off of SPX, onto the Baltimore Book Fest!

So, SPX was awesome. As it always is. I met so many awesome people, like Whit Taylor, and shared a table again with the super Matt Smith, Jeremy Massie, and Desiree and Jason Pittman. Desiree broke the bank drawing awesome pictures of people as zombies, and we were all jealous.

 

But thankfully there were tons of people there, some of whom wanted to buy my comics, and ESPECIALLY the new issue of Gay Kid

photo from SPX's facebook. This is about as empty as the floor ever looked.

I made back the cost of my table (a first for SPX) and the cost of most of my printing. It was really, really heartening to have come this far from my first SPX five years ago, where I think I sold a total of about $50 worth of books. This makes it 4 for 4 shows in 2011 at making back the table: SPACE, DC Zinefest, Baltimore Comic-Con, and SPX. SPX being the most expensive, I am the most excited by it. Here's a pic of me being excited!

photo from SPX' facebook. So chatty!

*                     *                    *

So now, onto the Baltimore Book Festival!

 I'll be talking at the Radical Bookfair Pavilion at 2:30 on Friday, and will be tabling for the duration of Friday (noon - eight, but I may have to leave early).

Come see me talk about my comics, the role comics have played in my life, and how I feel about the word "zine." It should be fun!

OHMIGOD it's almost SPX

It's like Christmas time for comics: great friends, great comic books to spend all of your money on, and great greatness. It's really so great I can't even talk straight.

Now that SPX has finally come, that means (drumroll, please!) it's time for the debut of Gay Kid 3. Pick up your hot-off-the-presses copy this weekend! And when I say "hot off the presses," I mean it. I just finished drawing this thing tonight.

The cover looks a bit more depressing than the book actually is, but I wanted to keep with the theme of magazine covers and did it in the style of an anxiety/depression one. Those tend to be kind of cheesy ("I used to enjoy looking out the windows at my children playing in the yard....now it just makes me feel like I'm in a silent movie), which is always a winning trait. They also look a little, well, you know, depressed. In terms of the actual drawing of the cover, it was fun to get to draw something in pencil shading. I don't think I've done that since a mandatory drawing class I took in college, and I forgot how good it feels to get out your 2B and 4B pencils and really go for it.

Baltimore Comic Con and Gay Kid 3 Updates

Hey there! I just got back from the Baltimore Comic-Con! It went pretty well: I made back the cost of the table (always important and my current barometer of whether a show was good or not), picked up some old Ninja Turtles comics, and met a lot of cool people, including Baby Doll from Sucker Punch and Cammy from Streefighter, proving that really everyone does love the Tales From the Suggestion Box anthology!

 

My table was between Neil King, a great cartoonist I've seen at a few shows before and who did Elvis Must Die and Forgotten Planet, and two wonderful illustrators, Tressina Bowling and Jenny Stead. I would definitely recommend checking out their work; watching Tressina draw some commissions at the show was both inspiring and intimidating (I wish I could draw like that!).

I also met Frank Cho, whose strip Liberty Meadows I loved loved loved! when it was in print. I loved it so much that when I had to do an interview for a TV project in 8th grade, I interviewed Frank Cho. I asked him if he remembered and he said "yes! wait, you're viking girl?" which means he wasn't just saying it to be nice: at the interview he drew his characters, and then my parents insisted that I draw one of mine for him, which I did, and it was a viking character I was hooked on at the time. I gave/forced upon him some issues of Gay Kid, and he gave me one of his books. Yeah, no big deal, I just traded with Frank Cho.

*                 *                 *

In other news, work on Gay Kid 3 continues plugging along. The penciling is almost done, and I'm feeling pretty good about the progress made. Here's another sneak peak at the comic so far!

Baltimore Comic-Con's Fast Approaching!

And so the east coast tour continues! And by "east coast" I mean mid-Atlantic. And by "mid-Atlantic" I mean things within an one hour radius of DC.

This Saturday and Sunday, I'll be tabling at the Baltimore Comic-Con, alongside Bill Volk. I'm super pumped for the show; I've never been to a show like this before! Stan Lee is the Guest of Honor, so the crowd will probably be a lot different than what I'm used to (shows where the only costume people are wearing are "radical vegan" or "nerd wearing Levis"). We'll see how Gay Kid goes over here. I'm making 100 copies of each issue, so hopefully people will pick it up like hotcakes. Otherwise, I'll just be super prepared for SPX.

In terms of Gay Kid #3, a premiere of SPX is still in the cards. I've penciled half of it so far, and just need to get the rest of that penciled and inked. Thankfully the outline I made is really thorough, down to the drawings and the page designs, so it shouldn't take too much longer. I'll get pictured online once I get my scanner set back up (I moved this week, so things are in boxes covering the floor)!

