Cropped Will Cardini artwork

June 9th, 2022

KC Zine Con #7

Filed under: Comic Fests — Tags: — William Cardini @ 4:54 am

I’m excited to tell y’all I’ll be tabling at KC Zine Con #7 this Saturday! It was the last con I tabled at in-person before the pandemic began, so it’s fitting that it’ll be my return to in-person tabling.

Poster for Kansas City Zine Con 7 with the following info: June 11, 2022, 11am to 5pm, in person at Plexpod Westport Commons, virtual at kczinecon.com
Poster by local tattoo artist Ana Mal.

I’ll be at table 19 in between John Coats, Thayer NG Bray, and Joe Trotter.

Map of zinester tables in the 1923 Room at Plexpod Westport Commons

There was a virtual KC Zine Con #6 in Fall 2020 in which I participated, but unfortunately nothing beats cramming a bunch of grubby zinesters and zine enthusiasts into the same physical space. I dream about alternatives to the con model of zine and art comics distribution in North America but I do enjoy hanging out with like-minded people IRL and sharing our passion for cheaper art produced by individual, or small groups of, visionaries. Fortunately the KC Zine Con organizers are taking the health of tablers and attendees seriously by requiring masks for everyone and proof-of-vaccination for tablers.

Photo of Will Cardini wearing a disposable face mask
This is what I look like wearing a mask.

This year I’ll have my newest mini-comic, Reluctant Oracle #1, in addition to my 2019 mini-comic Urscape #1, my 2017 collection of short comics Tales from the Hyperverse, my 2014 graphic novel Vortex, and a selection of Retrofit Comics.

June 3rd, 2022

2021 in Review

Filed under: Recaps — William Cardini @ 4:49 am

We’re almost halfway through 2022, but it’s not too late to tell y’all about what I was up to in 2021!

In July, I self-published the first installment of my latest graphic novel, Reluctant Oracle #1.

A Stack of Reluctant Oracle 1 minicomics

It dropped on the Strangers Fanzine distro, which was one of my most successful releases, and now it’s available via my Hypercastle Big Cartel. I’ve also moved all my other in-print comics there.

Reluctant Oracle #1 got a couple positive reviews on Ryan C.’s Four Color Apocalypse and Optical Sloth.

Later that same month, I had some pixel and paper artworks in the 2021 Kansas City H&R Block Artspace Flatfile + Digitalfile show.

Here’s a GIF of the Miizzzard loading:

A GIF of the Miizzzard getting progressively larger and less pixelated

Here’s an ink drawing, “Meeting of the Miizzz Minds”:

2022 Meeting of the Miizzz Minds india ink drawing

For the rest of my year, I worked on some illustrations for an indie tabletop game company, and I started Reluctant Oracle #2. The game company is Moon Beast Games; I’ll have more to say about them in my 2022 recap, and when they launch the Kickstarter for a tabletop campaign that includes my illustrations. Here’s a Reluctant Oracle #2 page I finished in December 2021 that I’m particularly proud of:

Preview of Reluctant Oracle 2