Alexis E. Fajardo's Blog, page 6

REVIEW – Roland & No Flying No Tights

Just like in his previous book Fajardo combines an ancient story, humorous anecdotes, and diverse characters to create an entertaining storyline. His colorful comic artwork and layouts flow well and each character is unique and expressive, whether they are in a dramatic battle scene or a moment of slapstick comedy. But aside from comical moments, the graphic novel’s storyline contains enough action and drama for the reader to enjoy.

I was really happy with this review from the very discerning comics review site No Flying No Tights; the review is so positive, I had a hard time figuring out which pull-quote to use! Read the full review here.

Another Fire Story

So you may have heard in the news that Santa Rosa, California, has had a really bad week.

It began early last Monday morning, when a wild fire sparked by a mixture of high winds, downed power lines, and dry California brush swept through the North Bay (in some places it’s still raging).  It’s been a traumatic experience for all those involved, near and far; people have lost their lives and their homes.  A lot of folks have suffered.  At the moment, we are relieved the danger has finally passed.

My friend and fellow cartoonist, Brian Fies, lost his home and he did a heart-breaking comic about it which you can read here. I highly recommend it.

At the time the fires started I was half a world away on a business trip in Tokyo, Japan, with my wife, blissfully unaware of any danger taking place in my hometown. In fact, it was reading Brian’s 3am post on Facebook (7PM in Japan) that made me realize this was no ordinary brush fire.

This one was serious and we had to get back home.

This is that story.

If you’d like to help victims of the fire, please consider a donation to the Redwood Empire Food Bank or the North Bay Fire Relief Fund, both organizations are doing good work to rebuild our community.

In Conversation with Jeff Smith

Our conversation about comics with Jeff Smith, moderated by me and Paige Braddock. Comic nerds are gonna love it.

Schulz Museum 15th Anniversary

This past weekend marked the Schulz Museum’s 15th Anniversary Celebration and it was a jam-packed-day full of super-star cartoonists in conversation, signing books, meeting fans, and paying tribute to the legacy of the master, Charles M. Schulz.

Another master of the cartoon arts, Jeff Smith, creator of BONE, RASL, and TUKI headlined the event and I was lucky enough to interview him about his work with fellow cartoonist, Paige Braddock.  It was a real treat to talk shop with one of my cartooning heroes and ask Jeff about his work crafting BONE, his approach to storytelling, and discovering which he preferred: pancakes or waffles (pancakes!).  It was a wide-ranging discussion.

Jeff, Paige, and me in our pre-talk warm-up pose. The Great Red Dragon from BONE presided over our shop talk.

At the end of the talk Jeff was awarded “The Sparky Award” by the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco, for his contribution to the field of cartooning. The award is named after Charles “Sparky” Schulz.

In between cartoonist talks there was a mini-comic-con in the Great Hall of the museum where close to twenty cartoonists shared their work with new and old fans alike and I met many new and excited KidB. readers!

The Geek Speak Show was on-hand during the day and interviewed me about the festivities…



At the end of the day, the cartoonists were invited to a tour of the Schulz Studio and a pizza party. It was great weekend of connecting with friends, making new ones, and celebrating the Schulz Museum!

Vestal Museum Opening – A Career In Comics

I had a great time at the Vestal Museum opening of my exhibit “A Career In Comics” and thought I’d give a quick recap of the event held on June 24.

I’d been working on putting the exhibit together for the last few months with the museum director, Cherese Rosales; much of that time was spent by me going through my art archives and trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to focus on.  The space in the museum was limited to about 100 pieces with two main rooms, so I ultimately decided to showcase the two main strata of my cartooning work to date: my comic strip, Plato’s Republic, and my graphic novel work, Kid Beowulf.

Prior to the opening I’d been in touch with some of the local news organizations to help promote the exhibit.  When I arrived in town I took a trip to WBNG where I would be interviewed by Kara Conrad for her “Around the Tiers” show (Vestal is in the Southern Tier of New York state). Check out the nice welcome at the station (sadly, I missed Pastor Terry in the hallway).

