MICE 2017 Programming Schedule Announced

Press Release:

MICE will feature two full days of comics programming with workshops and demonstrations by professional artists, along with panel discussions on topics central to comics. All of our panels and workshops are appropriate for all-ages, but look for the Kid-Friendly tag for activities geared toward families and young readers. MICE is free and open to the public.

Saturday, October 21st

Panel to Panel 
11:00 AM – 12:00PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Lesley Room
A picture can say a thousand words, but two pictures can say even more! Cartoonist Braden Lamb (Adventure Time Comics) leads experiments in putting different random pictures together to come up with all new stories and ideas. Then create your own comic that’s more than the sum of its pieces!

Instructor: Braden Lamb

Character Evolution
11:30 AM – 12:30PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Eliot Room
Discover the secrets of character design through a fun exercise led by cartoonist and animator Bob Flynn. Create your own creature that starts simple, then levels up into an awesome monster!

Instructor: Bob Flynn

Comic Storytelling and Pacing
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Lesley Room
The art of comics is not just about writing or drawing, it’s how the pictures go together to tell your story. Explore different visual storytelling methods with comic creator Dirk I. Tiede. Exercises in outlining and thumbnailing will help you establish a sense of time, mood, and pacing between panels, across a page, and throughout an entire book.

Instructor: Dirk I. Tiede

Iron Cartoonist
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Amphitheater
MICE pits top cartoonists against each other in a live drawing event. Utilizing themed “ingredients,” three artists will compete for the title of ultimate cartoonist and earn prizes for audience members!

Host: Zack Giallongo; Contestants: Luke J. Howard, Luke B. Howard, Abby Howard Judges: Christina Kelly, Mark Siegel, Zach Clemente

Fuzzy, Funny, Fierce! Drawing Animals
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Eliot Room
Do you love comics starring animals? Do you want to draw your own? We’ll talk about our favorite animals, how to draw them, and how to tell their stories in our comics. Art supplies will be provided, so be ready to DRAW!

Instructor: Zoe Piel

Writing for Comics Workshop
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Lesley Room
Explore the dual languages of comics and discuss the parameters of the form with cartoonist Josh Neufeld of the Solstice MFA Program’s Graphic Narratives Concentration. Then jump into the comics-writing process: visual thinking, encapsulation, and scripting. We’ll end on a short exercise that will leave you excited about writing your next comic! Sponsored by PINE MANOR COLLEGE, Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program

Instructor: Josh Neufeld 

Comics and Islam
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017
Muslim identity and practices are featured more comics than ever, from mainstream titles like Ms. Marvel to independent graphic memoirs. This panel takes stock of this important growing field — including the brand-new book Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam, and Representation — and presents the perspectives of both academics and creators.

Moderator: Hilary Chute; Panelists: Hussein Rashid, A. David Lewis, Sara Alfageeh 

Cartooning Adventure
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Lunder Arts Center
Join Amulet series creator and celebrated graphic novelist Kazu Kibuishi in this interactive workshop. Be ready to draw and learn how to start your own quest in comics! Admission to this workshop is free but there is limited seating available. It will be held at the Lunder Arts Center (1801 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA) next door to the main MICE venue.

Kazu Kibuishi is the creator of Amulet, an exciting fantasy adventure series of graphic novels from Scholastic. Kazu’s earlier work includes his webcomic Copper and his debut graphic novel, Daisy Kutter: The Last Train, which won the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults Award. As the editor and a contributor to the Flight and Explorer anthologies he fostered a showcase for innovative creators working in all-ages fantasy, adventure, and sci-fi comics. Kazu lives in Washington state with his wife and two children.

Comic Life Drawing
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Lesley Room
This introduction to figure drawing gives cartoonists of all skill levels an opportunity to draw from a live model! Explore the basics of dynamic movement, weight, and human anatomy. Easels, paper, and conte crayons will be supplied.

Instructor: Cara Bean

Inspiration and Influence
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017 | Amphitheater
All artists are affected by the work of others, whether it be giants of the past or contemporaries. Four exciting comics creators reveal the artists who have informed their storytelling and graphic styles. Stylistic chameleon R. Sikoryak leads the discussion on the nature of artistic influence.

Moderator: R. Sikoryak; Panelists: Ethan Rilly, Michael DeForge, Katie Skelly, KL Ricks

Worldbuilding in Comics
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM | Saturday, October 21, 2017
Inhabiting an imaginary universe is one of the great pleasures of comics, for creators and readers alike. In this panel, four adept world-builders discuss the development and design of their fictional universes, and how they use the medium to reveal and explore them in a narrative context.

Moderator: Evan Dahm; Panelists: Isabel Greenberg, Mark Siegel, Anne Szabla

Sunday October 22nd

Making Mini-comics: The One Sheet Wonder
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017 | Lesley Room
Grab a single sheet of paper and be ready to draw your next comic! Cartoonist Laura Terry (Graveyard Shakes) shows you how to make make the simplest of mini-comics from start to finish.

