Artists Wanted at CNJComics

Hello Creative Friends of Carol & Johns Comic Shop!

We’ve come to that time of year again where caring and community count for everything. We mean the holiday season in general, but more specifically the Carol and John’s Holiday Party and Charity Art Show! We’re reaching out to you to provide all of the pertinent information and solicit your involvement in this tried-and-true annual event celebrating all forms of giving and good cheer.

Artists Wanted

As always Carol and Johns will be directing all charitable donations to The Greater Cleveland Food Bank, with their uncanny ability to turn one dollar into four full meals. Over the past few years our Holiday Party and Art Show has helped to create over 60,000 meals for those in need during this important time of year. We would love for YOU to be a part of creating those meals by submitting artwork to our Charity Art Show! The more artwork we collect the more interest generated, and the more meals we can provide. Here’s how it works:

Just stop by the shop and pick up blank comic covers from us. They are free of charge but please only take as many as you will be using/submitting to the art show. Each cover collected can then be completed and returned to us by 8 pm on Thursday, December 19th. (All forms of media enhancement are okay, we get a lot of questions about digital.) We will display each cover in a standard  sized frame so please stick to the front. Visitors to Carol & John’s Comic Shop on Saturday December 21st will be able to donate to the Food Bank in the form of money or food stuffs, to receive raffle tickets. Raffle tickets will be used in the form of a basket raffle and each winner will be able to take home a great piece of original artwork. (as well as a sense of contribution during the holidays.) It looks like this:

This year’s theme is a Comic Book / Christmas Movie Mash-Up. We’ve noticed over the years that some of the best submissions have been a combination of a classic Christmas movie or special with a comic book or superhero element. Here’s some from previous events.

Art by Keith Allen

Art by Ryan Finley

Art by Craig Worrell

Movies like A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Elf, The Nightmare Before Christmas (and yes, even Die Hard) are an integral part of our yearly holiday experience, and what better way to pay tribute to this than our own Christmas party and art show.

When you stop into the store to pick up your blank covers please make sure to check in with an employee. We will need to make a record of your involvement, including recording your name and contact information, but more importantly we’d like any information that you use to promote yourself as an artist. This can be a website, Facebook page, Instagram handle, or any other way you’d like to use to show your art to the world. After the event we create an online Facebook Gallery of all the artwork and link the artists URL to their artwork!

Cleveland’s Independent Comic Scene

We will also be setting up at Genghis Con this year on December 1st, and we’ll have a large supply of the blank covers there to pick up! (We’ll also be handing out some free stuff, so stop by and say hi.)

There will also be two Drink and Draws down at Goldhorn Brewery this season on November 27th and December 11th. We’ll be at both of those, for both picking up and dropping off covers for your convenience. If you’ve never made it out to a Drink and Draw before stop down and say hi. It’s a great environment for aspiring artists to meet others in a low key social environment. (and drink beer.)

Both Genghis Con and the Drink and Draw Social Club are a huge part of what makes Cleveland’s independent comic art scene incredible, and we greatly encourage everyone to support both of these fantastic organizations. They’re a big part of what makes Cleveland awesome all around.

Everyone wants to help in someway during the holidays, well this can be your thing! Artists, we can turn your talent and artwork into food and have a lot of fun doing it too! Last year alone we were able to collect enough funds to help the food bank create over 12,000 meals while collecting over 1,800 food items! We put a lot of work into the party and to us this is the key day of the year where the community that has formed around the shop comes together for all the right reasons.

We look forward to seeing your artwork this year, and we truly thank you for your support!