October in White River Junction is BY FAR the best October of any town. The leaves are turning, apples are ready to be picked, and all those amazing pumpkin candles go on sale. Last night I watched Sleepy Hollow and you can bet your bippy that Hocus Pocus is somewhere in the rotation. The best event is Gory Daze, the community run Halloween Carnival, Parade and Dance. But before October 29th comes around, there is a hell of a lot more to do in lil’ old White River Junction and of course, themed appropriately at the Main Street Museum (located in Downtown White River Junction).

Friday, October 7th **TOMORROW** is the Box Social event at 6pm (pictured above). Local chefs and small business owners will be up for auction with the proceeds benefiting the Museum. Notably, the Events Director from AVA Gallery, Adam Blue (hello, he’s the one who hires me and others to run art classes); Kim Souza of Revolution, the most saucy of vintage stores; Jevan Stubits of RSG, he’s a local with a mouth that won’t quit and more. Including my boyfriend (here’s your chance, ladies), a local youth development coordinator with Easter Seals. In the fun spirit of things, each person up for auction is making a picnic for two, for themselves and the “lucky winner.” Please come by even if you don’t intend to buy, there will be a lot of us who didn’t win checking out the Museum at its first event since the flood of Hurricane Irene. FREE! Unless you plan on bidding!

Saturday, October 8th Green Mountain Graveyards Gallery and Show

Scott Baer and Daniel Barlow have combed the Vermont graveyards to capture the most poignant and spooky (in my opinion) photos of statuary and tombstones. If it reminds you of the Weeping Angles episodes of Doctor Who too, then please come! Snacks and dark drinks provided from 6-8pm. FREE!

Friday, October 14th Green Room

The bi-national band featuring blues and a tad of jazz will be back at the Museum. They’ve played a bajillion times before here but it will be my first time! Tickets are $10

Thursday, October 20th Main Street Museum Floodraiser with Joe Citro and H.P. Lovecraft!A multi-tiered night for all ranges of interest.

From 5-8, the Museum main floor will be open for an Exhibition Preview, “Lost Components from Providence, Rhode Island Jewelry Salesmen,” models from the movie “The Whisperer in Darkness” based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft, and other Pivotal Artifacts from the Great Vermont Flood of 2011.

6 – 8:00 – Reception and Dinner for special benefactors at the Hotel Coolidge dining room, Downtown White River Junction, Vermont. (Includes silent auction, special gifts and illuminated and illuminated lecture by Joe Citro and Steve Bissette (MY FORMER PROFESSOR). This special dinner is $100 per person. Please RSVP. Purchase your tickets in advance at the Main Street Museum, via Paypal or check, or at the front desk of the Hotel Coolidge.)

8:00 – Special Vermont Premier of “The Whisperer in Darkness,” by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Film version of the short story, based on the flood of 1927 in Vermont with a special intro by Joe Citro and Steve Bissette.($25 General Admission for the film only)

10:00 p.m. – Second Seating of “The Whisperer in Darkness” with a special intro by Joe Citro and Steve Bissette. ($15 General Admission)

Tickets are available for purchase here: http://www.mainstreetmuseum.org/wiki/

Saturday, October 22th The Littlest Birds

My TWO favorite instruments, cello and banjo, combine in this holy matrimony of folk! Tickets are $10

Saturday, October 29th GORY DAZE

Carnival is from 6-8pm on the grounds of the Main Street Museum complete with the RAQ-ettes Belly Dancing troupe, a Monster Petting Zoo, Haunted House and more. 8pm, we all line up for the grand parade around town and 9pm-1am is the DUST BALL at the American Legion so get ready to shake shake shake it! The carnival and parade are free, the Ball is $10.

Alright, I’m off to prepare costumes for ALL OF THESE.

Love, Jen

SPX was an absolute blast, as usual! Our only sad moment was that the Lies Grown Ups Told Me was misprinted, it looked EXACTLY like the second proof without any of our changes. The printer felt our wrath and is making it up to us. Caitlin M, Nomi Kane and I made up for it in enthusiasm and comics love-a-tude.

SPX is the best con because we really don’t leave the premises and EVERY convention is a family reunion. Chris Hastings of Dr. McNinja and I toasted his amazing wife, the missed Carly Monardo, and the loss of Dylan Williams, an amazing man and publisher (Sparkplug Comics).

Handing out Nerdlingers is always a good time and I learned that Noah van Sciver is funny as hell! The most fun I had was on the Images of the Body panel with Jennifer Hayden (Underwire), Gabby Schulz (Monsters, Welcome to the Dahl House) and Robyn Chapman (Make, Hey! 4-Eyes) with thoughtful moderator Craig Fischer.

I roomed with the ineffable Carol Burrell, Colleen AF Venable (pictured below!), Caitlin M, Nomi Kane and of course, my guy, (don’t worry, you’ll get his opinion SOON). What an absolute blast it was

I show up as a LIZARD in the 4th Guinea Pig book! Look for Jen the Liz!

Video of my panel, Images of the Body, is available on Vimeo! Feel free to LISTEN to it instead of watch me grab the mic a bunch and realize I’m about to tell an inappropriate joke (am I an adult now?). I wish you could SEE the room, it was like the United Nations in there. I really wanted Jon Chad to pretend to be Kenya or something. Actually, here is Megan Beahr ready to rage WAR on someone.

More pictures SOON as I’m contractually obligated to save a few for THE BEAT and the Schulz Library Blog. *wink*

-LOVE JEN

Hey all!

Currently, I’m on my way to the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland where I’ll be debuting the comics anthology LIES GROWN UPS TOLD ME with fellow editors Caitlin M. and Nomi Kane. We’re sitting at Table C6 which is pretty much at THE BACK of the showroom. Just look for the pink bangs! I’m also bringing a booth babe (for the first time ever) so prepare to be dazzled. AND I’m on a panel on Sunday at 3pm called Images of the Body (in the White Flint Amphitheater) with friends Robyn Chapman, Gabby Schulz and NEW friends Jennifer Hayden and moderator Craig Fischer. See you THERE.

And tonight at Atomic Books in Baltimore, I’m hosting the annual Nerdlingers Award show. And of course, in honor of Vermont and all that amazing work being done right now here post-Irene, the Nerdlinger Awards themselves are a Vermont varietal. The AMAZING cartoonist Carly Monardo (colorist of Venture Brothers) created the Nerdlingers Label and I gotta say, it is a WINNER. See you at 7pm for a great comics reading by the likes of Melissa Mendes and Anders Nilsen with some snarky awards to follow.

Should you need something ‘fun’ to read on your trip down I’ve recently written articles on how local libraries and one museum have been affected by the flood waters of Irene.

American Library Association

THE BEAT

Love,

JENBOB

Spring was a blast here in White River Junction. I spent many hours toiling away on some particularly amazing paintings for yet another installation at Dartmouth College with two cartoonists. Katherine Roy, Laura Terry and I were approached yet again by Timothy Duggan about a multi-panel mural for the Collis Cafe. We could not say no to blank walls!

Katherine working on a football painting

After several rounds of drafts and thrown out ideas we produced eight panels of various sizes to grace the walls of the student union cafe. Working with Laura and Katherine is very interesting because as skilled, opinionated artists we occasionally clashed horns with one another!

Without even realizing it, Laura painted Lincoln into her cafe painting.

Part of the fun was the flat graphic choice of painting we went with. Anyone who has ever seen my old large paintings knows I’m definitely more of a mix-colors-on-the-canvas or a wet on wet painter. I gave Katherine and Laura room to do most of the design as I was the newbie in this situation. Flat colors when arranged well were a thrill to paint!

The result was amazing. I cannot thank Laura, Katherine, Tim and Dartmouth enough for the chance to paint large again. I won’t show ALL of the paintings but here are a few more!

So as you start to trickle through the Upper Valley this year, whether it is for leafing, attending Dartmouth or The Center for Cartoon Studies for the first time, take a peek at the work in the Collis Cafe (the Collis Student Center for Student Involvement is right across the street from the Green and Dirt Cowboy Cafe). The paintings will be up until Spring 2012 and yes, of course, they are all available for purchase!

Laura looking fancy and me just flexing some triceps.

My dears,

Once again I am on the road and this time in Portland, Oregon. Stumptown Comics Fest is this weekend and I’ll be spreading the word about the Center for Cartoon Studies as well as selling my new comic, Heavy Flow! It is the story of the menstrual cup and how to lessen the stigma of its use. If can’t convince you to use a menstrual cup (the women) then I want to know why!

You can come see me at Table G-8 in Stumptown or buy Heavy Flow online here!