Instructor: Laura Terry

Queer Fantastic
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017 | Amphitheater
How do LGBTQ themes, character and creators blend with worlds of fantasy, science fiction and the supernatural? What happens when queer stories take place in imaginary or science fiction realms? A panel of creators discuss their work at this juncture of genre and identity.

Moderator: Melanie Gillman; Panelists: Mildred Louis, Blue Delliquanti, Ashanti Fortson, Olivia Li

Interactive Comics
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017 | Eliot Room
Go behind the scenes with Jason Shiga (Demon, Meanwhile) and his 20 year career making choose-your-own-adventure style comics. Jason shares his one of a kind experiments and methods so you can learn the secrets of creating your own interactive comics!

Jason Shiga is an innovative cartoonist from Oakland, CA whose graphic novel Meanwhile (Amulet Books, 2010) broke new ground in comic storytelling with a “pick any path” format. His most ambitious project is his webcomic Demon, a dark comedy about an immortal man’s misadventures in finding a way to die. The four-volume series – an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist, an NPR Best Book of the Year, and Eisner Award winner – is now published by First Second Books.

Drawing from Imagination
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017 | Lesley Room
Images can be more powerful and blend better with words in comics when they come from your mind’s eye. Kurt Ankeny will guide you through techniques to exercise your visual memory and hone your ability to distill the essential image of an object from observations or photographs.

Instructor: Kurt Ankeny

Making Comics (When Everything Sucks)
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017 | Amphitheater
Combining the personal and political in a timely manner, this panel will discuss the challenges and rewards of creating comic art during difficult times. Like everyone, cartoonists grapple with issues of emotional, mental, and physical well-being, which many of us are finding exacerbating by the political environment. How do comics artists remain creative, finding and making meaning through their work while struggling to pay the rent, get through the next petition or Facebook rant while still take caring of ourselves?

Moderator: Heide Solbrig; Panelists: R. Sikoryak, Liz Prince, Luke J. Howard, Whit Taylor

Non-fiction Visual Storytelling Techniques
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017 | Eliot Room
Discover what make memoir and nonfiction comics tick with cartoonist Sophie Yanow. Explore long-form and short-form autobiographical comics, and then try out exercises and techniques to help you kick-start a daily diary comics practice.

Instructor: Sophie Yanow

Inking Techniques Workshop
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017 | Lesley Room
Markers, brushes, crow quill pens… There are many different inking tools you can use in comics, and each can inform the mood and feel of your drawings. Now you can test them out for yourself! Comic artists Clay McCormack and Jesse Lonergan lead demonstrations and exercises to familiarize you with some of the tools used by professionals.

Instructors: Clay McCormack, Jesse Lonergan

Comics & Migration: Moving Visual Language Into America
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017
Comics represent a unique format for capturing a cartoonist’s life, history, family, and memory in a way that visually recalls cultures, customs, and traditions that are new to a wide swath of readers. In this panel, we will explore the benefits of using the universal language of comics to demonstrate cultural identity to readers in order to open them up to the world and experiences of the cartoonist.

Moderator: Jason Rodriguez; Panelists: Julia Alekseyeva, Dave Ortega, Iasmin Omar Ata, Leila Abdelrazaq

Fold Up Comics
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017 | Eliot Room
There is a wide variety of folding and book construction techniques that can help create a truly unique reading experience. Cartoonist Jerel Dye (Pigs Might Fly) will introduce you to accordion book design to make your next comic something that everyone will want to open up!

Instructor: Jerel Dye

Comics and Poetry
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM | Sunday, October 22, 2017
There is an ongoing relationship and cross-pollination between comics and poetry. Comics creators, poets and critics will explore the formal elements and energies that link the two art forms, as well as discuss recent experiments in poetry comics.

Moderator: Hilary Chute; Panelists: Steph Burt, Madeleine Witt, Franklin Einspruch, Christopher Spaide

MICE (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo) will be held at Lesley University’s University Hall at 1815 Massachusetts Avenue in Porter Square. The hours of the show are Saturday, October 21st, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM, and Sunday, October 22nd, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Admission is free. Further information available on the website: www.micexpo.org

RSVP on Facebook!

Maine Comics Arts Festival Returns June 4th

Press Release:

The Maine Comics Arts Festival will be held in Portland on Saturday, June 4th, 2016 at the Main Branch of the Portland Public Library. The event is free and open to the public. Featuring over 100 comics writers, artists and publishers, this will be a celebration of the comics art form.

The exhibitors will be in various locations throughout the library. There will be maps and guides to help anyone attending. Here is the exhibitor and guest list and their locations.

