The Three Cent Pup

CCCG Holiday Hoopla! Dec 19th, 3:00 pm

2009-12-01T16:06:00.002-05:00

Next CCCG Meeting: Saturday, September 19th @ 2:00pm

2009-08-20T14:19:00.000-04:00

The next meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild will be on Saturday, September 19th at 2:00 pm at Krankies Coffee.

I know September is a busy month for some of us comics folk--what with the Bookmarks Book festival on the 12th and SPX cranking up on the 25th--but I hope folks are still able to make it to the meeting.

I really liked just about everything about meeting at Krankies (Wi-Fi, coffee, lots of table space, OK lighting, booze) except the lack of A.C. I'm hoping that by mid-September the weather will be tolerable, but if for some reason it's suddenly going to be 95 degrees on the 19th, I may send around a last-minute "change of venue" maybe back over to Brew Nerds.

Directions: Krankies is downtown in the warehouse district, on the corner of 3rd and N. Chestnut. Here's a link to a Google Map.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Madden's "Random Marks" Exercise

2009-07-18T19:01:00.010-04:00

The CCCG's July meeting at Krankies Coffee went well. Although a bit warm (there's no A.C.) Krankies is a great place to draw. There's plenty of table space, OK lighting and plenty of coffee, beer and baked goods to consume.

At this gathering, we attempted an improvised jam comics exercise recently posted to Matt Madden's blog here. Being at a coffee shop, we didn't want to break out the bottles of India ink, so we made our random lines with regular old Microns instead. We did the exercise jam style, where each of us would grid off a page and make the random marks and then the pages were mixed up and distributed at random. The results are posted below. Note that we weren't able to document the original pages with the random marks, but we were able in most cases to indicate the random marks with either red or orange pencil--so that's what those colored marks are.

by Rick

by Mandy

by Craig

by Cassie

by Ben

by Alton

CCCG July Meeting: Saturday the 18th

2009-07-01T12:01:00.001-04:00

The next meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild will be on Saturday, July 18th at 2:00 pm at Krankies Coffee.

I've been poking around trying to find us a place to meet that's more conducive to drawing but I haven't turned up anything definite yet, but I figured just for fun we could try a new place: Krankies Coffee downtown. If nothing else, they've definitely got a lot more table space than Brew Nerds so--as long as there's not a ton of other people there--we can hopefully spread out a bit and get some drawing done. I bookmarked this exercise on Matt Madden's site a while back and thought that maybe we could give it a try next meeting--maybe somehow adapted to be collaborative?

Directions: Krankies is downtown in the warehouse district, on the corner of 3rd and N. Chestnut. Here's a link to a Google Map.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

CCCG Meeting: May 9th

2009-04-07T09:06:00.000-04:00

The next meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild will be on Saturday, May 9th at 2:00 pm.

Location-wise, I really enjoyed our last meeting at Brew Nerds downtown, so unless anyone has any other suggestions, let's plan on meeting there again. I can clear it with the Brew Nerds folks via Adam, but unless you hear otherwise, assume that's the location.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

-Ben

CCCG February Meeting

2009-02-16T10:26:00.000-05:00

It was tough to settle on a date for this one. It was impossible to find a date that "pleased all of the people all of the time," as they say, so of the two dates that got the most positive responses, I picked the closest one: February 28th, at the usual 2:00 pm.

The only problem with this date, however, is that there's not an available room at the library. I propose, therefore, that we meet instead at the Brew Nerds coffee shop in downtown Winston. It's on Fourth Street, where Sin Coffee used to be. We'll probably have to curtail any large-scale drawing projects, but given that it's been a while since we last got together, I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about--and plenty of books to pass around.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Hope to see you there!

-B.

October CCCG Meeting

2008-09-30T10:26:00.001-04:00

The October meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday, October 25th, at 2:00 at the central library in Winston-Salem. We'll be in room 204.

The library is located downtown at 660 West Fifth Street and you can get directions here... but it's pretty close to the Sawtooth, where we've been meeting previously, and you probably know where it is if you're familiar with downtown at all.

Room 204 is on the very top floor of the building. Take a left at the top of the stairs and it's on your left.

This'll be our first meeting since August and first after both SPX and 24 Hour Comics day, so there'll be plenty to jaw about. Hope you can make it!

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

CCCG August Meeting - Note NEW LOCATION

2008-08-05T09:41:00.000-04:00

The August meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday, the 23rd, at the the 2:00 at the central library in Winston-Salem. We'll be in room 204.

The library is located downtown at 660 West Fifth Street and you can get directions here... but it's pretty close to the Sawtooth, where we've been meeting previously, and you probably know where it is if you're familiar with downtown at all.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

See you there!

July Shuffleupagus: Abstract Duck

2008-08-02T10:52:00.003-04:00

Please enjoy the cheerful insanity of Abstract Duck in "Bad Mother-Plucker," the CCCG Shuffleupagus from last meeting:

July CCCG Meeting

2008-06-30T20:44:00.001-04:00

The July meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday, the 12th, at the the Sawtooth School at 2:00. As usual we'll just show up and see what's available room-wise, but hopefully it'll be the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

This is our first post-Heroes Con meeting, so be sure to bring any cool schwag you got there to show off!

