Kenosha Festival of Cartooning : April 2014

Lincoln Peirce: Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Guest Speaker for 2014

Please join us as we welcome Lincoln Peirce when he appears next September at the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning running from Thursday, September 25th through Saturday, September 27th of 2014.

“Some people call it a kids’ strip,” says Lincoln Peirce of Big Nate, the comic feature he created in 1991, “and some don’t. To me, the labels aren’t important. What really matters is that it’s funny.”

Big Nate follows the adventures of Nate Wright, an energetic sixth-grade boy whose larger-than-life personality often lands him in hot water with his classmates and teachers. “Nate’s school life is at the center of the strip,” Lincoln says. “And schools can be hilarious places.” Big Nate currently appears in over 300 newspapers, and in 2013 ranked among the ten most-read features on gocomics.com

In 2010, Lincoln’s characters reached a whole new audience when he began writing and illustrating Big Nate novels for children. Each of the six titles has been a New York Times Bestseller; the seventh book in the series, Big Nate Lives It Up, will be published by Harper Collins in March of 2015. There have also been numerous compilations from Andrews McMeel, including Big Nate: I Can’t Take It! And Big Nate: Great Minds Think Alike.

When he isn’t cartooning, Lincoln hosts a weekly radio show devoted to vintage country music. He also plays ice hockey, enjoys cryptic crossword puzzles, and doesn’t understand his computer. He and his wife Jessica live in the great little city of Portland, Maine, and have two children.

Stay tuned to this official festival site as we continue to profile our guest speakers!

Don't forget to follow us on twitter and facebook - @KenoshaFestival Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Facebook

Terri Libenson - Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Guest Speaker for 2014

Please join us as we welcome Terri Libenson when she appears next September at the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning running from Thursday, September 25th through Saturday, September 27th of 2014.

Terri’s cartooning career began as a child when she started vandalizing her brother’s Archie comic books by rewriting the dialog (luckily, she respected his MAD magazines enough to leave them alone).

Later, she moved on to some original work. Terri has been writing and illustrating humorous cards for American Greetings for over 20 years. She has won numerous awards for her work and even created a successful, long-running card line called “Skitch.” She has also written online cards for AmericanGreetings.com, Egreetings.com, and BlueMountainArts.com.

In 2000, Terri got back to her comic roots and developed “Got a Life,” a weekly syndicated strip with King Features. It ran for two years before she decided to try her hand at a daily comic feature. Her dream came true when the internationally syndicated “Pajama Diaries” launched in 2006. It details the daily happenings of Terri’s alter ego, Jill Kaplan, a contemporary working mom trying to juggle it all -- work life, family life, and sex life (or lack thereof) -- without going bonkers.

Terri has two book collections: “The Pajama Diaries: Déjà To-Do” (2011) and “The Pajama Diaries: Having it all…and no time to do it” (2013). She also has a third comic book-style collection called, “The Pajama Diaries: Bat-Zilla” (2013), which features a recent Bat Mitzvah story line and Jewish holiday-themed strips.

Born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, PA, a much saner Terri currently lives with her husband and two daughters in Cleveland, OH.

Terri's Strip The Pajama Diaries has just been nominated for Best Newpaper Comic Strip of 2013 by the National Cartoonists Society.

Stay tuned to this official festival site as we continue to profile our guest speakers.

Don't forget to follow us on twitter and facebook - @KenoshaFestival Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Facebook

Jeff Keane - Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Guest Speaker for 2014

Please join us as we welcome Jeff Keane when he appears next September at the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning running from Thursday, September 25th through Saturday, September 27th of 2014.

Jeff was born in 1958. Two years later, his father Bil Keane started chasing him around begging him to do something funny. So began his career as a cartoon model for "The Family Circus." He now authors that comic, which appears daily in over 1,400 newspapers worldwide, making it the most widely syndicated panel in America today.

Raised in Arizona, Keane moved to California to attend the University of Southern California where in 1980 he received his BFA in Drama. After graduation, in an attempt to have a freer schedule for auditions, etc., he returned to his cartoon roots and began to assist on the feature. Jeff started out just answering mail and compiling books but, through years of his father’s guidance, has taken over the feature and is responsible for all aspects of creating the daily cartoon (writing, penciling, inking, coloring).

