New England group tackles housing issues with new comic anthology

Trees & Hills comic group releases SHELTER this week at major comic festival

MONTPELIER, Vt. – The Trees & Hills comic group believes everyone needs a home.

And this week the New England comic organization releases “Shelter,” a new comic anthology featuring more than a dozen cartoonists from Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts writing and drawing about why we need homes and what happens when you don’t have one.

Topics of the comics include alternative living structures and how one of the most basic needs of a society may be moving further out of reach for many people. Twenty-five percent of all sales for the $4 comic will be donated to organizations that work to get people into homes.

“We wanted to take the next step beyond just making comics about an issue that is important to us to actually trying to help,” said Colin Tedford, one of the co-founders of Trees & Hills. “Both methods of social change can be equally effective.”

Trees & Hills formed in 2006 after Tedford, a New Hampshire cartoonist, met Daniel Barlow, a Vermont writer, at a 24-Hour comic event, a unique challenge that has participants create a 24-page comic in 24 consecutive hours. More than 50 comic creators turned out for the event, held at a museum in Brattleboro, Vt.

“Turns out there were a lot of people right in my own backyard making comics,” said Barlow. “Colin and I both realized that we could all benefit from working together.

SHELTER is a follow-up to 2008’s comic anthology, SEEDS, which tackled the topic of food – including social issues, such as eating local and healthy (but also how yummy it can be too). The comic was an instant success and is nearly sold out of its second printing.

SHELTER debuts at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland on Sept. 25-26. Following the show, the 52-page comic will be available for sale at the organization’s Web site, www.treesandhills.org.

The comic features a cover by Matthew Young, a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vt. and contributions from Ignatz Award nominees Colleen Frakes and Cayetano Garza Jr.

Other creators in the comic are Marek Bennett, Anne Thalheimer, Jesse DuRona, Tom Pappalardo, Sam Leveillee, Madsahara, Blake Parker and Matt Levin. Tedford, Barlow and Thalheimer served as editors.

TREES & HILLS COMIC GROUP RELEASES FIRST BOOK
“First Harvest” debuts this week at major indie show in New York City

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Trees & Hills comic group releases its first book collection of comics this week at the MoCCA Arts Festival in New York City.

“First Harvest: Trees & Hills comics volume one” features more than 150 pages of cartoons from two dozen creators in Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts.

The book contains reader favorites from Trees & Hills’ first four mini-comic anthologies, published between Fall 2006 and Summer 2008, along with new work by creators in the New England region. Contributors include industry legends such as Stephen R. Bissette and Mark Martin and up-and-coming talent like Colleen Frakes and Marek Bennett.

“There’s some amazing work in here and we’re proud to put it in book form where it will remain in print,” said Dan Barlow, a Vermont writer and the co-founder of Trees & Hills. “These are the roots of the Trees & Hills comic group and they are strong.”

“First Harvest” will be available on June 6 & 7 at the Trees & Hills table at the MoCCA Arts Festival. The book features a color cover by Vermont artist Megan Baehr and will sell for $10. The book will also be available to purchase from the Trees & Hills Web site one week after the show.

Trees & Hills comic group formed in 2006 with the mission of developing a strong community among cartoonists and other comic creators in Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts.

Last year, the group published the successful “Seeds: An Anthology of Comics About Food” mini-comic, featuring comics about nutrition, eating organic and local and alternative food lifestyles. “Seeds” sold out just months after the debut and is now in its second printing.

Copies of “Seeds” will also be available at MoCCA this week. The $5 comic comes with a recipe booklet and a packet of organic seeds from a Vermont farm.

New Hampshire cartoonist and Trees & Hills co-founder Colin Tedford said the publication of “Seeds” last year has inspired the group to a new focus on socially-progressive comic anthologies. “First Harvest” closes the door on the first chapter of the group, he explained.

“Each new anthology we produced marked a progression, but Seeds was a real turning point for us - we realized, ‘This is what we need to do,’” Tedford said. “First Harvest is a record of where we’ve been. It feels good to have that, where a few years ago there was no such thing.”

Fall 2009 sees the release of “Shelter,” a new Trees & Hills mini-comic anthology focusing on issues of housing and homes. The comic will debut at the Small Press Expo in Maryland on Sept. 26.

“First Harvest” contributors include Megan Baehr, Matt Levin, Chris Grotke, Matthew Reidsma, Anne Thalheimer, Mark Martin, Bryan Stone, Colleen Frakes, Morgan Pielli, Stephen R. Bissette, Daniel Bissette, Meagan Frappiea, Colin Tedford, Keith Moriarty, Blake Parker, Benjamin Kalish, Miles Cota, Ray Prado, M.R. Wilson, Bill Couture, Marek Bennett, Jade Harmon, Mark Gonyea, Jennifer Omand, Matthew Young, Tim Hulsizer, Cayetano Garza Jr. and Gregory Giordano.

