Cartoonists With Attitude

Tomorrow night I will be leaving the friendly confines of Somerville and heading down to the second installment of Drinking and Drawing Boston, if the Longfellow Bridge doesn’t collapse into the Charles on my way there. If it sounds like your sort of thing, you can sign up at the site. It’s at Paddy O’s, a McIrishy bar of sorts. Thankfully it’s not at a McFadden’s. I have vowed to never set foot in one of those abominations. (Imagine a date-rapey disco having the same name as you.)

Here’s a funny video explaining what the event is all about. Luckily it’s scheduled between games 6 and 7, if the Celtics don’t finish it tonight.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, and live in the Boston area, check out Somerville Open Studios. My pal and roommate Greg will be opening our doors to random strangers. I don’t know if I’ll have time to do much mingling, but if I do, I’ll be around Sunday, selling books and originals if anyone’s interested.

I'm off once again to one of my favorite annual conventions, Women, Action & the Media! in Cambridge, MA. I actually designed the tote bag for this year's event, so I'm excited to see how it turned out (I'll try to photograph one for the blog). I'll have books for sale, of course.

Also in attendance will be fellow Cartoonist With Attitude Jen Sorensen. If you're going, be sure to come say hi to us, we'll be wandering about.

This weekend I’ll be sharing an exhibitor table with CWA cartoonists Ted Rall, Jen Sorensen, Keith Knight, Masheka Wood, Stephanie McMillan, August J. Pollak, and Brian McFadden. So go there and buy our books ‘n stuff! Also check out the SPX exhibitor list and floor plan here. Use it to stalk your favorite ‘toonist.

SPX will be open to the public from 2 - 8pm on Fri., Oct. 12 and 10am - 7pm Sat., Oct. 13. Admission is $8 for a single day and $15 for both days.

Cartoonists With Attitude in Boston/Cambridge area tonight 9/28!
Posted by Mikhaela Reid

If you’re not lucky enough to be at Stumptown in Portland this weekend with Ted and most of the Cartoonists With Attitude, a few of us (as in two: Mikhaela Reid and Masheka Wood) are doing a cartoon slideshow and book signing in Boston (CWAer Brian McFadden will be attending):

• What: Slideshow/signing/discussion for Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela!: Cartoons by Mikhaela Reid w/ a foreword by Ted Rall and Deep Doodle: Cartoons by Masheka Wood!
• When: Friday Sept. 28, 7 p.m.
• Where: Center for New Words, 7 Temple Street, Cambridge, Mass.

“Mikhaela Reid’s cartoons are right *$%@ing on.”

– Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

“Masheka Wood has powers way beyond mortal cartoonists. Get on his bandwagon now before there’s no room left!”

– Keith Knight, creator of The K Chronicles and th(ink)

Bushies are bum-rushing Cheney’s secret bunker! “Ex-gays” are quaking in their closets! Abstinence educators are shivering in their shiny silver purity rings! Greedy CEOs are heading for the hills! Brooklyn-based cartoonists Mikhaela Reid and Masheka Wood are on a rampage—and no hypocrite is safe! Slideshow, discussion & signing.

Now that we’re hitched, we’re back on our mini book tour. Next stop: Beantown (or next to it, anyway!)

Your RSVP would be ever so kindly appreciated. And please feel free to steal this image/text/links and help us promote this event! Please!)

• Who: Angry cartoonists Mikhaela Reid & Masheka Wood
• What: Slideshow/signing/discussion for Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela!: Cartoons by Mikhaela Reid w/ a foreword by Ted Rall and Deep Doodle: Cartoons by Masheka Wood!
• When: Friday Sept. 28, 7 p.m.
• Where: Center for New Words, 7 Temple Street, Cambridge, Mass.
• Why: You’ll be sorry if you don’t!
• No, really, why? Because:

“Mikhaela Reid’s cartoons are right *$%@ing on.”

– Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

“Masheka Wood has powers way beyond mortal cartoonists. Get on his bandwagon now before there’s no room left!”

– Keith Knight, creator of The K Chronicles and th(ink)

Bushies are bum-rushing Cheney’s secret bunker! “Ex-gays” are quaking in their closets! Abstinence educators are shivering in their shiny silver purity rings! Greedy CEOs are heading for the hills! Brooklyn-based cartoonists Mikhaela Reid and Masheka Wood are on a rampage—and no hypocrite is safe! Slideshow, discussion & signing.

ABOUT THE CARTOONISTS
• Mikhaela Reid’s cartoons have appeared in The Guardian, The Villager, Chelsea Now, The Phoenix, Bay Windows, Metro Times, In These Times, Women’s eNews, Ms., Funny Times, Campus Progress and Bitch. In 2006, Reid was named one of the Girls in Government/Feministing “Real Hot 100″ and was featured in the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art exhibit “She Draws Comics: A Century of Women Cartoonists.” Ted Rall calls Reid “an insurgent cartoonist: smart, irrepressible and unpredictable.” (www.mikhaela.net)
• Masheka Wood grew up in Boston where he was warped by MAD, Night Flights, Garbage Pail Kids and Tex Avery cartoons. His lettering, cartoon and illustration work has appeared on MTV and in UVC (Urban Voice of Comics) magazine and The New Standard. Wood’s cartoons were featured in a recent exhibit in Jackson State University, “Other Heroes: African American comics creators, characters, and archetypes.” He was also a 2007 Glyph Award nominee for black cartoonist “rising star”. (www.whatmashekadid.com)

Couldn’t make it to one of our book signings? Now you can experience it on the internet! Jon Hickey Productions put together a fantastic video piece of our June 9 signing at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, in which you can see me reading some cartoons from Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela! and telling behind-the-comics-scenes stories:

Mikhaela Reid and Masheka Wood at Green Brain Comics part 1
Uploaded by jonhickeyproductions

And here’s the Masheka Wood portion of the presentation:

Masheka Wood and Mikhaela Reid at Green Brain Comics part 2
Uploaded by jonhickeyproductions

DC Rall-tastic Event Tonight: 7/3 Cartoonapalooza Cocktails w/ Rall, Toles, Knight, Bolling, Fiore and more!
Posted by Mikhaela Reid

Cartoons & Cocktails and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists Present:

Cartoonapalooza: Fireworks in Pen and Ink!

• Date: Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
• Time: 6:30 PM
• Location: Renaissance Mayflower Hotel
  1127 Connecticut Avenue NW
  Washington DC 20036
• Phone: 202-232-5300
• Ticket Price: $25 in advance/$35 at door
• Website: http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoonapalooza.cfm

Meet prize-winning political cartoonists from across the country as they discuss their most controversial cartoons.

Why did Tom Toles of The Washington Post get dressed down by the Joint Chief of Staff? How did Ted Rall invoke the wrath of a legion of 9/11 widows? Why did a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Atlanta take out a half-page ad to apologize for a Mike Luckovich cartoon? Meet ten of the nation’s best political cartoonists as they discuss their most controversial cartoons. Cartoonapalooza, the kick-off event for the 50th anniversary convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), is a rare opportunity for the public to meet prize-winning political cartoonists from across the country as they discuss their most controversial cartoons. Join Tom Toles, Ted Rall, Mike Peters, Mike Luckovich, Rob Rogers and five other brilliant, ground-breaking editorial artists as they talk politics, the election, Bush and beyond. The public is invited to a cocktail reception before the panel discussion to meet the artists.

The proceeds from this event will go to support Newspapers In Education’s “Cartoons for the Classroom” program, a non-profit program that provides editorial cartoon-related lesson plans for teachers. Cartoonapalooza is the must-attend event of the year for all political buffs and cartoon afficionados!

