Survey time!

June 16th, 2010

If you attended the 2010 Oly Comics Festival, fill out this brief li’l survey so we can make next year’s festival even better. You can either respond via a comment below or you can email your response to olympiacomicsfestival@gmail.com.

1. What went well at this year’s festival?

2. What went poorly?

3. What do you think we can improve?

Success!

June 8th, 2010

I would like to thank everyone who attended, participated in, donated to, and volunteered for this year’s festival. It was a HUGE success and it sounds like everyone had a blast. I hope everyone had a chance to talk to Peter Bagge at the festival. He was a fantastic guest and you can still swing by Danger Room to check out some of his comics. Within the next week or so, I’ll post photos of the festival. In the meantime,  Blissful Remembrances made a wonderful video of the festival that sums things up pretty well.

I apologize for the video overlapping the menu on the right. This will become a non-issue when I create a new post that will push this further down the page. In the meantime, I hope you don’t mind working around it.

Stage Show lineup

June 2nd, 2010

5:30
Doors open. Select your seats and make pleasant chit-chat while enjoying the musical stylings of the ARTESIAN RUMBLE ARKESTRA.

6:00
Let’s get this started! A few words from your Master of Ceremonies, Jon-Mikel Gates, before we get on to the good stuff.

6:05
Mister PATRICK MAPP shares with us a few examples of THE BEST COMICS ANYWHERE EVER, welcomed to the stage by the OLYMPIA FREE CHOIR.

6:25
Mister RICK PERRY, sung into our midst by the OLYMPIA FREE CHOIR as though by a band of angels, shares a little bit with us about THE ANIMATION OF WINSOR McCAY.

6:45
We bring Mister PATRICK MAPP back to the stage for a moment, and he TELLS US HOW IT IS.

6:55
We take a short break while the OLYMPIA FREE CHOIR soothes our souls with sweet, sweet music.

7:05
OLYMPIA COMICS FESTIVAL GUEST OF HONOR, Mister PETER BAGGE, tells us a bit about himself and his work.

7:25
Mister PETER BAGGE is joined onstage by Master of Ceremonies JON-MIKEL GATES, who asks him about television, noodle arms, and 35 YEARS OF BRILLIANT COMICS.

7:45
We welcome TODD JAMES LUQUE to the stage to put the finishing touches on the 9TH ANNUAL OLYMPIA COMICS FESTIVAL!

Promo Video

June 2nd, 2010

David Raffin at Blissful Remembrances filmed a fun little promotional video for us yesterday.

Panels and workshops

June 1st, 2010

In room C of the Olympia Center

12:00 - 12:45 - Kid’s Comics Clinic: How to Draw if you Can’t Draw - Don’t know how to draw? Patrick Mapp, owner of Danger Room Comics, will teach you how!

1:00 - 1:45 - Kid’s Comics Clinic: Make an 8 Page Mini Comic - Jon-Mikel Gates, cartoonist extrordinaire, teaches how to use one sheet of paper to make an 8 page comic book.

2:00 - 2:45 - Kid’s Comics Clinic: Basics of Comics Construction - Patrick Mapp teaches the basics of designing and bining zines that don’t fall apart.

3:00 - 3:45 - Comics and Education - Join librarian, Rachelle Martin and Danger Room employee, Chelsea Baker to discuss the strengths of comics as educational tools and the best way to utilize them.

On the stage of the Capitol Theater

12:00 - 12:45 - Making, Publishing, Distributing, and Selling your Comics and Zines - Four publishers, Dylan Williams, Tim Goodyear, Jason Miles, and Christina “Blue” Crow, talk about the process of getting your comics and zines into the hands of the people you want to read them. Learn the basics of the major aspects of doing your own comics. Audience participation and brainstorming is encouraged.

1:00 - 1:45 - Comic Book Fight Club - Jon-Mikel Gates leads a fight club. Everyone draws a character and then they fight. In the end, there can be only one!

