6.10.08 Check out the new DAILY, Comic Strip 'Til Nude! This will continue all summer. Mayflies is now marked down to $4. MoCCA was such a blast! I met many artists and publishers who I've followed and appreciated for a long time, amassed a mountain of trades, and met many people who I'd now consider friends. An in-progress preview of the benefit anthology Ghost Comics is still here read for FREE. (It's a webview-format PDF, so the image quality is not the best.) It's a benefit for RS Eden, a substance abuse treatment facility in MPLS. With Jeffrey Brown, Allison Cole, Warren Craghead, Hob, Jordan Crane, John Hankiewicz, David Heatley, Lucy Knisley, Mike Lowery, Jessica McLeod, Jessica Williams, and many others. If you live in or near the Twin Cities, you should drop by Zinefest on July 12 & 13 at the Stevens Square Center for the Arts. Many of my friends and I will be exhibiting. Look out for my upcoming Kermit/nature/painting/perception poem/zine/art object thing with Hark!. This and a collection of the daily strips will debut at TC Zinefest, and the short stories mini Yo, I'm Ed! will be available as well. My new favorite movie is Ikiru (To Live) by Akira Kurosawa.
5.31.08 Check out the new daily strip. Mayflies is now marked down to $4. I hope to see you at MoCCA 2008! I will be pitching the benefit anthology Ghost Comics to publishers... Check it out to read for FREE! (It's a webview-format PDF, so the image quality is not the best.) It's a benefit for RS Eden, a substance abuse treatment facility in MPLS. Ghost Comics features such luminaries as Jeffrey Brown, Allison Cole, Warren Craghead, Hob, Jordan Crane, John Hankiewicz, David Heatley, Lucy Knisley, Mike Lowery, Jessica McLeod, Jessica Williams, and many others. I will have a promo mini, Yo, I'm Ed!, for trading and such. Here are my new anthology stories: "Back Pages" (Blonde on Blonde-era Bob Dylan gets in a tiff with an increasingly hostile reporter. from Good Minnesotan ep. 2)
I am making something with my friends at Hark! Press this summer, a little zine-y art object centered around a poem about Kermit the Frog. The books of Pema Chödrön come with my highest recommendation. Her teachings are really affecting me right now. A friend told me about the documentary Deliver Us From Evil, and I would say it's pretty important for you to see. It's about the Catholic priests pedophilia pandemic, and features the first priest to talk openly about it. Check out the trailer. Yoko Ono tells you some very important things in this song "Revelations" (remixed by Cat Power, from Yes, I'm a Witch). Here's some great Dalai Lama audio. God bless, - Ed
5.20.08 I'm going to MoCCA 2008! I will just be walking around, I won't have a table, so here's a photo to help you recognize me if you want to say hello. I will be pitching the star-studded benefit anthology Ghost Comics to publishers with a mock-up version and -- HERE IT IS to read for FREE! (It's a webview-format PDF, so the image quality is not the best.) It's a benefit for RS Eden, a substance abuse treatment facility in MPLS. Ghost Comics features such luminaries as Jeffrey Brown, Allison Cole, Warren Craghead, Hob, Jordan Crane, John Hankiewicz, David Heatley, Lucy Knisley, Mike Lowery, Jessica McLeod, Jessica Williams, and many others. I will have a promo mini, Yo, I'm Ed!, for trading and such. Here are my new anthology stories! "Back Pages" (Blonde on Blonde-era Bob Dylan gets in a tiff with an increasingly hostile reporter. from Good Minnesotan)
Not My Small Diary #14 is out (the dating issue), with my story "Dating Myself, My Dog, & My Friends, But No Boys". In the book, my stuff is just a few pages away from John "King-Cat" Porcellino! The experimental comics anthology Good Minnesotan ep. #2 is out, with my story "Back Pages" (about Bob Dylan in 1966) included. I am making something with my friends at Hark! Press this summer, a little zine-y art object. Will be cheap and fun. Also will be making a submission for H.O.W. because I'm a dang bleeding-heart. It's in color! I'm going to make a watercolor comic, I think. Plus many many other things, forever, until I die, and then I don't know what.
