Cropped Will Cardini artwork

May 28th, 2013

Vortex #4 Progress Screenshots

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 9:14 am

I’ve been getting back to work on Vortex #4. I’m finally at the point where finishing the whole story feels like a possibility. I’ve been working on this since the beginning of June in 2011.

Sometimes I use the grid in Manga Studio to sketch out hyperstructures:

Vortex 4 Page 8 Progress Screenshot

Here’s that same page, ready for me to add patterns in Photoshop:

Vortex 4 Page 8 Progress Screenshot

May 21st, 2013

Future Shock #4 on Sale; “Hawk” from Future Shock #1

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 7:23 am

Future Shock #4, edited by Josh Burggraf, is now on sale here through the Birdcage Bottom Books distro.

Future Shock 4 cover by Jordan Speer
Future Shock #4 cover by Jordan Speer.

Here’s one of the three pages that I did in collaboration with Sean T Collins for this issue:

A Page from William Cardini and Sean T Collins comic The True Black
A page from “The True Black,” written by Sean, drawn by me.

Now that #4 is out and #1 is almost out of print, I thought I’d share my comic “Hawk” that I drew for #1:

Hawk by William Cardini Page 1

Hawk by William Cardini Page 2

For “Hawk” I was experimenting with the pencil-style I used for the comic I drew in Frank Santoro’s correspondence comics course, “Moon Queen.” The story itself was, perhaps too obviously, inspired by M John Harrison’s horrific but beautifully written book Light, which I highly recommend.

May 14th, 2013

TCAF RCAP

Filed under: Events — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 8:36 pm

I’m still high on the afterglow of TCAF (and the creeping con crud). So many classic hangs with kewl people. Thanks to everyone who came by my table or shot the shit with me at the parties, great to meet all of y’all.

This past year was the first time I’ve tabled at out-of-state cons. Each was an amazing experience for different reasons, but the one common thread is how strong comics are. I mean, look at my TCAF haul, so many fantastic books and I couldn’t afford a third of what I wanted:

William Cardini TCAF haul
I’ve only read a few of these books so far but I’m really into Victor Kerlow’s hilarious new book of short comics Everything Takes Forever, Alabaster’s impeccably put together new minicomic fantasy series Mimi and the Wolves, Tim Sievert’s Clandestinauts minis that collect the eponymous fun and bloody dungeon crawl webcomic, and Jen Tong’s beautiful screenprinted comics.

It was a bummer that Josh Burggraf couldn’t make it (here’s a poignant comic he made about why) but I was lucky enough to be seated next to the hilarious Mike Winters (check out these NSFW Time Professor comics) who was super friendly. It was his first time exhibiting at a con and I think he’s been spoiled for all others. Look at how stuffed the first floor was:

TCAF 2013 Toronto Reference Library

I only took an overview picture of the first floor of TCAF even though I was on the second but the crowd on our floor was equally crazy. On the last four hours of Saturday there was a huge line to get into our room, probably because of the super popular webcomics and YA folks in there with us.

William Cardini TCAF 2013 table
My table just wasn’t as colorful without Josh’s comics. Pat gave me some copies of Rub the Blood to hawk. I sold out of those and the ten Tranz #2 minis I made. I’ll probably make some more of those minis soon and sell them on my site.

Now I’m just going to give y’all a brief travelogue. I ate plenty of good food and drank good beer:

Toronto Food and Drink
That teriyaki tofu melted in my mouth like fried butter.

I got to hang out with the Hic and Hoc crew, Philly folks, people I know through Josh Burggraf like Victor Kerlow, some friends who used to live in Austin, and too many awesome others to list them all here. Even though I’ve been working with Pat Aulisio and Ian Harker for years, this was only my second time to hang with them IRL. I didn’t take any pictures of people, but fortunately Jen Vaughn captured this one at a hungover Monday morning super greasy breakfast joint:

Comics Girls vs Boys
We coincidentally chose sides on a gender divide. Top row: Jacq Cohen, Jen Vaughn, Rutu Modan. Bottom row: Robin McConnell, me, Murilo Martins.

I had intended to check out the sf book shop Bakka Phoenix but instead I tagged along with that crew to The Beguiling. I got this interesting-looking manga of sf short stories in French and English:

Heaven's Door by Keiichi Koike
Heaven’s Door by Keiichi Koike.

I don’t know when I’ll be back to TCAF, but it’s the gem in the crown of North American cons, so I hope it’ll be soon.

May 10th, 2013

The Gold County Paper Mill at TCAF

Filed under: Events,Print Comics — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 10:55 am

I’ll be exhibiting at TCAF this weekend. I’ll have Vortex #1-3 and a new, 16-page, quarter-legal-sized mini I did called Tranz #2.


I put out Tranz #1 back at the beginning of 2009.

My table is #248 on the second floor. I posted earlier that Josh Burggraf would be tabling with me but he can’t make it.

I also have a three-page comic in the new Hic and Hoc anthology Unknown Origins & Untimely Ends, edited by Emi Gennis. Hic and Hoc is at Table #102.


The cover of the anthology with one of my pages.

Anyway if you’re going to be at TCAF, I hope to see you there!