A DECADE OF CAG!
In the beginning CAG was born of two fathers. One father was Robert King and the other was myself, Keith J. Murphey. As memory serves in late 2000 I had completed a tour of several art galleries in the state of Connecticut and learned that there were several artists groups that started their own movements through art history. I approached Rob King about his interest in starting such a group for comic book enthusiasts. Rob was very interested in the idea and thus CAG was born.
As CAG has gone through its hurdles and achievements, I’ve begun to look at CAG’s existence of that of a child’s stages and age development. Much like being a parent there was no official handbook to raising CAG. During that first year of the group CAG had its name, a mission statement, and its logo. Things seemed simple at that time. CAG was in its infancy stage and began to take its first baby steps. The one thing I can say for sure about the early days was that we were consistent. We had a meeting every month and we worked diligently towards our goal of making our first general anthology.
As time progressed our membership began to grow and in our second year the NYC CAG chapter was formed. CAG began to have a voice and speak its first words at both conventions and on the web. As I recall it was also a very traumatic time as the attack on the World Trade center hit us very close to home. The world became a very unsafe place and making comics was the last thing on our minds at that moment.
Guidelines for the group were established around that time to ensure that all members would have a safe and rewarding experience. CAG had completed its second Anthology in 2002.
It was by CAG’s third birthday that it welcomed the Massachusetts chapter. At that time I found myself running and attending three different meetings every month in different states. Chapter leaders needed to be established and the CAG leadership team was born. At the time the general public was still not sure what to make of our group; some believed it was a group for artists only, while others had speculated we were a union. As the group grew so did its personality as new members brought their experiences and knowledge to the table. A suggestion at that time was that we needed to have more fun and we began to develop more social opportunities for CAG members. A third anthology was produced.
As CAG went into its fourth year, one of its fathers, Robert King, stepped down from his involvement with CAG as he began to start a family of his own. A fourth CAG anthology had been created. It became clear that if CAG were to continue it would do so with myself playing the sole parent.
In 2005 CAG hosted and independent comics after party during NY Comic Con’s first year. At the party CAG had celebrated its fifth year as a network. Several important things happened in the 2006 year. CAG began to form brand identity with the leadership of its new Creative director Mark Mazz. In addition CAG NYC metro member Phillip Clark moved out to the West Coast. Shortly after his move he was given the full support to start a CAG LA. chapter. CAG Midwest member Matt Mundorf began efforts to start a Lincoln Nebraska chapter to the group. CAG Anthology #5 debuted with attention to a much higher level of production and introduced our first flip cover book. A stronger focus on CAG publications had begun including an annual CAG newsletter.
CAG continued to blossom with a west coast edition (CAG Anthology #6) the same year. It was the first year that two CAG publications had been produced.
Individual members began to feel more support when Susan Soares took the reigns as the first CAG membership coordinator, a position that she helped build. CAG leadership began to grow and a need to meet bi weekly online for leadership meetings was established. These meetings, which continue to this day, help leadership discuss any CAG agenda items that need to be reviewed. CAG anthology #7 was published in 2008. Our first annual award show in NYC was also introduced. We also introduced the role of Convention coordinator that was a position Lindsey Kraemer helped build.
As the years continued it became clear that guidelines to form future chapters needed to be established and communication would be key.
CAG also broke from its traditional Anthology style books and undertook its most ambitious project to date: “ICONIC”. The book boated over 100 pages of content and over 20 creators were involved in its production. ICONICS goal was to take public domain literary characters and do a modern twist on them to get middle school children excited about reading. The book debuted in June of 2009 with positive reviews and a second volume is now being collected. The Iconic book helped the group take a new direction in its potential and a manga anthology (WITH HONOR) and a Science fiction prose book (WORLDS BEYOND) are also in their final stages of production.
It was my decision to step down as the President of CAG in December of 2009. I left CAG’s safety and protection in the hands of one of my closest and dearest friends in comics: Hector Rodriguez. As a founding father of CAG I will always be there for it if it needs me and will continue to watch it grow and mature. As with any group it has seen its share of growing pains that it has overcome as it continues to support comic book creators of all backgrounds. For me the last decade of doing work with CAG has been a true blessing and has helped me as a creator tremendously, my hope is that you all get that same experience in your own creative journeys.
Keith J. Murphey
Summer 2010
What is
the Comicbook Artists Guild?
Read on and get the scoop
on CAG!
Who we are:
Quite simply, we are the Comic book Artists Guild.
Does this mean you have to be an artist or writer to be involved
with CAG? No, here at CAG we want to reach out to everyone who
shares the common interest of comic book and cartoon art and other
artistic possibilities.
What we do:
We put together an Anthology that encapsulates
CAG members stories and art and distribute once a year. As a group
CAG works towards promoting independent comic book artists and
their creations. We work towards giving the comic book medium
a good reputation into the community around us.
Why join us?
Our goal is to make comic book lovers connect and
network together on projects, as well as give everyone in the
group the opportunity to get exposure. We share costs on comic
conventions. We have planned activities, such as field trips to
museums and galleries, visiting artists lectures and demonstrations,
critique one another’s art work, we are a great way for
you to meet people with common interests and get involved with
fun activities.
Meetings:
We currently hold chapter meetings in New York,
New England and Nebraska. Dates, times and locations are announced
monthly.
Workshops:
Come to one of our meetings and see professionals
give demonstrations and answer questions. Past workshops have
included: Coloring with photoshop, drawing the human anatomy,
and writing comic books.
CAG is all about participation
and networking!
Thanks,
Keith J. Murphey
Co-Founder
CAG
