Cropped Will Cardini artwork

August 28th, 2012

Paper Party

Filed under: Life — Tags: , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 9:36 pm

My wife is opening up a shop called Paper Party in Domy Books in Austin. She’s going to sell stationary, art, party supplies, and gifts.

Paper Party screenprinting picture
A photo by Glade from when Glade and Laura were screenprinting Paper Party/Olive tote bags for the preview party.

Paper Party is going in the former Domy gallery space alongside a vintage and handmade clothing and accessory shop called Olive, run by our friend Laura Uhlir. There’s still going to be a gallery but it’s moving to a different area. Paper Party and Olive Vintage set up a sneak peek of their shops this past weekend. They’ll be open every Tuesday through Sunday starting on September 1st.

Paper Party preview
Two photos of the Paper Party sneak peek by Glade.

Watching all of the store items trickle in the staging area in our house has been fun. I think Paper Party is going to be fantastic and I’m so proud of Glade! Running her own boutique has been her dream for years and it’s finally becoming a reality. She’s supporting other craftspeople by selling their stuff on consignment and working to source sustainable and reusable party supplies.

Photos of Glade in her studio by Laura Uhlir
Two photos of Glade in her studio by Laura.

I’m so lucky to be married to be such an awesome lady. You should check out this profile of Glade that Laura posted on her Rad Lady blog. Laura took a bunch of beautiful photos of our house.

April 13th, 2012

Announcing a Double Comic Release Party!

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:52 am

Yo y’all, Melinda Tracy Boyce of Gingham Ghost and I are teaming up to do a double comic release party at Domy Books in Austin from 7 to 9pm on Wednesday, April 25th. Here’s the mash-up flyer:

Vortex #2 and The Melinderly Release Party Flyer

Melinda is releasing the first issue of her quarterly full-color collection of short autobiographical and fiction comics, The Melinderly, while I’m dropping the next issue of Vortex! Here’s the full press release and here’s the Facebook event.

March 14th, 2012

What by What-Ever

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 1:01 am


Poster by Devin Flynn.

January 3rd, 2012

News from the Holidaze: Austin Scene Report, VORTEX News, Site Update

Filed under: Admin,Print Comics — Tags: , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:36 am

Hey y’all, welcome back from the holidaze! A few things happened while I was getting too merry that deserve their own blog posts but I’m just going to sum them all up here:

Austin Scene Report

I wrote up a report on Austin’s comics scene for Frank Santoro’s column on the Comics Journal site.

Monster Show 6 opening
The opening of Monster Show 6 at Domy Austin from the Monster Show 6 Flickr stream, photo by Carling Hale.

Apologizes to anyone that I didn’t include. Please don’t take it personally, I was trying to be concise, comprehensive, and art comics centric.

VORTEX News

Whitey reviewed VORTEX on Optical Sloth on December 24th. He proclaims the battle to be “suitably majestic” and accurately leaves the gender ambiguous.

VORTEX #1 cover
I snagged this from Whitey’s site because his scanner caught the weird primary color gradient that emerged from the printing process.

Also, orders made through my online store will now be shipped much more quickly. Thanks to everyone who ordered over the last two weeks, your orders will be shipping soon.

Site Update

Over the break I fiddled around with my site.

Hypercastle site

I updated the header so that the banner randomly changes every time you load a page, changed the splash image to a randomly selected one-page comic, streamlined the content, and drew a new favicon. Please let me know if anything breaks on you.

December 16th, 2011

VORTEX #1 Preview on Squidface & the Meddler

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 7:04 am

Squidface & the Meddler, a Toronto-based online arts magazine, has posted a four-page preview of VORTEX #1. Click the image to view it: (Update 1/13/2017: This link no longer works.)

VORTEX #1 Preview on Squidface & the Meddler

You can also now pick up VORTEX #1 at Floating World Comics in Portland OR in addition to Domy Books Austin and my online store.

