Check out this video from Derek Gordon’s interview with Curls Studio at the 2010 New York Comic Con.
Interview with Curls Studio founders, writers, artists and publishers Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo as they discuss they’re unique titles and characters, inspirations, artistic philosophies and….wrestling promo???
Interview with Curls Studio at NY Comic Con – Oct. 2010 from A2Opinion on Vimeo.
Hi everyone! I was asked to be on a panel and now I’m asking you to join me. Please pass this on on anyone you think would be interested. Did I mention – it’s FREE to attend. ALL are invited to…
In Between the Panels: DC’s Emergence on the Graphic Novel Scene
Wednesday, November, 17, 2010, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Busboys and Poets, 5th & K Streets, Washington, DC
Cost: FREE and open to the public!
The Women’s National Book Association, DC Chapter will sponsor a panel discussion on the DC graphic novel scene. The panel for the event, to be held at Busboys & Poets in Mount Vernon, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., will include Carolyn Belefski, Molly Lawless, Matt Dembicki, and Mike Rhode. The event is free and open to the public.
Carolyn Belefski is the mastermind behind the web comic Curls. She is also one of the creators of several other comic books: Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales, and The Legettes, and an indefatigable (nightly) poster to her blog, Sketch Before Sleep. Her work has appeared in USA WEEKEND Magazine, The Commonwealth Times, Virginia Living Magazine, Magic Bullet, CROQ Zine, and The Pulse on COMICON.com. Ms. Belefski is a nominee for the Kim Yale Award for Most Talented Newcomer for 2010.
Matt Dembicki is a DC-based cartoonist whose work includes the award-winning nature parable Mr. Big, The Great White Shark Story, Xoc, and The Brewmaster’s Castle, about legendary DC brewer Christian Heurich. His latest anthology, Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection, has received rave reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal and has been nominated as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association’s 2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. In addition to his own work, Dembicki also hosts kids’ workshops in the DC area and beyond on making comic books.
Molly Lawless, a Boston native, moved to the DC area in 2005. She has self-published mini comics as well as a compilation, Infandum! Ad Infinitum. She is currently working on a full-length graphic novel for McFarland Publishing titled Hit by Pitch. She is an avid blogger and includes stories about her family in her daily posts.
Mike Rhode, panel moderator, is co-author of the comics research bibliography, editor of Exhibition and Media Reviews for the International Journal of Comic Art, and a contributing writer for Hogan’s Alley. In 2008, he was named Best (Comics) Art Blogger by the Washington City Paper for his Comics DC blog. Rhodes edited Harvey Pekar: Conversations, a book of interviews with the late underground comic book writer and author of American Splendor published by the University Press of Mississippi. He has written for the Comics Journal and was selected as an RFK Journalism Awards judge for the editorial cartoon division of Comics Journal in 2009 and 2010. Rhodes currently writes about comics for the City Paper.
This event is FREE and open to the public!
Curls Studio will be at the fifth DC Counter Culture Festival this Sunday. It is our fifth appearance at this show, which means we are five time champions, like Booker T.
Join us this Sunday, October 24th from noon to 8PM at RFD’s (810 7th Street, NW Washington, DC 20001). Admission is FREE.
This year the DC Counter Culture Festival will feature a live performance by: Mab, Just Mab – DC’s Own Sideshow Girl
Bellydancing by: Eugenia
DJ Sets from: Ian Hall, Shannon Stewart, Beth Greenberg, and Corrosion Radio featuring smytii and dj Balti
Plus, the following talented exhibitors: AA Vrooman, Michael Auger, Bamn Comics, Clothes That Kill, Curls Studio, Dale Rawlings, Ed Contradictory, Evan Keeling, Full Sanction, Andrew Cohen, Interrobang Studios, Jen-A-Fusion Fashion Accessories, John Bintz, Michael O’Brien, Eric Gordon, Plastic Farm, R. M. Rhodes, RS Harvey, Spaghetti Kiss, Super Art Fight, Ariyana Suvarnasuddhi, Emma Rochon, Tiny Ghosts
Even though New York Comic Con happened a week and a half ago, I am still in recovery from running around and also exhibiting at Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo this past weekend. If I was to use one word to describe NYCC 2010 it would be: MASSIVE. This year’s show felt much larger and the crowds were excited to discover new things and dress up. There were so many people in costumes! Overall, we had an amazing time. I would describe NYCC as Times Square for comics and pop culture in terms of sensory overload. I will break down this blog entry into each of the three days below.
Friday, October 8, 2010
We started our Friday by driving up around 3 AM. We were already running on very little sleep and the only thing to keep us going was the energy of the show. Joe drove and we also brought along Brian Sarvis for the trip. It was great to have Brian because it was his first time in New York and he assisted us each day of the convention. Once we got into the city, the first thing on our agenda was to park, get our materials into the convention, obtain badges and set-up the table in time for our panel, the first event in room 1A21. This required a lot of rushing around and getting things together very early in the morning and running on the convention high. While I was getting the table together, Joe and Brian were busy getting A/V ready for the panel.
At 11:15 AM, our panel “The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators” started. Joe and Brian hooked up the camera to project into a large screen for the audience to see. We had a excellent crowd turnout for early Friday morning during professional hours (the convention opened to the public at 1:00 PM). I felt like our panel provided encouragement and amazing stories from the panelists: Jimmy Palmiotti (Painkiller Jane, Jonah Hex, The Pro), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, The Baby-Sitters Club), Bryan J.L. Glass (The Mice Templar, Thor: First Thunder) Carla Speed McNeil (Finder) and myself – Carolyn Belefski (Curls, The Legettes). Many of the audience members found the Curls Studio table later during the con to thank me, introduce themselves and say they enjoyed the panel. A couple people even showed me their portfolios. The panelists had a fun time as well and I’m glad we were able to have a panel and kick-off NYCC. Even though it was Friday morning, I’d rather have it be then than compete against M. Night Shyamalan! Everything really worked out well and we will be posting film and audio from the panel soon, so pay attention to this blog!