2:00 - 2:45 - Life Drawing - Katy Ellis O’Brien and Angelica Blevins invite you to come draw The Can Cannibals - the finest burlesque dancers Olympia has to offer.

3:00 - 3:45 - Flip Book Workshop - Stefan Gruber, award winning Seattle animator, teaches a workshop on how to make flip books. Bring your favorite pen and watch your drawings come to life!

In the Mezzanine of the Capitol Theater

2:00 - 2:45 - Politics in Comics - How effectively are politics conveyed through comics? What happens when a cartoon runs for mayor? Join Peter Bagge, Steve Willis, and Jon-Mikel Gates for a discussion on the roll of politics in comics.

3:00 - 3:45 - Interview with Theo Ellsworth and Austin English - Come meet Theo Ellsworth (Capacity) and Austin English (Windy Corner) and watch as Dylan Williams from Sparkplug Comics asks them questions. Then ask some questions yourself.

DEADLINE EXTENDED

May 30th, 2010

In an effort to allow all of our various exhibitors, volunteers, and friends to contribute, the deadline for the official anthology of the Olympia Comics Festival - THE ROUGH GUIDE TO OLYMPIA - has been extended to 31 July 2010!

We want this year’s anthology to be the best damn anthology yet at OCF, and we’ve heard from a lot of potential contributors that the deadline, falling so close to both a major holiday and the end of the academic year, interfered with their ability to share their best work. Therefore, we’ve extended the deadline by more than two months, to encourage you - yes, you! - to bring your comics out and support the Olympia Comics Festival.

We’ll be supporting the publication of THE ROUGH GUIDE later this summer with an all-out Book Release Bash; we hope you’ll support THE ROUGH GUIDE and the Olympia comics festival by sending in your work! The submission guidelines are all the same as before, and we’ve included them below for your convenience. If you have any questions, feel free to email us, or stop in and talk to one of the friendly people at the Danger Room. Thanks!

Best wishes,
The Olympia Comics Festival

The Rough Guide to Olympia is the official comics anthology of the Olympia Comics festival, and we want you to contribute. We’d like to read your stories about Olympia, or about your life in/near/under Olympia, or maybe just stories that remind you of Olympia, or stories you made while in Olympia. All comers are welcome, from new creators working on their very first story to old hacks cranking out yet-another anthology piece. All kinds of story are welcome, too; in the past, we’ve printed everything from very personal meditations on the meaning of life and death to stick figures and fart jokes. We’d love to see what you come up with.

The Rough Guide will be a black-and-white, digest-size (5.5″ x 8.5″) saddle-stitched booklet. Pages should reduce to this size, leaving a 1/4″ margin on all sides of the page, i.e., the “live” area is 5″ x 8″. Files should be submitted as TIFFs, PNGs, or (if you must) JPEGs; for best results, line art should be saved as a black-and-white TIFF at 1200 dpi, and grayscale art should be saved as a grayscale TIFF at 300 dpi. If all this is making your brain a bit fuzzy, you can send us high-quality photocopies of your work for us to scan, care of Danger Room Comics, at 201 4th Avenue West, Olympia, WA 98501-1003. And of course, you can always email us with your questions (or your artwork) at olympiacomicsfestival@gmail.com.

2010 Exhibitors

May 29th, 2010

Here are all of our tablers listed by table number.

1            Breanne Boland

2            Kelly Froh & Max Clotfelter

3            Hot Schlitzz

4            Sparkplug Comic Books

5            Theo Ellsworth

5            Teenage Dinosaur

6            Chris Baldwin

7            Monique Is Weird

8            Oly Timberland Library

9            Martine Workman

9            Eroyn Franklin

10          CrankLeft

11          Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg & Sarah Oleksyk

12          Olympia Comics Festival info table

13          Savannah Horrocks Illustration

14          Profanity Hill (also see this site.)

15          Gretta Harley & Greg Fling

16          Cloudscape Comics

17          Kinokogallery & Zine City Comix

17          Dancing Chapman Studio

18          Art Bureau

19          Never Knows/Heavy Manufacturing Concern

20          Stumptown Underground & Friends

21          Epidrgm Studio

22          Rainbow Pyramid Studios & Friends

23          Gunbaby Graphics

24          Magma Comics

25          Darkslinger Comics

26          Black Box Comix

27          Famine Lands

28          Jason Trent and Morgan Picton

29          Black Ink Bird

29          Eye Candy Animation Festival and SEAT

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Fundraising auction

May 29th, 2010

Danger Room is hosting a silent auction tonight (Saturday, May 29th) from 7-10 P.M. There will be food provided by Eastside Big Toms (yum!) and items ranging in price from $5-$100. We’re trying to raise the last $600 needed to help pay for space rental and advertising. Here are just a few of the items we’ll be auctioning off:

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac director's cut hardcover

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac director's cut hardcover

Four piece Buffy lithograph

Four piece Buffy lithograph

1980 Spider-Man and The Hulk tin lunchbox and thermos

1980 Spider-Man and The Hulk tin lunchbox and thermos

The Red Star volumes 1-3

The Red Star volumes 1-3

I hope to see you there!

Comics Fest Bonus

May 26th, 2010

This year, the Oly Comics Fest is followed by the Eye Candy Animation Festival. Here’s the details of their show.

Doors: 8:30PM
Show Starts: 9:00PM
Run-Time: 90min.

FREE!
All Ages

Come be dazzled by the work of local animators! Gathering recent pieces by professional, amateur, and student animators from all around the Pacific Northwest, this one-night extravaganza will showcase a variety of visually striking animation styles and techniques — something for everyone! Hosted by students from The Evergreen State College, in conjunction with SEAT (Seattle Experimental Animation Team) and The Olympia Comics Festival. For more information: http://blogs.evergreen.edu/tommythompson

Tentative Program:
Intro Animation Dir. Ruth Hayes 0:20
Endless Tunnel Dir. Tommy Thompson 4:30
The Shaky Hands: Already Gone Music Video Dir. Clyde Petersen 3:17
These Pancakes Are Tiny Dir. Matthew Seely 3:38
Orpheus and Eurydice Dir. Morgan Dusatko 5:00
Fire Fire I heard The Cry Dir. Drew Christie 1:30
The Monster That Sleeps But Never Wakes Up Dir. Brian Fligner 2:45
A Moment’s Reverie Dir. Tess Martin 10:22
Petting Zoo 1 & 2 Dir. Stefan Gruber 5:00
Fridge Frottage Dir. Devon Damonte 4:00
Missed Aches Dir. Joanna Priestley 4:00
Parasol Dir. Web Crowell 5:00
Nature on its Course Dir. Su-An Ng 2:30
Lusine: Two Dots Music Video Dir. Britta Johnson 4:39
Westside Elegies Dir. Marina Gagarina 5:00
High Strung Dir. Tommy Thompson 9:00
Outro Animation Dir. Ryan Ortgiesen 0:30

More information is available from the Olympia Film Society here: http://www.olympiafilmsociety.org/1975/02/25/saturday-june-5-eye-candy-animation-festival-presents%E2%80%A6/

Posters and Donations

May 16th, 2010

Keep an eye out around Olympia and the surrounding area because we’ve started distributing posters and handbills. The poster design is by the fabulous Chris Baldwin. We’ve also added a donation button to the website (psst! It’s in the right hand column). All you need is a credit card and a bit o’ money. Any amount is appreciated. A buck, five bucks, it all helps us make the festival a better experience for everyone. Last year, the festival cost us $1,538.11 and a large chunk of that came from donations. We have to pay for space rental, advertising, and expenses for our guest of honor. Right now, our bank account is lookin’ pretty grim with only $370.04 (note: we haven’t even paid for space rental yet). If the thought of donating has ever crossed your mind before, now’s your chance.

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