Note that this may be our last meeting at the Sawtooth School for a while... so NEXT time, look for new info on the location.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

May CCCG Meeting: 24th

2008-05-16T08:23:00.000-04:00

The May meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday, the 24th, at the the Sawtooth School at 2:00. As usual we'll just show up and see what's available room-wise, but hopefully it'll be the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Potential things to work on this time around are the multiple simultaneous jam comics we started last time, those pre-gridded (note to Adam: that's not "pre-griddLED") page projects from the time before that, or possibly the venerable Shuffleupagus.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

April CCCG Meeting

2008-04-12T11:44:00.000-04:00

The April meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday, the 26th, at the the Sawtooth School at 2:00. As usual we'll just show up and see what's available room-wise, but hopefully it'll be the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Looks like we'll table the possible Ed Emberly day for a later date and can either continue to work on those pre-gridded page projects, start something new, do a Shuffleupagus, or just hang out and draw random stuff.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

March CCCG Meeting

2008-02-26T12:34:00.000-05:00

The March meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday, the 8th, at the the Sawtooth School at 2:00. As usual we'll just show up and see what's available room-wise, but hopefully it'll be the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

And fer crying out loud, SOMEONE think of a new collaborative project!!

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

Good Night, Nurse!

2008-02-10T15:48:00.002-05:00

Shuffleupagus from January CCCG meeting:

CCCG January Meeting

2008-01-15T21:19:00.001-05:00

OK folks, the holidays are over and it's time to get back to business... the business of comics, that is: talking about comics you've been reading, showing off comics you got as gifts, and--most important--drawing comics!

The January meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday, the 26th, at the the Sawtooth School at 2:00. As usual we'll just show up and see what's available room-wise, but hopefully it'll be the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

Alec the Hippie

2007-12-11T14:05:00.000-05:00

Folks attending the the CCCG November meeting included Craig, Craig's son Nate, Kyle, Jordan and Ben. We're between collaborative projects at the moment, but for whatever reason everyone wound up drawing a version of "Alec," a character that Nate doodled at the beginning of class. Here are the results from (in order, top to bottom) Craig, Ben, Jordan, Kyle and the original by Nate:

CCCG&SC Holiday Brouhaha

2007-11-25T22:48:00.001-05:00

November CCCG Meeting

2007-11-07T19:51:00.000-05:00

The November meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday, the 17th, at the the Sawtooth School at 2:00. As usual we'll just show up and see what's available room-wise, but hopefully it'll be the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

2007-10-15T22:55:00.001-04:00

Ben and Adam are back, safe and sound, from their trek up to Rockville, MD for the Small Press Expo.

You can read Ben's account of the event over at his blog.

Here are some photos:

Leah Riley and Will Woods.

Common Grounds.

Ben sketching.

Chris Reilly reading the Perry Bible Fellowship hardcover collection, The Trial of Colonel Sweeto.

Journal of MODOK Studies creator Robert Newsome

Fred Chao, writer/artist of Johnny Hiro: Half-Asian, All Hero

One part of the Love & Rockets cartoonists Los Bros Hernandez, Gilbert.

Adam working on a jam comic with Leah Riley, I Married A Chromosome.

Team High Five working on comics at the dinner across the street from the hotel.

October CCCG Meeting

2007-10-01T21:14:00.000-04:00

The October "Pre-SPX" meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held this Saturday, the 6th, at the the Sawtooth School at 2:00. As usual we'll just show up and see what's available room-wise, but hopefully it'll be the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

CCCG August Meeting

2007-08-14T16:43:00.000-04:00

The August meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be a two-part meeting on Saturday the 25th. First, we'll gather at the Borders Cafe at the Thruway at 2:00 pm where we'll edit, assemble and photocopy group work for the next issue of The Three Cent Pup. Then we'll regroup at the the Sawtooth School at 3:15 to put the books together and for our usual chit-chat and book swapping.

As usual we'll just show up and see what's available room-wise, hopefully the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

Directions to the Thruway shopping center:

http://www.thruwaycenter.com/location.html

See you there!

N.C. Cartoonist Doug Marlette: 1949-2007

2007-07-11T14:17:00.001-04:00

CCCG&SC July Meeting

2007-07-11T14:12:00.001-04:00

The July meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday the 21st of July from 2:00 pm until 4:00-ish, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

We're not officially scheduled for any particular room, but as usual we'll just show up and see what's available--hopefully the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

-B.

CCCG in June: School's Out for Summer!

2007-06-14T16:23:00.000-04:00

With the onset of sun, summer and associated vacationing in some cases, it looks like lots of CCCG folks are pretty booked up during the month of June--not to mention that this weekend is of course Heroes Con in Charlotte. Given this, CCCG will officially be on "summer break" during June... but, keep an eye on the message board for possible dates for an early July post-Heroes get-together.

