It is with much sorrow and regret that I, intrepid reporter and investigator Penelope C. Boner, am writing to report that Pizza Island, a famously exclusive all male studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is closing down after two years of comics, pillow fights, fart jokes, barn dances, wizards, laughter, and an inordinate amount of screaming. I recently interviewed the girls of Pizza Island at their homes to find out what happened and where it all went wrong.

“I think the problems began when Domitille ate all my snacks, barfed them back up onto my desk, and then told me it was an art project,” claimed Lisa. Hanawalt lazily doodled a horse head in a heart before adding, “also, I was a toxic bitch and I tore our studio apart for my own amusement.”

In her defense, Domitille Collardey claimed that Hanawalt had forced everyone to give her piggy back rides up the stairs and whipped them with horsewhips when they didn’t pencil her projects fast enough. Collardey also suspected that “someone was hoarding snails in their filing cabinet” and she “didn’t like that.”

Julia Wertz also had a bone to pick with Hanawalt, claiming that Lisa had a parasitic twin named Ralph growing out of her back that would proposition her relentlessly. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” Wertz sighed. “I mean, Ralph was pretty cute and all, but I couldn’t figure out how the sex would work with Lisa just, like, right there all the time, and got tired of rejecting him.  Plus he was mostly just a mass of teeth and hair and I like holding hands so it would never have worked.”

When asked about the illicit events occurring at the Island, Sarah Glidden provided no comment, only saying, “I don’t have time for this.” As Glidden darted down the hallway, pencils and paintbrushes tumbled from her jacket pockets and clattered to the floor. “This is nothing!” Glidden yelled over her shoulder. “Don’t look at me!”

Not entirely satisfied with these answers, I dug a bit deeper into the rumors surrounding the Island and with a little sleuthing and a lot of grape gum, I discovered that Meredith Gran had actually tried to turn Pizza Island into an illegal, underground dog-fighting arena! And domestically challenged studio mate Sarah Glidden had been living in a tent under Kate Beaton’s desk since her return from France and it was becoming a health hazard. Speaking of Beaton, it was recently discovered that she had been smuggled into American inside an accordion case and was being deported back to Canada. On top of that, all the members had at one time or another claimed that they were fed up of smelling Hanwalt’s farts and that Wertz kept stealing all the pencils. Oy vey!

And so, after two years of being stuck on Pizza Island, enduring countless hardships such as being relentlessly mocked by a mouse that ate all the peanuts, the girls finally built a ship and have set sail for other lands! What comes next for each rogue islander? I asked and then they told me and then I knew the answers:

- Sarah Glidden is finally acting on her Bush-era threat to leave the country and is moving to France to live with the communists.  You can find her at sarahglidden.com

Domitille is establishing herself as a psychic sleuth – mysteries solved and return of lost belongings guaranteed – at domitille-collardey.com

-Julia Wertz has gone back underground to work on her interpretative dance of the mating rituals of root hogs. She’ll periodically resurface to post comics at juliawertz.com

Meredith Gran is pursuing the dream of reading an entire book from start to finish. After that she’s hoping to finish laying out her woman cave. Comics appear out of her mind on octopuspie.com

Lisa Hanawalt contributes regularly to The Hairpin and regularly updates her website with your worst nightmares: lisahanawalt.com

Kate Beaton is going to try knitting comics instead of drawing them and harkavagrant.com will pioneer this daring new form

and with that, we bid Pizza Island a fond farewell. God Speed, tiny captains!

Disclaimer: Pizza Island officially disbands at the end of January so please do not use the mailing address or group email listed on this or any other site as they are no longer valid. For information or contact info about any members, please visit their individual sites.

Sarah Glidden is selling a pack of prints of six superhero watercolor portraits: Batman, the Thing, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, the Silver Surfer and Thor. Each archival digital print is 5″ x 7″, perfect for framing and only $10!

Julia Wertz is selling hand drawn comics panels for $15-$20, 6″x8″ (give or take a few) on bristol. And all her books are $5 off. Sale ends this Sunday so they’ll arrive in time for Christmas.

Lisa Hanawalt has prints and cards and original artwork galore for sale, including my favorite, the Anna Wintour prints. Original art is 10% off, sale ends Friday at midnight!

Anyway, I’ve been on tour for the past two months which was fun but also tiring. The very last stop was last weekend in Miami where I was part of the Miami Book Fair. While I was there, I headed over to Government Center to check out what Occupy Miami was up to. I did some interviews and sketches and the resulting piece is up today on Cartoon Movement. Click on the image below to check it out:

The original plan had been to just do some sketches of the encampment for Cartoon Movement’s ongoing series of Occupy Sketchbooks. But then I started talking to the people who lived in (or were involved with) “Peace City” and thought it would be a shame not so share some of their personalities, stories and thoughts on the movement. The result is not exactly a comic, but not just an essay either. I don’t know what to call it but it was fun to do.

Almost all of the drawings were done on site except for some which I had to use photo reference to re-do because things were moving too fast. This was also an excercise in learning to make something quickly: I did all the reporting and drawing for the piece over two days in Miami (Thursday and Sunday) and wrote it on the flight from Miami to New York, putting it all together at Pizza Island, the first place I headed to once I was back in the city.

Anyway, its good to be back here. I get another month and a half of Brooklyn and Pizza Island before I move to Angouleme to start a 7 month residency so I’ll try to blog more often from now on. Promise!

A lot of these stores have pretty cool, old signs that drawing doesn’t do justice to. I tried image searching a photo of Steve’s Meat Market sign but got a picture of a hamburger shoved up someone’s butt so nevermind about that.

