Music in the Park ...NOW WITH COMICS!

Since its founding in 2009, the Goodale Park Music Series has been a showcase for local musicians to share their talents with hundreds of people over the course of six Sunday afternoons in July and August along with local artists, kids activities, and food carts. After attending the Indie Comix Fair in March and the SPACExpo in April, Alexandra Kelley Fox - event organizer and Columbus blogger/PR extraordinaire, was made aware of the vibrant comics creating community in Columbus. 


As a result, she decided it was time for Columbus become more aware, too, and invited a few local comics creators to set up alongside all the many other creative types. Kids art activities will be provided by a variety of local artists & organizations over the course of the series, including Hayley Meyers with Terra Gallery, Short North artist Josey Joseph and youth artists from TRANSIT Arts and Columbus Artmobile. A number of local food carts will sell refreshments, as organized by Food Fort Columbus. 


Below is a handy list of which comics/creators will be attending and when, along with the bands that will be performing. You can RSVP to each of the events on the GPMS' Facebook Event page. All concerts begin at 12:30p and last until 2p.

July 8-  Music: Tony Monaco | Comics: Ken Eppstein, Nix Comics and Victor Dandrige, Vantage:Inhouse Productions
July 15-  Music: The Fabulous Johnson Brothers | Comics: Canada Keck, Sunday Comix and Todd Beistel, Yuri: Gypsy Hunter
July 29- Music: Maza Blaska | Comics: James Moore, 2 Headed Monster Comics and Canada Keck, Sunday Comix
August 5- Music: The Spikedrivers | Comics: Todd Beistel, Yuri: Gypsy Hunter and Ken Eppstein, Nix Comics
August 12- Music: Mary Adam 12 | Comics:  Victor Dandrige, Vantage:Inhouse Productions and Max Ink, Blink
August 19- Music: Nick Tolford & Company | Comics: Max Ink, Blink and James Moore, 2 Headed Monster Comics

Hope you can make it out to the park this summer to enjoy some art, food, music and, of course, comics!



The Goodale Park Music Series is funded by the Short North Foundation, Short North Civic Association, Friends of Goodale Park, Harrison West Society, and ComFest. It was founded in 2009 by Alexandra Kelley Fox.

John Porcellino Book Signing Tour

Legendary small press artist/writer John Porcellino is on tour across the United States promoting the release of his newest collection of comics, Map of My Heart (released Sept. 29 and published by Drawn & Quarterly) and will be arriving in Columbus on Monday, October 12 for an appearance at Wholly Craft (3169 N. High St., http://www.whollycraft.net) beginning at 7pm. (Interesting to note: Ohio has been called "The Heart of It All" and John will be making a grand total of 4 appearances throughout this fair state. He'll be in Akron on Sept. 23 @ Square Records, Cinci on Sept 29 @ Shake It! Records & on Oct 10 he'll be @ Cleveland's Visible Voice. For a full tour listing, see here.)

Map of My Heart celebrates the twentieth anniversary of John Porcellino’s seminal and influential comics zine, King-Cat Comics, which he started self-publishing in 1989 and which has been his predominant means of expression. In this collection, while Porcellino is living in isolation and experiencing the pain of divorce, he crafts melancholic, tender graphic ballad of heartbreak and reflection.

Known for his sad, quiet honesty rendered in his signature deceptively minimalist style, Porcellino has a command of graphic storytelling as sophisticated as the medium’s more visually intricate masters. Few other artists are able to so expertly contemplate the sadness, beauty, and wonder of life in so few lines.

Patrick Porter will accompany John with some fine acoustic music.

More Than Just a Pretty Face

Our very own Cartoonist/Rock & Roller Matt Wyatt (of Columbus Power Squadron fame) drew up this killer poster (above) and his brother Mark wrote the "super wordy" press release (below) for the upcoming JESUS OF COOL reissue celebration at Carabar on this Friday night.

Mark Wyatt from Columbus Power Squadron here. So Walt Hodge of Cincinnati's fabled The Libertines (now forced to append the "US" in order not to offend the Brit junk monkeys who took the name long after they did) emails me to say that Yep Roc Records is reissuing Nick Lowe's JESUS OF COOL, formerly titled PURE POP FOR NOW PEOPLE in the States, and that they promise to promote any gigs around the country that celebrate this fact. Well, ordinarily I'm not all that inclined to boost the bottom line of a record company by methods other than, say, buying records they put out that I happen to like, but this thought intrigues me because (a) CPS is all about the cover tunes and (b) JESUS OF COOL is a super-fine record. Oh, and (c) Yep Roc doesn't expect the *whole* damn evening to be about the record. So, I say "sure", and then I start thinking who else besides CPS and the fabulous Libertines would work in this situation...and I immediately flash on Columbus' own The Exceptionals, who in a short span of time and on recent expansion to a trio have shown themselves worthy to be tenured professors of the pop music. The bill is complete, I talk Carabar's Ron Barker yet again into backing a concept bill that could crash and burn just as easily as it could totally rule, and off we go. Actually, forget I said anything about crash and burn, because not only are the three bands doing sets of mostly their own material, which already has been empirically proven to not suck, but they've also latched onto their two Nick Lowe covers with a glee that can only mean a good time will be inevitable. So there you have it.

Warning: Both CPS and The Exceptionals have promised to do one of Nick Lowe's handful of Bay City Rollers tribute songs, a meta-tribute that may well result in the irrevocable warping of the space-time continuum. And we think you'd rather be out having a good time when the universe folds in on itself rather than stuffing yourself with Sun Chips while watching that episode of Lost you taped the night before...

MORE ON THE BANDS:

The Libertines: http://www.myspace.com/thelibertinesus
Columbus Power Squadron: http://www.myspace.com/columbuspowersquadron
The Exceptionals: http://www.myspace.com/theexceptionals

WHAT?! Nick Lowe JESUS OF COOL reissue celebration, with The Libertines US, Columbus Power Squadron, and The Exceptionals
WHEN?! Friday February 22, 10 PM
WHERE?! Carabar, 115 Parsons Ave., Columbus, OH (free admission)
WHY?! Yep Roc Records' reissue of Nick Lowe's JESUS OF COOL
HOW'S COME?! Why not?!