Cropped Will Cardini artwork

April 3rd, 2014

Cold Heat Special #10 Debuts this Weekend at MoCCA 2014

Filed under: Events,Print Comics — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 10:42 am

I’ve been honored to write and draw Cold Heat Special #10 with the input of Frank Santoro. Sacred Prism, Ian Harker’s publishing outfit, is debuting the two-color, 5×7″ risograph-printed comic this weekend at MoCCA Fest 2014 in NYC. If you can’t make it to MoCCA, you can preorder the issue. You can also subscribe to all eight comics that Sacred Prism will publish in 2014.

Here’s a photo of an uncut printed page:

Cold Heat Special 10 Print Photo
You can see, clockwise from the upper left, the back cover, front cover, Page 6, and Page 7.

I’m really happy with how the colors are mixing together. I was worried the purple wouldn’t be visible enough against the blue on the back cover… and that pink pops on top of a 25% blue screen! Here’s a Photoshop simulation of a printed page (via multiplied layers):

Cold Heat Special 10 Photoshop Simulation
Page 1, which is also partially visible in the top-right corner of the previous image.

If you’re unfamiliar with Cold Heat, it was a comic book series written by Ben Jones, drawn by Frank Santoro, and published by Picturebox. Frank worked with a bunch of other fabulous cartoonists on the first nine Cold Heat Special issues, which were side quests starring the protagonist, Castle. You can read the first six issues of Cold Heat for free, and order the non-sold-out specials, here. I’ll let y’all know when I have my contributor copies of Cold Heat Special #10 up for sale in my store.

P.S. Two new pages of Skew were posted on Study Group this past Monday.

April 2nd, 2013

Vortex at MoCCA: Birdcage Bottom Books and Doodle Republic

Filed under: Events — Tags: — William Cardini @ 11:36 pm

Although I won’t personally be at MoCCA, there will be copies of Vortex at two tables:

Josh Bayer and JT Yost self portraits
Josh Bayer’s self-portrait is on the left and that’s JT Yost on the right.

Birdcage Bottom Books is sharing Table B-58 with Josh Bayer. BBB distros all three issues of Vortex so they’ll have copies there.

Doodle Republic banner

Doodle Republic is going to be handing out samples of a partially colored version of Vortex #1.

Colored Vortex 1 cover

I’ve been working with Doodle Republic on some character designs for their Chatoon app. Chatoon lets users talk verbally and visually by combining their words with avatars, props, and backgrounds done by different artists. Doodle Republic wants their artists to be able to sell their comics on the Chatoon site through a print-on-demand service. They’re giving out these copies of Vortex #1 to show what their printer can do.

April 27th, 2012

MoCCA 2012

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:05 pm

Thanks to everyone who came out on Wednesday! I’ll have a more substantial post about the release party up later.

Once again I’ll be missing MoCCA but my presence will be haunting the tables because I have work debuting in two anthologies. Secret Prison #666 has a jam drawing I did with Keenan Marshall Keller and Future Shock, the full-color sf anthology edited by Josh Burrgraf, has my two-page story “Hawk”. If you’re at MoCCA check ’em out!

April 10th, 2012

Secret Prison #666 Kickstarter

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , , — William Cardini @ 10:56 pm

Secret Prison #666 is debuting this April at MoCCA 2012! This issue’s a little different from the previous ones – instead of single-page comics, it’s a bunch of double-page team-ups selected by editor Ian Harker and guest editor Pat Aulisio, the editors of RUB THE BLOOD (speaking of which, RUB THE BLOOD is now available in Yeah Dude Comics online store).

Secret Prison 666 cover
Secret Prison #666 cover by Pat Aulisio.

Pat and Ian paired me up with the bad-ass cartoonist Keenan Marshall Keller. We’re both total texture geeks but Keenan’s way more out there than me and is inspiring me to be grosser and more visceral with my drawings than I usually am. I’m loving what we’ve got brewing for SP#666! You can see what I mean about the similarities and differences in our styles in this drawing he did for the Monster Show at Domy Books:

Keenan Marshall Keller drawing
“Amplified Shaman/Acid Jesus” drawing by Keenan.

Ian and Pat are raising funds to print SP#666 via a Kickstarter campaign.

They’ve already met their funding goal for their initial print run and now they’re trying to meet a secondary goal to get even more copies printed. Prizes include SP#666, RUB THE BLOOD, and an 1/8th page ad drawn by myself.

April 8th, 2011

Secret Prison #4 at MoCCA 2011

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:20 am

Mini-Comics Day is not the only thing happening this upcoming weekend – it’s also MoCCA 2011 in NYC. Although I was able to attend in 2008, 2009, and 2010, I won’t be there this year :’,’,’,’,'( (Although I can’t really be all that sad, because Glade and I’s wedding and subsequent honeymoon is the reason why.) However, one of my comics will be in attendance. Thanks to everyone’s support of Secret Prison in 2011 on Kickstarter, Pat Aulisio will have fresh, free copies of #4 at Table L5, which he’s sharing with Mike Turzanski and Tom Smo.

Here’s a preview of my comic for Secret Prison #4:

Preview of William Cardini's comic for Secret Prison #4

Pat will also have a bevy of other dope comics for your perusal, check out this blog post for deetz.

April 13th, 2010

MoCCA 2010 Recap

Filed under: Recaps — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:37 pm

MoCCA was a blast this year, as always. I got a tonnnnn of awesome-looking minicomics, newsprint comic anthologies, and other books. I was glad that it was in April this year rather than June – NYC in June is too much like Austin in June, but NYC in April is a nice cool break from the high temperatures that are already here in Texas.

The only panel that I went to was Frank Santoro and Dash Shaw in Conversation. They talked mainly about color in comics, and how it differs from color in a painting. Frank talked about how he puts together a page of Cold Heat, which was fascinating. He really made me see how offset comics are a form of printmaking just like serigraphy. I came away with a lot of good ideas for my next project, which you’ll hear more about later…

While I was in NYC I finally got to meet my collaborator Josh Burggraf in person. I chilled with him at the Supertalk Comix table (where we had copies of SHAMAN THUNDER for sale), met the Supertalk d00dz and drew this jam comic:


Panel One: Josh, Panel Two: Me, Panel Three: Victor Kerlow, Panel Four: Josh, Panel Five: Jeremy Povolny, Panel Six: Me

On Sunday I went to the MOMA, where there’s a William Kentridge show up. He always makes me want to buckle down and get some animation done. I’d seen his angrier videos before but I also saw some that were more mournful and beautiful, as well as some amazing playful ones that reminded me of early cinema.

I didn’t end up unloading all of my copies of SHAMAN THUNDER so if you want one let me know. We’re selling them for two dollars.

April 9th, 2010

SHAMAN THUNDER Debuts at MoCCA 2010

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:19 am

SHAMAN THUNDER, Josh Burggraf and I’s collaborative comic, published by the Gold County Paper Mill, is debuting this weekend at MoCCA 2010. Here’s a preview shot:

The comic is 12 pages of sequential art plus a yellow cardstock cover and blue endpapers, all xeroxed. Josh and I developed the plot together, broke it down it to a page-by-page outline, and then drew alternating pages. Then we decided to rearrange the first four pages so that it’s two of my pages and then two of his, because we like to be confusing.

If you want a copy try to swing by the Supertalk table at MoCCA or send me a message/leave me a comment on this here blog. We’re selling them for $2 and will have them available at stores at some point, I’ll let y’all know.