3.29.08 Books that saved my life lately: One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry; Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott; Man and His Symbols, edited by Carl G. Jung; Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin by Ashley Montagu; The Relationship Cure by John Gottman (I know the title is stupid); Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain; The Enneagram in Love and Work by Helen Palmer; as always, James Kochalka's American Elf; the issues of MOME serializing Lewis Trondheim's "At Loose Ends" diary comic. Got a lovely review from Shannon Smith at file under "other". I'm sitting here watching Freaks and Geeks with Abby and things're all right. You can read KNOW YOUR RIGHTS, a bilingual comic for MPLS panhandlers in PDF format for free! Here's a nice review from Sarah Morean at The Daily Crosshatch about it. She says, "this book gets at the heart of the matter and intelligently predicts and plays out scenarios that might really matter to a person who falls on hard times." There will be a special sneak preview of GHOST COMICS, the benefit anthology for RS Eden premiering at MCAD's Mini-Comic Con, which coincides with the Off-Kilter Comics opening. It's April 4, 6 PM, and it stars Zak Sally, Ivan Brunetti, Lilli Carre, John Hankiewicz, Onsmith, and Dan Zettwoch. Gallery talk at MCAD, signing at Big Brain the next day (check the link). The Mini-Con is at MCAD's Student Center (2nd floor) from 12-7 or so. There's an article in the Southwest Journal next Monday about the exhibit that has some words from me. GHOST COMICS stars Eli Bishop, Jeffrey Brown, Allison Cole, Warren Craghead, Jordan Crane, John Hankiewicz, David Heatley, Lucy Knisley, Mike Lowery, Jessica McLeod. I'm the editor. Yes, I'm a bragger. Look out for me in Not My Small Diary #14, Candy or Medicine vol. 4, Eye Candy Zine vol. 2, and Good Minnesotan Episode #2. (My story for Good Minnesotan, appropriately, is about Bob Dylan. Strangely enough, my friend Abby was recently stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again (just like that great song from Blonde on Blonde)! The power was off in Mobile, Alabama and they couldn't leave.) I updated the links in the about/contact section of the site to include more lovely folks. I finally dropped off the anthology zine I made from the work of my Autobiographical Comix class at MPLS queer youth community center District 202. It's a wonderful place, I woulda killed for one like it growing up. Jessica McLeod's comics make me laugh.
2.20.08 (In a word: OOPS! as far as keeping in touch via the internet has gone for me recently. Sorry folks.) UPCOMING and RECENT STUFF: -PANELS WITHOUT BORDERS is a group show I curated that will be opening at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Gallery 148 on February 29 at 6 PM. Lambs of God and a will play. -I am editing a self-published benefit anthology (asst. editor: Abby Mullen) tentatively titled GHOST COMIX. It benefits RS Eden, a MPLS-based drug addiction treatment facility. Who's in it, you ask? Eli Bishop, Jeffrey Brown, Allison Cole, Warren Craghead, Jordan Crane, John Hankiewicz, David Heatley, Lucy Knisley, Sarah Louise, Mike Lowery, myself, Sarah Morean, Abby Mullen, and Jessica Williams, among others. Should be out summer '08. (General tip: benefits are great to get going because people will get excited to sign on to community, outreach-based projects. I cannot BELIEVE who has signed on to the anthology; I feel very blessed and I am so thankful to all involved.) -I just did a comic pamphlet entitled KNOW YOUR RIGHTS (a.k.a. Sepa Tus Derechos; it's bilingual) for St. Stephen's Human Services (a local shelter / human rights group). It's a comic that will be handed out to homeless people in MPLS to be informed about the city's new (and stupidly specific) panhandling laws, as well as a general push for human rights. Starring hobo characters Poet Mouse and Maddie Mouse. I learned a lot about homeless culture and life while doing this... I'll show you some soon. -I have stories in upcoming issues of CANDY OR MEDICINE, EYE CANDY ZINE, and NOT MY SMALL DIARY. -The main preview story for MAYFLIES is now the best one in the book, "Sing Into My Mouth." -I'm drawing a comic about Bob Dylan called "Back Pages," named after my fave by him. It's fun. I don't know what it'll be in. -I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to do what I love and share it with people, and to know the people that I know. I'm really tired, but man, whotta life!! Did you know Jack Kirby never erased a panel, ever? Did you know John P. doesn't really either? Both are very easy to believe if you think about it. God wrap us all up in midnight blue or your favorite color. God is made up of your favorite color, washed in your favorite kind of paint and God's caress smells like the texture of your bedsheets' fabric. I am twos, I am two people, I am too. Jung whispers in my ear. - Ed M., MPLS.
