This video from the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (better known as the RSA) reminds us how important it is to find our "element"—the thing in life that makes us tick, that makes us sing, that makes us contribute to the grandeur of human experience—even in the face of self-doubt, naysayers, and those obnoxious people who ask, "How are you get a job doing that?"
Plus, it has cats, which makes it doubly great.
[via Laughing Squid]
We are happy to announce that Sophia Foster-Dimino and Roman Muradov are joining the roster of featured guests for SF Zine Fest 2013! Sophia and Roman are both very involved in the comics, illustration and zine community and we are truly excited to have them present at SFZF.
"Roman Muradov is an illustrator and cartoonist from Russia, currently living in San Francisco. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, and other nice places. His first graphic novel, "(In A Sense) Lost & Found," comes out this fall from Nobrow Press. He loves tea, books, and long aimless walks."
"Sophia Foster-Dimino is a cartoonist and illustrator whose comics have appeared in anthologies like (ku)š! and Happiness. She loves food, film, and videogames. Her first long-form comic will be published by Retrofit in the fall. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Roman."
If you're a fan of scissors and glue, co-working space SHARED is having a collage party tonight, June 19, from 6:30-9:30pm at 739 Bryant Street.
We’re having a cut & paste party with special guest, Mike Sparkle Hogan. We’ll provide the basics: scissors, various magazines, cardboard backings to collage into, paste sticks, some basic wine and crackers, a little music and YOUR IMAGINATION. Feel free to BYO scissors and magazines too.
We will share unique techniques of collage art, utensil tips, theme ideas, and so on.
The event is open to SHARED members and non-members alike. If you'd like to go, shoot an RSVP to membership@shared-sf.com.
Collage Party [SHARED]
Now that the Citi Bikes bicycle sharing program has launched in New York, the New York Times has gone predictably bike-crazy. But I'm a big fan of their new interactive map feature, which allows cyclists to post quick tips about riding around different spots in their city. Know a great short cut? A traffic light you should never, ever run?
New York city is developing a healthy map of biking advice, but the Bay Area's is still pretty sparse. Although I have to agree, Milvia Street in Berkeley is crazy fun to feel beneath your tires.
Your Biking Wisdom in 10 Words [NYT]
Surprisingly, it's not Alcatraz, at least according to The Bold Italic's Jon Korn. But, after consulting Jon Hurst, creator of the short film When the Zombies Come (one of this year's Sundance short film debuts), Korn does pick a few spots in San Francisco where you might stand a chance against the hordes of undead. It turns out that Dolores Park isn't a terrible place to dodge a few shamblers, but the zombies will eat the drunk and stoned first, so skip the Tecate and load up on coffee instead.
Watching Hurst's short film, it sounds like a hardware store might be the very best hiding spot, though. These guys spend a lot of time thinking about how to weaponize their inventory.
Surviving the San Francisco Zombie Apocalypse [The Bold Italic]
This happens to me all the time: I find myself with an old t-shirt that has far too many holes in it or has shrunk after one too many trips through the dryer, but I can't quite bring myself to part with it. It may not be in decent enough shape for the thrift stores, or I just dig the logo and want to hold on to it a little while longer. Over at Instructables, user emilygraceking has a neat and simple solution for those torn-up old t-shirts: turn them into journal covers.
She's posted her instructions, using Mod Podge to attach the t-shirt to cardstock and then stitching the binding. I wonder if a long-armed stapler would work, or if the staples would have trouble piercing the fabric neatly. Has anyone given this project a try?
Recycled T-Shirt Journal [Instructables]
It's nice not to have to go into an office for 40 hours every week, but the work-from-anywhere lifestyle has its drawbacks. Sure, you never have to change out of your pajamas, but the lack of human contact provides a quick path to insanity. The Bay Area has plenty of coffee shops, but despite all the Macbooks you'll see open at your local purveyor of Blue Bottle, they aren't always the best places to work. And sometimes, you just want to have a conversation with a co-worker, maybe to bounce ideas off of them, maybe to vent about a problem, maybe just to complain about the weather.
Increasingly, subscription-based shared workspaces are popping up around the Bay Area, offering freelancers, entrepreneurs, and other office-less nomads a place to plug in their laptops and chat with their fellow members. What sets Hayes Valley's Makeshift Society apart from other shared workspaces is its emphasis on encouraging creative work and collaboration.
Nestled on Gough Street between Oak and Fell, Makeshift Society is a cozy space. Members can channel their inner feline and curl up in the cushioned window seats, enjoy the interactivity of the long table at the front, meet in the private conference room, or quietly work on the couches or at one of the smaller tables. If you're a dog owner, you can even bring your well behaved pooch. But Makeshift offers more than just a place to work; a lending library of books on art and design fill the shelves. Bikes are available for members running local errands. A rotating pop-up shop highlights the wares of various local makers (and is open to the public.) And there is a full slate of lectures, lunches, and mixers designed to help you get to know your coworkers.
"It's for people who are craving that camaraderie that you don't get at a coffee shop," says team member Christina Bohn. Bohn says that Makeshift attracts a variety of professionals, including graphic designers, interior designers, visual artists, entrepreneurs, programmers, and frequently members will collaborate on projects. People with specific expertise will hold office hours to answer questions about everything from design to how to license your artwork. Members at all levels also get access to the Makeshift Society's Google Group, where members can throw out questions to the entire membership, post job listings, or just promote themselves and their latest works. Even if members opt not to come into the "office," they can still enjoy the resources that come with being part of a diverse group of people with a diverse knowledge base.
