PUSH/PULL Seattle Gallery

If you live in Seattle and have any interest in comics and underground art, you likely already know about PUSH/PULL, an indie-arts gallery and sometimes cartoonist lair.  They are located squarely in the heart of Greenwood, at 85th & Greenwood.  (8537 Greenwood Ave N, underground in the Greenwood Collective, to be exact.)

Comic Life / Between Two Worlds

Maxx Follis, Director of Push/Pull
Gallery, accepting art this afternoon for
the Comic Life/Between Two Worlds shows.

Push/Pull presents a number of monthly shows, and this Friday, August 14th, I'll be one of 20 artists to present work in Comic Life.  The work presented includes original art that was actually used in the creation of a comics story or art related to the cartoonists art and process.  You can find the event page here.

I am more than grateful to have been invited to the show and I can't wait to see what everyone is dreaming up to display.  One of the works I'm showing is my first experimentation with M. C. Eschers "Division of the Plane" depicting Patti Smith getting her hair pulled by a crow. 

In addition to Comics Life, Between Two Worlds, a Twin Peaks art show at Urban Light Studios curated by Push/Pull, will be opening at the same time, in a slightly separate space.  The two shows display an amazing array of fine Pacific Northwest Artists.  Check check.

Exterminator City #4

 

Exterminator City #4 happens August 22nd.  Details can be found here.

I've written about Exterminator City before (here).  What is it?  It's one of the only neighborhood comics tabling event I know of in the United States.  Artist and Organizer Seth Goodkind, one of the resident artists at Push/Pull, converts the labyrinthine gallery spaces into a sort of farmers market for local artists to hawk their minicomics, zines and merch of all array.   

There is nothing NOT TO LOVE about Exterminator City.  First, it is professionally organized and promoted.  Second, Seth is going out of his way to outreach to new and diverse creators.  Third, I have literally never sold more books at a tabling event with the exception of Short Run.  This includes some major regional events....people who love comics come to Exterminator City to buy comics.  Art and ideas exchange hands.

But don't take my word for it.  The Comics Journal sang high praise of Exterminator City in Paul Tumey's article covering the first Exterminator City in April of 2014.   The Seattle Underground Comics Scene is Alive and Oozing, shouts the headline.  And it is!   You can read it here.

Kick Start It!  There's a Push on for a bigger, better Push/Pull Gallery

 

Click through if you dare!  And contribute if you will.
Push/Pull Kickstarter here:  http://tinyurl.com/nfju6pr

Push/Pull is growing and evolving in remarkable ways.  They already provide great programming like monthly shows and Exterminator City.  Now they are looking for funds to create a bigger and more luminous atmosphere for underground artists in Seattle.  I encourage anyone who can to toss a coin into the well  to do so at their Kickstarter site here.

 

The Long Arm of Community

 

Max Clotfelter, the mad genius
behind the community-in-a-publication
otherwise known as DUNE.

I had intended to write about two components of the Seattle comics community that feature heavy crossover with Push/Pull's activities, artists and mission.

DUNE is a comics drawing night that occurs every 3rd Tuesday at Cafe Racer in Seattle.  That's right.  NEXT TUESDAY you should absolutely show up with drawing utensils and $2 bucks in hand to be part of DUNE. 

Until then, all you need to know is that you arrive at 7:00.  You draw a maximum of two pages of comics art.  You turn in the art and $2-3 to Max Clotfelter (the mastermind behind the venture) and next month you come back and receive not only your original artwork back but also an anthology of everyone's work from that night.  You can find details here.

I love DUNE to the ends of the earth.  It is too luscious an event to break it down in a few sentences and I will spill A LOT more ink on it in the next month.

SO--look forward to more writing about DUNE.  Also Intruder, a free comics newspaper published and distributed here in Seattle that features a rotating stable of artist who also exhibit regularly at Push/Pull.

Until next week!

C-log posts on comics, publication and community on Tuesdays.

Portland Zine Symposium (PLUS)

This week I had planned on writing about why I continue to publish under the moniker "Gone Girl Comics" when there is a salacious New York Times best-selling novel with the same first name. (Spoiler Alert:  I used it first.)

I'll be slinging Gone Girl Comics
with Mark Campos here.

However, I've been gearing up for the Portland Zine Symposium instead.  Fire up your long-neck staplers, ladies and gentlemen!  We're going south.  You can come find me at the Ambridge Event Center, Table 35C.

Tabling, Festivals, Tabling. . . 

I've been publishing comics for two years, and I've tabled less than a handful of events. I've learned to pack lots of water, a handful of snacks, a "bank" of change--even if you do have one of those credit card readers--and maybe a friend who can break you so that you can check out all of the other awesome cartoonists.

Me and Annie Murphy at
Lineworks NW.  

Happily, my first tabling experience was Short Run.  If you haven't experienced Short Run, Seattle's Comix and Arts Festival, it's worth checking out.  I've written about the event before,.  It was packed, shoulder-to-shoulder, throughout the day and I moved more than 90 minicomics.  Phenomenal.

This year, Short Run occurs on Friday, October 31st, and the organizers have moved it to the Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center, with ancillary events and special guests abounding.  More information here.

Other festivals I've tabled include the first annual Bellingham Comic Arts Festival (BellCAF) and the Olympia Comics Festival.  I also attended Northwest Lineworks 2015 as a spectator, another Portland event, and came home with stacks of books including some by exceptional artists such as Nicole Georges, Hazel Newlevant, Annie Murphy and SO MANY MORE.

Poster for the upcoming Exterminator City.
Poster Credit:  Bunny Lee.

Exterminator City and Other Events.

One of the most unusual and unusually effective tabling events is Exterminator City, a neighborhood comics market in the Greenwood district of Seattle. Organized by cartoonist Seth Goodkind at Push/Pull Gallery, the event is as grass roots as it gets.  And packed.  And I made a mint at the last Exterminator City I participated in.  OK, over $100, which is not bad when you're selling merch at $5 or less for half a day.

Exterminator City kicks up again August 22nd, 2015 and is still accepting applications until July 31st. APPLY HERE!

While I don't have anything on the books after Portland Zine Symposium, I'm setting my sights on the next CAKE in Chicago and possibly LA Zine Fest 2016.

OK! See you at Portland Zine Symposium!

And tune in next week for Gone Girl Comics: Origins.

C-log posts on comics, publication and community that publishes on Tuesdays.