Category Archive: Cartoonist Conspiracy

Feb
02
2010

CAM-JAM 2010 #1! Feb 21, 2010 11:30 to 5:30 at the Cartoon Art Museum

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OK, folks. I am representing the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco in setting up another comic jam at the Cartoon Art Museum with help of the museum’s bookstore. Yep, this is my ‘baby’. So if you are in the area and love to draw, come on down and join us.

Come and draw with us on Feb 21, 2010

The Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco and the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore present CAM-JAM 2010 – #1 on Sunday February 21, 2010! 11:30 am to 5:30 pm

It’s a New Year and time for more collaborative comic jam fun with the artist from the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco. Spend the day drawing and creating with a local talent while we challenge ourselves to create and print a mini-comic with the events theme(s) by the end of the day. The themes for this CAM-JAM are: Brush and Ink, Samurai and Superhero, Poetic and Wordless.

Where: Lobby of the Cartoon Art Museum, 655 Mission St. San Francisco CA

When: Sunday February 21, 2010 – 11:30 am to 5:30 pm

Cost: FREE, but copies of the final mini comic will cost the price of printing. ++

What (to bring): Yourself and your favorite drawing tools, especially your favorite brush pen. Feel free to bring clippings/copies of reference that fits the theme as well as your networking paraphernalia.

How – Schedule below: (note: you are not required to attend the whole day, but you are encouraged too)

11:00 am – Set-up and schmooze.

11:30 am – Warm-Up Jam: Group Mash-up Character Design.

12:00 pm – Our Warm-up Jam drawings will taken and scanned while we set up for the mini-comic jam. Note: If you worked on the Warm-Up Jam drawings and stay till the end, you get to take a drawing home with you. Free art, woot!

Feel free to bring printouts/clippings of inspiration based on this sessions themes to share.

Set up to draw. Take a break for a quick lunch or snack.

12:30 pm Start the Comic Jam!

We will break into small teams of 2-4 artists who will be tasked with creating a short 2-8 page comic using the themes of the event. Card stock will be provided to draw on and some ink and brushes to try, but feel free to bring your favorite tools too.

A few volunteers will be helping us to scan pages when your team finish one, so we should be able to get the work on-line/printed faster then last year.

4:30 pm STOP

While any last pages are quickly prepped/scanned to make copies, the group will work on the final cover.

Everyone cleans up! Shop at the bookstore!

A team of expert copiers will jet on over to the copy store while any remaining artist will help vote on their favorite Warm-Up Jam drawings that are now displayed on the Bookstore Wall. There might be a possible prize as well.

5:00 pm ish Book arrive for you to take home with samples of everyone’s work. **

** Each artist can get copy(s) of the final Mini-Comic at cost; a few extra copies will be available at the bookstore for a full price as our way of helping this wonderful non-profit museum out.

++ (Legal stuff) By participating in the Jam you are giving permission for your work to be placed on-line by the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco and that a limited number of books can be sold as a fundraiser for the Cartoon Art Museum through its bookstore. Every effort to give credit and promote the participants will be made.

Random Numbers will be given by anyone who did the Warm-Up and we will go in order with each person taking an original drawing home.

5:30 go out for food/drink and schmooze, draw more, network, have fun.

So, why not join us?

Questions: Contact the CCSF organizer Brian Kolm at staff (at) atomicbearpress.com

Hope to see you there.

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Aug
31
2009

San Francisco Zinefest 2009 follow-up

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The other weekend (8/22-23/09) I was at San Francisco Zinefest 2009 thanks to my friend Romy who allowed me to hang at her table and promote my art as well as the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco. The convention is Free to the general public and features some of the best in home made comics and zines.

From the official website:
It’s a FREE annual two-day conference for independent and underground publishing. Exhibitors come from all over the West Coast, and while the focus is on zines, all walks of DIY life are represented — comics, arts and crafts, literary presses, and more. SF Zine Fest was founded in 2002 by Jenn of Starfiend Distro.

