Summer's Over Mitch Clem's career as a cartoonist and writer first took published form in the late 1990s with his zine, ''Summer's Over
, of which he published ten issues. He put out his last issue in 2001, when he switched his focus from print to webcomics with the launch of Nothing Nice to Say''. The comic has survived many hiatuses (the lengthiest lasting from August 14, 2004, to January 31, 2005) and much artistic evolution (probably the most drastic change being a switch from full-color to black and white comics, a decision Clem credits partially to discovering his being partially
colorblind), but it remains, to this day, one of the longest lasting comics on the internet. The strip is updated on an arbitrary basis.
Dark Horse Comics published an anthology of his Nothing Nice to Say "Volume 2" comic strip in October, 2008. This book is now out of print. In 2018,
Silver Sprocket published a complete collection of the full series (including its spinoff series The Coffee Achievers), titled
Nothing Nice to Say: Complete Discography.
The Coffee Achievers While working on
Nothing Nice, Clem also teamed up with fellow web comic artist Joe Dunn, of
Joe Loves Crappy Movies. Together they worked on the short series
The Coffee Achievers, which totaled nine chapters.
Achievers ran from February 1, 2005, to February 10, 2006.
San Antonio Rock City On January 22, 2006, Clem launched his first
autobiographical comic series
San Antonio Rock City, which centered on him and his then-girlfriend Victoria after moving to
San Antonio,
TX from
Minnesota. The strip followed a four-panel format arranged in a square with using the first for the title panel showing Clem and Victoria, parodying
American Gothic. Occasionally, there are a few six-strip comics.
San Antonio Rock City was his main focus for a while until he canceled it due to his split with his girlfriend Victoria. The entire series will be collected in the upcoming book
My Stupid Life, Vol. 1 from
New Reliable Press.
My Stupid Life On January 16, 2008, Clem began his newest series, My Stupid Life. As the name implies, the strip is autobiographical, in a style reminiscent of
San Antonio Rock City. The comic also co-stars his fiancée, Amanda (Nation of Amanda). Amanda sometimes colors the strips in watercolors. On April 15, 2009, Clem announced on his blog that he would be releasing a new book,
My Stupid Life: Volume One, through
New Reliable Press in the Fall of 2009. The book would collect the current run of My Stupid Life, as well as the complete San Antonio Rock City series, Clem's first foray into autobiographical comics.
Turnstile Comix December 2010 saw the release of the first issue of Clem's first direct-to-print comic series, Turnstile Comix. Each issue in the series would highlight one band and would pair a comic book of true stories about the band with a 7" featuring previously unreleased songs by them. The first issue starred Minneapolis punk band The Slow Death. The second issue, released in late 2012, featured
The World/Inferno Friendship Society. The third issue, released in 2014, featured Lemuria.
As You Were In 2013, Clem created and began curating a "punk comix anthology" zine called
As You Were. Each issue features a centralized theme, based upon which a variety of cartoonists from punk scenes all over the world would create unique comics. It is Clem's most critically acclaimed project to-date, having been praised by the likes of
NPR,
USA Today,
Maximumrockandroll,
The A.V. Club, and
Razorcake. Three issues have been published as of April 2014, and have included comics by Mitch Clem,
Liz Prince,
Ben Snakepit,
Ramsey Beyer,
Liz Suburbia,
Cathy G. Johnson,
Will Laren, and others.
Other work Clem regularly makes concert flyers and album covers for punk rock bands. He has also made album covers for the bands
The Ergs!,
Andrew WK, The Steinways, Shang-A-Lang,
Bomb the Music Industry!,
Something Fierce, and others. He also created the art for every record in
Vinyl Collective's Under the Influence series, featuring
Lemuria,
Off With Their Heads,
Drag the River,
Fake Problems,
These Arms Are Snakes, and more. His artwork is commissioned regularly for
Razorcake magazine and the
Kansas City Pitch. He also authors
Punk Matters, a monthly column about punk music in the
San Antonio Current. On June 25, 2007, Clem's blog Rain of Bastards was selected by the editors of
PC World magazine for their article "100 Blogs We Love". ==In print==