How to use this Page

Whoops a LOT to do tonight! Fire up your Über! These are ALL tonight.

A Faintly Lit Light- Group Show

at 4:00pm – 7:00pm

Right now! HOT DRINKS!

The Perfect Nothing Catalog
260 Johnson Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11206

Blaise Larmee / Quintessa Matranga / Lms Sadler / Aidan Koch / Marie Jacotey / Anthony Cudahy / Wiley Guillot

Pre-CAB party! Join us 4-7, Friday November 7th at The Perfect Nothing Catalog shack for art, a bonfire, and hot drinks ^_^

Al Jaffee ART SHOW opening reception FRIDAY NIGHT Nov 7th 6-9 PM
Scott Eder Gallery
18 Bridge St Apt 2I,
Brooklyn, New York 11201

Come celebrate the opening of our new show ‘The Mad Fold-In Art Of Al Jaffee’. Enjoy the majesty of these paintings in all their glory. Al will be in attendance.

Anya Davidson: CHARACTER FLAWS
6:00pm – 10:00pm
Tomato House
301 Saratoga Avenue,
Brooklyn, New York 11233
Tomato House is thrilled to present a solo show of drawings by the acclaimed cartoonist, printmaker, and musician Anya Davidson.

Davidson has produced an avalanche, a torrent, a dizzying froth of comic work over the course of the last decade, often self-published in labor-intensive, fully silkscreened editions. Her storylines frequently collapse elements of the fantastic, the grotesque, and the mythological onto scenes of everyday life, exposing the ancient forces at work under our veneer of modern civilization. Her story “Barbarian Bitch” appeared in Kramers Ergot 8 and the graphic novel “School Spirits” was published in 2013 by PictureBox. “Band For Life”, her Ignatz-nominated online comic about the trials and tribulations of a group of young musicians, continues to appear weekly on vice.com.

“Character flaws is an attempt to capture some of the inhabitants of my brain, my neighborhood, my planet and my galaxy. They are usually in motion but they stood still for these portraits. As a cartoonist I have a deep and abiding obsession with the human figure and the myriad ways it can be altered, twisted and re-interpreted. I also have a compulsion to make up stories. Sometimes my character designs generate stories and sometimes it’s vice versa. Each one of these creatures is the potential protagonist of a story I haven’t thought up yet.” -A.D.

CHARACTER FLAWS opens November 7, with a reception from 6 to 10 PM and continues through December 6.

NY Launch Party of Matt Huynh’s comic book ‘Magpie, Magpie’

at 6:00pm – 8:30pm
B_SPACE NYC,
219 Mulberry St
New York, NY 10012
Come join us for drinks and great music to celebrate the launch of Australian artist Matt Huynh’s gothic sumi-e comic book ‘Magpie, Magpie’ including exhibition of original art.

More

Prints Gone Wild! 2014

Today
at 6:00pm – 1:00am

littlefield 622 Degraw St,

Brooklyn’s own legendary Cannonball Press has again assembled an extraordinary menagerie of graphic artists under one roof who will be present displaying and selling their prints for $50 or less for one night only on Nov. 8th at LITTLEFIELD NYC.

ONE NIGHT ONLY. Friday, Nov. 7th, 6pm – 1am

LITTLEFIELD
622 Degraw St., Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY 11217
btwn. 3rd and 4th Aves.
www.littlefieldnyc.com
Take the 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, or Q to Atlantic Terminal or the R train to Union St.
directions: www.littlefieldnyc.com/directions

21 and over only.

As part of New York Fine Art Print Week, organized by the International Fine Print Dealers Association in conjunction with the Annual IFPDA Pint Fair, long-time champion of the affordable art cause Cannonball Press has brought together these great artists so that New York can have a chance to see first-hand the incredible resurgence in affordable fine art printing that is happening across the country.

Featuring:
Justseeds
Bikini Press International
Sean Star Wars
Drive By Press
Cinders Gallery
Non Grata
Florence Gidez
Deerjerk and Haypeep
Raking Light Projects
Church of Type
The Amazing Hancock Brothers
Cannonball Press

Come join us for live printing, beer, music, and a GIANT dogpile of awesome cheap prints!!!

Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature Book Launch Party

6:30pm – 8:30pm

Society Of Illustrators 128 E 63rd St,
New York, New York 10065
Come out and celebrate the official book launch of The Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature by master anthologist Russ Kick. The launch party will be held in conjunction with the second annual “Push and Kick Awards” at the Society of Illustrators. Seven Stories Press would like to recognize the enthusiasm and support of three important figures in the comics art community, R. Sikoryak, Hillary Chute, and Lynda Barry. The reception is being co-sponsored by The Society of Illustrators and Publishers Weekly. The awards ceremony also coincides with the opening of an accompanying exhibition at the Society of Illustrators, of original artwork by contributors to The Graphic Canon of Children’s Literature.The exhibition will run November 4–December 20.

Pre-CAB Comic Book Party

7:00pm – 10:00pm

Park Slope Ale House
356 6th Ave,
Brooklyn, New York 11215

Join Hic & Hoc Publications, Space Face, Secret Acres, Breakdown Press, Decadence Comics & Happiness Comix for our first annual pre-CAB Comic Book Party, Friday, November 7 from 7-10PM at the Park Slope Ale House.

Come out, have a beer and tell us universal truths that we’ll try to dispute. It’ll be a good opportunity to get ready for CAB, where we’ll all try to out-cool each other and fail miserably.

We’ll be in the back room but a group of sad-faced comic nerds shouldn’t be too hard to spot.

Poster art by Joe Kessler!

Jules Watson, critically acclaimed author of the Celtic fantasy novels The White Mare and The Dawn Stag, talks about her latest book, Song of the North, which takes place in the western Scottish kingdom of Dalriada during the Roman conquest of Britain.

Song of the North is the story of Minna, a Roman servant who finds herself captive in the wilds of Western Scotland among a mystical Celtic people she had been brought up to revile. As Minna begins to know more about Dalriada, its people, and its history, she begins to suffer from torn allegiances and the irresistable call of her own blood to join in the war for Celtic freedom.

Overlook: Song of the North stars two very different but equally sexy leading men, Cian and Cahir. Do you have stronger personal feelings toward one or the other? (Certain members of the Overlook staff have a crush on Cian.)

Jules: I love them both for different reasons - I always have to fall in love with my heroes, or rather be in love with them to write them! Both are tortured and damaged in their own way. Cahir is a mature, princely character who is most definitely a man, but who has to go further and find the sacred king in himself. Cian starts out as a hurt boy and has to find the man in himself, the one who can open his heart to love. Both journeys are interesting to me - they both have to find their true selves and that is a theme I return to again and again. I was also playing around with the idea that different relationships call to different parts of the participants. Cian appeals to a younger, more playful part of his chosen mate, while Cahir draws out a deeper, more "higher purpose" aspect. I'd take either man, though there is something compelling about Cian hovering on the edge of his own potential, especially when you can see the man he will be.

Overlook: It's interesting that Minna is of mixed blood and struggles with her racial identity, especially since she tries at first to fit in with Roman culture, which systematically rejects her. Do you think/have you found that many British residents of this period would have had the same situation?

Jules: This is a great debate in archaeology - we simply don't know to what extent the native peoples remained "native" or mixed with the Romans, or how deeply the Roman culture was overlaid on the native one. From inscriptions we know that many Roman soldiers stayed after their service was up and married British women, so there must have been many residents of mixed blood. However, the victors were Roman and the defeated were Celtic, so it may be people were more inclinded to identify with the race of their fathers - they would probably have got further in life! By this late time (360s AD) it's probable that the veneer of society in the towns and at wealthy villas was entirely Roman, though there is evidence the Celtic religious beliefs continued alongside the imposed Roman ones. I think it would depend on your
place in society - the nobles and merchants who depended on Roman trade would most likely have been more "Romanised", so it fits that Minna coming from the working, peasant classes would have elders who clung to the "old ways" more firmly.

Overlook: The slice of Pictish culture you offer is fascinating. What during your research of that period/group surprised you?

Jules: One thing I love about the Picts is how we know virtually nothing about them! We don't even know what language they spoke - all they have left us are their incredible carved stones, with pictures of grand warriors riding horses and hunting deer and boar, and strange animal drawings. They will always be fascinating because the stones give us a tiny glimpse into their
minds and yet we will never know the deeper, vaster reaches of those minds. There are hints that they tattooed themselves - the word Pict may derive from either a Roman or native word meaning "the painted ones" - and I must admit I have always found the idea of hordes of tattooed warriors roaming around quite exciting. We have no idea what the tattoos were but I linked them to the animal carvings on the Pictish stones and decided they might have been tribal totems. Imagine having the representation of a wolf or a hawk tattooed all over your face! And the thought of thousands of those wild men screaming and charging down a hill into battle - amazing.


Song of the North is just out in bookstores and libraries.

Jules Watson, author of the critically acclaimed Song of the North, answers some more fan questions about the book and her characters.

Overlook: Your heroines are all drawn to the the spiritual realms of Celtic life, as priestesses, healers, and seers. Why was this important to you?

Jules Watson: The Celts placed religion and spiritual belief at the very heart of their
culture, with a great reverence for nature. From what they left behind, it
seems they considered that everything was imbued with spirit, that rituals
made even the mundane sacred so that all of life had meaning. I have been
drawn to them because that connection to nature is something I long for, and
the questions my characters ask are my questions, about our relationships to
the earth, to the gods, to our own souls, and to each other.

