Cuckoo's Nest Press Newsletter #1
Hello everyone!
I’ve been threatening to start one of these for over a year now (!), and here I am finally pulling the trigger. It’s rough out there for artists right now, hey? Social media is collapsing before our very eyes, leaving us with fewer and fewer avenues to stay in touch with people who like what we do. So...here’s a place for me to let you know what I’m up to, at least every other month from now on.
Right now, I’m busy trying to finish the collected Last Band On Earth graphic novel, and I will be doing a Kickstarter campaign later this year to raise the funds. Having a way to share the campaign link directly with folks who might miss it via social media is the biggest reason I wanted to start this newsletter, so watch this space!
Above is a picture of my sexy new bespoke bookmark design, and a photo of the bookmarks themselves. I think they turned out pretty nice!
Quite a few other exciting things have happened recently, and we’re only halfway through the year! In January, my work was featured in an exhibition of Canadian cartoonists at this year’s Angoulême International Comics Festival in Angoulême, France. I cannot overstate how much of a BIG FLIPPIN’ DEAL this is. I am FLOORED that I was asked to be in this exhibition. I suffer from imposter syndrome something fierce, so it feels really nice to be noticed once in a while. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to the festival in person – I was not left with enough time to plan a trip to France, and it’s the type of thing that really requires some form of grant subsidy so I don’t lose thousands of dollars. Maybe one of these years, though!
In February, I was asked to be a judge for this year’s Doug Wright Awards for the Best Book category, and I was honoured to accept. Although I am very busy, I decided it was important enough to carve out the time for – it was a really good experience, and I got to read a lot of great comics and have really good discussions with the other two judges. And, I guess, I finally have something shiny & new to add to the “volunteer work” section of my CV? ;)
In March, I was asked to create the poster for this year’s Panel One Comic Creator Festival in Calgary. I’ve tabled at Panel One a couple of times and it’s a fantastic show. The brief was literally “make it an Elaine Will illustration” and what a dream that was, LOL
Thank you so much to Sho Uehara for this opportunity!
I also recorded a timelapse of this illustration, and you can watch that here:
In May, I found out that my minicomic “Spiral Sessions” was nominated for the Graphic Medicine International Collective Award for Best Shortform Comic. I had submitted to this months ago, not expecting anything to come of it, which just goes to show that I should always submit to anything I even remotely qualify for. The winners will be announced in July at this year’s Graphic Medicine Conference, taking place this time in Ireland. You can see a complete list of the nominees here.
As far as personal work goes, I’ve been doing these little 4 x 6 gouache paintings of Funny Little Guys. My resolution for this year was “learn to paint with acrylics, and also try to do more gouache paintings.” People seem to really like the Funny Little Guys, and in fact I’ve sold two of them through my online shop, which is very exciting.
The bottom one is still available, along with another one not pictured here. I would love for all my Little Guys to find new homes! (Just so you’re aware, these prices are in USD - this helps make up for PayPal fees, along with surprise shipping expenses)
I also did this quadriptych(?) I called “One Jay, Two Jays, Red Jay, Blue Jay” and managed to sell that as well. These ones are acrylics - I’m still not as comfortable with acrylics as I’d like to be, but they’re getting easier over time. The thing to remember about painting in general is that it’s all about layering, and your painting might not look so hot in its initial stages - you just have to push past that stage and trust in the process.
And I think that brings us up to date! In October I will be travelling to Winnipeg again for this year’s Prairie Comics Festival, which is my only big event for the year. Please come and say hi if you’re in the area! I’ll have several new prints available, as well as print editions of How To Draw Guitars and The Paradox. If you can’t make it, these comics are currently available to purchase from my Ko-Fi store (click the links), and the new prints will be there as well very soon.
Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for signing up to receive these! I hope you’ll stick around to see what I get up to – lots of fun and exciting stuff is on the horizon!
— E. :)
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Website: https://www.cuckoosnestpress.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elaine.m.will/
Ko-Fi store: https://ko-fi.com/elainemwill/shop
Itch.io store: https://cuckoosnestpress.itch.io/