CAKE 2015: A Banner Year for Groo Sketches

This year's CAKE was another chance for me to get some new additions to my Groo sketchbook, and this batch is a doozy:

Zac Gorman brings his expressive, cartoony sensibility to the Wandering One. 

Evan Dahm makes Groo look pretty cool. 

Yes, this is a Groo sketch by JAIME FUCKING HERNANDEZ.

Derf gives Groo that signature Derf slouch. 

Drew Weing went kind of nuts here, fusing Sergio's style with Frank Frazetta in a "Death Dealer" homage. Awesome. 

Eleanor Davis went simple and cute, leading to another great representation of our favorite mendicant. 

Ed Luce drew his Wuvable Oaf character cosplaying as Groo (or is it the other way around?).

Kevin Czapiewski drew a great depiction of Groo wandering. 

John Porcellino did a nice Groo in his simplistic style. 

Zak Sally did a nicely grotesque image. 

Tom Kaczynski drew this nicely gory scene, with some spot color for added effect. 

And finally, Dash Shaw turned Groo and his swords into this cool, abstract image. 

Awesome stuff, as ever. Thanks to all these great artists for contributing to the increasing coolness of my sketchbook. 

CAKE 2015: I brought home many things

This past weekend was the fourth annual Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, or CAKE, and I'm happy to say that it seemed to be a successful event for everyone involved, from the organizers, to the attendees, to the many amazing artists who were exhibiting their work. I've volunteered for the event in previous years, but this year they asked me to get even more involved, so I was the Social Media Coordinator for the weekend, running the official CAKE Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts. I spent the weekend walking around, taking pictures on my phone, and doing lots of tweeting, retweeting, and sharing, so if you check out the past couple days of activity on those accounts, you'll have a pretty good picture of what I was up to.

But anyway, as I usually do when I attend these sorts of events, I want to share all the cool stuff I picked up. Check out this pile of comics goodness:



And here's an explanation of just what all that stuff is. Starting from the top "row":

• Vreeland, by Chad Sell
• True Stories #1, by Derf Backderf
• Take the A Train, by M. Dean and Z. Akhmetova
• Cyanide Milkshake #6 and Turbo Mutt, by Liz Suburbia
• A little package of minicomics by Kevin Czapiewski
• An issue of the punk rock magazine Razorcake, featuring an interview with Liz Prince

Going across the middle:

• King-Cat #75, by John Porcellino
• The Return of Japanese Wolves, by Rumi Hara
• Failwolves: Three Tales of Inept Lycanthropy, by Betsey Swardlick
• Tits!, by Caitlin Skaalrud
• Fuckwizards, a "super-dirty" minicomic by Eleanor Davis
• Past Coasts and Buck, by Jon Drawdoer
• Three neat comics promoting the Center for Cartoon Studies, by Kevin Huizenga, James Sturm and Marek Bennett, and Jon Chad

Along the bottom:

• A bunch of comics from One Percent Press: Broken Summer, Super Mega Buds, and Simple Routines #19, by JP Coovert; and Rough Age, by Max de Radigues
• Not On My Watch: A Bystanders' Handbook for the Prevention of Sexual Violence (plus a "Consent Cavalry" pin!), by Isabella Rotman
• Goodbye, by Ben Passmore
• Miggy Mouse's Sweets & Treats and New Best Friend, by A.T. Pratt
• A cool donut comic by Keith Pakiz
• Handout Comics #4, this year's Free Comic Book Day minicomic by a variety of Chicago cartoonists
• Wastoid, by Kelsey Wroten
• An "Octocat" print that I made at the CAKE printmaking workshop
• Divided, a fold-up comic by Matt Reints

That's a lot of comics to process! I'll be reading them over the next week or two, and since CAKE has gotten me inspired, I'll even try to write some blogs about them. But first, I'll do a post sharing the awesome Groo sketches that I got this year. Stay tuned!