Zettwoch's Suitcase: December 2010

Styrofoam Santa

Merry Xmas, everybody!

DADT Carnival Sideshow Signage

This is a series of illustrations I did for my friend & colleague Karin Soukup earlier this year as part of the School of Visual Art's Candy Coated Carnival of Controversy (more info on the background & intentions of the project here). She built an incredible/satirical Don't Ask, Don't Tell sideshow tent and these "freak" posters were set in lightboxes mounted to the plywood walls, with bits of my lettering hand-painted around them. Here are all four characters, along with: sketches I did for each, the inked drawing, the final illustration, and associated signage. Enjoy!
Fodder Frank:

Private Pete:

Mia the Camo-Tattooed Lady:

The Great G.I.Joe-Dini:

Here are are a couple of photos in the pieces in action, and there are a few more here.

Here was a picture I used for inspiration, taken at the Kentucky State Fair midway, c. 1984. That's me in the blue muscle-shirt and my brother in the red batting helmet.

The Sinking of the SS Sultana

Check out a new 2-page full-color strip I've got in Brooklyn's comics newspaper SMOKE SIGNAL. It's about the worst disaster, bodycount speaking, to have ever taken place on American waterways, the "wreck" of the civil war-era steamship SULTANA.

Here are some research/sketches:

Here's a bibliography:

Huffman, Alan. Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History. Harper, 2010.
"BLEW UP THE SULTANA: The Cause of the Horrible Disaster Explained at Last." St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 6, 1888.
Rule, D.H. "The Boatburners." Civil War St. Louis. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.
"Steamboat Engine Room," Twain Times, Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

If you're not in Brooklyn or nearby the Desert Island comic book store, copy of the newspaper (with the beautiful cover seen above by Jordan Crane) can be ordered here.

Keep an eye on those boilers out there, friends!

Steamboat Guts! / Cherokee Print League

I finished reading LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI and made this How-It-Works print. 3-colors (white, brown, fluorescent orange) on Canson (sand) paper, 25.5."x19.5". Here are some sketches:

And here's a detail:

I'll have these for sale tomorrow at the Cherokee Print League holiday sale, alongside many other great printmakers and operations down there.

I also made some smaller, 14"x11" one-color prints of some crowd-favorite Amazing Facts & Beyond strips. These will be cheap and able to assemble into mix 'n' match sets, perfect for any fact-filled, wood-paneled library.
History of Heavy Metal Logos: