We are still closed to customers. BUT! THIS WEEKEND (Saturday and Sunday, 29 & 30 August 2020) is a TAX HOLIDAY in Massachusetts! We’re gonna have a SALE on top of that! 10% off any graphic novel in the shop! That’s a total of 16.25% off the cover price! Email millionyearpicnic@yahoo.com or call 617-492-6763 between 2-6pm, seven days a week.
The Million Year Picnic comic shop is still closed to browsing, but that doesn’t mean we’re not working! We’re doing curbside pick-ups, free local deliveries for orders over $15, and shipping all over the country! AND, our friend Jason Wiser is offering THE FINAL COMIX CREATION CLASS FOR KIDS IN 2020! After this class, there will be NO MORE CLASSES in 2020!
The final Level 2 class will run Monday-Friday, August 17-21, 2020, time TBD. Classes will be recorded if you miss a day! We suggest taking Level 1 as a prerequisite, but it’s not required.
These classes run 5 days a week, 1 hour a day through a Zoom link provided by the teacher for kids age 8 and older. Students can participate through an Internet-connected laptop or tablet, and materials are typically paper, pencil, and pen. All work is optional, but kindness is mandatory!
We are offering this class as a Pay-What-You-Can deal (which includes free). To register, either send the suggested $50 fee (that’s per household, so 1 kid or 5 kids, it’s the same price) to the Million Year Picnic comic book store via PayPal to blanton7772000@yahoo.com (but do not email this address as it’s not monitored; you can also use the PayPal button below) OR, simply email millionyearpicnic@yahoo.com to let us know you’d like to register but can’t afford to pay at this time.
IN THE PAYPAL “NOTE” FIELD (or in your email), PLEASE PROVIDE:
(1). Your child’s name
(2). Your child’s age
(3). An email address (to send you the daily Zoom link).
If PayPal doesn’t show you a NOTE field, please email this information to millionyearpicnic@yahoo.com!
(Pay what you can, suggested fee is $50.)If you have problems with PayPal or need to use a different payment method, please contact us at millionyearpicnic@yahoo.com or call 617-492-6763. Either Tony or Kelly is in the shop every day between 2pm and 6pm (sometimes earlier, sometimes later).
Note that this is a fundraiser for the shop as Jason let’s us keep the bulk of the fees! You’re helping a Black-owned business stay afloat!
If you do not see an email from us by 30 minutes before the start of the first day of class, it might be in your spam folder. Please check, and please email Jason@YayaPlay.com with questions! Jason’s website is http://www.yayaplay.com/classes.html
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).
SHARING IS CARING! THANK YOU!!!
EIGHT Ways To Help The MYP:
IF YOU WANT TO HELP THE MILLION YEAR PICNIC but you don’t want to come into the shop for whatever reason, there are EIGHT WAYS you can do that! TWO of them have deadlines.
1. SIGN YOUR KIDS UP FOR OUR CLASS! (Sign up by Saturday, 3/21/2020)
Our friend Jason Wiser has been teaching classes on comics for years and has made us a special offer to teach YOUR kids how to draw their own comics! This would be a one-week class, running from Monday, 23 March 2020 through Friday, 27 March 2020, 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.
Details here:
https://www.themillionyearpicnic.com/intro-to-comix-creation-online-class-for-kids/
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.
2. FREE HOME DELIVERY SERVICE!
For the next few weeks, while everyone’s practicing social distancing and trying to slow down the spread of COVID-19, we will be offering FREE delivery service to Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, and Belmont on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a minimum purchase of $15. For large orders, we might be willing to expand our delivery area to other nearby communities.
Orders placed via phone (617-492-6763) Thursday through Monday 5pm will be delivered Tuesday and orders placed Tuesday through Wednesday 5pm will be delivered on Thursday. You can also place orders via email.
We’ll ring the doorbell or send a text, but leave the package on the porch.
3. USPS SHIPPING TO YOUR HOUSE!
Call us at 617-492-6763 and ask for your comics to get shipped to your house! If you’re outside our delivery range, we’re happy to pack up your comics into a box and ship them to you! If it’s just graphic novels, we can ship book rate, which is cheap but slow. However, if you want issues, we’ll need to switch to a Priority Mailer. We can get lots of books into a $15 box!
4. CURBSIDE PICKUP!
Call us at 617-492-6763 and pay for your comics, then drive up and pick up your comics curbside! You don’t even need to get out of your car!
