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!!

Kenosha Festival Of Cartooning 2014 - Spread The Word!

Mark your calendars! We have our official dates and speaking roster set for the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning 2014! The festival will run:

• Thursday, September 25
• Friday, September 26 
• Saturday September 27

Our special guest speakers are:

• Jeff Keane - Family Circus
• Lincoln Peirce - Big Nate
• Scott Stantis - Prickly City and Editorial Cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune
• Terri Libenson - The Pajama Diaries
• Rick Stromoski - Soup to Nutz
• Todd Clark - Lola
• Denis Kitchen - Kitchen Sink Press and co-author of "Al Capp - A Life To The Contrary"
• Michael Schumacher - Author of "Will Eisner - A Contract With God" and co-author of "Al Capp - A Life To The Contrary"

We have a LOT of exciting things planned this year including two gallery shows and an auction of original art to benefit children's charities in the Kenosha Area.

We will be launching our fundraising drive for the 2014 budget at the beginning of the year and, before we launch the drive, we need to spread the word. Crowd sourcing on platforms like Kickstarter works best when a lot of people donate, even if the donations are small.

So we are setting a goal of 1000 new followers on Twitter (@KenoshaFestival)and 1000 new followers on Facebook (Kenosha Festival of Cartooning - Facebook). If you are already a "Friend of the Festival" one of the best things you can do right now is persuade others to follow the festival on social networking. Clicking on the above links will take you to the appropriate pages.

The Festival is an amazing opportunity for folks to meet cartoonists and all events are FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

Mini-fest 2013 - Photos and Thank You's

What a great Mini-fest we just had with Tom Richmond of MAD Magazine!

Both classes were full, as were the portfolio review sessions. We had a pretty good crowd, raised some money for next year, and had a great time!!

A huge thank you to Tom Richmond whose talent and professionalism are only outclassed by his overall niceness! 

Thank you to Nancy Mathews and the Kenosha Public Museum for again partnering with the festival to bring terrific artists to Kenosha!

Thank you to the Kenosha News for once again sponsoring the festival and providing us with great publicity and news coverage!

Thank you to Chet Griffith of Artworks Kenosha who provided us with space to teach the pro class and the portfolio reviews!

Thank you to Judy and Sharon Rossow and The Copy Center for again printing ALL our PR materials and programs and such this year!

Thank you to John Bloner whose press release expertise helped us spread the word in local media!

Thank you to all our wonderful donors, both here on the site and locally! We couldn't do this without you!

And finally, thank you to everyone who made the trip to Kenosha to attend the Mini-fest. You were a great audience and it is your enthusiasm and interest in cartooning and cartoonists that give us the energy to plan for the festival's next year!!

Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Mini-fest 2013, kicked off Saturday morning with a class at the Kenosha Public Museum. Geared toward ages 13-18, the kids soaked up Tom's expertise and seemed particularly excited to see him draw Daniel Radcliff as Harry Potter. The class was followed by Tom's free presentation of his illustration career spanning over 25 years.

 We did not have the talents of our expert photographer this year but I snapped a few pics of the class and Tom's presentation. Here is a small photo gallery:

At this point I had so many other things to take care of that I was forced to stop taking pictures. If any attendees have photos that they would like to share - please email me at kenoshacartoonfest@gmail.com

Thanks again - see you all next September 25-27!

Festival Poster

Here is the official poster for Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Mini-Fest happening on November 2, 2013 with visiting guest artist Tom Richmond of MAD magazine.  Please email the festival at kenoshacartoonfest@gmail.com if you would like a pdf copy of the poster to print or share with folks you feel would be interested in attending.

November 2013 Mini-fest with Tom Richmond: Events and Fundraising

Plans are shaping up for this November's 1 day Mini-fest (Saturday, November 2) with our fabulous guest speaker Tom Richmond. Tom will be working hard for us this time teaching caricature classes, offering tips to freelancing artists, and talking about his career in caricature and illustration for such illustrious publications as MAD magazine, Cracked magazine, Marvel Comics, Scholastic and about a million others. Visit Tom's website here and check out all the amazing things he's done! (You should visit the site for the opening animation alone.)

This year we will be using the mini-fest not only to showcase Tom's tremendous talent but to offer some professional development opportunities to aspiring illustrators and comic artists and to raise money for Kenosha Festival of Cartooning 2014.

Which is why instead of simply offering a great presentation that is free to the public we've added classes, receptions and portfolio reviews. These extra events will be offered as backer rewards to those of you who use the donate button to support the festival. Space will be limited and first priority will be given to backers. If the spots don't "sell out" by September, we will offer them to non backers for a flat rate slightly higher than the backer rate.

** For an explanation of this year's "Non-Kickstarter Crowd Funding", click here.
** For all information on Backer Rewards and to keep tabs on how much we've raised, click here.

Here are the events we plan to offer for this one day mini-fest:

Caricature class for kids aged 13-18 at the Kenosha Public Museum **Note: this class is run by the museum and will NOT be tied to backer rewards. Once the museum adds the class to their event roster and opens enrollment, we will provide a link to their site. Check back in August.

Presentation on Tom Richmond's Career in Illustration and work for magazines like MAD at the Kenosha Public Museum - Free to the public but seating is limited to 200

Caricature class and freelancing tips for aspiring professionals at Artworks Kenosha - class limited to 17

Portfolio Review with either Tom Richmond (caricature and illustration) or John Hambrock (comic strips and panels) - reviews will last 15 minutes and are limited to 6 per artist.

Artist Hangout and behind the scenes tour of John Hambrock's studio - limited to backers only and offered as an alternative to the afternoon caricature class and portfolio review. A full lunch will be served.

Meet and Greet Reception at Matt's on Main with Tom Richmond, John Hambrock and any and all other professional cartoonists who attend the mini-fest - this event will be a fundraiser as well as a backer reward. Pizza will be provided with your donation. Cash bar.

To become a backer of the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning mini-fest Click the Donate Button in the upper left sidebar.

It's going to be a great event and we can't wait to see all of our old cartooning friends and fans and meet some new ones!

Mark Your Calendars - Festivals 2013 and 2014

Festival guest speaker for 2013 Tom Richmond

Yes, we are going to do the festival again! We have some exciting things planned and details will be forthcoming as everything firms up.

We will not run the full 3 day festival in 2013. Rather we will have a 1 day "mini-fest" that is tentatively set for Saturday, November 2. There will be great events all day and our primary featured speaker will be Tom Richmond of MAD magazine and "The Mad Art of Caricature" fame. Stay tuned for the full presentation and class schedule to be posted in the coming weeks.

In September of 2014 we will once again be back in full swing with 3 days of terrific events, both for the public and the local schools. Mark your calendar for September 25, 26, and 27th of 2014 and prepare for another great lineup of guests!

A note: We will be experimenting this year with crowd sourcing fundraising on my own. By this I mean that we hope to do the same kind of fundraising, complete with backer rewards, as we did on Kickstarter last year but through this website using paypal. Paypal allows backers to use any credit card they wish rather than having to have an Amazon account, plus they take a smaller percentage of the total funds raised in fees. Again, details will be forthcoming in the coming weeks.

Checks For Charities!

Dr. James Lustig, Festival Director Anne Morse Hambrock, and Regional Marketing Director for Children's Hospitals of Wisconsin Thomas Miller

Festival Director Anne Morse Hambrock and Executive Director for Margaret Ann's Place Ginger Heigl

It took a while to get everything processed. It then took another while to get schedules to align so that I could present the checks in person. But the money raised by The National Cartoonist Society Foundation via the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning was finally formally presented to both Margaret Ann's Place and the Children's Hospitals of Wisconsin's Kenosha Clinic!

We raised over 5,000 for each charity!

Thank you again to Rick Stromoski, the NCSF and all the cartoonists who sent work for the auction!

Yet Another Interview - Stephan Pastis Festival Guest 2012

Thanks to Mitch Teich of WUWM Milwaukee for interviewing Stephan Pastis while he was here at the festival and also in Milwaukee for his book tour. Click here to listen.

Another Radio Interview - Hilary Price Festival 2012

Thanks to Mitch Teich of WUWM Milwaukee for interviewing Hilary Price while she was here at the festival! Click here to listen and be sure to check out the web page where there is an additional interview snippet about Hilary's hockey playing!

Photo Gallery From Festival 2012

Official Festival Photographer Mike Cope (of Copetoons) helps with a cartooning class

Mike Cope took over 3000 photos of the festival! He posted 240 of them over on the festival Facebook page.

I have also posted several of them (with captions) in the photo gallery here on the Festival Website.

Enjoy!!

Post Festival "Thank You's"!!

Now that the dust has settled somewhat on Kenosha Festival of Cartooning 2012, a few "thank you's" are in order!

A festival like this does not spring into being all on its own. It takes the hard work of many people working behind the scenes.

First,  my heartfelt gratitude to Rick Stromoski and the National Cartoonist Society Foundation for being our principal underwriter and running the charity auction and to all the members of the National Cartoonist Society who generously sent original artwork to raise money for children’s services in Kenosha.