Door prizes at the reception will include signed original cartoons and books.

Featured Cartoonists:

• Ted Rall, Universal Press Syndicate
• Tom Toles, Washington Post
• Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution
• Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News
• Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• Jack Ohman, The Oregonian
• Ruben Bolling, Tom the Dancing Bug
• Ann Telnaes, Cartoonists and Writers Syndicate
• Keith Knight, The K-Chronicles
• Mark Fiore, Animated Political Cartoonist

DC Rall-tastic event #2 is, of course, the free Cartoonists With Attitude Slideshow at Borders at 2 p.m. on 7/7/2007. More on that in another post.

Riley regrets that his lack of opposable thumbs precludes him from drawing angry editorial cartoons about the human military-industrial complex

The Cartoonists With Attitude gang storms the capital on July 7 with an edgy satirical cartoon slideshow and book signing!

• When: Saturday, July 7, 2 p.m.
• Where: Borders 18th & L Streets NW Washington, DC 20006 ( 202.466.4999)
• Price: Free!

Celebrate Independence Day weekend with a slideshow and signing with edgy, groundbreaking and controversial alternative cartoonists from around the country! Be there or the torturers, bombers, ex-gays and wire-tappers win! Meet:

• Ruben Bolling (”Tom the Dancing Bug”)
• Matt Bors (”Idiot Box”)
• Keith Knight (”The K Chronicles”)
• Brian McFadden (”Big Fat Whale”)
• Stephanie McMillan (”Minimum Security”)
• August Pollak (”Some Guy With a Website”)
• Ted Rall(Silk Road to Ruin)
• Mikhaela Reid (”The Boiling Point”)
• Ben Smith (”Fighting Words”)
• Jen Sorensen (”Slowpoke”)
• Masheka Wood (”Not Just Knee Deep”)

And in case you weren’t aware, you should really read our group blog (also available as an RSS feed if you want to get all our blogs and most of our cartoons in one convenient place. We also have a not-so-frequently updated Cartoonists With Attitude MySpace page if you want to be our friend.

MOCCA festival pix: Cartoonists With Attitude, Alison Bechdel and more!
Posted by Mikhaela Reid

No good comics convention is complete without Ted Rall; still, we muddled through while Ted continued his Stan-Trek:

Ayo + Cartoonists With Attitude Masheka Wood, Brian McFadden and Mikhaela Reid

Legendary Fun Home author and Dyke to Watch Out For Alison Bechdel and Mikhaela Reid; Mikhaela Reid and Barry “Ampersand” Deutsch drawing each other faces

Muckraking filmmaker Morgan Spurlock with his copy of Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela!; Masheka Wood and Frank Reynoso; cover of on-the-spot commissioned birthday card for a George-Bush-averse one-year-old

Masheka Wood and Ayo; Brian McFadden and Keith Knight with free booze and food at the Top Shelf 10th Anniversary Party

Last year, the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art’s Art Festival was a low point for many of us alternative political cartoonists–we felt so alienated, disconnected and unloved and sold so few books that we decided to form the group Cartoonists With Attitude to help get more attention at conventions.

Apparently it worked. I’m happy to report that MOCCA this year was a whole other comics convention beast. All kinds of great comics readers, cool sales, and awe-inspiring cartoonists to hang out with, plus some cool comics discoveries. The tough part was keeping any of the money we earned and not immediately spending it on other comics.

The convention was also packed with alums from the Attitudeseries of books Ted edited for NBM: myself, Brian, Alison Bechdel, Barry Deutsch, Neil Swaab, R Stevens, Scott Bateman and others. Clearly, it’s all about the Attitude.

If you scroll through my whole MOCCA photoset, you’ll see I also got to chat with Hilary Price of “Rhymes With Orange” fame, who was attending her first comics convention to promote her book Reigning Cats and Dogs. Hilary is syndicated and popular for good reason.

More later on some of the cool comics I picked up at the event!