Cropped Will Cardini artwork

June 8th, 2012

Sketchbook Pages – Secret Prison #666

Filed under: Sketchbook Pages — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:48 am

Here are two sketchbook pages where I was brainstorming for the collaborative double-paged spread Keenan Marshall Keller and I did for Secret Prison #666:

William Cardini sketchbook page
If you’re curious, that note to myself in the top left corner refers to Vortex #2.

William Cardini sketchbook page

April 10th, 2012

Secret Prison #666 Kickstarter

Filed under: Print Comics — Tags: , , , , — William Cardini @ 10:56 pm

Secret Prison #666 is debuting this April at MoCCA 2012! This issue’s a little different from the previous ones – instead of single-page comics, it’s a bunch of double-page team-ups selected by editor Ian Harker and guest editor Pat Aulisio, the editors of RUB THE BLOOD (speaking of which, RUB THE BLOOD is now available in Yeah Dude Comics online store).

Secret Prison 666 cover
Secret Prison #666 cover by Pat Aulisio.

Pat and Ian paired me up with the bad-ass cartoonist Keenan Marshall Keller. We’re both total texture geeks but Keenan’s way more out there than me and is inspiring me to be grosser and more visceral with my drawings than I usually am. I’m loving what we’ve got brewing for SP#666! You can see what I mean about the similarities and differences in our styles in this drawing he did for the Monster Show at Domy Books:

Keenan Marshall Keller drawing
“Amplified Shaman/Acid Jesus” drawing by Keenan.

Ian and Pat are raising funds to print SP#666 via a Kickstarter campaign.

They’ve already met their funding goal for their initial print run and now they’re trying to meet a secondary goal to get even more copies printed. Prizes include SP#666, RUB THE BLOOD, and an 1/8th page ad drawn by myself.

October 26th, 2011

RUB THE BLOOD Kickstarter

A lot of cartoonists, whether they end up drawing daily autobio strips or Fusion comics, read superhero comics when they’re kids. The last couple generations of alternative cartoonists grew up reading Jack Kirby or maybe Watchmen. My peers and I grew up with the Image revolution.

X-Force #9 Cover by Rob Liefeld
X-Force #9.

To honor this influence, Pat Aulisio and Ian Harker have put together a 90’s Image comics tribute anthology called RUB THE BLOOD. I’ve got a two-page story in there called “Lightbeam vs Bludwurld the Living Battle Planet” (I bought the above issue of X-Force as research for my story) alongside comics and art by Pat, Ian, Josh Bayer, Kramer’s Ergot contributor Victor Cayro, Catch Up contributor PB Kain, Keenan Marshall Keller, Peter Lazarski, Benjamin Marra, Jim Rugg, Thomas Toye, and Mickey Z (P.S. Did y’all know that Benjamin Marra and Keenan Marshall Keller were in a show alongside Nathan Fox and Zach Soto at Domy Books in Houston? Check out the flickr for the show, called HARDBODIES). You can see samples of artwork (including mine) in this dope, NSFW promo video that Pat and Ian made for the RUB THE BLOOD Kickstarter:


The second part of this video recreates shot-for-shot this Liefeld Levi’s ad from the 90’s.

The Kickstarter campaign is to get RUB THE BLOOD printed up for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest. It’s already fully funded but if you want to order a signed or unsigned copy, or get some original art or comics from me, Pat, or PB Kain, the page is here.

Here’s additional artwork by Pat Aulisio:

Pat Aulisio RUB THE BLOOD artwork

And Victor Cayro:

Victor Cayro RUB THE BLOOD artwork