Cropped Will Cardini artwork

May 5th, 2023

New Comic in ANMLY #36

Filed under: Comics,Web Comics — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 11:34 am

I’m honored to let y’all know that I have a new short comic in the latest issue of Anomaly (stylized ANMLY), an online journal of literature and the arts.

ANMLY 36 cover by Dev Murphy, image is drawing of a scaly tunnel captioned I Dream at each end.
ANMLY #36 cover by Dev Murphy.

Here’s the first page of my comic, entitled “Sunk Mind”:

Sunk Mind by Will Cardini page 1, a black-and-white comic with two panels. Panel 1 caption: No thought thought in the history of the universe will ever be lost. Panel 1 image is a head breaking open with a wavy beam of light coming out. Panel 2 caption: Moving like liquid light, they exit the minds of a trillion trillion sentient beings... Panel 2 image is a wavy beam of light moving through space.

Click here to browse the table of contents for ANMLY #36, read the rest of my comic, and check out the other amazing contributors.

April 17th, 2018

Read all of Skew on Study Group

Filed under: Comics,Web Comics — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 10:55 pm

Study Group has posted the final update to Skew! You can now read all four parts of my second graphic novel on their site.

Skew page 221
Skew Page 221.

Here are some of my favorite pages from Skew: Click here to see these pages

March 16th, 2018

Recent Reviews

Filed under: Press — Tags: , , , , — William Cardini @ 10:33 am

Two of my comics were reviewed in January!

First, my latest comic Tales from the Hyperverse entered the Reviewniverse in episode #244 of the SILENCE! podcast by the Mindless Ones out of the UK, Gary Lactus and The Beast Must Die.

SILENCE! podcast header by James Stokoe
SILENCE! podcast header by the inimitable James Stokoe.

A quote I jotted down from the Ones about TftHV is, “The color is amazing in this comic.” Also they mistakenly attribute Prism Stalker to me for a sec before realizing their error – Prism Stalker is by Sloane Leong. The first issue of that comic came out last week and it’s a psychedelic, intriguing beginning to a mind-bending SF epic! I’m looking forward to seeing where Leong takes us. Lots of other meaty stuff in that episode, you can give it a listen here.

Second, Sphere Fear AKA Sphere Hear due to my illegible fonts was reviewed on the venerable minicomics review site Optical Sloth. Here’s a quote:

I love the fact that William has been living in this Hypercastle world for roughly a decade now, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Or of making his work more “commercial,” although I have no idea what that would look like in this universe.

Read the whole review here.

One great thing about Optical Sloth is its deep archive. Bramer has been reviewing comics for years and years – he reviewed one of my first minicomics in 2009. Another great thing is that he scans each comic for his review. I hope he doesn’t mind that I’m posting his scans of Sphere Fear so y’all can see the great risograph printing by Issue Press:

Sphere Fear cover scan
Scanned by Kevin Bramer.

Sphere Fear interior scan
Scanned by Kevin Bramer.

Finally, if you’ve read my comics, please consider giving them a review at my author page on Goodreads.

Abstract Test on the Abstract Comics Blog

Filed under: Comics,Web Comics — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 9:50 am

Last year I was experimenting with an abstract comic. It was one panel per page and I started each page with a circle in the same spot.

Here’s the first page:

Abstract Test page 1

Mike Getsiv posted the first seven pages on the Abstract Comics blog last October. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it in the future but I might keep adding to it.

January 16th, 2018

Watercolor Commission of Diana

Filed under: Artwork — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:10 am

Near the end of last year, I painted a watercolor commission of the character Diana in Tales from the Hyperverse. I did two versions and let the commissioner choose.

Here’s a detail of the first version, with additional lines in India ink:

Here’s the second version, without any India ink:

If you’d like to commission a drawing or painting from me, send me an email at william cardini at this website.

January 9th, 2018

Tales from the Hyperverse in Comic Shops Tomorrow

If your local comic book shop ordered Tales from the Hyperverse through Diamond, it’ll arrive tomorrow!

In other news:

Ryan C. reviewed Hyperverse for his blog, Four Color Apocalypse.

Here’s a quote:

My only previous exposure to Cardini’s singular psychedelic abstractions was in the pages of his B&W comics ‘zine Vortex, as well as a in a couple of anthologies, but he’s claimed a territory all his own in a fairly short period of time, and he plants his flag in it more firmly than ever in the pages of his new Retrofit/Big Planet solo anthology comic, Tales From The Hyperverse, a cosmos-shredding series of interlocked (at least thematically) stories that reduces Kirby-esque interplanetary/interdimensional clashes of absolutes to its barest elements, shakes them up kaleidoscopically, and dares you to figure out exactly what comes out the other end.

San Antonio comic book shop Gotham Newsstand already has Hyperverse and my other in-print comics (because it’s run by my brother, Peter Hensel, so I make sure he keeps everything in stock) and he put Hyperverse as #3 on his list of the best stapled comics of 2017!

Here’s a quote from the write-up:

In beautiful full color (but still filled with psychedelic patterns when they can be effective!), we see a cast of warriors, rival wizards, creatures, and more of the odd universe to which his graphic novel introduced us. I can’t wait to find out more of it!

Finally there are more pages of Skew Part 4 over on Study Group!

Skew page 177
Skew Page 177.

