Kat Klockow
Writer, artist, and illustrator
Hello, and hoping everyone is having a good April so far!
If you were hanging around the Barnes and Nobles up in Mason last weekend, you may have seen Mike and I shuffling around the cafe hanging colorful, framed, paintings. These are in fact my sumi-e paintings that will be displayed during the month of April. This is the first time I have had anything of mine painting-related publicly since elementary school! Another note, if you do visit this display; DO NOT TOUCH THE PAINTINGS! It isn’t that I care about finger prints on the glass, it is for the simple fact that they will fall down on you if they fall off their hangers. I’ve warned you!
Now for pictures!
While patrons mix their mugs of coffee with cream or sugar, they can gaze at my geraniums.
Me with some of the paintings next to the cafe cake case.
All these paintings are for sale, if you are interested in any of them contact me at katklockow@gmail.com
Other News:
Earlier this week I was contacted by my editor over at Schiffer Publishing about the status of my book. The book about IU Ghosts and Urban Legends was originally slated to arrive in stores in spring of 2010 (a year from now basically) but has been moved to fall of 2010 (hopefully before October). Because of this, my deadline has been extended by a little bit. In a way I am kinda happy about this turn of events, mostly because it means more adventures of ghost hunting can be included into the book.
Well, thanks for reading this week! I’ll try to keep posting updates every week. I will be with IGT-Indy this weekend (actually tomorrow) investigating the Crump Theatre in Columbus, Indiana. Yay all night lock-in!
Cheers!
Kat
Yes it is general updates time! There are quite a few this time around, mostly having to do with my webcomics.
Comics:
Both of my webcomics Red Orchid Soceity and Miss Grey new pages have been put on temporary hold while I work on my Sumi-e and book projects. New pages are expected to go up on their respective sites starting Monday April 6th for R.O.S and Tuesday April 7th for MG-R. ROS will be updating Monday/Wednesdays while MG-R will update Tuesdays/Thursdays until further notice. Thanks for everyone who has been so patient waiting for new pages this year. My book’s deadline is July 1st, so expect some hectic webcomic scheduling while that gets finished. I also will not be attending any anime conventions until the book is turned into the editors! Sorry! I’ll really miss them!
Sumi-e:
Starting March 28th-late April some of my sumi-e (chinese ink) paintings will be on display at the Fields Ertel Barnes and Nobles. All the paintings up for display are for sale, in addition commissions are available. Some of the paintings will be available on my deviantart site to look at.
Book:
I’ve been writing like mad for this book. It has been very fun to put together however, and I have enjoyed meeting the ghost hunting groups and individuals interviewed for the book. I recently have become a member of Indiana Ghost Trackers Bloomington, which I has been great so far! I hope to gain some more stories and have some adventures along the way!
Life:
My poor car Frankenstein has been having some electrial issues and thus has been in the shop all weekend. I should be picking him up today! Hope he works well now! It has been very frustrating having him die on my all the time….
Well that’s it, thanks for reading the updates everyone!
-Katsu
There are some new updates for my comics and social network information:
I have an account on Twitter now! If interested, I’m at http://twitter.com/mangakat
On Twitter (and any other social site such as my myspace (http://www.myspace.com/bourei), please tell me who you are and how you found me (for example, I’m John Smith and I’m a Miss Grey fan!) or I will not add you as a contact.
On another note, I have put up the first six pages of The Red Orchid Society- my new webcomic on Drunk Duck! New pages can be found here: http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Red_Orchid_Society/index.php
Short Description:
The Red Orchid Society (or ROS for short) is a new shojo manga that updates Monday/Wednesday/Friday. The protagonist Ran Yoshida is a daughter of the head Shinto Priest at Asahi Inari Jinya outside to Kyoto, and hopes to one day marry a guy who loves her family run shrine as much as she does and continue the tradition of caring for the shrine. One day the kami answer her prayers by sending her not just one, but two suitors to the shrine grounds. The only catch is that one sports a pair of fangs and a lust of blood while the other has a tail. How is Ran going to function normally in society with freaks for fiances?
Please vote for The Red Orchid Society or Miss Grey over at http://topwebcomics.com/. The search box is on the bottom of the front page. If there is enough interest in either of the comics, I’ll start making wallpapers for each month for voting up there. :D
I hope readers will enjoy reading this fantasy shojo as much as I love putting it together!
Cheers!
Katsu
- What is your convention Schedule for 2009?
I have recently moved to Cincinnati, so I’m at a good place to visit a lot of conventions now! Here are the conventions I plan on going to this year:
Ohayocon: Columbus, Ohio Jan. 29-Feb.1 2009
Anime Punch!: Columbus, Ohio April 10-12 (tenetive)
Ikasucon: Fort Wayne, Indiana August 7-9 2009 (Staff Artist)
Matsuricon: Worthington, Ohio August 28-30
Sugoicon: Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky dates TBA
- How can we book Kat for an appearance at a school/library/convention etc?
