Boston Comic Con 2013 (#1)

Well, after a week I've finally shaken myself out of my post-con zombie state, shuffled through my photos and scanned the doodles I did behind the table during my down-time.

It was a fantastic show, the venue was bigger and nicer, there were more people, and my comic sales were better at this con than at any con I've been to before. It was very exciting, encouraging and motivating for me. The scope of the thing was a bit intimidating and at times overwhelming, but I had a great time.

Left-to-right: Jose-Luis Olivares, Yours Truly, Matt Aucoin, Mo Oh, Jesse Lonergan

I tabled with my outstandingly talented pals Jose-Luis Olivares, Mo Oh, Jesse Lonergan and Matt Aucoin who made the haul down from Vermont to come. I'm so glad I was able to be surrounded by such talent at my table. My patient and supportive girlfriend also provided coffee runs, moral support, salesmanship and a much-needed shoulder-rub. Without her, I'm fairly certain we all would have crashed.

Because of the sheer number of photos I took and wonderful cosplays I want to highlight, I'll do a double-post about Boston Comic Con.

It's-a Mario!

A beautiful steampunk Wonder Woman.

Badass Legend of Korra crew!

Avengers/ Storm Trooper mashup

Darth Vader and his clone trooper girlfriend are steppin' out!

Awesome gender-swapped Avengers!

The steampunk Wonder Woman was by far my favorite of the numerous steampunk cos-plays, superhero or otherwise! I love that a lot of cosplayers would have a pose that they would strike for photos. It shows they were really into their characters and wanted to take a good picture. I wish I'd taken some detail photos of the crew of lady-Avengers, their costumes were beautiful and well-made. They managed to gender-swap their characters without needing to go overboard with the T&A, while being absolutely feminine. Julia Pug, who created the costumes does a lot of gorgeous sewing projects, has a great blog with some of her other work.

Jimmy Aquino of the Comics News Insider podcast picked up Unpleasant People #1-4 ($12 for all four issues, plus shipping, y'all!) and mentioned it as one of his "Top 3" in episode #488. It really meant a lot to me to get mentioned, and I was grinning like a mad fool when he talked about my work. Pretty sure I scared my roommate.

After seeing an adorable little girl wearing a Spiderman shirt and a tutu, I was inspired!

My girlfriend Sarah had some great suggestions for other heroes to get the tutu treatment, and I think I'm addicted:

 

There will be more to come! Maybe I'll clean these up nicely and make prints for the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo. Gotta keep thinking ahead!

Next up: the rest of my favorite cosplays, links to the fabulous artists whose prints I picked up, me gushing about having met Mike Mignola and a couple more lads in tutus!

MICE 2012

Oooooooh damn, how long has it been since my last blog post? A long time. I don't even want to look. Oh god. Too long.

Here's another Star Trek: Voyager comic to prove I haven't been slacking:

The Borg Queen has SUCH a villain-crush on Janeway!

Well, I'm still alive. Since my last blog post I've finished Unpleasant People #4 ($3 plus shipping), put together Brain Parts #3 ($1 plus shipping), moved to a new apartment, attended the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (aka MICE) for the first time and been off-and-on scripting this webcomic idea of mine mentioned in my last post. So, it's not like I haven't been doing anything. I just haven't been sharing it with the internet.

Well, here's the fruit of my labors:

 

 If you'd like to order either of these books, or any of my other zines or comics, or get a full price list of what I'm selling, email me at holly_foltz@yahoo.com

The zombie-waiter cover of Brain Parts #3 is my favorite Brain Parts cover I've done so far. I'm also proud of the Unpleasant People cover. It's a transparency printed with the title and cover image, over a wallpaper sample, so each issue is different. 

 

And here's some of the great stuff I scored at MICE (which represents only a fraction of the kickass art and comics available there. I had to limit myself as, after this last move, I realized I just have no room for more comics).

 

Row 1: "Thrift Store Batman", can't find the info for the hilarious person who traded this with me, "The Plot" numbers 1 and 2 by Neil Brideau 

Row 2: "Strange New Worlds", a Star Trek fanzine edited by the talented Denis St. John, featuring two one-pagers by yours truly, thenkyouvurrymuch, "Klown from the Moon: A Killer Klown Survival Guide" by S.R. Bissette, Denis St. John and Mike Crosier, "The Alfa Bravo Charlies" by Anna Jo Beck, "The Littlest Elder God" by Nathan Kitler

Row 3: "Today is a Good Day to Dine" by Joey Peters, "Darkfull" by Roho and Jamie Hibdon, "Space for Rent in Latveria" by Swamp Thing and Maggie Siegel-Berele

Chad Sell had a wide range of work at his table. The standout work was his digital portraits of the queens from "RuPaul's Drag Race", which he was selling as large and small prints and in booklets ("Chad Sell does 30 Queens"). He also had some great comics, both of the kid-friendly variety ("Kittybunny: the Bag Grab") and of the drunken-superheroin variety ("Fool Girl: of Monkeys and Masks"). It was great to meet him and check his work out!

 

 Joel Gill, a local fellow and art professor who does comics and zines both entertaining and educational (often at the same time!) was sold out of the Black Conservative Trading Card (series 2) packs when I got to his table, but I picked up a printed card of them. They have hilarious quotes and "Abilities & Powers" on the back! Can't wait for series 3!

Jeff Lok, a friend from Center for Cartoon Studies, was tabling with Jose-Luis Olivares and myself and I got to trade with him for two of his great comics ("The Gag Rag #2" and "Oh Babies")! They lure you with the familiarity of the style of early animation (such as Betty Boop and the early years of Loony Toons) only to punch you in the gut with violence and tragedy. Very visceral, very funny and definitely not for the sensitive!

