Friends Of The Nib

JIM WOODRING: GENIUS AWARD WINNER

2010-09-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

Jim Woodring, Cartoonist Extraordinaire and winner of this year's Stranger Genius Award for Literature (as well as co-founder of the Friends of the Nib) holds a cupcake in his likeness at the award ceremonies. If you're reading this, you must know Jim's work already, so we won't wax eloquent about its well-wrought, labyrinthine worlds--suffice it to say his recent book, Weathercraft, published by Fantagraphics Books, is as mind-boggling and transcendent as anything he's written and drawn yet. And that's saying a lot.

Paul Constant, in his induction essay, put it this way. "There are only a small number of medium-changing geniuses in the history of cartooning who have managed to develop a singular visual language, and Jim Woodring is one of them. His re-creation of the world in gorgeous, obsessive-compulsive, wavy lines—which he calls the Unifactor and which first saw print in 1992—has its own freestanding physics and morality."

He goes on. And it's all good.

Jim accepted the award with a gracious speech that somehow managed to invoke the noble tradition of cartooning as an art, as well as address a skeptic who had said (publicly) that Weathercraft wasn't literature since there were no words in it, and that Jim should refuse the prize or redistribute the money. "I don't think the Stranger is playing an elite prank here," Jim said, after noting that treating a wordless comic as literature invites controversy, but he suggested the awards committee might be ahead of the curve.

"I think they see that we are living in a transitional period where traditional categories are melting, and blending together. Boundaries everywhere are being dissolved. A high school kid can choose to be either standard gender, or make up a new one. An utter dullard can be the life of the party online." The crowd laughed at all the right spots, and cheered when Jim announced that he would indeed be keeping the prize. "I can sure use the money," he said, before thanking everyone and leaving the stage.

FRIENDS OF THE NIB AT BUMBERSHOOT

2010-09-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

The Friends of the Nib will be appearing at Bumbershoot in Seattle, September 4, 5, and 6 from 2:30 to 4pm in the Olympic Room. The Friends will be appearing as part of a wonderful survey of Northwest cartooning, "COUNTERCULTURE COMIX: A 30-Year Survey of Seattle Alternative Cartoonists," curated by Larry Reid in association with Fantagraphics Books. The Friends will be drawing cartoons live for your pleasure and enjoyment. Stop by and say hello.

Who are the Friends of the Nib? There are many misconceptions, some fueled by jealous pantaloons, but this is the truth: The Friends are a mysterious guild of cartoonists practiced in the arcane arts of dip pens, crow-quills and black pots of India Ink. They are practically medieval in their methods and exhibit a virtuosity rarely found in this modern age of computer-corrected artwork. Like the Magnificent Seven or the Seven Samurai, each of the Friends has a unique specialty. Collectively, they are fingers that form a powerful fist. Come see them work their magic.

Although they generally refuse to be photographed, here is a rare picture of the Friends:

The Friends of the Nib (left to right):

Jim Woodring, mystical cartoonist, winner of this year's Stranger Genius Award and celebrated author of "Weathercraft."
Ellen Forney, author of "Lust,""I Love Led Zeppelin," and illustrator of Sherman Alexie's New York Times' bestseller, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian."
Bruce Bickford, animating pioneer artist and creator of "Baby Snakes" for Frank Zappa, "Prometheus' Garden," and subject of the documentary "Monster Road."
Max Clotfelter, a roughed-up sneaky sketch shanty who boggles the mind with his amazing comics; the hobo behind Snake Meat.
Max Badger Woodring, pound for pound the fiercest animal in the wild and a damn fine cartoonist who sometimes travels under the pseudonym "Wax Moodring."
Heidi Estey, a pip with a pen who produces pretty scary and wondrous work to haunt your dreams and nightmares.
Jason T. Miles, a carnival barker, gandy dancer, the surprisingly fresh artist behind "Profanity Hill" and "Bitter Fruit."
Bob Rini, writer, painter, and cartoonist behind "Fear of Art" and "The Nine Pound Hammer."

Come and meet us all, and try your luck with the quills.

An excerpt from "Prometheus' Garden" by Bruce Bickford

PAPERBACK ILLUSTRATIONS WE LIKE

2010-09-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

The state or the group? "Carry On Wayward Son" annoyed mortals as well.

Do you suppose this book contains any recipes for Chinese dumplings?

Superman's bravest deed.

