James Buchanan Eads: Master Engineer of the Mighty Mississipp'

Here are some nuts 'n bolts from the creation of my James B. Eads poster, the most recent entry into my screenprinted St. Louis Hall of Fame. Below is a crummy snapshot taken with my steam-powered digital camera: EADS: 3-color screeprint on chipboard, 18" x 24"
Here was my first idea on how to organize the print:Initially, I imagined the great and iconic Eads Bridge itself to be the primary focus of the print, as it was the thing that had initially drawn me to Eads as a local hero.The "St. Louis / Illinois Bridge" under construction, c. 1870sThe more research I did and the deeper I got into Eads' biography -- particularly this program -- the more fascinating information I found that I wanted to build into the print. The fact that he patented one of the first submersible Diving Bells (fashioned out of a 40 gallon whiskey hogshead), that he made a fortune raising shipwrecked steamboats off the floor of the Mississippi...... that he named every one of his hi-tech surface snagboats SUBMARINE (nos. I - XIII [hey he was a revolutionary engineer, he didn't need to be a creative ship-christener]), that he unwittingly brought about the first outbreak of "The Bends", that he built the first inland "brown water" ironclad battleships for his buddy U.S. Grant...... the idea that the Scientific American nominated him to be President of the USA on the basis of his scientific knowledge, was all too good to leave out. So I started sketching to figure out how to squeeze as much biographical info I could:Although we love James Buchanan (named after the president) Eads like a native St. Louis son, he made many enemies and engineering rivals. A friend described Eads as "… a bitter and unrelenting foe. … To him the unfolding of great and correct principles was more than personal friendships. His beliefs were his friends."You can see I moved to a more symmetrical diagrammatic layout in an effort to carve out more space for fun factoids:And it worked somewhat. There was still a lot more, like the fact that during the grand opening of the Eads Bridge they drove a fully loaded locomotive -- in addition to an elephant --across it to assuage public concerns about how much weight it could handle. Anyway, here's how it turned out:
EADS: vector art, Adobe Illustrator v.CS3
Here is a scan of the only known remaining drawing done by Eads himself:BIBLIOGRAPHY (of the print and this blog post):
American Experience: Secrets of a Master Builder, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eads/index.html
Kouwenhoven, John. "The Designing of the Eads Bridge." Technology and Culture, October 1982
Petroski, Henry. Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America
Washington University in St. Louis Library, Special Collections, http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/
Woodward, C.M. "A History of the St. Louis Bridge: Containing a Full Account of Every Step in Its Construction and Erection and including the Theory of the Ribbed Arch and the Tests of Materials." St. Louis, 1881

R 'n R Craft Show / New Prints!

I've got ink all over me! This weekend is the big Rock and Roll Craft Show and there will be a bunch of my stuff -- including some brand spankin' new prints hot off the squeegee -- for sale there. The show is at the Third Degree Glass Factory and from what I can tell will be awesome. Consider this blog post your holiday shopping guide. (more recommendations here.)

1) Giant Squid! Huge 22" x 30" print. Four colors (metallic silver, grey, dark grey, orange) on warm white Stonehenge paper. Based on a comic I drew for the upcoming Beasts! anthology to be published by Fantagraphics Books. Signed and numbered edition of 50.
2) James Eads! The newest addition to my series of St. Louis folk icons. 18" x 24", signed and numbered edition of 75. Three colors (metallic silver, brown & red) on chipboard. More behind the scenes on the making of this print and my research on Eads later.
3) Mike Shannon! 18" x 24". Three colors (navy blue, white & red) on chipboard. Signed and numbered edition of 75. More info here. These are almost all gone so get 'em while they're hot.

4) Lou Thesz! 18" x 24". Three colors (metallic gold, navy blue & red) on double-thickness chipboard. Signed and numbered edition of 75. More info here. These are also almost all gone so act fast.
5) Star Clipper! 22" x 30". Two colors (bright blue, fluorescent orange) on Rives BFK paper. Signed and numbered edition of 34. More info here.
I've also got copies of some comics/zines/booklets with handsome screeprinted covers for sale too. Brand New is volume 1 of the collected Amazing Facts & Beyond, The Factoids of Life: And I'll also have copies of the classic Schematic Comics and Redbird #1:
I'll be working at the show all day Sunday and I hope to see lots of you there. Happy Thanksgiving friends!

Running on Fumes

Thanks to Cherokee Street for hosting a memorable comics night. Great places visited: Firecracker Press, APOP records, Taqueria El Bronco, and the Shangri-La Diner.

Midwestern Origins of Thanksgiving

This week's Amazing Facts and Beyond details with the feast served at the first "Midwestern Thanksgiving," which took place between French Missionary settlers and members of the Illiniwek tribe 50 years following Plymouth Rock. They called it "The Roast without Equal". Have you always wondered what that spooky dragon creature painted on the bluff on the way to Raging Rivers is? Now you know its culinary origins.
Many more views of the Piasa "Monster Bird" of modern-day Alton, Illinois here.

Driving Rain

(cross-posted from the STL Drawing Club Blog. We all drew "umbrella" themed drawings last night.)

Bowling End Days

The Bowling Hall of Fame in downtown St. Louis closed its doors last week. Here's an illustration I made on the eve of apocalypse, published in the Riverfront Times. If you follow my blog (or my LIFE) you know how much I love bowling so this was a sad day. I don't know how I resisted the urge to draw a(nother) bowling hot rod based on this exhibit:but I stuck to my sketch pretty closely on this one.Bowling has a long and storied history in St. Louis. MAYBE YOU CAN HELP ME? I'm working on a comic about the legendary Budweisers, the legendary STL bowling team that shattered the five-man team record back in the '50's. I'm looking for any sort of reference or writing about that night in 1958, particularly eye-witness accounts of photographs from the inside of the long-closed Floriss Lanes in north St. Louis county.
Goodbye, Bowling Hall of Fame. We will roll on without you.

Rocking the Vote

Drawn from the hour-long line at my voting place today. Glad to have remembered my sketchbook (and blue and red colored pencils.) There were many more funny details I couldn't squeeze in. Also: my pal D.B. Dowd is doing election-themed drawings all over St. Louis today, much better than mine.

Meat & Greet

I made my students draw big one page comics on sheets of newsprint in class this morning, based on randomized characters (e.g. Scuba-Diver, Person in Hot-Dog Suit) and the classic modes of narrative conflict. I did one too, and drew "Walmart Greeter" and "Man vs. Nature". 

Haunted Hotrod

Drawn at bowling tonight. I've been watching a lot of America's Pyschic Challenge. Happy Halloween!

Young Abe Lincoln's Log Fort

Here's a strip I've got in this month's (November) Nick Magazine, in the special presidential election comics section. If you find yourself in the magazine aisle of your local grocery look for it! I love drawing that log-typeface! When I cut down the dead trees in my backyard I think I'm going to spell out my full address on my front lawn with a real life version of that log-typeface.

Spooky Extravaganza

Here's a special post just in time for Halloween featuring some of my favorite things: homemade contraptions, heavy-metal logotypes, my dad's inventions, haunted houses, isometric perspective, punk rock, skeleton judges overstepping their judicial authority, the grisly lambasting of local celebrities, etc.
Pictured above is the first page of a comic of mine appearing in a prestigious new anthology from Yale University Press. The book is called AN ANTHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC FICTION, CARTOONS, AND TRUE STORIES VOLUME 2, was edited by the esteemed cartoonist Ivan Brunetti, and has a wrap-around cover by Dan Clowes.My story, which first saw print in KRAMERS ERGOT #6, tells of a church plant manager and her role in the church's haunted house, specifically one transformative attraction. A review in the The Comics Journal described the world created in my strip as "Butt-Rock Winesburg" and that remains one of my most cherished pieces of feedback. Here's half of the grand isometric cut-away spread:
Here are a couple of old chestnuts from the vault, some stuff I drew for the lovely local thrash band Cross Examination. Here's the cover to their first record, vinyl on Deep Six Records and CD on Organized Crime:
And a 2-color T-shirt. The front:The back: a classic case of art direction and editorial oversight (from lead singer Devil Dan) that really made the illustration come alive. And it allowed me to really hone my blood spatter technique. Thanks Devil Dan!
You should also be sure to check out Cross Exam's new record MENACE II SOBRIETY which, in addition to many more post-apocalyptic circle-pit inspiring jams, also includes amazing art and comics from fellow St. Louisan / USS Catastrophe/ Impossible Comics Group member Jeff Worm.
Oh, and one more thing. I drew a new pumpkin-themed Amazing Facts and Beyond this week. I love halloween! And eating/drinking pumpkin-flavored things. Make some suggestions to me! (I've already got the 'Great Pumpkin' from Ted Drewes covered, and then some).
(top and bottom: color gouache & ink tests for characters from Cross-Fader / citizens of Butt-rock Winesburg)

Monster Mash

Show tomorrow night at the Bluebird! (Wednesday, October 15th). Crocodiles, MAR, and Black for a Second. Should be a good one. I only draw flyers for shows I'm going to, and I only go to good shows, and I only draw good flyers, etc.)

The Mighty Mississipp, the Ole Miss, the Old Man

Inspired by my pal John Hendrix's drawings, an upcoming print project, and a beautiful St. Louis afternoon I went down to the riverfront to do some sketchbook drawin'. Here's one of the Eads Bridge. I wish I would've brought my fishing pole with me and joined the fellas underneath. I probably would've needed a 40 as well.
I am thinking of starting a St. Louis sketchbook club. Who is with me?!

Honeymoon Hot-Rod

Drawing I did at a beautiful Bed & Breakfast in Sunny San Diego last weekend on the inside of a wedding card for my pals Sarah and Chris. (They are both runners and that is why they are operating their hot-rod Flintstones style). It was a fun time! Thanks to DBD for the snapshot. Chances are if you are my friends and you get married and you will get a drawing sort of like this. Okay, almost exactly like this. Congrats Chris and Sarah!

Big Amazing Facts & Beyond News

In honor of tonight's Vice Presidential Debate (being held in our own backyard) here is a special Amazing Facts & Beyond EVENT! It's a full-page, full-color strip exposing some of the strangest strategies and toughest tactics used by vice presidential candidates during their second-tier debates going back over 200 years. As usual, get a copy of the RFT for a hard copy but in the meantime here it is:
In other exciting Leon news, we put together a little booklet containing all the AF&B strips thus far, debuting this weekend at SPX in Bethesda, Maryland.
It's 30 densely-stuffed strips (by me, Kevin H, and Ted May) wrapped up in a 2-color silkscreen wrap-around cover (white and brown ink on Mystic Orange paper). Oh, and it has an index (aka THE BEYONDEX) that is worth the cover price alone. Wait a minute, we forgot to put a cover price on there. I think it's $4 (American). Keep an eye on the catastrophe shoppe for ordering and payment info.

Star Clipper 20 Year Anniversary Art Show

Continuing my theme of giant invaders conquering the St. Louis skyline, I made a print for an art show opening this week at Star Clipper. The design is above. The prints themselves are pretty large and fluorescently 2-colored so they may not photograph well but I'll try. In the meantime, here's the sketch:
It should be a neat show featuring new works by lots of local artists united by love for our favorite comics shoppe. Here is a sneak peek at the inspiration for my pieces, a masterwork at least 20 years in the making. And here is the famous (and still available for purchase!) tote bag I designed a while back.
See you there Friday night!?

Tastes of St. Louis

Drawing done for the RFT about this weekend's upcoming Taste of St. Louis event downtown. Pretty self-explanatory I think! Palette inspired by the converging colors of the Old Courthouse and the world's largest Vess bottle.I hate the Lumiere Casino and its stupid roadside jumbotron so I was glad to get to destroy them in my drawing. Everything else I love and am sad to see go.