DC Zinefest wrap-up

The first Zinefest in DC in the last ten years was a great hit! A huge crowd came out to support all the local zinesters/cartoonists, and there was a great vibe through the place. I sold tons of Gay Kid 1 and 2, which is always fun. Also got to talk to a lot of cool people in DC and the surrounding areas, including Carolyn Belefski of Curls Studio and Sari of the zine called Hoax. Thanks so much to everyone who came out!

Look at all these people! Photos courtesy of Matt Dembicki

It was interesting to see the cultural difference between a zine fest and a comic con: there were a few times when I would ask someone "how's the show going for you?" or "what other shows are you hitting up this fall?" and would be met with blank stares. For a lot of zinesters, "shows" refers to concerts, not to cons. 

Me talking with some attendees/friends/other Gay Kids

Thanks again to everyone who came! Check out the "Follow me in Real Life!" sidebar to see what shows I'll be at next! And no, I don't mean concerts.

Come see me at the DC Zinefest!

I'll be tabling at the DC Zinefest on Saturday! Please come by, say hi, and pick up some fresh homemade comics! Here are the deets:

July 30, 2011, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
St. Stephen's Church
1525 Newton Street NW
Washington, DC 20010

Brand spankin' new things

First off, a piece of utter minutia: I got two hits today from people Google-ing "proud to be a bitch." What is that even about?


I've added a section on the right-side of the blog that will list shows I'm exhibiting at. If you want to pick up one of my comics or just say "hi," please come! For now they're all in the DC area, but I'm planing on going to PIX in Pittsburgh again if they have it again this year (which I hope they will; it was an awesome show!). If you'd rather just buy some of my comics, though, you can always do so on my etsy site. And I sure wouldn't mind that at all. I also got rid of the fish on the header--as they didn't really have much to do with what I'm working on--and am trying to figure out what to put there now. Any suggestions?

My to-do list has gotten a lot of tick marks recently, which is very much appreciated. The list is of things to have done by SPX, or, the beginning of September:

• Suggestion Box 7 drawn
• Suggestion Box 8 script done
• Gay Kid 3

Typical, the biggest/scariest project is saved for last.

Matthew sent over the finished pages for Suggestion Box 6 (this is one that I wrote and he drew), which looks great! I'm pretty excited for it and to see how the next anthology shapes out! Here's a sneak peak:

Now that I have a free moment, let's find something else to do that's not drawing!

This spring was really busy for me, and now I have finally gotten a chance to sit down and do some serious drawing. JUST KIDDING! I've gotten a chance to sit down and slack off. The next con I'm going to is the DC Zinefest, which is July 30 (come see me!). Plenty of time, right?

Yes, unless you are a clinical procrastinator. Before July 30, I want to get a number of things done:

• Suggestion Box 6: drawn
• Suggestion Box 8: drawn
• Gay Kid 3: written and drawn

Guess how much I have done?

Well, more than zero, so that's really impressive. I've started work on Suggestion Box 6 (again written by the ever super Matthew Smith), which is another great story on the perks and peril of working a retail job. Just to sate your comics-tooth, here are the first two pages.

Interview at Comics Related!

Whoohoo! My short but sweet interview with John Wilson from Comics Related just got posted! The podcast is a series of interviews with cartoonists from SPACE (19 in total!), and mine is at 40:19. Check it out here.

That is all.

random drawing

I did this at SPACE, about the different customers who pick up and buy "Gay Kid."

SPACE recap

Hey everyone!

So SPACE went pretty well, albeit a bit slow. I made back the cost of my table, and met some awesome people! I picked up a few really cool comics:

• Siamese Grandson by Daniel McCloskey, a collection of shorts, ranging from funny to disturbing and have really interesting lines in them
• Yonder by Jeremy Massie, which has great short stories based in his native Appalachia  (I met Jeremy through Matthew Smith, who does the Adventurers of Liberty City and works with me on Suggestion Box)
• Herk by O'Ryan, who I can't find a site for! All I know is that he lives in Pittsburgh and has a great smile.
• The Book on Me written by Todd Goodman and illustrated by Briana Higgins. Todd was a great next door neighbor at the con (much more conversational than the pillar on my other side :)) and wrote this fast-paced story line
• Mean Goat Comics by Kris Lachowski, which are hilarious!
• two cartoons and a t-shirt about coelacanths by Pam Bliss, which are always appreciated!

