Visit to Philly for District Comics Book Signing

Oct08
by on October 8, 2012 at 5:27 PM
Posted In: Uncategorized

Curls Studio traveled up to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday, September 22, 2012 for the “District Comics: An Unconventional History of Washington, DC” book signing at Locust Moon Comics & Movies. Since the event was at 5PM, we decided to make the most of the day and attended the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Fall Garden Festival when we got into town a little after noon. I also planned a full day of pierogie hunting.



At the festival, Carla Hall and Daphne Oz form ABC’s The Chew were there giving a cooking demonstration. I have seen this show at the gym when I work out during my lunch break, so it was fun to see them in-person. There were tons of plants and other festivities and I came home adopting a Oreocereus trollii… you will be seeing more of him in the future.



For a late lunch, we went to Syrenka Luncheonette, a polish cafeteria-style eatery, on Richmond Street. We ordered mushroom soup, pierogies, and potato pancakes. The food was delicious, but if you go be prepared to dine in an outlet of the past. There were photos of Robin Williams up on the wall when he visited in 1998, but overall the place felt like going in a time machine back a few generations.


Afterwards we went to Krakus Market across the street and checked out the polish food and drink options. They even had polish gossip magazines and newspapers at the checkout. It seemed like carrots were a major influence in the drink flavors. We purchased a pack of frozen sauerkraut and mushroom pierogies to go, which we haven’t tasted yet and are saving for a special occasion.



We couldn’t get enough pierogies so from there so we headed to Pierogie Kitchen to get some dessert pierogies. We had been there before, so knew what to expect. The flavors there are more contemporary and experimental. Since we came in late in the day, the only dessert flavor left was sweet potato, so we tried that and quickly headed to the book signing.



Locust Moon is a great comic book store and has a high sense of design and appreciation for original art. There is even a gorgeous fish tank and fun things to look at everywhere and also a gallery space. The weather was a bit crazy that day, as earlier the temperature went from very hot to normal to extreme rain and wind into the night. Matt Dembicki provided free District Comics zipper pulls for anyone who wanted them. Food and drinks were also provided during the signing.


The creators who attended were Matt Dembicki, Rafer Roberts, Michael Cowgill, Kevin Rechin, Jason Rodriguez, Carolyn Belefski, Joe Carabeo, and Charles Fetherolf.


Thanks to Brady Russell and Amber Love and her friends for dropping by!


You can hear more about our trip to Philly in episode 193 of The Carolyn & Joe Show: http://carolynandjoeshow.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/polski-and-pierogies/


Or view a ton of photos in the Curls Studio Facebook photo gallery: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151166050197381.471116.50763422380&type=3


We’ll be back in Philly on Sunday, December 16, 2012 for a comics event at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street). Mark your calendar and look for more details to come.

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New York Comic Con 2012 – Artist Alley, Table W13

Oct05
by on October 5, 2012 at 11:21 AM
Posted In: Uncategorized




You can find Curls Studio ALL FOUR DAYS of New York Comic Con 2012 at Artist Alley, Table W13. See the map image above to locate us or use NYCC’s Map Your Show to plan your weekend.

New York Comic Con is held at the Javits Center (655 West 34th Street) in Midtown Manhattan. This year NYCC Artist Alley will be moving to the North Pavilion of the Javits Center. Javits North is a beautiful, state of the art space with lots of windows to allow for plenty of natural light and the open floor plan will feature wider aisles to improve traffic flow.


ARTIST ALLEY HOURS


Thursday 3:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Friday 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Saturday 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Sunday 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

(Thursday only open to Press, Professionals, VIPS, and fans that purchase a 4-Day Pass)




New York Comic Con is the East Coast’s biggest and most exciting popular culture convention. We hope you can join us there and stop by to say hello! RSVP and invite your friends to the event on Facebook.


XOXO,
Carolyn

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Recap: SPX 2012

Oct04
by on October 4, 2012 at 5:40 PM
Posted In: Uncategorized


Curl Studio exhibited at Small Press Expo on September 15 and 16, 2012. A big highlight was having my SPX web banner art being included in the exclusive print set (Marguerite Dabaie, Carolyn Belefski, Julia Wertz). I signed all the prints that we available in the full set and for individual purchase. The prints are also now a part of the US Library of Congress, so my art will remain in the archive forever! 

I also enjoyed seeing everyone at the event and distributing plums on Sunday morning to my fellow exhibitors. I would ask, “Would you like a plum?” and got all sorts of reactions… from “A plum?” to “Ewww. Plums are gross.” to “No, thank you. Too healthy for me.” to “Sure, I’d love a plum.” Unfortunately I do not have any photos of the plums. I think I should make this an annual thing and be known as “The Plum Girl.” I could even make my own Curls plum sticker to put on it! Yes! 


We also took part on a massive jam sketch on a large roll of white paper for a guy who was getting self portraits of all the exhibitors there.

Thanks to everyone who came out the SPX. It’s such a great show. Thanks to Warren Bernard, Kevin Panetta, Mike Thomas, Eden Miller, Bill Kartalopoulos, and all the volunteers who made the show happen! 


You can view more photos on the Curls Studio Facebook page in the “SPX 2012” album. Enjoy! Thanks to Bruce Guthrie for the photo of Joe and I above.

