Our “Recent & Regional” sidebar feature (formerly “Blogs du Jour,” seen at right on the main page of the site) gathers blog post headlines from our regions’s cartoonists and other comics-related folk into one convenient place. The list of feeds it draws from had gotten terribly out of date, but I’ve just updated it – so feast on the wealth of news, thoughts, and art! I finally found a great plugin to replace Google Reader for the job, which will make it easier to keep the feed list up to date (and removed that annoying background display issue that happened to Reader). Who knows – the future might hold more overdue website refurbishing!

THEME:

The theme for the Spring 2012 Trees & Hills anthology is FOOD. As a sort of sequel to our 2008 food-themed anthology Seeds, the title is Sprouts.

CONTENT:

As with all our anthologies, we are most interested in both fiction and nonfiction comics with a community-minded orientation – comics that show an awareness of connection to the world around them and aim to make some sort of contribution to it, ideally with direct relevance to our region.

We will post some possible story ideas and links to resources soon.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Contributors should, of course, live in Vermont, New Hampshire, or western Massachusetts.
• Comics should be suitable for a general audience.
• Please let us know your story idea & approximate length as soon as possible (& let us know if you change your mind).
• Length: 1-6 pages. The printed page size will be 5.5” x 8.5”, image area around 5” x 8” – please proportion your comic accordingly.
• Send 600 dpi B&W .tif files (300 dpi OK if you need to use grayscale) to organize@treesandhills.org. Please use the format [last name]-[page number] for the filenames – for example Tedford-01.tif. You may also send clean photocopies to Trees & Hills, PO Box 645, Winchester, NH 03470.
• Please include in your email:
• a 1-3 sentence blurb about yourself;
• website or other preferred contact info (if any);
• a mailing address for your contributor copies.
• Deadline: April 22. We’ll announce a time & place for an anthology-finishing party when it gets closer.

OTHER INFORMATION:

• Each contributor will receive one copy of SPROUTS for each page of their work that appears in it. Contributors may purchase additional copies at wholesale (50% of cover price).
• We prefer new comics, but may consider existing work that is a good fit. If accepted, we ask that you not print your submission elsewhere (except an online excerpt) for at least six months from the anthology’s release date.
• SPROUTS will eventually be compiled with other T&H anthologies into a book collection; please let us know if for some reason you would prefer your piece not to appear in the book. Contributors will receive one copy of the book for each piece they have in it, and may purchase additional copies at wholesale (50% of cover price).
• We are also looking for theme-appropriate designs for the contents page and back cover. The contents page will need to have room for us to type in the title, table of contents, and indicia. The back cover needs room for us to type in the list of contributors. Email organize@treesandhills.org if you are interested.
• Past anthologies

We look forward to seeing your comics!

Visit Trees & Hills at the 6th annual Stars & Skulls Crafty Craft Fair! Organized by Pioneer Valley Roller Derby co-founders Pink Panzer & Bazooka Joe, Stars & Skulls is the Valley’s original DIY alternative craft fair.

The fair will features dozens of tables of locally made jewelry, clothing, knick-knacks, housewares, tasty treats, comics and much more! PVRD will also have a merch/info table.

The fair is Sunday 12/11 from 10 am to 4 pm at the American Legion Hall at 162 Russell St. (AKA Route 9) in Hadley, MA.

As always, admission and parking are free.

Come visit the Trees & Hills table at Ye Olde Lowbrow Art Faire in Thorne’s Marketplace, 150 Main St. Northampton MA, on December 4 & December 18. It’s co-organized by longtime T&H member Anne Thalheimer, so it must be good!

“For two days this holiday season, come down to the basement of Thorne’s Marketplace, for a unique DIY shopping experience featuring 20+ local artists & crafters selling quirky handmade goods, most for under $20. Support your community and buy local handmade gifts this year!

Sunday, December 4th: 10-4
Sunday, December 18th: 10-4

Here is a list of just some of the one-of-a-kind items you will find:

• Monster hats
• Mustaches
• Comix
• Cheap art
• Stuffed creatures
• Onesies
• Jewelry
• Photographs
• Tote bags and purses
• …and so much more!

This is a kid-friendly event. We will have an art area set up to keep the kids entertained while you shop.

There will also be a raffle, which you will be entered in if you bring one canned good or non-perishable food item to donate to the local food bank. The prizes will be an assortment of goodies from our vendors.

