{"id":7936,"date":"2025-01-31T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T14:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hypercastle.com\/blog\/?p=7936"},"modified":"2025-01-31T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T14:54:09","slug":"2024-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/31\/2024-in-review\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

2024 was a huge year for me! I did two big murals and co-curated a comics-related art show. <\/p>\n

The first mural was commissioned by my friends Grant Davis and Mike Moody for a wall in the reception area of their podcast recording studio RecordATX<\/a> in 2023 and went up this past April (in my old haunt the ATX, natch). Check it out: <\/p>\n

\"vinyl
\nPhoto by Grant Davis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hadn’t done much mural work, so I wasn’t sure about the best approach and printing method. But when Grant suggested Wall Decal World<\/a>, whom he’d worked with before, and I showed their website to my wife Glade<\/a>, she had the brilliant idea to do a die-cut mural where the negative space is the wall. I was so pleased with this concept and how it turned out that I went back to Wall Decal World to print a mural for my main contribution to Read the Room<\/i>, the art show I co-curated for Charlotte Street Foundation<\/a> that opened at the end of May. <\/p>\n

Here are some install shots of the show: <\/p>\n

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\nPhoto by EG Schempf. Artist credits from left to right and back to front:<\/p>\n

On the freestanding wall:
\nJohn F. Malta<\/a>, Rotten Metropolis Comic Pages<\/i> and John Buice<\/a>, Untitled Collection<\/i>.<\/p>\n

On the right wall: Tim Brown<\/a>, More Kisses<\/i>; eight pages of original art by Vincent Carton Mollica<\/a>; Mary Climes<\/a>, excerpt from Vig<\/i> (original artwork) and The Magic Mountain<\/i> (on the monitor); and part of Joshua W. Cotter<\/a>’s installation, Infinite ©uck & Related Social Media Pieces<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Shining on the back pedestal: Jamies Bates<\/a>, Mouthy Lamp<\/i>.
\nResting on the front pedestal: Momoko Usami<\/a> & Joshua W. Cotter, Traversing Twilight<\/i>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
\nPhoto by EG Schempf. Artist credits from left to right and top to bottom:<\/p>\n

Six digital prints of art from Siobhán Gallagher<\/a>’s book, Full of Myself: A Graphic Memoir About Body Image<\/i>; Kelsey Borch<\/a>, 1000 Doors<\/i> (on the wall) and digital art reel (on the monitor); and on the pedestal, Barbara Lane Tharas<\/a>, Sit With It<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nPhoto by EG Schempf. An unobstructed shot of my mural, Blursed Miizzzard<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nPhoto by EG Schempf. All three ceramic works by Momoko Usami.
\nTitled from left to right and top to bottom:<\/p>\n

Witness #1, Lady Justice<\/i>; Witness #2, Sea Change<\/i>; and on the pedestal, Diversity Seed<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Co-curating the show, creating my own art for it, and assisting with the install were a lot of work from the end of 2023 till the opening, but it was a very rewarding experience to collaborate with my co-curators Thayer N G Bray<\/a>, Tim Brown, and Jason Lips<\/a>; all the artists who contributed; and everyone at Charlotte Street. Our show got a nice online review in a local mag, KC Studio<\/a>, that highlighted the “monumental” “meta-effect” of seeing Joshua Cotter’s 110 intricate original pencil comic pages arranged on the wall in a grid, with a stack of free newsprint editions of the comic under it. So glad we got to realize Joshua’s vision! <\/p>\n

\"110
\nPhoto by EG Schempf. Joshua W. Cotter, Infinite ©uck & Related Social Media Pieces<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All the above photos were just from the the biggest room in the show! I could fill this whole post with show photos, but that’s all I’m going to share for now. I posted more on my Instagram<\/a> this past summer. <\/p>\n

In the second half of the year, I tabled at KC Zine Con for the I-can’t-remember-how-many-th time, and Autoptic for the first time. <\/p>\n

KCZC was in a new-to-me venue, Goofball Sk8boards, which was delightful because it’s right in my neighb. The organizers split the tablers over two days, so I tabled next to Nick Francis Potter<\/a>, a Read the Room<\/i> participant and excellent artist, on Saturday, and got to chat with a couple other equally amazing participants, Jenny Jo Hrabe<\/a> and Barbara Lane Tharas, on Sunday. I enjoyed being able to both table and visit the show as an attendee, but I felt like the split roster might’ve lowered sales, especially for zinesters who only tabled on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Autoptic was a blast because I was reuntied with my co-curator and co-tabler Tim Brown after he moved from KC to Minneapolis and I finally got to meet Ryan Carey<\/a> in person after pestering him with review copies of my Hyperverse comics for years! Unfortunately I didn’t realize Insert Name Zine Fest was the next day, but hopefully I can pull off the double-comics-fest weekend next time the stars align. <\/p>\n

At the end of the year I got back to drawing. I submitted to the Crossroads Artboards again but wasn’t chosen, so I’m gonna end this post with my third, unrealized mural design for the year: <\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2024 was a huge year for me! I did two big murals and co-curated a comics-related art show. The first mural was commissioned by my friends Grant Davis and Mike Moody for a wall in the reception area of their podcast recording studio RecordATX in 2023 and went up this past April (in my old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recaps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hypercastle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}