Category Archives: Opportunities

Mark Your Calendars… April 9th, 2011 is MINI-COMICS DAY!

April 9th, 2011 is the date for the first annual Mini-Comics Day, celebrating the art of cartooning and creating hand-made comic books.

On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists from around the world will write, draw, and print copies of a mini-comic, completing the entire process from start to finish in a day or less. Anyone in the world can participate.

Mini-comics have been democratizing the art of making comic books since the 70’s or earlier… with the popularization of photocopiers, it became apparent that anyone with an inclination and some spare change could print a little comic book. Wildly varying in both form and content, mini-comics are a wonderful synthesis of cartooning and hand-made art objects.

Guidelines: To participate, create a mini-comic from start to finish on April 9th, 2011 (including writing, drawing and printing it). You can make your mini-comic by yourself or with other artists.

Format: Your mini-comic can be any size, length and format you desire. A standard mini-comics size would be eight 4.25″x5.5″ pages (which can be made from one 8.5×11 sheet of paper printed on both sides).

Help: For more information on how to make a mini-comic, see the Cartoonist Conspiracy’s mini-comic tutorial How to Make Mini-Comics. More resources can be found here.

Submit: Optionally, you can post information and/or images from your comic on the Mini-Comics Day blog. Contact for an account to post here.

Bonus points: If you are working with a group of cartoonists, you may want to consider collecting your mini-comics together to distribute as a set. Bags, rubber bands, or boxes all work great for this purpose.

Also, you may want to consider trading copies by submitting some to the Mini-comix Co-op.

Events: There will be two kinds of events related to Mini-Comics Day:

Cartooning Events, where cartoonists meet to work on their mini-comics around their peers.

Mini-comic Swap Events, where cartoonists can trade and sell their minis.

If you would like to organize an event, contact us at so we can promote your event and add it to our event listing.

About The International Cartoonist Conspiracy: Founded in Minneapolis in 2002, The International Cartoonist Conspiracy is a loosely organized group of cartoonists with cells all over the world. The Conspiracy has been responsible for many collaborative projects, including anthologies, gallery shows, and numerous jams every month. Any cartoonist anywhere can start a cell, and anyone with a desire to draw comics is encouraged to participate.

Comics Journalism for the Southwest Minneapolis Patch!

Hey, everybody!

This message (below) comes from a dear pal-o-mine, Jon Collins. He’s edits the Southwest Minneapolis Patch and is looking for cartoonists to develop stories for his site. Patch is an AOL initiative specializing in hyper-localized online news writing. It’s pretty cool! And there might be some money in it for you. Which is also cool!

Southwest Minneapolis neighborhoods include: Armatage, East Harriet, Fulton, Kennedy, King Field, Linden Hills, Lynnhurst, Tangletown and Windom. I don’t think you need to live in one of those neighborhoods to contribute, but it couldn’t hurt!

Anyway, read his little all-call and get in touch with Jon if you have any questions.

+ Sarah M.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Hello,
So I’m the editor of a new online community newspaper covering Southwest Minneapolis (typically anything south of 36th street). I’m looking for creative ways to cover the news (local politics, nbrd issues, development). Comics would be awesome!

Not sure if it’s something that appeals to folks, but a sort of Ted Rall or Joe Sacco look at neighborhood issues could be great and unique. We just spent a lot of coverage on this dog park that some folks thought disrespected a MLK memorial. Could we tell part of that story in comic form? As editor, I could clue you in on an issue and help you find the angle (like I would with a normal reporter).

As you can tell, I don’t have anything definitive in mind, it could be opinionated or straight (comic) journalism, but I would love to hear any proposals or pitches. Not sure what normal compensation is for comic artists, but we could talk.
Thanks,
Jon


Jon Collins
Editor, Southwest Minneapolis
southwestminneapolis.patch.com,
Jon.Collins@patch.com
612-208-8479

Arts in Harmony Comic Art award for $500… DEADLINE FRIDAY DECEMBER 3rd!

Just a reminder… apparently there have still not been a lot of entries.

Arts In Harmony, a national juried art show in Mn, will be presenting a $500 award for comic art this year. This is the first year they’ll be offering the award, sponsored by the Midwest Comic Book Association.

