Hi! So this is the wonderful world of comics... at the same time I'm in a show featuring Jewish women confessional cartoonists, I'm also in a show that features artists who were inspired by Jack Kirby. I hope no one pukes or gets burger juice on my Goddess of War originals.
It opens this Saturday 
Also I am currently dragging my ass on everything comics oriented. I am stuck on this story and am wasting valuable babysitting time.
The black lines indicate the spine an French Flaps! Oooh la la!
I just saw my mom speak at the New School in a panel about all the new social programs passed by Obama. She faced off against the token republican guy that used to work for the Bush administration on welfare policy. ooooooh! Seeing my mom talk brought back many childhood moments of sitting and watching her receive awards and talk about how poor babies need clothes. I remember when I was in high school thinking she was a saint, but when I went up to congratulate her tonight she remembered it a little differently. She said when I was seven after some event I went up to her and said, "You're dead meat, mom." I was such an angel.
I wonder how I will annoy my own children.
Howdy! I'm back from flitting around the globe again! La dee da!
Here's a sketchbook page from my trip to Sweden's Small Press Expo. I was brought over by the awesome guys at Galago Magazine and they treated me real nice! Also Stockholm is a design-obsessed magical wonderland and the only thing I regret is not having more time to go to fabric stores, and another ikea-type cheapy store called the Lagerhaus (I think).
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I traveled there with MK Reed and Shannon O'Leary and we stayed in Johannes from Galago's teensy studio apartment. Mostly we ate pastries and gossiped. I loved this, because if everything goes well with my pregnancy, I will not have a three-day girl's slumber party situation for another 20 years. We also went to H and M with Mike Diana and we looked at the maternity clothes together.
Alvin Buenaventura, his fantastic assistant Melissa (who runs the girls rock camp in LA when she's not helping to publish awesome things), her pistol of a bandmate Alisia (shit. I am probably spelling it wrong) and I went to this park with a jungle gym that was a series of ropes pulled tight to be like a Buckminster Fuller style spider web. It had mysterious dog-pig animals with light up eyes, and a circular hammock swing. We hung out in the jungle gym watching punk kids drink and skate at the other end of the park which was a totally legal skate area. I hope I will always love watching young people doing stupid crazy shit-though being a parent will probably change that. The boys going round and round the empty swimming pool structures and then popping up to land on a picnic table. So perfectly zen. I envy their coordination.
The festival was full of "book-release" parties, where the books were hard to find and the music was loud. They are into Squee there, which I had never heard of, I guess it's like Techno mixed with primitive Atari samples.
The festival was a bit disorganized, on Saturday morning we showed up right as the festival began (our fault), and there were not really any tables reserved or left (weird), so we made our own space in the front room, which was nice, because the Norwegian Dongery guys were late too and they set up across from us. I also looked on the program and my name wasn't listed anywhere, except to be on a panel with Mike Diana about censorship, which was odd, because I've never had anything censored before. I asked, and they politely explained that it was a mistake. Huh.
I thought Shannon did a great job of curating a nice survey of comics, a full selection of Momes and Bottomless Bellybutton for Fantagraphics, many Papercutters and other stuff from Sparkplug, Secret Acres and Bodega presses. People really liked Robyn Chapman's "Hey 4-Eyes" and Theo Ellsworth's "Capacity".
Finns
I was thrilled to see a great selection of Finnish comics from their collective Glomp. I got Anna Sailamaa's "Ollaan nätisti ", which won the Fumetto Prize this year. I also met Johanna Rojola and Mari Ahokoivu from Finland who have a blog at www.narttu.net, and they were amazingly sweet and knew all about the international scene. I'm a bit obsessed right now with Finnish comics and culture. I'm going to read the Kalevala today.
Swedes
It was very inspiring to meet Anneli Furmark, she's got a really tenuous drawing style, and has had three(oops two) kids and still published four books. I'm excited to read the piece of her's in the last DQ showacase. I also met Martin Ernsten who gave me all of his stuff including a stack of english translation print outs of his newest book.
Nords
The dudes from Dongery were really nice too, and had some great work. Bendik Kaltenborn is a comics force to be reckoned with. He gave me a stack of english stuff. He better get a publishing deal in the states soon.
