Marguerite Dabaie's A Voyage to Panjikant - On Your Couch!

 

Strumpet contributor and recent MFA grad Marguerite Dabaie has just released a series of bright, intricately designed throw pillows themed around her amazing A Voyage to Panjikant web comics series. 

Check out Margo's Etsy, and don't forget to read A Voyage to Panjikant on Tumblr!  It updates regularly, and there's lots of great process art and inspirational images to check out on the Tumblr, too.  

Strumpet at the First-ever Grand Comics Festival, Williamsburg!

 This weekend Editrix Ellen Lindner spent a great two days hanging out behind a table at the first-ever Grand Comics Festival, organized by artist and animator Pat Dorian.  Hosted by Bird River Studios, a great Williamsburg maker desination - it was a great opportunity to meet some new folks - hello Molly Brooks, hello Keren Katz! - meet some web friends IRL - hello Colleen Frakes! - and chill with some of my best girls, like Robyn Chapman, Strumpet Marguerite Dabaie and Dre Grigoropol. I liked this festival a lot because it wasn't expensive to table at and it was also free to enter.   Sounds pretty idyllic, right? And there wasn't any kind of catch - everyone left happy.


The scene on Saturday....Sunday was a little quiet but that provided some great opportunities for trades, making new contacts and talking to folks who stopped by.  It was cool to see Sara Varon, Dean Haspiel, Frank Reynoso, all the folks from Hang Dai studios - the lovely people behind Trip City - and so many more.

 
And did you know I ride unicorns? Dre Grigoropol made me this awesome sketch.

It's been a little while since I've had the classic Williamsburg free pizza (usually comes free or a dollar with the price of a beer, in this case an excellently kept Blue Point IPA from Alligator Lounge.)  So good!  Man, if it wasn't for free pizza, Williamsburg would just shut down.

Enormous thanks to Jen Tong, C. M. Butzer, Aya Kakeda and all the folks at Odd Lot Studios in Greenpoint for an amazing after party.   It was Jen's birthday, and her man Joel made cupcakes!  Thanks for sharing, guys!!!!  Such a great view of Manhattan, and so much fun talking trolleys, Risographs, the Jersey Shore and so much more. Thanks so much to Pat Dorian and all the folks at Bird River Studios who helped to make this such a great day.

MoCCA and Strumptown - okay, Stumptown - 2013

 

Here's the Strumpet spread at MoCCA, with a side of Comix Reader and ink+PAPER.  

Our new bag is modelled by Editrix Ellen.  Many thanks to Paper Rocket for sharing!  

Well hello Strumpets!  We've been very busy promoting Issue 2 at two key US conventions: New York's MoCCA Arts Fest and Portland, OR's Stumptown Comics Fest.  

This year's MoCCA was a nice convention, a bit more polished and professional now that it's been taken over by Society of Illustrators.  The new Strumpet met with a great reception.  We had a chummy time with the folks at Paper Rocket Minicomics, publishers of handmade comics like the re-issue of Ariel Bordeaux's Deep Girl.  

Outstanding stuff! 

 

To treat ourselves after a hard weekend of selling and chatting, we got our little hands on a print by up-and-coming NYC cartoonist Dre Grigoropol.  Dre did a great interview with Editrix Ellen Lindner for the BUST blog, and the admiration is 100% mutual!

We took a break in our other home country, the UK, and then we were off again, in entirely the other direction!

Destination: Portland, Oregon.  Portlandia, here we come! 

 Nice view, eh?  Mount Hood from the air.

Portland is one of the Strumpet's most favorite cities, and it's not just because we have a thing for Fred Armisen.

Portland is LOUSY with cartoonists, and the natural environment is just fabulous.  Like Bristol in the UK, this is a city where you can access top-notch culture and food with ease and then get into the countryside in a matter of minutes.   

 

Fab photograph by Stephen Betts.

We had a great time bumming around Portland's Hoyt Arboretum...a fantastic forest full of redwoods, just a short bus ride from the city center...

 

Strumpets Ellen Lindner and Robin Ha prepare for the con in the springtime sun.

...and at the TeaZone, a fantastic bubble tea and cocktail bar in the city's swish Pearl District.  

 

Strumpets Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg, Ellen Lindner and Robin Ha at One Grand Gallery. 

Next we hit One Grand Gallery to meet up with Portland Strumpet Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg for an opening of new prints and process art by British artist Jon McNaught, sponsored by Portland zine paradise Reading Frenzy.  Jon's books, published by London-based NoBrow, are not to be missed!  And we can't say enough nice things about his lithographs and silkscreens. 

 

Here Jon signs his newest, Dockwood. 

 

Robin and Jon are currently listening to a story by Ellen informally entitled, "Was the apartment haunted because of a double homicide or was the decor just creepy??!!" 

Afterwards we had a pretty intense discussion over some Portland microbrews and delightfully greasy grilled cheese. Hey, it's hard work psyching oneself up for optimal sales!

 

Stumptown is Strumptown: Robin and Ellen behind the table.

 Perhaps because we came from such a distance, the organizers gave us a whole table upon which to spread our wares.  So cool!  Brooklyn Strumpet Robin Ha had two new minicomics - and postcards!  If you didn't score at the show you can grab some from her new online store.

 

 But it's not just about sales.  When Team Strumpet is on the left coast, it's a great opportunity to touch base with faraway friends.  Ellen had a blast brunching with comix stars (and friends of the Hypothetical Island) Hazel Newlevant and Jesse Reklaw, just two of the amazing inkstars who call Portland home. 

This brings us full circle, as Jesse is one of the fine artists published by our MoCCA tablemates Paper Rocket!  His LOVF: Destination Crisis - an account of spending time in New York City while undergoing a manic episode -  is unmissable.  

