Showing posts with label Liz and Jimmy Reed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liz and Jimmy Reed. Show all posts

Monday, September 20, 2021

SPX 2021 Panels lists and links (** means local tie for ComicsDC)

SPX 2021: Enemies of the State

Alex Hoffman and fellow critics Rob Clough, Daniel Elkin, and Jules Bakes,  E.A. Bethea
Sep 18, 2021

Join moderator Alex Hoffman and fellow critics Rob Clough, Daniel Elkin, and Jules Bakes for a special SPX edition of the podcast Enemy Of The State. The panel's special guest is artist E.A. Bethea, whose Francis Bacon was nominated for a 2021 Ignatz Award. They will ask her in-depth questions regarding the comic and its remarkably dense qualities.

SPX 2021: Personal Comics from Color, Shape, Line ... and Lyrics!

Tom Hart
Sep 18, 2021

You can make comics only with an open heart and whatever materials you have lying around. In one of the favorite workshops at SAW, Tom Hart will guide you through making 8-page mini-comics that uses song lyrics, personal memories and simple drawing and painting to make a personal comic that says what you feel and has a magic all its own. Suitable for all ages.

SPX 2021: Comics, Bodies, and Embodiment

Alison Wilgus, Joel Christian Gill, Tatiana Gill, Ashley Robin Franklin, and Robyn Smith
Sep 18, 2021

Bodies take many forms, and our relationship with one's own can shift throughout our lives. Comics are a powerful tool for understanding and accepting the bodies in which we live. Joel Christian Gill, Tatiana Gill, Ashley Robin Franklin, and Robyn Smith discuss their work as a means of exploring the corporeal form in a discussion led by Alison Wilgus.

SPX 2021: Queer Joy and Queer Friendships

Carta Monir and guests Emma Jayne, Crystal Frasier, Walter Scott
Sep 18, 2021
Join moderator Carta Monir and guests Emma Jayne, Crystal Frasier, Walter Scott, and in a celebration of queer joy in comics. This discussion focuses on the power of queer friendships and happiness as both driving force and radiant rebellion.

**SPX 2021: Ourselves, In Stories: A Documentary At The Small Press Expo (and Q&A)

Marjee Chmiel and Warren Bernard
Sep 18, 2021

Award-winning documentarian Marjee Chmiel screens her documentary on SPX. Titled Ourselves, In Stories, it takes a look at the challenges, obstacles, and rewards of crafting new stories and redefining our cultural vision for whose stories are heard. Moderator Warren Bernard joins Marjee after the screen to ask her about the inspiration for and making of the film.

SPX 2021: The Local Scene: Shows, Publishing, and Getting Started

Robin Enrico, Juan Fernandez, Jamila Rowser, Avi Ehrlich, and Neil Brideau
Sep 18, 2021

While not every city has congregations of cartoonists like Chicago or Portland, every city has its own particular advantages and special qualities that can create its own unique scene. Join moderator Robin Enrico along with publishers and scene-makers Juan Fernandez, Jamila Rowser, Avi Ehrlich, and Neil Brideau as they discuss ideas regarding pedagogy, connecting with local schools and institutions, and incorporating other media and art scenes in creating your own.

SPX 2021: Playing With The Medium

Dr. Craig Fischer, Matt Madden, Shing Yin Khor, Nguyen K. Nguyen, and Joe Kessler
Sep 18, 2021
 
The familiar grids and linear storytelling of comics have stood the test of time. However, there are always innovators looking to stretch the formal limits of comics. Be it creating metafictional narratives, creating constraints on a page, or integrating comics with other media, there's a rich tradition of playing with the medium of comics. Formal comics expert Dr. Craig Fischer will engage with experimental cartoonists Matt Madden, Shing Yin Khor, Nguyen K. Nguyen, and Joe Kessler on their formal experiments.

SPX 2021: Comics and Meditative Intention

Rob Clough,Hartley Lin, Keiler Roberts, and Jason Shiga.

Sep 19, 2021
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL1ngQaoDJQ

What mindset is required for cartoonists to work? Is drawing a form of work or play? How does this relate to Lynda Barry's conception of play as a serious, meditative activity? How do artists escape thinking about whether or not their work is good while they are doing it? Moderator Rob Clough discusses these and other questions with Hartley Lin, Keiler Roberts, and Jason Shiga.

**SPX 2021: Mixed Media Storytelling

Liz Reed of Cuddles and Rage
Sep 19, 2021
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKkmBSoX_VI

Liz Reed of Cuddles and Rage walks you through how to sculpt Zombie Strawberries from C&R's graphic novel Bites of Terror. This online workshop is designed to use clay and household materials to create your very own mixed media comic at home. The materials needed include: white, green, and red clay (polymer or air dry), foil, toothpicks, q-tips, a paintbrush, a gray marker or paint, cotton balls, glue, and a cutting tool. We'd love to see your zombie strawberries in action! When posting to social tag @spxcomics and @cuddlesandrage. Bites of Terror is a mixed media horror anthology by Cuddles and Rage from Quirk Books. You can find Bites of Terror online wherever books are sold or buy the book directly from Cuddles and Rage on Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/CuddlesAndRage).

**SPX 2021: Focus on The Day The Klan Came To Town

Dr. Qiana Whitted and creators Bill Campbell and Bizhan Khodabandeh
Sep 19, 2021
This is a special spotlight on The Day The Klan Came To Town, a powerful work of historical fiction. It's based on the real events in 1923 when the KKK came to a small Pennsylvania town to make an example of its largely Jewish and Catholic populations, and how a group of people made a stand. Join moderator Dr. Qiana Whitted and creators Bill Campbell and Bizhan Khodabandeh as the explore the event and their adaptation.