Even if you aren't a member of the Makeshift Society, you can enjoy much of what Makeshift has to offer. You can peruse the pop-up shop, attend office hours, or take their classes—ranging from crafty crash courses on knitting and collage to business-focused classes on managing your finances and writing snazzy copy. If you have a special project in mind, you can also apply for three months of free access through Makeshift's residency program. Last quarter, Makeshift offered a residency to Hunter Franks, who used it to launch the SF Postcard Project, in which he asks residents of neighborhoods like Bayview and the Tenderloin to write postcards about the things they love about their neighborhoods and then mails them to random occupants of the city.
Supporting memberships to the Makeshift Society start at $60 per year and grant members the Makeshift newsletter, access to the directory and Google Group, 15% off sponsored courses and events. If you'd like to work at the Makeshift space on a regular basis, access memberships start at $90 per month for one day a week and top out at $350 per month for fives days a week. Makeshift also offers salon memberships and day pass options. Be sure to check out the event schedule for upcoming classes and events, many of which are open to the public.
We are pleased to announce that the multifaceted Justin Hall, will be a featured artist for SFZF 2013. Justin's work includes True Travel Tales, Hard to Swallow, and Glamazonia The Uncanny Super Tranny. He is also the editor of No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, an anthology of LGBTQ comics that happens to highlight history and culture. Justin just won the 2013 Lambda Literary Foundation Award for Best Anthology, and has been nominated for and Eisner Award. Justin has been a pillar for SF Bay Area cartoonists for the past decade. It's an honor to have him as our guest.
Ben Costa is a Xeric Award winning comic writer and artist who currently lives in San Jose. His ongoing project is a historical fiction comic called Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk, which he updates twice a week on his website.
Where do you get your ideas?
Even though that's normally a ridiculous question, for Pang, which is historical fiction, I actually have an answer. I get a lot of ideas from reading about Chinese history. Either some factoid or story will immediately jump out at me, or I'll need to look something up for accuracy, and then I'll be inspired by another thing completely unrelated while I was looking for the first thing.
I've seen you at SF Zine Fest for the last 4 or 5 years. What do you like about that show that keeps you coming back?
Zine Fest is a good, low key, low overhead show for me where I don't have to worry too much about anything. I just need to show up with some stuff and try to sell it. I like the fact that people can just walk in off the street. My stuff probably doesn't fit in that well with everyone else's stuff, but maybe that's a good thing.
You have a website and attend yearly shows. What other ways have you found to advertise your work and get your books out to the public?
When I put my first book out in 2010, it got distributed to comic shops through Diamond. That helped a bit, but it wasn't like I was putting huge numbers with them by any stretch of the imagination. The webcomic is probably the best way to get my comics in front of people. In 2011, I went to around 15 conventions all over the country. I've attended way less since then so I could focus more on finishing Pang Vol. 2, but I'll be doing the gamut of conventions again when the book is out this summer.
You won the Xeric Comic Book Self-Publisher Award and were able to print the first part of your comic Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk. Tell me about that experience. Were there any surprises in seeing your online pages in printed form? Any Disappointments?
Winning the Xeric was awesome. I have nothing but gratitude for the Xeric Foundation. And I'm very pleased with how the first volume came out. The whole process of printing a book myself and selling it is still an ongoing learning experience. I'm still trying to figure out if I can make self-publishing work. So on that front there have been disappointments, mainly because I'm not at all close to making a living solely from comics!
Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk is your big work which you publish weekly on your website. Tell me more about it.
From now until Vol. 2 is complete, the site updates twice a week! The story is set in 17th century China, and it's about a Shaolin monk named Pang whose temple has been destroyed by the Qing dynasty. It's very rooted in Shaolin history and legend, but the main plot of the story is that Pang thinks a couple of his brothers might have escaped his temple as well, so his goal is find them. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Pang, a group of Qing soldiers is after one of the books from his temple. Aside from that, the meat of the story deals with Pang's trials and tribulations as a sweet, naive monk living outside of the temple for the first time in his life. It's a constant struggle for the guy. He becomes smitten with a girl, he's constantly confronted by corrupt individuals, and he's forced to beat people up all the time!
As a DIY comic maker, you have great freedom in the content of your books and the way in which they are printed and distributed. If you had the chance to have 'Pang' published, I assume you'd jump at it. Am I wrong? Any regrets you think you might have in having to compromise with the concerns of a publishing company?
I don't know if I'd jump at the chance to be published by any old publisher. I've heard enough stories about people who get a single mediocre check from a book that, from the outside looking in, appeared to be pretty successful. I'm able to make that kind of money on my own. Of course, there's the benefit of being published to lead to other opportunities down the line. But for Pang, I'd rather just do it myself at this point, unless a large book publisher was interested. But I'm fairly certain that won't happen. And that's okay, Tom. That's okay. *cries*
For more of Ben's work, and daily Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk adventure, visit shilongpang.com.
Calling all makers, creators, and DIY aficionados: this weekend is the 8th annual Maker Faire at the San Mateo County Events Center. Known as "the greatest show and tell on earth", you can learn everything from binding your own books (SF Center for the Book) to Ninjaneering -- what are you waiting for?
San Francisco Zine Fest
2013 Dates TBA
San Francisco County Fair Bldg
1199 Ninth Ave and Lincoln Way
In Golden Gate Park
FREE!
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Aug 30th + Aug 31st 2014
Saturday 08/30: 11am - 5pm
Sunday 08/31: 11am - 4pm
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San Francisco County Fair Building
