New Rog Petersen Baseball Card Art Show - First Friday April 2

Last year, at the beginning of baseball season, my buddy (and one of the most skilled and versatile artists I know) Rog Petersen mad a whole slew of old time baseball card art. The show was a hit, almost a sellout. Anyone who knows Rog knows that he lives for baseball season. He puts his guts into these pieces.

This year, he's got another gang of card art hanging at Atlantis, the Lost Bar (Frankford & Hagert in Kensington). The show is called "Bat, Ball, & Brush Season Two". He will also have some larger portraits of baseball players hanging as well. The show will hang all month. But you'll definitely want to head there First Friday if you want to purchase one of these. They go really really fast...

Rog made this awesome baseball card portrait of me as a gift. Being the uncoordinated and half blind slob that I am, he drew me with an axe instead of a baseball bat (an object you'd be more likely to find me swinging). Thanks, Rog!

Love is in the Air!

Love is in the Air!
Originally uploaded by willceau

So how is Sylvia and Mickey's date going? Find out as Monkey & Bird continues at CO2 Comics! Read the strip here!


Willceau Site | Willceau Illo News

Sketches of Fishtown, Vol. II Book has arrived...

The books arrived two days ago from Brenner. I think they did a swell job on the printing. I've been having some North Catholic kids from Ernie's J.U.G. (Justice Under God) hand number the books for me. I'm really looking forward to Saturday's book release party at Holy Name. There will be copies of Volume I available too. If you'd like to read more about the event and also see some of the art that will be up for raffle, please click here: http://fishtown.us/node/15393

Is Spring Here?

Over at Willceau Illo News I posted about a little cartoon I banged out for an ad and forgot all about. I'm not sure how long ago I did it, but it was done at least a year ago. I snuck my website in the drawing and I ended up getting an e-mail about it from a printer on the West Coast. It's kind of like tossing a bottled message into the ocean.

See the post here.

-Joe Williams

Sketches of Fishtown # 98, Philadelphia Brewing Company

Although Bill & Nancy's Philadelphia Brewing Company is located just outside of Fishtown, they help a lot of folks living withing Fishtown's borders. Every Christmas, PBC's Christmas party is definitely my favorite. It's like going to Fezzywig's place in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Really good folks...

Artist Trading Cards

A few days ago I stopped in Dick Blick and saw that they sold Bristol Board Artist Trading Card packs, so I picked one up. Now they've become a staple morning "warm up" before I start in on work. Now that I'm working on so much long-term stuff, it's nice to do a piece that I can finish in 10-15 minutes.

This is a sampling from the past few days.



Done in ink/marker/colored pencil. 2.5" x 3.5"

Cheap Shot

I've been adapting a Jehovah's Witness cautionary poem for the comic I'm working on called Everything Dies #4.  This is a scene where the lead character is starting to withdraw from her culture because her husband doesn't believe in Jehovah God.  But the author of the "poem" (unknown), takes a cheap shot at reading!  What's wrong with reading?

Also: Watchtower is a real magazine.  So, if that's what the woman WAS reading, then I guess, yeah, it does sound boring!

I made a new informative page about Everything Dies, which includes a 5 page preview of every issue including the forthcoming #3.

The Popularity Papers is in bookstores!

At the Borders in King of Prussia

Abrams has shipped the books and they're starting to appear in on bookstore shelves. Yesterday we were in the neighborhood of a Borders and decided to drop in. Friends and family members in Ohio had reported receiving their copies from Amazon, and we'd received a big box of books from the publisher, so we were curious to know if they had hit the shelves. I don't think that I can ever really recreate the weird sound that came out of my face when I saw them on the shelf. It was incredible (the feeling of seeing the books--the sound was just weird, kind of like a squeal/sob/hiccup/gasp/unicorn fart).

And The Popularity Papers is next to INDIANA JONES! How awesome is that?

Hello, My name is Joe, and I am a cartoonist.

Driving the Big White Bus
Originally uploaded by willceau

Thanks for inviting me to the PCS blog. There's a lot of great work here!

I have a blogspot blog which I occasionally update here:

http://willceau.blogspot.com/

The blog I blog at more is a Worpress doohickey attached to my site and can be found here:

http://willceau.com/news/

Tina Garceau's an my comic strip "Monkey & Bird" along with a couple of other comic projects are up at CO2 Comics and can be found here:

http://www.co2comics.com/pages/co2_monkey_and_bird.html

Poke around there. There's a lot of other terrific comics to be found there!

