Cropped Will Cardini artwork

March 4, 2011

The GCPM and Glademade at STAPLE! 2011

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , , , — Will Cardini @ 7:05 am

Hey y’all, David Fullen, Michael Miles and myself of the Gold County Paper Mill will be tabling at STAPLE! this weekend alongside Glade Hensel’s Glademade for the third year in a row.

STAPLE! banner

This year, for the first time ever, STAPLE! will be two days, March 5th and 6th! The event is at Marchesa Hall and Theater from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and noon to 6pm on Sunday. It costs ten dollars for one day and $15 for both days.

The GCPM and Glademade will be sharing Table 76, which is in the Annex. If you’re standing with your back to the entrance, the Annex is the room to the back and the left. We’ll be selling a lot of stuff, both old and new. Here’s what we’ll have in alphabetical order:

  • Screenprints and digital prints of my ATTACKS one-page comics
  • Candy or Medicine Volume 12, a minicomics anthology edited and published by Josh Blair (I drew the cover of this volume)
  • The second issue of Catch Up, a comics and poetry magazine edited and published by Jak Cardini and Robert Bozwell of the GCPM, featuring two different covers by Josh Burggraf, comics by Noel Freibert, poetry by Adam Day, and a short story by David Fullen
  • Comet a print by Glade Hensel
  • Froghead Hangover, a twelve-page xeroxed zine by me
  • Glademade greeting cards
  • Hypermorph, a digital print in original colors and the inverse
  • Lords ov thee Black Sun, a xerox zine by Michael Miles
  • Masks, a twelve-page xeroxed zine by me
  • One read-only copy of Math Fiction, a sixteen-page 11×17″ blue/red anaglyph 3D comic featuring Pat Aulisio, Ian Harker, Josh Burggraf, and myself
  • A two-color Miizzzard screenprint in purple/green or purple/orange
  • Original art by myself and Michael Miles
  • Shaman Thunder, a twelve-page xerox comic that Josh Burggraf and I made together
  • Slime Studies, a zine by Michael Miles
  • TRANZ, a twelve-page zine by me

Michael Miles process shot
A process shot from Michael Miles. He’s working to get Slime Studies finished in time for STAPLE!

Also, there are pre- and post-parties for STAPLE! The pre-party is 7-11pm tonight at Austin Books and Comics. There are an after-parties Saturday and Sunday at Club Deville from 8pm to whenever. We might be at some of these – if you see us feel free to say wuzzup.

March 1, 2011

Quick Wedding Post

Filed under: Life — Tags: , — Will Cardini @ 7:40 am

Hey y’all I know I said that I’d start posting a comic today, but I decided to postpone that until next week because there are some things I want to talk about this week, namely my wedding and STAPLE!

Our wedding/reception was a lot of fun. There are a couple of details that I was involved in so I thought I’d post those here.

We had a unity volcano instead of a unity candle. Glade and I made it and then I painted it, here’s an action shot:

Glade and Mark's ceremony
Picture by my uncle. Sorry it’s a bit blurry. Notice the froghead on my best man.

The eruption wasn’t quite as high as we were hoping but oh well. The officiant (my good buddy Will Sellari, pictured holding microphone) included some lines from King Crimson in the ceremony. Also, one of my friends told me that they felt a strong gust right before the procession and knew that the wind wizards were giving their blessing. So, all in all, it was a pretty proggy wedding.

It was also pretty froggy. All of the dudes in the wedding party and the dads had these frogheads that Glade made. Here they are all lined up in a row (without their hats):

Glademade frogheads

Also, I drew the ceremony program:

Glade and Mark's ceremony program
The front and back covers for the ceremony program.

I made the comic that I’m starting to post next week for the ceremony program. Yes, we had the idea before we heard about Adrian Tomine’s latest book.

STAPLE! is this upcoming weekend here in Austin. For the third year in a row, the Gold County Paper Mill will have a table. I’ll post about what we’re bringing in detail on Friday.

February 11, 2011

Blog Hiatus until March 1st on Account of Wedding

Filed under: Sketchbook Pages — Will Cardini @ 7:30 am

Hey ya’ll, I’m getting married a week from tomorrow so I’m gonna take a little breaky-break from this here bloggity until Tuesday, March 1st. When I get back, I’ll start posting pages from a short, seven-page comic called Glade and Mark in: Rocky Mountain Chomp twice a week.

Here’s some sketches that I did for that comic to tide y’all over until then:

Glade Hensel Sketches
Sketches of my future wife, Glade Hensel.

Mini Monster Sketches
Sketches of mini monsters who live on mini monster world.

