City Pages Third Annual Comix Issue

Copies of the Comix Issue are on stands now -- and are free -- so grab a handful. This year's contributors include Conspiracy regulars, Big Funny veterans, and newcomers like New Yorker illustrator Mitch Loidolt! And of course the Cajones Award goes to Danno for speaking truth to power in the best way possible: through the magical medium of comics.

Thanks to Nick Vlcek at City Pages for putting this all together for the third year in a row, and thanks to editor Kevin Hoffman for his and CP's continued support of the local comics scene.

You can read all the cartoons on City Pages' website.

Reminder: City Pages Cartoon Due August 5

Want to be included in City Pages' annual Comix Issue?

Be sure to read through our previous post about the City Pages submission process, but here are the quick facts:

THEME: "Minnesota Nice"
SIZE: 9.75" wide by 2.5" tall
RESOLUTION: 300 dpi or larger
DUE DATE: Wednesday, August 5

Click here for full submission rules!

City Pages Annual Comix Issue: CALL FOR ENTRIES!

It's that time of year again: City Pages is gearing up for its third annual City Pages Comix Issue and is looking for submissions. City Pages has a readership of over 50,000 discerning eyes, and is thus a great showcase for any cartoonist. And even if your cartoon isn't picked for the print edition, it will be published online. Don't forget, last year the Comix Issue won a prestigious AltWeekly Award!

Please read all of following information very carefully (a few things have changed since last year):

From Nick Vlcek, City Pages Art Editor:

This year's theme: "MINNESOTA NICE"

Deadline is Wednesday, August 5th. That's when we'll close the space and figure out what we have to run. If there's any changes that need to be made or if a work is not finished, we have one more week, but we're not any more slots past the 5th.

What we learned from last time:

There is a finite amount of space for the print edition. DO NOT FEEL LIKE YOU WERE PASSED OVER BECAUSE YOUR STUFF DIDN'T MAKE IT IN TO PRINT. We'll put everything we get up online.

Regarding above, everyone should work in a horizontal, quarter page size:

9.75" wide by 2.5" tall

[ Click to download a Photoshop template ]

If you want/need to do something larger, contact me first, otherwise don't necessarily expect it will run in print! (half page is 9.75" wide by 5.4" tall; full page is 9.75" wide by 11.25" tall).

Black and white JPEGS, 300dpi actual size, or larger (fit to scale).

All email should be addressed to:

nvlcek [at] citypages.com

Subject should read: CP Comics Issue

Every email needs to have the title of the piece and the credit (how you'd like your name to appear in print). We will also need a W-9 (click to download) filled out and attached to the email with your real name and address if you want to be paid. Those who sent in a W-9 last year and got paid will not have to send one if their address hasn't changed.

Payments are $25 to all, another $25 if your panel makes it into print. That is the same rate no matter what size it ends up being.

Thanks for all!

Congrats to Tim Sievert and City Pages Cartoonists!

First off, congrats to Tim Sievert (former BTA employee and current PUNY wizard) for his Harvey nomination for "Best New Talent." Of course, Tim's amazing work is anything but new to us here in Minneapolis, so it's about damn time he got nominated for this award.

Tim is being nominated for his Top Shelf book That Salty Air, and you can read about his current project, The Intrepideers, here.



And congrats to everyone involved in last year's City Pages Comix Issue. City Pages won a third place trophy in the "Special Section" category. Cartoonists involved in the winning section include local as well as national names:

Derf, Carl Nelson, Kevin Cannon, Kevin McCarthy, Ken Avidor, Steven Stwalley, Jon Adams, Scott Gallatin, Keith Pille, Britt Hammerberg, Ward Sutton, Jonathan Baylis, David Beyer Jr., Ben-Z, Bud Burgy, Zander Cannon, Spanky Cermak, Will Dinski, Ryan Dow, King Drowns, Andrey Feldshteyn, Michael Furious, Blake Hunter, Matthew Kriske, Kelly McNutt, Lupi Miguinti, MJ, Daniel Olson, Dave Sandberg, Tim Sievert, Andy Singer, Jon Sloan, Mike Toft, and Lewis Tuck

You can read all the comix online. Congrats to all involved, and stay tuned for information about this summer's City Pages Comix Issue!

