Category Archives: Philadelphia & Pennsylvania

On the Scene: Locust Moon Comics Fest

What I wrote and reblogged for and from The Beat.

Locust Pic 1 by Kyle Cassidy

This past Sunday marked the first Locust Moon Comics Fest, a rookie comics show in West Philadelphia organized by the two owners of Locust Moon Comics. This show filled the hole  left behind by Philadelphia Alternative Comic Con when organizer Pat Aulisio decided to focus more strongly on creating comics. It was held at the Rotunda, the same venue as the past two PACCs, and featured a few of the same exhibitors. But this show had a different vibe than PACC, offering more of a mix between mainstream and indie comics, and displaying a wide range of artistic styles. Some of the featured guests included Farel Dalrymple, J.G. Jones, Jim Rugg, Jasen Lexx, Terry LaBan, Box Brown, Ben Marra, Ed Piskor, Jeffro Kilpatrick, Ad House Books, Meathaus Enterprises, Secret Acres, and Koyama Press.

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Sandy Aftermath

A hurricane named Sandy came out of nowhere and really chewed up things on the East Coast.  It is really devastating.  Lower Manhattan is without power and flooded, parts of Queens burnt down to the ground, and the Jersey Shore permanently altered.  Bust Magazine is, the place intern at is in the part of New York that doesn’t have power and is damaged.  I’m not sure when the office will reopen.  Now is a good time to get a subscription.  I have been reading Bust for over ten years.  It is a very satisfying magazine.

A photo I took of the New York City skyline after Sandy.  Usually you can see many more buildings on the left side of the Empire State Building.

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Philly Zine Fest 2012 Memories

I went back to Philly for the tenth annual Philly Zine Fest at the Rotunda. It is hard to imagine that the Zine Fest is that old, but it is. I remember visiting the Zine Fest while I was in college and thinking that it was cool, and something I really wanted to do. After college I began working a lot. Since the Zine Fest is almost always in October, I couldn’t make it because it is a super busy time in my work life. Fortunately for me the 2011 Philly Zine Fest last year was in November and I got a table. There I met one of the organizers, Sarah Rose, whom I had the great pleasure of spending a lot of time with in 2012.

Somehow, I forgot to sign up this year although I remembered to take off from work well in advance. Luckily I managed to get a table once I got there. My table was smooshed up against a bunch of loudspeakers on the stage. People asked me if I minded being right next to the speakers, but I actually liked it. It wasn’t mind-bogglingly loud and I was grooving to the tunes the DJ was playing. I could actually hear the music. If my memory serves correctly, he played a less upbeat selection of music that including The Smiths, M83, Robyn, and Aphex Twin. Plus, the position of my table on stage made me feel like I was a teacher about to give an important lecture, which I liked. Here is my picture at my table.

It truly was a great spot, because I was near by some of my homies like Dan Strauss, Kelly Phillips, and Cyn Why. Therewas lot of people I knew tabling at the Zine Fest including Sarah Rose, Bangarang Photography, 3:00 Comics, Awakening comics, Bianca Alu-Marr, Andria Alefhi, Annie Monk, and the Soapbox collective to name a few.

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Memories of Wizard World Philly 2012

Doug Slack at Wizard World

Looking for back issues

Wizard World Philadelphia was a four day experience.  It started on Thursday night.  The banner at the entrance read “Welcome to Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con.”  The special guest at the con was Stan Lee.  There was a long list of celebrities, such as Chris Hemsworth, Lou Ferrigno, Melissa Joan Hart, Bruce Campbell, Dean Cain, Shannon Elizabeth, Erin Gray and more.  I didn’t notice any comics publishers exhibiting, which is odd for a comic convention. In past years,  I recall seeing a handful of publishers there.  Inside was a superhero comics lover’s paradise.  This included back issues of comics, dvds, tons of swords, vintage toys, artist alley and t-shirts.  Structures of colossal proportions made up a wall of soft and fabulous t-shirts.  Whoever came up with the idea of fake vintage comic-related t-shirts is a genius.  Many guests took pride in their appearance, coming in costume as their favorite  character, or whatever character they could pull off the best.

The Scarlet Witch

The Avengers was definitely the most popular theme for costumes.  Other characters visitors came in dressed as included the Scarlet Witch, Galactus, the Joker, She-Ra, Sakura and Chun Li from Street Fighter.  A pair of brave guys were dressed up as Sailor Moon.  People in costume were constantly stopped by everyone else for photo opportunities, and they all graciously complied.  These are people who like having their photo taken.

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A Red Helmet for a She Devil

My friend Erin May asked me to illustrate her roller derby helmet.  She derby alias is Laura Bomber a word play on the name of the character Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks.   So the helmet had a Twin Peaks theme to it.   This was a fun and challenging project.  I’m going to portray each step that the project took.  This is how I ended up doing this project, but there are numerous ways of executing a permanent illustration on a helmet.  Hopefully this “How-To” will inspire others to design their own helmet or any other 3D object that has a non-porous surface.

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