A Blot of Good That Will Do

Just to let you into my process a wee bit.... Here's my blotter; an insurance guide from my work, though you'd never guess it looking at this:


I think it makes a strange beauty all by itself

Gorgeous Lady of Wrestling

This is a portrait of one of my favorite wrestlers from the early days of GLOW; Chainsaw, who along with Spike formed the Heavy Metal Sisters. Forcing girls to jump through flaming hoops and busting out a chainsaw while jumping around like a maniac between those pink ropes.

Anyone want to do a collaboration book on wrestlers??? A bunch of short stories? I know you're out there!

Lieutenant Lava

I'm really on a making things gross phase right now!

Into the Fold

So this morning I did something I'd been itching to do the whole time I was away... Add GRAHAM'S BLOG to that little dealy-do to the left. It's just an update on the blogs I love, but lately I've been using it just to check on them really quickly.

Pez Brigade (with the byline: Militant Cuteness!) Has really awesome art and comics and if you can track down Graham's comic "3" your life will magically improve. And that's no bullshit.


Carry on!

The Gross Germs Gang

Well, kids I spent all day and all night working on work work. Yuck. It's even grosser than these little friends that show up when you don't wash your hands...

Now my soul hath elbow-room

Yes, nothing less than a quote from The Bard to ring in the return. Shakespeare was one righteous dude.


Thank you to the myriad of people that I ranted about elbows to for a solid week. Liz even went to the Met with me as I followed my Toucan Sam-like ability to root out elbows wherever a statue or picture of Hercules might be.

Any way... If you know what this is, great. If you don't, well, like Aaliyah said, "I don't know what to tell ya'."



Hooray for elbows! It's elbows-for-president day!!!

Howdy, Strangers!

Well, it might not be fun, but it is The Stranger Song, after all.

One More Thing Before I Say, "Adieu."...

Oh, yeah! Liz's prize-winning self gets this! Yay!!!



PS Check out the newest V Magazine. There's a spread with the incredible, unfortunately-inedible Justin Bond and M Lamar aka Reginald! A bunch of other awesome people are in it... but I won't spoil it. Just go take a peek!

Hi Haters... er, I mean Hiatus!

OK, so I'm tryin' to get this darn comic finished, so I won't be posting here until December 15. Whatevs!

Just to tide you over while you're pigging out... Here's a cornucopia!
Thanksgiving is THE BEST holiday. Let's all be thankful for what we've got. Oh, and be jealous of what I've got: Pumpkin Risotto! Don't you want to come over and be thankful that I'm heaping it on your plate? Call me up, yo! Thanksgiving in Bushwick, son! I might make cranberry couscous and a Tofurkey. Say what!

Linking Skunks Stink Last (Say 5 Times Fast!)

I would like to share two INCREDIBLE INEDIBLE resources for all you budding cartoonists and comics artists just itching to get your nibs wet! Everybody loves links, and not just the Zelda kinds, either!


The first is SKETCH THEATRE where you can see some of your favorite artists, well, sketch! It's really awesome and they put it to music so it doesn't even feel like you're learning. I heard about this through the grapevine that is: Kali's Website; Old Men with Kazoos and Beating Drums... she just had a birthday, so drop her a Hooray and then drool at all the incredible cards she received.

Second, but not secondly... THE COMIC TOOLS BLOG! Don't be a comic tool and check out some really awesome tips, tricks, pointers and you can even act like a macho jerk 'cuz your talkin' 'bout tools, not 90-lb weakling funny pages, right? Seriously, this is what got me addicted to those damned japanese nibs that were like an urban legend until I stroked my first stroke and never looked back. I just learned about an amazing tool to discover what needs fixing in my art... AND IT'S 99 CENTS!!! Seriously! It's so easy to invest in your future when it's this cheap!

This link comes via the amazing Liz Baillie, who I am putting the finishing touches on her WINNING THING from that contest oh so many moons ago. Let's hang out and I'll give it to you! Not that way, perv!...

