Friendship

It has been forever since I posted in here.  A lot has happened since June!  I moved into a great new apartment, organized the 5th annual Chicago Zine Fest  and been doing small projects here and there.  I am coming up on a huge work time for myself and hoping to get a lot done and keep posting results of things I'm doing.  I hope!
Here is a comic I drew for my friend Heather's comp zine called Always and Forever: A Zine About Friendship she made for Chicago Zine Fest.  It's totally awesome (because so many amazing people contributed!)  and you can order it here:
http://strangerdangerzines.com/catalog/a-c or here
https://www.etsy.com/listing/184541201/always-forever-a-zine-about-friendship?ref=af_you_favitem

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Sometimes the Sky Explodes

 My new book Sometimes the Sky Explodes: The Story of a Hamster Named Yams is now available at my Etsy store and very soon at Quimby's! Click here to pick up a copy through etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/116835568/sometimes-the-sky-explodes-the-story-of
It is a story of an overweight hamster named Yams who goes on an adventure when he gets free from his cage.
Here are a few peeks at what it looks like:

Also, I have gone down the rabbit hole of having a tumblr.  I will still make blog posts here but the Tumblr is more just for comics and drawings that I do to keep me on my toe and have things to put upt here.  Please follow me!  http://leslieperrine.tumblr.com/

For the December fundraiser for the Chicago Zine Fest we are having a donation campaign where you can get really awesome gifts for donating.  Jaclyn, Heather and I made this video for it which I am particularly fond of:

Please consider donating here: http://www.indiegogo.com/czfbff 

Free Fallin'

Listening to a lot of Tom Petty, getting a lot of work done.
It's been so gorgeous out and I've had a few unexpected days off from work, which is great for getting real work done.
My friend and former tourmate Jim Joyce is putting together a Halloween zine he asked me to be a part of.  These four pages were my contribution:





I'm excited to see it all together.  Also in the zine are Xavier Maldonado, Dave Roche, Vicky Lim and more!

I've been working non stop on a project I can't share..shhhhh it's a surprise for someone!  But I'm really excited, so just rest assured there's a lot of work going on.
photo proof:


Fall means getting back in Zine Fest swing.  We're back on a weekly meeting schedule and hosting our first fundraiser Oct. 24th.  Here's the flyer I made for the reading:



Speaking of zine fests, I'll be at the Madison Zine Fest Oct. 22nd--if you're in the area or looking for a day trip, come say hi!  I'm excited to go back to Madison.  It was really lovely this time of year last year.  

Tour Time

I'm leaving on tour Friday for a week and a half with three talented friends Dave Roche, Jim Joyce and Xavier Maldonado. Here are the dates and places for the tour, if you're around please come say hi!

Aug 11th Chicago, IL 826CHI (1331 N Milwaukee 7pm)

Aug 12th Grand Rapids, MI Calvin Gallery (106 S. Division 7pm)

Aug 13th Cleveland, OH Soggy Dog House (tentative)

Aug 14th Pittsburgh, PA Cyberpunk Apocolypse (5431 Carnegie St 7pm)

Aug 15th Philly, PA Wooden Shoe Bookstore (704 South Street 7pm)

Aug 16th New York, NY Book Thug Nation (100 North 3rd St 7pm)

Aug 17th Baltimore, MD Red Emma's (tentative)

Aug 18th Columbus, OH luka House (2131 luka ave 7pm)

Aug 19th Louisville, KY Quills Coffee Shop (930 Baxter 7pm)

Aug 20th Bloomington, IN Boxcar Books (408 6th St 7pm)

I'm very excited to take my work on the road. I love having the instant feedback of a crowd, it's pretty amazing.

I've been binding like crazy to make copies to take out. I will have copies of my new edition of Aurthur and the Whale.

I drew this comic for a zine about nannying that Jami Sailor asked me to contribute to. I'm very excited to see the finished product!

And in other huge news-Chicago Zine Fest 2012 date has been set. Please mark your calendars!

