Linda Medley, cartoonist of Castle Waiting and much more, recently shared some old Comic-Con International or San Diego Comic Con badges with us. Above is her FIRST Comic-Con badge. Twelve years later, Medley designed the badge for the 1991 con (below). As you can see Toucan existed even then, pre-blog. This was an extra they gave Linda so no names on it and the official one had a slightly different design printed with METALLIC INK. This is so bad ass.

Badges need only have three things: the name of the show, the year and your name but some amazing art can make the show more memorable! And while I understand the need for currency level standards of 'authenticity' to keep all the photoshop pros from creating fake badges.... c'mon:

Come one, come all and bring your ale mugs! Thursday, May 16 is the OFFICIAL ODDLAND RELEASE - BEER AND ART TOUR

Join Fantagraphics and Elysian Brewing in celebrating Oddland Peppercorn Saison - the first beer release in our Oddland Series - a creative venture from the warped minds of Elysian Brewing and Seattle artist, Jim Woodring. Start with an Elysian brewery tour and continue to CoCA Georgetown Gallery for beer, bites and art, including handpicked works from Jim Woodring, who will also be in attendance. 

4-5PM - Brewery tours at Elysian Airport Way: 5510 Airport Way S., 98108
5:30-9PM - Art, Beer and Bites at CoCA Gallery Georgetown: 5701 6th Ave. S., 98108

For those who must know more about the beer, Oddland Saison is a Belgian farmhouse-style ale brewed with four varieties of peppercorns: The fire of black and green, the sparkle of white and the pungent fruitiness of pink create a playful landscape of taste and aromatics. Brewed with Pale, Munich, Cara-Munich and wheat malts, bittered with German Northern Brewer and finished with Czech Saaz hops. 7% ABV so don't forget to eat.

The ODDLAND SERIES is a journey through the strange ingredients and imaginations of Elysian brewers and Seattle cartoonist, Jim Woodring. Invite your friends via our Facebook event.

Yeah, dudes, we love fan art. We all know that's why Tumblr exists. But we wanted to highlight a great drawing by Zach Worton (Klondike, D&Q) of Richard Sala's The Chuckling Whatsit: scary and somber, the quiet before the storm. This art is part of a 'super-villains' fundraising auction, with proceeds going to the towards the Doug Wright Awards.

SPEAKING of up for sale, Johnny Ryan has some super cheap work up including an homage to the Simpsons. 

Come one, come all! It's time to spend those tax refunds on something good like some original art from Charles Forsman. You may have first seen his art in the Mome anthology from Fantagraphics but Forsman is a prolific cartoonist with many, many mini-comics under his belt. Above is a page from Snake Oil #6, below from a story in Mome, clocking in just at $100. Get a page or two now before Forsman's two books, The End of the Fucking World and Celebrated Summer come out later this year (and the prices on this type of artwork skyrocket!).

Most Seattlelites recognize the cartoons of Steven Weissman since he's been drawing I, Anonymous for the Seattle Stranger for quite awhile. In this weekly letter column, he pens the diatribes of the angry, bitter, self-loathing and oblivious. Last month's was a favorite of mine, a huge fan of the C-word, handled with the utmost care (see above). Weissman's love of duotone, gray shading and dot-matrix-heavy shading makes his drawings perfect for print and they look hella fine on the web too. Weissman was sweet enough to answer some questions about how he approaches the weekly illustrations.

Q: Do the letters appear on your doorstep in a huge sack just steeped in vitriol?

A: [Art Director] Aaron Huffman sends me a letter sometime between Wednesday and Friday each week after Stranger associate editor David Schmader or some shadowy 'they' pick the letters.

Q: What is your process like for a weekly drawing based on someone else's ideas? 

A: I've usually scanned the letter once by Friday. I'll print it out on Sunday night, underline key phrases and make a couple of sketches. By Monday morning, I have a pretty clear idea of what I'm drawing.

Sometimes the Seattle-specific letters can be puzzling (I'm in Los Angeles), but I can only think of one where I was completely stumped, and all I remember about that one is my solution being some guy eating a toaster waffle.

Q: Have you ever been contacted by the people who wrote the letters or the ones who figured out they were the subject?

A: I've sold drawings to people related to the letters before. They make great gifts for friends recovering from messy breakups (35% of I, Anonymous letters are breakups). Original art is also a great way to say "I'm sorry I gave you V.D."

What a Weiss-ass! More of those illustrations are available for sale via Weissman's Pinterest board as are his books, Barack Hussein Obama, Chocolate Cheeks, Chewing Gum in Church.

All proceeds will go toward the printing of a small print run of issue 4 of the Linework anthology, a kick-ass project Brunetti helps his students and former students put together. For more work, see Ho! The Morally Questionable Cartoons of Ivan Brunetti.

Earlier this month, the great Ron Regé, Jr. taught an amazing week-long class at SAW, the Sequential Artists Workshop, in Gainesville, Florida, followed by an art show at the F.L.A. Gallery.

Well, for those of us who don't live in Florida, artwork from Ron's show is now available online!  There's everything from collages, pen-and-paper drawings, and even original artwork from his magnum-opus The Cartoon Utopia!  Everything is one-of-a-kind, so go snap up your favorite before someone else does!

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund continues to bless objects with Jaime Hernandez's artwork. They have taken his Libby image from the Membership Card seen below (and shirts and hoodies) to make gorgeous limited edition prints. Utilizing the press at Aardvark Letterpress and help from CBLDF Member Store The Secret Headquarters in LA this 11 x 14 inch print is available to people pledging at the DEFENDER Level ($250) and higher.

Here Jaime is approving the design by cartoonist Malachi Ward to accompany his own artwork. Deputy Director Alex Cox states, "Mr. Hernandez was involved in the design process, and as you can see, an enormous amount of love and care went into to getting these prints just right." Visit their site to see how the prints turned out, here's a hint: GOOOOOOOOOLLLLLDDD.

CBLDF Membership Card:

As a recent thank you to Publisher Kim Thompson and editor Kristy Valenti (and more) for moving offices, I hatched up a scheme to paint the library door in our basement. If you haven't visited the Fantagraphics office recently, the lovely 70s shag carpet was ripped up awhile ago leaving the basement aesthetics a bit similar to that of a cattle kill floor. NO LONGER!

Inspired by Guy Peellaert's smashingly neon art in Jodelle, Office Manager Steph Rivers and I pulled out the carbon paper to adapt the drawing to our door. Also called graphite paper and available at art or architecture stores, it is an invaluable tool for mural making or large scale painting projects.

And then we let the Vitamin-C-infused paint hit the door. Now our library door matches the library door in Jodelle! Steph on the left as I sneakily took a photo. 

The finished product may have worked too well. Now everyone at the office wants a new door. Maybe a Graham Chaffee one or Johnny Ryan....

Now time to paint all the book spines to match the ones in this library. Mwuhahahaha!