RUDY + CAMILLE
An impromptu preapocalyptic rom-com co-written in the wee hours...
I recently got back from a 4-day trip to San Diego Comicon 2022, underwritten by my good pals: writer/filmmaker/teacher, Larry O’Neil (who was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Short Story: “Tap, Tap, Tap” in GREEN ARROW 80TH ANNIVERSARY 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR); a tribute to his father — the late/great Denny O’Neil, and actor Michael Rodrick. Big Ups to pal/writer & New Brooklyn co-conspirator, Vito Delsante, for letting me crash his hotel room, and actress/writer Grace Gordon, and comedian/actor Matt Champagne for their sass & laughs. It was a whirlwind of friendly faces, old and new, and high-fives among heroes and peers. I look forward to next year.
I managed to hop into a panel about Archie Comics’ The Mighty Crusaders and talk a little bit about my work on The Fox with Mark Waid, and the superteam’s sordid publishing history with comics historian, Rik Offenberger, Archie Comics president, Mike Pellerito, and our man, Vito Delsante.
Nightwork Studio mate Whitney Matheson and I are presenting a reading of an impromptu, preapocalyptic thing we co-wrote in the wee hours called…
RUDY + CAMILLE is a psychedelic rom-com that chronicles two office mates who spend most of their time pontificating and pawing at each other -- instead of preventing the impending apocalypse. Starring Morgan Lennon, Sharief Johnson and Adam Files.
Tuesday, August 2nd at 9:30pm
The Tank
312 W 36th Street, Floor 1, NYC 10018
212-563-6269
boxoffice@thetanknyc.org
Buy tickets HERE.
The fourth issue of the 12-issue IMAGE! 30th Anniversary anthology dropped this week, featuring the fourth installment of my 12-page Billy Dogma comic, “I will Break You But I Won’t Kill You Because I Need You.”
Whitney and I will be at the closing of our juried comics art show, “Sequential Synergy — The Art of Comics,” this Friday (July 29th) from 5-7pm at the 440 Gallery located at 440 6th avenue in Park Slope — Brooklyn, NY.
If you missed this month's talk with the our curators Dean Haspiel and Whitney Matheson and artists Onur Tukel, Gina Minichino and Jerry Ma, grab some refreshments and watch at your convenience. Moderator and gallery artist Karen Gibbons digs deep into each artist's process, inspiration and sequential art as an artform.
Click HERE to watch.
A month ago, I was interviewed by the New York Times about creating webcomics since 2006 — from my pioneering days at ACT-I-VATE to Zuda to Trip City (all R.I.P.) and making digital-only comics for Marvel & DC. Plus, my recent foray with The Red Hook at Webtoon.
The reporters failed to mention the fact that I won a Ringo Award for ‘Best Webcomic’ for The Red Hook, among other cool things, and elected to concentrate my relationship with Webtoon to a proverbial bowl of sour grapes.
FOR THE RECORD: I am very proud of the four-and-a-half seasons of The Red Hook I produced at Webtoon, the 3-part story I did for Dark Horse Presents, and the two volumes that were print published by Image Comics. Including all the real-life adventures and opportunities that series granted me. Alas, working for a publisher becomes a numbers game and we all wish more people read my webcomic but it wasn’t meant to be (even though I have plenty of new Red Hook stories to tell).
Here’s an excerpt from the article where I appear in the NYT:
“Comics That Read Top to Bottom Are Bringing in New Readers”
"And some creators have not found digital platforms as good a fit. The veteran cartoonist Dean Haspiel, 55, published his comic “The Red Hook,” about a Brooklyn superhero, on Webtoon in 2016. The series continued for more than four seasons but “didn’t get the kind of response that we wanted,” he said.
“Ultimately I started to understand that the Webtoon reading audience is a very different audience than the kind of comics I would produce,” he said."
REMINDER: I will be mentoring a bunch of lucky creators in the art of comix at The Atlantic Center of the Arts residency #188, in New Smyrna Beach, FL next year from February 12 to March 4, 2023.
Here are links to my residency statement + requirements and to the application page.
https://atlanticcenterforthearts.org/mentoring-artist/dean-haspiel/
https://aca.submittable.com/submit/215470/dean-haspiel-residency-188
Here is a very nice thing artist George Folz said about me and the residency:
"Cartoonist and comic art friends-- if you have not already applied to study under Dean Haspiel at ACA next March, I can't recommend doing so highly enough. I was fortunate enough to be selected to study under Dean at a previous ACA residency in 2012, and that residency is the reason that I'm now able to make my living full-time as an artist. Dean is as tremendous a mentor as a young maker can hope to have. His endless passion, uncommon insight, and good humor inspired me, and put me on a path to carve out a lane for myself. I'm envious of the experience that you're about to have."
Please spread the word. Thanks!
Jen Ferguson will be exhibiting her new painting, “Cyclone,” this Saturday, July 30th from 1-6pm at BWAC on the Red Hook waterfront:
More Art of Coney Island
July 30-August 21
Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition
481 Van Brunt Street (Door 7), Brooklyn NY
Opening Saturday July 30th, 1-6 p.m.
HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY — RUBY!
Love, Dean