Second, I cannot begin to thank the guest artists who gave up 4 days of their incredibly busy lives to hang out with the people of Kenosha! Thank you Dave Coverly, Greg Cravens, Norm Feuti, Michael Jantze, Stephan Pastis and Hilary Price - you were all a pleasure to work with!!

I would also like to thank Tom Racine for his help with the festival Kickstarter video, for moderating all our panel discussions, for having our back on all gadget and technical needs, for plugging the festival on his podcast, for making an awesome video about the festival, and all the other million little things he has contributed behind the scenes. 

Thank you to Mike Cope for being our festival documentarian and photographing every event for posterity. He shot over 3000 photos! As if that was not enough, he whittled them down to 240 dynamite shots and posted them over on facebook for us - tagging every single one!

I cannot thank enough the staff of the Kenosha Public Museum, particularly Nancy Mathews, Rachel Klees Anderson, and Gina Radandt for their tireless work with the show “More Than Funny” and all the events held at the museum.

Thank you John Bloner and Kenosha Community Media for being our fiscal receiver and for tirelessly helping with festival publicity and filming

Thanks to Judy Rossow and the Copy Center for the printing of all the posters and programs! 

Thanks to the Kenosha News for their great coverage and support.  

Many thanks to Paul Chilsen of the Carthage Department of Communication and Digital Media for sponsoring the artist’s appearance at Carthage, to Leonard Schultz for his support at Carthage, to Patricia Briggs and the Art  Department at UW Parkside, to Beth Ormseth, Jeanne Sanchez-Bell, Michael Schroeder, Robert Wells and Joe Savaglio for facilitating the assembly at Indian Trail, to Brenda Cunningham and Susan Rizzo for organizing the hospital outreach and to Jeff Stewart and Thomas Miller of Children’s Hospital, Dr James Lustig of the CHW Kenosha Clinic, and Ginger Heigl of Margaret Ann’s Place.

Thank you to TG’s Restaurant and Pub for sponsoring Thursday’s dinner for the artists as well as catering the auction on Saturday and thank you also to Marsha Caporaso for hosting a dinner for the artists on Friday.

Thanks also to my festival volunteers: Joan Quets, Sally Huck, John Bloner Jr., Josh Frazier, Tom Clark, Sue Larkin, Kendra Lange, Chris Feldy, Julia and Karel Suchy, Margaret Heller, Maria MacWillams, Jane Heide, Tsai Wei Udry, and all the other folks who pitched in at the auction.

Thank you to Josh Frazer for designing a terrific logo for the festival.

Thanks to Greg Berg of the WGTD Morning Show, Mitch Teich of WUWM Lake Effect, Bill Robbins of the Kenosha News, and Eric Gunn of Milwaukee Magazine for their terrific interviews with myself and the festival artists.

Thank you to everyone in the webisphere who plugged the festival and helped us make our fundraising goals - Alan Gardener of The Daily Cartoonist, Mike Peterson of Comic Strip of The Day, David Hurley of Don't Pick The Flowers and all the comic artists and friends who put the festival on their websites and blogs.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who bought art at the charity auction!! We sold everything!! And we raised over $10,000 for the Children's Hospital's Of Wisconsin's Kenosha Clinic and Margaret Ann's Place!

Thanks to my children for being largely self sufficient for the 9 months I took to plan the festival, and, finally, the biggest thank you of all to my husband John Hambrock for not only supporting me when I set out on this mad mission but also for designing every ad, poster and program while still meeting his strip deadline.

One of my primary goals with the festival was to keep all the events free and open to the public. This would not have been possible without the generous financial commitment of the following sponsors:

Principal Underwriters:  

National Cartoonist Society Foundation

 The Kenosha Public Museum

 The Kenosha News, Kenosha Community Media

 The Department of Communication and Digital Media at Carthage College

 The University of  Wisconsin  Parkside Art Department

 Jeff Weinfurter

Kickstarter backers and other donors:

Linnea Bakery

Coco's Attic

Bjorn's Clothing

Lori Kerber DDS

The Copy Center

Dr. and Mrs. Jerome Quets

Jennifer Brindley,

Tim Johnson,

John Bloner,

Suzy Glass,

Fancis Hybert,

Brendan Burford,

Amy Lago,

John Glynn,

Stephen and Elaine Azuma,

Tom and Anna Richmond,

Tom Gammill,

Steve and Tsai Wei Udry,

Mike Cope,

Scott Stantis,

Ed Held,

Patti Pomeroy,

Jim Shoenbill,

Bob Krohmer,

Alan Rozanski,

Brian Kelly,

The Chicago Chapter of the NCS,

Bjorn’s Clothing,

Beth Larsen,

Jess Barr,

Yifan Ng,

Andrew Shuping,

Robert Vallone,

Bruce Quast,

Darrel Bimberg,

John Kovalic,

Donovan Scherer,

Ryan Pagelow,

Keith Rose,

Alan Gardener,

 Jonathon Mahood,

Wendy McGuire,

Timothy Hanna,

Justin Liston,

David Hurley,

Tom Targos,

Mike Rhode,

Raymond Riethmeier

Chris Christmas

Ed Floden,

Joe Engressor,

Melissa Parkinson

Allan McCoy

Chuck Ingwerson,

John Rockefeller,

Andrea Denninger,

Gerry Mooney

Dawn Griffin

Terri Libenson,

Sara Thaves,

Elliot Kaplan,

Tom Racine,

Rick Stromoski,

Monica Jackson,

Ken Marciniak,

Eric Goldesberry

Matt Forcum,

Irma Eriksson,

Eddie Pittman

Tony Kinnard,

Piper Jacob,

DM Rolfe,

Sam Adams-Lanham

Alec Jokubaitis

Samuel Rebelsky,

Michael Fry,

Jeff Hopkins,

Ellen Abramowitz,

Mike Starr

Stacy Curtis,

Rich Desslin,

Sandra Lundy,

Kelly McNutt,

Tom Stemmle,

Mike Peterson,

Chris Feldy,

Keith Knight,

Nancy Matthews,

Ebba Johnson,

Katie Camosy,

Lori Bennard,

Lonnie Milsap,

Laura Damato,

Patricia Briggs,

Nancy Maczka,

Darin De Paul,

Dave McDonald,

Bree Berner,

Mark Thompson.

Kevin Williams

Ruth Penberthy

Roderick Christopher

Photos of the Festival on Facebook and Video by Tom Racine

Thank you Mike Cope for putting 240 photos of the festival up here on facebook.

Thank you also to Tom Racine for posting this wonderful video, shot during the silent auction for charity.

More posts later as I catch up with all the loose ends.....

WGTD Interview with all the guest artists

What a wonderful festival we had!! Photos and video and all sorts of good things to come but we are still editing :-)

For now, here is the interview all the artists did on Thursday morning with the local NPR affiliate.

Note: The intro music runs until 1:29 and the very end (greg Cravens answer to a question) is cut off. I hope to eventually get the whole thing from the station....

http://media.gtc.edu/morningshow/892712.mp3

Lake Effect Interview

Last week I had the pleasure of heading up to the studios of WUWM 89.7 for an interview with Mitch Teich of Lake Effect. The piece ran on Monday and is archived here.

Mitch will be interviewing Hilary Price when she is here for the festival and also Stephan Pastis when he does the Milwaukee leg of his book tour. I'll post links as I get them.

Our First Poster For 2012

Our first poster with the master schedule is ready!

Please note the auction on Saturday!

Kenosha Festival of Cartooning Promotional Video

Tom Racine has graciously tweaked our Kickstarter Video to be a great general advertisement for the Festival.

Check it out and feel free to share. If you visit the vimeo site there is a sharing button to help you embed the video.

Tickets, Hotels, and other stuff for the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning

We are getting our ducks in a row here at festival headquarters....


First, seating for Saturday's afternoon's events is limited to 175 people. The event is still free but you will need to reserve a ticket. One ticket will get you into all three events - we will not have time to clear the room between events so this is just easiest for everyone.


If you wish to reserve a ticket, contact festival director Anne Morse Hambrock at anne.edisonlee@gmail.com.


Please specify how many tickets you will need - limit 4 per request. 


Once you have reserved your tickets you will receive a confirmation email. The tickets can be picked up Saturday morning, September 29th at the main desk of the Kenosha Public Museum.

Second, hotels in the area are filling up. Click on the above link "Hotels in Kenosha" to reserve your rooms.

Third, we have an official promo card for the Gallery Show "More Than Funny" that will be hanging at the Kenosha Public Museum (5500 1st Avenue, Kenosha) from September 8 through September 29. There will be an opening reception for the show Sunday, September 9 from 1-4.

This show features art from Family Circus, Luann, Baby Blues, Zits, Pearls Before Swine, MAD magazine, and many, many more. Most of the art from the show will be for sale to the highest bidder at Saturday's Silent Benefit Auction. This auction is sponsored by the National Cartoonist Society Foundation and will raise money for Children's Hospitals of Wisconsin and Margaret Ann's Place.