Hey Michele, What's So Funny?

This is what I like to see in the City Pages: the featured article is a multi-page comic strip.

Pick up your [free] copy today to see the work of local cartoonists and Big Funny contributors Lupi and Bill Prendergast. You can also read it online (and comment!) by clicking here:



Good for local cartoonists, bad for Michele!

Avidor & Cannon Take Home Gold at Page One Awards

The Annual Page One Awards were held last night in Minneapolis. Page One recognizes excellence in Minnesota journalism. I missed the banquet, but fellow Conspirator Ken Avidor was there and sent me these details:

Magazine - Story, Design and Photography: Best commissioned illustration -- LESS than 50K
First Place
The 2008 Republican National Convention: A Graphic Novelette
Ken Avidor/Steve Kaplan - Minnesota Law & Politics
More "graphic" than "novelette," Avidor and Kaplan do a nice job summing up the RNC in a format that gives the reader the gist of the event far more efficiently than paragraphs of prose would do. Well done.

Newspaper - Editorial and Opinion: Editorial page cartoon -- 50K+
First Place
Xcape from Xcel
Kevin Cannon - City Pages
This is not a "get it at a glance" editorial cartoon. The detail and thought that went into it took some time to appreciate. The political faces are well done. Just the idea of politics as a game gives this another level of meaning. We identify with "electrocuted while punching a TV"!

Congratulations to Ken, Steve, City Pages, and all of last night's winners!

Read "Xcape from Xcel" HERE.

"Xcape from Xcel" Wins Page One Award

According to the City Pages blotter, my contribution to last summer's City Pages Comix Issue will win an award at the upcoming Society of Professional Journalists Page One Awards. I had no idea this comic was even up for an award, so it's all the more surprising.

City Pages is really good to local cartoonists -- for the past two years they've published a Comix Issue, giving us a chance to get our art in wide circulation (50,000+ papers) and on the web. Each year has a theme; 2007 was "Tales from the Twin Cities" and 2008 was "When the Elephants Come to Town."

You can view the winning entry, Xcape from Xcel, here:

Kevin and Zander's City Pages Cartoons about the Republican National Convention are in Print!

It's sort of a long story, but both of our Republican National Convention cartoons that we did for the City Pages have finally seen print! Kevin's in the July 9 edition, mine in the August 27 edition. Neither Kevin nor I are big political cartoonists, but the City Pages threw down the gauntlet and we obliged.

Kevin's "X-Cape From X-Cel"
Print Edition Online Edition

Zander's "Five Blind Elephants"
Print Edition Online Edition

NOTE: On City Pages' site, click the text link, not the image link
The people of the City Pages were good enough to put my cartoon in a later edition when an email mixup prevented it from being in the first one. Thanks, folks! You can find all of the RNC cartoons at the City Pages website; there's a heck of a lot of great stuff on there, and our beloved Cartoonist Conspiracy is well-represented.

This is the second year that the City Pages has put together a comics issue; last year's was "Tales of the Twin Cities", and Kevin's and my cartoons ran side by side in that one (as opposed to being separated by 7 weeks).

City Pages Comix Issue: DUE TOMORROW!

June 25

Submission info here.

City Pages Comix Issue: DEADLINE REMINDER!

June 25

Submission info here.

City Pages Comix Issue #2: Call for Entries

Wanna be in City Pages' upcoming Comix Issue?

This year's theme is WHEN THE ELEPHANTS COME TO TOWN...

Editor-in-Chief Kevin Hoffman describes it like this:

"Each contributor will be asked to interpret that theme by predicting what it will be like when the Republican National Convention comes in to town in September."

For all the submission info, DOWNLOAD THIS PDF.

Entries are due JUNE 25, so get crackin'!