A soon-to-be college graduate scours the streets of Austin, Texas, looking for a deal. A deal on shoes. The recent trend of kitten-heeled or wedge shoes made it possible for the said graduate (me) to drink a bit and still dance the fuck outta the night. These shoes fit the bill-too uncomfortable to wear for a full day but fantastic enough for the poorly-lit dance  floor. They cost me four whole dollars, that is two dollars a foot! How could something so complicated be worth so little and what could that mean for our society? Did the person who created these shoes get more for them, beautiful wonders that they are? I can only hope so.

Time in Austin was key in development but one thing I hadn’t truly learned during my university experience was to create. At a liberal arts college with a ginormous fine arts program I learned so much about process, history and analysis of art. My eyes keener, hands sharper and brains addled after four years, I still knew nothing about creating or what that meant in daily life. My goal was to consume and be consumed. So my work suffered; pithy lines on insincere parchment. 

Four years later, I know the value of a day and hours, even minutes key in its foundation. Maybe the concentration of this new town I live in, White River Junction, breeds a creative fervor in its inhabitants. Without the call of a mall or movie theater in walking distance, we often resort to making our own fun (as the saying goes). All I know is my friends and loved ones are all driven to do more, be more than a paycheck or a smear on the wall after the rolled up paper of life smacks them. That need to consume is still beaten into our skulls by advertisements and even psychologists. Buying a new outfit can temporarily provide the body with endorphins and simulate happiness!

To hell with that I say. Create something instead. Take clothes you already have and staple ‘em, stitch ‘em together, bleach ‘em, color ‘em, anything! Mod something you sorta like and make it yours forever. Tired of the restaurants? Find a recipe on the internet or better yet, a friend and make it! We forget how much joy there is in using our own hands unless it is exchanging money for something tagged or eating off of dishes that are not our own.You need not spend an exorbitant amount on shoes or food or even make your own yet consider your daily choices and live fully. Go from ‘had’ an interesting life to ‘having’ one now because you only get worn out on that dance floor so many times before you’re pitched.

-JenShare/Bookmark

Table G3 along the back wall with all the Center for Cartoon Studies students. Come by to say hi and get some Rare Bits buttons! Jason has beautiful prints for sale and Billy the Dunce comics! Sam has Here Comes Everyone comics, These Things Happen 2-4 minicomics, and a new anthology called Tag Team! Jen has Menstruation Station: Menarche Aboard, Don’t Hate Menstruate minis and Mermaid Hostel comics! So much good stuff here!Share/Bookmark

It is not your fault I lost your mate, perhaps deep in the recesses of my closet or in a dumpster the right shoe awaits you. I do know that I bought you to match the one suit everyone dreads donning. The suit meant for funerals and interviews. Bought hastily the day my dad died in 2006, your metal studs are understated club attire but that is no matter. My short punk hair cut and rhinestone snap shirt surely directed attention away from you. Is it coincidental that you are all alone now? Merely half of the bipedal DNA left to support this aging beast. A ghost of you exists: the right to my left, the father to my mother. 

So let’s just hope for the two of us that I never have another proper interview again.

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Teal shoelaces added when I used the others to lace up a corset!

I settled on the British Beauties for their colorful collage of sketches of popular English tourist spots. British guards, double-decker buses and the Union Jack. Little did I know what an impact the police call box would have on me later in life. Years later, I apologized to my mom for buying me such expensive shoes. I had plenty of others and did not need a pair pricing in the trip-dig. But since I still wear said boots, my mom claims they were the best bipedal investment we had ever made! While I can attest to these not making those middle-school lunches any more enjoyable; I knew that when I looked at my feet, I’d smile.

-JenShare/Bookmark

I remember the day I bought these was on a trip to New York for the NYC Zine Fest. The call came on June 26th when cartoonist, Robyn Chapman, told me the thrift store near her had RAINBOW shoes and she thought of me. At that moment, my car started itself and I jumped down from my bedroom through its opened classic Honda moon-roof just like a cowgirl jumping onto her horse from atop a saloon. We sped the mile to the thrift store where Robyn waited to point them out. I fell in love. Paying all of THREE dollars for such beauties (or as I like to say $1.50 a foot) I realized the only way someone would give these shoes up was if they died…my enthusiasm waned.

Until I put them on! Rocking all the way to New York I sold the shit out of some of my menstruation comics, met Margot Dabaie and went to Mk Reed and Liz Baillie’s old studio. The shoes wait in my closet for the day when the light is finally right, the birds trill and the sun sings a cheerful song. Preferably some Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or White Ghost Shivers. Thank you.

-Jen VaughnShare/Bookmark

1. Make friends-pictured are the badasses from Tales of San Papel, the new anthology by students at the Center for Carton Studies. I love these people more than pizza! Look at for that anthology at MoCCA.

