Archive for the 'Mike Toft' Category
MIX 2011: A retrospecticus
MIKE TOFT and I have been continuously making mini-comics in Minneapolis longer than pretty much everyone else who is doing it today. In fact there was a good long stretch at local cons where we were basically the only ones there selling them, so it should come as no surprise that we spent many of those cons tabling together. So here’s a jam (I drew, Mike inked) that we did at one of those cons. Thanks for being great company all these years, Mike!
IT’S WAR 2–pgs 6-10
I wanted to start this story off in a way that showed both the comical and “serious” tone of the it by “setting the stakes” or whatever. So I figured the best way to do that was kill all of MIKE TOFT’s “Brain Food” cast. Hee. Ok: Roll opening credits, meet the real alive cast of the story, and then off we go…
IT’S WAR 2–pgs 3-5
So as you can see, I lived in Uptown when I drew this. Fellow south Mpls resident and the first Mpls cartooinst I had the pleasure to meet was MIKE TOFT. He does a comic called BRAIN FOOD which has been an epic ride that recently reached its climax! I wanted to pay tribute to Mike’s characters and have a little fun with them in my universe. Could it be?!–The first Mpls cartoonist universe crossover?!?!
As you may have heard me mention (to the point you probably blocked me on Facebook yesterday) LUTEFISK SUSHI ‘D’ opened last night. As always, I came armed with my camera:
I got there around 6pm as the AE crew and some of the “LUTEFISK SUSHI QUORUM of 12” members did some last-minute gettin’ ready for the 7pm public opening.
The ‘Candy Sushi’ that LUPI, MIKE TOFT, and I made earlier in the day.
The wonderful signage KEVIN CANNON made. Now everything was SET! We were ready to face the public! The artists were starting to roll in and……..my camera died. Well, it said I had filled the memory to capacity (after 4 pictures), which I found weird since I had dumped all the photos on it earlier in the day. Anyway…people filed in. Talking was done. Art was admired. Gin was poured liberally from my trunk stash. And the a couple hours later…
My old buddy and pro photographer KRISSY DRAKE arrived and showed my wife how to make the camera work. Huzzah! This is also the point at which we all turned into red-eyed vampires. THAT was weird, lemme tell ya.
SEE! I couldn’t resist the ‘dark gift’ of vampirism and immediately turned my wife.
DAN “Van Helsing” OLSON rushed in and tried to stake me to stop the madness from spreading. Luckily, he failed.
BRITT HAMMERBERG–infected!!!
Despite cash bets to the contrary, MATT KRISKE shows up…and is immediately attacked by Lestat-esque blood-lust.
Once we were all Twilighted-up, we got back to the socializing at hand. It was nearing 10pm and the once-massive crowd was thinning, but good times were still being had by local legends such as WILL DINKSI, AARON POLIWODA, TIM SIEVERT, ZANDER CANNON, SARAH MOREAN, STEVEN STWALLEY, BRITT, MARK McGINTY, VanHelsing, and longest-time collaborator DAN “DON” MURPHY.
SHAD PETOSKY and KEVIN “C” CANNON talk about important subjects as RYAN DOW eavesdrops.
My wife NICHOLE chats it up with LUPI and VanHelsing’s wife AJ.
Look! There’s AE founder and all around awesome person JAMIE SCHUMACHER!
TIME JUMP!!! At 10pm AE turned into a pumpkin, so some of us headed over to the official Conspiracy watering hole–the world-famous YACHT CLUB! There’s STEVE STWALLEY’s wife LEIGH-ANNE chatting it up with cartoonist and Roe Family singer ADAM WIRTZFELD, the delightful RITA PANTON, and Conspiracy Founding Member MIKE TOFT.
The newly christened DON chats it up Quorum member KRISTIN THOMPSON, while LANCE WARD and STWALLEY gab.
ZANDER and SARAH are chatting about how much the upcoming MIX–MINNEAPOLIS INDIE XPO–is going to rock (I’m assuming–about their conversation. MIX is most certainly going to rock. We can call that fact).
“D” and “C” enjoy drinks and mull over where to have the annual retreat/hazing initiation of “D” with “A” and “B“.
Have I mentioned how much JAMIE SCHUMACHER rocks?! Seriously, we should all be so lucky to be so awesome.
Anyway…that was more or less it. People started peetering out. Festivities for me ended around 1am. It was easily one of the best nights of my life.
More pictures and re-caps of the night can be found HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and even HERE at the CITY PAGES. Thanks again to everyone in the teeming crowd–friends both old and new, and strangers alike– who came to the show, making it such a massive night. It’s one I’ll never forget!
My favorite part of doing this bit was grabbing arm-loads of my favorite DVDs and drawing them. This will also be remembered as the point at which I gave up and just decided to coast on Joss Whedon’s coat-tails.
ALSO: Last Friday (April 30th, 2010) several of my CARTOONIST CONSPIRACY Conspirators and I drew “Bad Caricatures” (or “Cankeratures“) to help raise money for our good friends at the ALTERED ESTHETICS GALLERY. Things went very well! The Cankeratures alone raised $200!!! All drawings were done purely by donation, with many people only throwing in a buck or two. Needless to say, we did LOTS and LOTS of drawing that night. And it was pure fun. So here’s a Retrospecticus of the evening done in photos, words, and doodles…
The fundraiser more or less started at 7pm. Things were slow for about 15 minutes or so until people caught on to what we were up to. We warmed up by drawing each other (“We” being L to R: KEVIN CANNON, LANCE WARD, STEVEN STWALLEY, DAN MURPHY, and CARLOS MERINO).
