#Trees & Hills

2014-10-09

Trick or Treat Comics #3

Another October means another set of Trick or Treat Comics! Eight miniature comics perfect for giving to trick-or-treaters, Halloween party-goers, goblins, etc, Trick or Treat Comics #3 features trick-or-treating pumpkins, monster hybrids, bone-playing instructions, were-comics, trick-or-treating dinosaurs, and more!

Trick or Treat Comics #3

Eight 2.75″ x 4.25″ 8-page comics by:

  • Anne Thalheimer
  • Colin Tedford
  • Elizabeth Neronski
  • Madsahara
  • Megan Coleman & Michael Logerfo
  • Marek Bennett
  • Sarah Margaret Frye

Planning to hand them out for Halloween? You can get all three sets of Trick or Treat Comics for the price of two.

2014-09-03

Make Halloween Comics With Me This Saturday

I’m running a free workshop for Trees & Hills‘ third collection of Halloween comics this Saturday in Keene — join in and make some spooky fun!

"Ask Jack" pages 3 & 4

September 6, 12:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Colony Mill Marketplace food court, 222 West St., Keene, NH

Having trouble finding time to work on your submission for Trick or Treat Comics #3? This is that time! We’ll start off with a brief intro and a brainstorming session for those who don’t have story ideas yet, then settle down to draw. If there is interest in doing so, we may come back after supper to draw some more.

We will meet in the semi-spooky ex-food court at the Colony Mill, which is at the opposite end from the bookstore and the smokestack.

If you plan to attend please comment, email (organize@treesandhills.org), or RSVP on Facebook so we can have a sense of how many people to expect.

2014-08-25

Visit me at Southern VT Garlic and Herb Festival this weekend

My pal Madsahara & I will hawk our garlic-themed (& other) comics & art at the Trees & Hills booth this weekend at the 19th annual Southern Vermont Garlic and Herb Festival in Bennington, VT. I’ll of course have “Super Friendly Garlic” (in Square Dance #4), Pickle Vampire magnets, and “Midnight Snack” (in Square Dance #6 and Trick or Treat Comics #2)

Vampire Pickle magnet

August 30 & 31, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Camelot Village, 1545 Route 9, Bennington, VT

Admission is $5 per day or $8 for a two-day pass. Children 12 & under get in for $1.00.

2012-06-18

Midnight Snack p.1

Midnight Snack page 1

Transcript

[Scene: moonlit night]

[Voice from inside house] “So how did your trick-or-treating go?”

[Two girls are sorting their Halloween candy – a blonde girl in a grim reaper costume and a black-haired girl in a skeleton costume.]

Blonde girl: “Good – but look what that creepy house gave me.”

Black-haired girl: “A pickle?! That’s weird.”

Blonde girl: “Yeah. I guess I’ll put it in the fridge for now…”

Later…at midnight…[sleepy blonde girl, in her pajamas, opens the fridge – then looks wide-eyed in amazement. A pickle with arms, legs, and a face has been using its fangs to drain the ketchup bottle.]

Blond girl: “WHA-?! V- V- V- V-“

Get copies of “Midnight Snack” formatted as a minicomic to give to trick-or-treaters, Halloween party-goers, goblins, etc.!

Assembling the comic is pretty easy! Print the PDF double-sided at 100% (no scaling; don’t let the program “adjust to printer margins” or anything like that). Each copy of the file produces 4 copies of the comic; when you cut them apart, the pages will be in the right order for you to staple & fold. If using scissors instead of a papercutter, you may want to cut after folding. Staple in the center & fold. If you’re using a standard stapler, you may want to fold the comic before stapling or use a ruler to help find the center (at 2 3/4″). If using a long stapler, the measurement marks probably don’t go down to 2 3/4″, so line up a ruler with the one on the stapler to get the added measurement.

2012-06-04

Winchester School Garden p.2

Winchester School Garden page 2

Transcript

The preschool always plants peas, early enough so they can give them to the families at preschool graduation.

