Carousel at MOCCA fest....

I will hopefully be reading a highly personal comic that I've been working on for two years at MOCCA on Saturday at 5:15, but I might just have too much to do before and I'll have to read old stuff, which won't be old to you so it doesn't matter, it would just be so perfect if I could get this thing wrapped up...Carousel is at 5:15. I'll be reading with the 16th funniest man in NYC, Michael Kupperman, Domitille Collardey, Shannon Wheeler, Leslie Stein and of course, R. Sikoryak.

Thanks for coming to both of the shows!

Thursday and Friday's events were wonderful, everyone!  Thanks so much for coming out to Union Hall and The Rubin Museum for my introduction to Lost Horizon. Both times I left early to get back to Jersey, and also because there is a nasty cold going around my house right now that I think I have but maybe don't. The Rubin Museum is totally amazing if anyone hasn't been there.  A whole place dedicated to Himalayan art, full of stylish people.  They have a great events series (I'm obviously biased.) But it seems like an oasis and if you want something to do on a cold winter day, that's the place to go.

Tomorrow Carousel Mash-Up!

Tomorrow I will be performing some comics with R. Sikoryak, Jason Little, and bands, The Walking Hellos, Pretendo, and Overlord at Union Hall at 8 pm.

702 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Tomorrow night... Crime Stoppers!

Hi. Gosh, life is so f-ed up. But tomorrow night  I am going to be performing at Michael Kupperman and Kate Beaton‘s Second Annual Crime Stoppers Club!  I've got a couple new comics that I will be doing dramatic readings of.It’s at the Lucca Lounge, 222 Avenue B, in NYC.  It’s from 7-10 pm. Also Lizz Hickey will be there. Yay!

Come by, we'll all drink and hug.

Day of Mindfulness

My wonderful cousin Elli was in town following the Wake-Up movement.  So I went to the Gershwin Hotel and breathed a lot and felt extremely relaxed.  Gotta say, I loved it.   I'm not a joiner, and I hate organized anything.  But this didn't seem too culty to me, so I'm dropping everything, leaving my family and moving to Plum Village forever.  I am kidding. I think. I vow to breath through my nose more, eat slower and try to pay attention to myself and others.  Here are some notes I took while sitting cross-legged.  I am sure I got a lot of what is written here wrong, so don't quote me on anything.

This Saturday...

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.

Oiy Vey!

Hi, I'm in an art show that's just coming to New York. It's called Yentas: Bitches Who Kvetch. No, it's actually called Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women. Oiy Gevalt. I usually hate shows or anthologies that categorize work so much. It just puts you in an academic box, especially when for so long I've tried to do weird stuff like The Goddess of War, and poem comics. And I feel very conflicted about Judiasm (but isn't that the essence of being Jewish?)  But there are a lot of good cartoonists like Sarah Glidden, Miriam Katin, Ariel Schrag, Vanessa Davis, and Miss Lasko Gross. It's at the Yeshiva Museum.  I've got lots of sketches about being pregnant in it. I'll be on a panel with Katin, Lasko-Gross, Schrag at the Yeshiva U museum on Sunday, October 23rd.

Happy Birthday Ramona

Today is my daughter's 2nd birthday. It's weird being a parent and remembering what that entails--the actual birthing procedure. Here's a sketch I did a few weeks before thinking about the big day...

SPX

I’m going to SPX this weekend.  I think.  My husband wants to go.  My parents live in Bethesda.  But there’s nothing worse feeling than going to a convention when you don’t have anything new except for a kid (who is already two years old).  And then you go back to your parents who say, "It's okay honey!  You're our favorite cartoonist (except for Richard Thompson)!" I went last year and made this drawing afterward.

 

I also hate Bethesda.

I'm going to be at the Brooklyn Comics Festival

I'm going to be signing here this Saturday from 1 to 2 pm with Jillian Tamaki and Michael Kupperman, and then at the PictureBox table from 3 to 4.I may or may not have a mini comic of baby drawings. It will be nice to see you all there since I haven't left my house too much. Come by and say hi to Ramona and me.

burns_web

Mini Comic Debuts at MOCCA...

Howdy y'all, I have made a mini-comic for Mocca entitled TWO GHOST STORIES.  I am glad Tim read it last night because he caught a glaring type-o.  Duh.  You can see that I have razor sharp concentration now.  Well, back to the copy shop to replace the page!

mimipromo

"insprired the play"?  Fudge.

Here is my signing schedule.  I'll be at the Picturebox table all weekend.

Saturday:

12 pm -2 pm: Lauren Weinstein and Frank Santoro 3:00 pm-5 pm: Lauren Weinstein

Sunday: * 11:30 am - 12:30 pm: Lauren Weinstein 4 pm - 6 pm: Lauren Weinstein *

Bookforum issue out today!

Hi everyone, cover00_popup

The fiction issue of Bookforum came out today and I am in there along with some great company.... Gabrielle Bell, Paul Hornshmeier, C. F., Tony Millionaire, Chris Ware and Dash Shaw.  I am honored.  The comic that's in there is the one I wrote about a couple weeks ago, based on a Yeats poem.

You can read my comic online right here, on the same page with a writer named Terrence Holt who I think I might love.  I think I will put it into a minicomic and sell it at MOCCA too.

In other news, I am now 153 pounds.  Normally I'm about 135.  OH BABY!

SPX Sweden Report

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).

[caption id="attachment_194" align="aligncenter" width="498" caption="scenes from Stockholm."]scenes from Stockholm.[/caption]

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.

p1010007

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. stockholmloot

stockholmloot2The 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.

[caption id="attachment_200" align="aligncenter" width="474" caption="happy and pregnant in stockholm"]p1010003[/caption]

My Last Flaming Fire Performance Ever this Friday at Union Pool! 

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.