New All-Ages Anthology by the Boston Comics Roundtable Available Exclusively from MYP

BOSTON POWERS #1: The first issue of a new, all-ages comic book from the Boston Comics Roundtable: superhero comics set in and around Boston. A young superheroine and a vampire fight it out in a swamp near Salem; a boy discovers his own hidden powers while facing down his demons at the Roger Clap Elementary school in Dorchester; a group of superkids has to deal with delays on the T while hurrying to battle a pink slime monster at the Prudential.

If you live in the greater Cambridge, Watertown, Arlington, Medford, Somerville, Waltham, Belmont, or Lexington area, and you buy ANY GRAPHIC NOVEL in addition to Boston Powers #1, the Million Year Picnic will deliver your order to you for FREE!

We are also offering curbside pickup again, starting on Tuesday, 26 May 2020. Check Twitter and Instagram for our hours during the pandemic.

If you prefer to have your copy of Boston Powers #1 shipped, there’s an additional fee of $3.50 for postage: $6 + $3.50:

The five locally-based superhero sagas in the first issue of a new all-ages comic book series Boston Powers were created by local writers and artists, all belonging to the Boston Comics Roundtable (BCR), an organization of comics makers that has been meeting regularly, holding events, and publishing anthologies since 2006. This is the group’s first series designed specifically for kids. Three issues are planned for this year, each featuring all-new, original super-characters, taking on monsters, supervillains, and evil corporations in recognizable locations.

“We wanted to emphasize the silly, colorful, imaginative excitement of the superhero genre, the reasons we all fell in love with it as young comics readers” says Dan Mazur, who edited the collection. “And by inventing superheroes whose turf is in and around Boston, we hope to have made something even more fun for local kids.” While the comic book promotes positive values and diversity, Boston Powers first goal is to entertain its readers and show them their own towns and neighborhoods as locations for adventure and fantasy.

Boston Powers was funded in part via a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. The first issue of Boston Powers was to have debuted at the Boston Kids Comics Fest on April 27th, an event that was postponed due to the current health crisis. The comic book will instead be available for order online or via phone through the Million Year Picnic. Retail price is $6.00 for the 40 page, full-color comic.

If you’re looking for ideas for kid-friendly books to buy in order to qualify for FREE delivery, may we suggest the following? Contact us via email, millionyearpicnic@yahoo.com, or call 617-492-6763 (if you have to leave a message, we’ll get back to you) to arrange payment for Boston Powers #1 PLUS the comics or graphic novels of your choice!

Intro to Comix Creation ONLINE class for kids!

A young person helps Jason design Traffic Man, a superhero!

Hey friends with kids! We have a SPECIAL OFFER for you!

Since many of us are stuck at home, a friend of the Million Year Picnic — Harvard Instructor Jason Wiser — has offered to teach a class online, Intro to Comix Creation, to kids 8 and older. This would be a one-week class, running from Monday, 23 March 2020 through Friday, 27 March 2020, live at 11am and going for an hour each day. Each lesson will be recorded so that if you are not available for the live version, you or your child can watch it later that day. But note that Jason has already lined up a teaching assistant to help him respond to questions in real time. He’s also hoping to organize the students into small chat groups with kids of the same age (Note this is why we are asking for the names and ages of the children enrolled.)

– Intro to Comix Creation
– $50 per household (five 1-hour classes)
– Monday, 3/23 through Friday, 3/27 at 11am
– Please provide your email address (for the URL to connect you and your child to the class; no special software is needed; you’ll receive the link about a half-hour before class starts at 11am) as well as the first name(s) and the age(s) of your child (or children)

Payment can be made in person at the Million Year Picnic (99 Mt. Auburn Street in Cambridge), on the phone with a credit card (617-492-6763), or via PayPal to blanton7772000@yahoo.com (but please don’t email that address; put your email and the names/ages of your child/children in the “Add a note” section).

We will cap this class at 50 students, so act fast! Registration ENDS on SATURDAY, 21 March 2020!

ABOUT THE TEACHER:
Jason Wiser is a Harvard Instructor of Comics, Animation, and Game Development. His comics work has been published in the Boston Globe, his animation has appeared on the Disney TV show “Greek” and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his published games include the award-winning cooperative card game for kids “Monsters in the Elevator” (www.YayaPlay.com/MITE).

PLEASE SHARE THIS AROUND! Even if you don’t have kids, your friends might be interested! Jason is kindly letting us keep the proceeds of this venture to raise money for the shop while we’re all practicing social distancing.

