Chicago Liberty Jam!

Liberty Jams are one of the ways for creators who want to pitch in and support the Fund can contribute artist sketch cards to CBLDF Liberty Trading Cards.

If you are going to be in Chicago tomorrow night: be there!

And if you are going to be online tomorrow night from 9 to midnight central time: I'll be here and--well--I'll have more to say about THAT tomorrow.

The Secret Origin of CBLDF Liberty Trading Cards!

This story begins with my friend and colleague, John Nee. I first met John when when WildStorm and Top Cow were still one entity called Homage Studios and I was on a three week temporary consulting gig that turned into six years at Image Comics.

During those years , John and I did lots of business together--some visible to the naked eye and many more behind the scenes. After WildStorm was acquired by DC we didn't much in the way of business (except this) but we stayed friends. And after we both moved on from our previous positions, we started doing some business-y things together again

So....

About a year ago, John became CEO of a cool new company called Cryptozoic Entertainment. It's just over the hills from where we live. John invited me to come over and take a look and, quite honestly, Cryptozoic blew me away. You can get a taste of how I felt that day by taking a tour yourself, right here. Cryptozoic is young, innovative, brimming with of energy and enthusiasm.

As John Nee had predicted, I hit it right off the bat with Crypto's management team Scott Gaeta, John Sepenuk, and Cory Jones. I was particularly delighted when Cory J told me that Comic Book Legal defense Fund is his favorite charitable cause.

A relationship with Crypto was born.
Technically I'm a strategic consultant.
Of course, none of us is quite sure what that is or isn't, but I'm in and out of the offices a great deal.

Last summer, I was strategically consulting in John Nee's office.

It was right after the issue of Liberty Annual 2010 I edited shipped.

Cory J came in and pitched me an idea.

A set of CBLDF trading cards.

It could have regular trading cards.

And bonus Autograph cards.

And Sketch cards.

The Works.

Cryptozoic Entertainment can donate their production and publishing services.

The Fund said yes.

Diamond Comic Distributors is waiving their fees.

Here's some stuff from the press release:

Irvine, CA—February 28, 2011: Cryptozoic Entertainment™ and the Comic Book
Legal Defense Fund™ have joined forces to protect creativity by collaborating on
a new trading card set. The Liberty Trading Cards set tells the story of the
fight to defend the First Amendment and includes chase cards from the greatest
creators in comics and entertainment. The set will be released in July
2011, with proceeds from the sales benefiting the Fund.

“Cryptozoic is one of the most exciting new companies in pop culture, and we’re thrilled to work with them on this dynamic card project,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “Together we’ll be showing how the CBLDF has advanced Free Expression in comics and gathering one of the coolest collections of incentive cards ever assembled.”

The Liberty Trading Cards set will feature a base set
of seventy cards representing the history of comics censorship, from the
Seduction of the Innocent era in the 1950s to the modern day. In addition to the
base set, special hand drawn sketches and autograph cards by some of the top
talent in the comic book world will be featured in this release!
Already signed on to collaborate are Geoff Johns, Neil Gaiman, Darwyn Cooke, Gail
Simone, Mark Waid, Brian Azzarello, Paul Levitz, Denny O’Neil, Frank Quitely,
Phil Hester, and many more.

“The generous response from the creative community
has been overwhelming,” said CBLDF Board President Larry Marder. “The most
impressive gesture has been how many creators are briefly lending CBLDF their
Intellectual Property for this project only. Creators letting us borrow their
characters for these artists to sketch include Jeff Smith, Marc Silvestri, Erik
Larsen, John Layman, Jim Valentino, Matt Wagner, Rob Liefeld, Stan Sakai, Eric
Powell, Mike Richardson, and many others.”

Remember, the First Amendment guarantees the right to Free Expression. It ensures that no American can be persecuted for speaking their political, religious, social, or artistic beliefs. It protects controversial ideas, and has been the subject of many hotly contested battles. The CBLDF fights the battles where comics are contested. It's really going to be a hell of a thing once it's all said and done.

A lot of people are putting incredible amounts of their personal time, energy, and talent into CBLDF Liberty Trading Cards and we thank everyone who is for their generosity and donations.

Amazing Arizona Comic Con!

Amazing Arizona Comic Con was held wayyyyyy back at the beginning of the year.
For those of you that follow my exploits on Facebook and Twitter, you might remember that this took place right after we got back from Antarctica.

Had to immediately jump back deep into life and regretfully never got around to publishing these excellent drawings and the pics of the artists.

So here they are:

Amazing Arizona Comic Con
Crazy Trade-In Drawings!

Cloe with her totally wahoolazuma crazy trade in drawings.

Mr. Spook & the Beanworld by Cloe!

Bass Boom'r getting in some Thump'l'bump'n by Cloe!

Zoe with her wild'n'waxy art for trade-in!
Zoe's gifted me with art before.

Beanworld assembled outside Proffy's Fix-It Shop by Zoe!

Beanish and Dreamishness by Zoe!

Wil Hines!

Over the Legendary Edge on their way to a Chow Raid by Wil Hines!

Every time I post Crazy Trade-Ins, I inevitably get an email or direct message from someone telling me that they can't get a con and might we do a trade via the mail.

I can't.

This is something I can only offer at comic book conventions and signings when my job that day is to meet fans and talk directly (to anyone who wants to listen) about Beanworld.

At home, in my studio, drawing time is for getting out the next book--and that's going way to slow as it is.

Unlike just about every artist in the business nowadays, I don't do commissions and even at a show, I just like to draw what I feel like drawing at that moment and that is how Beanworld Orphans come into the world looking to be adopted.

If you want to see the gallery of all the Crazy Trade-In drawings over the years go here!

Duchamp, Beanworld, and Ant Farming.

La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même
Multi media on two panes of glass with two panes of glass
with materials such as oils paint, lead foil, fuse wire, varnish and dust. 1915-1923 (unfinished)

I often talk about the enormous influence Marcel Duchamp's masterwork "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even" had on me over the years particularly as I was fine-tuning and honing the Beanworld.

"The Large Glass," as it's often nicknamed, is sort of like a diagram of shadows from another dimension that are suggestions for animated activities to be interpreted by the viewer in his or her own imagination.

Not bad stuff for 1915.

Duchamp referred to this other dimension as the Inframince.
It translates from the French into something like "very thin."

Sometimes on a panel or giving a presentation, I'll jokingly refer to Beanworld taking place in a "two-and-one-half dimensional space. " What I mean is in the Beanworld there appears to be very little difference between foreground, middle ground, and background. The Beanworld as a visual and dramatic tableau is indeed "very thin." Always to be looked at from one side and going infinitely left, right, up, and down.

Sometimes I call it "endless ant farm space." As if the Beanworld takes place between two panes like the ulta-classy Duchampian Large Glass and also like the silly post-war toy co-invented by Milton Levine who recently passed away.

I never owned my own ant farm but I remember friends and neighbors having one. Clearly the idea of it stuck in my head all my life, don'tcha think?

Rest in Peace Uncle Milton.
Your influence cast a very wide net indeed.

Amazing Arizona Comic Con Today and Tomorrow!

This Chinstrap penguin sincerely regrets it won't be able to send its hard earned pebbles at Amazing Arizona Comic Con but you can!

See you there!