The first grade plants potatoes in the spring, then harvests them as second-graders in the fall.

Third grade has grown some big cabbages!

Fourth grade does a big unit on Native Americans; they planted the Three Sisters garden (corn, beans, squash).

Fifth grade planted “really funky gourds” and did a whole math lesson on measuring them and their growth.

The life skills prgram for cognitively delayed students cooks once a week, using graden produce with great results. Special educator Jane Cardinale chairs the Garden Committee, so the 30% of the school in Special Ed uses the garden a lot. “And that’s been really successful,” she says.

Pat Dorcas uses the garden for seventh-grade science, and does hyrdoponic gardening in his classes and the greenhouse. He teaches about food miles, asking students where their food comes from and how much energy it takes.

Page 2 of 4 of my piece from Sprouts, the new food-themed anthology from Trees & Hills. I’ve been wanting to do more nonfiction comics in general and especially some journalism-type comics, and for this one I finally left my cave to go interview someone – hooray! I’m already busy on another bit of graphic journalism that I hope to share soon.

2011-10-10

The Boy in the Cemetery p.1

The Boy in the Cemetery page 1

Transcript

It was a cold night with the moon hiding behind clouds. Billy walked down the sidewalk past the cemetery carrying his plastic pumpkin bucket of candy. He wore a black cape & hood and a mask push up on his head. He saw someone slouching near the cemetery gate – a boy his own age, wearing a ghost costume with his head uncovered.

“Are – are you okay?” he asked the boy, who didn’t seem very happy.

“Oh…” the boy replied, “I just don’t have any friends…”

“Well…maybe I could be your friend?” Billy suggested.

“That’d be swell! Would you walk to my house with me?”

“Sure!”

“Great! C’mon!” the boy headed into the cemetery.

“Uh-” Billy said. “Wh-why are we going through the cemetery?” He was looking around so nervously that he didn’t notice how transparent the boy looked now that the moon had come out from behind the clouds.

“It’s the shortest way,” the boy said.

“Are you sure there isn’t a better way?” Bill asked as the path wound near a crypt.

“We have to go this way.”

Little Zero 3 - The Boy in the Cemetery coverGet copies of “The Boy in the Cemetery” formatted as a minicomic to give to trick-or-treaters, Halloween party-goers, goblins, etc.!

Assembling the comic is pretty easy! Print the PDF double-sided at 100% (no scaling; don’t let the program “adjust to printer margins” or anything like that). Each copy of the file produces 4 copies of the comic; when you cut them apart, the pages will be in the right order for you to staple & fold. If using scissors instead of a papercutter, you may want to cut after folding. Staple in the center & fold. If you’re using a standard stapler, you may want to fold the comic before stapling or use a ruler to help find the center (at 2 3/4″). If using a long stapler, the measurement marks probably don’t go down to 2 3/4″, so line up a ruler with the one on the stapler to get the added measurement.

Check out my other Halloween comics, too!

2011-10-06

Here in the Forest p.1 (of 3)

Here in the Forest page 1

Transcript

According to an old saying, the first Europeans in America saw forests so vast that a squirrel could go from Maine to Texas without ever leaving the treetops. (A squirrel leaps from branch to branch)

They changed *that* in a hurry (The squirrel unexpectedly leaps from a branch into a recently clearcut area. An ax-wielding settler strikes a dramatic pose, crying, “Onward! For Farmland and Firewood!)

By the mid-1800s as much as 70% of the land was cleared – but with the decline of farming, much of New England’s forest returned by the late 1900s (and has started to recede again under development pressure). (An old stone wall runs through a forest)

So what’s happening in the woods these days? Hiking, skiing, sightseeing, and similar recreational activities… (A person walks along a forest road)

…and some less-similar recreational activities. (A person on a four-wheeler roars past the walker – BRAAW)

Wood is still useful, so we still log – too often still in destructive ways. (A skidder – a large motorized logging machine – sits in a clearcut area)

WOODS anthology coverHere is the first of my three pages from the latest Trees & Hills anthology Woods.