CCCG - May Meeting

2007-05-07T22:24:00.001-04:00

The May meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held this Saturday, the 12th of May from 3:15 pm until 5:45-ish, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

Note the meeting time at 3:15 instead of the usual 2:00 since I'm teaching a comics workshop at the Sawtooth that ends at three and Alton is tied up in the early afternoon as well.

As has been the case for a bit, we're still in need of some new long-term projects to work on (and some "new blood" to wrap up that #$%*&'n 'bingo' project thing), so be thinking on it...

We're not officially scheduled for any particular room, but as usual we'll just show up and see what's available--hopefully the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up. When I finished part I of my workshop there last Saturday, pretty much the whole place was available, so I'm guessing it'll be the same this Saturday.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

As with last month, sorry for the late notice.

See you there!

CCCG April Meeting: Sat 21st

2007-04-16T17:10:00.000-04:00

The April meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held this Saturday, the 21st of April from 3:00 pm until 5:30-ish, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

Note the meeting time at 3:00 instead of the usual 2:00--in case anyone wants to attend this River Run Film Festival animation panel.

As with last month, we're still in need of some new long-term projects to work on (and some "new blood" to wrap up that #$%*&'n 'bingo' project thing), so be thinking on it...

We're not officially scheduled for any particular room, but as usual we'll just show up and see what's available--hopefully the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

Chad Hunt Interviewed

2007-04-07T10:20:00.000-04:00

CCCG member and inker extraordinaire Chad Hunt was recently interviewed by LOP Magazine. Check it out here. Chad's done work for Marvel, AC comics, Dark Horse, Image, Moonstone and others...

SPX - WTF?

2007-03-20T09:51:00.000-04:00

Each fall at lest a few of us CCCG folks head up Maryland-way to attend The Small Press Expo - AKA "SPX." Along with Charlotte's Heroes Con, it's easily the most looked forward to comics event of the year for us. As far as comradarie, fun, general atmosphere, affordibility, and just plain cool stuff to look at and buy goes, it just can't be beat... at least anywhere in driving range from NC.

Note though, that "organization" was not one of the items listed.

In spite of the events positive features, SPX has in the past had a reputation for not being quite as "on the ball" as one would hope. This year, though, the event has changed organizers, so hopes were high that some of the usual kerfuffles would be a thing of the past. It looks though that there are clearly still a few onions in the ointment...

Here's a bit of an email I received this morning from one of the NC Webcomics Coffee Clatch folks who's taken on the taken on the (apparently daunting) task of securing a block of tables for us regional folks from CCCG, the Coffee Clatch, and friends/yankee interlopers Chris Reilly & Steve Ahlquist:

I sent in the application with the check a month ago to the spx p.o. box. I sent it certified to guarantee knowledge that they received it...

today the envelope was returned with a tattooed amount of rubber stamps on it. the post office left 4 notices for spx to sign for the letter and spx never picked it up, even though they [presumably] have to go to the post office to check their p.o. box. though it's in the realm of possibilities that they haven't checked their p.o. box in a month.

I've emailed karon at spx...inquiring about how to acheive success in re-sending the application.

Ahhh, well...

Assuming this gets straightened out, look for at least a couple of us CCCG folks to be there this fall hawking our wares regardless.

CCCG&SC: March Meeting

2007-03-05T13:59:00.000-05:00

The March meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday the 24th from 2:00 pm until 4:30-ish, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

We're still in need of some new long-term projects to work on (and some "new blood" to wrap up that #$%*&'n 'bingo' project thing), so be thinking on it...

We're not officially scheduled for any particular room, but as usual we'll just show up and see what's available--hopefully the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

Also, as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

February CCCG Meeting

2007-02-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

The February meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday the 10th from 2:00 pm until 4:30-ish, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

I know it's pretty soon after our January meeting, but the 10th was good for everyone who responded on the message board, and with only four Saturdays in the month it seemed best to strike while the iron's hot. Hope folks can still make it...

And maybe start thinking about some new group projects--a lot of them are getting wrapped up. We could, of course, do another shuffleupagus as well...

We're not officially scheduled for any particular room, but as usual we'll just show up and see what's available--hopefully the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

I Do Declare: January Shuffleupagus

2007-01-21T11:11:00.000-05:00

The Shuffleupagus collaborative/jam comics exercise seems to have really caught on with the CCCG folks and at our get-together yesterday we managed to complete our third story done in this manner, titled "I Do Declare!"