2010-04-14T09:20:00.001-07:00

Jon brought a DC Superheroes Anti-Coloring book, or some goddamned thing. Here's one of those. Sorry if I didn't end up with all of them. I scanned what I had.

...we are horrible people.

Double the Excitement

2010-02-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

Friends!
This warm and dismal month offers you twice the usual FOTN February thrills!

First, On Thursday, February 11th, we have an opening soiree for our second Real Live Gallery Show,
this time at Vermillion, on 11th just off of Pike. Many thanks to Jon Morris for getting everything organized!

BFF: Excerpts from Friends of the Nib
Post these lil flyers everywhere and see to it you get over to see it. There's directions and a map and everything. Show will continue in non-party form through March 7th, so you've plenty of time.

Don't slow down for a second, though, because the very next day, on Friday, February 12th, is the opening of our annual Valentine's Art Show, at our customary meeting place, Cafe Racer!

Props to Dalton Webb for getting everything settled for this, our yearly love-fest of art.

AGAIN WITH THE FLYERS

Please, won't you come and be ours?

I can hardly wait to see you there! And there!

Howard House Gallery Opening 2009, remembered

2010-01-03T23:15:00.000-08:00

Ah, another terrible, wonderful year past. Why, only yesterday it seems as though our fine club was putting on a glorious show at the Howard House gallery, an event you may have seen advertised on this very blog. While that may have been mere weeks ago, let's remember that fantastic night by looking over a sample of the drawings produced by club members and associates at the opening for the entertainment of the First Thursday Art-Walk patrons.

A fox by Scott Faulkner.

A pretty fellow by yours truly (an attempt to balance the welcome abundance of pretty ladies featured in the show)

Tea time by someone, probably Jon Morris

Definitely by Jon Morris

A jam comic with contributions from a mess of Nibsters. Nice ending by Dalton.

Jam comic by various Nibsters. A beautiful first panel by Max Clotfelter, but then a terrible cop-out ending for which I apologize.

Some unsigned drawings.

A drawing by Dalton Webb

An unsigned but super-cute boar-hedgehog-thing.

And that's the whole of my souvenirs from that memorable evening! I hope you can join us at our next event, and that your 2009 was thrilling and picturesque. On to 2010!

STOCKING STUFFER

2009-12-19T17:19:00.000-08:00

Thank you for a wonderful year, Nib fans. The new album is selling well at your finer stores.

Meeting notes--banjos, nautical hermits

2009-12-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Remember, our Howard House Art Show has been extended until the end of the month! Toddle over and check it out post haste!

The opening was awesome, we shall post a variety of sketches from the event, and photos, if we can figure out if anyone took any.

Recent meetings have yielded a fair-size turnout, at least the ones I've seen. November 25th Jon Morris brought in cigar box banjos he had made, and coincidentally the theme was banjos.

S. VanBronkhorst. Pictured are Justin Ison (cannily performing "dueling banjos") and Jon Morris.

Tyler Hill

Luna Reeder

Jon Morris

Then, on December 2nd, we hastily decided to draw nautical hermits.

Stevie VanBronkhorst

Luna Reeder

Tyler Hill

This is the day of the Expanding Show

2009-12-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

The Howard House FOTN show (see previous entry) has been EXTENDED to the end of the month. Picture yourself in the gallery on a Thursday afternoon, the sounds of the street muted through the glass which lets in the diffuse rainy light; you sit at a table surrounded by amazing visual imagery .. a piece of paper chirps at your elbow, you find a pencil millimeters from your fingertips ..
Anyway, come on down. There will be cartooning clinics and personal appearances on the weekends, so write us in to your schedule.

FOTN show at Howard House!

2009-11-24T19:27:00.000-08:00

Grab the ol' clue train and chug on down to the Friends of the Nib's three-day display of works on paper at Howard House (604 2nd Ave Seattle, WA 98104) opening Thursday, December 3. Hundreds of drawings and paintings by members of Seattle's most notorious cartoonist cabal will be on display and available for cash-and-carry acquisition.

Artists participating include:
Tom Dougherty * Bob Rini * Max Clotfelter * Max Badger * Heidi Estey * Mark Campos * Marc Palm * Stevie Van Bronkhorst * Ellen Forney * Jim Woodring * Jon Morris * Adam Watson * Kelly Froh * Scott Faulkner * Jen Ralston * Noel Franklin * David Lasky * Aubrey Mysterious * Kinoko * Sean Robinson * Dalton Webb * Dennis Driscoll * Carl Nelson * Bruce Bickford * Billis Helg * Jason Miles

Have another look at those names! See you there!

