This week we printed another 100 copies of SEEDS and SHELTER, bringing the total number of copies of SEEDS to 700.

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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!

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.

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.

“Around the Neighborhood” is an exhibit of original cartoon art for the editorial page of the (Greenfield, MA) Recorder by occasional local political cartoonist E. J. Barnes, up through 31 July 2009 at Green Fields Market in Greenfield, MA.

Since 2005, E. J. Barnes has produced approximately-monthly political cartoons for the Recorder on topics relevant to Greenfield, Franklin County, and Massachusetts at large.  Her most recent exhibition of Recorder art focuses on her work from 2007 to the present.  The Recorder is the daily newspaper of Greenfield, Franklin County, and the North Quabbin region.

In addition, there are cartoons that have appeared in The Commons, a Brattleboro, VT newsmonthly, and an illustration to accompany a Recorder “Life & Times” article by Chip Ainsworth in 2008.

The art is on display in the store’s two sit-down eating areas, at the front facing Main Street near the deli, and on the mezzanine near the rear of the store.  There will be an opening reception with refreshments on Sunday, 5 July, 2–5pm on the mezzanine.

Green Fields Market is the food co-op of Greenfield, MA, located at 144 Main Street (Route 2A) in downtown Greenfield.  There is free parking at the back of the store accessible from Wells Street.  Bicycle parking is at the back entrance.  The neighborhood is also accessible via Franklin Regional Tranportation Authority buses (see http://www.frta.org).