January Meeting

2007-01-16T09:31:00.000-05:00

The January meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday the 20th from 2:00 pm until 4:30-ish, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

We're not officially scheduled for any particular room, but as usual we'll just show up and see what's available--hopefully the big room. I'll put a sign outside wherever we wind up.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Note also that Scott McCloud with be in Rock Hill, SC and also in Raleigh in January. If anyone's interested in going to see his presentation, discussion is going on here:

http://teachingcomics.org/cccg/viewtopic.php?t=212

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

Christmas Party at Mandy's House

2006-12-31T16:49:00.000-05:00

Oh my, christmas gatherings warm the cockles of the heart, don't they? And so it was in Hamptonville, when the CCCGSC came to my house for a little afternoon soiree of comic talk and ramblings of all types really. Great to see Jordan up for a quick visit, and to have Ben, Johnny, Craig, and Adam (as well as their significant others) stop by. Door prizes were given out. Johnny won the gift certificate to Blue Line Pro, Ben and Craig won micron pen sets, Nathan and Adam won artist trading card blanks, and Jordan won leftover beer! Overall, a good time was had by all.

As you can see, Modock was feeling festive as he protected Wimbledon Green.

Ben, Johnny, Adam, Jordan & Craig impress my husband Ed with their expanse of knowledge.

Ben and Nathan discuss the latest and greatest musings of My Little Pony.

November Shuffleupagus

2006-11-17T10:09:00.000-05:00

The CCCG November Shuffleupagus:

November meeting--and one year anniversary--of CCCG&SC

2006-11-02T13:41:00.000-05:00

The November meeting--and one year anniversary--of the Camel City Cartoonist's Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday the 11th from 2:00 pm until 4:30-ish, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

We're not officially scheduled for any particular room, but at the moment the big room is empty after 12 noon, so tentatively let's plan on meeting there. If there's a change, we can put up a sign outside.

As usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

(Note also that James Sturm, cartoonist and directior of the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, will be at ASU lecturing the last Wednesday and Thrusday in November. If interested, be thinking about a possible trip to Boone to hear him speak and/or do some drawing afterwords.)

Directions, parking, etc. for the Sawtooth can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

SPX 2006

2006-10-15T22:56:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, CCCGers Ben, Adam, and Craig trekked up to Rockville, MD for SPX 2006 at the new location of the Mariott Conference Center.

Different from years past, all of the exhibitors were contained in one room, not two parallel conference rooms and various smaller meeting rooms.

Reactions were mixed, with some thinking the crowd was bigger, others thinking smaller (but it's tough to judge seeing as how everyone was in one room and not spread out across a whole floor of a hotel as in years past.) One major complaint was the narrow walking spaces which prohibited people from congregating in front of tables (or consequently inhibited those trying to pass.)

And now, pictures!

Ben concludes "Yes, I believe I shall attempt to eat as many meals with crab cake as possible!"

Freshly late to the show, Adam is ecstatic to learn that his comics, folded and bound on the drive up to Maryland, are the freshest ones in the room!

Duane "The Pain" Ballenger practices his Kirk swagger.

Chris Reilly tells a funny joke.
(Not pictured, Chris Reilly.)

New Jersey cartoonists John Carre (l) loves chicken nuggets and and Ian Harker (r) loves to be angry. REAL angry!

Large show room, friend or foe?

Super star Ben Towle takes time out to autograph a book for his fans.

Photographic proof that Chris Reilly was there.

It'll take some time to pour through the various books picked up from the show, but the early favorite for Ben and Adam was "Flying Bear", a mini about... a flying bear... that bites people's head off.

See you next year!

CCCG October Meeting

2006-10-10T09:50:00.000-04:00

The October meeting of the Camel City Cartoonist's Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday the 21st from 2:00 pm until 4:30-ish, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

As usual, we're scheduled for the wet room, but we'll just see what the best available space is when we arrive and then set up shop there.

Also as usual, bring your drawing supplies, any good comics you've been reading that you think folks might be interested in checking out, and any books you've borrowed that you need to return.

Directions, parking, etc. can be found here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

See you there!

Narrative Corpse Project

2006-09-26T11:19:00.001-04:00

September Meeting: Sat 16th

2006-09-08T15:06:00.000-04:00

The September meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be held Saturday the 16th at 2:30 pm at the Sawtooth School. We're scheduled for the Youth I classroom, which was the only available classroom that afternoon--youth weekend classes have started up again.

(A warning, though: given how busy the Sawtooth is that weekend, there's a small possibility we may get "bumped" if a revenue-generating class needs to occupy that room. If that occurs, I'll let everyone know as soon as possible.)

So, bring your drawing supplies, any books you've been reading that you want to show around, and any stuff you've borrowed that you want to return.

See you there.

CCCG on the inter-web!

2006-08-27T16:18:00.000-04:00

Not only can you see our comics, now you can hear them (or hear about them, rather.)

From late last month, WFDD, Winston-Salem's NPR station, interviewed Ben Towle on their "Voices and Viewpoints" program talking about his comics work. His interview can be heard here.

Earlier this week, Pulp Arcade, a comics and gaming site, featured a review of Adam Casey's various mini-comics in their PulpCast MP3 program. You can listen to the program here. (Adam's coverage begins at 29:25)

Next Meeting: Aug 26th @ Borders Cafe

2006-08-23T09:49:00.000-04:00

The Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be having an informal get-together this Saturday, the 26th of August at the Borders Cafe at the Thruway. We'll be gathering around 12 noon for coffee, drawing, etc.

Also: Used books are now being accepted from Borders employees to benefit Northwestern NC libraries. If you'd like to donate any books (comic related or otherwise), please bring them Saturday to to drop off with Adam--but please let him know in advance via the message board or via email.

See you there!

Biggest meeting EVER

2006-08-14T21:22:00.000-04:00

We had quite the crowd at the Camel City Club meeting this past Saturday. They barely fit into a picture.

Next Meeting: August 12th

2006-07-27T13:10:00.000-04:00

The next CCCG meeting will be on August 12th, at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art, at 2:00pm. Bring your art supplies and anything interesting you want to share...

For more details, check the message board.

Photographic evidence of CCCG being at HeroesCon.

2006-07-26T22:29:00.000-04:00

A day late and a dollar short, but here we go:

Jordan Mooney... waiting in the calm before the storm.

Ben, seemingly perplexed at someone holding a copy of Midnight Sun #1.

Ben says: "Weeeeell... I may still have a copy of the Strange Eggs Tijuana Bible ..."

Adam ponders: "Comic books? What was I thinking? I mean, seriously... comics?! And what is that kid just above my elbow looking at?"

Duane "the Pain" Ballenger does his best J. Chris Campbell impression.

The Common Bond and One Percent Press... the competition for your mini-comix dollars is fierce.

Andy Runton and this girl appear to be having a 'witty retort' contest.

July Meeting Wrapup

2006-07-09T11:40:00.000-04:00

The CCCG met last Saturday, July 8th at the Sawtooth School. In attendence (and pictured here) were: Ben, Adam, Alton, Mandy, Rob and Elliot. Not pictured, but present for a bit, was Nina.

July CCCG Meeting

2006-07-06T14:13:00.000-04:00

Update: Note that the time below has been changed from 2:00 to 3:00pm!

The July meeting of the CCCG will be this coming Saturday, the 8th of July, at 3:00pm at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art. We're technically scheduled for the "wet room" but likely will be in the main graphics studio, unless someone else is using it at the same time. For directions and parking information, see here.

For any further questions, contact info [at] cartoonists [dot] ws.

July CCCG Meeting

2006-07-04T21:14:00.000-04:00

The July meeting of the CCCG will be this coming Saturday, the 8th of July, at 2:00pm at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art. We're technically scheduled for the "wet room" but likely will be in the main graphics studio, unless someone else is using it at the same time. For directions and parking information, see here.

For any further questions, contact info [at] cartoonists [dot] ws.

CCCG @ Heroes Con this Weekend

2006-06-26T12:45:00.000-04:00

If you're gonna be at Heroes Con this coming weekend (June 30th-July 2nd) CCCG publications will be available at Ben Towle's table in the "Indie Island" area of the convention floor. There you'll find copies of The Three Cent Pup #1, issues of Adam Casey's Arguably Comics numbers one through three, and various books by Ben Towle including Midnight Sun #1, which is debuting at the con as is his self-published mincomic (Almost) One Hundred Demons.

Screenprinting Workshop: Success

2006-06-15T14:14:00.000-04:00

The Three Cent Pup :: View topic - Screenprinting workshop

The members of the CCCG mastered the oddities of screenprinting with the greatest of ease... and here's just one of the results, Adam's "Cafe Ninja" T-shirts.

...and here's Ben's completed (Almost) One Hundred Demons minicomic, with screenprinted cover:

CCCG @ Borders Cafe

2006-06-14T18:57:00.000-04:00

The CCCG will be meeting for an informal drawing get-together this Saturday the 17th at the Borders at the Thruway. Bring your drawing tools and join us.... join us... join us....

Silkscreening Workshop: June 10th

2006-05-29T08:06:00.000-04:00

The CCCG is organizing a day-long silkscreening workshop, to be held June 10th at Mona Lisa Art Supply in Clemmons. The workshop is open to anyone interested and costs $75.00--this includes everything you'll need for the workshop except paper (or cloth) to print your design on. For further information, see the message board thread or contact us at info [at] cartoonists.ws.

A silkscreened comics page (by Dave Vanroye):

Borders Cafe Meeting Enjoyed by All

2006-05-21T11:14:00.000-04:00

The CCCG held its now-becoming-monthly informal get-together at Borders Cafe at the Thruway this past Saturday afternoon. Attendees included Adam, Ben, and Alton, as well as an appearance by Don--not seen since the very first meeting. Also, making her first ever appearance at a CCCG function was Eva who's home (in Kernersville, AKA "K-Vegas ") for the summer, taking a break from drawing her comic strip "Bilson" for the Bryn Mawr student newspaper. She claims to be doing schoolwork there as well.

Alton completed a panel in our "comics bingo" story, Ben and Eva inked the few remaining uninked panels in the narrative corpse grid, and other folks kept busy putting the finishing touches on our free-form "Senses" jam pages.

Camel City Cartoonist Guild crosses Mason-Dixon, Declares Comix War.

2006-05-13T23:22:00.000-04:00

The Camel City Cartoonist Guild & Social Club has breached the Mason-Dixon and is firmly entrenched at SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo) in Columbus, OH, opening a new front in comix war.

Amongst close to 200 tables, The Three Cent Pup shined through being very popular amongst those stopping at the table.

Adam Casey draws up articles of war... as well as a picture of a French Guy.

Among other attendees were Dave Sim, Matt Feazell, Robert Ullman, Alex Robinson, Andy Runton, and J. Chris Campbell.

Campbell opens up a second front in the Comix War... by using robots.

In all, turn out was brisk, but perhaps a bit lower than organizer expectations. In the end, 10 copies of the The Three Cent Pup were sold. The Camel City Cartoonist Guild may now enjoy the spoils of war... by eating a Mellow Mushroom pizza!

Free Comic Book Day

2006-05-07T22:28:00.000-04:00

Unless you're a comic fan living under a rock, Saturday May 6th was Free Comic Book Day! It was a chance to try out some titles you may have heard about, but haven't been exposed to.

For the Camel City Cartoonists Guild & Social Club, it was a chance to emphasize the latter part of our moniker with a group gathering at Silver Bullet Comics in Winston-Salem at 11AM.

Later in the day, we did what we do best-- comix!

Our monthly meeting was held at the Sawtooth School. Among the members present were Adam, Alton, Ben, Craig, Nina, and Thomas (with a guest appearance by Terra.)

Adam working on his hourly comic outside Silver Bullet.

Ben tries to determine if he wants Superman/Batman #1 or the Fantagraphics book.

Craig asks: "Hey guys, should we draw, or sit around and burn through some manga volumes?"

Ben works on our latest hair-brained idea, the "Bingo" comic created with a 20-sided die.

Craig: "...and so then Kirby says, 'Two buckets?!' "
Elliot: "BWHAHAHAHA!!"

Next Meeting: May 6th - Free Comic Book Day

2006-04-30T16:12:00.000-04:00

For the May 6th meeting, anyone interested in Free Comic Book Day swag should meet at Silver Bullet Comics at 11:00-ish when they open.

We'll break for a little lunch, then get back together for the meeting proper at 1:00 in the afternoon at the Sawtooth. We're scheduled to be in Graphics 1, AKA: the "big room."

New Flyer

2006-04-30T16:10:00.000-04:00

April Activity

2006-04-30T16:04:00.000-04:00

At last weekend's informal Borders Cafe get-together, CCCG folks including Adam, Ben and Terra worked mainly on our new "comics bingo" project in which we're working on 4 pre-gridded pages of 5 panels each. Every panel is numbered 1-20 and each participant rolls a die to determine which panel is to be completed. The challenge is to try to get the thing to have some sort of coherent story by linking all the pannels together narratively as it progresses.

CCCG is in da FLUKE hizzouse

2006-04-01T18:37:00.000-05:00

Craig, Adam, Johnnie and Ben from CCCG are in Athens, GA for FLUKE 2006. I'm happy to report that we've sold enough copies of The Three Cent Pup #1 to pay for one half of a Mellow Mushroom pizza at our next meeting. If we hold out until after this year's Heroes Con in Charlotte, I'm betting we'll have enough for a whole pie.

(Click for larger image)

Nancy Jam

2006-03-26T20:35:00.000-05:00

Here's another completed jam comic. In this one, before drawing his/her panel, each participant randomly drew bits of dialog from the newspaper strip "Nancy" from an envelope--AKA: the "bag o' dialog"--and had to integrate that dialog into the story. (I use the words "integrate" and "story" loosely.)

My Evil...

2006-03-26T19:13:00.000-05:00

This is a now completed jam comic in which each panel begins with "My Evil..."

Borders "Pre-FLUKE" Meeting: Mission Accomplished

2006-03-18T21:19:00.000-05:00

While the narative corpse project didn't quite get wrapped up, the main mission of the March 18th Borders Cafe get-together was accomplished: the completion of the free-form jam comic that will be the fold-out gatefold of our FLUKE minicomic. Valiantly contribiting to the ninth inning completion of this project this afternoon were Adam (Casey), Tom, Ben, and--making a rare appearance--Chad! Here's the final image:

Borders: Saturday, March 18th

2006-03-15T18:21:00.000-05:00

The CCCG&SC will be having the first of likely two pre-FLUKE mini-meetings at the Borders Cafe at the Thruway at 12 noon.

If we're gonna have that free-form full-page comic as the gatefold of our minicomic for FLUKE, we're gonna have to wrap it up at this meeting...so if there's any way you can stop by--even if you just wander in, draw something on the page and then leave--please try to. I'm guessing we'll be there until at least 2:00.

Directions, etc. for the Borders Cafe can be found here. Hope to see you there.

March Meeting: Update

2006-03-10T12:43:00.000-05:00

NOTE: Room-wise, it's the same deal as last time. Tentatively, there's a workshop scheduled for the big area of the room in which we usually meet, but there's no telling as to whether there were enough people signed up for it and it may be cancelled. We're scheduled for the other half of that room, but, we can just grab whatever room's open when we get there.

March Meeting

2006-03-04T16:04:00.000-05:00

The CCCG&SC will be holding its March meeting on Saturday, March 11th at 2:00 pm at the Sawtooth Center. We'll meet in the usual Graphics Studio unless I hear otherwise from the Sawtooth folks.

Our agenda will include getting three of our current jam pieces into a finished state in preparation for making them into a minicomic to take to FLUKE this year.

As usual, bring anything you've been reading, any art you've been working on, and--of course--your drawing supplies.

Directions and parking info can be found on the Sawtooth's site here:

http://sawtooth.org/location.html

February Meeting...Part II

2006-02-21T07:34:00.000-05:00

CCCG is having a second February meeting. This time, instead of the Sawtooth Center, we'll be meeting at the Cafe in Borders at 12:00 on Saturday the 25th.

Since we'll be focusing mainly on working on group projects, the only thing anyone needs to bring along is art supplies.

Info, directions, etc., can be found here.

February Meeting

2006-02-11T19:02:00.000-05:00

February's meeting was a bit on the thin side, but not too bad considering the impending winter storm which was, as they said on The Simpsons, "barreling down on us like a shotgun full of snow." And as usual, The Man crept up and snuck away with a few CCCG members last minute as well.

In attendance were Johnnie, Thomas, Elliot and Ben. Jam comics were added to, comics were discussed, comics were borrowed, comics were returned, and chaos reigned.

Below are some of our jam comics in progress as well as the usual group shot:

January Meeting

2006-01-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

I forgot to bring my camera (and, as usual, forgot to bring a glue stick as well), but we did indeed meet in January. Attendees included Craig, Johnnie, Elliot and Ben...as well as Adam Casey who was thankfully able to get out of working for "the man" and make it this time around.

Speaking of working...After the meeting I encountered a somewhat-harried Katie at the new Mellow Mushroom downtown--the place was slammed.

December Meeting

2005-12-17T17:55:00.000-05:00

Here're a few pictures from the December meeting. We had a few new folks show up this time: an additional representative from the Fischer clan, as well as Elliot and Mandy.

...and here're a few group projects, all still in progress. The first is a jam comic in which each contributor randomly picks cut-out dialog baloons clipped from old Nancy newspaper comic strips and then builds a panel around that; the second is a free-form drawing/comic.

Meeting of the Minds(?)

2005-12-13T09:21:00.000-05:00

A few members of the CCCG&SC recently journeyed to the Green Bean coffee shop in nearby Greensboro, NC to sit on on the monthly get-together of the NC Webcomics Coffee Clatch. (Note how, in the web link above, the Green Bean appears to be owned by comedian Andy Dick.) There are a surprizing number of well-known web comics creators in North Carolina, mostly from the Triangle...but fortunately this month they chose to meet near Winston-Salem. Here's a picture from the event:

Back row, left to right: Jeff Darlington (General Protection Fault), Larry Holderfield (Sinister Bedfellows), Ben Towle (CCCG), Paul Friedrich (onionhead monster)

Front row, left to right: Thomas Whaples (CCCG), Jamie Robertson (Clan of the Cats), Nina Whaples (CCCG), and Johnnie Story

November Meeting Wrap-Up

2005-11-12T19:21:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics from the first/November meeting:

Going clockwise from the left, that's: Nina, Thomas, Chad, Katie, Adam, Johnnie and Craig.

Now added are Ben (far left) and Don (standing, center).

...and last but not least, late arrival Eric.

This first meeting was a bit heavy on the "talking about stuff" segment, which chipped into the "drawing stuff" segment a bit--but that's to be expected when everyone's getting to know each other, introducing themselves, etc.

We've now got three group projects in progress: a totally open jam comic, a jam comic in which each panel's dialog is drawn at random from some cut up Nancy balloons, and a narrative corpse page all done in little tiny panels.

First Meeting Location: Sawtooth Center

2005-10-26T14:01:00.000-04:00

Just to play it safe, we'll be having our first meeting at the Sawtooth center, not the coffee shop. Please check out further details within the "Upcoming Meetings" topic on the Pup's message board.

Please let everyone know either via the message board, a comment, or an email to me, whether you'll be attending.

-B.

First Meeting: Saturday, November 12th

2005-10-23T17:18:00.000-04:00

The inaugural meeting of the Camel City Cartoonists' Guild and Social Club will be on November 12th at 2:00 pm. Details on location will be posted in a few days. Come one! Come all!

3CP Message Board

2005-10-21T16:51:00.000-04:00

I'm getting tired of scrolling through these endless, long pages of comments...so I've set us up a message board for better communication. There's a link to it at the top of the right hand column of the page. You'll have to create a user account, but I've set it up so you can immeditely begin posting after that. Lemme know if you have any trouble signing up or posting.

-B.

First Meeting: Good News and (Possibly) Bad News

2005-10-21T10:07:00.000-04:00

I went by Morning Dew this morning to verify that meeting Saturday afternoon there would be OK, and got a bit of (potentially) bad news: namely, that there's some possiblity that some other business may be moving in and occupying the bulk of the space in there...and thus relagating the coffee shop portion of the space to a smaller area unsuitable for a large gathering. This isn't 100% for sure at the moment, and the owner said that if this doesn't happen, we can definitely meet there in the afternoon, one Saturday a month at 2:00 in the afternoon.

Fortunately, I've been able to secure an alternate location as a backup in case this falls through: the Sawtooth Center. The folks down there indicated to me that we could likely meet Saturday afternoons in one of the classrooms. Some of you are familiar with the Sawtooth--it'll be a great space to be able to meet: plenty of room, big tables, etc. Even if we wind up meeting at Morning Dew sometimes, we might want to consider switching up occasionally and meeting at the Sawtooth every once in a while just for fun. It's (obviously) a great place for drawing, etc.

So..... either way, we've got somewhere to meet (yay!). Now we just need to set a date for our first meeting. I propose either:

Saturday, October 29th (next weekend) @ 2:00pm

or

Saturday, November 12th (in three weeks) @ 2:00pm

And, as mentioned above, we'll meet either at Morning Dew or at the Sawtooth depending on how things have sorted out.

Comments, thoughts, rants?

-B.

Morning Dew location confirmed

2005-10-14T09:45:00.000-04:00

Where:

I spoke this morning with Jim, the owner of Morning Dew Coffee on Burke St. and I've worked out a deal for us to meet there if we want. Basically we could meet there for free, and hang out pretty much indefinitely once there, as long as everyone present buys something from the shop. I'm thinking this isn't a big deal; they've got bottled water, soft drinks, Snapple, bagels, and (of course) coffee...all for around one to two dollars.

Let me know general reactions to this deal. I think it'd be a good place to meet since it's (essentially) free, has OK lighting, plenty of couches and chairs, free Wi-Fi, a couple of tables, and is centrally located. It also has a small platform stage, in the event that we ever wanted to hire a model for some life drawing at some point.

That being said, there's certainly no reason that we have to pick any one place to meet, then meet there forever--if anyone's got some other potential locations that might work out let me know. But, for now, we've at least got a place for our first few get-togethers.

When:

Is everyone OK with trying to schedule our first meeting some time in the first week of November?

If so, we need to pick a day. Jim @ Morning Dew is pretty open as far as this goes. Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday are all good weekday spots, he says, as well as maybe Saturday afternoon some time.

I'm of the opinion that once we've arrived at a good day/time it'd be nice to have that be a "regular" meeting time...that way we'd have a regular time to schedule stuff around and not have to go through this coordinating each time.

Frequency:

Once a month? Thoughts, anyone?

AND SO....

Everyone please let the rest of us know, either via commenting on this post or by emailing me, what days and times discussed above you would most prefer. I hope we can find a time that works for everyone.

-B.

Ooops

2005-10-09T16:17:00.000-04:00

I just heard from Elliot Wagoner, who's been interested in this business from the get-go (you'll note his website linked to the right), yet who I forgot to list in the "Welcome to" post below. Anyway, that makes eleven.

-B.

Domain name starting to work

2005-10-09T11:26:00.000-04:00

It looks like our domain name is now starting to propagate. Give it a try:

www.cartoonists.ws

It should now link right back to The Three Cent Pup.

-B.

Welcome to The Three Cent Pup

2005-10-08T14:07:00.000-04:00

I've taken the liberty of coming up with a name for our comics/sketch group and for this blog, but neither of those are set in stone. As the group evolves, we can change either or both of them if we want. A friend recently loaned me a book about the history of Winston-Salem and the Reynolds family called The Gilded Leaf and when I read in it about The Three Cent Pup I thought it was a hilarious name, so I've used it. I've purchased the domain name www.cartoonists.ws and in 48-72 hours it should begin pointing to this blog.

I've hopefully got the settings on this blog set so that you don't have to be a member to post comments (hopefully we won't get a ton of comment spam)...but you'll likely have to be a member to make a new post, so if you want to be a member, just email me and I'll send an invite out to your email address. When/if there're more members of the blog than just me, I'll put the "members" section back on the site, but it looked kinda silly with just me on it. When we've got some artwork to post, we can figure out how to do that--most likely we can just set up a gallery on Flickr and link to it.

Here's the current roster of folks who've expressed interest in the group (sorry if I don't know some last names):

Mandy Marxen
Kate Weigand
(& Holden?)
Antonina Whaples
(& Claire Bonin?)
Adam Afifi
Adam Casey
Chad
Thomas Whaples
Ben Towle

So that's about ten people right now. I've got a few more folks I'm going to contact before I secure us a place for our first meeting...and if y'all know anyone else who wants in, please let me know.

In the meantime, feel free to introduce yourselves...

Oh, yeah...also: If you have a personal homepage, or any other link related to Winston-Salem and/or art, or some other thing you're involved in that you think should be added to the "links" area on the right, either let me know in a comment or email.

-B.