Cropped Will Cardini artwork

August 28th, 2012

Paper Party

Filed under: Life — Tags: , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 9:36 pm

My wife is opening up a shop called Paper Party in Domy Books in Austin. She’s going to sell stationary, art, party supplies, and gifts.

Paper Party screenprinting picture
A photo by Glade from when Glade and Laura were screenprinting Paper Party/Olive tote bags for the preview party.

Paper Party is going in the former Domy gallery space alongside a vintage and handmade clothing and accessory shop called Olive, run by our friend Laura Uhlir. There’s still going to be a gallery but it’s moving to a different area. Paper Party and Olive Vintage set up a sneak peek of their shops this past weekend. They’ll be open every Tuesday through Sunday starting on September 1st.

Paper Party preview
Two photos of the Paper Party sneak peek by Glade.

Watching all of the store items trickle in the staging area in our house has been fun. I think Paper Party is going to be fantastic and I’m so proud of Glade! Running her own boutique has been her dream for years and it’s finally becoming a reality. She’s supporting other craftspeople by selling their stuff on consignment and working to source sustainable and reusable party supplies.

Photos of Glade in her studio by Laura Uhlir
Two photos of Glade in her studio by Laura.

I’m so lucky to be married to be such an awesome lady. You should check out this profile of Glade that Laura posted on her Rad Lady blog. Laura took a bunch of beautiful photos of our house.

April 13th, 2012

Announcing a Double Comic Release Party!

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

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:

Vortex #2 and The Melinderly Release Party 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 21st, 2012

VGKids at Flatstock 33

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 11:46 pm

This past week was South by Southwest in Austin. One thing that Glade (I remade her website for her birthday, check it out) and I always like to do is go to Flatstock.

VGKids Flatstock 33 poster
VGKids poster for Flatstock 33.

Flatstock is a convention of concert poster artists put on in various cities by the American Poster Institute. There are always tons of dope screenprints there. We always seek out the art prints and buy a few of those. My favorite this year were a group of screenprinters from Ypsilanti, Michigan called VGKids.

VGKids poster and stickers
Another VGKids poster and stickers. I’m not sure who did this artwork – maybe it’s collaborative?

They also do prints for other people. Check out this two-color Tom Neely print they did:

Tom Neely two-color Moby Dick print by VGKids

January 3rd, 2012

News from the Holidaze: Austin Scene Report, VORTEX News, Site Update

Filed under: Admin,Print Comics — Tags: , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:36 am

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.

Monster Show 6 opening
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.

VORTEX #1 cover
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.

Hypercastle 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 6th, 2011

VORTEX #1 on Sale at Domy Austin and Online in my New Store

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 11:04 am

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:

VORTEX #1 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).

October 18th, 2011

James Jarvis: Pure, Unfettered Cartooning; including Steadman, Alechinsky, and my Monster Show Ink Drawz

The James Jarvis drawings that Dan Nadel posted this past week on the Picturebox blog are a revelation.

James Jarvis homage of Goya
An homage to Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monster” from Day 1 of the James Jarvis posts.

James Jarvis colored drawing
A colored page from Day 4 of the James Jarvis posts. These posts on the Picturebox blog are promotion for a full-color book that Jarvis has out, De Profundis.

Pure, unfettered cartooning. The impulsive, inky scratching of them reminds me of Ralph Steadman …

Ralph Steadman “The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters”
This is Steadman’s homage to that same Goya etching. I posted it so large because I stitched it together from two scans I did of Gonzo: The Art, a Steadman art book.

… mixed with a little bit of Maurice Sendak and of course, Pierre Alechinsky.

Alechinsky, “Alvéoles”
Alechinsky, “Alvéoles.”

Alechinsky, “Volcan ensorcelé”
Alechinsky, “Volcan ensorcelé.” Both of these paintings are from the website of the Alechinsky retrospective at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Check out this Alechinsky post by Derik A Badman or my previous Alechinsky post for more examples of his comic-like work.

Steadman was one of my biggest early influences and I love Alechinsky so Jarvis’s work really speaks to me. I’ve been experimenting with modifying my wanna-be Moebius-and-Brinkman hybrid style to something more spontaneous and cartoony. I like working in MangaStudio but sometimes I just want to get away from glowing computer screens and put nib to paper.

Here are two examples of me doing just that, in these drawings that I did for Monster Show 6 at Domy Books in Austin:

Cardini Quirky Miniboss Squad
I was thinking about the TV Tropes entry on the Quirky Miniboss Squad when I drew this (warning: TV Tropes is a link-infested time suck).

Cardini Fuck You Monster
This drawing is dedicated to my buddy Grant Davis.

Disclaimer: these drawings may or may not be in the Monster Show 6. I’m going to have something in there but I don’t know what yet. Come to the opening from 7-9pm on October 29th (costume encouraged) to see tons of monster drawings by all sorts of amazing artists. If you’re in Houston, there’s also a Monster Show there.

March 11th, 2011

Awthum Fetht 6666

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:04 am

I know that I keep talking about this Glade and Mark comic, and it’s coming, I swear y’all, but other things just keep coming up that are time sensitive, like STAPLE! and now SXSW. Also, I have some other comics that I haven’t posted here that are even older, so I may post those first. We’ll see. So, please ignore my empty promises and I’ll stop making them.

Anyway, for the sixth year in a row, the Awthum Empire, producers of fringe, DIY and avant garde culture in Austin and beyond, is putting on their one-day music festival, Awthum Fetht. And, just like last year, I drew a flyer for it:

Also, if you’re a band interested in a flyer or other artwork, please feel free to contact me.

November 30th, 2010

E.A.S.T. Recap and New Miizzzard Screenprint for Sale

Filed under: Artwork — Tags: , , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:29 am

I hope that everyone in the U.S. had a belly-filling Thanksgiving! One thing I’m thankful for is everyone who came by our studio during E.A.S.T., so thanks y’all. Of course, what I have is never enough, so Glade and I spent some time brainstorming ways to bring even more people in next year. We’ll see if they work.

If you’re feeling nostalgic, I just added a couple photos to the East Austin Studio Tour 2010 set on my flickr, check it out here.

On the last day of the tour, I finally had a new edition of 20 Miizzzard screenprints ready for sale. Here’s a shot of the purple/green version (there’s also purple/orange):

Purple and Green Miizzzard Screenprint

Click here to see process shots of the screenprints

June 8th, 2010

Sketch for “In Science, the Lion Sleeps with the Lamb”

The opening for Totally Wreck‘s latest show went well, thanks to everyone who came out!

For those of you who couldn’t make it, I don’t have any pictures of what I painted yet but here’s a sketch I did in preparation:

The show will be up at Big Medium until June 26th. Gallery hours are 10am to 4pm, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

March 12th, 2010

Awthum Fetht V

The past week and a half I haven’t been doing any comic pages. Instead I’ve been working on different versions of a flyer/poster for Awthum Fetht V, which will be next week here in Austin.

Here’s the internet flyer:

Here’s the 11 x 17 color poster, with a full list of all the bands:

They might have some prints of this poster for the first few people who get in the door.

I’m available to do flyers and other promotional materials for bands or shows. If you’re interested, just leave a comment or send me a message at mark p hensel at g mail dot com (no spaces).