Zettwoch's Suitcase

Get Your Kicks! Route 66 in 2026

Happy 100th birthday, Route 66! I had the honor of making this suite of illustrations for Rural Missouri magazine showing some of the (still existing) milestones in each state along the way.

Let me know how many you're able to visit on your centennial roadtrip!

You might remember that I've previously illustrated the history of Route 66 in St. Louis, and was happy to expand my horizons along the entire Mother Road.

Barred Owl Screenprint!

I'd been looking to do a "spiritual sequel" to my Eurasian Tree Sparrow Print for a while, printed in the same minimal color palette (white + black inks on brown chipboard). Then a couple of these loud lovelies started hooting right outside our night-time windows!

They're not the most exciting or exotic owls, but they live in our backyard so I couldn't resist. Here were some sketches!

And here's some research/reference (I also read the great book What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman) and a tighter layout:

Finished ink drawing:

Two color separations being burnt into a silkscreen:

And the final print! Available here!

Monument to the Dream

I'm a couple of weeks late on this, but here's a drawing/collage commemorating the 60th anniversary of the placement of the final keystone piece of the St. Louis Gateway Arch.

Every year in our class we watch the classic 1967 documentary MONUMENT TO THE DREAM (along with some anicillary videos) and do a 'visual note-taking' exercise. Those lead to a large collaborative in-class poster assignment. This year I made my own.

"Making the Sandwich". Aluminum foil, construction caper, tape, ink & whiteout on paper. 24"x18".

St. Louis' Last Toynbee Tile

5-color screenprinted homage to the last "Toynbee Tile" in St. Louis (RIP), located downtown at 8th and Market. Asphalt gray, White, Bright Blue, Yellow and Jupiter Red hand-printed on 19.5"x 12.75" concrete gray paper. Edition of 50. Get one here!

Around the edges of the tile is a short history of the mysterious tiler, along with a strictly theoretrical DIY guide to the process of creating and gluing your own piece of street art. Here's an even more theoretical comic I (with the help of Leon Beyond) drew about the same tile:

Drink Along with THE SWIMMER

"He seemed to see, with a cartographer’s eye, that string of swimming pools, that quasi-subterranean stream that curved across the county..."
I've recently become obsessed with the 1968 Burt Lancaster movie THE SWIMMER and keep returning to it. The original John Cheever short story is worth digging up, as well as the full screenplay by Eleanor Perry. There are lots of deep theories and angles to dive into, but I jumped into the shallow end by doodling the (mostly alcoholic) drinks of the film in my sketchbook.

There's symbolism poured into each of these beverages, and I'd be tempted to organize a screening with the full menu if it weren't for the final libation, the "bullshot".

I'll probably draw more fan art for this strange movie, and advance my own pet theories (hint: CAVEMAN), but for now, proceed safely through whatever holes your neighbors dig in their backyards.

Shrewsbury Lanes July 2025

Paradise City

I did a 2-pager for this cool comics anthology HANKERIN' FOR RUINATION, a loose set of 'covers' of every song from the album Appetite for Destruction by Guns N' Roses.