Hot Rods & Eyeballs & Comics

I'm honored to have some strips in this year's Best American Comics book published by Houghton Mifflin, edited by the esteemed Charles Burns. Included is my strip SPIRIT DUPLICATOR, which was originally published in Comic Art #9. In addition to those strips I also had the honor of illustrating the books' endpapers, so I drew this long crazy highway scene filled with people reading comics. It allowed me to indulge my twin obsessions of Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth style hot rods and bulging eyeballs, taking them to their logical endpoints.Ink & watercolor, 30" x 10". Click for a larger view!I designed the drawing to have the explosion bleed of the edges of the endpapers, containing the wreckage within the book.Speaking of hot rods, I found perhaps my earliest work on a drawing of a dragster, framed and hanging in my parents' basement. It looks like by brother Jake (age 5) drew it, and I (age 3) colored it. I remember making this exact drawing all the time. That blue thing is the driver's head a in a helmet sticking out.
And speaking of eyeballs, here's a picture of me at St. Louis' Laumeier Sculpture Park next to Eye by Tony Tasset.

Autumn Oddities

It's that time of year... new Amazing Facts & Beyond! And while we're on the subject of amazing facts and obscure local legends, Leon wanted to give shout-outs to this awesome new book just published by the St. Louis Post Dispatch:Our Own Oddities was a weekly comic drawn by Ralph Graczak published in the paper every Sunday for 51 years. It could be described as a more folksy, homespun version of Ripley's Believe It or Not! (another of Leon's favorites) - lots of vegetables that look like faces, local bowling lore, weird pets, etc. My pal Tom, who edited and designed the book, sent me along this serendipitous snippet from one of the 80's strips:More information and ordering info here.

Halloween Heads of Don Zettwoch

Drawn from memory. More detailed view of the Jam Box head here. I hope these are still to be found somewhere in my parents' basement!

Where the Wild Things Are

I did a one page illustration/comic/infographic inspired by the book Where the Wild Things Are for the VICE magazine booklet & blog released in conjunction with the new movie. Check out my whole drawing here. Here are a couple of my rough sketches.
Here's part of the vector drawing:
Thanks & Apologies to M. Sendak!

SPX sketches

Here are a couple of sketches I made while attending panels at the Small Press Expo over the weekend. Jerry Moriarty's great Q & A with Alvin Buenaventura (above) and "The Future of the Comic Book" with Kevin Huizenga, Matt Thurber and others.When I sat down to do my panel later that afternoon I found this doodle next to a microphone. I think this is the Future of the Comic Book.

New LEON Book! and SPX!

Kevin H and I are hitting the road for the Small Press Expo -- North America’s Premiere Independent Cartooning and Comic Arts Festival -- in Besthesda, MD this weekend. We'll have with us, hot off the presses, a new Amazing Facts & Beyond book entitled FACT PARADER! It's 44 pages chock-full of Leon Beyond's special brand of Believe It of Not packaged in a fluorescent eye-bleeding silkscreened cover for $5.We'll be posted up at the tables belonging to Buenaventura Press - publisher of Comic Art Magazine and Kramers Ergot, publications I've recently had work in. More info and a schedule of when we'll be signing here. I'll have all my usual other booklets with me too: upcycled Redbirds, faux-bois Schematics, etc. Also: I'm honored to be a part of a panel discussion Sunday at 5 o'clock called "The Aesthetics of Mini-Comics." Come ask me questions about long-reach staplers and remedies for copy-shop-rage.
Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Treehouse of Horror!

I drew the cover to this year's Simpsons Halloween spectacular comic book, The Treehouse of Horror. Look for it at your local grocery, newstand, or specialty shoppe next week! I won't be there, but if you're gonna be in Los Angeles on Tuesday, drop by the FAMILY store and gallery to see a bunch of the original art and get a copy signed by Sammy Harkham (editor), Jordan Crane, Tim Hensly, Matt Groening, and others. More info here and here.
In the meantime, here were some alternate sketches I did:Anyway, everybody should check out the comic. I think they usually have 'em at 7-11. I've seen a bunch of the stories and they're really weird and awesome, including stuff by my STL pals Kevin H and Ted May.

