Category Archives: News

Mini-Comic Day in San Francisco is Tomorrow!

Mini-Comic Day 2012 poster
Mini-Comic Day in San Francisco will be held tomorrow (May 26, 2012) at the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore organized with local artist group inkDrinkDraw. The event will be held from 11am to 5:30pm in the museum’s lobby and is FREE to anyone who wants to participate. We will have basic materials on hand (paper, pencil, pencils, stapler) and there are copy stores nearby to finish the challenge by reproducing your book to give away, trade, barter, sell, etc. Of course you can bring your own materials to work with too as well as copies of your own mini-comics that you can sell during the event.

But if you need more convincing to come on down there is also the Museum itself with it’s excellent new exhibits: Mad Magazine, Avengers Assemble, Darth Vader and Son, and La Raza Comica: A celebration of the Latino-American experience in the Comic Arts. I have seen all four exhibits and I can safely say they are some of the best shows the museum has shown.

We hope to see you tomorrow! AND stay tuned to this site to see the final results next week.

Happy Comic Making!
Directions on Google Maps (note, the official marker is one door off, but it is close for directions.) View Larger Map

Mini-Comic Day 2012 poster

Mini-Comics Day 2012 in Minneapolis, MN (May 26th)

Mini-Comics Day is in less than two weeks! On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists draw and print a mini-comic in a day. Any cartoonist in the world can participate in the event… if you would like to host an event in your community, contact us and we’ll get you set up.

Here is the information for those of you participating in the Twin Cities:

The Minnesota Center For Book Arts
1011 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
May 26th, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Copier will be available on site.
Table space will be provided on a first come, first served basis.
Afterwards, we will move a block over to Grumpy’s to give out “The Stapler Award for the Best Minnesota Mini-Comics Day Mini-Comic 2012.” To enter we will need three copies of your mini-comic before 7:30PM.
Grumpy’s
1111 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
Contact: Steven Stwalley
webmaster(at)cartoonistconspiracy.com

This may be a good opportunity for you to get a mini-comic ready for the upcoming Lutefisk Sushi Volume E project happening at Altered Esthetics in November.

Help promote the event! Here are assets for the Minneapolis event by 2011 Stapler Award Winner Dan Murphy.

Here is a poster you can print and hang.

Here are flyers to leave around town.

Here are graphics for your website, social-networking site, etc.:

If you use facebook, you may want to sign up here.

Mini-Comics Day in McCleary, Washington

Mini-Comics Day
McCleary Community Center
726 W. Simpson Ave.
McCleary, Washington
9 am-3 pm

Last year on the first Mini-Comics Day I was inspired to draw one (Beholder of the Eye), so even if no one shows up, at least I’ll produce an annual 8-page work.

Holding an event like this in a rural area might seem insane, but on the other hand my county produced painter Robert Motherwell, comic artist John Workman (who I was acquainted with as a fellow hangerouter at Eaton’s Bookstall in Aberdeen in the early 1970s), music artists Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, and the wonderful author Angelo Pellegrini. So it is always dangerous to underestimate this obscure edge of the U.S. of A.

Participate in the 2nd Annual Mini-Comics Day: May 26th, 2012


(Above image by Dan Murphy)

May 26th, 2012 is the date for the second annual Mini-Comics Day, celebrating the art of cartooning and creating hand-made comic books (the first event was held April 9th, 2011).

On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists from around the world will write, draw, and print copies of a mini-comic, completing the entire process from start to finish in a day or less. Anyone in the world can participate.

Mini-comics have been democratizing the art of making comic books since the 70’s or earlier… with the popularization of photocopiers, it became apparent that anyone with an inclination and some spare change could print a little comic book. Wildly varying in both form and content, mini-comics are a wonderful synthesis of cartooning and hand-made art objects.

Guidelines: To participate, create a mini-comic from start to finish on May 26th, 2012 (including writing, drawing and printing it). You can make your mini-comic by yourself or with other artists.

Format: Your mini-comic can be any size, length and format you desire. A standard mini-comics size would be eight 4.25″x5.5″ pages (which can be made from one 8.5×11 sheet of paper printed on both sides).

Help: For more information on how to make a mini-comic, see the Cartoonist Conspiracy’s mini-comic tutorial How to Make Mini-Comics. More resources can be found here.

Submit: Optionally, you can post information and/or images from your comic on this blog. Contact for an account to post here.

Bonus points: If you are working with a group of cartoonists, you may want to consider collecting your mini-comics together to distribute as a set. Bags, rubber bands, or boxes all work great for this purpose.

Also, you may want to consider trading copies by submitting some to the Mini-comix Co-op.

Events: Mini-Comics Day events will be organized at different locations around the world. You can read more about how to organize an event in our FAQ. The purpose of Mini-Comics Day events is to provide a place for cartoonists to draw and/or print their comics, and possibly to trade or sell their minis if they choose to. In 2011, we had 17 event locations participate internationally.

If you would like to organize an event, contact us at so we can promote your event and add it to our event listing.

About The International Cartoonist Conspiracy: Founded in Minneapolis in 2002, The International Cartoonist Conspiracy is a loosely organized group of cartoonists with cells all over the world. The Conspiracy has been responsible for many collaborative projects, including anthologies, gallery shows, and numerous jams every month. Any cartoonist anywhere can start a cell, and anyone with a desire to draw comics is encouraged to participate.