Black Hat Collective

Hello, All, this is Lisa, the new head of the Black Hat Collective. On LJ I am chibi_evil.

Feel free to email me at blackhatcollective@gmail.com for information, to be put on our mailing list, or just becuase you care. I will be posting a monthly newsletter shortly before our regular meeting (3rd saturday of the month at the St Paul library on Englewood by Hamline University).

For most info--go to our blog:
http://blackhatcollective.blogspot.com/

It is a good blog.

Hello again!

Those of you going to Anime Detour this weekend should look for the Black Hat Collective there! We are sharing a table in the Artist Alley with generous Black Hatter Maria, where copies of Day in the Life will be available - along with buttons, shirts, and other merch from our artists.

Also stop by the Tea Weevil (the MISFITS party room) for snacks, Avatar episodes, and games. Terry, Lisa, and I are running the Tea Weevil for the second year in a row. It's fun times.


Nicole
Dictator-for-life

After a successful coup (many dead, dozens injured, pretty explosions), the Black Hat Collective now has a new president: me. Hello!

So, what else is new with the Black Hatters?

1. Our website is live, if somewhat bare. You can find it at www.blackhatcollective.com/. We'll be getting a shop up in the next month or so.

2. The Black Hat Collective is going to Anime Detour in April! Look for us in the Artist Alley, sharing a table with our lovely and generous member Maria.

3. Poster comics! Some of our members are working on one-shot 11"x17" poster comics, which we'll be selling at Detour, at future cons, and on our eventual online shop.

You can still find copies of Day in the Life at The Source Comics and Games. Once we've got an online shop, I'll let you all know.


Nicole
President/Dictator for Life

Hello everyone!

This is just to let everyone know that if you went to the Source, and couldn’t find our comic, that’s because it got shelved in with the other trades, not with the indie comics or the local comics. Cause its just that shiny. Don’t worry- we were confused to.

Good news!

Day in the Life is now officially for sale at The Source Comics and Games, in St. Paul, MN! Their sitting in the “new comic book” rack. They only have a few copies, so hurry by.

The website is still in production, but hopefully will be finishing up soon.

So much has been going on with the collective; it's hard to know where to start!

Most importantly though- THEY'RE HERE!!!!!!

That’s right, 500 books, bought and delivered. Ahhhh. They smell like bookstore. And they're so shiny! We had more than a couple of problems with the printers, but in the end we got a high quality book. The cover is shiny, the images are clear and crisp, and they're HERE.

Here! Look!



Aren't they magnificent!? Sorry. I don’t mean to brag. Well, maybe I do mean to brag a little. It's been a long hard road getting here. Its not easy for people on food stamps to raise $1800 for printing*, but we did it!

We're going to be setting up an EBay site soon, for those of you wanting to buy, who don’t know us personally and cant just hand us a check. Please spread the word! We're really proud of this project, and I think people will like it.

As a side note, we did attend both SGMS and Fallcon. SGMS was its usual fun self, with more of our energy going to having fun than to being productive.

Fallcon was another matter. We had at least 2 people sitting at the booth at all times, and all of us attended at least part of the event. It was HOT, so I was amazed at how many people showed up, and actually looked around. Sadly, we got no preorders, but we got to talk to some fun people, and make some friends, and some of us sold things other than the book.

Speaking of friends, here are some of our friends from Fallcon.



From the left-
1) Patrick the Great, who, to my knowledge, doesn't have a web comic I can show you

2) Dirk Tiede- author of Paradigm Shift, which you can find here- http://www.webcomicsnation.com/dirktiede/ps/series.php?view=archive&chapter=10435 He spent much of the evening I saw him contributing to charity.

3) Terry, Temporary Interim Dictator for Life of the collective

4) Matt, husband to Spike. He has many entertaining stories.

5) Nicole, one of our dear Editors and possible usurper of the throne

6) Spike, author of Templar Arizona, which can be found here: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/spike/Templar/series.php?view=single&ID=422
She does amazing things with a brush, and you should go and look at it. She also drew a fantastic chicken in Edwardian attire for Nicole. If you ever meet her, ask her about chickens, then just sit back and enjoy.

7) Beth, one of our fine artists.

All and all, an enjoyable experience for everyone. EBay info coming soon.



* Ok, not all of us, but more than can be healthy. Possibly fewer than should be….

Yes, folks, we are! I know it’s been a while since we posted, but we were hard at work wrapping things up. We've gotten proofs from our printer, and after a few modifications this baby goes to print! I'm so exited I'm using excessive exclamation points!

In the mean time, we're going to be running around to a couple of events this month, getting the words out, and selling the book when it gets back to us, and preorders till then.

Our first public appearance will be at a fantastic event called Schoolgirls and Mobile Suites (SGMS), which takes place at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) next weekend, Sept 29th and 30th. We wont have the book yet, but we'll have a preview copy, sketch commissions, and samples of some private projects of our members, including 3 fantastic web comics. Also we’ll have some wonderful dark and adorable greeting cards from our very own Apricot the Gerbil (member, not mascot). T-shirts and Buttons Pending.

