Trees & Hills comics has teamed up with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library to host an official 24-Hour Comics challenge location at their building in beautiful downtown Montpelier, Vt.

The challenge is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 2nd at 11 a.m. and will end on Sunday, Oct. 3rd at 11 a.m.

24-Hour comics is a unique artistic challenge that calls on artists to write and draw a 24-page comic in 24 consecutive hours. For more information on the challenge, visit this website.

The library will open up at 10 a.m. that morning to kick off the event (the challenge begins an hour later) and we’ll have a special guest speaker - and repeat 24-hour comic veteran - to give participants some words of encouragement and advice.

Because of the extreme nature of the challenge, 24-Hour comics will be restricted to people 16 years and older. We also ask that you preregister by e-mailing organize@treesandhills.org with “24-Hour Comics” in the header.

Younger comic fans and artists will be treated to a three-hour comic workshop hosted by Marek Bennett, the creator of the popular newspaper strip, Mimi’s Doughnuts. Participants will learn about all aspects of comic book storytelling and end the session with their own comic book!

Both events are free and open to the public.

We hope to see you there!

Comics continues to sprout special holidays: did you know that today is International Read Comics In Public Day? I didn’t either until now, which is why I have plans to stay home and draw all day. But if I venture out into public, i will surely bring a comic!

Tickets go on sale at noon today for the second edition of last year’s wildly popular New England Webcomics Weekend. A plethora of popular pixel-pushers will make themselves available to the public November 6-7 at Eastworks in Easthampton, MA.

Monday, August 16th at 6pm, free and open to the public
Center For Cartoon Studies, 94 South Main Street in White River Junction, VT

Comics artist and professor Ryan Claytor will be in town for an artist’s lecture and book signing as part of his 15-state (and 5-province) summer tour.

As a creator, Claytor is most widely known for his self-published, autobiographical comic book series And Then One Day. Although the series has undergone several format changes and incarnations since its inception in 2004, And Then One Day readers are consistently treated with Claytor’s thoughtful and entertaining personal anecdotes immaculately packaged with a designer’s eye for production detail. In the summer of 2008, he released a republication of his Master’s Thesis on autobiography in comics entitled Concatenations.

Here is your guide to White River Junction’s First Friday events on August 6th, 2010.

First Friday Double Reception! 5-8pm
Cartooning Studio Exhibition
This Friday marks the end of Cartooning Studio, our annual 5-day cartooning workshop.  Join us for a closing reception, and see the comics our students have produced.
CABOOSE: An Exhibition of Comics About White River Junction
An exhibition featuring original artwork from the local comics newspaper Caboose.

Join us this Friday, from 5-8pm, for our First Friday Open House.  Browse our unique collection of over 8,000 comics and graphic novels.  Comics by our students and alumni will be available for sale, as will our fetching Schulz Library tote bags.

Hotel Coolidge
39 South Main Street in White River Junction, Vermont

The Wild Silence
Paintings by CCS alum Penina Gal
“All are welcome to attend The Wild Silence: Paintings of nature, of people who may or may not exist, and abstractions. All express something, but all are silent. See if they might mean something to you.”
- Penina Gal

Opening Reception 5-7pm

Punchbuggy Tour at CCS
Friday March 19, 7pm
94 South Main Street in White River Junction, Vermont

Join Liz Baillie, MK Reed and Ken Dahl for an evening of comics reading, music, and carryings-on! The Center For Cartoon Studies will welcome these traveling cartoonists with a reception, followed by a book signing.

Tuesday, March 23 @7pm – Amherst, MA @ Hampshire College (West Lecture Hall)

Wednesday, March 24 @ 7pm – Providence, RI @ Ada Books

Thursday, March 25 @ 7pm – Somerville, MA @ Hub Comics

About the Authors:

Liz Baillie, author of My Brain Hurts: Volumes One and Two, currently serializing her graphic novel Freewheel on the web. Her work has appeared in publications such as Other Magazine and anthologies such as Side B: A Music Lover’s Anthology (Poseur Ink) and 13 Years of Good Luck (Microcosm Publishing). In 2007 her work was featured on the list of 100 Distinguished Comics as published in the 2007 Best American Comics anthology. She has been nominated for both the 2008 Maisie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration and 2009 Friends of Lulu Kim Yale Award for Best New Talent.

MK Reed, author of Cross Country, Catfight, and Pale Fire; writer of Americus (illustrated by Jonathan Hill) to be published by First Second Books in 2011. She was a co-editor on the Friends of Lulu anthology, Girls’ Guide to Guys Stuff, for which she received the Friends of Lulu Volunteer of the Year award (alongside co-editor Robin Enrico). Americus first appeared as a short story in Papercutter #7, which won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Anthology or Collection in 2008.

Gabby Schulz (Ken Dahl) was born and raised in Hawai’i. In 2006 he was the Fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies. That same year, the first chapter of Monsters was given an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Minicomic. Monsters was published as a graphic novel this September by Secret Acres. Schulz’s other book, Welcome to the Dahl House, was put out in 2008 by Microcosm Publishing.

The Center For Cartoon Studies (CCS) is America’s premiere cartooning school and studio located in the historic village of White River Junction, Vermont. Faculty and visiting artists include many of today’s most celebrated cartoonists.

If you plan to attend this coming Saturday’s Nicaragua / Shelter release party at Hub Comics in Somerville MA, you should also plan to attend the release party for the Boston Comics Rountable’s history-themed Inbound #4 anthology at Atomic Bean Cafe in Cambridge beforehand. New England Comics Power!

On Sunday December 13 Trees & Hills has a table at the Stars & Skulls Craft Fair in Hadley, MA. Anne Thalheimer will have her own table with her comics and monster hats; come on out and see us!

In addition to this coming Wednesday’s Nicaragua / Shelter release party at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction VT, we’ll be having one December 5 at Hub Comics in Somerville MA!

This Saturday September 12, Trees & Hills will set up tables at two different events:

White River Junction, VT 9am-5pm
Center For Cartoon Studies Open House and Book Sale at the Glory Days Festival
The Glory Days Festival is a family-oriented, fun-filled, day-long celebration of railroading - past, present and future. During the event The Center for Cartoon Studies will open its classroom and gallery to all visitors, book-lovers and comics enthusiasts. Hundreds of new and used graphic novels will be on sale at discount prices. CCS students and alumni will be on hand to sell their own comic book creations. Special guest Steve Bissette will be signing the new Vermont Monster Guide and selling sketches. Buy BRAND new CCS products (Special CCS Ed Emberley T-shirts, New Schulz Library book bags, and special limited edition pencil packs!). Stop by and get a free comics grab bag!

Winchester, NH 10am-4pm
Winchester Pickle Festival
Winchester’s annual Pickle Festival is an old-fashioned town fair, fun for all. Downtown Winchester becomes the fairgrounds, with Main Street (Route 10) the parade route in the morning. Kids march along with the parade, which features local pickle-themed floats, plenty of pickle costumes and marching bands. Along the route are craftsmen (many demonstrating), food booths, and a lively competition among local cooks for the best jar of pickles. There are free pickles for everyone! Live music goes on all day, with everything from blues and country-western to a barbershop quartet and violin ensemble.

Visit either (or both!) of these events to say hi, pick up some local comics, and experience railroad- or pickle-themed fun!

EDIT (Fri. 9/11): As tomorrow’s weather outlook is getting grimmer by the hour, the unprotected-by-a-canopy T&H table will almost certainly not be set up at the Winchester Pickle Festival. This makes us sad.