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:Origins of the Missouri Float Trip:The Dogzigners:Beards of Beasts:Hope to see you there! We'll also have delicious hot cider & cookies.

New Print: Birds and the Bats

Here's a new print hot off the press! It's an expanded version of an Amazing Facts & Beyond strip from last year's baseball season, detailing the evolution of the St. Louis Cardinal's famous Birds-on-the-Bat emblem.3-color hand-pulled screenprint on ivory Canson Mi-Tientes pastel paper, 19" x 25". Here was a sketch:Messing around with the 3 inks:The ink drawing & final digital art (Note how much copying and pasting I did of the birds once I had a few good ones drawn):These will be debuting for sale (for $25) this weekend at the Rock and Roll Craft Show here in St. Louis, next Saturday at the Cherokee Print League Holiday Sale, and are available from me directly I reckon. Thanks!

Hippo Hippo Hungry

Here are a couple of pieces from my hippopotamus phase of summer '10. Above is my one-page comic from the hot new STUDYGROUP 12 anthology, issue #4. It's based on the real-life escaped pet of Columbian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. The book is out now, and was edited and with cover art by Zack Soto:And here is a painting I made for my nephew Wally, inspired by a crazy orange ceramic hippo he has on his dresser. Vector mock-up:Finished painting:
Acrylic & fluorescent enamel on wood panel, 24" x 18".

Amazing Creeps and Beyond

Be sure to check out this week's Amazing Facts & Beyond, in which Leon divulges true identities of history's most notorious Christmas Creeps.

Tel-Tales #1: Cut Lines & Intricate Minds

My Dad Toots Zettwoch & I collaborating on a new mini-comic series called Tel-Tales. The first issue - - containing a story entitled Cut Lines & Intricate Minds -- is finished and available now! Above: 2-color screenprinted cover, printed on AT-T/Bell Systems punchcard, c. 1983.Toots wrote the story, did rough breakdowns (shown above), and provided reference from his days working at the phone company in the 70's (below).Here were my rough layouts:And here are a couple of examples of how I translated his breakdowns into final spreads in the book:The book is 3.75" x 3.25", with a big center foldout and a wrap-around color cover. The endpapers were inspired by the intricate art-deco metalwork found on the outside of the AT&T building featured in the story:The book is for sale at the Catastrophe Shop, Star Clipper in St. Louis, and will be available at more distros and specialty stores around the country soon.

Beer Eagle Halloween

(from Leon Beyond's The 66 Year Stink)