Jukebox Comix #6: The Space Queen

Jukebox Comix #6
Jukebox Comix #6 by Kelsey Wroten (Click to enlarge)

Cartoonist Kelsey Wroten is young, talented, and she’s giving away her latest comic book. You can download a free PDF of Jukebox Comix #6 from her website. This issue features a story titled “The Space Queen.” Wroten describes it as “the plight of a young woman with a big, and as always, unreachable dream, and not to mention strange taste in men.”

“My inspiration for ‘The Space Queen’ is the proclivity for some people, including myself sometimes, to immerse themselves in fantasy life when reality rejects them, or they can’t find the success they feel they deserve in the ‘real world’,” Wroten said. “The heroine of my story brushes off everything that a ‘normal’ person would hold important — education, work, even sex — for fantastic versions of them.”

A panel from Jukebox Comix #6, "The Space Queen"
A panel from Jukebox Comix #6, "The Space Queen" (Click to enlarge)

Wroten’s comics are literary and alternative, far from the superheroics that many people associate with comics. She says that she is heavily influenced by cartoonist Daniel Clowes (Eightball, Ghost World), whose stories feature oddball outcasts and surrealist elements. “I also really like Ariel Schrag. I think my content reflects the two,” Wroten said. “Schrag deals more with the close to home, emotional, details of her personal life, as she primarily does autobiographical comics.”

The 20-year-old cartoonist is currently a nominee for a 2011 ACP Cartooning Award in the category of Best Comic Panel/Strip. Her comic strip Sarcastic Animals appears in the The Campus Ledger, the student paper of Johnson County Community College. The results of the competition will be announced at the 90th Annual ACP/CMA National College Media Convention in Orlando on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011.

Planet Comicon 2012 dates confirmed

Planet Comicon Logo
Planet Comicon is Kansas City's largest comics and pop culture convention.

After a massive convention schedule reshuffle that knocked Planet Comicon off its previously announced weekend, promoter Chris Jackson has confirmed that Kansas City’s largest comics and pop culture convention will be held on March 24th and 25th, 2012.

The promoter had previously announced the March dates as “likely” but not confirmed.

There has been no word from Jackson yet about how the new dates will affect the bookings of previously announced guests Jason Aaron, Dan Parent, Don Rosa, Stan Sakai, and Skottie Young. “I’ll update the website and Facebook soon and list some guest info,” Jackson said.

The rescheduling chain reaction was originally triggered by renovations at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the traditional home of WonderCon. For 2012, WonderCon decided to move to Anaheim on a different weekend than normal. That turned out to be the same dates as planned for Chicago’s C2E2 convention. In a defensive move, C2E2 then shifted to an alternate weekend in early April — the weekend originally announced for Kansas City’s Planet Comicon.

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Local publisher seeks contributions

Topeka-based creator and publisher Bill Hook is seeking creators for a new comics anthology titled 86’d. The publication will be magazine-sized with black and white interiors.

“The setting will be a freak show,” Hook said. “We are looking for a variety of styles. The genre is horror but the tone of the story is up to each creator, the more variety the better. We want pencillers, writers, gig poster artists, and pin up artists.”

Hook asks interested creators to contact him by email at  bigb1113@gmail.com with “Horror Anthology” in the subject line. “We would like a note and some samples of the writing or artwork or a link to their website or blog. We will accept letters through the 14th of October. We want to promote area creators, but we are striving for professional quality,” Hook said.