Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Famous Fictional Villains: Riders of the Apocalypse!

Tomorrow night, Friday Nov. 6th, is the opening for an art show I put together here in St. Louis at the Mad Art Gallery. It's another one of these "Famous Fictional" shows in which local artists draw portraits of characters from popular fiction, in this case, books and movies.
These are some rough sketches for the posters I printed up advertising the show.
The rules for the show were:
1) Each artist makes two pieces the same size and shape
2) One piece from features a character from pre-20th century literature. This includes everything from ancient mythology and religious texts through 1899.
3) The second piece must features a character from film.
4) Both characters must - to a reasonable degree - be recognizable to casual viewers
5) Both characters must be VILLAINS! The characters I personally chose are The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (from Chapter 6 of Revelations in the New Testament of the Bible) and The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse (from the 1987 film Raising Arizona). Some sketches: My paintings are big sheets of Masonite covered in fluorescent orange spray paint, silver leaf pen, acrylic paint & india ink. Here's an early in progress shot of the Horsemen:
And here's a detail from further along:
And here's a sneak peek at the Lone Biker:
You should really see the whole paintings in person to get see how bright this construction orange spray paint is. It should be a fun time. It goes from 7 - 11, radical DJ Tone Wolf will be playing songs, etc. See y'all there!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Apple Souls

New Amazing Facts & Beyond explores the origins of apple-based Halloween festivities and myths. Be careful out there, kids!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

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.

Monday, October 12, 2009

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.

Friday, October 09, 2009

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!

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

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!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

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.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

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!

Friday, September 18, 2009

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.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

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

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

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.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Finger Lickin' Good

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