January 2nd, 2018

2017 in Review

From a geopolitical perspective, 2017 was a horrible year and the chances that our civilization will survive the coming climate catastrophe still seem remote. Our woeful lack of preparation for extreme weather events was unfortunately evident when the homes of my friends and family in Houston were imperiled by the record-shattering inundation of Hurricane Harvey. My parents’ house was inches from being flooded. I feel so grateful that they escaped that nightmare and I feel so much sympathy for the people who are still rebuilding in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

In response to the climate change denial, racist policies, and class warfare of the current Republican government, I was more politically active in 2017 than I have been in any year since 2003, when I participated in anti-war protests against our invasion of Iraq. It felt good to fight back and I feel like progressive forces in American won some victories.

Despite the national calamity, I continued to make comics. Madeleine Witt and Andrew White, the editors of Warmer: A collection of comics about climate change for the fearful & hopeful, included my submission in their anthology. I experimented with creating abstract comics from a template and Mike Getsiv posted some of the results of my tests on the Abstract Comics blog.

William Cardini abstract comics test
Abstract comics test. Each of the pages has the same circle shape, deformed or modified in different ways.

My biggest comics accomplishment was when Retrofit / Big Planet Comics published Tales from the Hyperverse, a collection of my short comics that I’ve been planning to put out for years. It’s difficult to match the feeling of excitement and anticipation that I got when I picked up the first box of comics from the post office. Tales from the Hyperverse will arrive at local comic shops that stock Retrofit / Big Planet Comics on Wednesday January 10th!

Floating Crystal Witch fan art by Colin Panetta
My friend and fellow cartoonist Colin Panetta drew this fan art of the Floating Crystal Witch, who features prominently in Tales from the Hyperverse.

Both Warmer and Hyperverse were funded by successful Kickstarter campaigns. Thanks to everyone who supported those campaigns with a pledge or a post!

I tabled at two comic fests this year, KC Zine Con for the second time and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus for the first time. I self-published a small print run of my minicomic Drumstick Pit for KC Zine Con. I’ll probably do one regional and one national show again next year.

Drumstick Pit mini-comic assembly process
It was fun to xerox and then fold and staple Drumstick Pit. It’s been too long since I last made my own mini-comics! An essential comics skill.

On this blog, which passed its tenth anniversary this year, I posted four book reviews:

I’ve got a few projects in the works that may see the light of day in 2018, including a collaboration with Zach Taylor on a videogame code named Project Quinoa. You can see updates from Zach, including videos of his great pixel art, on his development log.

Here’s a drawing I made this year that I might use for one of those aforementioned 2018 projects:

William Cardini dome city drawing
Dome city drawing.

And here’s a couple pages of a comic I’ve been tinkering with:

So I Folded Miizzzard grid comic page
“So I Folded” Miizzzard grid comic page.

And Piped Out Miizzzard grid comic page
“And Piped Out” Miizzzard grid comic page.

December 12th, 2017

Skew Part 4 on Study Group

Filed under: Web Comics — Tags: , , — William Cardini @ 7:48 am

Skew Part 4 has begun on the Study Group Comics site.

Skew Part 4 Cover
Here’s the cover for Part 4.

The first four pages are already up. Skew will update on Sundays.

Here’s a summary of where we’re at in the story: The hypermollusc has exploded. The fate of the Miizzzard is unknown. Bya the Space Yeti runs towards the burnt chunks of the hypermollusc with the remnant of the slime secretly hitching a ride.

Skew Page 144
The exploding hypermollusc.

Skew Page 170
The slime riding on the Space Yeti’s back.

This is the final part, except for an epilogue that I’m saving for a hypothetical print version. You can read the previous parts here.

December 5th, 2017

CXC Recap, Hypercastle Store Updates, and Study Group Comics Forum

Filed under: Recaps — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 7:40 am

Thanks to everyone who bought or traded for a copy of Tales from the Hyperverse and my other books at CXC.

Will Cardini at CXC 2017
A photo of me at the Retrofit / Big Planet Comics table at CXC 2017.

It’s a newer show so traffic is a bit slow but it has great potential. The downtown Columbus library is a beautiful location. I met and hung out with a bunch of great people!

Will Cardini sketch of Destroyer
I did this sketch of Destroyer for Matt Horak’s The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe sketchbook.

If you don’t have Tales from the Hyperverse yet you can now order a signed copy of it (and Sphere Fear and Vortex) from the Store page of this site. I’ve seen evidence on Instagram of copies in the wild in people’s mailboxes and on store shelves. If you read Tales from the Hyperverse, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads, it really helps to get the word out.

CXC 2017 Haul
Here’s my CXC haul.

In other news, I’ve helped Zack Soto add a forum to the Study Group Comics site. We’re still tweaking but come join this new comics community!

September 12th, 2017

Tales from the Hyperverse Debuts at SPX 2017

My new comic from Retrofit, Tales from the Hyperverse, debuts this weekend at the Small Press Expo near Washington, DC!

Tales from the Hyperverse by William Cardini cover

Unfortunately I won’t be there but if you can make it, SPX is a blast. I will be at the next show at which Retrofit is tabling, Cartoon Crossroads Columbus.

And if you can’t make it to either show and you missed out on the Kickstarter, you can preorder at the Retrofit site or wait until I get my copies and can offer signed copies on this site.