Check this shit out! You will not regret it like that youtube porn loop you got stuck in where you never even saw a nipple. A nipple! I digress...

Explicit Explicative

Snakes alive! Inking sure is fun! I think it's my favorite part of making comics... especially since I've been practicing with my brushes.

The "shit" is for how many more pages I have to go!

Picasso's Bluest of the Blue

This is a quick study of "The Blind Man's Meal," Picasso's bluest of the blue period from 1903.

Art&War: Dazzle Ships

During WW1, the British came up with the idea of painting optical patterns onto their war ships. This practice spread to many of the allies. These were called "Dazzle Ships" (or "Razzle Dazzle ships" in the US) and were almost an anti-camouflage. The patterns made it difficult to figure out how large the ships were or how fast they were moving.

Why go to all this trouble? Because torpedos were fired according to where the ship would be when it hit. If it looked like the ship had 3 hulls or all you saw in the periscope was wavy lines, it made the ships harder to fire on.

Edward Wadsworth was a prominent figure in Wyndham Lewis' Vorticism art movement, a short lived futurist off-shoot in England that splintered rather quickly due to WW1 nabbing pretty much everyone involved. Edward Wadsworth was no exception. Although his job was to design these wacky patterns on the ships.

This is the french cruiser Gloire:

Unfortunately, there are no color photographs of these vessels. But... there are plans:



At first artists were commissioned to design individual ships. As the war continued and costs had to be cut, the best designs were repeated.

And in an art imitating life imitating art turnaround, Edward Wadsworth painted paintings of these ships that he designed the paintings on! The most famous is this:



Captain John Konrad has a really short and sweet breakdown of Razzle Ships.

Jeff Koons just designed a "Razzle Yacht." It's named "Guilty," and if that's guilty of being ugly... I'd have to agree! I'm not a huge Jeff Koons fan, btw. Although it looks perfect for lounging on and blasting some Christopher Cross. Sweet.

Here's another awesome futuristic/cubistesque/abstractish painting by Edward Wadsworth:


A bunch of his prints are up in The Met's "Rhythms of Modern Live: British Prints 1914-1939." It's really awesome, and if you're into printing, you'll go nuts because most are hand-made. Definitely check it out if you can, it's going to be gone in December.

After WW1, his ideals (and much of the futurists and/or vorticists) about machines and industrial society were tainted by the death of friends and the brutality of war. He became a more realistic painter, then migrated toward the surreal and the symbolic.

Nautical themes haunted his paintings until he died.







Oh, and I can't forget OMD. Yes, Orchestral Manooovres in the Dark had a total bomb with their album "Dazzle Ships" in 1983. I guess the cover couldn't dodge the torpedo of critics headed its way.

How about we get their sweet pop sensibilities to ease us out of this broadcast and into a world less fraught with torpedos and war.


from: Dazzle Ships

Jeff Smith (a.k.a. GOD) Inks a Panel (a.k.a. Creates an Animal on the Sixth Day)

And on the SIXTH day, God created the animals, which verily and abundantly plentified the land to beget and begat much offspring.

Now watch the hand of God create an alligator. And it is good.

Lap it up while you can. Tomorrow he rests.

Fuzzy Glamour

Yes! Progress!

This is going to be an ad in the new comic!

Stay tooned for more developments.

I'm at the top of a very daunting hill, but I think it's mostly down hill from here.

Lets get stupid! Lets get nuts! Oh no, let's go!

To see the progress from the original... CLICK HERE!

My Neck, My Back, Lick my...

Back page of my sketchbook... let's swing an episode!

Ahmed Zaid Zuhair's Hunger Strike in Guantanamo (ISN 669)

I've been thinking a lot about Guantanamo and how we can come to terms with our evil. Hopefully George W. Bush will be put on trial for it... but really, will it make that much of a difference? Probably not in the U.S., but possibly in the eyes of the world?

If we actually bring anyone to trial, it will be pointless because we've violated so many laws, the least of which is torture. Not to mention the fact that we've effectively bulldozed the findings of judges at Nuremberg.