In personal news I have a new amazing roommate Sara Drake. It's awesome to have a roommate working on stuff and to have work nights. She is right now working on raising money for an amazing trip she is planning to go to Cambodia and work with women there on making comics. It's pretty incredible and a great cause. Please, think about donating to her kickstarter to try and help fund it. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/178882708/comics-in-cambodia?ref=live

Hope to see some of you on tour!

It's Zine Fest time!

Well, for about seven months straight I've devoted most of my "free time" to planning The Chicago Zine Fest, which takes place THIS FRIDAY and SATURDAY.

This year I'm a little less scared and just as excited about the weekend of festivities!

Check out this line up!

Then there is a super fun (in)Formal dance after party Saturday night in an outerspace theme.

These are the people I've been spending hours and hours with planning, fundraising, emailing, food making, errand running and just over all hanging out with

That's Ramsey, Jen, Me, Carrie and Johnny and NEIL is taking the picture--he's the one who gave us all kazoos.

They're all amazing and awesome.

This is the map I drew of Chicago for the program that will be at all the events Friday and Saturday:

For Zine Fest--Ramsey and myself are putting out a split comic with Liz Prince and Kettner. It's about OkCupid.

Here's a sneak peak of one of my comics:

So excited! Hope everyone gets here safe, thanks for all your support!

Winter Hibernation

It's officially that part of winter where it feels like it's never going to end.

I did a really fun reading last weekend at The Beauty Bar which I forgot to post about, whoops. It was a reading series hosted by Two With Water a really awesome literary magazine my old roommate Amy helps run.

We sold out tables for the Zine Fest already! We are still trying to free up some space so there's a waiting list we're asking people to sign up to be on just in case! It's been kind of whirlwind response, which is so amazing.

Here's a flyer I made for an upcoming fundraiser event.

I'm very excited to be showing Groundhog Day on Groundhog Day, kind of a dream come true of mine.

The 64th st. print shop is coming along and we tested out working the smaller press last weekend and worked out some kinks. Tomorrow is a type sorting event that Clare organized. It will be nice to see who else is interested in the project and figure some things out.

Happy to be writing again, happy to be drawing.

Here's a comic about crushes, ah winter.

Turn and Face the Strange

Big News is registration for the Chicago Zine Fest is now open!

We're anticipating being able to sell out 100 tables this year--pretty crazy.

Also have some big name special guests including Aaron Cometbus, Al Burian, Cindy Crabb, Anne Elizabeth Moore, John Porcellino, Lilli Carre, Jeffrey Brown, and more!

It's going to be an awesome time!

Please visit our website and check out our new artwork done by the amazing Edie Fake

http://www.chicagozinefest.org/

I'm also taking on a new project down at the 64th Street Print Shop, which is basically an abandoned print shop funded by U of C that myself and 3 other girls from my letterpress class have decided to start up again. We went down last Wednesday to scope it out and do some cleaning. It's going to take a lot of work but I think we can get it up and running soon. Here's a photo Elizabeth snapped after moving all the drawers of type and stacking them in the shelving. Moving drawers of type around is definitely going to help my triceps!

I also became a very proud and happy Aunt the day after Thanksgiving.

Here's a comic about that..sort of...

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

End of November, already.

This past week was my last week of my letterpress class. The first day of class our teacher Pamela told us that a book for a final project was probably a little much to try for. Of course in my head I'm thinking, "Noooo problem!" I quickly discovered she was probably right. But none the less here it is--my tiny book final letterpress project:

I'm happy with how it came out. If you would like one, I'm selling them for two dollars. Please email me.

Also, the slug prints I posted before are now available on my fabulous etsy page!

Exciting Exciting News Part 1: Chicago Zine Fest has announced it's dates March 25th and 26th! and will happen at the Conoway Student Center at Columbia College again. I am so excited about the programming and actual event, I can't wait until March. I'll share information soon, just know it's going to be AWESOME.

And Exciting Exciting News Part 2: I'm going to be an aunt probably within this week!!! Here is a comic about it. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

July, July

On my way to Minneapolis today to participate in the Twin Cities Zine Fest!

it should be a lot of fun! I'm very excited. If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello.

Also, I'll be doing a reading shortly after I get back here's the info:

July 31st, 2010

Fritz Pastry (they have vegan donuts!!)

