This Week's Shirt (8.26.10)

This week at the Forlorn Funnies Shirt Shop: a day late again, but I was tied up trying to figure these two out, despite their previous appearance on this blog. Now I understand them. I'm not allowed to tell, but I understand them. All I can say is: watch the eyelashes.

Home (Be)for(e) the Holidays

It's great to be back in Chicago, albeit briefly before flying back out for the holidays. A million thanks to everyone who came out for the east and west coast events.

The Seattle and Chicago events were a perfect one-two punch to end the whole tour. I've just received an e-mail that some video of the final Chicago event should be posted sometime in the near future, and I'll link to that whenever it's up... but for now, enjoy Jonas Seaman's photos from the Seattle event (the ridiculous one of yours truly is below, signing above). The colors are delicious.

One More Time, With Wind

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to the gala at the Fantagraphics Book Store. It was a great way to cap the west coast leg of our book tour, which has been phenomenal. It's been a pleasure talking with everyone and spending time with art geniuses like Jesse LeDoux and Jason Munn along the way.

We have one last event in our dual tour, which I've completely forgotten to post previously. We'll be heading directly from the airport to Home Room's 101 Lecture Show at the Hungry Brain in Chicago to give a final slide show presentation, answer people's questions, sign books, and try to get the feeling back in our toes after re-embracing Chicago's chill.

Here's the information about the event:

The 101 Lecture Show
The Hungry Brain, 9PM
2319 W Belmont
Chicago, IL

Thanks again to everyone. We'll hope to see some of you on Monday.

Post-Road, Pre-Turkey

Happy almost-Thanksgiving to everyone. And thanks to everyone who came out to our various readings/signings/slide shows on the east coast and in the Midwest.

This tour was filled with more people and events than I can possibly summarize in the little time I have before heading out on the road to ingest too much stuffing... so I'll give it a pass. But on the musical front: we saw The Jesus Lizard in Boston (as I previously posted), and wrapped up this leg of the tour by seeing Shellac in Louisville. Not a bad couple of acts to catch in a single tour.

While The Jesus Lizard has always been one of my favorites (their song "Thumbscrews" was the opening song to my briefly lived radio show in college), the Shellac show was far more poignant. Shellac, Shannon Wright, and The Web were all playing as a benefit for Jason Noble (of Rachel's, Rodan, and Shipping News fame) who was recently diagnosed with cancer. If you've ever enjoyed work from these bands, or just have a little extra in your wallet to help out an artist in need, please visit his Caring Bridge blog and donate.



Let it not be said that Jay Ryan closes a tour poorly: As pictured above, Jay took the stage with Shellac and whipped the crowd into a frenzy for half a song. I love Jay's band Dianogah, but the world is missing out on one formidable punk frontman in Mr. Ryan.

Thanks again to everyone who came out, and we'll be looking forward to seeing everybody else on our west coast tour starting in early December.

Lizards, Rocketships, and Robots

Thanks to everyone who has come out to see Jay and me thus far on the tour. We've had great events in Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston last night, and Brooklyn's Rocketship tonight, and hope to continue things with our event at Giant Robot NY happening Monday night.

The details for tonight:

Monday, Nov. 16, 6-8pm
Giant Robot
437 East 9th St.
New York, NY

Hopefully I'll get a chance to post a more detailed account of some of the tour's events in the near future, but in the meantime, you can read an interview conducted with Jay and listen to my reading of "The Spoils of The Fair" during our event at Wholly Craft in Columbus.

Also, I will report that our favorite overheard line from the Boston Jesus Lizard show we attended was a man insisting "I didn't hump anything! I'm not a humper!" (Though nobody – humpers and non-humpers alike – beats the ever-inimitable David Yow (of whom I grabbed the above shot, as he dominated yet another crowd).)

Animals and Sundry Tour: Tonight, Chicago

Tonight Jay Ryan and I start the Midwest/East Coast portion of our tour at our friendly neighborhood Quimby's here in Chicago. If you'll be anywhere in the area tonight, stop by. I think I'll be reading "Beginning Paragraphs to Stories I'm Not Going to Write" and "Voice Overs for Non-existent Movie Trailers." Jay will be tall and affable as always.

The details for tonight are:
Wednesday, November 11, 7pm
Quimby's Bookstore
1854 West North Ave
Chicago, IL

Tomorrow we'll be on the radio before our Milwaukee event at 4:30 on WMSE 91.7FM. You can listen to it live online, or it listen to it once it's archived here.

The details for the Milwaukee show are:
Thursday, Nov 12th, 7pm
The Sugar Maple
441 E. Lincoln Ave
Milwaukee, WI

From there, it's on to Columbus, then the coast. I'll do my best to make posts along the way, detailing the events, our on-the-road hysterics, and the disastrous amount of rest stop fare we're sure to consume.

