MOCCA! Act-i-vate!

Mocca is this weekend and Act-i-vate will be representin'! At table 311, you'll be able to find among a cornucopia of coolness, the entire Act-i-vate Primer available for your perusal. We've assembled a binder of the contents of the much anticipated new book so come on by the table, chat with Act-i-vators and take a flip through our new book coming in October 2009!

I'll be hanging out at the table throughout the weekend so please say, "hi!".

Even more Mocca info including signing schedules after the jump!

Comics come home again to New York City this weekend with the annual Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art Festival 2009, and ACT-I-VATE will be there!

MoCCA Festival 2009 will be held June 6th & 7th at the 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 25th Street in New York City. The Village Voice calls the MoCCA Festival "the best small-press nexus (anywhere!)" Now BIGGER than ever! An incredible weekend of comic and cartoon art exhibitors, panels, lectures, sketches, autographs, and more! Wired Magazine online calls ACT-I-VATE, "The premiere webcomics collective"!

Visit table 311 to meet the cartoonists of ACT-I-VATE. A wide variety of books by AIV'ers will be available for sale, including BRAWL (Dean Haspiel and Michel Fiffe), FREDDIE & ME (Mike Dawson), A HOUSE DIVIDED (Leland Purvis), SHOOTING WAR (Dan Goldman), THE SALON (Nick Bertozzi), SHUTTERBUG FOLLIES (Jason Little), THE VAGABONDS (Josh Neufeld), JERSEY GODS (Joe Infurnari), NIKOLAI DANTE (Simon Fraser), THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAVIOR 28 (Mike Cavallaro), and more!

Also, get a glimpse at a special upcoming ACT-I-VATE project!

Current scheduled appearances are as follows, with more being added:

SATURDAY:

12 pm - 1pm JAH FURRY, AIV's "Minister of Hype" kicks things off, joined by TIM HAMILTON (Pet Sitter, Floating Elephant) 1pm - 2 pm MIKE CAVALLARO (Parade (with fireworks), Loviathan) & NATHAN SHREIBER (Power Out) 2 pm - 3 pm MOLLY CRABAPPLE (Backstage, and this year's MOCCA poster artist) 3 pm - 4 pm DAN GOLDMAN (Kelly) & KEVIN COLDEN (Fishtown) 4 pm - 5 pm JENNIFER HAYDEN (Underwire) and JIM DOUGAN (Sam & Lilah)

SUNDAY

11-12 pm NATHAN SHREIBER (Power Out) 12 pm -1 pm MIKE CAVALLARO (Parade (with fireworks), Loviathan) & TIM HAMILTON (Pet Sitter, Floating Elephant) 1 pm - 2 pm JIM DOUGAN (Sam & Lilah) 2 pm - 3 pm JENNIFER HAYDEN (Underwire) 3 pm - 4 pm JAH FURRY

THOMAS BAEHR (The End Is Here) will be manning his own table (#215), so be sure to visit him as well.

Where? 69th Regiment Armory 68 Lexington Avenue, between 25th and 26th Streets

When? June 6th and 7th, 11am-6pm

Cost? $10 per day $15 per weekend MoCCA Members: $10 per weekend

Website: www.moccany.org

Be sure to check out http://WWW.ACT-I-VATE.COM -- where everyday is Free Comic Book Day!

OUTED! The Act-i-vate Primer!

JK Parkin of Robot 6 posted this announcement regarding the upcoming Act-i-vate print venture, The Act-i-vate Primer! The official announcement of this project was made at our recent event at Bergen St. Comics on Free Comic Book Day but I suspect JK had other sources…

I seem to remember reading something about a potential anthology of work from the webcomics collective ACT-I-VATE, but I don’t think I’ve seen a formal announcement yet — unless an Amazon.com listing is considered an announcement.

In any event, it looks like IDW is putting out the ACT-I-VATE Primer in the fall. The book is due Oct. 29, and the site lists the contributors as Dean Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, Michael Cavallaro, Mike Dawson, Simon Fraser, Michel Fiffe, Tim Hamilton, Ulises Farinas, Leland Purvis, Joe Infurnari, Roger Langridge, Molly Crabapple, John Leavitt, Pedro Camargo and Jim Dougan.