2011-06-09

A Common Resource p.1

A Common Resource page 1

Transcript

A COMMON RESOURCE copyright 2011 Colin Tedford

1. In 2001, the corporation USA Springs set its sights on Nottingham, NH, aiming to extract 430,000 gallons a day of the town’s water and convert it to profits.
[IMAGE: a tall robotic machine labeled “USA SPRINGS” strides down a curved road from the distance, toward a sign that reads, “Entering Nottingham”]

2. After initial approval from the town government, many residents objected on the grounds that the water bottling plant would drain the aquifer, draw pollutants into it, and damage wetlands.
[IMAGE: Angry protesters with signs. One speaks a word balloon containing a picture of a puzzled person turning on their sink tap and only getting a drip, and another picture of the robotic USA SPRINGS machine sucking water through a flexible pipe stuck in the ground. A man in a suit pilots the machine, and a rapidly-filling bag attached to the rear of the machine bears a dollar sign.]

3. Nottingham citizens worked tirelessly to learn the ins and outs of the regulatory system.
[IMAGE: Protesters trying to navigate a maze; the leader has a map and looks stressed.]

4. Unfortunately, they learned that the rights of corporations trump those of people, as their challenges were dismissed, or won and then overturned.
[IMAGE: The protesters, having reached a dead end in the maze, watch in alarm as the USA SPRINGS machine strides down a straight corridor through the center of the maze, just on the other side of the wall.]

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!

2011-06-08

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!

2010-10-02

24-Hour Comics BLARGH@#$*

Greetings, world – I am writing to you from Hour Ten of the Trees & Hills 24-Hour Comics Day event at the Kellogg Hubbard Library in Montpelier, VT.  I just finished page 10 of my story “Sam and the Prophecy of the Allrus,” so I’m only a little behind schedule, but I’m already too tired to bother including hyperlinks in this post.

I got my schedule a little mixed up and won’t have the next page of “Spring in Headville” ready for Monday, so here’s the plan: Monday I will post the first page of “Sam and the Allrus”, then I’ll continue with my “normal” Monday-Thursday updates. BUT! On every other weekday, I’ll continue updating “Sam and the Prophecy of the Allrus”. There will be so many comics! I won’t promise that they’ll be good comics, though.

Okay, I’m going for a short walk, and then back to the grind…

2010-09-29

TIME & 24 Hour Comics Day

Behold, the latest Trees & Hills anthology: TIME! 64 pages of comics about time, co-edited by me and containing my 5-page story “Take Your Time” and Daniel Barlow‘s 4-page “Great Moments In Time,” which I drew, plus a comics-filled calendar with 5 comics by me (4 Spinning World + 1 new strip), available now for online purchase.

Speaking of time, on Saturday October 2 I’ll be participating in the Trees & Hills 24 Hour Comics Day event. Come see a library full of people racing to draw 24 pages in 24 hours, and pick up a copy  of TIME while you’re at it!

2010-09-24

Patterns of Play exhibition

PLAY, this Spring’s Trees & Hills anthology, is appearing in a group art exhibition called “Patterns of Play” at Greylock Arts in Adams, MA on Saturdays from September 17 through October 30.

I trekked out to far western Massachusetts for the opening, and though I thought for a while that Google Maps had sent me on a wild goose chase into the forest, I arrived as promised and had a good time. The show is full of fun stuff, and the opening featured a robot puppet performance. I finally got to meet Marianne Petit, who besides co-running Greylock Arts also contributed to the T&H Swingin’ Hits anthology (now collected in First Harvest). Either she or Greylock Arts co-honcho Matthew Belanger took this photo – behind me you can see a blender which appears to have a small person trapped inside. I was also pleased to see cartoonist Howard Cruse, who is himself co-curating an exhibit of underground comics in neighboring North Adams a month from now.

Anyway, if you’re looking for something to do tomorrow (or some Saturday in October), you might head out to Adams to have a gander at this show while it lasts!