Thanks!

-Joe Williams

whispers

Hi all,
This is a recent painting I did for the heART Valentine's Day show at JINX/TOOTHLESS CAT gallery. I know, this post is late and the show is over, but I thought I'd share anyway....Keep workin'!

Comic Art as Political Commentary

An evening inspired by Free Library of Philadelphia “One Book, One Philadelphia ”

March 10, 2010 – 7 PM at National Liberty Museum

Join Pulitzer Prize Cartoonists Tony Auth & Signe Wilkinson for a discussion about the use of cartoons in political commentary. Philadelphia editorial cartoonist Tom Stiglich will moderate the event.

The centerpiece for this discussion will be the recent circulation of Persepolis 2.0 in which two Iranian ex-patriots used images by graphic artist Marjane Satrapi to illustrate events surrounding the July 2009 Iranian election. The event will also feature the National Liberty Museum ’s CareToons exhibit. For more information, call the National Liberty Museum, 321 Chestnut Street , Philadelphia at 215-925-2800. Free admission.

Sketches of Fishtown # 97 - Soupy Island

Aside from Tom "Hooker" Lynch (issue 51), Soupy Island was the most requested subject matter for a "Sketches of Fishtown" issue. So many people from the neighborhood look back on that place with fond memories. I was really happy to find not only a story but actual photo reference provided by Amanda Zellner and the good people at philaplace.org. Back in the day, cameras were a limited and valued household commodity. It was a different world when you felt safe enough to send your kid across the river to another state unattended, but you didn't trust your kid with your camera. Those were much simpler times it seemed. Ah, the good old days...

Reviews and Book Launches!

An anonymous 6th grader at the Denville Public Library thought that The Popularity Papers was "Funny, good ending, but missing something." I'm going to have to work to fix that in the second book. But Publisher's Weekly made mention of a part in the book where a unicorn barfs up some pirate treasure. I have to say, I really never expected to see that mentioned in a review, but the review was positive, so yay!

You can see the whole review here.

For anyone who isn't able to come to the NYC book release party on the 11th, Walk a Crooked Mile Books in Mt. Airy (7423 Devon Street, Philadelphia, PA 19119) has generously offered to host a local launch for The Popularity Papers on Saturday, April 3rd from 1 to 4. Walk a Crooked Mile Books is a used bookstore located in the Mt. Airy train station, and it's a bibliophile's dream. Hope to see you there!

Sketches of Fishtown # 96 - Big Mike's Quizzo

Mike McCafferty is one of the biggest goofballs I've ever met. He is, however, a really loyal friend. And I love him like a brother. For more info, go to www.bigmikequizzo.com
This isn't the first time I've drawn cartoons based on Mike. I used to do a really sarcastic strip called "Meet Your Neighbors" for the online Philly Turkey. The drawings are crude, but they give you a sense of the kind of sense of humor Big Mike has...

Sketches of Fishtown, Volume 2 - Off to the Races...

After a few weeks of rolling back and forth on the wheelie chair from the drawing desk to the computer, I finally got the new book off to the printer. The picture on the cover is the crateball net that used to be on Fletcher Street between Gaul and Belgrade (behind the Starboard and McElvarr Funeral Home). Joannie's son Brandon came over on Sunday to help with the Photoshop colors on the cover.

Digby came over to keep me company and have a few beers while finishing the pages. It was weird because I am six issues ahead of the newspaper. There will be comics in the book that haven't been published yet. This is way different for me, because usually I am chasing my weekly deadline Monday night or Tuesday morning.

I'm getting kind of siked for the release party on March 27. If anyone wants advanced tickets, they can pick them up at the Spirit offices (Gaul and Susquehanna) or contact me: phillytoon@yahoo.com. Hope all are well. Think I'll fall out now. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............

Won't you sing along with me...

This Friday, March 5th, Primer Microgallery in Hatboro, PA will be hosting a solo show of my recently completed alphabet collection. This has been a project i've been working on for a while now and I'm really excited to be showing the whole collection for the first time. Below is sneak peak but if you're in the area swing on by to see the other 25 letters.


Follow the link to find out more...www.primerinc.com


PRIMER
15 BYBERRY ROAD
HATBORO PA 19040

484.994.3576
215.328.9278

Opening Reception
Friday, MARCH 5th
6 - 9pm