The one thing that I really regret was that I didn't bring more Picturebox stuff to sell. People seemed hungry for substantive, psychedelic madness, and it makes me appreciate the work that Dan does all the more. All of C. F.'s books sold, and I really thought Cold Heat would kill there. In general the Europeans seem to be much more accepting of eclecticism in comics. They aren't burdened by having to put everything in a niche, and they don't have the spectre of superheros lurking behind them. They also can get government grants to help them with their weird projects. It all just makes me want to grab Tim and travel round the globe making comics.
Ta ta for now! Got to eat more and finish drawing some stuff that's really late.
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Here are a bunch of sketches I did aroud the Fumetto Festival. I'll put more up later, but here are the first bunch... [gallery link="file" columns="2"]
A famous artist did a portrait of me and Tim's baby.
Hi, sorry I've been away from the blog worldfor so long! As many of you know, I have not been playing with my beloved rock band Flaming Fire for a while now--I've busy with comics and puttering around in my house singing along with Aretha. But it's an itch that's got to be scratched, Patrick wrote some slammin' new jams, and my urge to rock you wonderful people has not died, it's just gotten stronger, so for one night only, I will throw down with Patrick and company for a SCORCHING show. I will probably be so miserable because this is my last ever show that I will have to be dragged off the stage in tears. I also got a brand new wig and surprise outfit just for the occasion! So come on down this Friday, we'll be playing all the hits! Union Pool is located at 484 Union Ave at Skillman Ave take the G or L train to Metropolitan/Lorimer I think we're going on at 11, but get there at 10 so you can see my favorite singer ever, Saasha Foo. Actually, come at like 6:30, so we can all talk and drink and love each other for one last time. In other news, The Goddess of War got on Richard Gehr's of the Village Voice's top 10 comics of 2008. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2008/12/pulp_fictions_t_1.php check out this awesome reviews of The Goddess of War, http://www.thoughtballoonists.com/2008/12/highlights-of-2008-goddess-of-war-volume-one.html and don't forget to see the cool comics art show I am in with Matthew Thurber and Tom Hart at the Y Tribeca. http://www.92y.org/shop/category.asp?category=88892Tri+92Tribeca+Art888&92YT_global=TribecaArt I hope to see you all at the show for my LAST EVER PERFORMANCE, EVER.
I'm about to go and spend the last day of painting at the Y Tribeca's gallery space. I started filling out the black areas on the wall painting but did I overdo it?
Hi everyone. I've been remiss in updating. Shame on me. I started teaching and cartooning again and it's taken over my life. Also, I've just joined my community garden and my head is flowing with dreams of murals and composting. I went to CCS in Vermont last week and it was beautiful and the utopian society of cartoonists that I always dream about.
This weekend is SPX and I'm happy to report I'll be debuting something... it's a four page comic in the brand new Ganzfeld with a poster to match...
This magazine is going to be so awesome. I can't wait to see it. It's got music and new inventions and it's debuting at SPX and this is the last issue. Bummer.
Also my husband is featured on Inkstuds this week!
Also, I'm going to be reading at the great Atomic Books in Baltimore on Friday night, with Brian Ralph, Jesse Reklaw, Julia Wertz, Laura Park, Theo Ellsworth, Austin English, Ken Dahl, and Ben Claassen III.
It should be a blast....
Making a book that is a total risk (large format fantasy epic when all I'd ever done before was sorta autobio teen stuff and weird comic strips) is scary and disorienting. First of all I get so close to the process, that I'm completely blind to what others will think. Like, I really thought that Goddess of War was being drawn in my new "clean" style (which is retarded), and when critics make the slightest slight, like calling my drawing "clumsy" I descend into major self-doubt. I know this is completely stupid, because I shouldn't publish books if I don't want people to have thoughts about them. When I was working on Goddess of War I didn't leave the house for months except to teach, I doubted myself every step of the way, and I'm still not sure what to make of the book. I won't even look at it now. I think I either need to develop a thick skin about critics or resist the urge to google myself. But, yesterday I googled myself and here's a nice review from the Village Voice, so what the hell. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2008/09/pulp_fictions_r_1.php
Here's the first paragraph:
"A blend of Marvel's Thor comic, a Wagnerian space opera, and Anthony Mann's Westerns, the first issue of Lauren W. Weinstein's The Goddess of War (Picturebox) introduces us to a world that is comic and tragic and ambitious as heck. Neither Weinstein's mostly clever Inside Vineyland nor her endearing and autobiographical Girl Stories suggested that she could take comics quite so far out as this. Yet there she goes—and I strongly suggest that you join her."
-Richard Gehr
Also Goddess of War is on SALE this week only for $9.50. from Picturebox.
