THE BOSTON COMICS ROUNDTABLE: a community of comics creators, meeting weekly since 2006.

Category: News

Roundup: Mini-Comics Workshop

The Mini-Comics Workshop on August 9th was an afternoon of enlightenment. Avid learners gathered to get at the heart of the art of the mini-comic. The talk was technical in nature and began with a basic overview of what mini-comics are as well as exploring technique and design. We had several presenters to discuss the concept of the mini-comic as well as their personal styles.

Roho discussed how minis are defined, how to layout the pages for printing, and differently used formats.

Ben Doane showed a few of his minis, including Homeless Houses, which is designed and cut in the shape of a house. Ben also talked about his low-tech manner of drawing where he draws his pages in spreads already laid out for printing and 1:1 size.

Jesse Lonergan showed examples of Photoshop files and illustrated how he draws and scans his work individually, lays out his spreads digitally, and adds colors and tones. He also took apart a two-folio mini with heavier stock (Faster Miles an Hour) to show how you can sew books together when there are too many pages to reasonably fold and staple.

Finally, Heide Solbrig did a demonstration of how to make an eight-page book out of one sheet of paper and all attendees got to make their own!

It was a fun and engaging afternoon. We look forward to the next one!

August 15, 2015
Constrained Comics Night

Please join us on Thursday, 8/20, 7-9:30 PM, at the Boston Comics Workspace for a constrained comics event! This will be an interactive drawing event that will culminate in a one-page comic of your own. A small group of us have been doing constrained comics for a while and they are both challenging and fun.

You can see the results of our weekly experiments here:

More Constrained Comics here: Your Drawing Sucks.tumblr.com/

What are constrained comics?
Constrained comics are comics drawn according to set rules and limits. This may seem counterproductive for creativity, but constraints can actually push you to try new approaches in your comics. For those of you with artist’s block, constraints can help you overcome indecisiveness and just get the ink flowing. Who knows, you may walk away with the first page of your next minicomic!

What will we be doing, exactly?
We will be doing a symbol comic. We will pull a random symbol out of a bag and you will have 10 minutes to draw a panel that incorporates the symbol (literally or figuratively). We’ll do this a total of six times and then have an hour to ink and letter. See if you can reign in the randomness and create a coherent story. Or don’t! See if you can make something wild and unsettling. The remainder of the time will be spent sharing our pages with one another.

What should I bring?
Basic drawing supplies like paper, pencils, pens, and markers. I recommend working at or near standard letter size.

But I’m a writer?
Writers are absolutely welcomel. You can use this as a writing exercise or perhaps pair up with an artist and work together.

August 11, 2015
Roundup: Boston Comic Con 2015

Boston Comic Con! What an adventure! Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the con. It was such a pleasure meeting you all!

We’d also like to give a huge thanks to our Featured Artists Eric Boeker, Greg Moutafis, Bob Flynn, Joey Peters, Catalina Rufin, Cory Levine, Heide Solbrig, Jerel Dye, John Carvajal, and Joel Christian Gill. It was wonderful having you all at our table.

See below for some photo highlights from the event:

©Dan Mazur

©Dan Mazur

©Katy Rogers

©Ben Doane

©Patrick Flaherty

©Jordan Stillman

©Dan Mazur

©Dan Mazur

Did you miss us at Boston Comic Con? Not to worry! We have a few more conventions in the pipeline. We will be exhibiting at TopatoCon September 26-27th in Northampton, MA, and at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo October 17-18th right in Cambridge, MA! We are looking forward to seeing you all this fall.

August 8, 2015
Roundup: Creator Talk with Dan Mazur

On Sunday July 26, the Boston Comics Workspace hosted its second Creator Talk with local comics maven Dan Mazur, an acclaimed author, cartoonist, and comics scholar known locally for his many contributions to the Boston comics scene from his work as Ninth Art Press, publishing with BCR, and co-directing the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo.

Mazur provided an extremely thorough presentation on his most recent work “The Jernegan Solution” to a well-attended and rapt audience. He covered how he came up with the idea for the piece as well as its evolution and the process of revision and expansion. He discussed his visit to Lubec, Maine, the setting of the story (and also the easternmost point in the United States), and the process of historical research. Mazur also covered character development in terms of look and attitude and went into his artistic process. The audience was allowed to peruse his thumbnails and roughs as well as view the finished work in its entirety. It was an extremely informative and inspiring afternoon!

July 28, 2015
Roundup: Spellbound Party

On Saturday July 18, the Boston Comics Roundtable was happy to celebrate the release of their latest anthology Spellbound. The kickoff event was held at the new Boston Comics Workspace, where the BCR community gathered for a magical evening of food, games, and fun!

A better crowd could not have been asked for to take a peek at the new anthology (pictured are David Marshall, J. L. Bell, Neil Johnson, Heide Solbrig, Olivia Li, Catalina Rufin, Donna Martinez, John Carvajal, Jordan Stillman, Adam Tutkus, L. J. Baptiste, Carolina Hu, Jonathan Juniman, Roho, James Mobius, Mattie Glenhaber, and Dan Mazur, among others). We were very pleased to have many of Spellbound‘s contributors in attendance, who each very kindly autographed the Workspace copy of the book (check it out next time you’re in the space).

The food was abundant and overflowing, almost as much as the titillating conversation. Folks participated in a comics jam to surreal and comedic effect as well as decorated the Workspace table with their lovely drawings. The hand drawn bookmarks were also a big hit. It was a wonderful evening and a great event in anticipation of Spellbound‘s official launch at Boston Comic Con 2015. Thanks to everyone who came out and made the night a success!

Photographs are courtesy of David Marshall (inkydavid), Roho and Levon Gyulkhasyan.

July 21, 2015
Spellbound: An Urban Fantasy Comics Anthology

Spellbound: An Urban Fantasy Comics Anthology

Edited by Olivia Li, Heide Solbrig, Ben Doane, Jamie Koh
40 pages ~ $ 8 | Black and White | 7 x 8.5 inches

The latest installment in the Boston Comics Roundtable’s ongoing anthology series, delves into city life through the lens of urban fantasy. This collection contains over a dozen stories by Boston-area independent comics creators who challenge the way we view the world by adding a dash of the supernatural into life in the big city. Visually diverse, these tales reveal the magic in both the extraordinary and the mundane of life in Beantown. The stories span from imaginative solutions for the challenges of the immigrant experience, to the dark rites of Patriots fans, to larger-than-life musings of inanimate objects along a Boston skyline. This anthology takes our city and pulls it through the looking glass, and along the way creates a sometimes serious, sometimes silly wonderland of local comics.

Spellbound contains work from L.J. Baptiste, J.L. Bell, W.B. Clem, Patrick Flaherty, Mehitabel Glenhaber, Levon Gyulkhasyan, Paul Hanna, Youngjin Hur, Patrick Jordan, Anthony Lathrop, Dan Mazur, Greg Moutafis, John Quirk, Roho, Catalina Rufin, and Adam Tutkus. The anthology was edited by Olivia Li, Heide Solbrig, Ben Doane, and Jamie Koh.

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July 18, 2015