If you haven’t ever heard of SGMS, well, then that’s a crying shame, and you should look it up. It’s not too late to get a ticket. SGMS is a once-a year event dedicated to academic study of Japanese pop culture in the US. Not only do they always feature some fantastic guests, but I've gone several years, and I always wind up seeing all sorts of fantastic not-released-in-America anime. Once, we got an exclusive peak at an interview with Mr. Miazaki, that won’t ever be released. Last year there was a Lolita fashion show. It’s a hell of an event! Go here: http://www.mcad.edu/showPage.php?pageID=1135 for more info. Seriously, it’s amazing.

Then, look for us again at Fallcon, Oct 6th & 7th at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. C'mon guys. It’s for charity. You know you want to give to charity. We'll have a booth all weekend, with all the same goodies as we have at SGMS, and maybe more. You'll have to stop by to see.

See you there.
Terry,
Temporary Interim Dictator for Life

Where- 1338, Hewitt Ave (that's the cross section of Albert and Hewitt in St. Paul, MN)
When- 4:00ish till it gets too dark
Why- to raise money for the printing of Day in the Life, a comic anthology by the Black Hat Collective.

We have had some nice donations, and we are going to be selling things for really really cheap! We have books, clothes of a wide variety of sizes, some small kitchen appliances, some furniture, way too many candles, a ton of tupperware, pots galore, more toys than you can shake a stick at...you name a catagory and we probably have something for you! So, come support some artists, and get some really good stuff for very little. You can even get a sneak peek at the art, while your there.

Tell your friends!

First off: Ad space! Day In The Life is going to be financed by paid ad space, donations, and artists' hard-earned money. So we are selling ad space! Read on!

We're doing a run of 500 copies in black and white (less poverty-inducing than color), which we'll be selling online, at cons, and through local comic shops like The Source. The book will be published in late June/early July. Here's a basic rundown of the prices for ads :

full page (about 6" x 9") - $140
quarter page (about 4.5" x 3") - $35
one-eighth page (business card sized) - $17

If you'd like us to design the ad for you, some of the BHC artists are available to do that for ya. On full and quarter page ads, the design fees will be negotiable (probably between $5-25, depending on size and complexity of the ad). On the one-eighth page size, text-only designs are free, and if you want us to design something with a graphic it's $3 extra.

Interested? Contact Teri at blackhatcollective@gmail.com or Nicole (me - hi!) at tiernsshadow@gmail.com.

Second: have a sample page!



This is from "Meg's Raptors," my comic about a little girl whose dreams have a tendency to come to life. Further reason to listen to your mom when she says no Jurassic Park before bed.

-Nicole

Name: Apricot the Gerbil
Birthday: Oct. 25th, 1980 (close enough to have Halloween-costume birthday parties, which is made of awesome.)
Gender: depends on whether the die I roll when I wake up is odds or evens
School: Cotter High and Saint Mary's U, Winona, MN
Current Occupation: standardized test scorer, telemarketer, basement-dwelling vagrant [varies often]
Interests: ...I've been informed that it is in the Collective's best interests for me to keep my mouth shut for this portion of the interview, so I will instead smile vapidly and reply "Pokemon," giving the word a questioning upwards lilt.
When I grow up, I want to be: that amusing (as opposed to "jail-ably") eccentric uncle-and/or-aunt everybody seems to know at least one of at some point
Personal Link: http://missanthrope.com/gerbilfluff/ [WARNING: no matter how cute and harmless the site itself may look, the textual contents within are very much not for the kiddies.]
Personal Quote: "Oh, I dunno... I think I have an ass made for radio."

Name:  Gypsy-Maria Lorimer
Birthday: January 22nd (Same as Rasputin)
Gender:  Female
School:  Graduated from the Art Institutes International Minnesota in 2005 with a Bachelors of Science in Media Arts and Animation
Current Occupation(s):  Senior Game Adviser at EB Games, part-time gas station cashier, caricaturist, freelance artist, slacker
Interests:  Comics, cartoons, making and experiencing art, world cultures and languages, mythology, video games, gay pornography, baking, sewing crafts, and lucid dreaming.
When I grow up, I want to be:  A hobo
Personal Link:  http://yukikousagi.deviantart.com
Personal Quote:  "It's okay, I only live ten minutes from home."

Name: Lisa Gilbert 

Birthday: 03-27-82 

Gender: Female 

School: none at the moment, graduated from Winona State University 

Current Occupation: Temping and entertaining at the MOA 

Interests: Just about anything and everything. 

When I grow up, I want to be: A Professor of either Neuroscience or Philosophy 

Personal Link: www.chibi-evil.livejournal.com 
which doesn’t sound much like a webpage, but on top of all my posts, I also archive my creative writing there. If you go to my first posts, it’s just my stories. I only got into writing about me when I ran out of creative juice for a while. 

Personal Quote: "Boffo."

This is the official blog for Black Hat Collective, a small comic collective based in the Twin Cities. This summer we'll be publishing our first comic anthology, Day in the Life. Each short comic follows a theme - the ordinary meeting the fantastic.

A few examples of what you'll find in Day in the Life:

* a vampire housewife who bakes damn good cookies

* the registration office for supernatural creatures

* a cheerful collision of Jimmy Buffett and Buddhist enlightenment

* tiny velociraptors running loose in a local house

* the adventures of a discarded spoon

And much, much more. Trust me, it all makes sense. We'll be posting sketches, production news, and other tidbits in this blog, so keep reading! This promises to be a strange, entertaining journey.


--Nicole