Do we offer compensation?
Would that fuel more terrorism?
Would it really be enough for five years of being tortured?
Do we let everyone free?
Bring everyone to trial?

I think a short-term solution would be to stop the torture.

What follows is one man's struggle, using non-violence and being tortured for it.

From the AP via the NPR website:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico October 24, 2008, 05:31 pm ET ·

Three years ago, the man known as Internment Serial Number 669 stopped eating. Ahmed Zaid Zuhair, a father of 10 children in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, had been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 without charges and decided to join a mass hunger strike in protest. The U.S. military was determined not to let him succeed.

Since then, according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press, guards have struggled with him repeatedly, at least once using pepper spray, shackles and brute force to drag him to a restraint chair for his twice-daily dose of a liquid nutrition mix force-fed through his nose.

The documents, filed in federal court in Washington, are a rare look at the military tactics used on hunger strikers, which have sparked international condemnation but remained hidden from view, with officials refusing to even confirm the identity of the men taking part in the protest.

Zuhair's attorney, Yale Law School lecturer Ramzi Kassem, says the tactics described in the documents amount to "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." The military says the only reason it uses such tactics is that Zuhair is violent and dangerous.

"ISN 669 has a very long history of disciplinary violations and noncompliant, resistant and combative behavior," according to Army Col. Bruce Vargo, commander of Guantanamo Bay's guards.

Zuhair's protest is the remnant of a mass hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay that began in the summer of 2005, with prisoners celebrating the 10 Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army militants who starved themselves to death in Britain's Maze prison in 1981 while demanding political-prisoner status.

At its peak, there were 131 prisoners refusing meals at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. The U.S. began force-feeding prisoners, but some were regurgitating the liquid-nutrient mix. In January 2006, commanders adopted a practice borrowed from American civilian prisons of strapping detainees into a special restraint chair for the feedings, and the number of strikers quickly dropped off.

Eventually there were just two: Zuhair, 43, and another Saudi, Abdul Rahman Shalabi. The number has since fluctuated and 12 were participating on Friday.

A number of prisoners have alleged brutal treatment during the hunger strike, and lawyers and human rights groups have accused guards of using unnecessary force. Kassem and other attorneys say their clients have mostly complied with the force-feeding, and that the U.S. has used rough treatment in an effort to break the strike.

Physicians for Human Rights, the World Medical Association and the United Nations, among others, have condemned the use of restraint chairs and other tactics as a violation of U.S. law and basic human rights principles.

The U.S. military has denied any abuse, though it has offered few if any details about what happens between guards and prisoners behind the coiled-razor wire.

Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum, a spokeswoman for the detention center, said Friday the military was required "under federal law and Department of Defense policy, to preserve the health and well-being of all detainees under our control."

"When a detainee refuses to comply with guard instructions to leave his cell in order to receive necessary medical care, we will use the minimum force necessary ... in order to preserve life," including by tube feeding, she said.

And while the U.S. considers the detainees "enemy combatants" for whom the Geneva Conventions do not apply, it maintains it treats them in a humane manner that in some ways exceeds international standards.

The court documents, affidavits and filings recently submitted as part of Zuhair's challenge of his confinement provide the first detailed picture of his struggles with guards.

On the evening of July 17, for example, two Navy sailors took Zuhair to be fed. When they finished, they say the 5-foot-5, 136-pound, Zuhair violently squirmed to avoid being taken back to his cell. He cursed at them and said his shackles were too tight.

They searched him for contraband and put him back in his cell, they said, and he responded with chilling words:

"Come in my cell, I will cut off your head," he said in English, according to their account. "You are scared. I can tell. Come in my cell. I will cut off your head."

Four weeks later, on Aug. 14, Zuhair refused to come out of his cell for a force-feeding in what his lawyer described as a protest against rough treatment of the hunger strikers.

Five guards strapped on body armor, helmets and face shields and went in for him. One guard shot pepper spray through a hole in the door, but Zuhair knocked away the can. The five men wrestled him to the ground.

