Cropped Will Cardini artwork

March 2nd, 2012

STAPLE! 2012 Preview and Recommendations Megapost

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:26 am

Hey 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.

Michael Miles drawing
A sick skull draw by Mike Miles.

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.

STAPLE! Gold County Paper Mill location
I’ve marked our table.

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.

Zach Taylor Bear Quest pixel art poster
An 11×17″ pixel art poster by Zach Taylor, on sale at STAPLE!

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.

Melinda Tracy Boyce comic
An autobio comic by Melinda.

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.

March 8th, 2011

STAPLE! Recap

Filed under: Recaps — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:00 am

Hey yawl, the Gold County Paper Mill and Glademade had a blast at STAPLE! last weekend, thanks to everyone who hung out and bought stuff!

Glademade and GCPM at STAPLE!
Zoom out shot of the table (I was able to get everything in the image except for the second Glademade card rack). Glade’s face is like “why are you d00dz hiding?”

We met a ton of kewl people and got to hang out with kewl people we’ve met at past STAPLE!s (that plural spelling of STAPLE! is straight from the style guide, I swear).

Glademade and GCPM at STAPLE!
Now everyone is showing their faces. From left to right: Michael Miles, David Fullen, Glade Hensel.

Some highlights:

  • The people across the aisle from us, writer Adam Smith and artist Matt Fox of Wet Black Ghost press, had driven all the way from Little Rock, Arkansas, where they say there’s not much of a scene. I dug their short sci-fi comic and I’m looking forward to the fantasy webcomic that’s on the way.
  • Speaking of driving cross country, I met several people who said they had just moved to Austin from Portland, like the cartoonists Aaron Whitaker and Melinda Boyce. Coincidence or growing trend? Let’s hope more cartoonists defect here.
  • Jake Ewing, proprietor of Awesome Comics in Dallas, shared a table with the Arkansas boys. He makes pretty kewl little folded full-color comics.
  • I’m really glad that Sparkplug Comics had a table at STAPLE!, I wish their were more out of town indy publishers there. Chris C. Cilla was in attendance, so I’m glad I’d been waiting to buy his new book The Heavy Hand from Domy so I could get a signed book straight from the author. I started reading it on the bus ride home from work yesterday and I’m really digging it.
  • It was good to talk to Paul Maybury and his also talented assistant Ricky Valenzuela. If I’d had more dough I would’ve bought some of Maybury’s sick looking original pages. At least we got to talk about coloring for a bit.
  • Man, I love how Toby Craig is still putting out watercolored comics in Houston. His earlier series Monster Engine was the first DIY comic I ever bought back at Bedrock City Comics on 1960.
  • I dug Partydog‘s VHS-style comic The Body is a System. Also he handed me a hilarious xerox mini of stick figure collaborations with his bf on this site. Loved it.
  • I was hoping that Zach Taylor would have Bear Quest 2 ready but his jam comic with Chris Sweet, 16-bit Breakfast, will tide me over for a bit.
  • I always enjoy chatting with Jen and MC of Buttersword. Their comics are like an angrier Porcellino with some sf elements thrown in every once in a while. Basically, they’re super real, honest, and independent. Also I applaud them for monetizing MC’s toy collecting.
  • Palfloat is a true Austin original. Click that link – you’ll thank me.

I hope to see you all again (and more people!) at STAPLE! 2012. Also, if you’re wondering, I’ll start posting the eight-page Glade and Mark comic on Friday. Click here for additional photos and GCPM-centric commentary

March 4th, 2011

The GCPM and Glademade at STAPLE! 2011

Filed under: Events — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:05 am

Hey y’all, David Fullen, Michael Miles and myself of the Gold County Paper Mill will be tabling at STAPLE! this weekend alongside Glade Hensel’s Glademade for the third year in a row.

STAPLE! banner

This year, for the first time ever, STAPLE! will be two days, March 5th and 6th! The event is at Marchesa Hall and Theater from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and noon to 6pm on Sunday. It costs ten dollars for one day and $15 for both days.

The GCPM and Glademade will be sharing Table 76, which is in the Annex. If you’re standing with your back to the entrance, the Annex is the room to the back and the left. We’ll be selling a lot of stuff, both old and new. Here’s what we’ll have in alphabetical order:

  • Screenprints and digital prints of my ATTACKS one-page comics
  • Candy or Medicine Volume 12, a minicomics anthology edited and published by Josh Blair (I drew the cover of this volume)
  • The second issue of Catch Up, a comics and poetry magazine edited and published by Jak Cardini and Robert Bozwell of the GCPM, featuring two different covers by Josh Burggraf, comics by Noel Freibert, poetry by Adam Day, and a short story by David Fullen
  • Comet a print by Glade Hensel
  • Froghead Hangover, a twelve-page xeroxed zine by me
  • Glademade greeting cards
  • Hypermorph, a digital print in original colors and the inverse
  • Lords ov thee Black Sun, a xerox zine by Michael Miles
  • Masks, a twelve-page xeroxed zine by me
  • One read-only copy of Math Fiction, a sixteen-page 11×17″ blue/red anaglyph 3D comic featuring Pat Aulisio, Ian Harker, Josh Burggraf, and myself
  • A two-color Miizzzard screenprint in purple/green or purple/orange
  • Original art by myself and Michael Miles
  • Shaman Thunder, a twelve-page xerox comic that Josh Burggraf and I made together
  • Slime Studies, a zine by Michael Miles
  • TRANZ, a twelve-page zine by me

Michael Miles process shot
A process shot from Michael Miles. He’s working to get Slime Studies finished in time for STAPLE!

Also, there are pre- and post-parties for STAPLE! The pre-party is 7-11pm tonight at Austin Books and Comics. There are an after-parties Saturday and Sunday at Club Deville from 8pm to whenever. We might be at some of these – if you see us feel free to say wuzzup.

January 18th, 2011

GCPM Merch and Other Items on Sale at Domy Austin

Hey y’all, I’ve been dropping off a bevy of GCPM books and some other goodness at Domy Books in Austin over the last month.

Click here for the full list