2010-06-14

Wild nights

Recently I’ve had a couple of nights where I returned home after dark to find no one else home, all the lights off, and fireflies blinking around in the darkness, and stood around for a while just enjoying it.

This past Saturday night, I stamped the covers of 165 copies of Play. Sunday I glued game booklets into 120 of them.

2009-09-29

Home

Home page 1

Here’s the first page of “Home”, a story from the new Trees & Hills anthology Shelter. The following four pages show the house’s life after foreclosure. “Home” was written by Trees & Hills co-founder Daniel Barlow; when the original artist wasn’t able to finish the piece, I volunteered (insanely, given everything else I had to do) to draw a quick version at the last minute. I’ll post ordering info and a page from my own story soon.

2009-05-14

Pulled into the public eye

Wow, I’ve been so out of it that not only have I hardly drawn anything, but I forgot to post last month’s Spinning World (and even weirder, I uncharacteristically lettered it in all caps and didn’t notice ’til afterward)! It’s up now, posted under the date it would have been.

As much as I may still(!) need time to hibernate, spring has sprung, and I can hide no more. I have a piece in the new Always Comix vol. 5: Evil. It’s an evil little book for the evil little price of $7, and you can learn more and get it here, and see a page of my comic here.

The Keene Sentinel recently interviewed me (and others) for a nice article about the Trees & Hills Comics Group (there’s even a photo – look out!). EDIT: Arg, it’s behind a subscription wall now! I’ll see if i can get a copy to post.

This coming weekend I will be staffing the Trees & Hills table at the Maine Comics Arts Festival in Portland, ME, which is clearly going to be an excellent show (organized by the fine folks at Casablanca Comics). I will, sadly, not be joining my T&H comrades at MoCCA in NYC the first weekend in June this year, but I do hope to have a new minicomic out by then.

2008-11-10

Purchase SEEDS online!

I am making a slight change to the way I update this site. For a while now, I have been posting comics and/or news on Mondays, and installments of 99 Doodles on Thursdays. This worked pretty nicely, but I now hope to take the slightly harder path of posting comics every Monday, and news or Doodles on Thursdays, to give the comics the priority they deserve – starting next week. Today we have news!

At long last, Seeds is in stock at Trees & Hills Comics Distro! Themed around FOOD with an emphasis on its social aspects, the latest Trees & Hills anthology comes with a booklet of cartoonists’ favorite recipes and a packet of organic lettuce seeds from High Mowing Farm in Vermont, all wrapped in an earthy brown cover with a red apple print (an organic heirloom apple from a local farmer’s market, of course). I co-edited, contributed a 4-page comic (sample here), and wrote the afterword. We’re especially proud of this one, and it has been selling like hotcakes (appropriately enough). We are pretty sure the initial printing will be sold out by year’s end (!), so get your copy while the getting is good! Makes an excellent gift.

2008-08-25

Upcoming Appearances

September 20-21 I will be tabling at the Boston Zine Fair. It’s a great, diverse event with a lot of cool exhibitors, and it costs nothing to attend – so come on down! Location: Art Institute of Boston, 601 Newbury Street (near Kenmore Square), Boston, MA 02215

October 5 I will be tabling and representing Trees & Hills at the Philly Zine Fest. It’ll be my first time there, so come on out and wish me luck! Location: The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

2008-07-06

Anthology appearances

Check it out – I have work in three current anthologies, two of which were not even co-edited by me!

sandlcover.jpgSecrets & Lies is a big, ambitious anthology assembled by Cat Garza. I have a single page in it, but that page has 48 panels and multiple endings, so it’s well worth picking up. It is also (perhaps more so) worth picking up for things like the all-new 13-page story by Stephen Bissette,  classic reprint from Rick Geary, fantasy by Shaenon Garrity & Chuck Whelon, nonfiction comic by Dan Archer, not to mention work by Colleen Frakes, Marek Bennett, Daniel Barlow & Charles Schneeflock Snow, Dan Hernandez, and so much more! 180 8″ x 10″ pages can be yours for only $19.95!