Museum of Leftover Masterpieces

New art/historical Amazing Facts & Beyond. Y'know what? Ballpoint pen on styrofoam is great sensation. I want a sketchbook with flat styrofoam pages.
Above: Lemmon's Pizza Box doodled on by me and L. Earle Townley

The Royale

Above: Sketch drawn from the back patio of The Royale in St. Louis, which partially depicts a mural (below) that my pal Jerome painted based on an envelope doodle I drew.

Finger Lickin' Good

Leon posted a new Amazing Facts & Beyond strip about the lost (and found) loves of midwestern fast food magnates!

Chicago Sketchbook

Footnotes. Panel 1: Olafur Eliasson, Exhibit, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Panel 2: Glamorama, Papi Underwear, song playing was actually It's Raining Men (of course), not Let's Hear it for the Boy Panel 3: Castevet, Burger King Crown Panel 4: Chicago

Shirt.Woot B-Day Bash

You'd be crazy to miss the good times to be had at Shirt.Woot's 2nd birthday party tomorrow night at the City Museum. Plus you can get this poster I made (all in one piece).

Emberley Galaxy!

There's a new book out from Red Panda Comics called Emberley Galaxy: A Tribute To Ed Emberley that I've got a 6-page comic strip in:Ed Emberley -- along with Commander Mark Kistler -- was the most inspiring and instructive drawing-teacher-from-afar I had as a kid. He made lots of wonderful 'how-to' books, including two of my favorites the Big Orange and the Big Purple Drawing Books.
Emberley uses a step-by-step approach in which drawings are 'constructed' through an assembly-line process. A skeleton is erected then layers of raw lines shapes and squiggles are added sequentially. Emberley's drawings are angular and cartoony, as well as 2-D and diagrammatic - evidence of their the process in which their built. There's no doubt this style has influenced how I "build" drawings, mechanically and aesthetically. Above: "Running Fox" from The Big Orange Drawing Book. Below: Recent cut-paper fox I made a pop-up card. Another thing that was always really appealing to me about Emberley's books was the sheer density of the drawings. The world he creates is really fun and crammed with weird details. But there was an underlying graphic logic to his world - it makes sense that an orange gorilla named Buttercup lives alongside a purple 70's conversion van. Above: "PICKUPS" from The Big Purple Drawing Book. Below: Poster I made for a pal's business.Given the drawing style - which resembles elaborate erector-set directions more than traditional art instruction - and the overall consistency of his creations, it seems appropriate that Emberley's most famous book and an upcoming documentary are entitled MAKE A WORLD. In my story, characters from Orangeland are gearing up for a big battle against their foes from Purpleville, and Emberley's motifs of construction and deconstruction become more than just teaching tools. Check out the book for the exciting conclusion!Above: excerpt from my Emberley Galaxy story. Below: excerpt from my comic IRONCLAD.Thanks for everything, Ed!

Fall Fashion Trends

Leon Beyond breaks down all the upcoming Back-to-School fashions for you in this week's Amazing Facts... & Beyond!

Redbird Wino

Since it's been a couple of weeks and the scent is (almost) totally gone, it's probably safe to post this doodle outta my sketchbook.

Origins of the Missouri Float Trip

Last week's Amazing Facts & Beyond explored tips, trick & trivia associated with the traditional travels of inland tributaries, the recreational "Float Trip" down the river. The strip is based on a painting by one of my favorite artists and Missourians George Caleb Bingham called The Jolly Flatboatmen from 1846.I've been interested in the exploits of frontier whitewater raftsmen for a while - here's a panel from my comic Gone Fishin' (from Comics Comics #4), intended as an anarchic take on Caleb Bingham's restful and idyllic portraits of flatboat life.:Here's an old painting of mine, from a series of historical Louisville (KY) images, featuring the folk-hero / terrorist Mike "King of the Keelboats" Fink:And here's an unfinished / unpublished version of a drawing I was working on for the cover of my upcoming comic book: I was halfway through inking my Amazing Facts comic last week when I remembered that my idea to pay homage to George Caleb Bingham in a local newspaper strip was ripped off entirely from my friend and teacher D.B. Dowd, who did the same in his wonderful graphic novel The Frame Job which was serialized in the St. Louis Post Dispatch in the late 90's: Sorry/thanks, DB. At least my jolly floatboatmen weren't in port.