Cropped Will Cardini artwork

September 11th, 2012

“Nature Club” by Melinda Tracy Boyce at Paper Party

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:05 am

My wife Glade had the first art opening at her shop-within-a-shop Paper Party this past weekend. The show, called “Nature Club,” is a collection of paintings of cacti, produce, and whales by local cartoonist Melinda Tracy Boyce.

Each piece is a beautiful watercolor with great details. Here are some of my faves:

Cactus Club by Melinda Tracy Boyce
Cactus Club.

Whale Sandwich by Melinda Tracy Boyce
Whale Sandwich.

Crystal Cactus by Melinda Tracy Boyce
Crystal Cactus.

Check out this detail shot of that one (which is the largest at 22.25×30″):

Detail of Crystal Cactus by Melinda Tracy Boyce
Detail of Crystal Cactus.

You can see a full image list with prices and online purchasing buttons here.

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.

May 8th, 2012

Consumption Junction, Tribute Comic, Reading Photos

Filed under: Life — Tags: , , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 9:45 pm

I got a few miscellaneous things to tell y’all about.

First of all, my guest editorship at Novi Magazine continues with a short post about what I’ve been reading lately, The Accidental Space Spy by Øyvind Thorsby and The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers, both of which are highly entertaining, tongue-in-cheek travelogues. Click the Space Spy screenshot to read my post: (Update 1/13/2017: Novi Magazine and this link are now kaput)

The Accidental Space Spy screenshot

Second, Jason Poland drew a Robbie and Bobby comic that’s a hypercastle tribute! I couldn’t be more flattered since Poland is such an awesome webcartoonist. Click the panel to read his comic in its psychedelic entirety:

Robbie and Bobby Crystal Clear panel

Finally, I have some photos from Melinda and I’s double comic book release party at Domy back in April, all from my wife Glade’s Instagram account:


Glade, Melinda, and her equally talented bf Aaron Whitaker.


Me and Glade.


Me reading my comics.

April 3rd, 2012

Denver Travelogue

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 10:32 pm

This past week Glade and I went to Denver for an extended trip to check it out and had a blast. Here are some of the highlights:

William Cardini at Fancy Tiger Crafts in Denver
My Denver outfit. Glade took this picture of me at this fantastic craft supply store with workshops and classes called Fancy Tiger Crafts.

I hung out with Denver cartoonists Sam Spina, Lonnie Allen, and some other kewl people at a hipster bar with some pretty good sandwiches (I had a vegan banh mi).

Spindadoodle from 3-29-12
Sam’s diary comic from our hang out sesh (thanks for the shout out!). I didn’t end up going to the Great Divide brewery but I definitely will when I’m in Denver next. I bought his Xeric-award-winning comic Fight, I highly recommend it!

We went out to an old church that’s been turned into a dance club.

The Church in Denver
It’s called, appropriately enough, the Church. I don’t think I’ll go back. There were way more goths, ravers, and hippies in Denver than I’m used to seeing.

Check out this crazy house we saw in Boulder:

Boulder Ship House
I think it looks like a ship. The people we stayed with are building a tiny house. I love it when people figure out alternative living spaces, like Frank Santoro’s earthship.

We spent an afternoon walking up and down South Broadway. There were tons of cool boutiques, galleries, and used book stores.

Ironwood Quartz Lamp
This is a quartz lamp from the super spiritual South Broadway boutique Ironwood. It was a very serene place filled with terrariums and amazing art.

Ok back to drawing!

November 23rd, 2011

Quick E.A.S.T. Endcap

Filed under: Recaps — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 2:05 am

Thanks to everyone who made it by Glade and I’s place during the 2011 East Austin Studio Tour!

E.A.S.T. Stop #121

We both had a blast and got to meet a ton of great people. My favorite though, were our first visitors. They were two teenagers who go to an arts magnet high school and their moms. One of them told me that they hope they can have a house like ours when they grow up. I hope that we inspired them just a little bit. It also made me think that high school me would probably be pretty stoked about the setup I have now. It’s good to get that reminder that I’m still living part of the bohemian artist dream while working a day job.

