possible in the upcoming month, so I'll be sure to keep you all

In the midst of all this brouhaha, you can imagine how surprised I was when Hank Handy, one of Dr. Leo Geo's assistants came into my office and sheepishly pushed a box onto my desk with an old IBM Aptiva computer and a handful of games on floppy disc.  He said that Dr. Geo wanted me to take the afternoon off and try out these old games.  There was a copy of Word Muncher in the box, along with Ski Free and Chip's challenge, just to name a few.  WHAT A TREAT!  I eagerly agreed and hooked the computer right up and booted up the games.  It wasn't like I remember...

 

I should have known!  Leo and Matt Data were experimenting with some sort of Tron-you-go-into-the-computer-type-setup.  Leo always keeps me on my feet!

Leo Geo Show Now Up!!

I'm proud to announce, on behalf of the Fizzmont Department of Exhibitions and Glamor Shots that a Leo Geo show is currently exhibiting at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT.  This show consists of the various steps that it took for Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey Through the Center of the Earth to become a real book!  Everything from the original 1-hour minicomic to the original minicomic made while interning at the Center for Cartoon Studies to the final Roaring Brook version.  Also included are the pages that were cut and didn't make it into the new version of Leo Geo.  There is also an exhibit on how some pages were refined and re-crafted. 

Also in this amazing show is the infinitely talented Joe Lambert.  Together with his impeccable pages and process notes/sketches from his upcoming book Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, our show is called "Science & Silence".  The show will run through end of February every Saturday from 10am-2pm (or by appointment with me : ), and there will be a First Friday event at the Center for Cartoon Studies on Friday, February 3rd.  More info on that later, though.  For now, below are some pictures from the hanging process:

 

(turning old 2007 pages into GREAT 2011 pages!  Is there a machine that could help with that?)

 

(original Leo and the Snake on the far left with Leo Geo Covers)

 

(the show's almost up!)

 

(pages on the wall without the glass)

 

(all of the process and graphical assets needed to make the cover)

Again, I'd like to thank Joe for putting this show together with me.  There's a really great cross-section of both style and process that I think the students especially will REALLY dig.