Cropped Will Cardini artwork

October 2nd, 2014

The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard Part 9: Summation

Filed under: Events — Tags: — William Cardini @ 9:14 am

1 day left in the Sparkplug Books Kickstarter campaign to publish my graphic novel Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12 and we’ve met our goal, thanks to your support!!! We’ve added a stretch goal and new rewards for a new Yumi Sakugawa mini. The campaign ends at 11:29am CDT on Friday, October 3rd.

I just made this collage of the Miizzzard’s various appearances over the years:

From left to right and top to bottom:

  1. Video still of me dressed as the Miizzzard.
  2. The Miizzzard’s first appearance in a comic.
  3. A drawing from December 2007 colored in Photoshop.
  4. A panel from Hyperbox #1.
  5. First Miizzzard comic drawn in MangaStudio, The Witch ATTACKS the Miizzzard of the Year 2978.
  6. Another ATTACKS comic colored by Josh Burggraf.
  7. Originally published in Future Shock #3, edited by Josh.
  8. Originally published in Digestate, edited by J.T. Yost.
  9. Skew, currently updated weekly on Study Group Comics.

Thanks for all your support y’all!

October 1st, 2014

The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard Part 8: The Miizzzard of the Year One Million ATTACKS the Floating Crystal Witch

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: — William Cardini @ 9:14 am

2 days left in the Sparkplug Books Kickstarter campaign to publish my graphic novel Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12!

I finished this six-page comic exactly two years ago. Josh Burggraf published it in his astro-sf anthology comic Future Shock #3. I was experimenting with the coloring, trying to the style of my comics closer to my acrylic paintings. I also was trying out a genderbent character design for the Miizzzard, who shifts shape and gender throughout millennia.

Click here to see the rest of The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard.

September 30th, 2014

The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard Part 7: The Miizzzard ATTACKS the Munchies

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: — William Cardini @ 9:00 am

3 days left in the Sparkplug Books Kickstarter campaign to publish my graphic novel Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12! Virginia Paine has announced that if we get $2,000 over our goal, Sparkplug will be able to publish a Yumi Sakugawa mini.

I originally drew this four-page comic for J.T. Yost’s Digestate anthology in July 2012. I used a lot of patterns from Vortex for it.

Click here to see the rest of The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard.

September 26th, 2014

Final Week of the Sparkplug Kickstarter

Filed under: Events — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 9:43 am

We’re entering the final week of the Sparkplug Books Kickstarter for Vortex and Reich #12. Thanks so much for all the generosity in links and pledges that y’all have shared with us so far, I really appreciate it!

As you probably know, we only get your pledges when we meet or surpass our goal of $6,450 by 11:29am CDT on Friday, October 3rd. Your support will get us there!

We’ve added some new rewards during our campaign that may intrigue y’all:

  • For $7 you can get a digital download of the complete Vortex

    • Vortex digital download

  • For $35 you can get a 3d Hypercastle print shipped with your Vortex book, postcards, and the Barrio Mothers comic anthology.

    • 3d Hypercastle
    One 13×16″ CMYK digital print on semi-gloss photo paper with white border. Colors will be slightly different because of the printing process. Ships rolled in a tube with a pair of 3d anaglyph red and blue glasses.

  • For $47, US retailers can get 5 copies of Vortex and 5 copies of Reich #12 at wholesale price

And you can still get the complete print Vortex for just $20 or an original, custom acrylic painting by me for $250.

Your help will make these books a reality – if you’d like to see a print Vortex collection or the end of Reich, please consider buying a reward or sharing our project on social media.

September 25th, 2014

The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard Part 6: Lamezine 001

Filed under: Web Comics — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 9:50 am

Sparkplug Books is running a Kickstarter campaign to publish my graphic novel Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12. I’m doing a series of blog posts called The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard that show how the protagonist of Vortex has evolved over the years.

The rest of this hiizzztory is going to be comics that I did for anthologies but haven’t posted here yet. I did this Miizzzard comic, Miizzzard Munch, in December 2011 as bonus content for Cate Wurtz’s downloadable comic Lamezine 001. I sent Cate a super wide horizontal png for the comic but I’ll break it up into pages for y’all:

September 24th, 2014

The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard Part 5: An Unfinished Battle between Miizzz and Woj

Filed under: Web Comics — Tags: — William Cardini @ 10:26 am

Sparkplug Books is running a Kickstarter campaign to publish my graphic novel Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12. I’m doing a series of blog posts called The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard that show how the protagonist of Vortex has evolved over the years.

In early 2011 I started but never finished a new Miizzzard comic. I planned to draw the whole thing in Photoshop and then color it like my acrylic paintings. Particularly, I wanted to tell the story of a battle between the Miizzzard and the Wojrollox, as depicted in this 2010 painting:

The Wojrollox Chomps the Miizzzard; the Miizzzard Attacks with Frogheads and Laser Visions
The Wojrollox Chomps the Miizzzard; the Miizzzard Attacks with Frogheads and Laser Vision

Here are the first 11 pages of the story:

I drew all these “pencils” in less than an hour in January 2011. I was going to go back later and color them but I never did. I’m not sure why I didn’t keep going on this comic after I exhausted my initial wave of excitement. I think that all that coloring seemed too time consuming. In June 2011 I started Vortex on a whim. I revisited the idea of coloring a comic like my paintings for Skew (with a much more simple process) and recycled part of the plot for my comic for Future Shock #7.

September 23rd, 2014

The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard Part 4: One-Page Comics

Filed under: Web Comics — Tags: — William Cardini @ 10:10 am

Sparkplug Books is running a Kickstarter campaign to publish my graphic novel Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12. I’m doing a series of blog posts called The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard that show how the protagonist of Vortex has evolved over the years.