February 8, 2011

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup + Fort Thunder = Procedurally Generated Comics

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

It’s less than two weeks before my wedding, so of course I’ve become addicted to an ever-changing fantasy action RPG with a massive online community. I’m not talking about World of Warcraft – I’m talking about the free, cross-platform, and open-source roguelike Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup Title Screen
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup title screen

Click through to read more about roguelikes and how playing them is like reading a Fort Thunder comic

February 4, 2011

Peter Haars Book Covers

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

While looking at Stanislaw Lem books covers to illustrate my previous blog post, I came across Peter Haars’ work. He’s a Norwegian graphic designer who did book covers, comics, and other artwork. I couldn’t find any of his comics, which is a shame, because if they’re anything like his book covers, I’m sure they’re amazing.

He’s got several interesting themes running through his covers. Here you can see the eye-in-landscape theme:

C.S. Lewis: Reisen til Malacandra. Publisher: Gyldendal Lanterne 1975. Cover: Peter Haars.
via svenneven’s flickr.

He’s also got a nice theme of human faces melting into inanimate objects:

Kurt Vonnegut: Sirenene på Titan. Publisher: Gyldendal Lanterne 1974. Cover: Peter Haars.
via svenneven’s flickr.

Click here to see more of his covers

February 1, 2011

Can We Think Inhuman Thoughts?

Filed under: SF Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — Will Cardini @ 7:27 am

In the past two months I finished Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch epic fantasy tetralogy and then burned through his other, earlier epic fantasy tetralogy, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn for the third or fourth time.

Michael Whelan's cover for Stone of Farewell, book two of Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn fantasy series
Michael Whelan’s cover for Stone of Farewell, book two of Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn fantasy series

What I dig about Williams, besides his excellent (albiet sometimes slow-paced) prose and efforts to re-upholster standard fantasy tropes, is his attempts to depict truly inhuman beings and cultures in his stories. Science fiction and fantasy authors have always grappled with these kinds of depictions. Some question if it’s even possible for us human beings, with our mental biases, to truly imagine the thoughts and cultures of some other type of intelligence. In this blog post, I’m going to discuss several attempts, how they succeed or fail, and how this relates to my own artistic practice. Be warned, this essay is long.
Click here to read the rest

January 28, 2011

Hypermorph – Bathanklyopod

Filed under: Sketchbook Pages — Tags: , — Will Cardini @ 7:07 am

I drew another Hypermorph in pencil (you can see my previous ones here):

Hypermorph - Bathanklyopod
This Hypermorph’s name is Bathanklyopod. Over ten thousand years ago, on a nameless planet in the Hyperverse, a bat was dying in a cave near where two powerful Hyperbeings were battling. In a desperate move, the Hyperbeing Kygargz dropped a twenty gigaton transmutation bomb to distract its opponent so that it could escape. The bat was caught up in the resulting mutation wave and Bathanklyopod was born. She’s wearing armor she pieced together from parts of other Hypermorphs that she has killed in battle.

I like drawing Hypermorphs. I just start at the top and let my pencil wander.

January 25, 2011

Candy or Medicine Volume 12 for Sale

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Will Cardini @ 7:45 pm

I drew the cover for Volume 12 of the comics anthology Candy or Medicine, check it out:

Cover for Candy or Medicine Volume 12

The anthology is 14 black-and-white 4.25×5.5″ pages and features comics by Willard Herman, Sam Spina, Tori Holder, Kyle Nolan, Steven Myers, Ray N, and Brandon Lehmann. I think that Nolan’s comic is particularly awesome because it name checks VALIS and stars PKD.

If you want to get yourself a copy of Candy or Medicine Volume 12, you can order it here (direct) or here (etsy) for $1 plus $0.50 shipping or pick up a copy for $1 at Domy Austin.

January 21, 2011

Mati Klarwein Landscapes

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: — Will Cardini @ 7:30 am

I’ve been thinking about the landscapes in my comics and paintings a lot, about how I really need to push their otherworldliness to the next plane. Mati Klarwein’s landscapes, which I saw on Brenna Murphy’s tumblr, have definitely given me some forms that I can riff on.

I think this first one is my favorite. There’s just something really appealing to me about terraced landscapes (which this guy paints a lot of).


Original enclosure.

This next one is less striking because, as Glade said, it’s all details and no central image, but man I could get lost in those details:


Cropped because of watermark. Original enclosure.

This last one has a ton of stuff going on. I really like how some prominent features (glowing golden figure, cube) are hidden or obscured by all the lush vegetation. Also, what about that sky?


Original enclosure.

January 18, 2011

GCPM Merch and Other Items on Sale at Domy Austin

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — Will Cardini @ 7:38 am

Hey y’all, I’ve been dropping off a bevy of GCPM books and some other goodness at Domy Books in Austin over the last month.

Click here for the full list