Sunday, February 28, 2010

Did somebody say mini-comics?


PF logo banner 500px

Rick Bradford and the Poopsheet Foundation will be at STAPLE this weekend
with over 3,000 mini-comics and zines from the late '70s up to now starting at 2 for $1.00!

Come see us at Table 50 which we'll be sharing with zinester Alan Rankin.

Any orders from the Poopsheet Shop between now and March 4th can be delivered at the show to save shipping costs!

About us:
The Poopsheet Foundation is a central meeting place for small press comics publishers, artists, writers, readers and collectors. Our primary focus is mini-comics and their history, from their underground / newave "birth" in the '70s to the current scene of today. The site features mini-comics news, reviews, forums, a community blog and other cool stuff.

If you'd like to see your self-published/small press comic reviewed at PF just drop off a copy at Table 50 on Saturday!

Poopsheet Shop logo

Saturday, February 27, 2010

STAPLE! 2010 Program Schedule!

I don't believe a hero is going to save us

At STAPLE last year I had a conversation with Will Terrell. He picked up a comic he was selling and said he'd drawn the whole thing in under 8 hours. He'd started a 24 hour comic, got 16 hours into it, and decided it wasn't what he wanted to do. So he did this one in the remaining time. He said he can draw a comic he sells for $3 in less than a day, but writing one takes him months.

And that got me thinking. I'm a designer of roleplaying and storytelling games; I'm good at engineering structures that inspire storytelling (see Bacchanal for an example). What if I designed something that helped artists create stories for webcomics?

And so I am. It's a deck of cards called The Well of Else. And I'll have my in-progress prototype at STAPLE to show off (we're at table 59, Half Meme Press & Cream Alien Games).



Here's how it works. You turn over a card and it tells you how to advance your story based on the cards you've already played out, based on the characters you've created, their personalities, and their relationships. If certain conditions aren't satisfied, you move down to the next instruction. There are several levels on each card. You'll either hit one with conditions you've satisfied, or you'll discard and draw another card. Maybe you create a new character. Maybe something transpires among characters you created previously. Have it happen in your webcomic. Trust the cards. They've got your back.

And they know the truth and lies of heroism. They set the monomyth aside, as a pattern in fiction with no relevance to how, say, America achieved independence, and create stories of epic cultural change that feel more like history than like Hollywood.

Anyway, here are some reasons to stop by table 59 for conversation:
  • The prototype cards are really really text heavy.



    My goal for the next prototype is to have a vocabulary of iconic cartoons instead of text. If you're good at creating iconic graphics from text, I want to talk to you.

  • If you have creative energy from frustrations working under corporate leadership, I want to talk to you.

  • If you know anything about the relationship between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, I want to talk to you.

  • If you aspire to having an ongoing webcomic, and you think you might want to help me understand how well the cards are working by giving them a try, I definitely want to talk to you.


Paul

Friday, February 26, 2010

Buffalo Speedway vol. 1

Volume one of my series Buffalo Speedway will debut at Staple! this year. Check out this write up from Houston's Culturemap.

And check out my site: for Turbo Pizza.
visit turbopizza.com

Find me at table #76 (SuperMercado Comics), between super model Paul Bejnamin and super talented Chad Townsend.

-Yehudi Mercado

STAPLE! After party!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Bringing Austin into the MYX …

(…or is that the other way around?)



At the 7000 BC table — #16 in the auditorium — we'll be featuring MYX by Jamie Chase. Last year we premiered his sketchbooks, and now we've got the first three issues of his anthology of weird and creepy tales. Each one features a few self-contained stories and some guest writers, but all with the dramatic, stylized art that characterizes his work.

Read what he has to say about the comic in this interview with Sequential Tart.

Reinhardt District #2 at STAPLE

Hello, all, this is Jose Esquivel, and I'll be back to STAPLE this year. I had fun last time and I'm looking forward to repeat the experience.

I'll be selling issues 1 and 2 of my comic book, Reinhardt District, and the remaining copies of Macabro, which was released on Indy Comic Book Week. You can find more about them at my blog.

See ya there!

Intergalactic Interview!!!

Hey Folks!!!

As you know, we've announced that the Intergalctic Nemesis: The Living Comic Book will be performed at this years STAPLE! You may have wondered just what that means. Well, wonder no more!!!

Our friend Miracle Jones at the Fiction Circus has kindly provided us with an interview he recently conducted with Jason Neulander, creator and impresario of the Intergalactic Nemesis, in which he explains all this and more! Check it out HERE!