SF Zine Fest 2009 is brought to you by the hard-working folks at Family Style, Miromi, New Lights Press, Monkey & Seal, and many other wonderful volunteers.

The show was fantastic and there was so much great art and creativity in that room. I had a blast. I will be posting links to some of the creators I met at the show later this week.

Here is the table I was at…

Folks at the convention. Center is artist Karen Luk.

And to finish up, here is some drawings I did in copies I sold of my Maps, Magic and Menagerie portfolio.

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Aug
18
2009

CAM JAM 2 thoughts from Romy and more going ons

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- In response to the comic jam on last Sunday, here are some thoughts from my friend Romy. She has nicely created a list of points that would be fit for a corroborate presentation. Romy also helped to keep the event flowing and brought a lot of spirit to the proceeding. Thanks Romy.

- I will be at San Francisco Zine Fest next weekend, but have not solidified any plans. They have lots of cool stuff going on. http://sfzinefest.com/

- “Look at me! Autobio Comics Read by Their Creators” There will be a pre-SFZinefest event at the Cartoon Art Museum on Friday August 21, 2009.

Cartoon Art Museum Event: Friday, August 21, 2009, from 7pm to 9pm
$5 Suggested Donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)

- My pal artist Alex Schumacher will be the artist is residence at the Cartoon Art Museum on Saturday August 22, 2009 from 1 to 3 pm. find out more at: http://www.cartoonart.org and  http://myworldisfunnier.blogspot.com/

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Aug
17
2009

CAM JAM 2 follow-up

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Yesterday was the second Comic Jam that I arranged at the Cartoon Art Museum, CAM JAM 2. The event was nothing like the first one we did in May 2009, but it was very successful.

My main goal for the event was to create jam comics and then publish them as a zine the same day. You see last time we did some amazing work with a lot of people, but we did not get it finished and so lots of folks are still waiting to see what we came up with. So I was determined to have us complete comics and have everyone take a copy home with them the same day if possible. The amazing thing is that we did accomplish that goal, but if we had the number of artist drawing that we did on CAM JAM 1 then it would not have been possible due to the sheer amount of art produced.

You know you want to see the zines. So, before we go on, CLICK here to see the final product…. (photo by Romy)

We had six artist show up from my invitation, but that did not mean that we did not have others participate in our madness. Joe did an amazing job of inviting folks visiting the museum to come and draw for our contest. You see we started the event by doing a drawing warm up and contest with the prize being 10$ to spend at the museum bookstore. Artist had to draw their interpretation of a villain from a Disney animated feature and boy did we get some awesome work. CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME OF THE DRAWINGS I will be posting the drawings after I scan them, so stay tuned.

So after the core artists finished their villain drawings, we kept it going with a Speed Jam. That is we had each artist take turns to create a comic story by only spending two minuets per comic panel. I had pre-printed zine size pages with box printed on them taped to sheets of news print on the window of the bookstore. Then it was a matter of someone keeping time while artist jumped in and drew. One issue that always pops up with Jam comics is that ending them is a lot harder then starting them. So the cleaver artist at work went in and added not only an ending panel, but a few intermittent panels as well. So as we then moved forward again we had certain locked in elements that we had to make the work flow into. The result was a simple story, but a story none the less. CLICK here to see a picture of Joe in front of the speed jam pages. We ended by creating a title page with Chris doing pencils for five min and then Jeff inking it for five min.

Now all the while we had guest artist doing their villain drawings too which Jason in the bookstore tallied which ones the visitors liked best. Thanks Jason.

So next we tried to start a jam comic, but it ended up with us just doing our own thing. The art was again drawn on the pre printed zine size pages (5.5″ x 8.5″) The amazing Romy finished a short piece as well as our new artist friend Chris. Meanwhile Jeff started a beautiful piece with a group of nuns and I worked on a story of Pinocchio in the old west. Sadly my story was too long for me to finish at the jam, but it was still going pretty well.

