W is for Water Towers!

W is for Water Tower(s)!  I thought it would be easy to find water towers, because they're supposedly EVERYWHERE in Brooklyn, right?  Usually towns and cities have one huge water tower for drinking water and/or fire protection in case of a power outage, but Brooklyn has smaller individual water towers on top of many buildings.  Even the Gowanus Nite Market's last postcard had an image of a water tower.  Sometimes when I'm walking down the street in Brooklyn I just come across them and don't think anything of it.  But when I went on a hunt to take pictures of water towers, I had a heck of a time finding any!  Maybe because it was night?  But I eventually found this one that can be seen when you're on the Union Street Bridge in Gowanus, looking south.

Comics for the Dysautonomia Foundation

First off, Happy New Year!  Mindy indy is back to blogging after a break for the holidays.  I've been making a lot of custom comics lately!  This one is for the Familial Dysautonomia Foundation.  Familial Dysautonomia (FD) is a rare genetic neurological condition that affects the sensory and autonomic nervous systems, causing severe gastrointestinal, cardiac, pulmonary, orthopedic, renal and ophthalmologic problems.  The Dysautonomia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity that supports medical treatment, research, public awareness and social services for the benefit of people afflicted with FD. The Foundation has established the world's only two FD treatment centers and is the largest single source of funding for research and treatment specifically for the benefit of people with FD.

The FD Foundation contacted me after meeting me at the Toys on the Hudson convention.  They wanted a comic to brighten up their Facebook Page.  The comic is educational for people not familiar with the condition, and is also something that families and people with FD can relate to.  I did 3 comics so far for them, and they'll want me to do more if it gets good responses on Facebook, so please "share" and "like" the comic on their page!  Thanks a bunch!

GNM tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Gowanus Nite Market!  Here's the last drawing in the series.  I love buildings that have old mural signs on them that are pretty worn.  I saw this old Brooklyn Tile building on 4th Avenue & Degraw Street in Brooklyn.  I don't think they make tiles anymore (people might live there, but all the windows are bricked up, so I'm not sure), but it's a neat little part of Brooklyn history.

I'll post about directions tomorrow, and I also have a special surprise up my sleeve :)

Playing with the GNM Logo

Today I played with the Gowanus Nite Market logo - originally a water tower that looked like it was built from trees.  I love adding many colors to objects that would in real life be one or two colors.  Instead of the tree branches just bring brown, they have yellow, peach, and indigo added.  I also drew large tree roots to fill the background.  The towers are growing from the roots!

Only 2 more nights until GNM!  Excited!

Btw, today I saw a dog walker with like 10 dogs, which is totally illegal.

4th Ave & Union

4th Avenue and Union Street - that's the intersection near where the Gowanus Nite Market will be in Brooklyn!  I wanted to draw some of the surrounding area, and luckily it was warmer this week so I wasn't cold standing outside for like an hour.  I stood on a narrow island on 4th Ave in between rushing cars, so I wouldn't be disturbed by pedestrians and so I could get the best view down the street.  I started the drawing around 4pm and it got too dark to see soon after, but it worked in my favor because I ended with a picture of all the bright city lights.  Of special note:  the Brooklyn Lyceum (where I exhibited at King Con) is drawn in this picture!

The Daily Misfortune 105

Toys on the Hudson Recap!

Had to take some time to recover after another 3 day show (technically a 2 1/2 day show).  The pic above is of the Westin Hotel in Newport NJ, where Toys on the Hudson was held.  It was a new thing for me to exhibit in a toy show.

The show was divided into many rooms of the hotel, with all the comic books and artists in one big room.  The Jersey Journal covered the show, and you can see more pics of the toys on their site.  It was a good show for me, despite low crowds.  I was given an extra table too!

I did another lecture about "Getting Started Exhibiting Your Comic Art at Conventions."

And of course I did a lot more sketches!  One guy that sold Transformers toys wanted me to draw any kind of "mecha" (robot) I wanted.  Check out the unicorn mecha in rockin' boots!  Have you EVER seen a giant robot in high heels?  I don't think so!

I sketched this Optimus Prime in keeping with the toy theme of the show.  Transformers was of course popular....

As was Godzilla!  I tried something new with this sketch and made a misfortune to go with it:

This guy wanted a portrait.  The spittin' image!

This girl wanted a My Little Pony.  I asked "old school or new school?" (because there's a new version that looks different from the 80s version), and she chose old school!

Yeah rockin' Firefly Pony!

