Cropped Will Cardini artwork

December 21st, 2012

A Josh Burggraf Christmas

Filed under: Web Comics — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:07 am

My buddy Josh Burggraf surprised me by adding colors to my 2010 comic called “Miizzzard in ATTACK”:

Miizzzard in ATTACK colored by Josh Burggraf

Josh has another gift for the Internet, a fun five-page full-colored comic called “Space Date”.

I hope that y’all all have happy and chill holidaze. This blog will be back in 2013.

December 7th, 2012

Paper Party Print Show Opening this Saturday

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:14 am

This Saturday is the opening for the Paper Party Print Show. I have a print in it alongside some other awesome artists. Here’s the flyer:

Paper Party Print Show flyer
There’ll also be art openings at the other stores in Domy Books Austin.

Here’s an image of my digital print:

Miizzzard digital print

November 20th, 2012

Vortex #3 Preview on Squidface & the Meddler

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 7:39 am

Squidface & the Meddler has posted a five-page preview of Vortex #3. Click the screenshot to check it out:

October 26th, 2012

Vortex #3 is Drawn

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

I finished drawing Vortex #3 this past week! It’s not quite done yet (I’ve still got post-production to do – patterns, tweaking, and corrections) but I feel good about getting this far. Here’s a preview of a double-page spread:

Second Vortex 3 Double-Page Spread

I’ve drawn 96 pages of Vortex so far. I think I can wrap the whole thing up in a fourth issue but there may be a fifth one also. But most likely no more than that! I’ll have details about Vortex #3’s con debut and release party soon.

October 2nd, 2012

“The Miizzzard of the Year One Million ATTACKS the Moon Base of the Floating Crystal Witch” Preview Page

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 7:18 am

I finally finished the six-page full-color comic that I’ve been working on and blogging about for the past few weeks. It’s going to be in the third issue of Future Shock, a sf anthology edited by Josh Burggraf.

Here’s the first page as a preview:

The Miizzzard of the Year One Million ATTACKS the Moon Base of the Floating Crystal Witch Page 1

I’m pretty proud of this one, I put a lot of work into it. By the way, if you’ve wanted to buy the first issue of Future Shock or other comics put out by Josh that I’ve mentioned, they’re now available through the Birdcage Bottom Books distro.

September 18th, 2012

“The Miizzzard of the Year One Million ATTACKS the Moon Base of the Floating Crystal Witch” Process Shots

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 10:27 pm

I’m focused on finishing a six-page full-color comic for the second issue of the Josh Burggraf-edited sf anthology Future Shock.

Here are some process shots in MangaStudio. First I draw color outlines and rough shapes with the pencil tool. Then I draw black containing lines for shapes with the marker and pen nib tools. I give the black lines different transparencies so that I can see where they overlap.

William Cardini process shot

I draw detail lines outside of containing shapes and then erase them later.

William Cardini process shot

The page in this final shot is almost done. After I’m finished with a page in MangaStudio, I transfer it to Photoshop and fill in the black shapes and lines with different colors.

William Cardini process shot

I’m working on a couple different projects. I’m not sure how much in-depth posting I’ll be doing over the next few months.

September 14th, 2012

Digestate Anthology and Kid Space Heater 2 at SPX 2012

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

This weekend is the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. I’m not going to be there but JT Yost will be debuting the Digestate anthology there. Here’s the cover:


Cover by Cha.

I’ve got a four-page comic in Digestate called “The Miizzzard ATTACKS the Munchies.” Here’s the first page to whet your appetite:

JT Yost is exhibiting at Table H13 as his small press, Birdcage Bottom Books. He’s put together a handy map here that shows his table and the tables of all Digestate contributors who’ll be at the festival.

Also, from 1:30 to 2:30pm on Sunday Victor Kerlow and Josh Burggraf will be signing at the Birdcage Bottom Books table. Josh will have copies of his newest comic Kid Space Heater #2.


From Josh’s tumblr.

I’ve read a draft of KSH#2 and I can vouch that it takes the greatness of #1 and levels it up.

September 7th, 2012

Character Design Process for the Miizzzard of the Year One Million

Filed under: Artwork,Sketchbook Pages — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 10:10 am

This past week I’ve been working on a new character design, for the Miizzzard of the Year One Million. I’m cracking the lid open on my creative process a little by showing you the incarnations of this character, from oldest to newest.

This design is a variation on a character I came up with for a comic back in 2010 that I never ended up making. I drew this in full color with no outlines in Photoshop:

I decided to follow this basic design but come up with a female version that also incorporates elements from the Miizzzard of the Year 2978. I started doing sketches like this one I posted a little over a month ago:

I did a couple of sketches on my lunch break this past Wednesday and liked this one:

Wednesday night I did a drawing with the fills and outlines how I want them in MangaStudio:

I wasn’t too happy with the proportions. I asked some friends what they thought. They said she looked like a half-naked cave-woman. Since that isn’t quite what I’m going for I did some more sketches on my lunch break. This is my favorite (I riffed on how Jonny Negron draws hands):

Here’s the final color version:

It’s always been my plan to have multiple Miizzzards in my comics.

August 17th, 2012

I’m on Pat Aulisio’s New Podcast

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:46 am

Pat Aulisio has started a podcast where he talks to his friends. Although everyone who’s been on his show so far is involved in comics, the podcasts have mainly been about movies and tv shows and other things.


Photo from Pat’s announcement about his podcast (Pat’s yawning on the right).

Yesterday he posted his episode with me, click here to check it out (Update 1/15/2017: The podcast is gone.).

We talked about a bunch of stuff, including:

  • Living in Texas


Marfa Lights by Erica Lambertson Philippe (2011).

  • Marfa Mystery Lights
  • William Cardini’s secret origin


A photo from a performance I did with Lanneau White back in January of 2007 (I’m in a Miizzzard costume). Click here for more on the Miizzzard’s beginnings in performance art.

  • Performance art and performing comics


My favorite Philip K Dick book (and therefore one of my favorite all-time sf books). Cover art by Peter Gudynas.

  • SF books, comics, movies, and TV shows

August 3rd, 2012

Sketchbook Page

Filed under: Sketchbook Pages — Tags: — William Cardini @ 7:33 am

It’s a bit ironic that I posted about my local independent bookstore being a great alternative to Amazon earlier this week, because I went into Bookpeople looking for the latest release from one of my favorite sf authors and they didn’t have it and couldn’t order it, and it’s right there on Amazon. It just came out though so I’m going to give them some time and check again.

Anyway, here’s a sketchbook page:

Ever since I redesigned my main frog character I’ve been trying out a bunch of different ways to draw a frog. Also, I want to figure out a good Miizzzard-like design for a female character.