5. BUY A GIFT CERTIFICATE!
Call us at 617-492-6763 and order a gift certificate. If you’re a subscriber, we can put it in your folder. Or we can mail it to you or your friends or your family for future use!
6. ORDER BOOKS COMING OUT IN MAY!!! (Order before Wednesday, 3/25/2020!)
You can order books for the FUTURE!!! It’s PREVIEWS time again! Time to order books for May 2020! You can subscribe to anything Diamond offers: t-shirts, toys, action figures, games, trade paperbacks, hardcovers, etc. The digital version of their monthly catalog is https://www.previewsworld.com/. Just keep in mind that they solicit two months in advance, so anything you order from there won’t arrive for at least two months if not longer.
Email your orders to millionyearpicnic@yahoo.com. Pay upon pickup (or delivery).
7. FORWARD/SHARE THE LINK TO THIS POST!
With the untimely death of our old email group, we’ve lost over 300 contacts! Our ability to reach customers and potential customers is greatly diminished! Pass this information along!
ALSO, IF YOU HAVE IDEAS about services or anything you want to see, email us or give us a call. We’d love to hear them! We could use some ideas for how to survive the next few weeks/months. Email us at millionyearpicnic@yahoo.com.
8. FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA! (Or join our email list!)
We’re trying to figure out some online alternatives to the next few shows we were going to attend, perhaps highlighting creators and works we were going to feature on our table.
Main Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/myp_comics/
Back issues only Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/mypcomicsonline/
Our Twitter account: https://twitter.com/myp_comics/
Our Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/mypcomics/
Our Etsy account (also for back issues): https://www.etsy.com/shop/MillionYearPicnicMA
Join the MYP email list: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/millionyearpicnic
If you have questions, comments, or subscription updates/changes, we’re still using the Yahoo email as our main email address.
If there’s something you’d like put aside for you or an issue you’d like to discuss, please CALL 617-492-6763. It’s a much more reliable and timely method than emailing or sending us messages over social media.
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/
We are NOT AFFILIATED with any of the following, but they all seem like cool local stuff for us to support.
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Boston Magazine is doing their annual Best of Boston Readers Poll & they FINALLY have an entry for Comic Shops! And we’re not on it. BUT, you could write us in! Or vote for your favorite! Thank you.
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/best-of-boston-readers-poll/
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Scout Magazine‘s Honored Nominations for their Cambridge edition is a Google form. They don’t have an entry for comic shops, but you could put us in under Bookstores!
https://goo.gl/forms/YFGducJ2W0117PGl2
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Being True LGBTQ Comics Anthology Kickstarter is LIVE!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/586200780/being-true-lgbtq-comics-anthology
Being True is a comics anthology celebrating LGBTQ life and identity! Our stories combine fiction and nonfiction and span all genres.
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Personal Comics Workshop
Thursday, June 7
3:30 PM – 5:30 PM EDT
The Brookline Public Library, 361 Washington Street, Brookline
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/personal-comics-workshop-tickets-46225475642
Receive an introduction to comics-making from concept to inking from author/illustrator Jonathan Todd. Jonathan will share with you:
• Exposure to zine-style autobiographical and personal comics i.e. drawing comics about personal experiences and thoughts, such as the work of Ms. Gabrielle Bell (https://www.patreon.com/posts/13518637)
• How to break down a scene from their story into panels using thumbnail sketches
• How to clearly letter a comics page
• How to pencil a page
• How to ink a page, including exposure to brush and ink and pen and ink
*For ages 10 – 18 *
*Generously provided through the Sperber Fund*
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Learn Something New: Understanding Comics
Monday, June 18
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
The Public Library of Brookline – Brookline Village, 361 Washington Street, Brookline
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/learn-something-new-understanding-comics-registration-45005946999
Comics are their own storytelling format and can tell all kinds of stories. Whether you pour over the Sunday comic strips, read stacks of Japanese manga, or settle in with the latest graphic novel memoir, there is a title for you. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Scott McCloud’s landmark text Understanding Comics, a guide to how comics work written in the format. Everyone from new comics readers to long-time enthusiasts are invited to join the library’s resident comics expert Robin Brenner to learn how to decode visual cues, read in between the panels, and understand how this hybrid medium engages our brains.
This event is part of the Learn Something New series. Generously sponsored by the Library Trustees.