So around 4:45pm I started to paste the pages into a dummy of the completed zine. I then ran over to Copy Central on Market St. and first made copies of the pages then fed them into the copy machine to make booklets. I had brought some card stock from home for the covers since the cost is usually less then buying it at the copy store. We finished the zines by bringing them back to the CAM and every one helped to staple them. So most everyone could bought a copy of the book (for only the price of printing) and take it home with them the same day. Copies of the book might be available at ZineFest SF next weekend, I am working on it.

So then everyone helped to clean up the space and then another Comic Jam had ended.

What did I learn? That the number of people changes what can be accomplished. That we can have a better understanding of how we work as artists and that others will jump in and help when you need it.

A big thanks to: Joe, Chris, Romy, Jeff, Audry, and all the visiting guest who participated.

I know there will be another event like this in the future, but who knows what form it might take.

TO SEE ALL OF ROMY’S PHOTOS, CLICK HERE

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Aug
08
2009

CAM JAM #2, Sunday August 16, 2009 11-5

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The Cartoon Art Museum bookstore and the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco present:

CAM JAM #2: Once Upon a Time

Sunday August 16, 2009
Where: Cartoon Art Museum – San Francisco CA
When: 11am to 5pm

The Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco art group and the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore are proud to present the second Comic Book Art Jam at the Cartoon Art Museum (CAM JAM). The event invites artist of all levels into the Museum’s lobby to create sequential art (i.e. Comics!) and to push their creativity.

Our Goal: To draw complete short comic book stories between 11am and 4pm, then to get them printed at the copy store nearby so artist can take them home.
NOTE: The price per-book cost will not be determined until we know what the final page count is.

Space: There is room for at least 18 artists, but no one will be turned away and every effort will be made to find space.

Optional Theme: Once Upon a Time.

In honor of one of the museums newest exhibit ‘Once Upon a Dream – the Art of Sleeping Beauty’ the theme will be Fairy Tales. Of course who knows if the Three Bears had superpowers or if Hansel and Gretel were secret agents?

Cost: The event is FREE and will be held in the Museums Lobby. All artists who participate in the Jam will get free admission to get into the Museum as well.

Goodie Bag: The CAM bookstore will also offer goodie bags for a $2.00 donation that will include: a bottle of water, sweet treats, ‘mood’ pencil, 15% off coupon, raffle ticket and other surprises.

SCHEDUAL:

11 am – Museum Opens. Bring your comics, portfolio and favorite drawing tools on down and come ready to create.

Warm-up art challenge: To get ready to draw we will have a warm-up art challenge. Inspired by the by the evil fairy Maleficent who is seen in the current exhibit ‘Once Upon a Dream: the art of Sleeping Beauty’ our challenge will be to draw OUR interpretations of the great Disney animated villains. The artwork will be posted in the bookstore afterward and everyone (including the museum guests) can vote on their favorite and the winner will be picked at 4pm. Also, with the artists permission the art will be displayed both in the store as well as used for a Halloween window display.

11:45 am – Let’s get started!

We will regroup into teams of 2-3 artists to create a variety of different art jam collaboration through out the day with a goal to finish our comic by the end of the day.

Lunch Break: Artist can take a break whenever they want with a bag check available at the front desk. The CCSF and Cartoon Art Museum are not responsible for the loss of items.

…

3:30 pm – The home stretch to finish our stories by 4 pm.

4 pm – PENCILS UP! Time to stop.

- Members of the CCSF will take the artwork and run it over to a local copy shop to produce some books which (hopefully) will be ready by 5pm at the latest. (See 5pm.)

- We will count up the votes for the Warm-up Art challenge and Contest and pick a winner. You do not have to be present to win.

- Network, Chat and Clean up.

5pm – Mini comics of the days work will be available to the artist at the cost of printing. (We might require the help to assemble the books.)

- After jam drinks and snack at a nearby establishment.

Legal stuff…
*By participating in the Comic Jam you give permission for the CCSF to post your work on-line and to print a one time run of books to be sold to the participating artist at-cost. Extra copies will be sold to the general public as fundraising for the Cartoon Art Museum and CCSF.

RSVP:

If you think you will be joining us, why not drop us an email so we can get an idea of the number of people attending. Email organizer Brian Kolm at theatomicbear@gmail.com with your RSVP and/or questions too.

Cartoonist Conspiracy website: http://www.cartoonistconspiracy.com
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/cartoonist-conspiracy-sf?hl=en&pli=1
Twitter Updates: http://twitter.com/cartoonistSF/
Facebook: look us up as Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco

Cartoon Art Museum: http://www.cartoonart.org
CAM Bookstore Twitter: http://twitter.com/CAMBookstore
CAM Twitter: http://twitter.com/cartoonart
CAM Bookstore on Facebook: friend Sparky Joe
CAM on Facebook: search for Cartoon Art Museum

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Jun
07
2009

JAM Idea: Sticky Note Comic Jam

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Sticky Note Comic JamHistory: We first did it at the Cartoonist Conspiracy meet on Thursday May 28, 2009 with added printed template layouts on May 31, 2009 at the Cartoon Art Museum Jam.

Idea:This Jam was following up from the Index Card Comic Jam in which we had groups of two or three people join forces to create a story in a non-linear way by drawing each panel on a separate Sticky Notes and then deciding what order to put them in and sticking them to the template that is available on our download section. These type of jams’ strength lie in having less people and more control of the order of the panels helps make a more solid finished story. This might be a good way to develop a story you will re-draw with more elaborate panel boarders or just just what you make.

How does it work: Two or Three people get together and decide on a basic idea for a story. The original time we used the theme “Starting a Band”. Since the creators have no idea going in what will happen they might want to start by drawing a close up of a character or a establishing shot of the setting in pencil. The group works together to shape a story with sometimes having each artist focused on drawing one specific character (like in animated films). After the story is done or close to it another artist (or one of the creators) can go over with pen to solidify the drawings into consistent style.

Materials:

- Light colored Sticky Note
- (optional) Printed comic templates to ‘paste’ down your panels to give them boarders. You can just stick the Sticky Note panels on a sheet of paper and draw the boarders on top.
-  Regular or Blue pencil. Note the blue pencil on the yellow Sticky Notes with out inking made it very impossible to get a good scan.
- Inking tools.
- Two artist at least.
- A clean table to work on or someplace to stick the notes while your rearrange them.
- (optional) Way to get a random idea. We had printed slips of ideas generated from the website http://seventhsanctum.com/

Sample

- The artist sit down with there idea/theme.
- Decided if each artist will handle only a single character on each time it appears or that all the artist draws everything. It’s your choice.
- The group starts. We recommend having artist start with a close up or establishing shot to show the characters and setting.
- Have a sheet of paper or a clean surface to set down each Sticky Note Panel and you can rearrange them as you go to make a story.
- You might want to wait on adding dialog till after you have an order to place the Sticky Note Panels.
- Once you know what order you can stick the panels to the custom template of sheet of boarders or on a blank sheet of paper. If you work on blank paper, decided if you want to draw the boarders down too.
- Scan and/or copy the art to your website, zine, etc.

Sample Images:

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Jun
07
2009

Comic Jam Idea: Speedy Comic Jam

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Speed Comic Jam

History: First done at the Cartoon Art Museum Comic Jam on May 31, 2009

Idea: The idea of this jam is to work fast. Some of us artist have a habit of getting stuck on our comics projects and spending too much time. The jam produced interesting results and has some different variations. I could see this being a way to develop an idea with out getting stuck. You sort of just try to draw in ‘real time’.

How does it work: The idea of the jam is that each artist only takes a minuet or two to draw each panel We recommend that artist draw with pen since it forces us to not get too careful and work faster. We worked in a format based on Darwin Cookes’ “New Frontier” which features 3 CinemaScope panels per page. The wider panels requite some more details and storytelling sometimes, but also make the project go faster. We made copies of the template and then tapped them up on an easel.

We did the first jam in pencil with four artist, but that seemed to make it harder to follow, but it might be worth a try. See the variations below.

