Thank you to everybody who came out last weekend to the 1.st KingCon here in Brooklyn!

As I can see it, the whole show was a success. From the showing of "The Act-I-vate Experience" Friday night to the panels and the actual Con Saturday and Sunday.

Thank you to everybody who checked out my table, grabed some free stuff or bought some not free stuff.
Penguin Wolfgang and me.
Pic by Reid Harris Cooper.

And also a big thank you to Simon, Vasilis, Amir and everybody who stepped up to the chilly panel space for the panel "From Europe to Brooklyn".
From right to left: Amir Moye, Simon Fraser, Vasilis Lolos, Thomas Baehr.
Pic by Avi Kotzer.

Tags: comic, kingcon brooklyn, thomas baehr
Current Music: Ignition - Complete Services

This first full weekend in November 09 is all about the Brooklyn KingCon http://www.kingconbrooklyn.com/. I will be there at my table (When you come in, just the first table to your right!) to show and sell some stuff. Well, every friend of the penguins will be able to buy a nice print version of "The End is Here".

It was a long and stony way for this book - not only for me but also for my wife. Without her, all of this would never happened. Therefore, my thanks go first and foremost to her. But also to everybody who read the online version and supported me with comments and suggestions.
And to get you interested in the print version after you all read it online (I'm sure you did - the stats suggest me so!): I redrew some pages and panels, added some stuff here and there, and took some stuff out here and there.

Also: I will moderate this panel:
FROM EUROPE TO BROOKLYN: SUNDAY 1PM-1:50PM
Even though there are lots of cartoonists living in Brooklyn, it doesn't necessarily mean they are all born in the US. Join European artists Thomas Baehr (Germany), Simon Fraser (Scotland), Vasilis Lolos (Greece), and Amir Moye (Switzerland) as they talk about their motives and experiences living and working in a different market on this side of the Atlantic.

For a full schedule of the panels for the con click here: http://www.kingconbrooklyn.com/panels

See you there!
Thomas

Tags: act-i-vate, comic, the end is here, thomas baehr
Current Music: Fireside_Beautyful Island, Ugly Natives

Harvey Pekar got 70, and I took part in an awesome present. You can see the whole thing here:
http://www.smithmag.net/pekarproject/harveyheads/

And here is my humble contribution:



CONGRATULATIONS HARVEY!!!!!!

Oh, yes, and than there are the Nobel Prizes. Only a few people really care for all the different categories, but everybody is looking for the literature and the peace price. Both took me this year by surprise. But:   I congratulate with all my heart.

Tags: harvey pekar american splendor thomas ba
Current Music: Down by Law - D.C. Guns

Last nights win came too late. The SF Giants are finally out of the Wild Card race.

...

But it was a great season which can show you what you can do with outstanding pitching. On one hand. On the other: You could also see how important it is to have some power hitting. If the Giants can keep this team together and ad a power hitter in protection to the Kung Fu Panda, it will be a great year 2010!

GO GIANTS!

Tags: san francisco giants baseball sandoval
Current Music: Dead Kennedys - At my work

We went yesterday to the Shudder To Think concert at the Bowery Ballroom.  Another band reunited? Maybe, but this time for the good one. I saw them live only once, in Germany, AJZ Wermelskirchen. This was years ago, I would guess 1991 or 1992. I'm telling you, times went by, but I still love this band. The whole catalog, from the first album in 1988 till the last one I know about from 1997. 

Since living in NYC I had twice the chance to see the lead singer and guitarist Craig Wedren solo and unplugged. Pretty good, but the whole package is just way better. A new live album will come out soon, and I just hope for a new studio album. 

I can't help,but the music of this band means a lot to me. And it looked yesterday like it is the same to a lot of other folks. Funny, the only people in the building under 30 were the stuff, I guess.

So what.

(Around this day 8 years ago I went for some reason to the WTC. I had some time and decided to enter the Boarders store. I flipped through the record section, looking for any familiar band. Usually I was more a customer of Kim's or Generation Records [Am still be.] and had no clue of all the bands in the shelves. I found only Shudder To Thinks Funeral at the Movies & Ten Spot, albums 2 and 3, combined by Dischord into one CD. I own both on vinyl, therefore I saw no reason to buy it. A few days later the album disappeared in the rubble. Shortly after 9/11 I decided to buy the CD.) 

Tags: shudder to think pony express dischord
Current Music: Shudder To Think

If you don't know where to go this summer, go to San Francisco. Additional to the best baseball team of the world, they also have the Cartoon Art Museum http://www.cartoonart.org 
The Museum is starting an awesome exhibition this Saturday which title "Monsters of Webcomics" hits it on the nail. And yes, the penguins are part of that. The pages 19-21 of chapter 1 of THE END IS HERE are on view: On a screen - of course.

Tags: penguins pinguine comic thomas baehr
Current Music: El Guapo - Just don't know

For the first time - but not the last one - I collaborated with writer Avi Kotzer. More to come, that's for sure. You can see the short story in full color at

http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2009/07/08/subway-stories-3-thomas-baehr/

My thanks go to Avi, Brian and Dean!

And yes: No penguins this time.

Tags: subway comic daily crosshatch avi kotzer
Current Music: Billy Strayhorn - Take the "A" Train

a furore normannorum, libera nos, domine

For some reasons, some weeks ago, I did a sample page with two fighting Vikings. It is very European style, and I like it that way.

Tags: vikings comics normans sword thomas baeh
Current Music: The Exploited - Troops of Tomorrow

Recently I went to a workshop at my most beloved comic store Bergen Street Comics. My friends and fellow artists George O'Connor and Nathan Schreiber lead this free workshop about how to do comics, and I - a teacher myself - was curious how they do that and asked to peek in. Well, they seated me at a table and made me a student ... you know what, it was fun. I got a photo and had to do a page out of that. Here is the finished page: (Click to enlarge)
The photo shows some punks sleeping on a trashy floor.
The page I did out of that is pretty much a step back to my first published comics back in the eighties/nineties in various punk zines in Germany. The guitarist looks pretty much like Django, one of my old characters. Anyway, the lyrics are from the Beowülf song Drink Fight Fuck. I haven't heard that song for ages and I'm not sure about the second line. This was the fastest page I did in a looong while. And it was fun - maybe I should do that more often.

Nathan and George will teach comics at their studio XOXO in Brooklyn. Go there! More infos here
http://www.xoxocomics.com/ 

Enjoy the summer everyone!

Tags: comics beowulf punk rock xoxo brooklyn t
Current Music: Minor Threat - Straight Edge

I'm not a hockey fan, but for some reasons I have the feeling, I have to congrat the Penguins from Pittsburgh:  Congratulations.

Tags: pittsburgh penguins stanley cup hockey
Current Music: Lungfish - Rainows from Atoms