Hold onto your halyards, Portland—we’re throwing a Baggywrinkles party this week! I’ve been counting down, and the day is growing closer…
Following last year’s fabulous Kickstarter campaign, Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Seais about to hit comic shops and bookstores around the world, so let’s celebrate the official release with a bit of rumbustification at Floating World Comics on September 1st from 6-10pm. Here are the details:
We will have: DRINKS (BOOZY AND NOT-SO-BOOZY)! SNACKS! SPARKLY NAUTICAL TEMPORARY TATTOOS! COPIES OF THE BOOK! PEOPLE IN COSTUME! ORIGINAL ART! SCURVY!
Want to RSVP through Facebook? You can do that here!
If you got a copy of the book through Kickstarter and would like me to sign it, bring it along! I would love to give you a hug or a high five to say thanks for making this possible. If you can’t make the party, but would still like to get your hands on a copy of the book, you can order the softcover from me here.
Once again, the details:
WHO: Lucy Bellwood
WHAT: Baggywrinkles release party and art exhibit
WHEN: Thursday, September 1, 6-10pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St. Portland, Oregon
This year has been pretty bonkers, travel-wise, but I wanted to let you know that I’ll be at the First Thursday Art Walk in the Pearl district tomorrow (August 4th) from 5pm – 10pm slinging comics, art, and other treats. I’ll be hanging out with my pals James and Emily in Space 209 on NW 13th, between NW Irving and Johnson:
Here’s a silly image you can share on social media if that’s your speed:
If all this Baggywrinkles news has you itching to read the book before it officially hits shelves on September 9th, I have excellent news: the book is now available on ComiXology!
Big thanks to the team at ComiXology Submit for getting the book up and running on the site, and for giving it pride of place in the Indie New Releases section. We also got a lovely shout-out on Dave Carter’s Digital Comics Picks of the Week feature, alongside fabulous titles like Lumberjanes, Island, The Fix, and Howard the Duck! Thanks, Dave.
What ho, friends! I come bearing exciting news today: the Baggywrinkles East Coast Tour Extravaganza is officially launching this week and I’ve got ALL THE TOUR DATES lined up and ready to share. Here’s the plan:
(Huge thanks to my pal Heather Cummings for helping with design and layout for all my tour graphics!)
As you can probably see above, I’ll be hitting tour stops in Portland, Mystic, Boston, DC, New York, and Ann Arbor over the next couple weeks. Some conventions, some book stores, some comic shops, and some MARITIME MUSEUMS (oh yes). It’s going to be a wild and crazy adventure and I really can’t wait to get out to see some maritime history and meet all you East Coast pals who I never get to hang out with!
USS Constitution Museum in Boston, MA. I’ll be doing a reading in the Discovery Center at 1:30, then signing in the gift store from 2:30 till 4:30. More details here, Facebook event here.
I’ll be bringing copies of Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea to all these locations (not to mention postcards and other treats), and would love to sell you a copy/talk about boats/draw in whatever you have handy.
Not in the area? Still keen to pick up a copy of the book? Here’s a handy graphic you can convey to your local comic shop or book store to pre-order a copy.
I’ll be posting tour stop updates to Twitter all throughout the trip, so keep an eye out there if you’d like to help spread the word about upcoming events!
Hey Vancouver, I’m heading your way this Saturday and Sunday for the loveliest comic arts festival on the West Coast: VanCAF!
You can find me at Table C11 with copies of my new book Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea,along with maaaany other delightful goodies. Just look at these fresh, fresh books!
So delicious. You can also catch me on the following panels and live podcast recordings:
RE-WRITING HISTORY: RESEARCH & INVENTION IN HISTORICAL COMICS Saturday May 21 4:00 PM – 4:45 PM Hosted by Jonathon Dalton Featuring Lucy Bellwood, Tony Cliff, Rachel Kahn, Steve LeCouilliard, Kris Sayer
From the stacks of the library (or the recesses of online journals) to the page, cartoonists plumb the depths of history for inspiration. In this panel, these cartoonists will discuss their methods – from research to brainstorming – for creating comics rich in, and inspired by, history.
