Newsletter: September 7th

Operation: Pizza Jam

Friday, 9/7 • 6:30 PM • Room 703G

Get ready for a fantastic evening this Friday as we start off the new year with free pizza, mingling, and a rad jam comic session!

Continue below the cut for more info, local events, and art credits!

Thesis Post-Mortem Pt. I: Process & Expectations

"Man Made Monsters" BFA Illustration & Cartooning Thesis Exhibition

Thesis year was a major turning point in my cartooning career. This was not due to all the hype built around the project or its accompanying thesis show. Instead, I owe part of my success to the framework of the project, one of the many elements which came together to pull me out of the failures and bad habits of my sophomore year.

In this inaugural weekly series for the Keep It Steady Initiative, I’m going to break down my journey to a better work ethic into advice which I hope will be useful to other students and cartoonists tackling their own thesis comics or any long-term work. This week’s post focuses on process and expectations, with a section dedicated to those who treat their work too preciously.

New Year, Same Mission

Last month, Cartoon Allies had its wildest end-of-the-year in recent history. Fresh Meat, our student comics festival, is traditionally CA's final operation before the summer. This year, Fresh Meat's 10th anniversary celebration was only a prelude to MoCCA Fest, creating a wild cacophony of comics among finals and portfolio reviews.

In the madness of it all, we were not able to formally pass the torch. Newly promoted Vice President Kou Chen and I joined our fearless leader Hilary Allison for one final round of jam comics at her apartment, but there were many things left unsaid.

Student Comics Anthologies: INK

The School of Visual Arts has had a long history of student-run comics magazines, chronicling the start of the careers of many great SVA alumni. We'll be taking this week at the CA Blog to look out our department's current magazine projects and what students can do to promote their work in them.

When Cartoon Allies found itself overburdened to run both a club and SVA's long-running anthology Inkstains, Amedeo Turturro and Trent Thompson responded to the call and put forward their vision of an anthology comic. By MoCCA Fest 2011, they had presented their primer of INK, and in the Fall they unveiled their first issue. They've foregone traditional print runs for a digital-only release platform, hosting each issue on their website while distributing comics straight to Apple devices with their iPad app. So how is the digital revolution holding up?

Series Spotlight: Blue Beetle

Blue Beetle, art by Ig Guara, Ruy José, and Pete Pantazis (from #2)

While DC Comics’ company-wide revamp has garnered quite a share of controversy, from its problematic-to-rage-inducing depiction of female characters to still thinking that having Rob Liefeld draw comics is a valid idea, some good has come from the New 52. A group of heroes of color have been given a new opportunity to have their own books, including the late Dwayne McDuffie’s black teen hero Static and a fan-favorite Chicano with alien power-armor, Jaime Reyes, the third Blue Beetle.

Jaime originally debuted in 2006, during DC’s Infinite Crisis event. From there he was thrust into his own monthly series, critically-acclaimed for its depiction of a minority teen hero with strong family ties and a well-developed supporting cast (even tying the character to previous incarnations of the Beetle). Unfortunately, the Blue Beetle’s warm reception did not translate into consistent sales, and the series was canceled after thirty-six issues. Despite the loss of his solo comic, our blue hero found himself in the pages of Teen Titans and with a prominent role in the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, turning to the caped crusader for guidance as a new hero. But now Jaime has a new shot at being in the spotlight, graduating once more from secondary character to headliner.

Series Spotlight: Rocketeer Adventures

Rocketeer Adventures #3, cover art by Dave Stevens

Through the 1980s, cartoonist Dave Stevens presented The Rocketeer to the comics world. Influenced by the pulps and film serials of the '30s and '40s, these stories centered around Cliff Secord, a young stunt pilot living in Los Angeles on the cusp of World War II, and his adventures with an experimental jetpack. While only a few issues were published, the character gained notoriety in 1991 when The Rocketeer was adapted into a film from Walt Disney Pictures.

While Stevens' throwback to an era of Nazi-punching and prop-planes was beloved by many, including yours truly, Cliff never flew over Hollywood again before his artist passed away in 2008. However, a fondness for the character and his world still resonates, leading to IDW's recent collection of the original Rocketeer stories and a new limited series, Rocketeer Adventures.