We look forward to seeing you there!”

Visit Trees & Hills at the *broke arts fair- holiday edition, which will take place at the Fellowship Hall in the Union Congregational Church Peterborough, NH from 10am til 4pm.

The broke concept was born out of the belief that art is for everybody. All *broke arts fairs are free and all ages events. *broke artists present at least 75% of their wares for under $50 on the day of the *broke show. We want to celebrate the innovative and original art that is currently being created by un/under-represented artists everywhere.

Come visit Trees & Hills at the annual craft fair at the Keene Rec Center on Saturday, November 19 from 9am to 3pm. Over 30 vendors, a raffle, and food available on site. Admission is free; location is 312 Washington St. Keene, NH. For More Information, contact Missy Lutz 603-762-2977 cccbi@hotmail.com.

A short interview about our Halloween comics appears in Jen Vaughn’s Halloween blog post at The Beat.

24-Hour Comics was a huge success again this year in Montpelier, Vt, as about 20 cartoonists, artists and illustrators camped out in Montpelier City Hall from Oct. 1-2. Not everyone made it to page 24, although we had several people drawing comics up until the last minute.

Selections from the comics will be on display at Bagitos Bagel and Burrito Cafe in Montpelier starting this Friday as part of the city’s Art Walk event. But there was such demand to read the whole comics, so we decided to share them all with you here in PDF format. Enjoy!

Ari Elbaum

Brian Ziegler

Daniel Robert Walbridge

Denis St. John

Ed Epstein (part 1)

Ed Epstein (part 2)

Emery Brush (part 1)

Emery Brush (part 2)

Genoa H. Scherbatskoy

Ira Black Shadis

Jeff Potter

Kirsten Edey

Liz Walsh

Neil Flanders (part 1)

Neil Flanders (part 2)

Pam Watts

Phayvanh Luekhamhan

Radical Warren (part 1)

Radical Warren (part 2)

Colin Tedford

Get your spooky pen out – Trees & Hills wants you to help us make a Halloween Comics Pack! This set of miniature comics will be perfect for giving to trick-or-treaters or Halloween party-goers.

Content: Spookiness, monsters, ghosts, pumpkins, & other Halloween-related stuff. Must be suitable for children.

Deadline: October 20 (only a couple weeks away – sorry for the short notice! We’ll be able to give much more notice next year now that we have the format worked out). There’s no slack in this deadline, but we’ll do what we can to help you submit on time.

Format: The printed comics will be 2.75″ x 4.25″ (that’s 1/8th-letter size – a sheet of paper folded in half 3 times), 8 pages, black & white, with 1/4″ margins. Include the text “Trees & Hills Comics Group” and “treesandhills.org” on the back page. First page can be a cover if you like; last page can be a back cover if you like, but in any case you’ll probably want to fit your name & website (or other preferred contact info) there. Either portrait or landscape orientation is fine.

How to submit: First, you have to live in Vermont, New Hampshire, or western Massachusetts. Then send your comic to organize@treesandhills.org as a set of TIF files, one for each page, with filenames formatted [your last name]-[page number] (e.g. Tedford-1.tif, Tedford-2.tif, etc). They should be 600 dpi B&W (300dpi greyscale is OK if you’re using ink washes or something). You may also send clean photocopies to Trees & Hills Comics Group, PO Box 645, Winchester, NH 03470, but they absolutely have to arrive by the deadline to be included in the batches that go out for Halloween. If you’re unable to produce digital files and don’t have enough time to mail copies, the T&H Mobile Production Unit may (in light of the short notice on this project) be able to come scan your comics for you. In any case, include a mailing address so we can send you a set of comics.

What you get: One printed set of Halloween comics, and a password-protected link to a directory containing print-ready PDFs of all the Halloween comics, which you may use to print as many copies as you want to give away. Do not redistribute PDFs or sell copies of anyone else’s comic without their permission; however, you should feel free to sell your own comic individually or offer it for download.

We look forward to seeing your spooky comics!

MICE, The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo

September 24, 2011 10am – 6pm
1815 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA (Porter Square)
Illustration by Jerel Dye

Come visit the Trees & Hills table (and all the other excellent cartoonists!) at MICE in Boston this Saturday – it’s a great show, well-run by our friends the Boston Comics Roundtable. T&H co-founder Colin Tedford will be on the “Comics & Social Justice” panel  at 1:30 pm.

Admission is free!