Please feel free to copy the file below and share it with everyone you know who would like to own an awesome piece of original comic art and also benefit a worthy cause! If you need a high resolution file of the image, contact Anne Morse Hambrock at anne.edisonlee@gmail.com.

click to enlarge

Preliminary Schedule for Kenosha Festival of Cartooning 2012 UPDATED

The 2012 Kenosha Festival of Cartooning will be held from Thursday, September 27th through Saturday, September 29th.

The following is a preliminary schedule and may change. Check back regularly for updates. Note that not all events are open to the public.

UPDATE: Please note that, while the presentations remain on the same days, some of the start times have changed slightly. Please plan to arrive early at each presentation in case we are running ahead of schedule.

Thursday 9/27

8:00 am Interview with Greg Berg of WGTD for the Morning Show.

All artists.

9:50-11:30 am Classroom lecture at Carthage College. Not open to the public.

2:00-4:00 pm Lectures at Carthage College and the University of Wisconsin Parkside. Not open to the public

6:30 pm John Hambrock  Kenosha Public Museum (Free & Open to Public)

John will officially open the festival and introduce the evening's speakers.

6:45 pm Dave Coverly Kenosha Public Museum  (Free & Open to Public)

Behind the scenes of "Speed Bump".

7:45 pm Michael Jantze  Kenosha Public Museum (Free & Open to Public)

Behind the scenes of "The Norm" and Jantze Animation Studios.

Friday 9/28

8:45-10:20 am Class lecture at Carthage College. Not open to the public.

9:00-11:00 am Outreach to Children's Hospital. Not open to the public

1:30-2:45 pm Assembly for KUSD high school art students. Not open to the public.

7:00 pm Greg Cravens Kenosha Public Museum  (Free & Open to Public)

Behind the scenes of "The Buckets".

8:00 pm Hilary Price Kenosha Public Museum  (Free & Open to Public)

Behind the scenes of "Rhymes With Orange".

Saturday, 9/29

10:00 am -12:00 pm Cartooning Class for ages 10-16. Taught by guest artists. Open to the public but registration is required and a fee payable to the Kenosha Public Museum will be charged.

10:00 am - 12:00 pm Rotating artist demonstrations in the Museum's "Artist Studio" Kenosha Public Museum (Free & Open to Public)

1:30 pm Panel discussion with Stephan Pastis, John Hambrock, Hilary Price, Dave Coverly, Greg Cravens, Phil Hands, Norm Feuti, and Michael Jantze - moderated by Tom Racine. Kenosha Public Museum  (Free & Open to Public but seating is limited and advance registration will be required.)

2:45 pm Norm Feuti Kenosha Public Museum  Behind the scenes of "Retail" and "Gil". (Free & Open to Public but seating is limited and advance registration will be required.)

4:00 pm Stephan Pastis Kenosha Public Museum  Behind the scenes of "Pearls Before Swine". (Free & Open to Public but seating is limited and advance registration will be required.)

6:00-8:00 pm Silent Auction to benefit Children's Hospital of Wisconsin's Kenosha Clinic. Rhode Center For The Arts. (Free & Open to Public) The auction will feature original art by each of the guest artists as well as the art of many other well known comic artists. There will be a catered reception at this event and the artists will be there to draw and sign for festival guests.

This concludes the festival.

Our Guest Speakers For 2012

It is with great excitement that I am able to announce the list of confirmed guest speakers (in alphabetical order):


Dave Coverly (Speed Bump)
Greg Cravens (The Buckets)
Norm Feuti (Retail and Gil)
Michael Jantze (The Norm and Jantze Studios)
Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine)
Hilary Price (Rhymes With Orange)


Also joining us will be our favorite podcaster for all things comic, Tom Racine. Tom will be moderating panel discussions and also, hopefully, doing some live podcasting for us.


We have a lot of exciting things planned for next year's festival so mark your calendars for Thursday, September 27 through Saturday, September 29.




If you are interested in supporting the festival with a tax deductible donation, please click on the donate button and make a secure donation. All donors will have their names listed in the festival program (regardless of dollar amount) and no donation is too small (or too large). 

New Guest Speaker!

I am optimistic that we will meet our Kickstarter Goal and am very excited to announce that Hilary Price is joining us to round out our guest speaker roster for September.

I've been a fan of Hilary's fabulous strip "Rhymes With Orange" for a long time and am thrilled that she will be joining us!

Our current total, with NCSF matching funds, is $7714. Which leaves us needing only $1,143 to make our $10,000 goal.

But we only have until 5:00 pm CST tomorrow (May 22) to get this done.

Head over and Pledge!