And many thanks to my friend, Jenn Palmer, for the fantastic crocheted menstrual cup holder and Ryan Anderson for the menstrual mask. His site will be up soon and you can purchase your OWN menstrual, domino or classic commedia dell’arte masks.

Love love love,

Jen

This Wednesday, March 30th at 9pm EST fire up that Netflix or your own disc for some amazingly horrible MST3k magic. Tweet your own riffs along with your hosts Chris Haley (@thechrishaley), myself (@thejenya) and make sure to use the hashtag #MST3kDandD so we can all chuckle and chortle with you!

The above was a commission thanks to taking a photo of a comic con attendee that was used in an article and becoming Twitter friends. Interactivity and connectivity is exactly what SXSW Interactive in Austin is all about and I escaped Vermont to soak it up.

That sort of high-five is also what I’m feeling right now as I wade through crushing crowds of nerds. SXSWi is truly nerd summer camp in the way that comic conventions are nerd family reunions; the selling is obvious and out on the table instead of pushing it via business cards. I’m covering this year’s panels and events on THE BEAT so head on over for Day One and more!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Jen

How can you possibly describe the best thing that has ever happened to you? It’s hard to start but I left Texas (a state that looks nothing at all like the shape formation my fellow Texans attempted to make above) in 2008 to make a change. To pursue cartooning under the tutelage and guidance of amazing cartoonists. To no longer create in my off time but all the time. When I first stepped through the doors of the Center for Cartoon Studies, I knew I had made the right decision.

But I want to actually thank my cartoonists roommates at Muff Mansion for their fantastic support and never-ending enthusiasm. Nomi Kane and I met in 2008 during a Portfolio Day and I knew she would be the best kind of trouble after she emailed a drawing she made on the plane ride home. She works hard, I said it.

Beth Hetland is my roommate for the SECOND time as she took me in during a tumultuous time in my life, which basically meant we inked a lot of pages while watching How I Met Your Mother and improving our Guitar Hero scores. Talk about organized, this lady knows how.

Penina Gal is the most laid-back of all of us and cannot help but calm those of us down. Plus she has just as many if not MORE animated movies that I do.

Betsey is my dancing soulmate. She is in constant motion, puts up with 11pm confessions and bakes the sweetest desserts when she is in the foulest moods.

Needless to say, I am thankful to have each and everyone of these roommates in my life. Thanks to the Center for Cartoon Studies we not only share diplomas with the same school name but have the same fire burning with in our hearts.

Internet Drink and Draw with Super Friend, Chris Haley! Follow Chris and myself on Twitter, join in on the fun with hashtag #MST3kDandD. It starts 9pm Eastern, 10pm Central and SO FORTH!

Poster by the hugely hugable Dylan Todd, who will eventually start selling these posters and you can BET YOUR BIPPY that this will be the first one I purchase.

Her bags are packed but she’s not quite yet ready to go…to the underworld. This month, Dartmouth is putting on Sarah Ruhl’s play about the tumultuous marriage of Eurydice and Orpheus. Stephanie Pacheco and Maggie Devine-Sullivan of Dartmouth were kind enough to invite myself and Colleen Frakes to a performance this past weekend.

One moment, married; the next she is thrown into the underworld.

We had the balcony all to ourselves (which is quite a damn shame, it was an amazing point of view).

Colleen and I sketched as the Dartmouth students and one professor charmed their way into our collective hearts. The scenes with Eurydice’s dead father definitely struck that one chord deep within me.

Overall, it was a fantastic play with some awe-inspiring colors, moments and stage production (Lighting for the win)!Tickets are on sale for this weekend from Thursday through Sunday, February 24-27th so get yourself down to Moore Theater at Dartmouth for one hell of a show (See what I did there?!). Take a good long look at Colleen Frakes’ drawings as well! Otherwise, Eurydice will come back from the grave and kick your butt.

EURYDICE
by Sarah Ruhl
Carol Dunne & Peter Hackett directors

Eurydice…Genevieve Adams ’11
Her Father… Jamie Horton
Orpheus…Ben Edlin ’14
A Nasty Interesting Man/The Lord of the Underworld…Evan Curhan ‘14
A Chorus of Stones:
Big Stone…Mary Rockwell ’11
Little Stone…Elizabeth Neill ’13
Loud Stone…Katie Lindsay ’11