Word bookstore on Milton and Franklin:

Where:  649 Morgan Ave between Nassau and Norman. Apparently there will be a “free shuttle” from the Bedford avenue L train stop and the Nassau G train stop if you call 646-938-6986. I think that pretty much means that you’ll be calling our landlord’s cell phone and he’ll come pick you up in his ’97 Corolla. It’s not a bad walk from the train either.

Then find studio 2J!

When: Saturday April 30th from 5pm – 10pm

Some of us will have prints and artwork for sale.

Hope to see you there!

Hey pals! Just a quick note to let y’all know that I have a new mini comic for sale. It’s a 32 page collection of five childhood stories about imaginary siblings, death, sex, killing Jesus, nintendo, Chuck E Cheese, and flying monkeys. Please go to juliawertz.com for previews and purchasing options. I’ll also have it at TCAF in Toronto next weekend, May 7th and 8th, where I’ll be tabling with Sarah Glidden. Next week a few more Islanders will be posting about new stuff for sale as well.  Get out yer wallets, you beloved bums!

(we are listening to the Audiobook of Empowered)

Yes, we made a minicomic. Twenty eight pages of  little something special from each of us. We hope you like it!  Meredith, Julia, Lisa and I (Sarah) will also be selling books, prints and original artwork.

On Sunday we will steal Domitille away from her drawing table for an hour so that all six of us can be on our panel which is called “Pizza Island: The Panel.” Brian Heater will be moderating. That’s Sunday at 2:30.

Individual Islanders will also be participating in various other panels and readings. I will be part of a panel on non-fiction comics at 12:30pm on Saturday, and Lisa and Kate will be reading comics as part of a very special Carousel on Saturday at 5pm.

Come by and say hello!

As far as I’m concerned, I have the best corner at Pizza Island. Sarah had it for year before I gleefully took it over. There are a few hours of afternoon sunlight that come in through the window just right so that it illuminates the thread in the paper and makes inking soooo satisfying. Also, torture on my back. Future riches are in wait for anyone who develops something to help cartoonists’ posture without actually making them change it!

These are the very simple tools of my trade. I’ve tinkered with extravagant things like nib pens, dip ink, brushes and other such artistic fanfare, but eventually realized the type of work I do is simple, and so need be my materials. I draw on Strathmore windpower with plain ole’ #2 pencils and sometimes mechanical pencils w/lead from Muji. That lead is about as complicated as my stuff gets, ever since the Pentel lead ingredients changed and got all waxy and stiff. I like soft, messy lead. I ink borders with a S Faber Castell and the comics with a .01 Micron. Microns are crap and the ink is subpar, but the felt tip is perfect so I compromise. Since I do only black and white, a cheap scanner works just fine.

Alright purists, get ready to soil your knickers…I don’t fill my blacks in by hand! Yup, that’s right, I only outline the art and then I fill all solid blacks in on photoshop. (unless I’m selling pages or panels or other artwork, obviously) The idea of doing this makes many a cartoonist churn in their grave, but I sleep just fine at night.

I spend a lot of time wasting time on the interent during the work day. Some of my favorite sites are the Comics Curmudgeon, Scouting NY, and, as of recently, Twitter. I used to be all “I haaaaate it” but now I’m like “I loooove it.” I also do the Set daily puzzle every morning but you don’t need to know that. (I can solve it in 50 seconds!) I also spend an inordinate amount of time daydreaming about Peter Pan old fashioned glazed donuts, but that doesn’t have anything to do with the internet. Sometimes I try to subconsciously persuade Domitille to bring them to the studio by beaming it into her brain but she’s not very receptive.

Enough art babble! Now indulge me as I tediously comb through my bulletin boards and surrounding wall hangings.

This is part of my “idea” board, or at least the part where I pin up ideas I scribbled on bits of napkins, receipts and paper. The one that consistently cracks me up is a little doodle of my brother saying, “you know what I hate? Things that are CRAP!” because when he said it in real life, he built it up like he was really going to blow my mind with something he uniquely despised, and then he said that and I was like, “who doesn’t?” That story was anti-climactic. There’s also some Tessa Bruton mice, a photobooth strip of Laura Park and me, a doodle my lil’ brother made of us jamming in the living room. He says I can’t say “jamming” which means I have to. Atop there’s Domitille and Tunde’s wedding invitation, which is so cute it hurts my tiny, cold heart. There’s also a hilarious poem from the Onion “by Dr. Suess,” as well as a smattering of water colors I did last year. 

This corner is full of sketches of my apartment from various angles, not because I need them for reference, but because used to never leave my apartment. Haha that’s sad. On the left there are some old timey illustrations ripped out of a book about the Gold Rush. Some of them are actually structured like comics and the art is pretty amazing, it’s very intricately detailed and crosshatched. I want to crawl inside those sketches and relapse on bathtub gin. 

I get some pretty entertaining fan mail at the studio and sometimes I pin them up when they make me laugh, like the postcard with cat stickers that just says “fuck you and your cat. Fuck it!” In the frame is a sketch from Al Columbia from his amazing book, Pim and Francie. To the left of that are some quick inkwashes I did for a kids book I’m slooooowly working on that takes place in New York and San Francisco in the late 1800′s. Once our landlord, whom we affectionally call Rad Dad, was snooping around and said, “ooooh, Muscle Boy!” and it was weird.

And to wrap it up, here’s an awesome ice cream box that housed some delicious red velvet cake bombs that someone sent to us. Also, I pick flowers from the public park and I spend a lot of time staring out my window at the lovely New York scenery. The end!