I still plan to write a blog recap for last weekend’s Asbury Park Comiccon 2. The next event you can meet Curls Studio at is New York Comic Con on October 11-14, 2012. We’ll be at Artist Alley, Table W13 all four days along with our pal Brian Sarvis. RSVP and invite your friends on Facebook here. I will also be posting a map too because Artist Alley will be moving to the North Pavilion of the Javits Center. Hope to see you then.

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Asbury Park Comic Con 2 is Tomorrow

Sep28
by on September 28, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Posted In: Uncategorized

Curls Studio had such a great time at the first Asbury Park Comic Con back in May (read the recap here) that we’ll be back for seconds! Join us tomorrow for a one day mini-convention held in the intimate setting of the Asbury Lanes, a small bowling alley and rock club at the Jersey Shore one block from the historic Asbury Park boardwalk.

Asbury Park Comic Con will feature a wide variety of comic book and pop culture purveyors as well as many comic book creators, artists and illustrators from the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. Comic fans will have a rare opportunity to meet the artists, who will be available to sign books that will be sold at each artist’s table. Commissioned sketches are also available from many of the artists for a fee.

Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo will be representing Curls Studio with a table at Asbury Park Comic Con. We hope to see you there. Check out the website to see more of the fabulous guests who will be in appearing.

Saturday, September 29, 2012 

11AM to 6PM
 


Asbury Lanes
209 4th Avenue
Asbury Park, NJ 07712



Advance admission is $6 plus .90 service charge. Visit www.asburyparkcomicon.com to reserve tickets to ensure entry in the event of high turnout. $1 of each ticket goes to Heroes Initiative, for comic creators in need.

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Recap: Association of American Editorial Cartoonists Convention

Sep26
by on September 26, 2012 at 5:12 PM
Posted In: Uncategorized

At the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention on Friday, September 14, 2012 I learned more about how cartoons are a vital part of visually swaying public opinion with politics, advertising, symbolism, and more. Well-done cartoons are a quick read, smart, and make a statement. With comics or cartoon illustration, you can do things sequentially  to tell a story that you can not do as easily in other mediums. 

Many of the presenters at #!$% CARTOONS!!, including many Pulitzer winners, are now implementing interactive actions to their cartoons, such as including web page links, or specific tweets, and even audio interviews you can click on to get more content. This showed online visual journalism and reporting at another level and perspective outside of the art. Some of the animations shown were very clever, specifically “Super Pac Mad Libs” by Mark Fiore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYlx7IcpqS4). Many of the artists used their own voices for animation dialogue and have to promote their own work on multiple social media outlets, proving once again that now more than ever it is a requirement to wear many hats in production duties.

Apple was a topic that was very prominent. With cartoonists pointing out that the corporation has most of their money in overseas funds and child labor issues. However, people overlook that because they love the Apple brand and product because of their advertising. Youth is very connected with brands now more than ever and the new iPhone 5 is the big news story that overshadows more important global issues. Many cartoonists in the room might have disagreed with Apple’s business choices, but they pointed out how much they love owning an iPhone.

There is a lot of injustice going on in our world. From a discussion about the earthquake in Haiti, I learned that only 1% of all relief donations actually went to the Haitian government. The rest of the money went to corporations. Also with the political attitude in that country, I was surprised to hear that many of the people in Haiti blamed the earthquake on gay people. I don’t know where you stand on that issue, but last time I checked, gay people don’t cause earthquakes.

From looking at the many cartoons being presented, I couldn’t help but think of the “spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” lyrics from Mary Poppins. Since their incarnation, cartoons, specifically political ones, have humor integrated with servings of truth. A fun poke at this stupid thing or that evil thing makes it more manageable to poke fingers or even laugh at ourselves as a culture. Or speaking truth to power.

There was a battle with put “Man vs. Machine” with Steve Brodner drawing by hand and Nick Anderson drawing with Cintiq. Another batter took place between Mike Thompson and Nate Beeler when they debated animation vs. static image. A good point was made of traditional static cartoon because it can be powerful and instant.

During a break for lunch in the middle of the day, I got to test the new Cintiq 24HD touch from Wacom. It’s an amazing product and I enjoyed experimenting with the different brushes and the touch screen. It was the first time I had ever used a Cintiq and would love to work more with them in the future.

Another interesting topic was “Blown Covers, New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant to See” with Francoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker. She showed many images of the magazine covers and discussed what it was like to work with illustrators, deadlines, and more. She said the editor is support and a cross between and air plane controller and a shrink. I enjoyed seeing the sketch process of the Obama Fist Bump issue that was so controversial along with the many other conceptual ideas that were were executed and beautiful.

More battles went on between the political right (Nate Beeler, Chip Bok, Scott Stantis) and left (Clay Bennett, Jen Sorensen, Tom Tomorrow) as they discussed the current 2012 presidential election. Many of them covered the political conventions from the convention floor or from their living room updating with sketches at a real-time speed.

I was glad to attend the event as an attendee and that my employer allowed “professional development” time for this. Maybe we’ll allow for more cartoon usage, let alone illustration, to tell a story at the ad agency I work at. And I am happy to say it was the best $10 I spent all year. It was educational, fun, and at times a bit tense – but it was all worth it because cartoons make the reader feel emotions, make the world alive, and the people alert.

I was only able to attend the lectures during the day on Friday, because that following Saturday and Sunday I exhibited at Small Press Expo. Look for the SPX recap to come soon!

View more event photos on the Curls Studio Facebook page and give us a “Like” while you are there: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151149510917381.468016.50763422380&type=3

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