And also:
SNEAKY DRAGON’S VERY TALL PODCAST Saturday May 21 5:00 PM – 5:45 PM Hosted by Ian Boothby & David Dedrick Featuring Lucy Bellwood, James Lloyd
Join the Sneaky Dragon podcast’s David Dedrick (Totally Tintin) and Ian Boothby (The Simpsons comics and CBC’s The Irrelevant Show) as they welcome cartoonists Lucy Bellwood (Baggywrinkles) and James Lloyd (Futurama comics), discussing everything from tall tales and tall ships to the work habits of fairly tall cartoonists.
It’s gonna be a hoot! I can’t wait to see you all there. If you’d like a cheat sheet, just refer to this handy-dandy guide:
There is a fabled holiday in the East, my friends. A weekend celebration of comics and friendship SO GREAT, SO VAST it has been known to BLOT OUT THE SUN. Under a single roof one may find the grandest collection of independent comics practitioners in the Western Hemisphere. There is where friendships are forged in the fires of community bonding, where children frolic in the aisles and parents stagger forth laden with armfuls of glorious sequential material.
Yes, that’s right: it’s TCAF TIME!
It’s no secret that TCAF is pretty much my favorite show ever. The audience, the venue, the exhibitors, the panels—everything there is just the greatest, and I’m so proud to announce that Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea will be making its debut at this year’s festival!
Can you tell I’m excited?
Here’s a sneak peek at the lovely advance run of books that we had printed just in time:
A real book! With a spine and everything! Ahh!
AND JUST LOOK AT THESE COLORED PAGES:
Swoon.
Okay so here’s the deal: you want to say hello? I’ll be on the SECOND FLOOR of the Toronto Public Library this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, from 9-5 and 10-5, respectively. Admission is FREE! My table number is 279, and here’s a handy map of where to find me (along with fellow rockstar neighbors Katie and Shaggy Shanahan, Tony Cliff, Kean Soo, Tory Woollcott, Meredith Gran, and Mike Holmes—dang, y’all):
It’s gonna be a party.
In addition to tabling at Table 279, you can also find me at the following events (during which time I will, obviously, not be at my table—plan accordingly!):
Saturday, 1:30 – 2:30 — Comics 101: How to Start Publishing Your Comics (Marriott: Summerhill Room)
Reading comics is not enough and your passion for the medium has manifested into the next form — making them! Self-publishing your own comics will be a snap with the helpful expert advice of indie comics pubs and creators Raighne Hogan (2dcloud), Hazel Newlevant (Chainmail Bikini), Lucy Bellwood (Baggywrinkles), Kevin Czap (Czap Books). Moderated by Rachel Kahn.
Sure we all love comics, but what’s the other thing that makes you light up like an incandescent bulb? Specialization isn’t just key to evolution—it can help bring new focus to your work and encourage readers to learn from (and share!) your enthusiasm. Join Kate Beaton (history), Erika Moen (sex and sexuality), Lisa Hanawalt (horses), and Lucy Bellwood (boats) for a discussion of how niche interests can lead to diverse, vibrant careers.
Bring out the inner artistry of your little ones at the Draw-Along Kids Room! All day, we are cycling in the best of childrens’ comics artists to draw alongside our youngest attendees. Come by and let your imaginations run wild with real, live cartoonists!
Just a quick post to let you know that I’ll be appearing at the Alaska Robotics Minicon this Saturday in Juneau, Alaska! The show runs 10am-5pm and is TOTALLY FREE! It’s also got an amazing lineup of guests including Kate Beaton, Tony Cliff, Raina Telgemeier, and many, many more. Here’s a map of where I’ll be on the floor (Table 27):
I’ll also be making a couple of school visits during the day on Friday, which I’ll try to document in some fashion. Really looking forward to talking about scurvy with a bunch of middle schoolers. I think that’s going to go over well.
