Monsters Project

I've got a painting for sale as a part of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's Monster Project fundraiser on Ebay. It's opening bid is only 30 bucks and the frame cost more than that. The image that they have appears to be a photo taken while the painting was in the frame. The one above is a lot closer to what the real thing looks for. Be sure to check their other auctions. There are lots of good art there and the money goes to a very good cause.

Breasts in Japan

The Man who Loved Breasts has been translated into Japanese and is available as a digital download through Toge no Jizo. The download includes everything that was in the english print version which include the title story, George Olavatia: Amputee Fetishist, A 21st Century Cartoonist in King Arthur's Court, as well as end pages. It's basically the exact same 32 page comic, but in Japanese and as a pdf or ePub file. It costs 150 yen, which is roughly a $1.80. It's bound to be one of the stranger things on your Ipad.

Toge no Jizo is in it's early stages of translating comics into Japanese, but you can also download the work of Dutch artist Erik Kriek. Go ahead and bookmark their page to check out what may be next.

I'm having a hard time getting over how cool it is to see one of my comics translated into Japanese.

Gomorrah

This weekend The Criterion Collection curated a film festival for this year's All Tomorrow's Parties in New York. Comic artists were asked to create posters for the different movies and I did the one above for Gomorrah. Criterion art director Eric Skillman did the finishing touches to make it look like an old Gold Key comic.

West Coast Avengers

When I was a kid (or teenager), the West Coast Avengers was a comic that I regularly bought, but hated. This was a strange behavior that I had back then. I don't know if it was out of a Marvel fanboy brainwashing or if the problem was that I wanted to buy more comics a month than good ones were produced. Regardless, I bought Englehart and Milgrom's West Coast Avengers month after month hoping that it would get better and it never did.

At Comic Con last July, I was stunned to see my pal Anthony Vukojevich digging these out of quarter bins. Evidently, for him, these comics are transcendently bad and hugely entertaining. On a weird level I can see his point, Wonder Man's horrendous mullet, his costume, Englehart ending every sentence that is not a question with an exclamation point, the horrible art of Al Milgrom somewhat polished by Joe Sinnott, Iron Man's Transformer armor, etc. They are horrible on almost every conceivable level. They are the acme of bad. He's been enjoying the comic so much that he has dedicated a blog to some of his favorite panels. Check it out and maybe you can enjoy it like he can. I still don't have enough distance.

Bound and Gagged at Secret Headquarters this Friday

I'll have a drawing in the Bound and Gagged show at Secret Headquarters this Friday night. It's got a great line up of artists doing gag cartoons. Plus there will be a book of the gags for 10 bucks.

Here's a list of those involved:

Andrice Arp, Marc Bell, Elijah J. Brubaker, Shawn Cheng, Chris C. Cilla, Michael DeForge, Kim Deitch, J. T. Dockery, Theo Ellsworth, Austin English, Eamon Espey, Robert Goodin, Julia Gfrörer, Levon Jihanian, Juliacks, Kaz, David King, Tom Neely, Anders Nilsen, Scot Nobles, Jason Overby, John Porcellino, Jesse Reklaw, Tim Root, Zak Sally, Gabby Schulz, Josh Simmons, Ryan Standfest, Kaz Strzepek, Matthew Thurber, Noah Van Sciver, Dylan Williams, Chris Wright and MORE!?*

Impressive!


*photo stolen from Tom Neely's blog*

Outtake

My Carl Jung story in the current issue of Mome was originally 20 pages instead of 19. This page, which was to go between pages 9 and 10, was thought to be a bit of a tangent from the story when I showed my roughs to friends. It was a hard one to let go, because I liked how the drawing was coming together, but sometimes that's what needs to happen.

When I roughed the story out, I used photos from the internet and Google maps for reference on the Cathedral and surrounding buildings. Between roughing it and finishing it, I squeezed a trip to Basel onto a Europe trip for more research. The only thing I would have changed was the first panel of this page. That is not Jung's school. I'm not sure where I got that from, but I was wrong. It turns out it didn't matter, since the page was cut.

Basel is a great city with a really good comic shop called Comix Shop (imagine that).


**Comic-Con News**

For the first time in a long time, I won't have a table in the small press area of Comic Con this year. I applied, but was rejected and wasn't given a reason why. So I'll be there only as a spectator on Friday and Saturday, shopping and saying hi to friends. It could be a relaxing and fun experience, but I'm not sure that relaxing and Comic Con go together.

The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung

I received a copy of Mome 19 in the mail today that has my new story, The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung in it. I'm very happy with the results which almost never happens with me. For once I don't wish I could redraw the entire thing. It's 19 pages and is a story about Jung's childhood, taken from his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. I worked on it on and off for over 4 years and even went to Basel, Switzerland to try and do some research. Here are the first 7 pages from the story:

Holiday Weekend

Most people spend their Fourth of July holiday going to the beach, pool, or at least being outside. I spent mine drawing a panel for a comic that does not exist for no particular reason.

Covered Art Show

Last night was the opening of the Covered art show at Secret Headquarters and it was a great time. The place was packed on a rainy night and there were fantastic covers hanging on just about every available bit of wall space. To check out the show yourself (or even buy something) you can go here. As the curator, I spent the last few months getting e-mails with these amazing covers sent to me. It was exciting every time I heard my little e-mail alert sound. I let out more than one audible "Holy shit!" over that time. Even after seeing scans for a month ahead of time, I still marveled at the actual covers on the wall. There are some colors and details that a scan just can't capture. If you live or are visiting Los Angeles any time this month, I would try to check it out.





Andrew Brandou and Coop, doing... I'm not sure what.

Finished Jung

After a working on this story for a few years I have finally The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung to the publisher. It will be printed in either Mome 19 or 20, which I'm guessing will come out in the second half of this year sometime. Here are two pages that I featured in rough form; now in their final version.

Uncle Scrooge Adventures 3 Covered

A little over a week ago I was commissioned to draw another Disney Ducks cover and this is the result. I would put it on my other blog,Covered, but I feel a little self-conscious having done them a few times already. It's a lot of fun drawing them this way and I liked the results, so I put it here.

Tonight I'm inking another cover for the Covered art show that will be opening at Secret Headquarters in March. It involves another famous cartoon animal and I'm excited to get it finished.

Oh yeah. The original is by Daan Jippes; Gladstone 1988.

The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung

Since I've been on hiatus from my day job in animation, I've been able to be a full-time comic artist. The first priority for me was to finish my 19 page The Spiritual Crisis of Carl Jung. I've been working on this off and on for years now (maybe 5) and am about a week away from finishing it. The terrible photo above are of some out of sequence finished pages hanging up in my closet/office. It's good to have them constantly hanging up. Some pages grow better over time, others grow worse. The worse ones will get reinked.