Cartoonist/cat goofballs: Masheka, Riley, Mikhaela

Cartoonist/cat goofballs: Masheka, Riley, Mikhaela Originally uploaded by M1khaela.

My awesome photographer best friend Márta Fodor took a bunch of photos of Masheka and me this weekend to use in promoting our books. This had to be my favorite, but you can see a bunch more of the best ones here.

Also:

Read more after the jump...

Possible stops along the Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela book mini-tour route...

Too many hats! In addition to being a cartoonist, I'm currently trying to be my own publisher and publicist. Here are some locations that I'm going to try to get to--I don't have definite spaces or dates for any of these events yet, but I'm working on it! I'll announce final dates soon. If you live in any of these cities, I'm going to need help getting publicity, media, attendees to these events once I have firm dates/locations!

May
• May 19: Philly: Not an official Mikhaela booksigning/show, but I will be signing and selling books at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention at Masheka's table.

June
• Detroit: going to try to set something up the weekend of June 8 if possible.
• New York: Not sure when this would be yet... probably a weeknight sometime. This would most likely be a joint event with Masheka.
• Portland, OR: This is EXTREMELY tentative!

July
• Washington, DC: Not sure of date, but there will likely be a joint event with Cartoonists With Attitude at which I will have books for sale.
• Boston or Cambridge, MA: Haven't set a firm date or location yet, but this would be a weekend slideshow/signing event of some type.

August (or maybe July or late September, who knows)
• Philly An actual booksigning/show event.
• Northampton, MA: Thought this might be a good place to hit, what with all the LGBT comics I do. I'll see what I can do.
• Lowell, MA: Hometown! Don't even know if I should try this, but I'll be around Lowell in August quite a bit anyway.

Read more after the jump...

Review copies of Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela now available! + tentative release date

So the tentative official release date for Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela: Cartoons By Mikhaela Reid (i.e. the day you'll be able to start ordering it on this here fine web site) is May 11. It may be sooner, it may be later! But I'm going to need some serious help promoting this thing, for several reasons:

• Although it will have a real ISBN and all that, it's self-published, and I'll primarily be selling it through Lulu.com and this website.
• I'm not sure yet if I can actually afford to sell it on Amazon.com, since they charge a whopping 55% commission fee, which would basically mean I was paying them several dollars per copy.
• HOWEVER, if there's enough interest in the book, I can print enough copies to sell it through Amazon and still make a tiny bit of $$ per book. So we'll see!
• I don't have a distributor, and I'm quite nervous about trying to distribute it to actual stores, since that could mean returned and unsold copies I have to refund.
• But I do have tons of postcards I printed up, and I do plan to see if I can get the book into niche/specialty stores--queer/feminist/leftwing and suchlike bookstores would be good. If you know of any good ones, drop me a line! (cartoons@mikhaela.net)

Anyway, if you could do any of the following, my eternal gratitude is yours:

• Since I'm primarily selling it through the web, I'm particularly interested in sending review copies to blogs with lots of devoted readers who would be amenable to its contents. If you believe you fit this category, please drop me an e-mail (cartoons@mikhaela.net).
• But of course I would still love to be reviewed in print! So the above applies to print journalists/outlets as well!
• I would also LOVE love LOVE to do interviews with any blogs or online outlets (and print or radio outlets, of course). So let your writer/blogger/radio friends know!
• I'm nervous about trying to set up any solo events or signings, but I may try to set up some type of joint events or slideshows of some kind with Masheka and maybe other CWA members. Events at nearbyish colleges, bookstores, etc. I'd love to speak to any Gay/Straight Alliances in high schools (or colleges), too. I'm also happy to do entertaining digital cartoon slideshows in the New York/Massachusetts/Connecticut/Philadelphia type area (basically, anywhere I can reach by bus).

So yes... please help an angry cartoonist out! I'll have postcards, web ads, promo materials and emails and other tools that should make it reasonably easy for anyone who wants to help!

Read more after the jump...

Mikhaela featured in new book about killed cartoons

Killed Cartoons: Casualties of the War on Free Expression by David Wallis (Editor).

Here's the promo text:

In KILLED CARTOONS: CASUALTIES FROM THE WAR ON FREE EXPRESSION (W.W. NORTON), which features nearly 100 cartoons and illustrations, editor David Wallis gives you the chance to see what major magazines and newspapers tried to suppress. The collection, heralded by cartoonist Gahan Wilson of the New Yorker as "amazing in its range," includes spiked art about everything from the Iraq War to teen fashion trends. Works by renowned contemporary artists such as Garry Trudeau , Steve Brodner, Edward Sorel, Doug Marlette, Ted Rall, Paul Conrad, Matt Davies and Anita Kunz are displayed alongside unearthed gems by legends like David Low, Herblock and Norman Rockwell.

It's a very cool collection, with killed gems from all over the ideological spectrum. And editor David Wallis also wrote a piece for Women's eNews focusing on killed prochoice cartoons ("Editorial Pages Nix Toons Mocking Abortion Foes"), here's some of his interview with me from that:

Last year, Reid, a self-syndicated cartoonist, created "Every Sperm Is Sacred," a strip about the morning-after-pill. In Reid's dystopian America of 2020, the Supreme Court has upheld a "Spermy Protection Act," a show of power by the "sex-cell rights movement." ... . The idea for the strip was formed in Reid's pro-choice knitting group, "which sounds hippie and granola but it's not," she says. "It's a mini women's think tank."

"Every Sperm Is Sacred" reflects Reid's anxiety about the crusade not only to overturn Roe v. Wade, but to limit the availability of contraception.

"They are saying that the morning-after pill is abortion, which it is not," says Reid. "RU-486 is the abortion pill; the morning-after pill is a contraceptive . . . They are saying that the rights of the sperm and the egg override the rights of the woman."

Read more after the jump...