This Thursday February 1 is Hourly Comics Day, when John Campbell encourages all cartoonists to join him in creating hourly comics. The challenge: before each hour of the day passes, make a strip chronicling something about that hour. For more info and examples by John, follow the link above. For one that I did, click here.

We would like to post people’s strips, so if you live in VT, NH or western MA and do one, please send scans or a link to colintedford at gmail dot com. Also, we encourage people to have get-togethers so their comics will “cross over”. Have fun!

Our good friend Jade Harmon informed us this week that the Brattleboro Commons, a fiesty monthly newspaper in the southern Vermont town is looking to hire an editorial cartoonist.

Yes, we said hire. And no, we don’t know how much.

The ideal candidate would draw editorial cartoonists based on local issues and some additional art to go along with news stories.

We’ll be appearing at Modern Myths tomorrow night (Wed. 1/24, 6:30pm) to promote the Trees & Hills And Friends. Come say hi!

Don’t forget tomorrow is the Trees & Hills get-together at co-founder Dan Barlow’s apartment in Brattleboro, VT. In addition to the usual drawing, chatting & snacking, we’ll be discussing plans for future events (release parties, conventions, anthologies, etc.). For directions or other info, email barlowdaniel at gmail dot com.

In other news, I just posted an eccentric and untested productivity tip at Make Comics Forever.

And though not directly relevant to us, I can’t resist linking to this item about the new Archie graphic novel.

Keene, N.H. cartoonist Tim Hulsizer is one of the last remaining participants of the Daily Grind competition, which challenges artists to draw a comic daily every day during the traditional Monday to Friday work week.

To celebrate the two-year anniversary of this grueling dare, Tim wants to raise a little money for charity that buys goats and cows for impoverished villagers in other countries.

And while we can’t support Tim’s habits of eating fire crackers and wearing thong underwear, we can appreciate his heart in this situation.

So, Tim is looking for original comic art from other folks to auction off on Ebay. Entries are due by Feb 15. There is more information here at his LiveJournal.

Yeah, me too.

I’ll race you to the Comic Jobz Web site.

It’s been quite an exciting first year for Trees & Hills: numerous get-togethers at apartments, cafes, food courts, and Centers For Cartoon Studies; the growth of this website from nothing; meeting lots of cool cartoonists; appearances at the Boston Zine Fair in Boston, MA, The Comic Book Show in Nashua, NH, and the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR; and of course the release of our first anthology, Trees & Hills And Friends (60 pgs with 19 comics by 22 artists). Next year: more events, anthologies, appearances, fun!

Here’s a link to one artist’s summary of the year (it’s just mine, don’t get too worked up).

Hope this year was good to you, and that next year is better!

Robyn Chapman (Hey, 4-eyes, True Porn), who currently has a fellowship at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vt., is totally cool. We here at Trees & Hills cub house have suspected this for awhile.

But now there is proof!

Robyn landed spot #99 on Whitney Matheson’s Top 100 people list last week. Matheson, for those ignorant of such things, is USA Today’s awesome entertainment columnist, who has never hidden her leanings toward all things comic.

Robyn is in great company too. She beats out Bob Balaban. Comes 19 before David Lynch. Comic writer Robert Kirkman is only six spots ahead.

We don’t know if we agree with the chronology of this sequence (Lynch maybe), but we do agree that, sadly, Robyn is not as cool as meerkats (#85).

The Trees & Hills 3rd Saturday meetup won’t be happening this month due to schedule conflicts, and the same goes for the 3rd Tuesday Creators’ Group at Modern Myths. However, next month look forward to another T&H get-together, plus anthology release events, and the new Western Massachusetts Comics Schmooze (date tba).

The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vt. is having a huge holiday silent auction Saturday from 1-4 p.m. On the bidding table are items signed by Will Eisner, Stan Lee, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Seth, Frank Miller and Scott McCloud.

For more information, jump over to the school’s announcement on their Web site.