Just in time for the Vortex #2/The Melinderly #1 double comic release party at Domy Books, Rob Clough has posted a review of Vortex #1 alongside some other sf minis! He analyzes how my “deliberately artificial-looking style of line” changes the feeling he gets from the images. Also, I’m honored to be reviewed in the same post as Ryan Cecil Smith.
April 19th, 2012
April 13th, 2012
Announcing a Double Comic Release Party!
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:
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
Vortex #2 Sketch
Hey y’all, I’m going to be in pretty deep radio silence over the next few months finishing up some projects, so don’t be surprised if blog posts are delayed. But here’s a sketch of some ideas for Vortex #2:
Comments Off on Vortex #2 Sketch
January 6th, 2012
RUB THE BLOOD Art Show Tonight in Philadelphia
Tonight, from six to nine pm at the Philadelphia comic book store Brave New Worlds, is an art show of drawings done by contributors of RUB THE BLOOD that’re either related to the theme of the anthology or original pages.
Here’s the flyer:
I’ve got two 7×10″ ink drawings of the two characters I created for my RUB THE BLOOD contribution, Lightbeam and Bludwurld the Living Battle Planet, in the show. I also sent them some copies of VORTEX. Check out Ian Harker’s Secret Prison post about the show for more information, including a pic of the installation, and instructions on ordering RUB THE BLOOD through the mail.
Comments Off on RUB THE BLOOD Art Show Tonight in Philadelphia
January 3rd, 2012
News from the Holidaze: Austin Scene Report, VORTEX News, Site Update
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.
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.
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.
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
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.)
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.
Comments Off on VORTEX #1 Preview on Squidface & the Meddler
December 6th, 2011
VORTEX #1 on Sale at Domy Austin and Online in my New Store
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:
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).
Comments Off on VORTEX #1 on Sale at Domy Austin and Online in my New Store
November 18th, 2011
Final E.A.S.T. 2011 Weekend at the Hensel Hypercastle
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:
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.
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.
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.
I switched out the artwork on my walls in my studio.
Glade has some birthday banners on the walls of her studio.
I hope to see some of y’all this weekend!
Comments Off on Final E.A.S.T. 2011 Weekend at the Hensel Hypercastle
November 12th, 2011
E.A.S.T. 2011: VORTEX Debuts at the Hensel Hypercastle
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:
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:
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.
Comments Off on E.A.S.T. 2011: VORTEX Debuts at the Hensel Hypercastle
October 4th, 2011
24-Hour Comics Day 2011 Austin Recap
This past weekend was 24-Hour Comics Day. I spent several hours at an Austin event organized by Zach Taylor.
A sample page from Zach’s current webcomic, Bear Quest. I love how he does pixel art versions of each page.
I wasn’t there to work on a 24-hour comic – I just worked on a book-length comic, VORTEX, that I’m now about 3/8ths of the way through.
I’m not going to show y’all any more of VORTEX until the whole thing is finished.
The 24-Hour Comics Day event was fun (and productive – I finished [almost] four pages in the [little over] four hours I was there). I got to meet Jason Poland, who makes the webcomic Robbie and Bobby, IRL after many online convos.
This is a few panels from a Robbie and Bobby comic called “Wings”. Jason does all sorts of awesomely weird stuff like this in his strip, which he puts out several times a week.
I also met Austin Bedell …
This is a comic from Austin’s side project Vidyagame Library, where he draws comic inspired by NES videogames.
… Chris Sweet …
This is a comic from Chris’s webcomic Effing Decaf. He also did a great mashup comic with Zach called “16-Bit Breakfast”.
… and many other awesome local comic folks. I’ll probably continue to work on my own projects during 24HCD2012 but it’s great to get to hang out with a bunch of local cartoonists.