Nibster Heidi Estey's Art Show-- Reversal of Fortune

2009-11-19T23:44:00.000-08:00

Reversal of Fortune by Heidi Estey--Gargoyles, 11/20-12/15

Heidi Estey, longtime Friend of the Nib, presents a fascinating elaboration on fortunes from fortune cookies. Her mercurial and lively drawings and paintings shall be displayed at Gargoyles (for all your gargoyle needs) in the U District of Seattle from November 20th through December 15th.

You should definitely come to the opening (Estey's a consummate host), on Friday, November 20th, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., at Gargoyle's.

The address is 4550 University Way N.E., and the phone number for Gargoyle's is (206) 632-4940.

Sample the art work here.

Image by Heidi Estey.

FOTN Playing Cards Art Show

2009-11-12T17:54:00.000-08:00

A veritable pack of jokers!

Earlier this year, proud Nibster Jon Morris undertook a stupendous achievement: successfully extracting enough timely and appropriate artwork from a group so higgledy-piggledy as our own to complete an entire pack of playing cards!

The project is at last complete, and the collection has proven to be breathtaking! To celebrate, we shall have a grandiose art opening at Cafe Racer, on Wednesday, November 18th, in the evening, proudly displaying much original artwork, to the delight of everyone. The opening soiree is during our regularly scheduled meeting time, so there is a chance to see Live Drawing in Action by any number of artists.

The show will be open through December 15th, so be sure to come by and get an eyeful our very own deck of cards, in glorious color and with detail unlikely to be visible in the printed deck.

Remember: Cafe Racer, 5828 Roosevelt Way NE Seattle, WA
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 through Tuesday, December 15, 2009

To our sadness, the actual card deck will not be printed by the time of our show, but I'm sure we shall be taking some kind of pre-order.

Jokers painted by Friend Dalton Webb mr.manifesto.com

~S. VanBronkhorst

Friends of the Nib alive and well

2009-11-12T00:35:00.001-08:00

Hi there, world! As we Nibsters find ourselves more and more busy with events and so forth, it is apparent that we need a blog or something. We have this one, here, so we'll try to keep it up a bit better for you, with news and drawings from our weekly meetings.

Although the frequency of posts suggests otherwise, the Friends of the Nib have been meeting and drawing and talking and having art shows throughout the last two years, week in, week out. Every Wednesday evening Seattle's Cafe Racer fills up with all manner of beatniks, nerds, and artists for a convivial salon.

To document our activities we often suggest a theme for a round of sketches. This week, our meeting very conveniently coincided with Veteran's Day! Many regulars were in attendance, as well a few welcome newcomers.

Horizontal pictures are oddly cropped by the layout of this blog, please click through to see full picture.

Charles "Luna" Reeder

Jon Wilcox (http://jtwilcox.com)

Stevie VanBronkhorst (Yours, truly)

Also, someone brought in small blank puzzles, to the delight of six:

Jon Wilcox

Edit: Sean Robinson drew this'n, I've found.

Mark Stockbridge (His name is not Justin. I am sorry.)

Max Clotfelter, of course! http://maxclotfelter.blogspot.com/

Adam B. Watson www.themightyadam.com/

Jon Morris www.calamityjonsave.us

That's all for now! Next post: upcoming events!

~S. VanBronkhorst

Frankenstein ['s Monster]

2007-05-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

Scott Faulkner, "The Bride"

Tom Dougherty

ROBOT

2007-05-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

Scott Faulkner

CLOWN

2007-04-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

Max Badger

Heidi Estey

Tom Dougherty

CAPTAIN

2007-04-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

Heidi Estey

Max Badger

David Lasky

Scott Faulkner

Tom Dougherty

BIG HAIR

2007-04-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

The theme of this week was Big Hair.

David Lasky

Heidi Estey

Max Badger

Kinoko

Tom Dougherty

Scott Faulkner

Announcements!

2007-04-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

We(The Friends Of The Nib)'ve all started doing weekly drawings on a theme!
This past weeks theme was WITCHES
Here are the three submissions that went out:

Kinoko:

Max:

Tom:

EDIT: Heidi and David Lasky submitted witches with their work for captain! Hooray~!

David Lasky

Heidi Estey