Cropped Will Cardini artwork

February 27th, 2014

STAPLE! 2014

Filed under: Events — Tags: — William Cardini @ 5:46 pm

Wow this year marks a decade of STAPLE! I was there for the first con at the Moose Lodge. It’s grown a lot! Last year I had some copies of Vortex at a friend’s table and I floated around the con for a couple of hours … but this year I’m splitting a half table with the Rough House Comics folks.

Russell Etchen cover for Rough House Comics 2
Sample of Russell Etchen’s cover for Rough House Comics 2.

I’ll have a stack of prints, including a red/blue anaglyph 3d print with glasses, one copy of Vortex #1, one copy of #2, and plenty of #3 and #4; Future Shock #2, #4, and #5 (edited by Josh Burggraf); Kid Space Heater #2 (by Josh Burggraf); RUB THE BLOOD (edited by Pat Aulisio and Ian Harker); and a few other anthologies that I’ve been in. I hope to see y’all there!

Update: we’ll be at Table 83A in the annex of Marchesa Hall, which is to the left of the lobby.

March 5th, 2013

Hyperbroadcasts: Staple 2013 Recap, Rough House Release Party, and Farewell Books Kickstarter

Filed under: Events,Print Comics — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 11:15 am

I ended up going to Staple for a few hours on Sunday. Here’s a shot of Vortex on the table I was sharing with Raw Paw, Douglas Pollard, Alex Webb, Connor Shea, Tyler Suder, Gillian Rhodes, Brendan Kiefer, and Matt Rebholz:

William Cardini and friends at Staple 2013
Cartoonists pictured left to right: Alex, Doug, Gillian, and Brendan.

The Rough House book, which we debuted at the show, looks amazing. Tons of great comics, printed in an assortment of two-color pairs on a Risograph, wrapped up in this offset cover by Doug:

Here’s a shot of Aaron Whitaker’s hilarious contribution about drunken snacking:

Aaron Whitaker comic in Rough House
Aaron’s story is called “The Disappearing Food Truck.”

There’s going to be a release party tomorrow night at Farewell Books (the shop that’s taken over Domy’s former location). All the details are here on Facebook, I hope to see y’all there!

Speaking of Farewell Books, they’re raising money on Kickstarter to give their store a strong start.

Farewell Books interior
A photo of the beautiful new shelving in Farewell Books, taken from their Facebook page.

Domy Austin was really important to me as an artist and lover of comics. It gave me a place to sell my work, get to know other like-minded Austinites, and flip through rare minicomics. This kind of space is vital for the creative community of our city. Plus Schmaltz sells delicious vegan sandwiches in the backyard. Travis Kent and Mikaylah Bowman, the owners of Farewell, know how to run a progressive book store and gallery from their days as Domy staff. I’m confident that they’ll make Farewell a fantastic resource for locals and visitors. Please help them out.

March 1st, 2013

Staple! 2013 – Update

Filed under: Events — Tags: — William Cardini @ 10:45 am

It turns out I’m going to have some copies of Vortex #1-3 at the Brendan Kiefer / Raw Paw / Rough House table at Staple! 2013.

Rough House production shot
Here’s a production shot of the Rough House anthology.

Check out the new Rough House tumblr.

February 26th, 2013

Staple! 2013

Filed under: Events,Print Comics — Tags: — William Cardini @ 11:16 am

STAPLE! 2013 is this weekend. The Gold County Paper Mill won’t be tabling this year (all our Texas members are going to be in the same wedding).

However, I’m going to have a four-page comic in a new book called Rough House. Here’s a preview of my contribution:

Preview page of Oort Wars by William Cardini

Rough House is a two-color risograph-printed book of Austin (or Austin-related) cartoonists. I don’t have a full list but fellow contributors include Brendan Kiefer, Gillian Rhodes, Aaron Whitaker, Connor Shea, Doug Pollard, and Tyler Suder. The book will be sold at the table of its publisher, Raw Paw.

I hope that STAPLE! is a blast, I might stop by to check things out on Sunday.

March 6th, 2012

Quick STAPLE! 2012 Recap

Filed under: Recaps — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 11:48 pm

There were tons of fun moments at STAPLE! 2012.

Bear Quest costume
I’m chilling with the Cyclopean bear from Zach Taylor’s Bear Quest.

Thanks to everyone who came by our table.

Gold County Paper Mill and Glademade's table at Staple!
The Gold County Paper Mill and Glademade’s 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.

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.

February 28th, 2012

Xeric Today, STAPLE! on Friday

Filed under: Admin — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 10:30 pm

Hey y’all, I mailed off my application to the Xeric Foundation self-publishing grant today.

Xeric Foundation logo

Applying to the Xeric has been a goal of mine since I first read about it, so even if I don’t get the award, I’m glad I submitted to the final round. Good luck to everyone else who submitted – may the most deserving cartoonists win!

Lars Martinson Xeric Foundation drawing
A drawing from Lars Martinson’s helpful posts about applying to the Xeric and self-publishing.

One resource that I came across while preparing my application was Lars Martinson’s ten-part post series “How I Self-Published a Graphic Novel” which details the steps he followed in publishing his book Tonoharu. Even though this is the last round of the Xeric there’s still plenty of useful advice about self-publishing in general in those posts. The two steps that I’m thinking the most about now are Part 4, where Martinson details saving up enough money to take a year off of his day job and give self-publishing a full-time try, and Part 10, where he thinks about what it’ll take for him to make self-publishing comics into a sustainable career. It’s an unfortunate fact that there isn’t much money in comics and I like how he deals with the reality of the situation without being hopeless.

In semi-related news, the Gold County Paper Mill will be tabling at STAPLE!, an Austin comics festival, this weekend.

STAPLE! logo

STAPLE! is this Saturday from 11am to 6pm and Sunday from noon to 6pm. I’m going to have a more detailed post about what we’re bringing and what else you should check out on Friday.

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.

March 26th, 2010

WITCH ATTACKS Screenprints for Sale

As I’ve mentioned, the incredibly talented Rand Renfrow made some dope-ass three-color screenprints of my one-page comic Witch ATTACKS (previously featured on Reynard Seifert’s site hahaclever). Look at these things, they’re perfect, it looks like a machine made them:

If you’re interested in owning one of these limited edition bad boys, they’re on sale at Domy here in Austin or you can just buy one from me. Leave a comment or send an email to [RE DAC TED] at g mail dot com.

Also, check out this video interview that the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen d00dz did of me and Glade at STAPLE! alongside a bunch of other talented exhibitors. We’re the first ones in this video and there are four more that you can check out if you want to see who all was at STAPLE!:

Because I didn’t give him a shout out in the video, props to Robert Bozwell, fellow member of the GCPM, for the work that he did designing the Catch Up website!