It’s been a landmark year of 2017 for Curls Studio creators Joe Carabeo and Carolyn Belefski, so let’s celebrate with a year-in-review recap blog post!
We made several comic show appearances this year with a total of 20 days behind the table exhibiting comics. We exhibited at Washington Wizards Collecti-Con, MoCCA Arts Festival, and KidsCon at Fantom Comics for the first time. We celebrated Free Comic Book Day at our local store and hit up major conventions including Awesome Con, Small Press Expo, Baltimore Comic-Con, and New York Comic Con. We ended the year with a small show at a used book store and got to meet a lot of fun personalities there!
In February, Carolyn was asked to be a guest artist at the National Archives Sleepover. She presented her “Design Your Own Superhero” activity and had loads of fun learning about history.
In May, Carolyn became a national board member of National Cartoonists Society! She is also continuing to chair the Washington, DC chapter of NCS. She has organized programs since 2012, including Cartoonists Draw Blood with American Red Cross and helped with “cARToons” exhibits and other activities.
In October, Carolyn and Joe both took part in Inktober for the first time. They both drew with ink and posted a new image every day during the month on their socials. Joe’s theme was Alfred Hitchcock and Carolyn’s theme was Turtles.
Also during October, Carolyn organized the fifth annual Cartoonists Draw Blood drive with Troy-Jeffrey Allen. Donors gave blood to the American Red Cross and then the Washington, DC chapter of National Cartoonists Society and other local cartoonists drew for the donors as a “thank you.” The event was a success and we saved many lives. We also created our first Cartoonist Draw Blood comic book anthology, “Trick or Treat.”
Black Magic Tales was published in Magic Bullet, Washington, DC’s comics anthology. Issues #14 and #15 were released this year.
In December, Carolyn and Joe embarked on another monthly challenge: they created PODCEMBER and recorded a fresh podcast each day during the month of December. You can listen to all the episodes at www.carolynandjoeshow.com.
If you want to know more information about any of the experiences we’ve had this year, please look in the blog archives, as each event was recapped with photos. Our lives were changed this year and we’ve stayed productive. We hope to create more for you in 2018 and all the years to come.
Happy New Year from Curls Studio!