Local Hero Kevin Cannon, Barb Schulz and I will be jurors for the comic art. Barb is also one of the overall jurors for the show.

To enter, here is the prospectus/application form.

Apparently there have not been a lot of comic art entries yet. Good luck!

Thanks to Britt Aamodt for helping put together this wonderful opportunity for cartoonists, and thanks to the MCBA (and Nick Postligione) for so generously sponsoring it!

$500 Award for Best Comic in Arts in Harmony! Deadline soon!

Arts In Harmony, a national juried art show in Mn, will be presenting a $500 award for comic art this year. This is the first year they’ll be offering the award, sponsored by the Midwest Comic Book Association.

Local Hero Kevin Cannon, Barb Schulz and I will be jurors for the comic art. Barb is also one of the overall jurors for the show.

To enter, here is the prospectus/application form.

Apparently there have not been a lot of comic art entries yet. Good luck!

Thanks to Britt Aamodt for helping put together this wonderful opportunity for cartoonists, and thanks to the MCBA (and Nick Postligione) for so generously sponsoring it!

Cartoonist needed for 6-10 frames for new blog site

Here is an opportunity that I was emailed…

“Dr. Katz meets the Far Side”
Have you ever wondered what your psychiatrist or psychologist is truly thinking when you are divulging all of your secrets and pouring out your heart? [You may not want to know.] Welcome to a new blog where Pandora’s secrets are divulged as mental health professionals express what they really think about their patients.

We need an amazing cartoonist to generate approximately 6-10 single cartoon frames depicting a therapist/psychiatrist/psychologist in session with a patient (who is seated in a chair or laying on the couch a la Freud). Each individual frame
will depict a different patient, and perhaps a different professional. The cartoonist and a member of the blog team will meet to discuss what the professional and the 6-10 patients should approximately “look” like. The frames should have ample room above the heads/chairs/couches to insert thought/speech bubbles for the professional only or both the professional and the patient. The frames will be used over for the same patient – only the text within the speech/thought bubble will change for each blog post.

Given that this will be a blog post, having a digital form of the frames is a must, and the illustration program should be friendly enough for the literary team to enter the text and post to the website with ease.

Interested parties can contact me via my literary pseudonym:

Drbreezewood (at) gmail.com

First Annual Cartoonist Conspiracy Comic Book Swap this Sunday in Minneapolis

I’m having an old-fashioned comic book swap in my back yard this Sunday from 1-3PM. Bring stuff you want to trade and let’s have some fun.

Please bring these varieties of things for trade:

-Comic books
-Books of comics
-Original comic art
-Cartooning-related art supplies
-Other comics or cartooning-related things

Please do not bring anything to trade that has no relation to comics or cartooning.

No money allowed… we are operating strictly on barter, as it is more fun.

I’ll also have a good fairly large CRT computer monitor for free to the first person who can haul it away.

If you don’t know where I live and want to participate, please email me for more info:

Also, don’t forget about the Arty Garage Sale at Altered Esthetics on Saturday from 8-2PM.

Artists wanted

John Rogers — amusing blogger and professional writer (in comics: “Blue Beetle,” “Zombie Tales,” on TV: “Leverage” and “Jackie Chan Adventures,” in the movies: “Transformers,” “Catwoman,” “The Core”) — is looking for some help. Here’s the post:

Artists Wanted

Yes, I’m about to do something magnificently stupid. In preparation, if you’re a comic artist looking to do a 6-8 page story that might turn into something more, let’s see some links in the comments. Individual artists, studios, what have you. And tell your friends.

[Note: Please go over to John’s blog and leave your info there.]

http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2010/08/artists-wanted.html

little funny Deadline Extended to July 31st

While we have had a great amount of participation in the Lutefisk Sushi Volume D box, the amount of submissions for little funny Volume II has been pretty disappointing thus far. So… we are extending the deadline to July 31st.

It is extremely easy and fun to participate (it really only takes a few hours to make one, especially if you just make a sketchbook out of stuff that you have lying around gathering dust). Please help make this part of the show as cool as it should be!

More info on little funny and participating can be found here.