For those that couldn’t wait, the latest St. Paul Cartoonist Conspiracy Jam Comic has been posted. Thanks to the contributors that decided to take a break from the nice weather we were having to come and join us.

Also, thanks to the nice weather, which kept the LARPers* at bay, for the most part. Instead of gaming inside Cosmic’s, they’ve found a not-so-secret backdoor to the deck, where they can fantasize about biting each other’s necks.

Next month’s jam will mark the one year anniversary of the off-shoot, rebelious, trash-talking St. Paul cell**. Any and all are welcome to join us! In fact, I dare those that live in the Twin Cities and have yet to attend a St. Paul jam to show up. I can’t say you’d be glad that you did, but at the very least you would have challenged my dare.

Speaking of challenging dares, I corresponded with both Kevin McCarthy*** and Amado “Arex” Rodriguez**** about the status of the Milwaukee Cartoonist Conspiracy/Cream City cell*****, and, well, it looks like it might happen. Stay tuned as I continually harrass them until the dream becomes a reality.

It was nice to see our cross-town rivals, the Minneapolis Cartoonist Conspiracy cell, which is also the first Cartoonist Conspiracy cell, have the time and guts to post one of their jams. I noticed that Kevin Cannon****** of Big Time Attic fame has posted the last two jams and I must say they are rather classy. Kevin implements a little tool I like to call page numbers******* at the bottom of each page. Way to go Kevin!

I’ve posted our latest jam comic below. This month’s title was “How to End the World in Ten Days.” Special thanks goes out to Ryan Dow******** for coming up with the title. For those who haven’t been reading Ryan’s online graphic novel “Weekends With Carl,” you should be ashamed. It is a great read and is updated Wednesdays and Sundays. In order to view the jam, you can click on the image below.

Want to start up your own cell? It’s easy! Just follow this link: Start a Conspiracy in Your Community. Are you one of the many rival cells that we trash? Perhaps you are a LARPer and would like exact some “internet revenge.” If so, maybe you should do something about it and post something here.

Footnotes:

* LARPers – Live Action Role Players – a group of scary individuals that attempt the craft of socializing by enacting various scenes and, sometimes, dressing up as characters found within a role playing game; in this instance it refers to people who love Halloween, think they are vampires, are horrible at doing impersonations of obscure Jewish actors, and can somehow manage to be outdoors without combusting into ashes.
** St. Paul cell – an International Cartoonist Conspiracy cell started in October of 2007 by Kevin McCarthy, Bud Burgy, and Daniel J. Olson. Thus far only two of the three original conspirators remain as Kevin decided to move to the land of milk and cheese.
*** Kevin McCarthy – a comic book writer, artist and editor that began working professionally in 1995, and, despite his better judgment, continues to write, draw and edit comic books.
**** Amado “Arex” Rodriguez – is an indie comic creator who released his own graphic novel Heavee Underground in 2007, and, along with Bud Burgy, has helped build the Muscles and Fights empire. Amado is also known for being a huge music fan and Bruce Lee geek.
***** Milwaukee Cartoonist Conspiracy/Cream City cell – apparently it is not a myth, but rather an idea that has yet to take fruition. We have been promised that it will begin producing jams at some point in the future.
****** Kevin Cannon – a well respected, all around nice guy that recently self-published his online graphic Far Arden to much fanfare. Word has it that movie rights for Far Arden have been sought out by Vivid Entertainment.
******* page numbers – a formulated plan of procedure for a group of numerals to facilitate a consumer of literature to depict printed sheets of paper in an orderly fashion.
******** Ryan Dow – a web cartoonist whose webcomic “Weekends with Carl” tells the tale of a sometimes awkward relationship between the two main characters “Ryan” and “Carl.” It is often assumed that the character “Ryan” is in fact the author. However, there is much dispute to this assumption as the character “Ryan” is a mild mannered person, while the author has a horrible temper and tends to be extremely violent.