This happened last Saturday to one of my roomies and me! If I hear honking on a street in Brooklyn, everything's so noisy here in NYC that I assume it's part of traffic craziness, not directed towards me :P I felt bad when I found out it was her later, and she got a flat tire in the process :/ But she got it fixed at the nearby gas station.
I'll always love Daft Punk! Their new release (Random Access Memories) is good, but by far their best album was Discovery in 2001. My absolute favorite not only because of the danceable music, but they animated the entire album! Interstella 5555. It's the main inspiration for the Aer Head graphic novel I'm slowlllllyyyy working on.
Grove Alley is at it again THIS FRIDAY Aug 23, 6-11p! Come hang out for a vintage inspired game night. You'll experience huge wall projections for nintendo and x-box, plus board games, hands on games, and tons of vintage seating. Get your drink on with some lovely Brooklyn Brewery while listening to DJ ROCCO FERRER and eat from delicious food trucks.
I'm not exhibiting, as there aren't any vendors this time, but I'm definitely gonna check it out! I designed this flyer and love to support events I'm involved in. Oh it's FREE too!
Grove Alley is in Brooklyn off Hanover Place between Livingston and Fulton Streets.
Here's a helpful map! Grove Alley is right near Long Island University and is conveniently close to the BQR at Dekalb Ave, 2/3/4/5 at Nevins St., and the ACG at Hoyt-Schermerhorn. Hope to see you there this Friday!
...then winter gave spring and summer a miss and went straight back into autumn.
It's really hard to find bottle deposits in NYC. It's not like there are Kroger's or Meijer's around (I wish there were!). Luckily, the C-Town just remodeled and I can take them there. Except there's only one deposit station - not like 5. Let's hope I don't get stuck behind a homeless person with a shopping cart full of bottles.
To all the people on my mailing list: that weird spam link is back so don't click on it! It'll say something weird right under the first picture I post. Gotta fix it again. Stupid spammers.
Anyway I'm here all day at Carmine St. Comics! Happy to announce I've just started another NEW monthly to bi-monthly comic, which I'll post once it's done :) Tuesdays are always chill here at the store, and it's a great day to get a lot of work done for me. Stop by if you want to say hi!
Group shower time, people! Don't be shy.
The event in question is this. I love the Museum of Natural History, and I love that IFLS posts on facebook, and it seems like a cool event, and it's stupid that I have to miss it because of a technical problem.
My mom sent me this strip - LOVE Pearls Before Swine!
The saying of placing pearls before swine (which actually comes from the Bible - just looked it up) inspired today's Daily Misfortune:
My life right now. I'm finding long lost art supplies though!
This is the latest Familial Dysautonomia comic - No Tears: Life With FD. I took part in writing this one! I was inspired by a book I got on FD day by Alexia De Gunzberg called Steps of Life: Exceeding Boundaries. In the book, Alexia describes in vivid detail the difficulties of having a disability and her journey to overcoming them. The first part of the book involves getting the courage to cross the street by herself for the first time. Think about it - many of us cross the street without thinking, but it's a big deal when you have a walker, don't move as fast, and may endanger yourself if you fall. Alexia is very strong willed and inspiring, and I hope you get the chance to read this great book!
Meanwhile, it's gotten to that point. Hmm should've put this Daily Misfortune with the Power Rangers blog last week where they actually DO fight a trash monster :)
Turns out yesterday's Art-Con was a bust. I was sick with a cold and busted my ass to get there too. I had a bad time with the bus last time I went to the Whiskey Cafe and was late to Sketch Con last time, so I thought I could avoid buses by taking the subway to Times Square and then taking a cab - it's not that far into NJ. But that morning 2 cabbies told me it was like $70!! $13 for the toll, plus $50 for a fee from crossing state lines or something, plus the regular time rate. So I ended up taking the bus after all. The 10:30AM NJ Transit bus didn't even come. Another one came 20 minutes later, and dropped me off in a different location than I remembered. I dragged my suitcase to a nearby 7/11 and they gave me a number for a car service. I was too exhausted to drag my stuff even a few blocks, but it was a good thing I got the car, because there weren't any sidewalks. However, that 3 minute ride cost $10! Stupid.
I was an hour late, but it didn't matter because there were no customers in sight. There were about 9 vendors, and the whole time we just went to each others tables. Most of the time I wish I had stayed in bed and rested to get over my cold. But I ended up meeting great people which was cool - who knows where some connections could lead.
In any case, Art-Con wins worst convention I've exhibited at due to lack of foot traffic and lowest sales. However, the table was only $30, so it's not like I lost $100 like at the Bronx Heroes Con. I had expected Art-Con to be as great as Sketch Con was in February. It was at the same location so that wasn't an issue, but I think the main difference was lack of good advertising and promotion. But you win some, you lose some. I did so well at Boston Comic Con last weekend that I'm still pumped from that.
Never a dull moment for mindy indy - I'm at it again this Sunday for a special artist convention in NJ: "Art-Con." 50+ artists from the area will be showcasing their talents! Authors, painters, photographers, independent businesses owners, and more! Whiskey Cafe will also be open for business as usual! Come support our local artists! Art-Con is an opportunity for those in the creative and arts industry to display their work amongst like-minded individuals who are looking to show off their talents. Artists will be given their own tables to display, sell, and create their work for an audience of collectors and art enthusiasts. You show what you want to show, sell what you want to sell, and network with the people around you. Art-Con is meant to bring art of all kinds under one roof.
Whiskey Cafe is at 1050 Wall Street, Lyndhurst, New Jersey 07071
See you there!