The same guy that had me do the story book pictures at Super Heroes for Hospice came back for 2 more drawings!  Yay repeat customers!  These are like concept sketches for this children's book he's writing for his grand kids (rather than the finished art that would be in a book).

This one turned out extra awesome.  It's the "Rock King" and the guy described him as being made of smooth, speckled rock.  GO, Prismacolor Brush-tip markers!!

Overall, it was great meeting lots of nice people and seeing familiar faces.  Spiro from Super Heroes for Hospice (the last con I did) was at a booth right across from me, and my friend Emilio was at the table right next to me.  I also talked a lot with R. Allen Leider who gave me lots of helpful advice.  Thanks everyone for being part of the show, both exhibitors and fans!

 

Toys on the Hudson starts today!

Toys on the Hudson starts today at 5pm!  I'll be in the Liberty Grand Ballroom.  See you there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for many things this year, mostly for being so lucky that Hurricane Sandy didn't do much damage to my area, and glad that even though there was lots of structural devastation elsewhere, many people's lives were saved because of precautions New York City and New Jersey took.  Other things I'm thankful for:

friends and family (of course!)

having heat and electricity

being alive!

that I'm still in my 20s

and lots more!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Another Toys on the Hudson Video

This is another Toys on the Hudson promo video - it's pretty cute!  I'm also going to be doing my lecture about Getting Started Selling Your Comic Art at Conventions at Toys on the Hudson.  Time TBA!

Celebrating 100 Daily Misfortunes!

WOOHOO!  I'm glad I've tried hard to stick with posting this daily.  Some nights it's hard to squeeze in a posting, and although I've skipped a few, it's totally been mostly a daily misfortune.  I love how daily stuff adds up before you know it.  Here's to another 100!

Here's a funny video promo of Toys on the Hudson, where I'll have a table this weekend.  The video starts out kind of epically, but if it were up to me I'd edit the time by half :P  I'll be there for all 3 days of Toys on the Hudson, so please stop by if you're in the area over the holiday.

Toys on the Hudson

I'm on the convention scene again for Thanksgiving weekend, this time doing a toy show:  Toys on the Husdon!  It's a 3 day event starting Black Friday at 5pm-10pm with special deals.  The show really picks up Saturday and Sunday though both 9am-5pm.  There is a TON of stuff going on at this show - not only does it have lots of cool toys, collector comics, and movie memorabilia, but it's also NJ's first toy show combined with a comic convention, so there are great creators there (like me! :P ) and lots of awesome guests.  They'll have the guy that played Randy from "A Christmas Story," which is my favorite movie of all time :)

If you go to the Celebs/Guests/Artists link on the left of their site, and scroll waaayyyy down, you'll see a mindy indy collage Phil put together :P  I hope people will still recognize me without my winter coat on!

You can get to Toys on the Hudson easily - it's at the Newport PATH station, the 1st stop on the PATH train from NY to NJ.  It's at the Westin Newport Hotel, 479 Washington Blvd, Jersey City NJ 07310.  Hope to see you there!

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The Daily Misfortune 97

Wow, I realized I have almost 100 Daily Misfortunes!  A little bit each day (or... almost each day...) certainly adds up!

Super Heroes for Hospice Recap

I had a great experience at Super Heroes for Hospice this past weekend in Jersey!  This was a small event to raise money for the Barnabas Health Hospice and Palliative Care Center, as well as a canned food drive for the needy of hurricane Sandy.  A big part of the event was 1,000s of old comic issues to delve through (as seen in the picture above).  Another part of the room had me and about 7 other artists selling our work and drawing sketches.  Another big draw was the "Getting Into Comics" lecture series, featuring Paris Cullens, Joe Endres, Steve Zinoda, Christian Rubiano, and myself.  I gave a super cool power point presentation about how to get started exhibiting and selling your comic art at conventions!  YouTube clips coming soon!

I had many unusual and charming drawing requests this time!

One guy had a collection of envelopes that he had artists draw upon, and he gave me an ocean-themed stamped one to draw Aeryan surfing on!  If you google "super heroes for hospice" in image search, you'll see other artistic envelopes in his collection.

The next commission was from a grandfather that wrote a story for his two grand daughters.  He gave me a script to look at and said I could illustrate any scene in any way I wished.  He wanted to see different artists visions of his story.

Another cool request was from a guy that wanted me to draw this Big Foot doll!