ps. Did I tell you I decided to become an art therapist? I'll go to grad school in a few years. I'm thinking about SAIC and a couple others.
9.10.07 MCAD has a brand new weekly Sunday comics-style free print thing/weblog called Comic Sanz. Most everyone involved are friends of mine, and some of the work is pretty staggering, especially Man-Fiction by Toby Jones (alternating Cathy and Garfield "fan art"), and Abby Mullen's Bird Cemetary. Saw the Flaming Lips last night at the Myth. It was an experience. It reminded me a little bit of the funeral I went to in Ghana -- a lot of joy and laughter and dancing, tempered with tears and awareness of the cold ground waiting for us and our friends. Which I think is a pretty accurate summation of life. They played a couple of songs off The Soft Bulletin, a bunch off of Yoshimi, an early one (from Priest-Driven Ambulance, which I don't know), and one from Zaireeka!! and "She Don't Use Jelly"! They gave everyone laser pointers, and confetti was flying constantly. It's much, much more than just a rock show for many different raisins. See them if you ever get the chance.
8.27.07 MAYFLIES is OUT! today my friend Toby drove me to Bookmobile (the printer) to pick it up. my friend Abby took me to pick up the proof before I went to Ghana, and I had a minor meltdown and felt bad all day. this time, I hoped that wouldn't happen... what happened instead was I just started talking about how ridiculous it was that I was doing this and how stupid and self-involved it was and I laughed uncontrollably. ridiculous. they'll be at Arise!, Big Brain, the MCAD Art Cellar, Extreme Noise, and more as soon as I can hope on my bike and traverse the city.
8.9.07 yo, I'm back from Ghana. (book orders will still be delayed for a little while longer as I am right now in New Jersey and not in Minneapolis, my main base of operations.) I was in Ho, in the Volta region via Cross-Cultural Solutions. I feel like going to another culture is like meeting a new person when you have only known one person yr entire life. the old person seems like only flaws, and you can only see light in the new one. everyone I met was warm, open, giving, funny, and lively. I made lifelong friends both in the other volunteers, the staff (which was 100% locals), and others around town. it was characteristic of the Ewe culture that my favorite single thing I did was the funeral a few of us attended, because it was an explosion of different emotions, a much more holistic funeral, I felt... since life is a lot of joy tempered with a little tears. it was unbelievable intense, not to mention the first time I've seen a corpse. that, the going-away for the volunteers party, and an end-of-school party convinced me: ain't no party like a Ghana party 'cuz a Ghana party don't stop. when faced with loss, they dance.
7.8.07 hello! welcome to my website, which is a home base for my comic books, illustrations, weekly strips, and all other cartooning / art projects. this is actually a funny time for me to launch it, because as I've noted in time-based sections of the site, I will be leaving this Friday for Ghana. I will be volunteering at the Paradise Nursery School in the town of Ho. I'm going there through the super-solid organization Cross-Cultural Solutions. I am very, very excited. Zak Sally's new book Sammy the Mouse is awesome. I interned for him all last year at La Mano 21, and he is a stand-up guy in every way. srsly amazing. and the book makes me go "MM-MMM" because I make yummy sounds when I like things. it's a funny animal story but all the animals are horrible alcoholics. he claims that it's lighter than his other stuff, and I don't really agree, but whaeva. I really like the way it's paced. it's out from the Ignatz series (i.e. comics and a format that make me the happiest boy in Puppetland). Bla Bla Blacksheep, Kitten Forever, others play at the Pocketknife tonight. $5. Arise! benefit show. should be sweet. |