"He fought briefly with the guards before five of them were able to place him on his stomach," an officer said. "It took an additional several minutes to shackle ISN 669."

The court documents describe other clashes involving Zuhair. One day in June, he "became aggressive and tried to break free" from guards, the military said.

Navy Capt. Bruce Meneley, the doctor in charge of prisoner care, said wounds on Zuhair's head and face were stitched up after "scuffles" with guards in April 2003 and January 2007.

Zuhair was captured in Pakistan and taken to Guantanamo in June 2002. He has not been charged with a crime, although the military says he trained with the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan and was a member of an Islamic fighting group in Bosnia in the mid-1990s that received money from Khalid Sheikh Muhammed, the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The U.S. also claims he was involved in the November 1995 shooting death of an American U.N. employee, William Jefferson of Camden, N.J., in Bosnia.

Zuhair denies the allegations. In addition to seeking his release, his legal team has asked for his medical records, an examination by an independent doctor and surveillance video that might support his claims of mistreatment. The U.S. military has refused.

Lynda Barry Was Here

Wow, I found this huge plank in Bushwick near the weird arts center that simultaneously repulses and intrigues me.

If you're in the know, it is truly bizarre, but for those not in the know it is probably just a board with writing on it. If you WANT to know more... CLICK HERE!

Was Lynda here? Is this what it is? Where's the octopus? Bushwick NYC... that's in Brooklyn, yo.

This Ain't the Summer of Love, Buddy

It's more like the fall of our discontent.

I've never done yoga, but the poses are really fun to draw (and challenging!) If you're bored with simple models, go for the contortionists.

Jared Diamond Lectures

One of my favorite non-fiction authors gives a lecture in San Francisco. It's about his latest book, Collapse, which I haven't read, but is on my list after I finish Guns, Germs and Steel and finish swimming through The Golden Bough. Yes, I'm nuts.

(Nerds,) ENJOY:

McCain goes for the... Sweet Can???

Although I did Obama a huge disservice... this still was from that weird moment after the debate when McCain hopped around like a bridge troll with a billy goat cloppin' around upstairs while he was trying to shake the moderator's hand.

From the TV, I didn't see this really awkward slice of life. McCain looking like a lecherous chicken hawk wagging his tongue at Barack Obama. To view this and other hilarious and creepy moments in the presidential debate, please visit the HUFFINGTON POST and look for The Many Faces of John McCain at Wednesday Night's Debate.

I wish more presidential candidates would try and grab each other's asses. It would really make politics less *yawn* boring, ya' know?

What the Gay Gene Does

So this is totally off-topic. But really interesting none-the-less.

HERE'S THE ARTICLE: http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/080208_gaygene.htm

Although this report just focuses on men (WTF - no dykes in Samoa?) it's still a really interesting read, whether you agree with it or not. Basically this theory was floating around that gay people existed to help raise kids, rather than pop out kids like a tennis ball launcher.

Nobody could find any support for this argument... mostly because homophobia is so rampant that people distance themselves from them. But now there IS evidence of this in Samoa, outside of western culture.

The article also points out that being transgendered is still listed in the Psychiatric Association Handbook as "gen­der ident­ity dis­or­der." Can somebody please edit this typo? It's not the 19th century, in case you haven't noticed!

Although I don't know how useful this is, it is an interesting theory and I think should be used in adoption rights litigation. As times become more and more conservative, it's awesome that there's still people doing research like this.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/080208_gaygene.htm

Another Automatic Drawing

This was all right hand.

Genesis P-Orridge Interview

Sometimes making art becomes so simultaneously unbearable and necessary that it spirals me in to a depression. I'm no expert, but I think there's a HUGE link between creativity and depression. It makes perfect sense to me. You are baring yourself in a way that most people hide from their entire lives. You are braving where others are scared. And you are wrestling with questions that can become larger than life.

When this happens, I look to a lot of people to inspire me. One of the most inspiring people on this planet is Genesis P-Orridge. If you have the time, please watch the videos (in 4 parts below). They are rapid-fire and the interview goes through a lot in a really short period. But for someone to live art is one of the most inspiring gifts and we can't take it for granted.

