Members of the New York City-centric Web comics collective ACT-I-VATE will be in the area on Saturday signing copies of their first anthology book, The ACT-I-VATE Primer.  You’ll be able to meet Harvey Pekar collaborator Dean Haspiel (Billy Dogma, The Alcoholic), Simon Fraser (Lilly MacKenzie, Nikolai Dante), Joe Infurnari (ULTRA-lad!, the Process, Mush!), and Washington’s own Jim Dougan (Sam & Lilah, Crazy Papers, No Formula). ACT-I-VATE was founded by Haspiel in 2006 and has been growing tremendously since then, by inviting new cartoonists and offering oodles of free Web comics. You can catch the creators in person at two locations, where you can buy the book and ask such searching questions as “How do you make any money off the Web anyway?” and (for Fraser) “Is living in Brooklyn really better than Scotland?”

Details after the jump:

The creators will be at Big Planet Comics Vienna (426 Maple Ave. East, 703-242-9412) from 2 to 4 p.m., and then at Politics and Prose (5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-364-1919) from 6 to 8 p.m.

Press Release from Mike Rhode of Washington City Paper.

Tomorrow night, I’ll be appearing alongside my Act-i-vate cronies at FIT, The Fashion Institute of Technology. Check the above image for pertinent info. If you’re in the NY area, please come out and join us!

I’ll be visiting Brooklyn’s Comic Convention, King Con, this Saturday November 7th! I’ll be participating in the Act-i-vate panel on Saturday and working the table selling Primer’s all day. Please stop by and say hello. If you haven’t already got your copy of the Primer, this is a great opportunity to have it adorned with signatures and sketches!

Here are some of the highlights and panels members from ACT-I-VATE are participating in:

FRIDAY – NOVEMBER 6TH 2009 – 8PM sharp

THE ACT-I-VATE EXPERIENCE – NYC DEBUT + PRE-PARTY SCREENING
The story of the preeminent webcomix collective. A documentary film directed by
Seth Kushner + Carlos Molina. Featuring interviews with Nick Bertozzi, Kevin Colden, Molly Crabapple, Simon Fraser, Mike Cavallaro, Dan Goldman, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Josh Neufeld, and others as they discuss the genesis of ACT-I-VATE, its impact on the art and business of comics, and its future both online and on the printed page.

SATURDAY – NOVEMBER 7TH 2009

THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER: SATURDAY 12PM-12:50PM
Dean Haspiel (Billy Dogma), Mike Cavallaro (Loviathan), Leland Purvis (Vulcan & Vishnu), Tim Hamilton (Adventures of the Floating Elephant), Simon Fraser (Lilly MacKenzie), Molly Crabapple (Backstage), Joe Infurnari [ULTRA-Lad!), Tim Hall (Uplift the Postivicals), and moderator, Jeff Newelt (SMITH Magazine comics editor), discuss the genesis of THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER, the premiere webcomix collective’s first print anthology, and ACT-I-VATE’S impact on both the art, business, and future of comics.

SPOTLIGHT ON JONATHAN AMES & DEAN HASPIEL: SATURDAY 4PM-4:50PM
Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel elaborate on their multi-media collaborations, which include their graphic novel, “The Alcoholic,” Ames’ latest essay collection, “The Double Life Is Twice As Good,” and the HBO show, “Bored To Death.”

SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 8TH 2009

ZUDA: SUNDAY 3PM-3:50PM
Join Ron Perazza (ZUDA COMICS), Kwanza Johnson (ZUDA COMICS), Bobby Timony & Peter Timony (Minion Maze, THE NIGHT OWLS), David Gallaher (HIGH MOON, Box 13), Steve Ellis (HIGH MOON, Box 13), Kevin Colden (Fishtown, I RULE THE NIGHT), Dean Haspiel (Billy Dogma, STREET CODE) and others for an inclusive, roundtable discussion about the advantages, challenges, questions, solutions, costs and benefits of making webcomics for fun and profit. Topics include working with a publisher, self-publishing, promoting yourself, best practices, style and moving from web to print (or vice-versa)!

DIGITAL COMICS ROUNDTABLE: SUNDAY 4PM-4:50PM
MODERATOR: Mike Zagari
ZUDA, Ron Perazza & Kwanza Johnson
ACT-I-VATE, Mike Cavallaro
COMIXOLOGY, John Roberts & David Steinberger
SMITH MAGAZINE, Jeff Newelt
& more to come!

For more panel information, including spotlights on GRAPHIC NYC, Harvey Pekar and The Pekar Project, and Bob Fingerman, go to:

http://www.kingconbrooklyn.com/panels/

http://www.kingconbrooklyn.com/

At long last the Radar Documentary dedicated to SMITH Magazine’s webseries, Next Door Neighbor, is available for viral proliferation! And here it has infected my blog! Enjoy the show!

To embed this video, use the following code:

<div style=”background:#000000;width:498px;height:423px”><embed flashVars=”playerVars=showStats=no|autoPlay=yes|” src=”http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/bg-3015272/radar_one_next_door_neighbor.swf” width=”498″ height=”423″ wmode=”transparent” allowFullScreen=”true” allowScriptAccess=”always” name=”Metacafe_bg-3015272″ pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”></embed><div style=”font-size:12px;”><a href=”http://www.metacafe.com/watch/bg-3015272/radar_one_next_door_neighbor/”>Radar One – Next Door Neighbor</a> – <a href=”http://www.metacafe.com/”>For more amazing video clips, click here</a></div></div>

Brooklyn preeminent independent bookstore, Book Court, will be hosting a unique and exciting event this week, The Act-i-vate Salon! What makes it oh so fancy (hence the ‘Salon’) is that members of the Act-i-vate collective will be doing dramatic readings of some of their stories in The Act-i-vate Primer. It’s a comics anthology meets performance art plus free alcohol and book signing extravaganza. Whoa, whoa there, Nelly! Don’t rush off just yet, the event happens next Thursday, October 29th! Check out the poster above or the this blog post for even more tantalizing tidbits!