Spirit Duplicator / Comic Art #9

Todd and Alvin, the good fellows over at Comic Art, were kind enough to lend me 5 pages in the latest issue of their wonderful magazine, to draw a weird comic strip on. If you wanna read it, keep your eyes peeled for this awesome cover on the newstand: My strips are interspersed throughout the book, and take place over the course of 50 years or so. Each page includes a church bulletin comic, drawn by my (fictional) uncle Darryl Zettwoch, culled from a lifetime Sundays archive of graphic experimentation and corny Episcopalian jokes.
Each bulletin presented was ostensibly printed using a different piece of antiquated technology, everything from a mimeograph machine to a "ditto-maker" (aka the Spirit Duplicator) to a modern inkjet printer. Lots more info on these great devices at the Museum of Office Machines.
Hopefully along with the evolution in printing technology you can kinda trace an abridged history of my uncle and his church. Here are the first couple of pages:

Commissioner Gordon

Here's a commission I drew recently. Ink and colored pencil on bristol, 8" x 10". It features the old Batmobile which I think is still the best Batmobile.
Incidentally, if anybody out there ever wondered what he or she (or their cute pet!) would look like in a hot rod with their eyeball popping out -- and would like me to draw it -- gimme a holler. It will probably take a long time and be outrageously expensive but you never know!

Famous Fictional 2 Art Opening

If you're looking for something to do this Friday night (Jan. 4th) come out to the Mad Art Gallery for what should be a fun art opening. Everybody's got 2 paintings in the show -- the same size and shape (like last years show) -- but instead of a character from popular comics we all chose a character from popular television (along with literature). If you can't tell who my 2 characters are from the scribbled sketches above, here you go: I didn't get good photographs of my paintings before dropping them off at the gallery, so you'll have to show up to see 'em. Or wait until I post them later. In the meantime, here's a painting of a famous NONfictional character I know, my buddy Adam "Picklehead" Bertels. Happy Birthday, Adam!("Weird Science Adventures: PICKLEHEAD", Gouache on board, 18" x 24", 2007)

LOOKING FORWARD!

Happy New Year's everybody!
(above: cover illustration for the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, coming out this week).

Trans-Siberian Orchestra vs. Kenny G. vs. Vince Neil

A couple of music-themed illo's of mine published this week, all ink/gray wash/white-out on typing paper. They're pretty weird without the articles but you get the idea.

Electric Avenue

Calendar illo' for the Night 'n' Day section of the Miami New-Times, advertising some kinda 80's retro-prom goofball barf-fest. Click for a larger view.

Happy Hunting

Merry Thanksgiving, everyone!
(above: RFT illustration combining a variety of St. Louis area Turkey Day events)

St. Louis Film Festival '07

This year's St. Louis International Film Festival is already in full-gear, and here's a bunch of components I put together for it. The big poster / program cover is seen above. Below are the badges, T-shirt, web-banner, silkscreened prints shown 3/4 of the way through, and my initial sketch. Go see some great movies!

Fit for Print

Some recent spot illustrations for the Riverfront Times - usually for the "unreal" section.
The Backhoe Rodeo:The Pink Pistols Gay Gun-Rights Group:Muny 2007 Year-End Wrap-Up (bonus points if you can name all 7 plays):New Study: "Household Appliances Attack!":Signs of Road Rage, Before:
And After:

Sugar Daddy / Babies

Here are some illustrations I did last week for the Miami New Times for an article about the south Florida sugar daddy scene. It was sort of a tough conceptual nut to crack because of how easy the targets are so I did a whole bunch of sketches: I ended up going a different direction, playing up the candy packaging / product character angle I stumbled upon with my last sketch. Here's how the lead illustration to the article turned out (ink & vector):And here are the two interior spots (ink & graywash):

Case Study / Caber Toss

I did this illustration (above: ink & wash on copy paper, 11" x 8.5") last week alerting readers of the RFT to the Scottish Games and Cultural Festival held annually in Forest Park. The subject matter seemed familiar and then I realized I had done an illustration about the exact same event two years ago, only worse (below: ink and vector, 3" x 5"). Maybe it's interesting to see what in my style has changed (tartan patterns in Illustrator) and what has stayed the same (woodgrain, sweatles).

Big Read Festival Saturday Oct. 6th

If anybody is planning on going to the Big Read Festival tomorrow in downtown Clayton, I'll be doing a panel and talking about comics with my pals Ted May (Injury Comics), A.J. Trujillo (Star Clipper) and Cliff Froelich (Cinema St. Louis). Apparently there is also a "demonstration" involved but I'm not sure what that's gonna entail. Anyway, come find us at the Big Bee Stage (on South Central & Carondelet) at four o'clock! I should also have a fresh out-of-the-oven batch of silkscreened Schematic Comics available for purchase and/or personalized doodling.

One Last Voyage

Hey everybody! If you don't know, my pals Kevin Huizenga and Ted May and I have run a little online shop for minicomics & zines for about 6 years - the Catastrophe Shop. It was fun supplying the world with (what we considered) worthwhile and enjoyable little home-made & self-published booklets, as well as being able to sell our own.
There was a point though, where it just got to be too much work and was really slowing down our own comics productivity, especially mine. The good ship has been steadily sinking into disrepair, so sorry for that. But here's a last chance to do any last minute shopping. I'll be filling orders like crazy for the next couple of months, hoping to send our remaining books to good homes.
A million thanks to our loyal customers and amazing artists whose books we have carried. It's been great. If you have questions about orders or whatever else, email me at danzettwoch (at) gmail (dot) com.
Finally, it should be known that there are several places who do a similar thing that we do / did, only better. Here are some of 'em: The Poopsheet Shop, Bodega Distribution, Global Hobo, Secret Acres.

DANZETTWOCH.COM

In case anybody's interested, I finally got around to making myself a proper website. There's probably a bunch of stuff on there you haven't seen, especially on the Illustration side of things.
I also posted up bunch of full Comics to read, like this classic cautionary tale / math comic starring my pal Jason Shiga, and this dusty old chestnut from the long-out of print Impossible #1 zine. There's some juicy stuff in the Prints section too, as I reveal how different (usually worse, sometimes better!) my silkscreens look than the original art.
Anyway, feel free to poke around and let me know what you think, what links are broken, etc. Thanks everybody!

Plymouth Fury Tattoo Art

(More info on my new kitties here).

HOT WAX

Cross-post with the St. Louis Drawing Club, where I have a tendency to drink an alternating regimen of coffee and beer and do weird gross-out drawings thinly attached to the night's theme. I basically always take the theme and somehow make a hot rod out of it. Last night: moustaches.

Ms. Missouri Nursing Homes 2007

Here's a little illustration (ink and wash on bristol, 10" x 12") I did for the RiverFront Times in honor of Ms. Sylvia Brickman Slone, who was named Ms. Missouri Healthcare Association at the annual pageant. Congratulations Ms. Brickman Slone!

Pedal to the Metal

Another in my series of Mysterious Cyclists seen cruising through Maplewood, this kindly fella was seen toolin' past my studio a while back. I wish I would've seen him on the way back -- I bet he filled that basket up with some good stuff.Here's to cool Fall weather, my beautiful neighborhood and neighbors, and to starting a brand new sketchbook!