November 18th, 2011

Final E.A.S.T. 2011 Weekend at the Hensel Hypercastle

Filed under: Artwork — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:29 am

Hey y’all, this upcoming weekend is your last chance to come by the Hensel Hypercastle during E.A.S.T. 2011 to see Glade and I’s art. Just like last weekend, we’ll be open from 11am to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday. We’re Stop #121 on the tour, 1807 East 22nd Street.

Here are some shots from last weekend:

Hensel Hypercastle entrance
Here’s the front door. We’ve got Glade’s Welcome to the Hypercastle print on the door, a new artwork by her above the TV, our Christmas tree (out a bit early, we know), and a spinner rack of Glademade cards.

Hensel Hypercastle comic table
Our coffee table is chockful of comics. Most of them are for reading but a few are for sale. I’ve got comics I’ve drawn (such as my latest, VORTEX), comics by fellow GCPM members (such as Kid Space Heater by Josh Burggraf and Lords ov thee Black Sun by Mike Miles), two issues of the GCP’s poetry/comics anthology Catch Up, and various issues of anthologies that I’ve been in (Math Fiction, Candy or Medicine, Smoke Signal, Taffy Hips, and Secret Prison). Come by, chill out on our couch, and feel free to flip through everything.

Hensel Hypercastle prints
We’ve got almost all of the prints from our Hypercastle print show at Austin Books and Comics and every print we had for sale last year.

Mark P Hensel studio
I switched out the artwork on my walls in my studio.

L Glade Hensel studio
Glade has some birthday banners on the walls of her studio.

I hope to see some of y’all this weekend!

November 12th, 2011

E.A.S.T. 2011: VORTEX Debuts at the Hensel Hypercastle

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 2:29 pm

I meant to get a blog post up yesterday but Glade and I were up until super late prepping our house for E.A.S.T. Here’s a sneak preview of part of our house:

Hensel Hypercastle during E.A.S.T. 2011
From left to right: painting of Anthony Romero by Anthony Garza, pillows by Glademade, sculpture casting ominous shadow by Alison Kuo, framed screenprint by Rand Renfrow, rocking chair embroidered by Haleh Pedram (with another Glademade pillow), and strange shamanistic wall sculpture from a Pedram garage sale.

“But Mark,” you may be thinking, “What’s in that box on the coffee table? Are those …” you squint “… comics?”

Let’s get a close up:

Hensel Hypercastle during E.A.S.T. 2011

Dear reader, your suspicions are correct! Every year at E.A.S.T. I like to showcase my major project from the past year. In 2010, that was the unsold artwork from my show Hypermorph at Domy Houston – and this year, it’s VORTEX, a graphic novel that I’ve been working on since the beginning of June. The first 32 pages form a nice semi self-contained narrative so I printed them up as a 7×10″ black-and-white xerox minicomic.

Come by E.A.S.T. Stop #121, 1807 East 22nd St, today (Saturday November 12th), tomorrow (Sunday November 13th), or next weekend (November 19th and 20th) from 11am to 6pm to check VORTEX #1 out! Glade and I also have a ton of other great artwork, comics, prints, and cards for you to see. I’ll be posting more pictures next week.

If you’re not an Austinite and want to order a copy of VORTEX #1, they’re $5 plus $1 shipping. Just leave a comment on this post or see my connect page for other communication channels.

November 8th, 2011

East Austin Studio Tour 2011: The Hensel Hypercastle Postcard

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 7:43 am

Glade and I are doing the East Austin Studio Tour once again! This year we got some postcards printed up. We spent last night driving around Austin and dropping them off at various coffee shops and other places.

Here’s my side of the postcard:

Here’s Glade’s side:

We’ve decided to call our studios the Hensel Hypercastle.

I’m going to post more images and previews of what we’ll have on display over the next week and a half.

August 30th, 2011

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

Filed under: Inspiration,Print Comics — Tags: , , , , , , , , — William 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.

August 23rd, 2011

Welcome to the Hypercastle by Glade Hensel

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:09 am

Here’s a print that Glade made for our show at Austin Books:

Welcome to the Hypercastle by Glade Hensel

This print is called “Welcome to the Hypercastle.” It’s a digital print of a gouache painting. I love Glade’s text treatment. You can see a similar design that she did for a Happy Birthday card here.