Gritskrieg and the talented Danielle Corsetto, author and artist of Girls With Slingshots

Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots fame was gracious enough to take time from her busy day at Staple! to sit down with me for another interview.  Yes, that’s right, I said, and stress, *another* interview.  A freak tape recorder incident last year and I’m short one GWS creator story.  Fortunately, she was our booth neighbor so it was really easy to sit and stare at her until she relented to being asked some questions.  I call it “the creepy” method.  Not so good for getting dates but great when you want to get some questions answered.

Danielle tells us about McPedro’s origins, “falling” for Seth Green, and how at least one of her characters is deathly afraid of meat.

BG Gritskrieg: Looking at your itinerary on your site, you’ve been pretty busy since the beginning of the year. Are you busier this year as opposed to last year?
Danielle Corsetto: Travel-wise, definitely. I started doing signing tours in January and they’ve gone so well, I’ve decided to do more of them and that means I’m not in the house as much. So it’s been a lot of extra work but it’s worth it. I get to meet a lot more people and travel to wacky places. That’s always good.

BG Gritskrieg: What’s been your favorite stop this year?
Danielle Corsetto: That’s a hard choice. I’m in love with Toronto so any time I get to go there it’s always a good time. I love Austin though, I mean the weather alone might make it unfair for me to judge because it’s been so freakin’ cold back east so it’s a welcome change. I like Austin an awful lot, I don’t know if that really counts as an answer.
(ed. note: You read it, folks. She likes Austin, Texas the best so “neener” to the other states!)

Jamie of GWS sporting a BG Tee and representing the Old School Gamin'

BG Gritskrieg: Which event has been your favorite so far?
Danielle Corsetto: Wow, that’s a tough one. New York Comic Con was not my favorite. *laughing* Driving to New York sucks. I guess this one (Staple!). I really haven’t done a lot of other events this year other than the signings. I guess I could say the signing in Toronto was awesome.
(ed. note: We’ll forgive that last bit because she said Staple! first which is in Austin, Texas… so “neener” to the other states!)

BG Gritskrieg: This is probably something you get asked a lot but where did you come up with the idea for McPedro, the talking cactus in your strip?
Danielle Corsetto: *chuckling* That’s actually a good question. It started when I was approached by a company that wanted to make plushies of the characters from my strips. I thought about it and figured there would be some perverts out there tearing out the crotches of the dolls and… Well, it freaked me out a little  and I thought I would never let that happen to my “girls”. But they were looking for something that could be turned into a plushie and so being the snarky asshole that I am I said, “How about a cactus? That’s really cushie. It’s a plant, you can squeeze it.”  And so he just turned into one of the characters. I’m glad he did because the strip needed some sort of weird anthropomorphic character in there. He was good comic relief. Some people really hate him which I understand and appreciate but a lot of people really dig him. So that’s where he came from. Poor guy.

(more…)

There’s always the danger that the Reckon Crew will show up hungover for an event. It’s just the way things seem to happen when we roll into town and it’s even worse when the event happens to be in Austin, our local stomping grounds. So it shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone who knows us that we showed up for Staple! proper hungover and running on two hours of sleep. The lack of sleep didn’t stop us from perusing the show’s considerable talent lineup, nailing some great interviews, and schmoozing with our table’s neighbors.

Pre-Party at Austin Books and Comics

The Staple! weekend officiailly launched at Austin Books and Comics at the pre-party event Friday night. In exchange for letting a strange bearded man draw marks on our hands, we were given free beer. This made us happy. Once there were three marks forming, in most cases, a smiley face, there was no more free beer to be had. This made us sad. But we pushed on despite our thirst and the Reckon Crew wandered the crowd that had assembled for the bash, snapping pictures and introducing ourselves to those who hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting us yet.

Saturday morning we showed up bleary eyed at the Monarch Convention Center to set up our table for the event proper. Once our “flag” was up and the swag was set out, the Reckon Crew began wandering the floor to see the various works of the artists who attended the event. The following is a short list of events and people who caught our notice.

Staple! at the Monarch Convention Center

We spoke to Martin Whitmore of tastyflesh.com and martinwhitmore.com. His online comic Tasty Flesh is a tale of strippers surviving a zombie apocalypse using knowledge gleaned from classic zombie movies. Honestly, he had us at “strippers”. Look for more of Sir Whitmore in coming months as his artwork and twisted humor really caught our fancy.

