Karl Wirsum Inspired Doodle (sorta)

New doodle up - kinda Karl Wirsum inspired, but not at all as cool.

Recent Comic Strip...

Small Chipboard Painting.

Well, it's not so much of a painting really - it's a matte gel mixed with titanium white with ink over it. Eh, I did it the other day.

Comics Exhibit at Art Institute of Chicago Library...

Currently, there is an exhibit of comics from Chicago cartoonists at the Ryerson Library at the Art Institute of Chicago's museum. The comics are displayed under glass on the tables in the foreground of the photo above. The exhibit includes a few of my own mini-comics (Spit-Toons, Gag-Hag, etc.) and comics by other Chicagoans: Ivan Brunetti, Chris Ware, Anders Nilsen, Paul Hornschemeier, John Hankiewicz, Jeffrey Brown, Skip Williamson, Jessica Abel, and others that I can't remember right now. If you're in the neighborhood, check out the Ryerson Library (the show runs until the third week in June, I believe - call to make sure) - info below:

Saturday - Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 12:30pm - 5:00pm
Thursday 12:30pm - 8:00pm
Friday 12:30pm - 5:00pm
111 S. Michigan Avenue
Ground Floor
Chicago, IL
Info: (312) 443-3666

Now in Stores - Hotwire Comix & Capers...

The Fantagraphics anthology, "Hotwire Comix & Capers" (that includes five pages by me - all under the theme of Oklahoma-livin') is now in stores. You can order it here. It's a damn fine book, featuring new work from Ivan Brunetti, J. Bradley Johnson, Johnny Ryan, Mats!?, Tony Millionaire, Carol Swain, and several others. Below is one of several one-panel gags I did fer it.

Vice Comics Issue...

I have a one-page comic strip in the Vice Comics Issue (along with Robert Crumb, Gary Panter, Johnny Ryan, Marc Bell, Sammy Harkham, Ted May, and several others) that's supposed to be out sometime this week. It's called, "I'm Evil, Randy!" The character from my strip is the blue-skinned guy on the top of the head explosion above. Pick it up if ya can.

Chris Ware Exhibit at The MCA in Chicago.

Featuring old and new work, The Museum of Contempory Art in Chicago will be hosting an exhibit of Chris Ware's work starting May 6th and will be up until August 27th. From the MCA site: "...his first museum one-person exhibition in Chicago, Ware presents works he created when he first moved to the city a decade ago, and works from his recent series set in a Chicago apartment building."

Also another item of interest at the MCA: "Zines, Comics, and Other Hip Lit Book Fair" - Chicago's finest alternative pressers giving talks selling wares. I'll see if I can sell some minis or something. At the very least, I'll be there to see how hip it really is. It's on May 20th from Noon to 4pm. If any of you midwesterners are considering checking out either event, go to the MCA site for further info.

Triptych of the Primary Colors as Cartoon Characters

The final project for one of my classes was to create three images with a unifying theme and visual style. When thinking of three's, I could only come up with playing around with the primary colors or the Holy Trinity and well, I chose the primary colors. So here they are with their supposed meanings: Red = Anger Rage, Yellow = Joy Happiness, and finally Blue = Sadness Depression. (Click on images for larger versions.)

Comic Pinbacks Online Gallery!

I recently came across Mark Lansdown's online gallery collection of comic pinbacks from the late 1800's to the 1950's. Had a swell time looking through them too... Here's a couple of samples.

Vintage European Matchbooks...

I've been super busy with finals for school, so here's some vintage European matchbooks. At least when things cool down, I'll share some jpeg's of my final projects.

Update: Oh, and I guess Monte Beauchamp's newest book is out - a collection of matchbook covers. Pretty cool.

Doodled Heads...

New doodle in the Doodles section.

Two New Illustrations Up...

I've posted two new illustrations up on my main site that I recently drew. Above is an illustration for the school I'm attending (combining the interior and exterior of landscape/space designs). Below is another illo for Reverie Theatre Company, for the play "Emma." I wasn't too pleased with the outcome of the Emma illustration, as I'm not the greatest with any degree of realism in my artwork. Eh, but there it is...

Huizenga, Nilsen, And Harkham - At Quimby's Last Night...

Kevin Huizenga, Anders Nilsen, and Sammy Harkham made their last stop on their book-signing tour here in Chicago at Quimby's. I decided to make some small drawings for the three of them, so above are separate cards for each of 'em. These three cartoonists are pretty damn inspiring to me and it was great to hang out with them after the event swillin' beer and talkin' 'bout comics and whatnot.

Purchase their new comics:

Kevin Huizenga - Ganges #1
Anders Nilsen - Big Questions #8
Sammy Harkham - Crickets #1

4x6 Art - Online Gallery...

Jeremy Adolphson has a huge gallery of original 4"x6" cards that he's collected over the years from artist signings and submissions to his site. I only learned of his site from him contacting me and asking if I would draw one for him (my card is above), and I was pleased to see some of my favorite cartoonists had also submitted cards to him as well (some of which are featured below). For anyone who's interested, he takes submissions, so check out his site, browse through the 4x6 cards, and get some more info. www.4x6-art.com

(Goin' down: Eric Reynolds, Gary Taxali, Hunt Emerson, and Ivan Brunetti)

New Comic Strip - "Reconstruction Re-Cycle"

This is a strip I drew for a booklet I had to make for a class I'm taking.
(Click for larger version - Also on the main site)

"We Heart Gocco" - The Wurst Gallery...

"The Wurst" online gallery currently has an exibit of 14 Print Gocco prints that shows in full force the ability of the Gocco printing kit with artists using multiple screens with fantastic registration. Above is a print by Brad Simon and below is Minza Wada. All of the prints exbitited are for sale online as well.

New Doodle Up!

A new doodle is up on the site.

The Gocco Set! ...And Save Gocco!

Finally, yes FINALLY, I have updated the Shop with "The Gocco Set" of prints for sale! (I also realized that there was a problem with my PayPal buttons on my site and these have been fixed.) The Gocco box set is designed by Ivan Brunetti and contains 17 prints (made exclusively using Riso's Print Gocco Printer) by 17 artists including:

Andrice Arp
Alana Bailey
Jonathan Bennett
Sean Bieri
Ivan Brunetti
Marc Crisafulli
Fredo
John Hankiewicz
Cole Johnson
David King
Ryoko Oguchi
Onsmith
Jesse Reklaw
Bryce Somerville
Rhonda Turnbough
Britton Walters
Lauren Weinstein

Ivan also recently mentioned to me that Riso, the manufacturer of the Print Gocco Printer, has decided to discontinue all things Gocco. BUT, there is already a group of Gocco enthusiasts ("Save Gocco") campaigning to find a new home for the products other than Riso. I personally hope that these products will still be offered somehow, because this automated screen-printer has been such a helpful tool in making mini-comics and small prints. If you're a fan of Gocco prints or the printer itself, PLEASE check out "Save Gocco" to see what you can do to help out.

"We All Die Alone" by Mark Newgarden...

Although I'll have to take a lint brush to the fuzzy cover of this book, I'm a bonafide proud owner of this collection of Mark Newgarden's comics (and man-oh-man, have I been waiting for this!). Edited by Dan Nadel (Ganzfeld) and designed by Helene Silverman, this book is a brilliant laff riot and is essential to any of you doing humorous work out there. How can you go wrong with 224 pages of big whoppin' noses? Here's some info on the book straight from Mark's site.

Cupco Artwork & Plush Dolls!

Luke from Cupco is not only a clever doll-maker (yeah, I think you can say that nowadays without it sounding too fruity) but an artist who also dabbles in Flash and offers short animations on his site. Go to his site and check out the plush dolls of your favorite cartoon characters like Fidel Castro, Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver (see below), Terrorists, Vikings, Werewolves, Pirates, and even a set of plushie Black Metal band members (from the darkest and SOFTEST regions of the nether realm)!!!