vol_3_web_cover.jpgCandy Or Medicine is a small minicomic anthology published four times a year by Josh Blair. I had a page in the Free Comic Book Day 2008 Special (now available for free download at the website), and I have a four-pager in the recently released issue #3. It’s only $1.50 shipped – click on over and pick it up!swingin_hits.jpg

 

 Of course, I also have a piece in the latest Trees & Hills anthology Swingin’ Hits, which I helped put together. I was a bit stymied by the theme (“Music”), so I ended up illustrating a piece by Keith Moriarty. I also contributed a musical collage to the bonus CD that comes with the anthology. The whole 52-page 5.5″ x 8.5″ package is a mere $5 at Trees & Hills Comics Distro!

2008-06-24

Still touring…

Thing in the Spring 2 092

I have been pretty darn busy with the Trees & Hills “Spring Thaw Tour”, tabling at three conventions in four weeks (Granite State Comicon in Manchester, NH; Broke: an affordable art fair in Peterborough, NH, picture of me above by Marc Patterson; and MoCCA Art Fest in New York City). Now we’ve added a fourth date, so you can catch me in Dover, NH (right on the Maine border) at ArtsALIVE from 10am to 4pm. Marek Bennett will be leading us in a big audience participatory comics jam, and we’ll have loads of minicomics for sale (including the new Swingin’ Hits anthology with bonus CD!). Click here to read the Trees & Hills press release.

2008-04-25

More Free Comics

fcbda.jpgThe second issue of the Trees & Hills Comics Group’s free monthly comics flyer TWIG is online now, leaving you enough time to not only read it, but download the PDF, print, copy & distribute it to your local comic shop & other places by Free Comic Book Day!

Speaking of Free Comic Book Day, the Candy Or Medicine Free Comic Book Day 2008 Special is out now, featuring comics by myself, Rob Moses, Ray Negron, Alberto Pessoa, Steve Rack, & Brad Foster; check your local comic shop for it on Saturday, May 3. The release of Candy Or Medicine #3, which includes a strip by me, has been pushed back; it will be out by May 15.

2008-04-03

Free Comics – and more!

I’m pleased to announce the launch of TWIG, the new free monthly comic I’m putting together as part of the Trees & Hills Comics Group. Every month a new sheet of paper covered with local comics will appear, as if by magic, around Vermont, New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts – and of course the internet. It is excitingly decentralized – anyone can download it from the website to print and distribute! Check out the first issue at http://www.treesandhills.org/2008/04/twig-1/ .

In other free comics news, I will have a strip in the Free Comic Book Day edition of Candy Or Medicine. I’ll be visiting shops that day to socialize and dole out copies of TWIG and Candy Or Medicine. I also have a strip in Candy Or Medicine #3, due out April 15.

This coming Tuesday, April 8, from 6-8pm I will be at the opening reception for “Accounts of Events: Narrative Works by Connecticut Valley Artists”, an exhibition of comics-related art at Greenfield Community College’s Downtown Center, 270 Main St, Greenfield, MA. Come on by, say hi, see the art (it’s good stuff)! Have some Moxie & Ding-Dongs (someone has to)! Continue reading →

2007-11-11

New Stars release party this Saturday

newstars-flyer.jpgThe Illustration Show yesterday was fun; the good times lined up for this weekend include the New Stars release party this coming Saturday, which is where I’ll be. Check out the calendar over at Trees & Hills for other cool comics happenings of the future. Also don’t forget to stop by the Trees & Hills Distro to get your copy if you can’t make it to the party.

Here is some altruistic shilling for those who feel compelled to buy things for the still-distant winter holidays:

-Diane DiMassa‘s Hothead Paisan calendar – a must-have for any discerning household! Get one for you, and one for a friend.

-Anne Thalheimer’s chompy monster hats – another must-have! They come in a range of colors & styles and cost a mere $10 – email Anne for more info: motes at simons-rock dot edu.