In 2009 and 2010 I switched from longer comics like Hyperbox to one-page comics because I was submitting to newsprint anthologies like Smoke Signal and Secret Prison. In 2009 I also got a Wacom tablet and MangaStudio and made the switch from ink drawing to pixel drawing. It’s saved me so much time that I spent scanning and fixing things in Photoshop! The main danger of digital drawing is the allure of endless undos.

Here are some one-page Miizzzard comics that were part of a larger series of loosely connected one- and two-page comics called ATTACKS:

The Floating Crystal Witch ATTACKS the Miizzzard of the Year 2978
First appearance of the Floating Crystal Witch and the current look of the Miizzzard. Originally published online by Reynard Seifert at hahaclever.com.

The Miizzzard of the Year 2978 ATTACKS the Floating Crystal Witch
The sequel to the previous comic. Originally published online by Jason Leivian at Arthur Mag.

The Miizzzard in ATTACK, colored by Josh Burggraf
The end of this first trilogy of comics about the Miizzzard and the Floating Crystal Witch. I drew this in black and white in 2010 to submit to Taffy Hips, but it was the wrong size. Josh Burggraf colored it for me as a Christmas surprise in 2012.

September 18th, 2014

Halfway through the Sparkplug Fall Books Kickstarter

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 10:45 am

Hi y’all, we’re past the halfway point of the Sparkplug Fall Books Kickstarter to crowdfund the collected Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12!

First of all, a big Thank You to everyone who’s backed our project so far!!! At over $2,000, we’re almost a third of the way funded. If you’re unfamiliar with Kickstarter, we only see a cent when we meet or surpass our goal of $6,450 by October 3rd. Your help will make these books a reality – if you’d like to see a print Vortex collection or the end of Reich, please consider buying a reward or sharing our project on social media. We appreciate it!

Two of the rewards that we’re offering are my original art – a 9×12″ India ink drawing or a 2×3′ full-color acrylic painting. These rewards are for a new, custom work (I’ll take your requests for imagery) but I thought I’d post some examples of my previous work:

Hypermorph #103
Hypermorph #103 – 9×12″ India ink drawing.

The Rise of the Miizzzards
The Rise of the Miizzzards – 2.5×4′ acrylic painting.

If some original artwork interests you, we’re offering it at a discount through the Kickstarter – $75 for the 9×12″ India ink drawing and $250 for the 2×3′ acrylic painting.

September 17th, 2014

The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard Part 3: Hyperbox

Filed under: Artwork,Print Comics — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 10:31 am

Sparkplug Books is running a Kickstarter campaign to publish my graphic novel Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12. I’m doing a series of blog posts called The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard that show how the protagonist of Vortex has evolved over the years.

The look of the Miizzzard and my drawing style changed in 2007. I switched from a bamboo brush and India ink to Faber Castelli marker and brush pens. I also used the computer to color a lot more. Here are two full-color Miizzzard drawings from the fall of 2007:

The Miizzzard Returns
I think I wrote “The Miizzzard Returns” because I had recently moved back to Austin, but it could also be because I hadn’t drawn the Miizzz in a while.

The Miizzzard Rides the Lizzard
The Miizzzard is riding the Lizzard. Sometimes the Lizzard has a crystal head. And the Miizzz is smoking because I used to smoke a pack a day?! So glad I quit in March 2009.

In December 2007 I started my third mini-comic series, Hyperbox (the first two were Omni, with Lanneau White, and Trash). Hyperbox features my semi-autobiographical character Mark. In Hyperbox #1, Mark gets teleported to the Hyperverse and meets the Miizzzard. Here’s that issue minus the postlude that leads into the second issue:

Hyperbox 1 Cover

Hyperbox Page 1

Hyperbox Page 2

Hyperbox Page 3

Hyperbox Page 4

Hyperbox Page 5

Hyperbox Page 6

Hyperbox Page 7

Hyperbox Page 8

Hyperbox Page 9

Hyperbox Page 10

Hyperbox Page 11

Hyperbox Page 12

Hyperbox Page 13

Hyperbox Page 14

Hyperbox Page 15

Hyperbox Page 16

Hyperbox Page 17

The frog character was originally from the comics I did for the University of Texas student newspaper, The Daily Texan. My series was called Fists: Free for All. Most of those strips are incomprehensible. Subsequent issues of Hyperbox bring in the Lizzard, the Wojrollox, and the Space Yetis. I had a plan for the fourth and final issue but I never drew it. It would’ve brought the Miizzzard back into the story. Maybe one day…

September 16th, 2014

The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard Part 2: First Comic Appearance

Filed under: Artwork,Print Comics — Tags: — William Cardini @ 10:25 am

Sparkplug Books is running a Kickstarter campaign to publish my graphic novel Vortex and Elijah Brubaker’s Reich #12. I’m doing a series of blog posts called The Hiizzztory of the Miizzzard that show how the protagonist of Vortex has evolved over the years.

When Lanneau White and I performed in January of 2007 and I debuted my Miizzzard persona, we gave out a mini comic called Omni. It contains what may be the first comic appearance of the Miizzzard. In this story, the Miizzz is born when Tarpman drowns Mark P. Hensel in a tarp (all drawn in india ink with a brush):


Omni Page 10.


Omni Page 11.


Omni Page 12.


Omni Page 13.


Omni Page 14.


Omni Page 15.

In that drawing of the Miizzzard on the last page, I’m just drawing myself in costume. Here’s a closeup of the Miizzzard mask I wove from a February 2007 video still:

Next post: Hyperbox #1!