Momomomomomoooo

GUESS WHAT

Here's a new comic strip featuring Freddy and Momo, drawn by my close friend, Mo Oh, who is a mind-blowingly talented artist.  I love Momo (and Mo) so much.  This comic hits me deep in the heart. (Click on it to read).

More Things:

I am working on a mini-comic right now that Chuck will be printing, as part of Oily Comics.  Right now Oily Comics is just The End of the Fucking World, which you should read if you haven't already.  The new one just came out.  I did a little drawing for the front.  I love these one-dollar comics.

CONVENTIONS!
We are now definitely going to CAKE, MECAF, and TCAF.  I am also going to Mocca, where I will be seen hovering around the Secret Acres table (which will have Sean Ford's collected Only Skin!!!)  and eating Barry's snacks.
I'm super excited for convention season!  Friends!  Comics!

MUSIC
I am trying to spread the word about this dude, Thomas Patrick Maguire,  because this album is amazing.

WHAT ELSE
I can't think of anything right this second.
I am addicted to tumblr, been doing that a lot lately.  And slowly trying to wean myself off of the internet a little.

xo
mm

!!!!!!

MOCCA IS COMING

APRIL 10-11

NYC

I'll be with my favorite guys at the Sundays table: Chuck Forsman, Alex Joon Kim, Sean Ford, and Joe Lambert.

This is the only convention Chuck and I will be at until SPX in October! Crazy.

PLUS we're making T-SHIRTS....the greatest T-Shirts you ever saw in your whole life.

clearly.

Good Times

Uhhhh huuuuuh. I really love Brooklyn. Mostly because my best friends live there. We'd probably move there if we had a million dollars.

The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival was aaawweeesooommeee. Reasons why:

It was in a little basement of a Polish Church with sparkly party decorations, there was a fake fireplace on the stage, I got to hang out with Jessica Campbell from D&Q, my Sundays buddies, and Barry and Leon from Secret Acres, I got to sing along to Michael Jackson in a little car with Joe and Sam and Chuck, Gary Panter was just walking around the show like any other dude, I got some Ryan Cecil Smith minis (seriously, he's amazing), I finally went to Desert Island (which I loved, go there now), and I met Carrie who is awesome and writes the Try Harder blog.

On a side note, we ate at an incredible place in Williamsburg on Sunday morning called Diner. I am not kidding, it was delicious. Pumpkin butter. That's all I'm saying.

Brooklyn and Belgians

THIS WEEKEND

Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest. I have a really good feeling already about this.

At a table with the Sundays crew as usual, Chuck, Alex, Joe, and Sean, and we're driving down with Sam Gascan, who I thiiink has a new comic, and Chuck has SNAKE OIL FIIIIVVVVEEEEE

plus he and I made a tiny little comic

here's a preview:

Also I got to meet David Libens, another artist at L'Employe du Moi, and he gave me a comic, called Badaboom Twist, and it is awesome. Really honest and heartfelt, and scribbly, and I loved it. His comics are all on his blog: http://badaboumtwist.blogspot.com/

Expozine and L'employe du Moi

Canada!

This weekend I traveled with four of my favorite guys: Chuck, Jose, Gabby, and Max to Montreal for Expozine! It was my first time at this convention, and I really hope it won't be the last. I loooooove this show. It's cheap as heck to get a table, people are really nice and into trading and excited about other people's work, there are no name-tags, it's free to get in...etc etc. The only bad part was when it started to smell like old gym shorts.

The other thing that made this weekend so great was getting to hang out with some people from L' Employe du Moi, a collective of comic artists in Brussels that Max (de Radigues, who is the current fellow at CCS), is a part of. In Brussels they share a studio and collaborate on comics, and publish beautiful books as well. Most of them also have day jobs, and they are funding these projects themselves out of pure love for comics. It's so inspiring so see what they do, especially because they are always thinking about what good storytelling is, and because they are so supportive of each other. Sacha Goerg spoke with Max in our class about Employe du Moi, and I got to see some of his comics this weekend, they are absolutely beautiful, as are Max's.

All the people on the Grand Papier website, where they get a lot of submissions for the massive anthologies they've been putting out, are amazing (most of it's in french, but what I understand looks amazing!) We also got to hang out with some cartoonists who live in Montreal and work in a studio together, where last week they all drew and printed an entire newspaper comic to give out at Expozine! And it's beautiful! (See cover above, drawn by Sacha and Max).

That's all.

Inspiration.

*For a way better post about Expozine, read this!

ESS PEE EXXX!