4-6pm

We had our first Chicago Zine Fest 2011 Meeting this week!

So much to think about! I can't wait to get the ball rolling for it.

We're trying to get some flyers together to hand out at the Printer's Ball, which is an awesome event also, at the same venue we held the zine fest!

This is somehow all the info online about it:

http://printersball.org/

Here is one of my first finished pages from the paper cut book I've been working on:

Some New Things

The Chicago Zine Fest is over. It was a pretty amazing weekend and made me really feel like part of something in Chicago. It was wonderful to see so many talented people able to get together in one place and share what they love doing. It was very inspiring. Here's the little daily comic I drew about it:

In other news, I'm going on a little mini-tour with my good friend Paul Baribeau. This is our tentative schedule:

03/27 Chicago

03/38 Grand Rapids, MI

03/30 Cleveland, OH

03/31 Columbus, OH

04/01 Bloomington, IN

04/03 Louisville, KY

04/05 Milwaukee, WI

If we're coming your way, please come say hi to me, I'll be at the table with my books, and maybe doing a reading here and there. Should be a lot of fun. I'm very excited to leave and city and hang out with Paul for awhile.

Here's the flier for the show at my house that I made:

Thanks everyone who came to the zine fest and supported us! It really meant a lot!!

It's Here!

Tomorrow we are hanging art for the Chicago Zine Fest! It's hard to believe--this is really happening!

We have had a crazy amount of hype and it's getting so exciting. I feel like I used to before Christmas, or a trip to Cedar Point. I would get so excited about an event coming up that I would actually make myself sick. Hopefully that doesn't happen. Although I haven't slept really or taken a break in about a week..

Here's what I've been working on:

My new book!

Here's a sample page:

This will be available at The Chicago Zine Fest 1104 S Wabash Saturday March 13th from 10-5pm

Don't forget Friday night there is a reading at Quimby's Bookstore at 7pm and a zine-related art show/gadabout film fest showing at Johalla Projects 1561 N Milwaukee.

Please come!!!

Also, tomorrow 4:30-7pm and Friday 4:30-7pm is the Comic Symposium down at SAIC

and Friday from I think 5:45-7 is a reading at 826CHI

All of these events are free and going to be AWESOME!!

Here's a funny article Matt and I were interviewed for with the Onion's AvClub.

http://www.avclub.com/chicago/

Well, it's February! Actually it's over half-way through February. I'm not sure how that happened. The Zine Fest is less than a month away. Things are going great. We filled all 45 tables we had planned to fit in the space, and we have a lot of amazing people signed up to participate. I've been so busy I haven't been working on my own stuff a lot. I'm hoping to have a new book finished for it, but that deadline is looking completely unrealistic now, but however much work I get done this week will determine if that's true or not! Wish me luck!!

Here's a comic I managed to finish while I was away in Milwaukee this weekend. Milwaukee is such a nice place, so much quieter and welcoming than Chicago.

Chicago Zine Fest

I've been planning this zine fest for months now with three friends and we finally have everything confirmed enough to start inviting people to come!!!

The set up goes like this:
Friday March 12th
Reading and Talking @ Quimby's bookstore (6:30-8)
Art show and Gadabout film fest @ Johalla Gallery (7-11)

Saturday March 13th
Exhibiting and Workshops @ Conoway Center at Columbia College (10-5)

It's going to be super fun, and we also need a lot of help with volunteers and getting the word out to people who would like to table. Let me know if you want to do any of this stuff. Or just come and have fun with us!!!
Check out our website at chicagozinefest.org (still under construction a bit)

comic-dec10th

You'd think with it being cold and staying inside I'd be more productive than ever lately, but this unfortunately is not so. We have been making a lot of progress with the Zine Fest and pretty much have a location set and a date which is so exciting! I am starting a new project to hopefully have for that along with all the old standbys. We also have been really busy making chocolate and we have truffles now up our etsy shop--check them out!

With all my time at home I have been drawing and watching television on the internet (boo) but it has given me a chance to watch the rest of the 3rd season of 30 rock..