Gay Kid #2 got a REALLY great reception; it was the top seller of the show! I'm glad that people seemed to like it so much, since this project is so personal and has taken a lot of work. The storyline for this one was easier for me to write--it is an overview of my childhood life through dress--and the drawings turned out pretty well. I'm especially pleased with the cover, especially since covers and I have a difficult relationship. I have a hard time navigating them: how do I make it interesting? eye catching? flashy? not busy?. This one really does what I wanted it to: it tells you what it is, who did it, and gives your eye plenty of interesting space to rest in.


Ok, enough talking! Here is the cover, plus an interior page that gives you the jist of the book:

 

PS: the illustration on the cover is from a picture of myself and my sister Liz on a first day of school. I am feeling pretty good about by green suede vest/dragon necklace/moccasins. And I would have been a child hipster, except none of this is worn with irony:

Gearing up for SPACE!

The past few weeks have been crazy: we have a huge conference happening at work next week (800 attendees, we host). The week after that, is SPACE! I have been able to check off most  of my "new comics to-do list" for it:

• Mini for candy or medicine vol. 12 (here)
• Entry for the SPACE anthology (downloadable on their homepage as a sweet pdf)
• Gay Kid #2

Unsurprisingly, the longest and hardest one is that which I saved for last.  I don't want to get ahead of myself and start uploading pages from it here, so I will just leave you with a link to my Office Bitch page, which has been seeing a lot of traffic recently, and with the SPACE anthology piece:

New Year, New You, New Comics!

This blog has been horibly underutlized by myself. My new year's resolution: try to post just three times a month. This shouldn't be such a hard thing for me to do; I don't know why it has been in the past. So, here goes!

Come see me at PIX!

Hello out there!

This weekend there is going to be a comic convention in Pittsburgh, PA called PIX (Pittsburgh Indy Comic Expo 2010). And I will be there! It's happening the same weekend as APE, so all you poor folks that don't have the money or time to go out to San Fransisco will have something that's destined to be equally awesome closer to home! Also, I will be there selling my comics.


Click here for a link to the PIX site.
Click here for an article about it in the Tribune Review.


And here is a copy of my It Gets Better strip I did last week for the new gay. I will be selling copies of this at PIX for $10, $8 of which will go to the Trevor Project. If you are not able to come but would like to get a copy, send me an email at katie.omberg at gmail.com.

Things I am up to related to comics

Here is a recent iteration of Office Bitch, the weekly strip I do for The New Gay. I am really loving working for them and having a deadline that is enforced by someone other than me. Without it, I have a really hard time getting my act together and producing work (as you can tell by my really intense presence here on my blog).

I went to SPX a few weeks ago and LOVED. IT. It was so great to see so many people just zoned out on comics. I met a lot of awesome people, and don't know what a single one of them does for their day jobs. It's so awesome to make connections like that. People responded really well to "Gay Kid," which is now the formal name for the coming out comic. I actually sold out and had to make more copies half-way through the convention to keep it going!

Next on the docket, is PIX (Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo) which is Oct 16 - 17. I'm not sure I'll have anything brand new for it, but I will have all my old minis, as well as the first issue of Gay Kid, which was finished in September. If any of you will be around then, please please please come check out my table! It's free to get into the show, which is rare in comic cons.

Old article I found

I was trawling the internets the other day, which means I was googling myself, "Katie Omberg," which is always a fun thing. I found this old review that Rob of Panel Patter did of my work from SPX last fall. Check it out here.

SBox3 Debut and the VA Comicon

This past Sunday Matthew and I went to the VA Comicon in Richmond, VA. It was a pretty small thing with an even smaller turn out of indie-interested people. I still had a pretty great time; hanging out behind the table with Matthew and his son Christopher was a great. It was nice to see some quality dad/kid time, and it reminded me of going to conventions with my dad. Albeit, they were stamp and coin conventions and we were going to buy instead of sell, but still.

It was the debut of Suggestion Box 3: A Titanic Failure. There is nothing quite as rewarding as selling the first issue of a new project. Here's the completed cover, in super-classy green:

It's similar in design to the cover of Suggestion Box # 2, except this time with a ship's captain's sleeve. Too bad I thought about making the cuff have something to do with the content after SBox2, which has like a professor's tweed jacket showing up in a comic book about hip hop music fans.

I bought two old school comic books at the show, totaling $1.25. WOW. So expensive. Anyways, the first was a Teen Titan's book from "the first lady's drug awareness campaign." That first lady is Nancy Reagan. I was inspired to get it after Christopher came back from picking one up, and I was amazed at the quality.

 

JUST LEAVE ME ALONE, ok!?!?!?

I then bought an issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Nov. 1987, which is like, the BEST. I was a huge TMNT fan as a kid (Leonardo was my favorite; duh, who else could be the best? Two swords? You cannot argue with a katana, much less two), and am always happy to find old books of theirs:

Turtle Power!