If you are interested in having me talk at an event, please send me an e-mail at mangakat@gmail.com and we can arrange the details of the event, such as dates, possible honorarium, and travel.
- Why didn’t we see Kat at my local convention?
Unfortunately due to scheduling and travel circumstances I can’t make it to every convention (all though I would love to!) If you would like to see me at your local convention, please contact that convention’s guest coordinator and make the suggestion! All I ask for is a room, Artist Alley table, travel, and of course lots of chances to meet you at the con! I have lead many panels about making manga and putting them up on the internet as webcomics (at Ohayocon and Ikasucon) in addition to leading a few Lolita tea parties (at Ikasucon).
- What are all the projects Kat has done?
Currently I work on four different comics! The “flagship” comic is Miss Grey my supernatural adventure, followed by Strawberry Sugar a webcomic about the Lolita fashion community. Rayne of Terror is a parody of life comic set in Cheddar, Wisconsin and written by Mike. The newest comic is The Red Orchid Society (coming out Feb. 16th 2009).
I am currently working with Ikasucon as their “Staff Artist” for the upcoming convention. But I have done artwork for Florida Supercon in 2006 (although it was not featured).
- What does Kat’s nickname “Katsu” come from?
Haha! I get asked this at least twice every convention I go to! It takes a little explaining and knowledge of Japanese linguistics…
The short story is, I wanted to have kanji (Japanese Characters) for my name Katie when I was living in Nagoya, Japan in 2004. A friend of mine made some up using the bits of my name: Ka chi e (ti makes a “chi” sound- it’s an old school way of writing the sound). “Ka chi” or “katsu” is the verb “to win” or “winning” and “e” can use the character for “picture”. So the name he made was “Kachie” or “winning picture” (yeah even then I drew comics, so the name fits). Later I shorted it just “Katsu”, which is actually a male name…
*phew* That is a long explanation but I hope it made sense!
- What is that weird squiggle on the bottom of all her artwork, I think it is a signature but I’m not sure…
My handwriting sometimes is very messy, but that little mess of lines on the bottom of nearly every comic or image that I make is the character “katsu” 「勝」plus the date (usually just the month and year).
- What are your hobbies?
When not drawing comics, I’m usually watching lots of anime with Mike. I also can be found on lots of online forums chatting away. Every month I help organize the Cincinnati lolita meet up, or go to other city lolita meet ups (such as Indianapolis and Chicago’s). I also sew a lot of my own lolita outfits.
I also read a lot of ghost stories and watch Ghost Hunters or Ghost Hunters International with a passion!
- Can you draw me something?
At the conventions you can get chibi badges from me at the Artist Alley table. However I don’t do requests outside of that time due to my heavy schedule. I’m sorry!
- Is all you do is draw comics?
It really seems like it but really no. I am writing a book for Schiffer Publishing that is due out in the spring of 2010. Drawing comics is something I have done for 12 years now, I would just feel weird if I didn’t draw one each day. As Mike will attest, I get cranky if I haven’t drawn anything for awhile…
- Can you teach me Japanese?
As much as I am excited you want to learn Japanese, no I can not. Especially not over the internet. My suggestion is that you look for classes being taught at the local college or high school, even libraries have been known to do small language programs.
- Can you teach me how to draw manga?
I have hosted a panel or two at conventions about the basics to drawing sequential artwork (in which manga and comics fall into). I am not an art major, but I can try my best to guide you through the basics to creating your own comics! I also have hosted a panel about putting comics on the net.
- You occasionally mention this “Mike” character, who is he?
He doesn’t appear at every convention with me, but Mike is my husband. We met at Acen 2003, so we’ve a anime con loving couple from the beginning. I have to thank Fred Gallagher for this, since we met waiting for him to sign our copies of MegaTokyo!
- ZOMG YOU KNOW JAPANESE?!?!
I get this reaction from time to time, yes I know Japanese. It was one of two majors I graduated with from college. 2009 marks the nineth year that I have been involved with the language, since I started learning it in high school. I have been to Japan three times in the past decade, in 2000, 2002, and lived there from 2004-2005 while attending Nanzan University in Nagoya. I can’t explain why I’m so attracted to Japan as a topic, but I am. And no, I didn’t start learning Japanese to read manga. I have a reason, but that is a longer story.
Thanks to the guys over at Otaku-no-Yen for giving me the idea to post a FAQ!
I’m changing some things about this website, please be patient! Thank you,
-Katsu