December 6th, 2011

VORTEX #1 on Sale at Domy Austin and Online in my New Store

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 11:04 am

This past weekend I dropped VORTEX #1 off at Domy Books in Austin. You can get it there for $5. I don’t have a shot of it on their shelves but here’s a scan of the cover:

VORTEX #1 Cover
I scanned the cover because the printshop used a color Xerox for the cover and there’s this really interesting and unintentional rainbow gradient. But it didn’t translate in the scan.

I also added an online store to this site where you can purchase VORTEX #1 if you don’t live in Austin. Here’s a description of the issue that I wrote up for the store:

32 black-and-white Xerox interior pages, white cardstock cover with full bleed black-and-white Xerox image, 7×10″
VORTEX #1 chronicles an epic battle of swordblows and slime between my recurring character the Miizzzard and a new alien with unknown powers.
The story begins when the Miizzz discovers a hidden energy source on an uncharted planet. Although this minicomic is the beginning of a longer story, it also stands alone.

It’s $6 for US orders, $7.5 for Canada orders, and $10 to ship to anywhere else. Check that out here (currently VORTEX #1 is the only item for sale in the shop but I plan to add more soon).

October 28th, 2011

Monster Show 6

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:40 am

Don’t forget y’all, this Saturday is the opening of the sixth annual Monster Show at Domy Books in Austin. Here’s the flyer (drawn by the amazing Lisa Hanawalt):

Monster Show 6 flyer

Come out (in costume!) to check out monster drawz by me, my wife Glade, cartoonist power couple Aaron Whitaker and Melinda Tracy Boyce, RUB THE BLOOD contributors Benjamin Marra and Keenan Marshall Keller, and a host of other amazing artists. There’s also a Monster Show going on the same time at Domy Houston with its own great contributor list, including Robbie and Bobby creator Jason Poland and his lady, Julai Whipple, who does cool embroidery work.

October 18th, 2011

James Jarvis: Pure, Unfettered Cartooning; including Steadman, Alechinsky, and my Monster Show Ink Drawz

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , , , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:56 am

The James Jarvis drawings that Dan Nadel posted this past week on the Picturebox blog are a revelation.

James Jarvis homage of Goya
An homage to Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monster” from Day 1 of the James Jarvis posts.

James Jarvis colored drawing
A colored page from Day 4 of the James Jarvis posts. These posts on the Picturebox blog are promotion for a full-color book that Jarvis has out, De Profundis.

Pure, unfettered cartooning. The impulsive, inky scratching of them reminds me of Ralph Steadman …

Ralph Steadman “The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters”
This is Steadman’s homage to that same Goya etching. I posted it so large because I stitched it together from two scans I did of Gonzo: The Art, a Steadman art book.

… mixed with a little bit of Maurice Sendak and of course, Pierre Alechinsky.

Alechinsky, “Alvéoles”
Alechinsky, “Alvéoles.”

Alechinsky, “Volcan ensorcelé”
Alechinsky, “Volcan ensorcelé.” Both of these paintings are from the website of the Alechinsky retrospective at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Check out this Alechinsky post by Derik A Badman or my previous Alechinsky post for more examples of his comic-like work.

Steadman was one of my biggest early influences and I love Alechinsky so Jarvis’s work really speaks to me. I’ve been experimenting with modifying my wanna-be Moebius-and-Brinkman hybrid style to something more spontaneous and cartoony. I like working in MangaStudio but sometimes I just want to get away from glowing computer screens and put nib to paper.

Here are two examples of me doing just that, in these drawings that I did for Monster Show 6 at Domy Books in Austin:

Cardini Quirky Miniboss Squad
I was thinking about the TV Tropes entry on the Quirky Miniboss Squad when I drew this (warning: TV Tropes is a link-infested time suck).

Cardini Fuck You Monster
This drawing is dedicated to my buddy Grant Davis.

Disclaimer: these drawings may or may not be in the Monster Show 6. I’m going to have something in there but I don’t know what yet. Come to the opening from 7-9pm on October 29th (costume encouraged) to see tons of monster drawings by all sorts of amazing artists. If you’re in Houston, there’s also a Monster Show there.

September 30th, 2011

Kid Space Heater at Domy Austin

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , — William 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.

March 15th, 2011

What by What-Ever

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 1:58 am


Poster by Rand Renfrow.