Colin Posts

Make forest comics with me this coming Sunday 8/21 at the Conway Scenic Railroad Station in North Conway, NH. Work on your Woods anthology submission in a beautiful setting! It’s one of many great activities at the 8 Days of Weeks White Mountain Cultural Festival, celebrating 100 years of the Weeks Act (you know, the one that established the US National Forests?) every weekend in August.

August 16, 2011 | No Comments

The Water Dogs 1

This is the first page of the comic I drew yesterday at Weeks State Park in Lancaster, NH as part of the 8 Days of Weeks White Mountains Cultural Festival. Marek Bennett and I enticed passerby into drawing comics about the woods, the mountains, their experiences in the White Mountains National Forest, etc. – and fairness (and fun) demanded that we draw some too. I’ll post the other page later this week.

August 15, 2011 | No Comments

Forest Comics Activity at Weeks Act Festival 8/14

Oh hey, I’m doing a thing this weekend:

Make forest comics with Weeks Act Comics Artist Marek Bennett (who will also lead a musical “Forest Jamboree”) and cartoonist Colin Tedford this coming Sunday 8/14 at Weeks State Park in Lancaster, NH. Work on your Woods anthology submission in a beautiful setting! It’s one of many great activities at the 8 Days of Weeks White Mountain Cultural Festival, celebrating 100 years of the Weeks Act (you know, the one that established the US National Forests?) every weekend in August.

August 12, 2011 | No Comments

My Dance Power

A recent comment on Square Dance #5:

Hi there,

Just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed this article. It’s obvious that you know dancing. Your site really is awesome.

Thank you for your efforts!

I’m glad that my dance power is so amazing it shines through even in totally unrelated endeavors! I’m less glad that this commenter (whose name linked to an online dance school) enjoyed the shop listing but enough enough to buy : ‘ (

At least my efforts are appreciated.

August 10, 2011 | No Comments

What I’ve been up to

Sorry I’ve been away, Internet! I thought things would calm down after Water, which they did but only relatively; I immediately had to throw myself into preparations for the next anthology Woods, then the summer cluster of birthdays, then at some point I started having really productive brainstorms.

Current projects:

Pursue drawn journalism – I want to draw more nonfiction but haven’t, mainly because it’s more work. Enter “comics journalism” and bushels of excitement!
“Community Comics” presentation & comic (& maybe workshop).
Trees & Hills logo (finally)!
Trees & Hills anthology #11, Woods.
A new Halloween Comics project.
Make comics templates.
Overhaul the Trees & Hills website. Among other exciting changes, we’re gonna have a wiki!
Overhaul this website (again). The software’s outdated & I have a sneaky spam problem, plus I want to change some things anyway.
Trees & Hills reorganization.
Prepare for the next Offshore Comix anthology.
“Get organized” (ongoing, recently reinvigorated)
Transition from Windows to Linux. I think I can finally relegate Windows to its proper place on a dusty shelf, but I have to set up & test some stuff first.
Go back “on tour” – so far I have a couple events lined up this month and one in September. I expect to start doing more once the Community Comics presentation is ready.
Fix sleep schedule (ongoing) – more daylight hours would make all of this a lot easier! At least now when I’m up too late I’m usually accomplishing a lot instead of just reading the internet (enriching though that may be).
So many comics to draw!

So despite the lack of drawing, I’m plenty busy. Despite which, I promise new comics soon!

August 9, 2011 | No Comments

A Common Resource p.1

Here’s the first page of my comic in WATER, the new Trees & Hills anthology. To read the rest, pick up a copy – it’s full of good comics!

June 9, 2011 | No Comments

Thirsty for comics? WATER is here!

The new Trees & Hills anthology WATER debuted at MECAF a couple weeks ago, and now you can buy it online from our shop! You can see its hand-printed cover to the right there, looking cool in the Ashuelot River.

WATER contains 56 pages about the Connecticut River, the Weeks Act, the Lake Champlain monster, a sad lamprey, the Nahr El Kalb Valley in Lebanon, Jenny Greenteeth, childhood summers at Laurel Lake, communities fighting water-bottling corporations, and more! Includes the last comics of Mark “Sparky” Whitcomb with an appreciation by Stephen R. Bissette. 10% of all proceeds go to the Connecticut River Watershed Council.

WATER features the talents of Daniel Barlow, Marek Bennett, Stephen R. Bissette, Jesse DuRona, Glynnis Fawkes, Sam Leveillee, Matt Levin, Mike Lynch, Madsahara, Elizabeth Neronski, Colin Tedford, Anne Thalheimer, Mark “Sparky” Whitcomb, and Matt Young.

Go get it!

June 8, 2011 | No Comments

How many pages have I drawn & printed?

A fellow cartoonist writes, “I’ve walked around telling people I’m a cartoonist, but how many comics have I really done? Whole comic books, mini-comics, strips all together? Fifty full pages of comics? Eighty?” I’ve had similar thoughts on occasion, so reading this made me wonder just how many pages I’ve drawn and published.

It turns out the answer is around 290 (using a 5.5″ x 8.5″ page as a standard unit).

5 issues of Square Dance = 104 pages.
5 issues of Before Sleep = 80 pages (I’m counting each page as half a page because they’re only 5.5″ x 4.25″. Note also that I only printed half of the strips I drew for Before Sleep).
Entries in 9 Trees & Hills anthologies = 38 pages (12 of them written by other people).
Entries in other anthologies (Always Comix, Big Sexy, Candy or Medicine (small pages counted as half), High Maintenance Machine guest strip (small counted as half), and Secrets & Lies (large page counted as double) = 14 pages.
24 hour comics = 48 pages (not counting the second one, part of which I used in an issue of Square Dance & the rest of which remains unpublished. The first one had 8.5″ x 11″ pages, but I’m still counting it as just 24).
Minicomics not yet reprinted in Square Dance = 6 (all small pages counted as half or less).

If I counted comics I’ve published online but not on paper, it would add another 90 or so pages.

Those 290 pages are spread over the seven or so years(!) since I decided to “be a cartoonist”, averaging about 40 pages (or about two zines) a year. That’s less than my current goal of 100+ pages a year, and I know people’s who’ve drawn my seven-year total in much less time, but I still find it a comforting number. It’s not bad for someone who works a day job and devotes a lot of time to non-drawing comics activities (ie, co-organizing Trees & Hills), and I hadn’t realized I’d drawn & published so many pages.

Here’s to many more!

May 30, 2011 | No Comments

Continental breakfast while you wait

New comics are still a little ways off, as there are a couple anthologies I want to submit to with June 1 deadlines – hopefully I’ll make one of them (two seems very unlikely). In the meantime, I’ve brought in a band to entertain you:

(click to enlarge)

Stand back when they bust out the jams!

May 26, 2011 | 2 Comments

Back from making Water (ahem)

Sorry I haven’t been posting comics lately. I got caught up in last-minute anthology production rush and the touring season. The new Trees & Hills anthology Water is out and coming soon to an online shop near you!