Atrium:
Amanda Kahl
Barry Corbett
Brenna Killeen
Brian Codagnone
Charles Brubaker
Chris Watkins
Fulton Beal
Jack Turnbull
John Lechner
Michael Mitchell

Fiction/ Music area:
Alabaster
Allison Bannister
Declan McCarthy
Ellen Crenshaw
Lindsay Moore
Matt Smith
Michael Rapa
Neil Johnson
Olivia Li
Patt Kelley
Reilly Hadden
Stephanie Zuppo
Tom O’Brien
Tom Pappalardo

Children’s Area:
Andrew Hunter
AndrÈs Vera MartÌnez
Bob Flynn
Dan Moynihan
George O’Connor
Jay Piscopo
Kelly Fernandez
Maris Wicks

Lewis Gallery:
Amanda Boucher
Andjelko Napijalo
Anne Thalheimer
Bridget Comeau
Jackie Musto
James Quigley
Jeff Kline
Joe St. Pierre
Joey Han
John Rioux
Lenwood Brown III
Maarta Laiho
Tyson Pease

Rines Auditorium:
Andrew MacLean
Becca Case
Ben Wright-Heuman
Bruce Worden
Carol Burrell
Christian DiBari
Christina Savino
Christopher Peary
Clayton McCormack
Cody Pickrodt
Colleen AF Venable
Corin Howell
Crispin Wood
Dan Mazur
Eric Boeker
George O’Connor
Greg Marathas
Hugh Tims
Jennifer McKeon
John Jennison
John Loren
Kori Handwerker
Kristilyn Stevenson
Lauren Pettapiece
Lucy Bellwood
Mitra Farmand
Nicholas Kole
Rebecca Mock
Scarecrowoven
Sequoia Bostick
Stephen Bissette
Steve Mardo
Steve Peters
Zack Giallongo

RSVP on Facebook!

Portland Public Library
5 Monument Sq, Portland, Maine 04101
(207) 871-1700

Boston Comics Roundtable Debuts Spellbound Anthology at Boston Comic Con 2015

Press Release:

Boston Comics Roundtable (BCR)’s new anthology Spellbound, the latest installment in their active tradition of collected work, presents an anthology that delves into city life through the lens of urban fantasy. This collection contains over a dozen stories by Boston-area, independent comic creators that challenge the way we view the world by adding a dash of the supernatural. Visually diverse, these tales reveal the magic in both the extraordinary and the mundane, putting a spin on reality.

The volume includes the work of Dan Mazur, author of Comics: A Global History, Colonial Comics editor and contributor J.L. Bell, and Emmy Award winning graphic designer Anthony Lathrop, to name but a few. With narratives exploring a host of topics from the struggle of wielding new powers, to the dark rites of Patriots fans, to the larger-than-life musings of inanimate objects, and finally getting to the bottom of where that Boston accent comes from, among others, the novel takes our city and pulls it through the looking glass to examine what it means to be a Bostonian. Officially debuting on July 31 at Boston Comic Con, Spellbound will also be available at select local comics shops and conventions. In addition, a book launch party will be taking place on July 18 at the Boston Comics Workspace located at 561 Windsor Street, Studio 306, Somerville, Mass. RSVP for the launch party on Facebook!

About the authors
Spellbound contains work from L.J. Baptiste, J.L. Bell, W.B. Clem, Patrick Flaherty, Mehitabel Glenhaber, Levon Gyulkhasyan, Paul Hanna, Youngjin Hur, Patrick Jordan, Anthony Lathrop, Dan Mazur, Greg Moutafis, John Quirk, Roho, Catalina Rufin, and Adam Tutkus. The anthology was edited by Olivia Li, Heide Solbrig, Ben Doane, and Jamie Koh.

About Boston Comics Roundtable
The Boston Comics Roundtable is a community of independent comics artists and writers based in the Greater Boston area, acting as a resource for local creators. We encourage development and collaboration and welcome anyone interested in creating or publishing comics, at all ages and levels of experience. Our weekly meetings revolve around discussions of news in comics, showing of members’ work, and the professional development of everyone involved. More information about BCR and our upcoming events can be found on our website at www.bostoncomicsroundtable.com

MA – FCBD: Boston Comics Roundtable Signings

Million Year Picnic celebrates Free Comic Book Day on Saturday May 2nd with several local creators from the Boston Comics Roundtable.

CREATOR APPEARANCES:

• 10am to 12pm
  Dan Mazur (Ninth Art Press, Boston Comics Roundtable).
• 11am to 1pm
  Roho (River Bird Comics, Outlaw Pizza, Hellbound for the Boston Comics Roundtable).
• 1pm to 3pm
  Jerel Dye (The Disappearance, One Android Stories, From the Clouds).
• 3pm to 5pm
  Olivia Li and Jamie Koh (Spellbound Editors for the Boston Comics Roundtable and Good Morning Gorgon).
• 5pm to 6pm
  Michael Saver (Mr Teacher and Panda)
• And
  Jay Kennedy (The Sleeplessness, 2:03am and Distracula).

RSVP on Facebook!

Million Year Picnic
99 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 492-6763