Monarch Fun

Hey everybody!  It's Kristin Hogan from Dead Squirrel Girl.  I work at Blue Genie Art Industries, and we held our Christmas Art Bazaar at the Monarch Events Center in December, so I was there all month.  The space is REALLY nice, the rooms are HUGE.  The people who run the place are really nice.  I thought I'd leave some tips:

-- bring something with long sleeves, there were days when i was really cold

-- there is a great thai place called Thai Village in the same shopping center, they have an inexpensive lunch menu.  There is also a Smoothie King next door.....mmmm smoothies.

--Jerry's Art-o-rama is next door, if you haven't checked out this  great little art supply store, you must check it out, they carry things you won't find at the corporate art stores (and notice their ridiculously large Little Jerry sculpture/sign -- a Blue Genie original)

--Office Depot is next door, for all your last minute needs, be aware they have one cashier for the entire store, expect to wait in line.

-- Also, there is a huge SPEC's nearby.  Or as we refer to it at Blue Genie "the alcoholic's wet dream"

Hope that helps y'all out.  I just got back from the Antigravity show in New Orleans, and it went VERY well, so I'm hoping for a rockin' Staple!

See y'all on Saturday!

A Dummy's Guide to STAPLE!

hey there, Joe Eisma here. I'm a video game artist making my first foray into comics, and I'm totally stoked for my first ever STAPLE! this weekend. I'm looking forward to meeting Brian Wood and checking out what Kristian Donaldson has been up to. I'll also be glad to see my buddies Jake and Luan from Space-Gun, Pat Loika and John Sitton from the Bendis board, the Stumblebum crew, and writer extraordinaire, David Hopkins. And I look forward to meeting all the rest of the exhibitors and seeing what everyone's created!

I'll be at table 2B, in the auditorium, next to Viper Comics. Speaking of Viper, I'll have some preview art from my new series from them, A Dummy's Guide to Danger: Lost at Sea, which goes on sale mid-March. This is the sequel to the original series from Jason M. Burns, and it's a fun, twisted whodunnit set on the high seas.
Here's a look at the first issue's cover:

I'll have plenty of other eye candy as well, including a look at my sci-fi graphic novel, Project: Serpo. So please drop by and say hey!

Nice write-up

Looks like STAPLE! got a nice little mention in Sunday's Austin American Statesman. Spunky indeed!

Bramble Vine Comics table preview

Hello fellow Staple-ers. I am Nate Bramble and this will be my first year exhibiting at Staple. I self publish my own comic books out of Dallas and my work is mostly black and white funny cartoon short stories. On my web site, Bramble Vine Comics, I post pages from whatever book I am currently working on, scans from my sketchbooks and photos I take at the various cons I attend, but right now I want to share with you some of the things I'm going to have on hand at my table during Staple '08.

If you come by the Bramble Vine Comics stall you'll find all my recent books on sale. At Staple I'll be debuting a mini-comic called Gadgeteria #0. This is a preview book of my next comic book series and the first couple of stories out of that series will be in this mini. It tells the story of a private investigations firm set up to service all the online worlds popping up on the internet and the various community problems growing around them. Think "Tron" meets "Office Space". I printed these up just for Staple and I can't wait to see how people react to it.

I'll also have my recently self-published full sized comic Bramble Vine Comics #1. This book is hot off the presses, debuting just a few short months ago on Dallas area comic shop store shelves. It's a collection of silly short stories packed with humor about greed, the environment, con men and much, much more!

Another recently self-published mini-comic will be found at my table, Normal. This is a short, tragic story of a man who was cursed to never change throughout his whole life. This story is also part of the Synesthetic Anthology, a book of collected works from various Dallas area comic and cartoon artists.

I'll have a few more books of mine and some surprises at my table, so please come by and say hello!

Josh @ STAPLE

"Everyone needs to post more stuff to the blog!" said Uncle Staple, so OK!

Hi, I'm Josh, and this is my second year at STAPLE. I have been doing webcomics since like 1997, and sort of live off them. I am an Austinite, having lived here for 11 years... a graduate of UT, a Riverside survivor, and fan of Fastball and The Small Stars.


Girly Is one of the 3 comics I'm currently working on. It's about cartoon relationships. It's hitting its fifth anniversary in April. I plan to celebrate by wearing a hat. If you like really organic cartoon art, an art form that tragically seems so dead these days, do consider checking it out. I'll be selling its first two collections at the con. There will be a third volume on the way once I figure things out.

I also do a comic called "Doctor Voluptua". As the title suggests, it's not exactly safe for work or kids or Canadians, so you'll have to go out and find that. I'll be selling a little booklet featuring that comic as well, printed at the local Alphagraphics. They're such good sports.

I do other comic-related things, but those two items are what I'll primarily be featuring at my booth. SEE YOU THERE GUYS.

Couple of 7000 BC Collections

At the 7000 BC table, we'll have (among other things) two anthologies of work from New Mexico-based comics creators:

The second printing, hot off the photocopier, of Jams Volume 1 collects the six jam comics made at our monthly meeting. See what happens when a bunch of comic book writers and artists get together and tell stories, exquisite-corpse style.

And we'll have a CD with a PDF of 24 Hours In New Mexico with nineteen comics (that's 389 pages — now you know why we didn't print it) produced for 24 Hour Comics Day 2007 — and it's free for the asking. You can also download the Zipped PDF at MediaFire

  

Free stuff at STAPLE!

Nate Southard, here. I'll have 100 free copies of a STAPLE!-exclusive chapbook, "A Team-Building Exercise," at table 38a. If you want one of 'em, better haul butt to see the bald guy sitting next to Eric Powell (ahem, that bald guy would be me).

See you there!