One year ago today the Midmococo blog launched and over the past twelve months it has reported on mid-Missouri comic events, creators, comic jams, local comic history and other comic-related things. Here’s some quick blog stats on our first 111 posts:
It’s been a great first year and I have a feeling that the next one will be stuffed full of comic-related goodies. Stay tuned.
Posted in: Uncategorized
This jam almost didn’t get done because only a few folks showed up to this month’s meeting. Yes, you should be disappointed in yourselves for not coming. Yes, this is a total guilt trip I’m laying on. We had a few new comic enthusiasts show up only to find us a pitiful few. I’m sure they mock us. To make up for it, you must bring 10 new drawings to the next meeting or the hot dog monster will get you.
Posted in: Comic jams
Not a whole lot at the moment. My online comic, if then else, has been on hiatus for a little over a year while the ending’s being worked out. Once the basic outline and first two storylines are written (and at least 100 pizzas have been consumed during the process), the comic will return.
In the meantime, there’s a lot of sketching going on. I really ought to start a sketch blog one of these days.
Output has been fairly low. A few comics were contributed to the Evil Overlords United; however, my online persona’s involvement was the primary reason. The main hinderence right now is motivation - my free time has been devoted to other activities recently. That and artist’s block. You know, the vicious, unfeeling, nine-eyed creature that lurks at the back of one’s imagination waiting intently for an innocent idea to devour. Does anyone have the number of a good exterminator?
Posted in: Featured creators
Since I had to cut out of the Last Midmococo meeting a little early and head out of town, I wasn’t able to collect the comic jams. Luckily, Dan collected them all and scanned them for me, so here they are. I promise there’s no slash fiction this time!
Posted in: Comic jams
The last Midmococo meeting produced an impressive amount of jams, as you can see above. Not only did we do a ton of jams, Kirstin had us also draw superheros on index cards. You can view the whole set on her blog.
Posted in: Comic jams
Local comic creator, Zac Crockett, currently has his comic Opey the Warhead up as a Featured Webcomic at DrunkDuck.com. Congratulations, Zac!
Posted in: Local comics
Our next Midmococo featured creator is Ladydark who’s been hard at work redrawing early issues of her book Broken Glass.
“The same thing we do every night, Pinky … try to take over the world.” ^.^ Well, the webcomic world, anyway. I’ve been telling the same story, Broken Glass, since I first put it on the web in 2003. While I have the storyline completely plotted, graphic art is a very slow medium to work in! Unfortunately, as I become a better artist, it seems to take longer and longer to finish each page as well. But I have over 300 pages of story up and growing.
Posted in: Featured creators
This month’s comic jam can only be described by a haiku:
Existential toast
May you find your radish peace
I weep for you now
Posted in: Comic jams
Mizzou Magazine has a slide show of comics that appeared from the 1920s-60s in Missouri Showme, a MU student-created magazine. You can also find them in the Spring 2008 issue.
Posted in: History
If you can measure how successful a Midmococo event is by the amount of jams churned out, then this last one was a huge success. We cranked out a total of 9 jams. One of them we left for the staff of Gumby’s Pizza for being great hosts. We got a photo of it on a digital camera, so you can still see it.
We started with a pizza theme and then moved on to making fun of the ever-popular sexy catgirl manga cliché in various ways. If you like sexy catgirls, you’ll like these jams! Rowl …
Posted in: Comic jams, Events
Even though the Artisan was unexpectedly closed this Sunday, we still managed to get our meeting going across the street which resulted in a two-page jam. We were having such a good time that we migrated over to Gumby’s Pizza for a trial run of the Pictures and Pitchers and churned out three more jams. With the last two, we deviated from the regular jam session and tried our hand at the exquisite corpse. With the last one, we tried drawing the sections without looking at the other parts of the picture. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be, but making it was fun.
Be ready to do it again on Saturday at the Pictures and Pitchers event.