Please send love/energy/gifts etc. to Genesis right now. And don't let these gifts fall around you without holding them as long as you can!

Soft Focus: Genesis P-Orridge Part 1 of 4

Soft Focus: Genesis P-Orridge Part 2 of 4

Soft Focus: Genesis P-Orridge Part 3 of 4

Soft Focus: Genesis P-Orridge Part 4 of 4

Neeerrrrrrrdddddssssss!!!!!!!!!

It's so hard to get away from anatomical correctness once you've begun. I want to do these spindly, anorexic characters with exaggerated limbs and weird androgynous features but I'm still stuck in the 7-8 heads tall model. HELP!!!

Until then I'll just draw NERDS! Nerrrrrdddssss! NNNNnnnnnnerrrrrrrrrddss!!!! Oh, yeah that brings me back!

Striprrr

Austin Osman Spare Inspired

I've been really interested in the illustrator/artist/magician Austin Osman Spare. If you want to read more about him, click here for his wikipedia page. I won't go in to too many details, but he was the progeny of automatic drawing before, well, anybody.

So here's my attempt at it!

I used the right hand on the right side and the left hand on the left with two identical pens.

Rouyn-Noranda

Canada is very cold and everyone speaks French. The town of Rouyn-Noranda is like a small town in the US, but in bizarro world.

I'll be back with plenty of fun pictures in a few days!!!

Au revoir!!!

A Bust

just like the debates! Sorry... I had to save it.

Kool Herc

Unlike the guy who invented the continuous break-beat and hip-hop in one fell swoop, this
Herc posed in his b-day suit with nothing more than an apple and a fleece.

This is the "marble statue of youthful Hercules" from the Roman Flavian period, AD 68-98.

It's at The Met, where I was today drawing for the first time in quite a while.

Oh, they have this "Classic Fantastique" exhibit that is awesome... check it out! Art deco and bauhaus inspired furniture and objects from early 20th century

Inking Blacks to Spot

Although this isn't the page posted below, it is inking of a page of finished pencilling. I'm trying to do something that terrifies me, but is suggested by most artists: inking the large patches of black before anything else.

I'm used to outlining, then shading, then filling the fields with a brush (or q-tip, I ain't gonna' front!) because the filling is kind of boring and easy. BUT most artists say to lay this down first, to see where it leads the eye on the page, and to really define the negative space onto the page.


This was taken from the new V magazine... a real disappointment, if you ask me! Anywhoo... here's to facing your fears!

A Faint Pencilling

You will probably need to click on this to make it big. It is the initial pencilling for the page I posted earlier with the thumbnails.

Holy grammatical gaffe, Batman! Comics makes verbs out of nouns... like "pencilling!"


Yes, pencilling. We have to call it that because, well, see, we have to because there are four stages of drawing in comics!

The first is the layout; seeing how the page flows, where to put the focal points so that the eye can swim across the pages with the greatest of ease.

Then comes the ungrammatical "pencilling," where we sketch out the actual things that go on the page.

Lastly is inking, where we digitally or physically finalize those pencilled lines to give shape to the final artwork.

Coloring isn't necessarily a part of the drawing, but black really pops with even one color, really making the art stand out. I personally prefer black and white art, simply because I can see the artwork really clearly. But grayscales, tones and filters are also a part of coloring and a part of the artwork. And if you really want to press it, you're coloring it with black... so there!

Of course this is all tradition. Some of the best artwork I've seen is painted or done in ball-point pen. You can use photos (fumetti!) or the third dimension with boxes and braille and textures. You can have everything on the internet or hand make every one! Really, comics is too much fun to be latched on to one way of doing things. Just do what makes you happy and share it with everyone and their mother and their dog.

Oh, Boo... Who?

Industrial Music (Oh so 90's)

I've been on this HUGE industrial kick.