I was pleasantly surprised to see my pal Kenan Rubenstein there, who is responsible for some of the most thoughtful and beautiful comics I've seen at a convention. He was selling his gorgeous new book, "Last Train to Old Town: Chapter 1", hand-made, perfect-bound, full-color. All of his comics have a unique "look" to them (unusual sizes, shapes, binding, etc) and this one is no exception. The ending makes you eager to read more, and I can't wait for the next issue.

 

  

So, that was MICE. A great show, can't wait for next year! Time to dive into Unpleasant People #5! Stay tuned!

Some Pleasant, and Unpleasant, People

First off, I know this is kinda old news, but after a wait that seemed like eternity, "Avatar: Legend of Korra" (sequel to the masterful animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender") is finally here! It seems that perhaps the animation isn't quite as smooth as "The Last Airbender", but maybe it's because I was so dazzled and hadn't seen anything like it before. I sort of miss the whole journey aspect of the first series, too, but I love this one to pieces anyway, and I'm so impressed with the world-building. Again, these people did all their homework and created a three-dimensional, complete world and populated it with engaging, well-rounded characters. Anyhoo, this was my reaction:

In the me-centric news department: I finally finished the pencils for "Unpleasant People #4".
I've started inking it (starting with the lettering and panel borders) and hopefully it won't take too long. A big shout-out to my pals Mo Oh, Matt Aucoin, Jose Luis Olivares and Denis St. John who gave me their feedback and helped me present a more polished comic. So here's a couple portraits of the character Magda. A lot of issue 4 is about her back story. I was going to save the pencil sketch to put in the comic at the end, but Magda's head is so frikkin' big, I'm just going to draw something else.

 

 

As for stuff I'm watching that inspires me: I've been having "RuPaul's Drag Race" marathons. In the first season I was completely taken with Pandora Boxx. She was funny, intelligent and beautiful both in and out of drag. She was absolutely enchanting for the whole competition. 

Her nose is a little too big in the left-hand picture. In the right, she's a space princess gone rogue. And that's that.

the ULTRA UPDATE!

Okay, so I have good excuses this time for the lack of blog updates over the past few weeks! April was crazy! It felt like everything that could possibly happen to me, happened to me in April: did my taxes, got really sick, juggled two jobs for a little while before switching and had two conventions in two weeks! April had its ups and downs, but I'm glad it's May now. I've decided to take it easy this month. I'm also getting close to finishing the pencils for "Unpleasant People" #4. Just a couple pages left. I want to go to the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo in the fall and I want to have two new books by then (the aforementioned "Unpleasant People" and another issue of "Brain Parts").

Speaking of conventions, I had a great time at the Boston Comic Con and the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival in NYC.

At the Boston Comic Con I tabled with my good pals Matt Aucoin and Jose Luis Olivares. We had a great time and even put together a little anthology called "School Pencil" the night before the con. It was a combination of one-page works from all of us, plus some jam comics. Matt drew the fabulous cover. It's a pretty awesome cover. I don't want to jinx it, but odds are, there will be a "School Pencil" #2.

Some of my favorite costumes from the con here in Boston: Starfleet, of course, I nearly shit myself when I saw a "Stargate" costume (first time I've seen one at a con), also the first time I've seen Carl Sagan cosplay (apparently not a lot of people were recognizing him. For shame, science fans!), I liked that this Harley Quinn was faithful to her costume in the comics and show (I'd seen enough interpretations), the Keymaster is always a hit, where else do you see Indiana Jones face off against Lady Deathstrike, and I loved these Doctor Who ladies (does this mean the Tardis is also the companion?).

A nice fellow named Rich Johnston stopped by the table to chat and shared some fruit snacks with me. If I had known at the time that he was a journalist, I would have tried to act more intelligent. But he did end up mentioning Matt, Jose and myself, as well as some other great exhibitors in an article he wrote about how great Boston Comic Con is. And it certainly was great.


Some of the great stuff I picked up at Boston Comic Con: "A Daley Dose of Monsters" by Rich Daley, "Avra Kedabra Vol. 1" by Elizabeth Neronski, "The Stuff of Legend, Book 2: The Jungle" by Mike Raicht, Brian Smith and Charles Paul Wilson III, "Caroline's Catalog" by E. J. Barnes, "Geraniums & Bacon #6" by Cathy Leamy, "Kristilyn's Burlesque Sketchbook Vol. 1" by Kristilyn, "The Superhighs" by Dani Marie and Jessica Vitali, "A Conversation about Spiders" by Aya Rothwell, "It's A Maglorificent Monday" by Andy Wong, "Inky Stories" by Dave Marshall, "The Underburbs #1" by Joe Haley and T. J. Dort, "Paul and the Reveres Issue 1" by Tina Pratt

MoCCA was a blast, too! Got to stay with my good pals Katherine Roy and Tim Stout (also alumni of the Center for Cartoon Studies). I also got to see my pal Kenan Rubenstein and pick up one of his great teeny comics. If you haven't checked out his shit, you should check out his shit.

A sampling of the great stuff I picked up at MoCCA: "Yasha Lizard" by Kristina Stipetic, "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and "Pugs on Drugs" by Kat Fajardo, "Rat Bastard Part 1" by Cliff Galbraith, "Amelia Part 5" by Denis St. John, "What's Normal Anyway?" by Morgan Boecher, "9 P.M." by Melanie Gillman,  "Franz Kafka's Poseidon" by Jarod Rosello, "Nothing is Private" and "El Diablo" by Luis Enrique Echavarria Uribe, "On the Beach" by Kenan Rubenstein

And since I feel bad that I've been neglecting my blog for so long, here's another comic to close out this post:

I can't stop with the Illuminati jokes!