I’ve never been in a television station before so it was a neat experience (and a little weird).   The host, Kara Conrad, was great and clearly knows what she’s doing when it comes to a good interview. Check it out below!

My full court press on the news didn’t stop there though, as the next morning I woke up to a front page, above-the-fold, picture of myself in the local newspaper The Press & Sun Bulletin – that was unexpected!

Reporter, Katie Sullivan did a great job on the story, which you can read in its entirety here.

I guess I wasn’t the only one who saw the paper, because when I got to the museum for the opening it was jam-packed with people!  It was a real thrill to meet everyone and I was very appreciative that they all came out to see my work.  One fellow was a long-time Peanuts fan and we spoke about our mutual love of Charles Schulz’s work.

I gave a presentation about my journey as a cartoonist and then followed it up with a cartooning class for kids; it was fun to teach a room full of eager students.

The best part of the day might have been when my high school art teacher, Mrs. Corgel stopped in. Both Cherese and I spent a lot of time in the Art Room with our favorite teacher so to see her again after all these years was especially meaningful.

Finally, we wrapped up the day with a book signing and an impromptu interview with another local news station (my thanks to the fan who sent me the tv clip they recorded on their phone).

The whole weekend was a whirlwind ride and I’m still a little in shock the whole thing turned out as well as it did!  I want to send a special thanks to the Vestal Museum Director, Cherese Rosales, who from the start, knew the exhibit would be a hit.

If you are in the Vestal/Binghamton area of New York this summer hop on over to the Vestal Museum to check out the exhibit, it will be up until August 26th.  There is also a special edition Museum Catalog available that showcases all the artwork and features my comics process and journey as a cartoonist.

In the meantime, here’s a quick tour of the museum and exhibit on display!

INTERVIEW – WBNG

INTERVIEW – Book Q&A

I had a fun time speaking with author and interviewer Deborah Kalb for her Book Q&A series. She had some insightful questions for me about the origins of KidB. and the many permutations the series has had over the years. You can find the full interview here.

REVIEW – Daddy Mojo & The Song Of Roland

Trey Burley of the acclaimed review site Daddy Mojo gives Kid Beowulf: The Song of Roland an acclaimed review!

 

It’s complex, but Kid Beowulf, The Song of Roland is a joyous book that is surprisingly simple to follow along with. It certainly helps that the graphic novel has an epilogue that includes the history of France at the time, key terms, character glossary, character map, origins of the poem The Song of Roland, lore and legends, historical map and a bibliography. With all of that supporting documentation I should remind you that this really was fun to read.

You can read the rest of the in-depth interview here!

REVIEW – Infodad and The Song of Roland

Infodad.com’s Family Focused Reviews gives Kid Beowulf: The Song of Roland a stellar 4-star review!

The Song of Roland is a tale of heroism, battle, tragedy and hubris, lightened, rearranged and considerably altered (to the point of including roller coasters) in Fajardo’s retelling. Scholars of medieval literature will cringe, and are entitled to, but what Fajardo does so well here is to make these very old stories interesting and, believe it or not, relevant, by emphasizing characters’ relationships and interrelationships and by having them use modern slang and have adventures as likely to be comic as serious. The Song of Roland, Fajardo-style, is fun, something that can scarcely be said of the original.

You can read the rest of the review here!

INTERVIEW – Press Democrat

“Beowulf,” an epic poem written roughly a thousand years ago in Old English — a language that is quite different from the modern-day version we use — has been adapted many times whether in film, on television, as an opera, a stage play and even new novels inspired by the original.

But it’s safe to say that Santa Rosa cartoonist Alexis Fajardo brings something new to the ancient tale, created by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf’s battle against the monster known as Grendel.

There’s a bunch more about me and KidB. from a recent article that ran in our local newspaper the Press Democrat. You can read the entire article here. My thanks to reporter Dan Taylor and photographer Christopher Chung for their interest in my work.