Thank you,
The MYP Crew
99 MT Auburn ST (downstairs)
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-492-6763
millionyearpicnic@yahoo.com
https://www.themillionyearpicnic.com/

Spring Comics Workshop

SPRING COMICS WORKSHOP

Free! For kids & teens!

Saturday, 13 May 2017, from 1-3pm at the Cambridge Public Library (449 Broadway)

Sponsored by US! (The MYP), The Boston Comics Roundtable, and the Cambridge Public Library

Free Comic Book Day 2017, Saturday 5/6 only!

The Sale:

20% off ALL new comics AND trades from Marvel and DC
10% off ALL kids’ graphic novels
30% off ALL Adventure Time issues and trade paperbacks

The Schedule:

9:30am-11am – Robot Camp (Jordan Stillman, LJ-Baptiste, & Neil Johnson)

11am-1pm – Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb

1-2:30pm – Jerel Dye and Barry Corbett

2:30-4pm – Jay Kennedy

The Schedule Plus Biographies:

9:30am-11am – Robot Camp (Jordan Stillman, LJ-Baptiste, & Neil Johnson)

Robot Camp is a collective and network of artists. We support and publish many creative endeavors, including, but not limited to, anthologies, single issue comics, graphic novels, prose, and more. We are interested in creating physical objects. Find out more at www.robotcampcomics.com.

Jordan Stillman is a writer and editor from Boston, MA. She is the Co-Director of Robot Camp and enjoys hot cups of tea, cats, and singing loudly.

LJ-Baptiste is an artist from Dorchester, MA. He writes and draws comics both for print and web. His current project is his ongoing webcomic series COMIXSCAPE, which can be read at www.comixscape.net.

Neil Johnson is a writer and cartoonist who works and lives in Boston, MA. You can find his most recent work at www.neiltheghost.com.

11am-1pm – Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb

Braden Lamb grew up in Seattle, studied film in upstate New York, and learned about epic sagas in Iceland and Norway. He now lives and works in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife and art partner Shelli Paroline. Together they have illustrated the Eisner Award-winning Adventure Time comics and The Midas Flesh. Braden is also the colorist for several New York Times best-selling graphic novels, including Sisters, The Baby-Sitters Club, and Broxo. bradenlamb.com

Shelli Paroline escaped early on into the world of cartoons and science fiction, and from there launched into a career creating comics. She and her husband Braden Lamb form an Eisner Award-winning art team, collaborating on such series as Adventure Time and The Midas Flesh. Shelli is Co-Director of the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo an annual event highlighting the best in new and local sequential art. She lives and works in Salem, Massachusetts. shelliparoline.com

1-2:30pm – Jerel Dye and Barry Corbett

Jerel Dye is a cartoonist, illustrator, and artist living and working in the Boston area. He has been creating art and comics since 2005 and has produced several self-published mini comics and has created comics stories for anthologies like Inbound, Minimum Paige, Hellbound, and the award winning Little Nemo/Winsor McCay tribute Dream Another Dream. In 2012, he received the MICE comics grant for his mini-comic From the Clouds.

His first graphic novel Pigs Might Fly is due to be released in 2017, by First Second books. Much of his art stems from a deep interest in science and technology though frequently contains a healthy dose of wonder. Jerel Dye received his BFA from Umass Dartmouth in Painting, and his MFA at MassArt in the Studio for Interrelated media. Jerel is also a freelance designer and teaches courses in drawing, cartooning and comics in Massachusetts.

Barry Corbett is a freelance Magazine Cartoonist and Publisher of Comic Books and Webcomics. His Panel Cartoons have appeared in Reader’s Digest, Barron’s, American Legion, Lacrosse Magazine, True West, Prospect, Medical Economics, First Magazine, Fantasy & Science Fiction, & Christianity Today.

Barry released Embrace the Pun in 2006, following by Revenge of the Pun, and The Pun Rides Again. Kitty Nirvana (2008) won a medal at the IPPY Awards. It’s a Cat Thing was released in 2012. Barry publishes Comic Books under the imprint Griffin Comics; Gormon, Star Crossed, and Terminal Velocity.

Terminal Velocity is an autobiographical comic told in a series of short vignettes covering the death of his brother in childhood, his forays into scuba diving and hang gliding, the violence in ice hockey, and his comical attempts to become a skydiver. Find his work at www.corbettfeatures.com.

2:30-4pm – Jay Kennedy