Portraits and Their Keepers

It's been a while, but I believe I originally spied both of these on Boing Boing, so a tip of the hat to them:

First (above), portraits of television and film families by the curator of the great book Life of The Party, Kirk Demarais. I think the portrait from The Jerk may be my favorite, but, alas, Paul Sheer already nabbed it. (While you're in the neighborhood, be sure to poke around Demarais' site, Secret Fun Spot, there are tons of amazing things there.)

Second (below), absolute perfect color and stoicism in the form of Guardians of Russian Art Museums, a series of photographs from Andy Freeberg. Of these, I can't decide which one is my favorite. Always a welcome problem.

I'm Drawing a Shoe: San Diego 2009

My pal (and venerable Chicago journalist) John Huston made the trek with me to Comic-Con this year, bringing along his video camera and an eye for the ridiculous. The (above) result is – I think I can safely say despite any bias – quite perfect. Chubby, self-effacing Skeletor? What's not to like?

Vader, Please Don't Hurt 'Em

Will the attendants of this year's San Diego Comic-Con be treated to this type of choreographic display? We can only hope. Regardless, it seemed the perfect opener for the next few days in the belly of the bespectacled, pocket-protected beast. (Thanks to Boing Boing for the clip.)

A Whale's Vagina

Looking forward to counting the Elvis storm troopers with you...

San Diego: All and Sundry and Four Face

This Thursday through Sunday, I'll be joining the sea of sweat and often unnerving enthusiasm that is San Diego Comic-Con. I'll be signing All and Sundry – the collection from Fantagraphics that will be debuting at the show – as well as selling copies of the limited run of Four Face.



Four Face is a series of fifty unique books, each containing four original cubist-esque drawings of, you guessed it, faces. No book will have the same contents as any other book, no faces will be repeated. Come by the table and select your favorite (or request yourself cube-ized if I haven't wrapped up the series by then), take it home, hack it apart, hang up the pages if you like. No one can stop you, no one! (cue wringing of hands, maniacal laughter).

Here are the hours we can stare at each other and try to figure out what that guy who just walked by is supposed to be dressed up as... (a hairy smurf? A sentient turd? Wayne Gretzky in a blender?):

FANTAGRAPHICS, BOOTH 1716
Thursday: 3-5PM
Friday: 11AM-1PM
Saturday: 11AM-1PM
Sunday: 12-2PM

See you in San Diego. And remember: spandex probably wasn't a good idea.

Millionaire God's Drinking Frustration

Via the Fantagraphics Flog, Tony Millionaire is God, quite literally, in this hilarious short film. I'd never hope to see Tony abandon his ingenious cartooning, but he's clearly got a promising career in acting waiting for him, should he choose to embrace it.

Morstad, Case, Elephants

Via Drawn and Quarterly's blog, take a gander at this amazing Julie Morstad video for Neko Case. Absolutely gorgeous. And the fact that it's accompanying Neko Case's voice (which is second to none) doesn't hurt.

David Lynch's Interview Project

I've been meaning to post this for a while: if you haven't yet stumbled across David Lynch's Interview Project, be sure to watch a few. They're beautiful in their simplicity and completely addicting, typical of Lynch.

Interactive Muppetpedia

Clicking around this interactive guide to The Muppets from Sesame Street brought up some great memories. One of my favorites was the Mr. Johnson and Grover restaurant bits (one of which is below), the perpetual competition to see who could be more frustrated.

(Thanks to Emily for passing this along.)

Pre-order: All and Sundry

The collection All and Sundry – featuring pieces spread through myriad publications and projects over the past six years – is now available for pre-order from Fantagraphics.

And I'll be signing the book in a couple weeks at San Diego Comic-Con. When I have the signing schedule, I'll post that here.

Big Fan

In his leading role debut (with the vocal exception of Ratatouille), Patton Oswalt looks like he's put in one hell of a performance. When I heard about the film some time ago, I had my reservations... but now that the trailer's surfaced, my fears have given over to head-nodding anticipation.

(Thanks to my pal John for passing this trailer along.)

Abstract Ditko

Keeping with the Spider-Man connection: Over at Blog Flume, Ken Parille has a great examination of the abstract comics work of Spider-Man co-creator (and one of my major influences growing up) Steve Ditko. As usual, Ken's writing is thoughtful and thorough. And any excuse to take a closer look at the warped world of Ditko's art is a welcome one.

Just Like Flies, Etc.

Ah, the classic 1967 Spider-Man animated show. That theme song. Those flat colors...

I'll admit to having suffered through every last one of these episodes on DVD over the past year (a feat I do not recommend as the repetitious nature of these, particularly toward the end of the series, is too much for one lifetime, let alone one year), and was glad to see that they're available piecemeal from Marvel via the magic of the internet. So watch the evil kitsch that is Doctor Noah Boddy (above), or visit Marvel's site and peruse the nostalgia.

And why not give the Japanese Spider-Man a spin? (Hint: you will absolutely have your life improved in every way by watching this.)

David Byrne, Ear Head, and Games

For the David Byrne-founded label Luaka Bop's anniversary compilation (Twenty First Century, Twenty First Year), I designed and illustrated the packaging, including a poster detailing the history of the company. You can now watch the animated poster, so to speak, on the label's website.

And if the site's animation's not enough to satisfy your cartoon/record needs, you can play a game (below) featuring all the characters I created to symbolize each of the musical acts on the poster. If you enjoyed the game Memory, here's the indie rock version.

Our Idiot Eyes: Color

Via the blog Bad Astronomy comes one of the more interesting color optical illusions I've seen, chiefly impressive for its subtlety. I had absolutely no clue what the illusion could possibly be.

So what is it that's strange about this psychedelic pattern? The answer elicits the obligatory disbelief and head shaking: the blue and the green spirals are actually the same color (and yes, in disbelief I pulled the graphic into Photoshop and tested it: they're identical).

The relative nature of colors has always amazed me (particularly in my brief foray into color theory in college), but this is one of the more baffling examples. Bad Astronomy has a more thorough discussion of the effect, so I'll leave it to him while I'm busy getting out my black light and having my mind, like, totally blown.