Haspiel, it appears, will have a new Billy Dogma story in it (which is, I bet, where we’ll see this), while Langridge says he’s doing a “Mugwhump” story set before the current strip started. According to Amazon, all the material will be new: “The ACT-I-VATE PRIMER is a PRINT EXCLUSIVE anthology by many of the Act-I-Vate creators none of the material in this book will appear on the Act-I-Vate website for at least one year from publication date.”

So now that it's out there swimming in the digital ether, I thought I'd post a little preview of one of my pages from said book:

This 12 page story is a prelude to the Act-i-vate story and is a memoir of Victor 'The Kid Immortal' Kronos. We see his rise and ultimate fall as a brutal Battle Brawler and, of course, as…ULTRA-lad!

The Transmigration of ULTRA-lad! UPDATED!

This week we return to the action at New Crown City's town square. Big changes are afoot as the Drago-saurus Mech is resurrected in another deadly form! Click the banner above or the links below for the latest updates!

To read this week's update, click here: http://act-i-vate.com/56-2-20.comic

To read last week's update, click here: http://act-i-vate.com/56-2-19.comic

To read from the beginning of Chapter 2, click here: http://act-i-vate.com/56-2-1.comic

To read from the very beginning, click here: http://act-i-vate.com/56.comic

Thanks for reading!

Next-Door Neighbor Story Monday!

This Monday December 8th, I'll have a story up at Smith Magazine as part of their online anthology of Next-Door Neighbor Stories edited by Dean Haspiel. Titled, Vs, this story was written by Alexis Sottile and I back in the day and it is a harrowing tale of my cryptozoological New York rental history! See! My terrible run-ins with vociferous fowls! Frankensteinian pooches! Tentacled jam bands! Drunken cro-magnons! Pill-pushing werewolves and many many more! IT'S ALL 100% TRUE MEMOIR COMICS AT THEIR FINEST! See you there!

Act-i-vate: PC Magazine's Top Ten Unsung Webcomics

PC magazine has posted a piece about the top ten webcomics most deserving of more recognition and the whole Act-i-vate collective was included! Eric Griffith had this to say:

Is it fair to include an entire collective of comics? When you can't pick just one, I think so. ACT-I-VATE now numbers 42 stories, written and drawn by a number of independent comic book creators, including names like Molly Crabapple, Dean Haspiel, and Dan Goldman. The stories range from a treatise on super-heroics (The Transmigration of ULTRA-Lad!), to psychedelic romance ( Kelly), to the silent film pastiche (Vulcan & Vishnu), and other oddities. If there's a downside, it's that the artists aren't always on a timetable, so many of the best stories have yet to reach a resolution. (Art from Adrew Dimitt's Drockleberry.)

To read the entire article click here.

Hijinx Sphinx Con Sketch

Here's a little sketch of ULTRA-lad vanquished-villain, The Hijinx Sphinx. Joshua Frankel for whom I did this sketch, was kind enough to scan it and send it along. As far as convention sketches go, I'm pretty happy with this one. Thanks, Joshua!

This Could Be YOU!

Here's proof that satisfaction is guaranteed when you commission a sketch. Not only did I get an email when the piece was delivered but an email full of photos posing with the sketch! This level of enthusiasm deserves recognition and here it is:

This gentleman is a fan of this project and was particularly keyed up about Ultra-Lad. So much so in fact, that I had to warn him that if he sent me any more ideas about the character, I'd have to credit him! In all sincerity, this sort of thing really makes me feel good…it's not often that I get to meet someone this excited about one of my creations. Frankly, his enthusiasm is infectious and I am very thankful to have his support. Cheers, you are a Prince among men

Want to join in the love? Well, it's a simple donation away. A $25 donation gets you a black and white sketch and a $50 donation or more gets you a full color sketch such as this. Please note, photos of you with the sketch are optional and public display of said photos is not required.

Commissioned Sketch: Ultra-Lad!

I recently received a commission for a color sketch depicting Ultra-Lad, y'know that non sequitur character from page 20 of the Process? Well, here he is again in all his glory!

This is a fine example of the kind of color sketches I can do for YOU when you make a donation of at least $50. Have a favorite character or situation you would like to see me illustrate? Well, hit that there 'donate' button, add the appropriate dollar amount with your sketch request and click 'send'! Very soon you'll be receiving a little piece of wonder like this in the mail.

What, you say, "you're still hyping!?" YES, cuz this sketch request was very well timed as I am planning on developing this character further. Keep your eyes peeled because you'll never guess where he'll turn up next!