Hey all, I thought it was time to give a bit of a follow-up to the CAM-JAM comic jam at the Cartoon Art Museum that I helped organize with the museum’s bookstore.

I would say it’s the most successful event yet with 16 participants helping create a 40 page mini comic. There is a link at the bottom of this post to read it on-line.

First off, we did not reach one of our goals of printing the book in time for folks to take home with them. We have tried twice and at this point we will probably re-think that part. It was also raining, but that is something we can not control…yet.

Sunday Feb 21, 2010 was  a rainy day, perfect to sit inside and draw with new and old friends. We had just the right amount of artists to fill the lobby at the CAM. Most folks arrived promptly which was nice. When you don’t know how many people are attending, having 5 show up right on-time is a relief.

The event was really energizing, fun, and everyone created amazing work. The theme was Samurai and Superheroes, but no one drew any superheroes.

Here is a video of my taken by Cathy. I wish my voice did not sound like a Muppet on recordings.

11:30 am- We started with a character design mash-up warm-up which was great. The drawings feature mixing up established pop culture icons which are twisted in different ways to make something new. Samples can be seen below or in the web-edition of our comic. Thanks to Marti for scanning the drawings during the event.

CAM-JAM character mash-ups

12:00 am- Next up was a break and then Kristin Barrett of General Pencil Co. demonstrated their brand of watercolor pencils and gave everyone a set. She did a great job and was really fun and interesting. You can find out more about their products at http://www.generalpencil.com. A big thank goes out for there sponsorship.

- We broke into groups of 2-4 artists. Everyone started their comic by working from a randomly created Haiku poem generated on-line. This seemed to be a good limitation to get the juices flowing and then we just started to create our comics. We drew actual size on 5.5″ x 8.5″ cover stock and we had a selection of brush pens, ink and brushes to use. BTW Brush and Ink was one of our themes for the event.

- Around 5pm we stopped our work with 5 unique stories of the Samurai. I tried to tape down the pages into a dummy of the book so we could go and make copies at Copy Central, but it too long. But we did have a long Mini Comic of 40 pages, including a snazzy cover to show for our hard work.

We packed up all our materials and put away the tables and chairs. Thanks to Amy and David for helping us and for giving us a bit more time after their quitting time. Afterward a group of us went to Mel’s for some food.

The next week I scanned the files and had them printed at Costco Business (great service and prices) and stappled them in time for the Cartoonist Conspiracy SF comic jam on Thursday Feb 25, 2010.  I handed some out at the jam and then mailed others the next day. The book is really amazing and we should all be proud of what we created together.

A big thank you has to go out to Heather Plunkett and the staff of the Cartoon Art Museum and Bookstore for their support, space and help. A shout out to Kirstin Barrett for sharing her products and the wonderful samples. And of course a big thank you to everyone who participated…

Cameron Forsley, Maggie Tran, Lindsey Stapleton, Eric Haddad, Aurora Sofia Alcantar, Jeff Nevins, Rick Lucey, George Webber, Pat Tong, Mike Scagliotti, Audry Soffa, Jeff Plotkin, David Mann, Rena Simon-Igra, Alan Groening, and Cathy Notter.

So, here is the final book: click on the picture below to give it a read. (flash required)