I felt that Big Foot would need to comb all that hair!  The guy has a project going on where he has commissioned over 400 artists to draw their version of the Big Foot (or caveman doll as he calls it).  Pretty cool!

Special thanks to my friend Christina for driving me all the way from Brooklyn to West Orange, NJ!

Dare Devil

This is a sketch I did for Spiro Ballas, who coordinates Super Heroes for Hospice, going on this Saturday.  I met him in person at New York Comic Con and he said he'd like all the exhibitors at SHFH to do a Dare Devil sketch.  Can you guess the movie reference in the speech bubble?

I've been preparing for my lecture on Saturday and am super pumped!  My talk is at 2pm.  Super Heroes for Hospice goes from 10am to 6pm at the Barnabas Health Corporate Office, 95 Old Short Hills Rd., West Orange, NJ 07052.  Tell your friends, it's going to be an awesome show :)

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So the last few Daily Misfortunes have been about buses, because many Brooklynites still can't access subways (the L and G are still down).  Most of Manhattan lines are running though, so that's a lot of progress since Sandy 10 days ago.  Oh yeah and that whole election thing that went on?  Well, I'm not a political cartoonist ;P

King Con Brooklyn

The economic aftermath of hurricane Sandy was felt at King Con.  With most subways not running this weekend, people scrambling for gas, and the fact that it was the first really cold weekend this fall, hardly any customers showed up.  On top of that, the Lyceum had no heat!

It was hard to draw with my hands being so cold, and hard to even see the colors of my markers with little light (where my table was).  But I kept thinking of all the people who are still without power and heat, and that's what kept me going.

2 years ago the last King Con saw many tables lining the center as well as the perimeter of the Lyceum, and so many people you could barely walk the aisles.  This year with so many vendors unable to get there, some people got a table last minute for $25.  Despite difficulties of low attendance, other artists and I still made a bit of money.  During the slow times, it was super great to meet lots of creators and writers!  I talked a lot with Jason Quinones, who was at the table next to me.  I was even able (through the power of twitter!) to get my friends Sean Von Gorman and Josh Gorfain to exhibit.

I made my table money back with one sketch!  An anime called "One Piece" features a character called Luffy that can stretch his body like rubber.  The guy that wanted the sketch saw similarities between Luffy and Plastic Man.

Since many families with small kids came, I drew some of my favorite cartoon characters like Finn & Jake from Adventure Time and Sponge Bob.

After the con, I got some creators together for an after-party at The Rock Shop.  It was so nice to get to know other cartoonists and writers!  Jason said it best:  "You all helped to make what should have been a disaster of a con into something special."  It's also noteworthy that this convention still went on despite many events in Manhattan and Brooklyn being cancelled or postponed (even the New York Marathon!).  It took very passionate people to make King Con happen.  Cheers to getting NYC going again!

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I have to take the bus to work today (shudder).  I hope my own misfortune cookie doesn't come true!  Since most of the subways aren't working, most of those commuters are now above ground driving in grid-locked cars and buses.  FUN!  But seriously, I don't want to sound like an ass - best of luck to all workers trying to get NYC (and NJ!) back to normal.

If you live in Brooklyn, or have access to a car, or can brave the bus system, or can take the limited subway service in lower Brooklyn (see previous post), please stop by KING CON on Saturday Nov 3 & Sunday Nov 4th.  Admission is now by suggested donation!  I'll be there doing custom drawings for people as well as selling my comics as usual.  Spread the word, please!  A lot of cartoonists had to drop out due to Sandy, so tables for the weekend are only $25!

Subway Recovery

The efforts of New Yorkers are amazing, and they actually got partial subway service going today.  It will still take about 10 days before most lines are running, though.  See the maps below:

So, you see that huge blank area at the bottom of Manhattan?  Yeah....  Also, my line (the L) and many others are still out.  You can get a better idea of the missing lines here:

All the faded lines are not running.  SUCKS!  I'm not even near a running line, and even if I walk to the J, it doesn't go anywhere.  Thus:

Trying to find some humor in these dark times!  Cheers to all the hard workers that are trying to get NYC up and running again!

If you can make it, please check out King Con this weekend in Brooklyn!  It's at 227 4th avenue at the Brooklyn Lyceum, off the R at the Union Street stop, which IS running!  Brooklynites unite for a return to normalcy and get cool comic stuff!  I was able to get a table for both days (Saturday and Sunday) for only $25!  If you're a fellow cartoonist and would like to get started exhibiting (and can get to the Lyceum) take this opportunity!