This past Friday my particular corner of the comix internet blew up over this Comics Journal post where Dan Nadel heavily criticizes Kickstarter in general and the Secret Prison #7 Kickstarter in particular. I’ve been riveted to the ensuing shitstorm in comments threads, blog posts, and my Twitter feed. I feel compelled to post my thoughts here.
July 31st, 2012 |
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March 6th, 2012Quick STAPLE! 2012 RecapThere were tons of fun moments at STAPLE! 2012.
Thanks to everyone who came by our table.
I felt like Sunday traffic wasn’t quite as heavy as last year, but it was great to meet fans, hopefully make some new ones, and hang with more cartoonists than I usually see. |
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March 2nd, 2012STAPLE! 2012 Preview and Recommendations MegapostHey y’all! STAPLE! is this weekend and I’m super stoked! I’m going to have a bunch of great stuff at a table with fellow Gold County Paper Mill members Michael Miles, Chuch, David Fullen, and the proprietor of Glademade, my wife Glade.
I’m going to have stacks of VORTEX #1; my Rainbow Hypercastle, Hensel Hypercastle, 3D Hypercastle, and One-Color Hypercastle prints; Josh Burggraf’s Kid Space Heater; and the new issue of the GCPM-published poetry and comics magazine Catch Up. Michael Miles will have the zine he debuted last year, Lords ov thee Black Sun, and a new zine. And my wife Glade will be selling her Glademade greeting cards, leather bangles, and Poketo wallets. We’ll be at Table 34 in the Hall.
To our left is Ao Meng’s Cavalry Press (Meng is also editor of Novi Magazine). He’s gonna have a bunch of great stuff. On the other side of the room from us are cool area cartoonists M. Austin Bedell of Skweegie Island, Jason Poland of Robbie and Bobby, Chris Sweet of Effing Decaf, and Zach Taylor of Bear Quest. And on the back table at the back of the room are the big guns, Chris Staros of Top Shelf and Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and publisher of Heavy Metal.
In the other room, the Annex, are cartoonist power couple Aaron Whitaker and Melinda Tracy Boyce. Aaron will be debuting his first graphic novel, The City Troll, which successfully met its Kickstarter goal recently. Also in the Annex will be Tom Neely and Virginia Paine, representing Sparkplug Books. I think it’s really cool that they’ll be there. I’m really looking forward to checking out Neely’s book The Wolf.
See this blog post on the STAPLE! blog for a full list of participating cartoonists and their locations. There’s also a preparty tonight at Austin Books and Comics starting at around 7pm. |
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November 18th, 2011Final E.A.S.T. 2011 Weekend at the Hensel HypercastleHey 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:
I hope to see some of y’all this weekend! |
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November 12th, 2011E.A.S.T. 2011: VORTEX Debuts at the Hensel HypercastleI 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:
“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. |
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November 8th, 2011East Austin Studio Tour 2011: The Hensel Hypercastle PostcardGlade and I are doing the East Austin Studio Tour once again! This year we got some postcards printed up. We spent last night driving around Austin and dropping them off at various coffee shops and other places. Here’s my side of the postcard: Here’s Glade’s side: We’ve decided to call our studios the Hensel Hypercastle. I’m going to post more images and previews of what we’ll have on display over the next week and a half. |
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September 2nd, 20113D Hypercastle PrintHere’s the final print from Glade and I’s show at Austin Books: This digital print is called “3D Hypercastle” because it’s red/blue anaglyph 3D. I kept the blue stationary and shifted the red layers, so the 3D glasses that I got from Toy Joy only work if you fold them backwards. Here’s a colored, non-3D version of the print: Although the show is no longer up in the back room of Austin Books, you can still buy them from us or from the print rack at Austin Books: Let me know if you want to get something. Here are the links to the rest of our prints: |
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August 30th, 2011Flower Hypercastle by Glade Hensel and Ads in Secret Prison #5Hey y’all, sorry I made a mistake with my blogging and released an incomplete post early on Monday instead of today. Here’s the post that I intended to publish this morning: Here’s a print that Glade made for our show at Austin Books (Speaking of our show, if any of y’all want to see our prints at Austin Books and haven’t yet, this week is your last chance! Tomorrow is the last day.): This print is called “Flower Hypercastle.” It’s a digital print of a gouache painting. This past Saturday Glade and I just hung out at home, painted, and watched Mad Men. I spend so much time working on comics on the computer that I forget how relaxing and visceral painting can be. I’m going to try to make painting more a part of my regular art routine. Something I’m excited about but haven’t mentioned on here yet is that I’m the co-featured artist for Secret Prison #5. It’s especially exciting because I love the work of the featured artist, Tom Scioli. Gødland is one of my favorite comics. I’m bringing it up now because it’s debuting at SPX in a week and a half and they’re looking for people to buy ad space before this Sunday, Sept 3rd. Here’s an information sheet (with a small preview of Scioli’s dope cover): If any of y’all want me to draw your ad for you just drop me a line at mark p hensel /at/ g mail /dot/ com. |
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August 26th, 2011Rainbow HypercastleHere’s a print that I made for Glade and I’s show at Austin Books: It’s called “Rainbow Hypercastle.” I was mashing together flying whales, Penrose triangles, floating islands, space, custom patterns, rainbows, and the devil’s fork. |
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August 23rd, 2011Welcome to the Hypercastle by Glade HenselHere’s a print that Glade made for our show at Austin Books: This print is called “Welcome to the Hypercastle.” It’s a digital print of a gouache painting. I love Glade’s text treatment. You can see a similar design that she did for a Happy Birthday card here. |
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