"The Spoils of The Fair" Today on CellStories

Today you can direct your smart phone's browser to cellstories.net and read "The Spoils of The Fair" from All and Sundry, for free, at your leisure. CellStories is headed by my pal Dan Sinker of Punk Planet magazine, and like anything Dan does, this is another well-conceived and well-executed undertaking.

I'll confess that reading short fiction on a cell phone is something I thought I'd find abhorrent, but after downloading Stanza, perusing manybooks.net, and reading "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" some time ago (not Fitzgerald's best, but quite short), I was an instant convert.

Novels on a phone? No thanks. But short stories have a surprisingly perfect home on your hand held device.

Animals and Sundry Tour

Poster artist, fellow Chicagoan and all around nice guy Jay Ryan and I will be hitting the road in November and December promoting the releases of our respective collections, All and Sundry and Animals and Objects In and Out of Water. Jay printed (the above) posters featuring a collaborative drawing we did and we're getting materials and presentations ready for the tour, which will kick off in Chicago on November 11th.

If you're in or around one of the cities we'll be visiting, stop by and say hello. We'll draw something in a book for you and ask where the bathroom is.

Here are the dates, times, and locations:

Wed., November 11, 7pm
Quimby's Bookstore
1854 West North Ave
CHICAGO, IL

Thurs, Nov 12th, 7pm
The Sugar Maple
441 E. Lincoln Ave
MILWAUKEE, WI

Fri., Nov. 13, 7pm
Wholly Craft
3169 N. High St.
COLUMBUS, OH

Sat, Nov 14th, 4 to 6pm
Million Year Picnic
99 Mt. Auburn Street
CAMBRIDGE, MA

Sun., Nov. 15, 7pm
Rocketship
208 Smith St.
BROOKLYN, NY

Mon., Nov. 16, 6-8pm
Giant Robot
437 East 9th St.
NEW YORK, NY

Wed., Nov. 18, 7-9pm
Atomic Books
3620 Falls Rd.
BALTIMORE, MD

Fri., Nov. 20, 7pm
Carmichael's Bookstore
2720 Frankfort Ave.
LOUISVILLE, KY

Mon., Dec. 7, 6pm
Giant Robot
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
LOS ANGELES, CA

Tues., Dec. 8, 7pm
Foundation Editions@NOMAD
1993 Blake Ave.
LOS ANGELES, CA

Wed., Dec. 9, 6-8pm
Giant Robot
618 Shrader St.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Thurs., Dec. 10, 7pm
D. King Gallery
2284 Fulton St.
BERKELEY, CA

Fri., Dec. 11, 6pm
Goodfoot Gallery
2845 SE Stark
PORTLAND, OR

Sat., Dec. 12, 6-9pm
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 South Vale St. @ Airport Way S.
SEATTLE, WA
*Fantagraphics Bookstore's 3rd Anniversary party*

SPX-less, More Tour Dates

Just a general announcement: while All and Sundry will be at SPX, I will not. In light of the upcoming tour schedule and the fact that I'll be appearing in the Baltimore area in November, I won't be making the trek down in September.

Count me jealous of all the incredible mini-comics and silk-screened wonders you'll be finding if you attend, and hopefully I'll see you at our Baltimore event at Atomic or one of the other tour dates (which I hope to be posting soon).

All and Sundry: In Stock, Autumn Tour

All and Sundry is now in stock at Fantagraphics. The wait for U.S. Grant appearing alongside cartoonish deities and Anderson Cooper is finally over.

To promote the release of the book I'll be heading out on the road in November and December with that Emperor of Rock Posters Jay Ryan (whose book Animals and Objects In and Out of Water will be appearing in stores around that time). I'll post more dates as they're confirmed, but for now, here are the stops we'll be making:

wed nov 11 - chicago - quimby's
fri nov 13 - columbus - wholly crafts
sun nov 15 - brooklyn - rocketship
mon nov 16 - new york - giant robot
wed nov 18 - baltimore - atomic
fri nov 20 - louisville - carmichaels books

If you're around when we're around, stop in and see us do whatever it is we're going to do. We promise to make the events more substantive than that preceding sentence.

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.

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.

All and Sundry Catalog Preview

A peek at the aforeposted All and Sundry collection (which will debut this summer at San Diego Comic-Con) is available in the down-loadable PDF of Fantagraphics Fall 2009 catalog. I've been diligently scanning dozens of sketchbooks over the past few weeks and will post a couple previews of the book sometime over the interim months: until then, there's this.

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.