In 2007 Keane was elected President of the National Cartoonists Society. The NCS (founded in 1946) is recognized as the world's premier organization of professional cartoonists. He was re-elected in 2009 (becoming only the fourth two-term president in the NCS’s history). Along with a group of his NCS colleagues, Keane has done numerous trips with the USO visiting our troops in hospitals and military bases throughout the world (including both Iraq and Afghanistan).

Jeff and his wife Melinda live in Laguna Hills where they created three cartoon characters of their own (Spencer, Matilda and Olivia). Keane now chases his kids around begging them to do something funny. So "The Family Circus" keeps going around in circles.

Festival Testimonial: Stephan Pastis

Have you been to Kenosha?

I've been to Kenosha.

Here's what I learned about Kenosha. They have a bar every 25 feet.

Seriously.

When Kenosha Festival of Cartooning organizer Anne Morse Hambrock cajoled me to visit Kenosha and be a speaker there in 2012 she baited the hook with that magical phrase, "Wisconsin is the beer capitol of the USA and Kenosha has bars every 25 feet."

I thought she was kidding. But, sure enough, as we drove into Kenosha there really did seem to be about 3 bars per block. Within a block of my hotel there were 7 bars alone.

That would have been enough for me to spend three days there even without a cartooning festival.

The festival itself was great. My fellow cartoonists and I all presented to packed audiences including a massive high school assembly where we were treated like rock stars. Literally. We entered the stage to the tune "Back in Black" by AC DC pumped out at high volume to an auditorium full of screaming kids.

The festival is gearing up for 2014 - September 25th-27 and they have another top notch group of cartoonists scheduled to speak - including this guy who I hear does some sort of family themed comic:

But they need your help with their Indiegogo campaign to fund the events and also keep everything free and open to the public. Click on the link, watch the video by my buddy Tom Racine, (watch for me, I'm in there, you guessed it, with a beer) and help them reach their goal!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kenosha-festival-of-cartooning/x/5840174

Note from the festival director - the above photo is, of course, Jeff Keane of "Family Circus" - that photo was taken on a military helicopter when Jeff and Stephan visited troops in Afghanistan with the USO "Cartooning For The Troops"

Festival Testimonial: Hilary Price

Thank you to Hilary Price for sharing a story about her time in Kenosha as a guest speaker in 2012! Be sure to make her strip "Rhymes With Orange" one of your daily reads if you haven't done so and follow her blog. She also did a nice TV interview recently that you can find here.

"You may remember that in 2012 I was a speaker at the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning. I don't know what I was expecting Kenosha to be like. I'm pretty sure I hadn't counted on it being like this:

You look out the window of the hotel at Lake Michigan and see fish hurling themselves 2 or 3 feet out of the water into the air. Use a fishing pole if you like but if you are close enough, a baseball mitt would do.

I learned some other fascinating things about Kenosha: they are the home of Snap On Tools and Jockey Underwear. (I happen to be wearing my Jockey For Hers right now.) And it used to be where you got those cool Nash Ramblers.

Now they are also becoming known for this terrific cartooning festival that happens in September.

I really enjoyed my time as a speaker - the event was not so large it was intimidating and not so small it would have been awkward. I was able to get to know the fans as well and share a drink or two with my fellow cartoonists. It was well organized and low stress. I had a blast, despite the fact that for the first - and hopefully last - time I accidentally licked the microphone during my presentation.

The festival is happening again next September 25th-27th with another stellar line-up of cartoonists and they need your help to reach their fundraising goal on Indiegogo. All the events at the festival are free and open to the public but only if they can get the money they need to actually pay for staging everything.

Click on the link, watch the video that gives you all the details about speakers and stuff, and support the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning today!" http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kenosha-festival-of-cartooning/x/5840174

Festival Testimonial: Sandra Bell Lundy

Thank you to Sandra Bell Lundy for sharing a story about her time in Kenosha as a guest speaker in 2011. She even put it in illustrated narrative for us!! Be sure to make her strip "Between Friends"one of your daily reads if you haven't done so. And head over to our Indiegogo and make a donation to support keeping attendance to festival 2014 completely FREE and open to the general public!!