Cartoonist Society Chapter Meeting in Minnesota this Weekend

Back in July I wrote this post about the annual meeting of my chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, which is taking place here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. St. Cloud cartoonist David Phipps, local Twin Cities illustrator Cedric Hohnstadt and I did the on location organizing for the event. The turnout of members is disappointingly small, but those of us that will be participating are in for a great program.

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design really got on board with the meeting, hosting not only our main speakers but a 2 week plus gallery exhibit of original cartoons and humorous illustration. Most of the weekend’s events are open to the public and free of charge, except for the FallCon appearance and panel discussion which will require paid admission into the FallCon itself. Here is the schedule of events, with festivities starting this evening with the gallery reception:

Friday, October 6th

Opening of “eyeToons- Work from the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society”
Minneapolis College of Art and Design Gallery
2501 Stevens Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55404
6-8 p.m.- Opening reception and “Meet the Cartoonists”– free and open to the public

Saturday, October 7th

11 a.m.-4:30 p.m.- NCS North Central Chapter artists appearing at the Minnesota FallCon Comic Book convention– Education Building, Minnesota State Fairgrounds
1:00- 2:00 p.m.– Cartoonists panel discussion in FallCon auditorium
(Public welcome, requires admission to FallCon)

7:30- 10:00 p.m– Presentations by Tom Richmond (Mad Magazine), Jerry VanAmerongen (Ballard Street) and Michael Jantze (The Norm)– Free to the public
Minneapolis College of Art and Design auditorium
2501 Stevens Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55404

The speaking engagement will be particularly good. Jerry is a multiple award winner for his one-panel syndicated “Ballard Street”, which is funny and irreverent. He also does some unique fine art incorporating his sense of humor and cartoon drawing sensibilities that I hope he’ll share. Michael Jantze’s “The Norm” was an enormously popular strip in a ton of papers when he decided to take his show to the Web and dump the traditional syndication model. To my knowledge, he’s the only comic strip artist that went from a successful traditional based distribution to a solely subscription web-based format. Plus he has done a lot of design and art direction work, including a long stint with Lucasfilm. A very talented guy. I’ll just be showing some of my work and doing a live demo of my digital color technique. The speaking program is open to the public and students as well, so we hope to have a packed house.

The chapter has some private events as well, including a chapter dinner at O’Gara’s in St. Paul, which is located in a building that used to contain the barbershop of Charles Schulz’s father, and his family’s residence as well. There is also this bit involving strippers dressed as Betty Boop and Velma from Scooby Doo… but don’t tell our wives about that.

The show opens tonight and runs through October 22nd. I will be at the reception and will take lots of pictures of the original artwork for posting tomorrow. Should be a great time both tonight and tomorrow. If anyone reading this wants to attend, be my guest.