SUPER EXCITED to announce the printing of Papercutz' Power Rangers Megaforce Volume 3! I got some complimentary books ("comps") mailed to me and it's so great to be holding a work I contributed to in my hands!
Look for me in the credits page as a colorist :) I'm so happy my name is spelled right! This is the first job I've done with a large company that has my name in print as "Mindy Indy." Back when I colored Deadpool Max with Kyle Baker, I was "ghosting" so it was under just his name.
These are the pages I'm most proud of :) This is when the rangers call upon their "Zords" and they all combine to form the big Megazord (like Voltron). Also in this episode, the rangers fight a giant trash monster. It's pretty sweet! Power Rangers Megaforce Vol 3 is supposed to be in stores on August 27th, so mark your calendars!
Last week when I was dragging my suitcase in the rain for like 20 minutes, I also had a sandwich with me. The Subway bag was wet, so I feared the worst. Luckily, you know how they double wrap the sandwich in paper? That mostly saved it!
Boston Comic Con was SUPER AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!! Here's my new set up: my own pipe frame to hang artwork and signs from, and new red cloth tablecloth (instead of plastic... those things got torn up). To the far right of the picture, you'll see Bill Walko, another artist/writer, who's super friendly. Special thanks to my friend Julia for helping me with the table and passing out flyers :) And thanks also to her husband Matt for driving us :) I was doing sketch commissions non-stop Saturday and most of the day Sunday. Yay for profits! And it seems like everyone I talked to did pretty well too. Boston Comic Con will definitely be on my touring schedule for years to come!
Here are a few of the sketches I did:
This one wins best sketch of the con: the guy wanted a specific boat (forgot what it was called exactly) with a unicorn's horn instead of the prow.
This little girl loved Sponge Bob. The parents just wanted me to draw her and him together, and voila! A fun portrait :)
I love when people ask me to combine characters in unique ways.
Did lots of portraits of people dressed as their favorite characters - especially couples!
The 2 guys on the right were very specific like "I want to have Wolverine claws and please highlight my pocket within a pocket," while the 2 on the left were like "do whatever." Yep, cute animal ears is what you get when you let mindy indy take over!
Yep - my friend Julia's dog encountered a skunk on Saturday night after the convention. Craziness ensued.
Yeah... so this happened to me Thursday. It's a couple avenues walk from the subway stop to where Megabus picks you up - it's not even in a station either, it's on the side of the road with no shelter. Luckily I had put a plastic bag over my backpack, but was still worried my laptop had damage (thank God it didn't!). But when I go to Boston I found out that a bunch of my prints had water damage on the edges I laid them out to dry and will probably cut off those edges later. But yeah I'll need to ask other exhibitors what they do to protect their wares in rain. Come to think of it, I've been really lucky until now that I haven't had to deal with rain with all the conventions I've done. First time for everything. But relaxing with friends in Boston today, and it's gonna be a craZy weekend for Boston Comic Con! (This post was Friday's post, but the site was still screwed up - catching up!)
My website has been down off and on for the past week :( I get an error message that says "the server has been reset" and GoDaddy hosts my server, and whenever I call in, they can't determine the problem. My site is on wordpress, but they don't host the server, but I'm wondering if it's a bug in wordpress? Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks! This comes at the worst time because I've been getting stuff ready for the Boston Comic Con this weekend. People are going to be going to my site and I can't have the server be down :(
No time to post much today - got so much stuff going on! Finished inking my new story just now! Gotta go to work, pack, scan the story and hopefully do some photoshop magic tonight. Looks like I'm gonna print them in Boston. Luckily, Staples is everywhere! If you or a friend will be in Boston this weekend, make sure to check out the Boston Comic Con! More special guests include: Laurie Holden from "The Walking Dead," Dean O'Gorman & Aidan Turner from "The Hobbit," and Kristin Bauer from "True Blood."
PS: To the people on my mailing list, you may get this on Thursday instead of Wednesday because GoDaddy sucks and my site has been down off & on for like a week.
4 days until Boston Comic Con! Some cool people that will be there include Neal Adams, Mike Mignola, and George Perez, among other awesome artists you may or may not have heard of! Here's the lineup for Artist's Alley. They have me listed under "Melinda Steffen" instead of "Mindy Indy."
I'll be at Carmine St. Comics today, hopefully finishing up all the inking on my new comic.
5 days until Boston Comic Con! Super excited! There's a lot going on at BCC - some things I'd go to if I didn't have a table are:
Saturday 8/2
Female Creators 6pm-6:45pm Amy Reeder, Colleen Doran, Sara Richard
Colleen Doran totally rocks! I looooooove her art style and her graphic novels of "A Distant Soil" influenced the look of "Aer Head." (Yes, been awhile since I've worked on Aer... I need to stop being such a perfectionist about it).
Sunday 8/3
How to Pitch Your Comic to Publishers 2pm-2:45pm Anthony Del Col, co-creator of Kill Shakespeare
I've finished drawing my new comic, and am moving on to inking today. Can't wait to show it off!
Glad to announce that last Saturday, over $5,000 was raised at Super Heroes for Hospice! Thanks to everyone that came to the show!
Super excited about next week's Boston Comic Con! OOOOOOOO!!! I'm kicking my table display up a notch - just went to Home Depot today and got supplies to build a frame to hang my pictures on.
Here's a picture of the scaffolding thing. My friend Alitha showed me how to build one!
This comic is part of a set of 4 comic strips about troubles this guy encountered when trying to propose! He did in fact get to propose at the end. If you'd like to get a custom comic, please look at my custom comics page and we can discuss. Custom comics are super fun and super personalized gifts!
My mom witnessed this. On the 4th of July. Great to live in America!