Gushing about the Schulz Library

The Schulz Library has a blog!!
This is exciting to me. The Schulz Library is where I started my library career, and it's been amazing to watch it grow over the years. I started volunteering there the first day I arrived in White River Junction, when it was just an empty room in an old firehouse with a few boxes of books. Now there are full shelves from floor to ceiling, rolling ladders, and (as always) books being donated faster than they can be put on the shelves.

Before I came to CCS, I remember reading Hicksville and being fascinated with the idea of the lighthouse library with every comic ever made or imagined. This is the lighthouse!

Two for Tuesday!

I took Monday off for Memorial Day. To make up for it, here's two of my favorite public domain children's classics.

Rootabaga Stories by Carl Sandberg.

"Jimmy the Flea was a climber. He climbed skyscrapers and flagpoles and smokestacks and was a famous steeplejack. Blixie Bimber liked him because he was a steeplejack, a little, but more because he was a whistler.
Every time Blixie said to Jimmy, 'I got the blues—whistle the blues out of me,' Jimmy would just naturally whistle till the blues just naturally went away from Blixie."

Ozma of Oz by Frank L. Baum.

"Now I must explain to you that the Princess Langwidere had thirty heads--as many as there are days in the month. But of course she could only wear one of them at a time, because she had but one neck."

Sketchbook Follies

Q: Hey Colleen, now that your book is done, what are you going to do next?

A: Doodle. And maybe get a burrito.

Busy Weekend

The Center for Cartoon Studies class of 2009 graduated on Saturday. They are a good group and will go on to do us proud.

After graduation, I went to Maine for the Maine Comics Arts Festival.

I quite enjoyed my visit, and look forward to going back next year.

Now I am tired, and want a coffee.

Monday Portraits 4

"Persuasion" is my favorite Jane Austen book. I realize half the internet has the hots of Mr. Darcy (or rather, Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the BBC miniseries), but I think Captain Wentworth is a much more interesting character (or rather, Ciarán Hinds as Captain Wentworth in the 1995 film).

Maine Comics Arts Festival this SUNDAY!

Come check it out, and help the festival make it's first year a success!
The panel I'm on is from 2-3pm. Hope to see you there.

Monday Portraits 3

I never said I was sticking to fiction!

Guests of the Sheik, an ethnography of an Iraqi Village, by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. Mrs. Fernea and her husband (an anthropologist) lived in a Iraq from 1956-58. As he wasn't able to interact with the women, his wife did that part of his research for him, and wrote several books on her experiences there and in other Middle Eastern countries- all of which are wonderful!

She later became a Professor of. Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She passed away this December, and I regret never writing her.

Notes on the image- I made the women's hair and skin so red, because Mrs. Fernea writes about them dyeing it with henna. Also, in her first visit to the Sheik's harem,the women are afraid of her and keep their abaya's on (which they usually only wear outside), except the head wife, Selma. Mrs. Fernea is given the nickname "Beeja", as the women deem "Elizabeth" too hard to pronounce.

MECAF Panel Discussion

Hey! I'm going to be on a panel at MECAF (??)

“CCS Presents: Self-Publishing 101"
From DIY printing techniques to digital and offset printing, this panel will overview a variety of approaches in self-publishing. The concept of design as content will be stressed, and experienced self-publishers will explain different ways to create carefully designed and fully realized comics. This panel consists of CCS faculty, students and alumni, including Robyn Chapman (Hey, 4-Eyes!), Jon Chad (Leo Geo And His Miraculous Journey Through The Center Of The Earth), Chuck Forsman (Snake Oil), Colleen Frakes (Tragic Relief) and Lucy Knisley (French Milk).”

My part of the talk will be about offset printing and dealing with printers...'cause that's what I do anymore. I'll bring along quotes and invoices and proofs for people who like those sorts of things, and talk about the importance of having press ready files.

OH MY GOD that's so important! If you have to have one of their designers prep your files for press, it can cost between $75 an hour to a flat rate of $1,000. You can save yourself $1,000 just by learning to set up your book in InDesign or Qwark and making a PDF.

...more on Sunday the 17th, in Portland Maine. Hope to see you there!

Guess what?

I'm bringing this to the printers TODAY!

5" x5", perfect bound, 84 pages, 4 color cover, b+w interiors, $7 yeah!

You can view of 30-page preview of it here.

You can pre-order it here:

Orders will be filled when I return from MoCCA, around June 10th. Oh yeah, there will be copies for sale at MoCCA, too. I'll be at the I Know Joe Kimpel table.

There will also be a book release party...at some point...yeah. I was up at 5am this morning to go print the dummy. I'm pretty tired.

Monday Portraits 2

From the Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope. Subtitle, "Being the History of Three Months in the Life of an English Gentleman". It's the first of three novels Hope set in the fictional country of Ruritania, which is where we get the term "Ruritanian Fiction". The copy I have is illustrated by Charles Gibson.

Another next week!