Posted in: Comic jams
Zac has been a busy guy. He’s just finished issue #2 of his nuclear warhead coming-of-age in a post-apocalyptic world story, Opey the Warhead. A mysterious student shows up at school who gives the bullies what they deserve. Is this a new friend for Opey or is he something sinister?
Posted in: Local comics
The Winter 2007 issue of The Missouri Review, University of Missouri’s literary magazine, is hot off the presses and features “Fluency in Form: A Survey of the Graphic Memoir” by Lisa Hoashi. The essay reviews many autobiographical comics such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, David B’s Epileptic, Craig Thompson’s Blankets, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen.
Posted in: Uncategorized
It’s time again to feature another mid-Missouri comic creator and this time we have Zac Crockett up to bat. He’s been working hard this year churning out page after page of quality work that you can see on his deviantART page.
I’m currently working on three different projects. I’m working on my webcomic “Opey the Warhead” (where I’m about to complete the second issue and then start on the third one), “Anyone but Virginia” (I’m working on the fourth issue of this 5 part story about a superheroine who attends her 10th year school reunion), and a comic strip “Pennies from Heaven” (about an orphan who meets up with a mysterious cat with strange powers).
My comic output last year was quite good, although doubts about the quality of my work seriously hampered, at times, my productivity. What’s helped me move forward in comics like “Opey the Warhead” is writing an outline and script of a given issue before drawing the comic and setting achievable goals for myself on a weekly basis.
Posted in: Featured creators
This month’s comic jam features some tentacle sucking at the galactic level.
Posted in: Comic jams
Are you a comic creator needing furnishings for your studio but don’t have much cash? You can try yard sales, the Salvation Army and Goodwill, but one of the best resources I’ve ever come across is the University of Missouri Surplus Ebay store. For small amounts of money, I’ve managed to furnish most of my basement with chairs, desks, drawers and a lighted drafting table.
The selection varies, so you’ll have to check the auctions every week until you find what you need. I’ve seen file cabinets, drawing desks, drawers, shelves and even apple computers. If you aren’t sure about the condition of the item, you can stop by the warehouse and check it out before you bid.
From my experience, the furniture tends to be older stuff from the 50s and 60s that are well-worn, but solid wood. Perfect for refinishing. You might need to do some minor repairs, but it’s worth it for the price.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Another meeting, another rockin’ comic jam. We had a pretty good turnout this meeting with a new visitor. Unfortunately, out of all the people who looked at the jam, no one told me that I drew the girl’s hands backwards, so I changed them after the fact. I’m the webmaster, so I can do that. 
Posted in: Comic jams
Welcome to the first of many interviews, here at Midmococo, highlighting the work of local creators. Our first interview is with Scott Ziolko, who recently unleashed two self-published comics: Sebastian Climbs a Mountain ($2), and Hamlet ($1), which can be found at Rock Bottom Comics.
I’m working on my next mini comic called Robot Chocolate which I hope to have finished by early next year and then I am going to be knee deep in my first graphic novel, a comic about a knight who seeks revenge against a dragon who has destroyed his kingdom and his family and literally chases him to the ends of the earth.
It’s been about average for me. I managed to make what I consider my best work so far with Sebastian Climbs a Mountain and fulfilled a personal goal of adapting a piece of Shakespeare into comic book form. I would have liked to have at least one more book done this year but my schedule really hasn’t permitted it. I have had a lot going on this year that has prevented me from devoting a lot of time to my comic books, but at the same time I feel I have remained very motivated in doing the best work possible, and that has helped me produce what I have.
Posted in: Featured creators
The Maneater’s report on our last meeting came off the presses today and it looks good (even if they didn’t mention www.midmococo.com anywhere). Read it with a bit of caution, though. Accuracy checking didn’t exactly happen with this story. That’s okay, it’s mostly right. If it brings new people to the meetings then it’s worth it!
Posted in: Publicity
The last Midmococo meeting had such a big turnout that this month’s comic jam had to expand to two pages. In attendance were some new people from the 24 Hour Comics Day event and a couple of journalism students doing a report for the Maneater. We’ve been getting a lot of media coverage lately!
Posted in: Comic jams
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