Join up at “The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators” Facebook page to continue the conversation: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Other-Side-of-the-Table/158861870794106
Another really cool thing about the panel was the opportunity to give away a book donated by Dave Sim, “Ultimate Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing.” The book was signed by Dave Sim along with all of the panelists. It was very hard to give away the book because all of a sudden we were flagged for one minute left from a NYCC volunteer and then had to wrap everything up quickly. I wanted to make sure the book went to someone who asked a question, so we made that happen and I hope that one lucky audience member enjoys his book. I wanted to get a photo of him with the book, but things were coming to a close as we had to leave the room. Brian said he caught the winner on camera though, so that is good. Special thanks goes out to Dave Sim for the book. It really is an amazing guide, yet it is important to find out what works for you. I purchased a copy of the book for myself several months ago and treasure that book.
On Friday I was also visited by Nick DeStefano, who is in Carnival Anthology, and Stacy from Comic Fusion, who picked up my original art for Wonder Woman Day 2010. On Friday evening, Joe, Brian and I attended the Riese Web Series panel and got to see Allison Mack, who plays Chloe from Smallville. Joe and I recorded an episode of our podcast all about meeting her. It is already getting a lot of action today from Allison Mack fans on Twitter. You can take a listen here. We also attended the Spotlight on James Marsters event and he sang to the audience.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The foot traffic on Saturday was out of this world. I stayed at the table most of the day, but left to attend the “Your Highness” panel which featured James Franco and Danny McBride. It was awesome to see James Franco because Freaks and Geeks is my favorite TV show and seeing him made me one step closer to the Apatow Circle. At the table, I met some really amazing people and a lot of people were excited to discover The Legettes. On Saturday night we hunted down authentic brick oven pizza and showed Brian Times Square and the theater district. Later we checked out the NYCC Indy After Party, hosted by Dave Ryan, which featured a performance by Gordon Gano & The Ryans (singer/songwriter of the Violent Femmes). We hung out with Andrew Pepoy, who I recently met at Baltimore a few months ago.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Joe and I split table duties on Sunday as I saw M. Night Shyamalan and Joe saw Bruce Campbell. MTV hosted a discussion with M. Night about the 10th anniversary of his film, Unbreakable. They played the soundtrack before the discussion started, which provided and eerie tone to the theater. I enjoyed this program the most from NYCC because Night is so smart and I enjoyed when he left the stage and got close to the audience to showcase his storyboards on the large screens. I also won a signed Unbreakable movie poster… which is amazing. M. Night rules. Joe filmed the full Bruce Campbell event in seven parts, which you can enjoy on his Astray Productions YouTube account. Please post a comment if you like it. Sunday ended with a mad rush as everyone exited the Javits Center. We went to eat in Brooklyn with a friend and spotted the orange Conan blimp!
Thank you!
NYCC was such a blast. I enjoyed being able to attend the convention as a panelist, organizer, fan and creator. I am glad to have met a whole bunch of new faces this year. Our business cards were eaten by NYCC and our mailing list grew. Thanks to everyone who went to “The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators” panel and all those who stopped by the Curls Studio table. We really appreciate all the moments we got to spend with you.
XOXO,
Carolyn
You can see more photos of Curls Studio at NYCC 2010 on our Facebook Fan Page. Jimmy has super white teeth – glowing like Jon Bon Jovi. See for yourself.
Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo of Curls Studio will be appearing at a brand new show called PIX: The Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo this weekend! The event is FREE and open to the public. Please join us.
PIX: The Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo 2010
Saturday, October 16 and Sunday, October 17, 2010
10:00 AM to 5:00 PM both days
Guardian Storage
2839 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
PIX is Pittsburgh’s first ever exposition devoted solely to creator-owned, self-published, small press and handmade comics.
Guests: Kevin Huizenga, Ed Piskor, Rob Rogers (Sunday only), Jim Rugg, Frank Santoro, Tom Scioli, Don Simpson (Sunday only)
Exhibitors: Dave Wachter, Rafer Roberts, Kevin Czapiewski, Carolyn Belefski, Joe Carabeo, Chad Cicconi, D.J. Coffman, Nate McDonough, Matthew Taylor, Dan Greenwald, Marcel “M.L.” Walker, Jesse Harold, Box Brown, Pat Aulisio, Katie Skelly, Bob Corby, Mike Bencze, Jared Catherine, Nick Marino, Bill Volk, Wayne Wise, Joe Kuth, Andy Scott, Apartment 4H, Lizzee Solomon, Art Noose, Tom Dewing, Pat Lewis, Rachel Masilamani, Katie Omberg, Shawn and Stephanie Gabborin, CANTO, Max Mose, Apple Juice Press, Kristoffer Smith, Anthony Acri, Planet Saturday Comics, Garrett Richardson, Tara Helfer, Caitlin Boyle, Juan Jose Fernandez, Mike Rosenthal, The Air and Nothingness Press, Katrina Kopeloff, Dan and Kerry Tallarico, Shawn Atkins, Seth Fronzoli, Mike Budai
(listing as of October 14)