Well, laugh all you want, but I've been thinking a lot about how great industrial music is (or was, or whatever). You see, in the late seventies and eighties, a lot of bands now lumped together as industrial, were making music with a purpose: The "first wave" was rallying against music itself, using non-instruments and making non-songs. I admit I know next to nothing about these groups such as Einsturzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle, etc. etc.

BUT! I have been getting in to the "second wave" of industrial bands. Specifically, a band that I loved a lot in my teen years, Skinny Puppy. If you don't know them, I won't go into specifics (you're on the web, dude, look it up!) but I will tell you that they made music to move to that was political. In fact, the "second wave" of industrial bands used a lot of their abrasiveness not against music itself, but injustice, and Skinny Puppy are probably the most "lefty" of industrial bands.

It's uncanny how poignant and timely these lyrics seem almost 20 years later. As we face a more fanatical regime that threatens to destroy the world, I urge everyone to follow their hearts and really look at what they are doing to spread love in the world. America has become a nation of hatred in many ways and I hope that we can change that, rather than perpetuate the negativity and oppression, racism and sexism, this underlying culture of criticism and dismissal that is now "cool." It's so amazing how much hatred exists in the world, and has for thousands of years.

I leave you with the lyrics (1989, Exxon Valdez, 10 million gallons... still chanting "Drill, Baby, Drill" at the RNC) for their song "Hexonxonx:"

miles cable claws
driller killer ripping holes
tattered cloth stained
regaining the weather
acid rains so sweet, sweat streaks
downpour on humidity
colder time talking hints
watching tests the heat
mangled meat retaliate
no blaming in future dreams
could you have stopped it from happening?
best left spectator spectacle
time spaced fast paced
farther down all that trigger
guaging cause kills at will

melted prophets
book burning how undone written
slurs the meaning the past
they will repeat hard to hit
so unbeat
melting prophets
the past melting undone



misted fable roles all together
mutating chains rattle
happy to perform
either war or famine
nowhere arid food growing
warming trends a place
passive cows to feed the weak
product waste give back
nothing orders come in
make a million living things suffer
hidden glad garbage body bag
what of that change
that could save everything
that paper shredder
patent tender
puts us back in time again

hex on your black heart
makes me sick

budgets that burst with oil
crude gas in purse
no compassion
common criminals seek asylum
concrete pillow
exxon dreams
hidden hierarchy
no one in power taking blame
taking blame
taking blame


Any way, just be aware; walking down the street or watching what big companies are doing to our world.

Do You Want to Know a Secret?

When going from script to panel, I create thumbnails of each page, lay it out to see all the elements, plan spacial areas and get an idea of the best areas to focus on for dialog, mood or action.

In all honesty, I'm a very sloppy planner!

I offer you a very rare glimpse into the world of planning. When I write, it's very organized, structured and thought out, but drawing feels so free that I can't make myself rigidly place every detail. This might be a future challenge... but what the heck; I'm having fun!




I actually kind of like the sparseness of this one. And the chubby legs. Oh, well now I'm embarrassed... so I hope you enjoy!

A Bashful Skull

Isn't she cute???

Behold, a Lady

Sarah Palin is a Trophy VP

And, to top it off, she is way worse than George Bush. Lest we forget that McCain was "once" more to the right than Bush (a fact now conveniently forgotten). A candidate who has NO experience in anything, who voted for the "bridge to nowhere," who wants to teach creationism to our kids, who hates polar bears and wants them dead so Alaskans can have more jobs, and who is allegedly lying about carrying a child that belongs to her daughter.

I say allegedly, because to state such a claim could be considered libel, but the evidence looks pretty damning and I can SHOW IT TO YOU!
Barrack Obama is saying that the children are off limits... even as Palin announces that her daughter is pregnant, thrusting her into the spotlight. BUT, what is in question is Sarah Palin, who is all about family values. If she is, in fact, lying about all this, that is her character. What would stop her from, say, trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired or hating polar bears (they are so cute and fuzzy!). If she is anti-birth control and anti-abortion, why not embrace the consequences and say, "Yup, shit happens when you try to teach kids abstinence. Well, we're family and we love each other and support each other. So it's none of your business. Next question?" Why make an elaborate lie and continue to perpetuate it as you are RUNNING FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?

Anyway... TOPPLED IDOLS welcomes you back and what a bumpy ride you're in for!!!

Watch This Space

You may have noticed that TOPPLED IDOLS has ground to a screeching halt.

This is partly due to my new job as a sign artist (as in, I am drawing every day for eight hours and then working on my own stuff afterwards and don't have time to scan, edit and post it!) and the fact that I just needed a break.

Toppled Idols will return to its regular program on Serpentember 1st... just in time for the Republican National Convention and its induction of polar bear hating beauty queen Sarah Palin.

Until then, please content yourselves with the last of the Summer weather and sun. I personally loathe it and can't wait until Fall. But that's neither here nor there.

I have big things planned... including (drum roll please... ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da) a NEW BLOG(!?) beginning but totally unrelated to, but somewhat akin to George W. Bush's long-overdue ousting.

Will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?

Who Can Get Metal Chicks to Dance Topless?

No, the answer is not "A LUCKY ROLL OF THE TWENTY-SIDED DIE."

You haven't been paying attention!


Rhapsody, of course! Now the less cool but hangin'-with-Christopher-fuckin'-Lee-so-still-pretty cool Rhapsody of Fire.

Topless metal chicks, blasting drums, Italian choruses and more curly hair than can clog the Mississippi... you know you want to hang with these charming guys in their leather pants and concealing tunics.

Fire up the wizard bong and prepare to have your wand blown to bits!

Am a Crazy Gay White Nerd and Miss San Francisco

Goya

Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes (or G, for short!)'s allegorical portrait of a Spanish aristocratic boy. I didn't get everything right... the head is too large and the eyes are too large and the hair has the wrong angle. But I nailed two of the cats and sone aspects of his costume. All in all I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out.

The naive cruelty and innocent disdain in this painting is so incredible. I believe it's the only Goya at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (but it might be hanging out in the room with the minotaur!). They also have the most incredible Jackson Pollock. Maybe I'll try that next!!! Although I'd have to use molten pencil to fling at my sketchbook...

There was a gaggle of kids all drawing at The Met. It made me really happy. A bunch came over and watched me draw, but most didn't speak English so I had no idea what they were saying. Hopefully nice things... !

Next Thursday, if you want to come just let me know!!!

Class is Forever

Inspired by Dave Sim's new project (well, one of them!) Glamourpuss, I took this from the back of a magazine. It's been driving me crazy for months, sitting on our living room table. "Class is Forever." It seemed like something that would be on the cover of Glamourpuss, and he was drawing from fashion magazines.



I didn't pencil it first, and didn't spend a lot of time on the details (plus I'm no Dave Sim!) but I kind of like the way this turned out. I draw women like drag queens, so why not draw a woman who already LOOKS like one?!! I won't tell you who it is! (After all the plastic surgery, you probably won't be able to guess either!)

CLASS IS FOREVER! WTF??!!!

The Dark Knight

I saw THE DARK KNIGHT today. It was SO good!!!

I'll go again with whoever's up for it (although I kind of want to go to Imax!!!)

Tree

Yes, the ol' toppled idols has GONE GREEN like everyone else and their mother. Is it like Blue Man Group? Any way, you should get used to doing things without electricity... before energy ends up with the dinosaurs.


Drawing this reminded me of one of my favorite "Randy" Rush songs; The Tree! From Exit Stage Left, the first Rush album I ever bought:

Aping the Great Bob Brown

Stairway to Batman Backwards: The Brave and the Bold and The Led Zeppelin Heaven Backwards

Drawin' @ The Met

So I think I'm going to go to The Metropolitan Museum of Art on a semi-regular basis and draw paintings, sculptures, tourists, whatever.

I went to go see the Superheroes fashion exhibit which is a complete waste of time (well, 90%). Let me give you an anecdote that sums up the entire show: At the end are a line of famous comics presented behind glass. Before you look at them, there's a little intro about how "comics weren't respected as art," "it's not appreciated" etc., etc. Well, with these beautiful Ditkos, Kanes and Kirbys on display; NO CREDIT IS GIVEN TO ANY ARTIST. I guess the curator (Giorgio Armani, if you're wondering) has as much respect for comics as someone who throws them away.

This exhibit does nothing to educate, provoke, promote, inspire or entertain. Some of the costumes are cool to look at, but with no information about what or why they are there, it makes you want to steal them and bring them to a comics shop where you know kids will get excited about them...


Any way... here's a drawing I did of a pretty famous statue by Gaston Lachaise

Album Cover, You Bum!!!

Slackin' and relaxin'!!!


Who wants to go see The Breeders @ McCarren Pool with me on Numba One Stunna Sunday? All aboard the nite train...

Lucky Three

never forget

Life Lessons

So I did life drawing for the first time in my life! What a life-changing experience! It is probably the best exercise I've ever done in relation to art. Well, other than this blaaaahhgg!!! {swoon!}

LOVE LXVE LOVE LXVE

Get My Name Tattooed on Your Ass!

Mi Nombre con Su Culo : Let's Make it Happen!

The Sky is Falling

Dear Citizens of Earth,
Although nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news, the means outweigh the immediacy with which this message needs to be relayed at once to every dutiful citizen of the free world. It has come to our attention that various apparatuses, namely toilets, vacuum cleaners and other household "sucking" devices have become responsible for a terrible effect. Namely, each time the air is brought through a tube, it deepens the pull of atoms in the air thereby minimally increasing the gravitational pull. Although singly, they have no affect, conjunctively they are bringing catastrophe to our planet.

Originally, we scientists believed carbon emission in the atmosphere was responsible for ozone depletion, but it is now widely recognized that toilet flushing is the main cause for ozone depletion in BOTH hemispheres.

We (undersigned scientists of America) urge you all : PLEASE STOP FLUSHING! And limit vacuuming to a minimum. We fear an escalation in toilet use could bring imminent danger to our planet: Global Warming, Vortexes, Meteors, Iranian Nuclear Weapons, Unwanted Alien Visitors, Small Children, Disruptive Star Clusters (DSC's), Debris or Pluto hurtling towards earth or could possibly put a democrat in the white house.

Thank you for your time,
Dr. P. Knuckle R. Stoutz
and the Center for Redonculous Research

Lydia Lunch

I'm not sure why this interview is so abruptly cut into segments, but there are a lot of pieces scattered on youtube. Almost like a puzzle.

It's amazing that she can still be so level-headed and unphased after being more or less a public performer for a few decades.

I picked this clip because it is SO true... we all know it, but it really helps to have someone say it out loud. You might not feel so all alone.

The rest of the interview is great, plus there's a 1983 and 1985(?) interview spliced together which is pretty inane but fun and you can also see how she's remained clear and intent on her art and some really bad early 80s fashion with bad early 80s interviewing.

Enjoy!

MoCCA Downtime

So I volunteered for MoCCA (Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art... check 'em out this weekend at the Puck Building for the awesome comic fest or at your leisure at 594 Broadway) and had a lot of downtime during the panels.

What else to do but doodle! Luckily I had a full array of markers... but below is a pen gone wild. Enjoy!

Speak About Destruction

Doodling during downtime while tabling for MoCCA

You Totally Won

You Knew you would!!!

Liz, whatever your heart desires... I will draw.

Kids Love Patti Smith

and you should too. This is so beautiful. Again.

A Day Without Wine is a Day Without Sunshine

Non-Napkin Art

Perspective is really killing me. I don't mind learning elbows and nose-shadows and the breakdown of a sphere but there's something about false vanishing points and 90 degree angles that really gets my goat.

It all makes sense in theory... but then applied to reality feels like it's for the birds. AND it's fundamental!!!

At least I know what a horizon is!

More Napkin Art

Napkin Art