I am an utter romantic though, so I wanted to explore those things in the
context of a sweeping tale of adventure, peril, love, loss and all the
emotional depths that keep us as readers gripped to the page, and hopefully
shedding some tears.

Overlook: During the course of your historical/archeological research of the Dalriadans during this period, what have been the most fascinating pieces you've come across? Have you learned anything about the period that truly shocked or surprised you?

Jules Watson: There were many times that I felt instinctively about something in the
books and then later found out this fitted in with an existing fact, myth or story. For example, in my books there is a sacred island of priestesses off the west coast of Scotland, and since I had been to the great stone circle at Callanish on the Isle of Lewis I decided to set the priestess retreat there. I found out years later that an ancient writer said a Greek traveler had indeed come across a "sacred island" off the west coast of Scotland - which gave me quite a shock!

It also intrigues me how there are so few remains left of Scottish houses, settlements, and roads, which could make you think the peoples in Scotland at this time lived in a very primitive way, and yet one thing that does survive is their metalwork - incredibly ornate armbands set with enamel, and twisted gold and silver torcs, and incised swords and pommels and intricate
cauldrons and jug handles. Everything - even the tinest part of a horse bridle - boasts a craftsmanship that we can rarely match even today. Seeing how much effort and skill they put into their metalwork, I always think a trifle wistfully about all the other artefacts which must have been just as lavish, ornate and beautiful but which didn't survive the years - their wall
hangings, cushions and rugs, their clothes, their carved woodwork and paintings. And if they made such things, what did they think? We know the druids and their predecessors in earlier ages tracked the movements of stars, eclipses, seasons and cycles. How complex must their religious beliefs really have been? These were not simple savages living in crude huts
but highly sophisticated people.

Overlook is proud to be publishing Song of the North, a historical fantasy set in western Scotland, by Jules Watson, author of the critically acclaimed The White Mare and The Dawn Stag. Jules's books have gained a cult following among fans of Celtic fantasy and has been compared to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mist of Avalon and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Song of the North hits stores tomorrow. Jules, an archeologist and writer who lives in western Scotland, talked with us about her inspiration for Song of the North and her interest in the kingdom of Dalriada, the western Scots about whom she writes. We'll be posting her responses to celebrate the publication of Song of the North.

Overlook: You write about Dalriada, a kingdom based in the western Scottish and eastern Irish isles during the second, third, and fourth century. The freedom struggle of the Dalriadans is a fascinating story, but not many people are familiar with Scottish history of this period. What first got you interested in Dalriada and inspired your books?

Jules Watson: A major starting point was my great love for The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. The combination of Celtic romance and adventure, coupled with the priestess/spiritual aspects was the perfect book for me and obviously for millions of other readers who thirsted for that, too. Afterwards I sat waiting for years for someone to bring out another Mists of Avalon - and no one did, so eventually I thought "I'll have to do it myself,
and write what I want to read."

So I knew any novel of mine would have to be about the ancient Celts, as I had been obsessed with them from childhood - their fierceness and love of freedom, beauty, art, song and tales, and their deep connection to nature and their gods. I had also studied archaeology which triggered a fascination for prehistoric cultures. And as all novelists know, the key to gripping
plotlines is conflict. When writing historicals it's therefore a good idea to focus on conflict points between different cultures and peoples, and so this is what I did. The great enemy of the Celts was always the Romans...I had by this time fallen in love with the rugged beauty of Scotland...so I thought, "The Romans invaded Scotland - this would be a good framework for
my novels!" And of course this brought up the theme that made the movie Braveheart so compelling - a proud people attacked by an enemy force who have to fight for their freedom.

The people in the east of Scotland in the early first century AD were the Picts, but I also knew that there was another people based on the west coast in an area called Dalriada, supposedly settlers from Ireland. So this gave me another layer of conflict - what if I had Pictish and Dalriadan characters thrown together and all joining to fight the Romans?

The last piece of the puzzle is that the Kilmartin valley in Argyll in western Scotland has the greatest collection of ancient standing stones, tombs, forts and stone circles of anywhere in Scotland and as writer I had to ask, why? I wondered what had drawn people over thousands of years to build all these religious monuments, what was so special about this place? The valley also holds the fort of Dunadd which was the seat of the Dalriadan kings, so it all came together.

Now I had the time, the place, and the historical events - I just had to mix those in with the characters, romance, adventure and mystical aspects that drive my books and make them my own.

Jules Watson will answer more questions about Dalriada over the month of January. Check out her latest, Song of the North, in stores and libraries on January 10th.