SPX 2021: Color and Narrative Innovation

Rob Clough, Dash Shaw, Shira Spector, MariNaomi, and Tillie Walden
Sep 19, 2021

Color is often secondary to line in comics, but a number of cartoonists have experimented with bringing color front and center. Not only that, but their innovations have included making color central to the emotional narratives of their stories. Moderator Rob Clough talks to Dash Shaw, Shira Spector, MariNaomi, and Tillie Walden about their challenges and experiences using color in bold, new ways.

SPX 2021: Buer's Kiss

Carl Antonowicz
Sep 19, 2021

Büer's Kiss is a genre-bending live comics performance combining projected images, voice actors, and foley effects for an unforgettable adaptation of cartoonist Carl Antonowicz's graphic novel of the same name. This recording was made during the show's debut in 2018 at Pittsburgh's New Hazlett Theater. Find more from Carl at www.cantocomics.com!


SPX 2021: World-Building And New Futures

Alice Santos joins Kevin Czap, Maki Naro, Casey Nowak, and Alissa Salah
Sep 19, 2021

What does the world become when any future is imaginable? From the smallest details to -all-expansive histories, alternate worlds provide a glimpse of what is possible. Alice Santos joins Kevin Czap, Maki Naro, Casey Nowak, and Alissa Salah in an exploration of the process of constructing these new futures.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Q&A with Cuddles and Rage

by Matt Dembicki

Local husband-and-wife duo Liz and Jimmy Reed (aka Cuddles and Rage) have been super busy with new projects. On display now at the National Building Museum is their diorama as part of the “Small Stories: At Home in a Dollhouse” exhibit. On the horizon is their first kids book, Sweet Competition, which is due in November from HarperCollins. Below, the Reeds answer a couple questions that ComicsDC posed to them about their work in diorama, comics and now picture books.

So, which came first—the diorama or the comic? By that I mean, which medium did you start working in first and how did it lead to the other? Which one is more challenging for you?

We started with drawn comics first in 2010 and incorporated the dioramas eight months later. Everything started off super simple. Our comics were all paper and pencil, and our dioramas were modest polymer clay characters shot with an iPhone on our kitchen counter. The dioramas were originally a one-off thing. Liz was excited to bring a few of our characters to life in 3D form and shared them with our audience. Our miniature creations really took off when Liz sculpted our evil villain, Dr. Taquito, running in the woods with a knife (the old days of Cuddles and Rage were pretty dark). People loved seeing Dr. Taquito as this tangible thing.

The dioramas are definitely harder to create than the comics. A lot of time goes into making them just right. With the comics, we now draw them digitally and post right away. With the dioramas, we draw the concept, sculpt the guys, find the props, setup the scene, shoot everything with a DSLR, and edit in Photoshop. We love the challenge of making them. It really tests your ability to transform objects into something else. A bottle cap can turn into a pie pan and a matchbox can morph into a miniature litter box. There’s always a little magic in every diorama.

How did cute food become a particular focus in your work?

In the early days, we had a handful of reoccurring characters as our main focus – Dr. Taquito, Taco, Nugget, Hippo, and Pippo Nut (a half peanut, half hippo love child), but we didn’t want to limit ourselves to just those guys. If a joke was funny then we’d post it. It just so happened that our most popular jokes were all food based. We think about food a lot and really enjoy experiencing food so looking back it makes total sense. You write what you know, and we know food. This became very apparent when HelloGiggles asked us to create weekly food based dioramas for their site. That’s really when fans started viewing us as “food humor experts.”

Can you outline how you work together? Does one person write and draw, another sculpt, etc.? 

We both draw and write. Liz does all the sculpting. Jimmy is actually allergic to the clay. We found that out the hard way! We both keep sketchbooks and are always bouncing ideas off one another. It’s really nice to have a partner who can help you work through a comic so it can grow into something beyond just an inside joke between you and your sketchbook.

Congrats on your upcoming first picture book! How did the idea for the book develop? Did you approach it as you would a comic?

Thank you! Being published is a dream come true. The book deal came about in a really unique way. We came to publishers with a completely different book that was cute but not quite the right fit. With that book we were able to showcase our unique art style and storytelling capabilities, which landed us a deal. Through our comic, they saw we had a million more stories in us and not just that one book. We went back and pitched them five different ideas and landed on the Sweet Competition. Our main characters, the Cherry Twins, stole their hearts with their witty banter and good old-fashion sibling rivalry. 

Do you do this work full time? If so, can you briefly explain when you decided to go full time and what were the initial challenges?

Cuddles and Rage was really one of those things where we didn’t want to look back 10 years later and wonder “What if…?” We decided to make the leap into Liz going full time C&R two years ago. At that time, we didn’t have a book deal or steady income through C&R, but we knew it was a now or never situation. We put as much as we could into savings leading up to the career change and cut back on a ton of expenses. Fancy coffees and new clothes were put on hold for a long time. It kind of killed our social life, but we knew it was all for a good cause. Prior to leaving, we’d connected with a literary agent who we later signed with. We basically did what we could to make money (workshops, conventions, commissions) and lived as simple as possible until the book deal came through. Once the book came in, more opportunities opened up and fancy coffees found their way back to us. We’ve been fortunate enough to keep Cuddles and Rage going for the time being. It’s a constant hustle and nothing is a guarantee. If you do leave your day job, always leave on really good terms and stay connected. Those guys will one day be cheering for you when you succeed and will also be there if you need something to fall back on. When you believe in something and always strive to become better at your craft, good things will follow.





Friday, May 01, 2015

May 1: The Reeds in L.A. show

The local comics/art wife-and-husband team of Liz and Jimmy Reed have a sculpture (see image below) for the show titled "Idiot Box 2," which is artwork inspired by TV, at Los Angeles' Gallery 1988: LA:. The opening reception is tonight from 7- 10 p.m.