Punks, Comics, and Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh

pittsburgh sketches

This was a surprisingly long weekend, even though it was only two days. I had multiple stops over the two-day span, which is why.

The first stop was Copacetic Comics Company, on Dobson Street in Pittsburgh. I was worried that I would have to pay for parking (because city life), but I found a space around the corner.

A while back I had called Copacetic to ask some questions about author appearances and consignments, and somehow I forgot that Bill (the man on the phone) said the store was on the 3rd floor of the building. So I was a bit surprised to see Kaibur Coffee on the ground floor. I had to approach the building to be sure I found the right space.

Turns out – yep, I found it. So I went up the narrow blue staircase, past posters of indie bands, local theater productions, and guest lectures, and found THIS:

Continue reading “Punks, Comics, and Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh”

Short Fundraisers: Or, Why I Do Commissions Sometimes

I need to air out a thing or two for the sake of transparency.

A while back – specifically, around Awesome Con time – I sent an email out to my newsletter subscribers asking for donations. These donations were to help cover parking fees in Washington, DC, which I forgot to account for in my budget.

Holy dang, I’m surprised it took this long to publicly say where that funding went.

Because in chatting with my table buddy at the event, Carlos, we both decided it would be easier to take metro bus and train into the city, instead of trying to drive in DC traffic and find parking.

So the money raised for the parking fees went into metro tickets into and out of the city during that weekend. Any that was left over helped to cover food for Carlos and me.

Even though the money raised didn’t go towards parking, like I said it would, it still went towards making the weekend run more smoothly. For that, I want to say thank you to my peeps who helped with that.

“Wait,” you might be saying, “Does that mean any money I give through KickStarter is equally not-going-to-things-I-want?”

KickStarter funds go towards fulfilling KickStarter rewards. That’s that.

This blog post was just to clarify what happened with the impromptu fundraiser I did a few months ago for Awesome Con.

That said, fundraising is partially why I’m doing commission pre-orders for Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh weekend. (This was mentioned in the previous blog post)

Because here’s the situation:

I’ll be in Pittsburgh June 23rd and 24th for different events connected to the zine fest. While Friday does happen to be my payday from one of my gigs, I don’t expect it to be big enough to cover my bills, let alone bills plus food and gas for the weekend.

So I thought, “Hey, I’ll open up for commissions for a few days and see if anybody would like some character art. And any cash raised can go towards covering food and gas for zine fest weekend.”

And that’s why I’m open for commissions for a few days. I’m offering to draw a full-body, black-and-white character of your choice for $25.

You can get a commission even if you’re not attending any events during zine fest weekend. However, attending any events (from the Big Idea Bookstore appearance to the zine fest itself) means you can pick up a physical copy of your commission from me.

Hit me up at kelci@kelcidcrawford.com if you have any questions or anything.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

P.S. If you want to make a small donation instead, just send it at paypal.me/KelciCrawford.

Comics & Coasters at Kennywood Comicon

kennywood comicon artist alley table 2018

This past Sunday, June 17, was not just Father’s Day, but also Kennywood Comicon. Yep, a comicon was held in an amusement park.

It was pretty cool, not gonna lie.

kennywood comicon skyline 2018

The way the show was set up this year, though, had the artists situated in a picnic pavilion tucked behind the elephant ear booth. It was great to get shade and the occasional breeze. However, we were just tucked away enough that cosplayers by the lagoon had to direct traffic back to us.

Which, holy banana pants, kudos to those cosplayers. It was sunny, humid, and over 90 degrees, and the cosplayers were in full Star Wars and Spiderman/Deadpool get-up. How they did NOT die is a testament to how well con staff treats folks.

I also need to give a big shout-out to my comics buddy and patron on Patreon, Dave. He helped cover for food and helped me carry my con gear back to my car at the end of the day. Thank you so much, Dave!

(I’ll go ahead and take this time to let you know that Dave now has a Patreon page of his own. If you like data graphs showing the methods of dying in the Star Trek original show, or illuminated manuscripts of the Holy Hand Grenade speech from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, get thee to his Patreon page!)

On the upside, sales from Kennywood Comicon DID help make up for the loss I took from Put-N-Play the weekend before. The downside is, not by a whole lot.

That’s partially why I have commission pre-orders open. For folks who are attending my next show on June 24, Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh, I’ll draw a black-and-white, full-body commission of a character of your choice for $25. You just need to email me (kelci@kelcidcrawford.com) to get started. If you’re on my email list, you already know all about this, because I just sent an email out yesterday announcing this pre-order sale.

There’s also a couple of appearances I’m set to do on June 23, the day before the zine fest!

Appearance #1 is Punk, Comics, and Feminism: A Discussion Group at The Big Idea Bookstore at 5 pm. It’s free for everybody to attend.

Appearance #2, at 7 pm that same day, I’m doing a live reading of my comic Johnson & Sir at the Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh Zine Reading. That will be at the Irma Freeman Center, also free to attend.

I hope to see you in at least one of these appearances!

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

Put-N-Play-Con: A Vlog with Some Swearing (Just FYI)

Ho dang, this one took a while to edit.

I don’t know why my creativity demanded I make this a video, but I did it. I hope you enjoy it.

In it, I talk about Put-N-Play (the last show I was at), the way conventions tend to promote their shows, and other behind-the-scenes convention secrets.

Here was my set up at Put-N-Play this year:

put n play con artist alley table layout

Sadly, as mentioned in the video, I barely made sales this last weekend. Which is a shame.

My next convention appearance is Kennywood Comicon on June 17th. Wear a nerdy shirt to get a discount on your admission ticket!

After that, I have quite a few more appearances: June 23rd I’ll be at The Big Idea Bookstore in Pittsburgh for Punk, Comics, and Feminism (a discussion group) at 5 pm. Then at 7 pm I’ll be at The Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh Zine Reading at the Irma Freeman Center. After that, on June 24th, is Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh!

That’s all for now. Thank you for watching and reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh and How It Went

feminist zine fest pittsburgh table set up

Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh happened at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination this year on June 17th.

Yes, it’s been a few weeks between the fest and this blog post talking about it. To be fair, I was working on KickStarter fulfillment, catching up on deadlines, and getting a new gig or two.

Now I can talk about the fest, of which there are two things about it I remember most clearly: Continue reading “Feminist Zine Fest Pittsburgh and How It Went”