So as some of you may or may not be aware, I sit next to my friend Erika Moen when working at Periscope Studio. She takes a lot of reference photos for her fantastic comic, Oh Joy, Sex Toy, and since we’re perpendicular to one another I’m in a seriously ideal position to photobomb basically all of them.
We’ve been joking about putting together a zine of all these photographic masterpieces, and this month I finally thought “Why not?” and ordered a whole bunch of them. So, without further ado, allow me to present: BOMBSHELLS.
You can grab a copy in person at Emerald City Comicon later this week! The show runs Thursday-Sunday, and I’ll have a limited number of copies on hand to sign and sell. Find me at Booth 1214 with the rest of Periscope, or head to Erika’s table just across the aisle at 1322!
I have new video up from my time at The Animation Workshop in Denmark, where I was teaching a class on webcomics and social media earlier this month. (This is the first time I’ve had video footage of my public speaking—thanks, Sam!—which is really exciting.) If you’re a person who makes things on the Internet, or a person who wants to make things on the Internet, or a cartoonist, or a budding creator—this probably has some utility for you.
Things I cover:
How I ended up doing what I’m doing now (full-time adventure-cartoonist-ing, most days)
How social media has enabled me to succeed in crowdfunding, freelancing, and basically everything else
What sailing has in common with being an artist (it’s more than you think)
Communities and gratitude economies and how they shape our work
My unified very vague theory of How the Internet Makes Us Better People
What you can gain by giving your work away for free
I had so much fun teaching at TAW, and I hope this talk distills some of the stuff we were exploring and discussing over the course of my two weeks there. If you enjoyed it and want to see/enable more, feel free to check out my Patreon page! I post a ton of behind-the-scenes, nitty gritty, creative-in-the-trenches stuff there every single week, and I’d love to have you on board.
Emerald City Comicon is upon us in just a couple weeks, which means it’s time for pre-show commission sign-ups!
Here’s the drill: I have a limited number of slots for folks to get artwork done before the show—this means a little more care and attention can go into your pieces, and they’ll be ready to pick up whenever you swing by my table at ECCC! Prices and contact details can be found below.
Speaking of my table, here’s a map of where I’ll be on the show floor [Booth 1214 with the rest of Periscope]:
(Note: I am totally not this buff and tattooed.)
Emerald City is a whopping four days this year, so there’s really no excuse not to swing by and say hello. I’m bringing lots of minicomics, stickers, prints, buttons, and anthologies, plus I’ll be taking preorders for Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea (due out August, 2016).
So here’s the run-down on commissions:
1. Little Paintings (Full Color /3×4″ = $35, 4×6″ = $45)
These cuties are done on high quality cold press watercolor paper and measure either 3″ x 4″ or 4″ x 6″. Featuring a bird or animal of your choice with an optional word balloon, they’re ideal gifts or tiny talismans of your favorite beasts.
2. Pin-Ups (Full Color / 9×12″ / $70)
These are larger pieces with minimal background elements and one or two figures. More figures generally equal higher costs, but let me know what you’re after and we’ll work together to achieve it!
3. Ships (Full Color / 12×16″ / $300)
A handsome portrait of a tall ship of your choosing on a calm (or tempestuous) sea! 12″ x 16″, full-color, lotsa rigging guaranteed. These are substantial pieces and make excellent gifts.
[A note on all commission options: if any of these strike your fancy, but you’re on a budget, ask about greyscale or ink-only work to cut the cost a bit.]
Sign-ups are limited since there’s only a couple weeks before the show, so shoot me an email at lucypcbellwood [at] gmail [dot] com and let’s get rolling! Payment for commissions is due up front via PayPal or your online money transference service of choice. All pieces will be ready for pickup at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle April 7th-10th.
