Cropped Will Cardini artwork

October 4, 2011

24-Hour Comics Day 2011 Austin Recap

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , , , , , — Will Cardini @ 7:48 am

This past weekend was 24-Hour Comics Day. I spent several hours at an Austin event organized by Zach Taylor.


A sample page from Zach’s current webcomic, Bear Quest. I love how he does pixel art versions of each page.

I wasn’t there to work on a 24-hour comic – I just worked on a book-length comic, VORTEX, that I’m now about 3/8ths of the way through.


I’m not going to show y’all any more of VORTEX until the whole thing is finished.

The 24-Hour Comics Day event was fun (and productive – I finished [almost] four pages in the [little over] four hours I was there). I got to meet Jason Poland, who makes the webcomic Robbie and Bobby, IRL after many online convos.


This is a few panels from a Robbie and Bobby comic called “Wings”. Jason does all sorts of awesomely weird stuff like this in his strip, which he puts out several times a week.

I also met Austin Bedell …


This is a comic from Austin’s side project Vidyagame Library, where he draws comic inspired by NES videogames.

… Chris Sweet …


This is a comic from Chris’s webcomic Effing Decaf. He also did a great mashup comic with Zach called “16-Bit Breakfast”.

… and many other awesome local comic folks. I’ll probably continue to work on my own projects during 24HCD2012 but it’s great to get to hang out with a bunch of local cartoonists.

September 30, 2011

Kid Space Heater at Domy Austin

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , — Will Cardini @ 7:24 am

I recently dropped off Kid Space Heater, a masterful comic by fellow GCPM member and my sometimes collaborator Josh Burggraf, at Domy Books in Austin. Here you can see it on the zine table:


From Domy’s dope Tumblr

Here’s a close-up of the cover so y’all don’t have to squint:


From Josh’s Tumblr

Kid Space Heater is twenty legal-sized pages of grayscale space opera madness packed with Burggraf’s unmistakable high-tech Kirby-esque machinery and cityscapes. But don’t take my word that it’s awesome, take these guys’ words:

  • “Kid Spaceheater is a high speed cartoony adventure that blends Kirby mechgeometry with Meathaus grotesqueries. I really like how there’s a layered flatness to the images, as if the figures were cut from paper and placed on the background image. The compositions are tight and the grayscale is really effective.” – Kevin Czap from this post
  • “I saw an advance copy of kid space heater, and i must say, not only is it the best work he’s ever done but it might be the best new work ive seen ALL YEAR. like serious.” – Pat Ausilio from this post

Here’s a sample panel:


The panel looks a little screwy because of interference/moiré from the scanner

Buy Kid Space Heater from Domy for $5. You won’t regret it.

September 27, 2011

Labor Day in Louisville Part 2: LVL1 Hackerspace

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Will Cardini @ 11:30 pm

While I was in Louisville hanging out with Jeff Hipsher and Chuch, Jeff’s friend (and the Catch Up web master) Nick Sturtzel took us by LVL1, a hackerspace in Louisville.

LVL1 entrance
LVL1 is in a warehouse district by downtown Louisville. The entrance is in an alley.

Anyone can go to LVL1, tinker with tech, and make things; but what makes it really special is that the members pool funds to purchase special maker equipment, such as this laser cutter:

laser cutter
Nick offered to cut one of my drawings out and mail it to me. What should I get cut out?

Click here to see the rest of their equipment

September 23, 2011

“Summoning” Comic from the Previous Catch Up Issue

Filed under: Web Comics — Tags: , , — Will Cardini @ 7:26 am

Because the new issue of Catch Up is out, I decided to add the comic that I drew for the previous issue, before I became the comics editor, to my comics page.

Click the splash page to be taken directly to the two-page full-color comic, called “Summoning.”

Summoning banner image

“Summoning” stars the Miizzzard and my fellow GCPM members Jak Cardini and Chuch.

September 20, 2011

Labor Day in Louisville Part 1: Summer/Fall Catch Up Issue

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: — Will Cardini @ 9:49 pm

This past Labor Day I took a trip to Louisville and hung out with GCPM members Jeff:


Jeff likes to put my high school artwork on his walls for some reason.

And Chuch:

I also got to meet some members of the Louisville branch of the GCP for the first time (no pics sorry).

What’s really exciting is that Jeff had stacks of the Summer/Fall issue of our literary/comics magazine, Catch Up, ready to mail out to contributors (click here for a full list):

Catch Up table

The Summer/Fall issue has a poetry book and a separate, full-color magazine-sized comics section. They come bundled together in a nice brown paper bag screenprinted with our logo. Here’s a shot of my copy:

Catch Up closeup
Mike Miles did both of the covers. I edited the comics section and drew interior illustrations for the poetry book.