Small Press eXpo 2009 is this weekend! Yee haaa! I will be there at a table with Chuck Forsman (SNAKE OIL 4!!!) Sean Ford (ONLY SKIN 4!!!) and Joe Lambert(awesome!!!) !!! and Sundays Three!!!! I'll have Freddy, and some little tinier new Freddy minis. Also some little paintings (including the ones below), and prints.

So many friends and comics and fun! I'm super excited!

Guts

This is the cover to the newest mini I had at MoCCA. In it I printed a bunch of drawings I had from some friends that they did of what they thought their insides look like. I'm obsessed with guts. It's so weird to me that all this stuff goes on inside of me, and I have no idea what it looks like. I'm planning on collecting more, so if you want, draw a picture of your guts and send it to me!

My Favorite Things

A choice few of some amazing books Chuck and I got at MoCCA (we share books now, which is awesome, because we can get everything we want that way). From top left clockwise:

The Natural World # 2 by Damien Jay- Chuck introduced me to this guy, and he is one of my new favorites. His drawing is so consistent and beautiful, and looks so loose and easy like Quentin Blake or Jules Feiffer. (hint: damien jay is not Damian Jay)

Lazarus by Mardon Smet- Chuck got this from the Scandinavian table. It looks incredible, I haven't read it yet.

What is Hair?- funniest cover ever. Also from the Scandinavian row at MoCCA.

The latest Uptight by Jordan Crane!!!!

The Gigantic Robot by Tom Gauld, one of my favorite artists ever. This is his latest book. It's really simple, but every time I read it it gets better. Also it's made of this really heavy stock that feels amazing.

P.S. Comics by Minty Lewis, just came out from Secret Acres. Fruit and Yorkies are really cute and make you feel really uncomfortable at the same time. My favorite is the story about a relationship between a salt shaker and some sugar. (Is it called a sugar shaker?)

Department of Art #1 by Dunja Jankovic. I haven't read this yet, but it looks frikin awesome. And I got to meet her, and she is super nice.

My Boy by O. Schrauwen. Beautiful beautiful drawings, really really weird and hilarious. It was at the Bries table, one of the best tables at MoCCA, I thought.

Mourning Star #2 by Kazimir Strzepek!!! I love the way he draws so much.

The new Papercutter is my favorite Papercutter so far that I've read. Not only is the cover awesome, but all the stuff inside is awesome: Damien Jay, Jesse Reklaw, Minty Lewis!!!

And finally, Follow Me (or issue #3 of Backwards Folding Mirror) by Jesse Moynihan. Probably my favorite thing that I've read so far from MoCCA. Chuck introduced me to his work too. I loved reading this one especially...you move along his crazy world so easily, and the drawings are awesome, and I want to read it again already.

I had so much fun tabling with the Sundays crew: Alex, Sean, Chuck, and Joe. Sundays 3 looks amazing, you all should be so proud!!! I wish I had a good picture of it, but I don't...I'll find one.

Also, a little shout out!

MMMMMMMOCCCAAAAAAA

Here's a shitty picture of my eyeballs and some comics!

all the way to the left is a little peek at the book that Chuck

and I did for Sundays 3: "Good Morning, Dogburgh", then it's "Freddy", then a little zine I just made called "Guts", which is full of guts. It's also interactive. And cheap.

I'll be at table 807 with Chuck, Sean Ford, Alex Kim, and Joe Lambert.

They are all amazing, so come by!

NYC here we come!

MECAF

with my favorite tablers, Chuck and Joe. CCS totally owned a whole block of tables, also.

It was a beautiful space. And thanks to Alexis and Kristen for hosting us the night before, that was the lovliest.

P.S. email me at mendes.me@gmail.com if you would like to buy a copy of Freddy, or a print (see that one on the table all the way to the left?) Freddy is 4 bucks, prints are 10.

TEA-CALF

I mean, TCAF. Toronto Comics and Arts Festival. I rode up this past weekend with Chuck, Joe, and Alec, (and Namor) and we met up with Dustin and Alexis and his wife Kristen there, and Scott Campbell too. So much fun times! So many people! Thanks especially to Brett Warnock at Top Shelf, for giving Penina, Nick, Josh and I space at his table! Whatta guy.

It was at the Toronto Reference Library, which was beautiful, and Toronto is beautiful... I gave lots of copies of Freddy away, and got lots of sweet comics back, which I am still reading...and....we saw Michael Cera too! What a dream boat. He was filming Scott Pilgrim.

Next it's off to MECAF

and then MoCCA!

More pictures on my flickr