Micro-grants for cartoonists
SAW is committed to offering small grants between $250-$500 to practicing artists. Two small $250 grants will be awarded on April 15, 2013. Eligible artists must be developing and dedicated to a current project that fits within the mission of The Sequential Artists Workshop (basically anything that is comics, a graphic novel, comics journalism, etc.)
Instructions for applying: please complete and sign this form and submit to SAW at the PO Box 13077, Gainesville, FL 32604.
NOTE: Beacuse of our small resources, a browsable URL is of utmost importance for our judges. We ask that the pieces of your project be viewable or clickable via a URL. If this is difficult, please make note of this on your application and include as much as possible in your proposal packet.
Include any useful or supplemental art/stories or information. We love mini-comics. Grants are chosen based on combinations of need and merit. SAW regrets that it can not inform all applicants of their application status. Awardees will be notified via e-mail or usps and awardees will be posted on the SAW website. Applicants agree to allow their work to be linked and/or utilized on the SAW website -with attribution- for purposes of advertising the grant program, its winners and applicants as well as SAW’s mission to further excellence in comics and sequential art. Employees of SAW(as if) are ineligble to apply.
Deadline: Applications must be delivered to the SAW PO Box by March 15, 2013 for the April 15, 2013 grant. Aplications received after that will be eligible for the August 2013 grant.
Please be aware that due to our limited resources, short-listed or honorable mention projects from the Sept 2012 round are are not eligible to apply in the March 2013 round.
Want to donate to the fund? SAW starts with a base of $500 for two $250 grants. Any donations made via this link will only go to the next (April 2013) SAW Micro-grant and are tax-deductible (we’ll send you a receipt by year’s end.)
Our April 2013 Winners
SAW Micro-grant awardees for April 2013
The two awardees, decided upon by our five judges from a pool of several dozen applicants are Alabaster and Asher Z. Craw.
Each will receive a check for $250 from SAW for their projects.
Alabaster
Alabaster has wowed readers since her days at School of Visual Arts, and especially with her last collection, Talamaroo, a gorgeously packaged collection that wowed everyone who saw it.
She wins for her project-in-progress,Mimi and the Wolves. Where Talamaroo was a delightful, fuzzy primal romp through body, ego and desire,Mimi and the Wolvesshows Alabaster pushing her storytelling into deeper territory, using both symbolic and clean child-like imagery to explore a story of a girl haunted by dreams of… well, she’d rather not say. Alabaster plans on releasing Mimi for TCAF. Look for it.
Asher Z Craw
In a time when it seems hard to be original, the best route to originality seems to be: keep your heart open and use what tools you can to try to see what’s it telling you. Asher Craw seems to be on this path. Zebadiah is a strange, quiet work, a personal myth about losing one’s soul, and trying to stay connected to the ones you love. He has studied at the IPRC in Portland, Oregon and has recently been awarded something or other at that city’s Gridlords event (sorry- we’re on the East Coast so transmissions are hazy.) On top of that, his ancillary work,Dream Guide and Take a Picture demonstrate a desire to experiment, and tune the dials of his existence until something comes into focus. Look for issues two and three, out soon.
Honorable Mentions
Ingrid Rios : for her story-in-progress, “Bare Bones” about living with an eating disorder. While the subject matter perks the ears, it’s Ingrid’s drawings that compel the reader to understand more. This is brave, raw work, and we are interested to see more.
Aaron $hunga – Cabeza : Clearly influenced by Tsuge and other alternative manga. Interesting, odd and eerie.
Mara Sternberg is editing a book - On Nights Like This, an anthology by survivors of sexual abuse, assault, or rape.
Jared Morgan – True Kvlt: “It’s a love-letter to everything that was taboo when I was younger: heavy metal, horror movies, indie comics, etc.”
Mari Naomi‘s memoir called “Turning Japanese”, a proposed 250-page book about living in Japan and being a Japanese “hostess” is something to look for when it comes out.
We were all fans of the visual material, seen here in Keren Katz’ The Night Poetry Class in Room 1001 but couldn’t get a handle yet on the story material, so we are eager to see more.
The same is true of Craig Marshall’s work, seen here.
Lara Antal Tales of the Night Watchman
We also received interesting work by Dre Grigoropol, Jenna Brager, Bob Oxman, and Sophia Wiedeman.
Our September 2012 winners
| We want to congratulate our two winners: |
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Jess Ruliffson For her comics based on interviews with veterans of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Link on her blog, callingthedog, here. Our judges were in agreement that this was a great project, some remarking that “This is serious work, committed and beautifully drawn” and “Urgent subject matter and beautifully drawn, I wish we had more money to give her.” Her project asks her to frequently travel to conduct interviews and sketch her interviewees directly, and we hope that our measly $300 goes to deferring those costs somewhat.