You can buy a copy to this issue or a one-year, three-issue subscription at the bottom of this page.

September 16, 2011

Ditch the Fest Fest 2

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , , — Will Cardini @ 7:39 am

Ditch the Fest Fest 2, an Austin music/art festival happening in the shadow of the Austin City Limits festival, is this upcoming Saturday. I drew a flyer for it, check it out:

Ditch the Fest Fest 2 flyer by Cardini

It’ll be a fun time, check it out. They’ll be screenprinting t-shirts with one-color versions of my flyer at the fest.

September 13, 2011

“Please Save Maria Kondratiev” Art Show with Music by Katie Mullins and Zine Library

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Will Cardini @ 11:10 pm

This Saturday, starting at 7pm, my friend Alison Kuo is hosting an art show at her space in Brooklyn called “Please Save Maria Kondratiev” with music and a zine library. The artist is Maria Kondratiev, here’s a drawing of hers from 2008:

Maria Kondratiev sketch
“We Can Use Him” sketch by Kondratiev from her blog.

The musician is Katie Mullins.

Because the show coincides with the Brooklyn Book Fest, Kuo is also organizing a zine library with chapbooks by James Yeh, illustrated by Andrew Bulger; interview and other booklets by Temporary Services; prints by Rand Renfrow; and comics by yours truly, Jak Cardini, Josh Burggraf, and Mike Miles of the Gold County Paper Mill; and others. I wanted to have a new zine but I didn’t finish it in time, so I sent a bunch of my old stuff, including the last issue of Catch Up.

Come check it out! There’ll be drinks and food, but please BYOB and bring your friends. The space, Darling House, is located at the corner of Broadway and Union – Lorimer JMZ, Broadway G, or a ten minute walk from the Lorimer L. Look for the glass door, ring top buzzer.

September 9, 2011

SPX 2011: Secret Prison #5 Debut

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , — Will Cardini @ 1:00 am

Y’all are only getting one post this week because I was out of town for Labor Day weekend, hanging with the Kentucky branch of the GCPM. I’ll have more detailed posts about that for y’all soon, but right now I want to talk about the debut of Secret Prison #5 this weekend at SPX 2011 in Bethesda, Maryland.

As I’ve mentioned, I’m the co-featured artist for this issue, which means I drew the back cover. Here’s a shot of Ian Harker, the editor, holding up the published ish:

Secret Prison #5

My comix hero, Tom Scioli, is the featured artist. He drew the cover and a four-page interior comic.

The issue will be at the free table all of SPX.

Also debuting will be a new mini by Pat Aulisio called “C’mon Man” that features his faceless guy and the bear/deer/lion god he rides.

September 2, 2011

3D Hypercastle Print

Filed under: Artwork — Tags: , , — Will Cardini @ 7:25 am

Here’s the final print from Glade and I’s show at Austin Books:

3D Hypercastle

This digital print is called “3D Hypercastle” because it’s red/blue anaglyph 3D. I kept the blue stationary and shifted the red layers, so the 3D glasses that I got from Toy Joy only work if you fold them backwards.

Here’s a colored, non-3D version of the print:

Colored 3D Hypercastle

Although the show is no longer up in the back room of Austin Books, you can still buy them from us or from the print rack at Austin Books:

Austin Books print rack

Let me know if you want to get something. Here are the links to the rest of our prints:

August 30, 2011

Flower Hypercastle by Glade Hensel and Ads in Secret Prison #5

Filed under: Inspiration,Print Comics — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Will Cardini @ 8:33 pm

Hey y’all, sorry I made a mistake with my blogging and released an incomplete post early on Monday instead of today. Here’s the post that I intended to publish this morning:

Here’s a print that Glade made for our show at Austin Books (Speaking of our show, if any of y’all want to see our prints at Austin Books and haven’t yet, this week is your last chance! Tomorrow is the last day.):

Flower Hypercastle by Glade Hensel

This print is called “Flower Hypercastle.” It’s a digital print of a gouache painting. This past Saturday Glade and I just hung out at home, painted, and watched Mad Men. I spend so much time working on comics on the computer that I forget how relaxing and visceral painting can be. I’m going to try to make painting more a part of my regular art routine.

Something I’m excited about but haven’t mentioned on here yet is that I’m the co-featured artist for Secret Prison #5. It’s especially exciting because I love the work of the featured artist, Tom Scioli. Gødland is one of my favorite comics. I’m bringing it up now because it’s debuting at SPX in a week and a half and they’re looking for people to buy ad space before this Sunday, Sept 3rd. Here’s an information sheet (with a small preview of Scioli’s dope cover):

Secret Prison Ad Sheet

If any of y’all want me to draw your ad for you just drop me a line at mark p hensel /at/ g mail /dot/ com.