For more information, visit www.treesandhills.org

1. The Keene Sentinel recently published a nice article about Trees & Hills, which has apparently been picked up by some other New Hampshire papers as well. EDIT: Arg, it’s behind a subscription wall now! I’ll see if i can get a copy to post.

2. Center For Cartoon Studies Fellow Alec Longstreth describes his current business model and the rationale behind it.

2a. Friend of T&H Matthew Reidsma discusses Alec’s post and his own experience.

3. Matt Reidsma posts the first part of his interview with T&H dynamo Marek Bennett. EDIT: Part 2 is up.

Enjoy!

Members of the Trees & Hills comic group will be at Jetpack Comics in Rochester, NH on Saturday to celebrate Free Comic Book Day. Come on by and get a free comic from the group and buy some of our new comics, including the SEEDS anthology.

We hear there may also be Storm Troopers there. Watch out!

April 27, 2009

Trees & Hills comic group announce new fall anthology

Contributions wanted for SHELTER comic anthology

The Trees & Hills comic group is proud to announce a new anthology of regional comics called SHELTER, which will debut this fall.

SHELTER features comics inspired by the themes of housing and home, including aspects such as affordability, cohousing, gentrification, green building, housing cooperatives and homelessness.

This is the second anthology themed around social topics released by the Trees & Hills group and is a follow-up to 2008’s SEEDS anthology, which focused on food.

Trees & Hills is looking for comic creators and cartoonists from Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts to contribute to the all-ages anthology. The deadline for submissions is Aug. 15 and the comic will debut at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland in late September.

“Our last anthology, SEEDS, focused on food,” said Colin Tedford, a New Hampshire cartoonist and the co-founder of the Trees & Hills group. “Shelter looks at another basic human necessity and, like SEEDS, allows us to address social issues and connect with our communities.”

Contributions that tackle local or regional issues on this theme are strongly encouraged.

“SHELTER is the next evolutionary step in connecting comics and communities,” explained Dan Barlow, a Vermont writer and co-founder of Trees & Hills. “Our creators are very interested in working with local builders, shelter workers and advocates who have expertise in housing issues.”

SHELTER will be the sixth comic anthology from the Trees & Hills group since it formed in 2006. Last year’s SEEDS anthology broke new ground by focusing on the timely and engaging topic of food, tackling issues such as sustainability, eating organics and the vegetarian lifestyle.

Trees & Hills is an all-ages community comic organization for creators in Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts. Creators of all styles are encouraged to join.

Submission details:

The deadline for submissions is Aug. 15 and comics should be appropriate for all age groups.

Size of the comic will be 5.5 x 8.5 inches, so please draw to those proportions.

Submissions should be between 1-6 pages long, although we can make some exceptions.

Files should be 300 dpi greyscale or 600 dpi B&W tif.

Please also send a sentence or two about yourself (with website or other contact info if you like) for the contributor notes section.

Comics can be sent to organize@treesandhills.org

Any questions can be directed to Trees & Hills co-founders Colin Tedford and Dan Barlow. They can be reached at organize@treesandhills.org.

For project updates, check out www.treesandhills.org.

Montpelier, Vt. - The SWINGIN’ HITS are here!

The Trees and Hills comics group – a three-year-old collective of comic creators from Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts – released its fourth anthology of comics this month. SWINGIN’ HITS features comics about music by more than a dozen regional creators.

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MoCCA 2008 started with an injury Saturday morning, delaying the start of the show. It ended with a mid-afternoon building evacuation Sunday that threatened to deflate the rest of the day.

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The first thing I saw when arriving at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, NH last Sunday morning was a giant Jabba the Hut puppet in the lobby. The second thing I saw was Storm Troopers getting dressed in the men’s room.

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The next Pioneer Valley Comic & Cartoon Schmooze will be Tuesday May 13, 7pm @ Bub’s Bar-B-Q, 676 Amherst Rd, Sunderland MA. It’s a monthly informal gathering of cartoonists & other comics-interested folk, so come out to eat, drink, chat, draw, and (this month) try Bub’s deep-fried Twinkie - if you dare! For more info, contact E.J. Barnes: art at ejbarnes dot com.

On Saturday, May 17 at 2pm, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA will host a screening & panel discussion of Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist. The Museum has some video clips on YouTube: click here and check out the clips labeled “Comic Arts Festival” (including four clips of Howard Cruse discussing his work), “Will Eisner Documentary”, and “Peter Kuper meets Norman Rockwell”. This is yet another event in conjunction with the stunning “Litgraphic” exhibit of comics art, closing May 26.