Danielle Corsetto of Girls with Slingshots fame was our neighbor at the event and was kind enough to sit through a second interview with me after last year’s was consumed by recorder gremlins. She was also courteous enough to draw a quick sketch of Jamie, one of the characters from her strip and my personal favorite, wearing a Busy Gamer t-shirt. Look for our interview with her in the upcoming days.

Stan Sakai of Usagi Yojimbo did a Q&A about his comic and events throughout his career. We learned that one of the reasons for his fame initially began with a toy based on his work. So no matter how old you are, you should always play with toys. At least that’s the message we’re taking with us.

Monica Gallagher of eatyourlipstick.com and Gods and Undergrads caught our eye with her artwork… and a book titled “Boobage”. Yeah, so we’re pervs. She was sold out when we went by so our perving was countered by that simple fact. Her works include the adventures of Bonnie N. Collide, a roller derby girl working a nine to five job, and the aforementioned Gods and Undergrads, an unusual tale of college kids, Greek mythos, and magic.

After Party and Art Show at Red 7

We managed to drag our tired butts out to Red 7 in downtown Austin for the after party and we’re glad we made the trip.  It was a pleasure watch many of the artists who attended Staple! strut their stuff in front of a live audience. The pieces done were donated to be sold with the majority of the proceeds benefiting local community radio station KOOP. There was live music by Terp2it, a nerdcore hip hop group that managed to keep us laughing the whole time they performed, and DJs who keep the turntables spinning while the artists did their thing.

Finally, tired and content, the Reckon Crew made their way home to sleep off the hangover and quietly plot our next event. While we’re sad to see Staple! end, we look forward to seeing everyone who attends next year. Our warmest thanks to Chris “Uncle Staple” Nicholas for inviting us and putting together Staple! five years running with no end in sight.

See you next year, Staple!

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Illustrator John Lara from RobotBully.com made this custom print for the BG Crew!

Last year, one of the most memorable stops on our world-tour-that-didn’t-quite-make-it-outside-the-U.S. was actually pretty close to home. While we enjoy travelling, when an event is in Austin, Texas, it’s hard to pass up the opportunity not to visit. And while Staple! may be a bit less commercial (yeah!) than the other cons out there, we jumped at the opportunity to pay our respects at this event. Far more than what we expected, we found one of the largest gatherings of “indie” artists ever assembled in one location.  Needless to say, the Reckon Crew was in geek heaven.

It all started as a group of local artists in a coffee house and has grown to a full blown collection of some of the biggest names in webcomics and self-published comics. Last year’s gathering included Scott Kurtz of PVP Online, Danielle Corsetto of Girls with Slingshots, and Eric Powell of The Goon. We were able to land an interview with each one of them (Danielle’s was devoured by my recorder) and attended a couple of the panels and still managed to be “fanbois” for a large part of the day.

Staple! 2009, now in year five, will be held on Saturday, March 7th at the Monarch Convention Center. There will be several big names attending as guests, including Stan Sakai of Usagi Yojimbo, Jeffrey Brown, and Chris Onstad. Featured as well will be panels on Self Publishing and a Q&A with Stan Sakai. A complete listing of guests, exhibitors, and sessions can be found at www.staple-austin.org. And, no, your eyes do not deceive you when you glance over the exhibitor list, that is indeed the Reckon Crew listed.  Joining us will be the talented Terry Parr as well as Gamettes Amber Alert and Miss Genocide. We just thought it would be nice to have a place to set down the booze for a while. And sell some t-shirts. Terry will have his artwork up for sale and the Reckon Crew will be… wandering aimlessly.

Danielle Corsetto of Girls with Slingshots and the jerk who lost her interview

Seriously though, if you haven’t had the opportunity to check out Staple!, you should take the opportunity this Saturday (March 7th) to come out and see what we’re so excited about. Drop by the table and we’ll make fun of your t-shirt, offer you one of ours, and send you on your way with a pat on the head and a koozie for the beverage of your choice.

Take note that there will be a pre-party for Staple! at Austin Books beginning at 7PM Friday, March 6th as well as an after party (March 7) at Red 7 (on East 7th street) in downtown Austin beginning at 9PM. We’ll spend both nights in the drink, I imagine.

If you don’t show up, you’ll be a bigger nerd than we are… and that’s hard to do.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Find the Busy Gamer Reckon Crew at Booth #004 exhibiting at the Monarch Event Center, come grab some swag!