Student Comic Review: Laura Knetzger's Bug Boys

Each Wednesday, Eric and Hayley dig into a box of minicomics by SVA students and pull one out to share with the world. If you would like to submit your minis for review, please drop them off in the Reviews box at Cartoon Allies meetings and in the senior studio. This week, we'll be looking at...

Laura Knetzger, Bug Boys #1 & #2, 2011

Meet the Officers

The semester's well underway, and we're off to a great start! It's about time, then, that we formally introduced the intrepid officers behind the Cartoon Allies. We asked the team to summarize themselves and talk about why they think CA is a significant part of our department.

 Hilary Allison
     The President

Hilary is a senior comic-stripper and fourth-year Cartoon Ally... a hyperactive social pollinator with a big mouth and an addiction to projects that induce a sense of purpose. Born on a Friday, five blocks from SVA, she has since bounced through a sundry of addresses and is happy to call Brooklyn Navy Yard her current home.

"It is our mission to foster a spirit of camaraderie between cartoonists of all majors while strengthening ties to the larger cartoonisphere. We promote our art beyond individual capability. And we have a fun time."  

 

Adrian James

     The Admiral (Treasurer & 
     Table Manager)

Adrian is a queer cartooning senior on the lam from reality.

"I want Allies to be a safe space for all realms of cartooning, for it to be a conduit that allows people to meet like-minded individuals and expound, collaborate, and extend the means of comics-making as well as give each other helpful advice so we can grow and advance. CA should provide an alternative to that sometimes awkward experience of being thrown into classes, not knowing your peers, and being held in the binds of quiet academia. I want CA to be a Salon des Comics, where we will entertain ideas, share history, and move forward in our thinking!"

Eric Alexander Arroyo

     The Major (Email & Blog Commander)

Eric Alexander Arroyo (accept no substitutes) is a hot-blooded junior who wears a fedora, digs giant robots, and obsesses over flowing scarves. He's spent his life wandering Florida and Las Vegas, and hopes to find an apartment in the bowels of a volcano. Although he's training to be a cartoonist, he'd rather be a crime-fighting cyborg when he grows up.

"Above all, I want Cartoon Allies to be a valuable resource for everyone who loves comics. CA should be a community through which we can share our knowledge, collaborate, and form bonds that extend beyond this school. Using multimedia tools to help push this organization and our department's amazing artists into the greater comicsphere is integral to that."

Hayley Weber

     Lieutenant (Email Officer & Blogger)

Hayley is a junior cartooning major who hails from the most boring part of New Jersey. To distract herself from this sad fate, she reads and draws girly comic books, watches weird British TV shows, and stalks her favorite bands. 

"I want Cartoon Allies to be a place where everyone feels comfortable speaking up and participating, no matter their year or style, so that it becomes a tight-knit community."

Kou Chen

Agent

Kou is a sophomore cartooning major who comes from Taiwan.  He enjoys movies like The Fall, books like The Book Thief and comics like Black Jack.  His life goal is to overhear someone talking about something he created, because "by all means if my stories are interesting enough to share, I've done my job".  He loves tea and fluffy things... like alpacas.

"I want there to be something interesting in the club for everyone, that Cartoon Allies becomes a destination for cool facts about the comics world and quenches the thirst of curious minds."

Matt Clark

Matt is a cartooning sophomore. He is a golden retriever, woof, woof (...though he would rather not be). He has weird obsessions.

"Cartoon Allies' mission should be to advance the skills of artists while giving them a place of community to expand their networks."

Emily Kay Jolkovski

Sergeant-in-Arms

Emily "Skippy" Kay Jolkovski, a sophomore cartooning major from a small DC suburb in Northern Virginia, was born the year Punk broke and became a werewolf shortly afterwards. She enjoys 80's-90's alt rock and grunge, early swing and jazz, Klezmer music, Mexican Indian and Chinese cuisine, Coen Bros films, magical realism, sharks, controlling peoples' minds, and long walks on the beach after driving a stake into a Vampire's heart.

"I love Cartoon Allies because of the wonderful community it builds between comic artists and comic lovers, and the opportunities it brings to young artists like myself. Cartoon Allies is a great opportunity and I hope to see you there. If you see me, say hi!"