2. Get your work published-Colleen AF Venable and Marianne Ways are master writers and editors of the Lumberjacks: a Field Guide. Look out for them this weekend at the Austin comic convention, STAPLE!

3. Free books-Well, you might not be drowning in copies but you usually get one from the group publishing it.

4. Learn something new-Lena and Nomi of the San Papel gang learned a perfect binding technique from Beth Hetland.

5. Get new readers! We all want those!Share/Bookmark

1. Subscription (based on issues received) – Alec Longstreth and John Porcellino are the twin kings of subscriptions in my mind. For $16, you receive the next four issues of Phase 7  no matter how long it takes for Alec to complete them. Subscriptions are great because people can buy them for themselves (greedy awesome!) or as gifts!

2. Book Club (based on amount of time) – One of my favorite cartoonists in the world, Beth Hetland, runs a book club for her comics! For $35 per school semester ($20 for renewed memberships) you receive the mini-comics she makes that semester, special goodies not available anywhere else like buttons, postcards and bookmarks.

3. Various ‘kickstarting’ programs (Xeric, Kickstarter) – With the creation of the Xeric Grant by Peter Laird, many a solid comic book have been published! While the Xeric Grant gives you money right after your application is accepted, the Kickstarter program has an application process and then allows your fundraising to begin on their website. The money is not guaranteed but you can offer incentives to people who donate. Jamie Tanner has recently had such luck with such a program. The incentives lead us straight into the next type of money-maker.

4. Donations (with incentives)-Forget that middleman I just mentioned! You can make it happen all by yourself! Zack Giallongo offered a free sketch with the pre-order of Grune #2. Liz Baillie started posting Freewheel as a webcomic but is offering all sorts of crazy incentives if you donate to her printing of the book. Incentives can include a copy of the book (obviously), a thank you in the book, free art, guest appearance in the background of the book, a call on your birthday. Speaking of which, there is only one week left to donate to the Freewheel comic book printing-so hurry on over and practice giving money to comics.

5. Conventions-This one seems rather obvious and is one step down the line but putting a face to your comics is the best way to keep making them. A smile on a face that is attached to your acerbic funny animals take on why ketchup is the devil could help sell it. Plus, you meet fantastic people who enjoy doing the same thing in their free time—-cartoon! I’ve met (and become friends with) more people whose work I love walking out of the bathroom than I bet they care to recall.  Word of mouth from a friend is key as basic as that information may seem.

If I missed something important, please comment. I’m always up for new ideas! Thanks for your time and hope that you definitely make some money for your comics.Share/Bookmark

Let’s go gang, let’s jump on the evolution bus and party until we can see our individual electrons! February 12th (yesterday) was the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth back in 1809. In short, Darwin traveled the Galapagos Islands among others aboard the Beagle for five years and observed nature. Working through his research on the island animals (especially finches), Darwin eventually proposed the idea of ‘natural selection’ in his book On the Origin of Species in 1859. This ‘mechanism’ of nature would allow for the slow change in animals and plants over time, often to better suite their environments. All around the world people are celebrating, teaching and learning about Darwin on or around February 12th and by gum, I’m going to be a part of the melee.

With the most excellent meeting of the female minds (cytogeneticists and cartoonists), the menu looks likes this:

Primordial Peanut Soup

Double Helix Scones

Wrinkled Pea Casserole (tip of the hat to Gregor Mendel)

Chocolate Chimp Cookies

Looking for an informational meeting, party or something inbetwixt in your area? The Darwin Day website has a whole list on the happenings all over the world.

-JenShare/Bookmark

Swamp Monsters—>Aliens—>Mummies—>Zombies—>Pirates—>Wizards—>Vampires—>Werewolves—>Ghosts—>DIY Monsters—>Digidragons—>Multicorns—>Haunted Instruments—> AAAANNNDD Repeat

Polly of Polly and the Pirates, character copyright Ted Naifeh, drawing by Jen!

-JenShare/Bookmark

Nomi Kane, Beth Hetland and me trying it out!

Grilled Cheese with Butternut Squash & Caramelized Onions (for three sandwiches)

1 onion                                                                   1/2 cup of cheese/3 slices

1/2 a butternut squash                                        six slices of bread

splash of oil                                                          butter/margarine to toast bread

1. Chop onions and chop butternut squash into small bits (chewable) and heat on medium in pan with oil.

2. Stir onions and squash constantly until onions carmelize (turn golden brown) and the squash is soft.

3. Add veggie mix to bread, sprinkle with as much cheddar cheese as you’d like, grill in separate skillet as usual.

Bridge Club

1 Cucumber                                                         2 cups of Strawberries

Gin                                                                        Lemonade

Seltzer Water                                                      Ice

1. Slice cucumbers and strawberries into slices. Mash them a bit at the bottom of the glass.

2. Throw in a jigger of gin.

3. Put in about a cup of lemonade (more for taste).

4. Splash of seltzer and add ice.

5. ENJOY!

-JenShare/Bookmark