Truly, Portland is Comixtown.  If you ever have a chance to visit - especially for Stumptown! - we encourage you to do so.  

Next up: we share some of our Portland purchases.

Thanks for reading....

Limited Edition Strumpet Totes - Now Available in our Etsy!

 

Just in time for spring, we have a brand-new crop of Strumpet tote bags in our shop! 

Designed to be made with 90% thrifted, reclaimed or recycled materials, these fully lined tote bags are handmade by us.  We emblazoned them with Elliot Baggott's classic swooping S (from our issue 1 logo.)  Plus they have two interior pockets for your keys, phone, or minicomics! 

This is a very limited edition - so grab yours while supplies last! 

Thanks to Hypothetical Island intern Andrea Kendrick for helping us out with some modelling!

Celebrate International Women's Day - By Becoming a Strumpet

Happy International Women's Day, folks!  Seems like the perfect time to announce the submissions guidelines for the next issue of the Strumpet.  

Good luck, ladies - and may the transatlantic odds ever be in your favor! 

 

Submissions Guidelines - Strumpet 3

The Tasty Issue

Deadline: Sept 1st 2013

About:
The Strumpet is a transatlantic ladies' comic focusing on artists from the US and UK, edited by Ellen Lindner and Kripa Joshi. We're pretty loose on where our contributors come from - it's always fun to have special guests from all over the world - but strict on the fact that we publish women only. Sorry, gents!

Theme:
The theme for this issue is Tasty. What do YOU think is tasty? Food, people, places, things - we're open to your interpretations of this theme. Surprise us!

Proportions:
We publish simultaneously in Britain and America. The sizes are:
British: B5, 176 x 250 mm
American: 7 x 10 in
When you're designing your pages, just pick the measurement you prefer - they're close enough so that they're pretty much interchangeable.

Medium:
Black & White or Greyscale.
If you are shading digitally, please use only one tone of 40% grey. This will give the issue a nifty unified look! Folks who use watercolor, gouache, etc. - don't worry, just do your thing.

There is also a spot available for a full-color comic for the back cover. Please let us know if you are particularly interested in submitting back cover work.

Bleed: 
Yes, you can do a bleed. The size of the page in InDesign is 7.25 x
10.25" (including the printer's trim space - that's the .25" extra),
with an approximately  margin of .5" all the way round (within that
measurement - so the non-margin area is 6.75 x 9.75". I would keep any
vital information - text or drawing - within the non-margin portion of
the page.

Format:
For this issue, the maximum page count is 6 pages. We want to be able to squeeze in as many Strumpets as possible!
For those contributing for the first time, the maximum page count will be 3 pages.

We strongly prefer that stories submitted be lettered by hand - we make exceptions, as you’ll see from prior issues, but it’s also the biggest thing we give our artists grief over.

Submission:
Files should be a minimum of 400 dpi (anything up to 600 dpi greyscale or 1200 dpi bitmap lineart is excellent)
When you first submit, please send legible jpg's only. We will request for hi-res files only once we have reviewed and chosen the artwork. You can send submissions to strumpetcomic@gmail.com

The Strumpet requests that any stories be new material, and that we are able to publish it in exclusivity for six months from the date of this issue's publication. If you have a pre-existing story that you feel is just perfect and has not appeared in another publication (including your own minicomics or another small press anthology), please get in touch - we may be able to work something out.

Please note:
We are having open submissions for the first time for this issue. Therefore, it is possible that we will receive more stories than we can print.
We apologize in advance for any disappointment this may cause. We may also decline to publish stories because we don’t feel that they fit with this issue. It’s a Strumpet’s prerogative to choose, but we will do our best to be fair.

Compensation for stories of 1-3 pages in length will be two copies of the finished comic; for stories 4-6 pages in length artists will receive three copies of the finished comic.

If all of this sounds good, please get in touch with us at strumpetcomic at gmail.com and pitch us an idea! Or ask a question. We look forward to hearing from you.

Hiya,

I am very excited to announce that I am going to be helping the indomitable Ellen Lindner as a co-editor for Strumpet #3 - the Tasty Issue! 

As someone who has been a part of the previous two issues, I am very happy to be taking a more active role in all things Strumpet. 

Ellen and I first met at a comic convention and she has been instrumental in my introduction to the comic scene in London.

For those of you who might not be aware, I am originally from Nepal. My journey towards comics started when I won a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue an MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York. There I started making comics inspired by folk art traditions of Nepal and India and created the character of Miss Moti, a plump woman whose fertile imagination frequently blurs the line between fantasy and reality.

Since 2008 my husband and I have lived in London. Besides making comics I work part time as an Art Technician in a secondary school and also conducts art/comic workshops for children.

This connection between the US and UK makes the trans-atlantic nature of the Strumpet all the more special!

I look forward to working with all of you to make this issue the best yet!:)

Hugs,

Kripa

The Last of Our Kickstarter Rewards - Revealed!

 
Strumpet 2 contributor Robin Ha modelling the finished tote.  

We are so close to making some truly rad announcements about our third issue - but while we're beavering away behind the scenes, how about revealing the last of our Kickstarter top prizes?

Editrix Ellen spent quite a bit of time working on some custom bags for some special folks - a tote, and a sling bag.  What a deal - for $40 bucks, you got The Strumpet, our limited edition buttons and a nifty, handmade bag - all posted to you wherever you live.  Thrift score!

First up - cut up the bags, and make the silkscreen panels!

 We went for a basic black for our logo - essential considering that our fabric was, urm, pretty out there!  If you're at all crafty, check out this tutorial for how to make your own freezer paper silkscreen - perfect for small batches of handmade delights.

 

Ready to get stitched...

And here's the finished sling bag! 

 

And here's the finished tote: