Don't Pity the Fool: The Other Mr. T

From the ingeniously nuts and seared-into-my-brain show The Letter People. It's your Friday morning Mr. T.

"Rejecting Stupidity and Embracing Ideas": Devo

Whenever anyone attempts to trash my home state of Ohio as a whole (a nonsensical attack in the first place, as if one chunk of rock and the stuff on top of it is inherently better than the next), my completely sincere response is, "Hey, Ohio spawned Devo." Though I don't know how I would rank the bands, Sonic Youth, Joy Division, Talking Heads, and Devo are easily some of my biggest influences, not solely for their music, but for how they went (or go) about making that music and all their peripheral art and sound projects.

That said, I was overjoyed to read this interview by Pop Candy's Whitney Matheson with Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale of Devo, with talks of a new album and touring (Devo being one of the bands I think capable of pulling this sort of thing off travesty-free).

The interview reflects all of the things I like about the band: intellectual integrity, a seriousness about the importance of ridiculousness, and an excitement about the revolutions (both possible and actual) in the music industry.

De-evolution's still in the air, and it's a beautiful world.

Let The Wild Rumpus Start... Now

Yes. This looks like exactly the sort of insanity I was hoping it would be. Even in the limited confines of the trailer, there are scenes that seem honestly dangerous and out of control, which is precisely where the Wild Things should live.

(Go to Apple's site to see the trailer in HD without the bothersome Fast Company logo.)

Demolition and Trailers

My (aforeposted) friend Michelle Maguire, of Pretty Patti fame, has a show opening next month at Chop Chop Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. If you live in – or find yourself swinging through – the middle of my home state, stop by and see her pictures of demolition derbies and Jim Zellinger's paintings of tractor trailers.

Fred's Head

I posted some time ago about Derya Golpinar's embroidery floss rendering of Thomas from Mother, Come Home, (below) and I'd feel remiss if I didn't post about one of her latest, which I love. I'm not sure who Fred is, but he's a well stitched fellow. Be sure to visit Fred and Derya's other notes and oddities on her blog.

New Additions

My sister added a new four-legged friend to her family yesterday, so to celebrate all things feline, here's a some Tuesday morning Simon's Cat.

The Miniature Northwest Tour

The good people of Fantagraphics put together this poster for the small Pacific Northwestern tour I'll be embarking on soon. Each event will be significantly different from the other: a gallery opening in Portland, a slideshow and reading in Vancouver, a convention during the day in Seattle, and an afterparty at the Fantagraphics bookstore that night. It should be quite the comics event sampler platter for my girlfriend who is, despite her better judgment, joining me on the tour.

If you're in Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, or some truck stop in between, stop by and say hello. I'll be looking forward to seeing you, making an awkward joke, and then realizing that one of your close relatives is affected by whatever I just made fun of.

"Has Sort of a Knowledge-y Taste"

This can't come out fast enough. Harold Ramis directing pure, flat out ridiculousness, and an ingenious pairing of Cera and Black. I'm applauding already.

Cloistered in Crowds: Hot Off The Screen Press

The above print – populated by characters from books past, present, and future – for my upcoming show is now available for purchase online. The print is 14 x 14", printed in five colors on gray paper, signed and numbered in an edition of seventy five, priced at $65. I will be signing and numbering these when I arrive in Portland at the end of March, and they'll be shipping shortly thereafter (and of course being sold at the opening as well).

Click here to order the print via paypal.

(Shipping is available for international orders as well (just enter in your location when ordering).

Return of the Elephant Film Stills

From the (brilliantly cast and executed) short film adaptation by director Max Grey. (Return of the Elephant was originally published by AdHouse Books and is now collected in Let Us Be Perfectly Clear from Fantagraphics.) Some day in the future I hope to post a trailer for the film, or at the very least more information, but for now, here are these.

Mother, Come Home Back in Print

Available for ordering on the Fantagraphics site: the new hardcover edition of Mother, Come Home, back in print after a two year absence.

Cloistered in Crowds

In the near future I'll post more information about the events following this opening on April 2nd. But for now, here's the general announcement for the show, featuring a detail from the original art for my Poetry Foundation strip.

Delocated

This show recommends itself on its premise alone: A man in the Federal Witness Protection Program who decides to put himself and his family in a reality show.

I came across this on the blog of that bespectacled wonder, Mr. John Hodgman. And it's worth noting that the last Paul Rudd credit (House Hunting) mentioned in the above embedded video is a short film (based on a Michael Chabon story) in issue five of the Wholphin series, which I highly suggest acquiring.

Cloistered in Crowds Print

Here are a couple shots (the finished above and the initial step below) of the limited edition print that will be sold in conjunction with my show "Cloistered in Crowds", opening April 2 at Charles A. Hartman Fine Art in Portland. The prints will be signed and numbered, and limited to an edition of seventy five.

I'll post information about purchasing the print online once the details are ironed out.

All and Sundry cover

Arriving in stores in the fall of this year, All and Sundry is a collection of various illustrations, posters, comics, and drawings that have been scattered in publications and galleries all over the world, but never collected in a single volume. This will include the strip currently running in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, as well as the sixteen page comic recently drawn for the album Yonlu (which I'll discuss in a later post).

The book will be rounded out by over one hundred scans from sketchbooks, documenting weirdness that has never seen the light of day, and projects still in a primitive state.

Your Friday Funk Fix

Courtesy my YouTube mining brother-in-law Dan. Once again, he struck gold. Thanks, Dan.

Where Are The Wild Things, After All?

As I've previously posted, I'm looking forward with great anticipation to Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, and was glad to stumble across a few new pictures from the film as well as a massively lengthy interview with the director. Now if only they'd release the film, then I can clap in a darkened theater like a toddler on a sugar high...

Reaching Out with... Invisible Hands

A million thanks to Mike Baehr at Fantagraphics for linking to Richard Cowdry's catalog of Richard Sala's Invisible Hands episodes. This was one of my absolute favorites on Liquid Television (R.I.P. Liquid Television), and I'm glad to see the internet has exhumed it.

Classic Gauld

If there's anyone I'd nominate as the heir to Edward Gorey, it's Tom Gauld. While his cartoons are concerned less strictly with the Victorian, Gothic, and macabre, his line and his playfulness with antiquity and mystery seem the logical progeny. He's posted a trove of his cartoons from the Guardian, and we're all the better for it.

Molecule Man Emerges

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Queseda makes a reference to the still gestating Marvel "indie project" around three fourths of the way down this post on Marvel's Comic News page. And there are links to a page from the always phenomenal Jim Rugg and the (previously posted here in truncated form) not-quite-finished-colored artwork for my story "Nightcrawler Meets Molecule Man". I still have no idea when this will see the light of day, but every sample I see from it – including this (above) cover by Paul Pope and stellar pages from Dash Shaw and R. Kikuo Johnson – looks great.

"Perfect for Starting a Campfire!"

It seems like half the podcasts I listen to are either featuring segments recorded at 92YTribeca or promoting something that will be showing there. Looking into the space itself, I came across this comedian-crammed beauty and had to post it. The newspaper may be dying, but not The Weekender.

The Mystery Boxes of Bloggers

The only part that saddened me after leaving a theater showing the (almost universally lauded) movie Coraline was the inability to see it in 3D outside of the theater. But bloggers around the world who were in the good graces of the filmmakers got the next best thing: customized Coraline suitcases containing ephemera and artifacts from the production itself. 4D beats 3D, I suppose.

Covers From Beyond!

Via Boing Boing: an amazing collection of old covers (including the masterpiece above) can be perused to your head scratching delight here.

Between that and other comic/book cover archives, it makes me pine for weirder days in publishing.