DANIEL J OLSON soon showed up to join in the fun.
As did RYAN DOW.
And MIKE TOFT! But sadly…
…Altered Esthetics Exhibitions Director KRISTIN THOMPSON devoured Mike’s head as a part of the annual human sacrifice AE performs in order to assure a successful fundraiser.
AE’s Head Priestess JAMIE SCHUMACHER blessed the sacrifice, and then the cash started rolling in!!!
LUPI dips her brush-pen in the inkwell that is Mike’s skull and then joins in the drawing fun. And now…some satisfied patrons of the arts:
The Cankeratures were scheduled to end at 10pm. When I had to leave at 10:30 the scene looked like this:
So yeah…a pretty huge success! I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing things like this again soon. Oh…and in case you noticed the wall of Cankeratures we did of each other behind us, here’s some closer looks:
What? Those aren’t close-up enough for you? Well, here’s some awesome Cankeratures of myself, wife, and kid to wind this up:
Me by DANIEL J OLSON.
Me by DAN MURPHY. That’s right, kids. The trademarked/living joke facial hair is gone…for now.
Me by LANCE WARD.
Me by STEVE STWALLEY. This might be my favorite one, and only because Steve complimented my ever-greying hair. Flattery will get you everywhere. But enough about me. My wife is convinced that NO ONE can draw her, so she threw down the gauntlet (and a few bucks):
And KEVIN CANNON bats clean-up! Finally, my step-daughter was actually able to sit still for over 30 seconds, and here are the awesome results:
There’s the LOS again. And last but certainly not least (since it’s one of my favorite drawings of the night):
An amazing LUPI Cankerature that was all a part of an amazing night, and I can’t wait to do it again soon!
COMING UP ON WEDNESDAY: 95% less content.
On Friday, April 2nd, 2010 the “CONTINUITY GUY” graphic novella zapped its way into our world, being released at the ALTERED ESTHETICS show “Resident Artists 4: Collaborations”. To commemorate this event, here are some photos of the night presented in the way only a CONTINUITY GUY release could be–completely out of sequential order and making little sense. Enjoy!
CONTINUITY GUY artist BUD BURGY points out to RYAN DOW who the ass is who wrote such a perplexing and commercial-unfriendly story.
CONTINUITY GUY creator CASEY ‘NELS’ NELSON enjoys what Bud and I have done with his stolen property while Bud explains where nipples are and what they do.
JESSE GILLESPIE makes a rare sojourn from his Northwoods bunker to see art and stock up on canned goods. He also gave me the coolest gift imaginable.
Moments earlier WILL DINSKI and SARAH MOREAN drank from a bottle clearly marked “DO NOT DRINK”. Almost immediately the walls seemed to get taller and taller to them. Before you knew it they were nearly invisible to the naked eye. Later, they were eaten by a spider. They shall be dearly missed.
Not to be outdone, VAS LITTLECROW actually travels thru time before our very eyes.
Those professional models we hired finally show up.
The AE crew knew we were coming and so they quite literally baked a cake.
SEAN TENHOFF and his lady friend make plans for what the AE bathroom will look like at LUTEFISK SUSHI ‘D’.
DAN “The Frame-Filler” MURPHY shows how he earned his nickname.
MIKE TOFT then challenges Dan to a ‘Frame Fill-Off’. Murphy retains his title.
JAMES POWELL takes a brief moment to do some cleansing, personal introspection. He then leaves insisting he has to find a nun to punch or the hyenas won’t let him sleep.
TED ANDERSON also tries for Murphy’s title, but is disqualified when the lab results come back and he had tested positive for juicing.
LEELOO takes a moment out of her busy day to look adorable. Awwwww….
BRITT AAMODT (author of the upcoming essay collection about MN cartoonists ‘OFF COLOR’) takes Bud’s challenge to find all the continuity errors in the CONTINUITY GUY script. She gives up after 300.
CASSANDRA MONSON and birthday boy ERIK NELSON (who are to be wed next weekend!) pick the absolute worst time possible to review the MN tax laws for married couples.
DANIEL J OLSON and AJ NEIHAUS had just picked the spot on the map where they are going to leave me for dead on route to C2E2 and now could barely contain themselves.
Co-worker CHRIS OESTREICHER makes his patented camera mug. You’re 9,323 for 9,323, buddy! Great job!
Hearing of the challenge to de-throne Dan Murphy, co-worker KATRINA GLAIM makes a valiant (but ultimately losing) effort.
STEVE STWALLEY finally found that bonfire kindling he was looking for.
CONTINUITY GUY cover artist KEVIN CANNON insists on being just another face in the crowd…so much so that he causes a scene and becomes the center of attention. It was very awkward.
BUD finds his ‘last call’ date for the evening.
Thinking I had left, everyone had a really good laugh at my expense. And then the cameras flash went off, and things became uncomfortably quiet. The night was officially over.
Many, many thanks to everyone who stopped by whether they were there for us or any of the ‘resident artists’. Many thanks to everyone who picked up a copy of the book, and many thanks to everyone I didn’t get a (good) picture of. It was a really fun time!