Materials:

- Printed comic templates. You can use any format you like or none at all, but we are not experience with it that way.
- Art materials, we recommended pens. Sharpies work well.
- Two artist at least
- Someone or Something to keep time. Watch, iPhone, Clock Watcher, etc.
- Easel or wall to put up the pages on. I think it’s better to stand and get lots of energy flowing.
- Way to get a random idea. We had printed slips of ideas generated from the website http://seventhsanctum.com/

Sample:

- Tape up 2, 4 or more of printed templates on the easel or the wall. Make sure you won’t damage the wall with your pens of choice.
- Pick one to a couple of random ideas, or just pick them from the audience or non-participating artist.
- Pick who goes first.
- The first artist draws for two minutes (one minutes is harder) the first panel.
- The second artist continues in the second panel.
- The first artist draws the third panel etc.
- Continue to the last panel on the last page. Can you have the story end on the last page?

Here is a sample of some of our jams by way of Flickr.

• This is my Mike Hales and Roberto who alternated panel by panel…

photo by Rick Lucy

• Variation: (below) Each artist drew their panels at the same time, but only on two pages per person. The theme was “Glam Rock Beach Party”…by Brian Kolm and Mike Hales.

photo by Rick Lucy

• Variation: Lots of people.

More then two people draw. One person per panel.

• Variation: Faster or slower. Use less time per panel or more time.

• Variation (not tried yet): Layered.

One person draws on the panel with a light pencil for one/two minutes. Then another artist goes over with ink for one/two minute. Then another artist adds the word balloons. Another adds the background. It really can be any variation mixed with the ideas above.

and You can have it so one artist starts with the first step and goes panel by panel at one/two minutes of time each and then the second person does not start till the first person moves to the next page.

– by Brian Kolm

P.S. please let me know if try this type of Jam and how your experience was.

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May
31
2009

CCSF Comic Book Jam at the Cartoon Art Museum May 31, 2009 report

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Check out the photos on the CCSF photo group on Flickr.

Well, today 26 people came to the Cartoon Art Museum to create comics and art. Members of the Cartoonist Conspiricy San Francisco joined with the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore for a Comic Jam.

Starting at 11 am artist begin to arrive at the Museum and were given a special custom lanyard while we finished setting up in the Museum’s lobby.

First off, artist were invited to help design the Bookstore’s online persona ‘Sparky Joe.’ Sparky Joe is a mash up of Olive Oyl, Wendy the good little witch, wolf girl from Lil’ Abner, and Disney’s version of Tinkerbell.

At noon we started the comic jams. One table did a series of illustrations that had an adventuring girl over the course of a day. The other table had two groups who worked on comics on Sticky Notes. The Sticky Notes allowed for us to create a collaborative story that can be rearranged and adjusted creating a more solid tale. The jams will be on-line in the next few weeks.

Later in the day we tried something new, Speed Comic Jams. We took pre-printed pages with three cinema scope panels and posted four of them on a tablet on a stand. The first time had each artist taking turns filling in the panels one by one with only one minutes per panel. We drew in pencil with a random theme with the words: Cinderella and Detective Tale. That produced loose rough drawings. The next version had two artist drawing two pages at the same time with two minutes per panel. The theme was Glam Rock Beach party. This time we drew with Sharpie pens which made the artist work simpler and cleaner. We did the challenges a few more times, finially returing to panel by panel at two minutes a time.

Around 4pm we had a few more artist finish some “Sparky Joe” drawings and then at 5pm we all voted along with shoppers in the Bookstore. Manager Heather had a hard time picking from all the designs so this made it easier. In the end there was a three way tie, so we had another round of voting with the winner being artist Audry Soffa (of the web comic the Bunny System) who’s art will be uploaded soon to Facebook.

If you want to be a friend of the Cartroon Art Museum Bookstore, just search Facebook for Sparky Joe or you can follow on Twitter as well.

It seemed that everyone had a really good time and we were really productive. We hope to have some comics on-line soon and look forward to returning to the museum sometime soon.

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