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| Julia Gfrorer |
Jess Ruliffson’s Journalismfor Black is the Color
http://studygroupcomics.com/main/black-is-the-color-by-julia-gfrorer/
Julia Gfrorer’s Black is the Color
Julia’s Black is the Color is in progress, at present, a beautifully made mini-comic with a second issue to come. What seems to be a simple dialogue-driven story becomes haunting and mystical as its protagonist is confronted and slowly seems to move to a lonely cold death. Julia’s mythology and ideas stand apart from others in its starkness and directness: it seems truly real. Additionally, her drawings, which seem to have a broad base in European expressionism like Schiele or Munch, show extreme dedication to her dark, original subject matter.
The choice of this project was a harder one, as Julia is a bit more established, having been published by Sparkplug, interviewed byThe Comics Journal and featured in The Best American Comics, but the depth and directness of her work, the lavish, personal drawings and the point she is at in her career made the judges agree that she was our next winner.Short List
Intense fever dream about Mr. Juice, a sort of punk rock, meta-soul searching wanderer.
Lush book about a boy in 8th grade.
Fictional biography of famous circus sideshow freak JoJo the Dog Faced Boy. With a great, sculpted cover image.
Lush drawings in pencil about a girl trying to understand her place in society.
Charming, funny comic strips about a touring band.
Honorable Mentions
Felicia Fortes – Daddy and the Lonely Tree http://www.feliciafortes.com
Caitlin Cass – The Great Moments in Western Civilization Cooperativehttp://www.greatmomentsinwesternciv.com/postalconstituent.html
Justin Pageau – Bird Brain Comics #2 birdbraincomix.blogspot.com
Mike Freiheit – Monkey Chef http://www.mikefreiheit.com/comics
Vreni Stollberger – Two Dumb Girls http://stillvreni.tumblr.com/post/28926476771/jaws-of-love-finished
Dimitri Kalemkeris – Argopawk http://portnereidpress.com/argopawk/
Greg Farrell – Strand Book Store Labor Dispute Comics AKA “Wildcat Action”http://strandaskus.blogspot.com
Alexander Rothman – Versequential http://www.versequential.com
Morgan Boecher – What is Normal Anyway? http://www.whatsnormalanyway.net
Anthony Meloro – Ghost Heat Up http://www.anthonymeloro.com/Ghost-Heat-Up
Denny Riccelli – Cousin Harold http://www.cousinharold.com
Gina Kirlew – Scandalbags http://scandalbags.blogspot.com
Sarah Palaszynski – Starseed Comics www.starseedcomic.com
Christopher Green – Wall of balloons http://www.wallofballoons.com/cmx
Katharine Miller – Robot of Leisure – http://www.robotofleisure.com/
Erin Mehlos – Next Town Over http://www.nexttownover.net/
Joe McFee – AFW http://www.xigencystudios.com
Next Grant Cycle
Thank you all for submitting. Please be aware that due to our limited resources, those artists listed above are not eligible to apply in the March 2013 round.
For those applicants who are not listed above, please keep in mind that maybe we didn’t understand your proposal, or there weren’t enough materials to help us understand, or maybe we just don’t “get” what you are doing, or maybe we’re just a bunch of jerks. Own your own belief in your work and forge ahead.
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Our July 25, 2012 press release:
July 25, 2012
The Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW) has announced that it will be awarding four $250 micro-grants, two in September 2012 and two in April 2012. Interested applicants can apply using the form at http://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/grants/
SAW Executive Director Tom Hart, who wishes the amounts could be bigger, says that he sees a big hole where the Xeric Foundation once was. “The general belief is that the internet and Kickstarter has replaced the services that the Xeric grant once provided, but in fact, the Xeric board provided two other services: first, they acted as a small, expert board who existed above the marketplace and could carefully review a work and give a small nod of artistic approval to new or struggling creators, and second, they allowed for the quiet but dedicated creators to be noticed. Today’s rise-above-the-chatter method of being seen is very fruitful and productive, but wearying to those who are invisible to the market trends of the day or are incapable of the constant social contact necessary for promoting.”
Applications for the two small micro-grants will be accepted from now until Aug 15, 2012. Awardees will be announced on Sept 15, 2012. Applications for the April 2013 grant will be accepted until March 15, 2013. The grants will continue into Sept 2013 and April 2014, but it is uncertain whether grant cycles beyond that will occur. Ideally they will, and they will be larger. “If the funds are there,” Hart says, “we’d love to continue. Maybe we’ll even crowdsource the funding of the grant.”
Awardees will be decided by a committee of SAW co-creators Tom Hart and Leela Corman, publisher Annie Koyama, and two working cartoonists who wil remain anonymous. Grants will be awarded based on merit but also on dedication, potential and the need of the particular artist to have his or her project visible.
