You Are About To Be Hurled

So... apparently this happened in 1979. Has anyone seen this? If so, are you okay?

(Keep your eyes peeled for the why-the-hell-did-you-include-this-in-a-trailer elevator shot.)

The Revenge of Whatever You Want

To help keep the bills at bay while working on the inaugural issue of Forlorn Funnies, I'm once again running a limited time offer (from now through March 14th) to draw whatever you want. And responding to various e-mails and requests, this time around there are more options.

What are the options? You've got three ways to go: your cubist portrait, three word association, and the classic: whatever you want. (I've also provided a few options for various sizes for people wanting larger works (going all the way up to 18 x24").) To explicate the options a bit: you want to see how your mom and your cat look fractured into a non-fixed perspective? The Cubist Option is your friend. You want to spit out three words of your choosing and see what my brain does with them? Go for the Three Word Option. You need to see the bassist of Slayer throwing lawn darts with a panther? Then it's time to get Whatever You Want. Get it 18x24 and make all the other panthers jealous.

As a reminder: these drawings won't be as developed as finished pages from a book or commercial work, but they'll certainly be far, far more rendered than anything I scrawl on a title page at a book signing. (A few examples of last summer's results are above and below.)

(OFFER EXPIRED MARCH 14th)

Be sure to include your address, any and all details you want me to keep in mind for the drawing (which, I should emphasize is for personal display/use/burning only, not commercial projects), and to whom you want the drawings signed (if anyone). All art will ship via priority mail. Allow two weeks from placing the order. Then kaboom: your personalized cubist/three-word/whatever it is.

Yapping at The University of Chicago

As a sort of introduction to the campus before I begin teaching a course in the Creative Writing department (a course titled "Writing the Graphic Novel"), I will be speaking at The University of Chicago tomorrow. The talk is open to the public, and it is my understanding that there will be snacks. Let me repeat the seriousness of this event: snacks.

I'll be going over a variety of projects, both past and future, as well as discussing some of my convoluted process for producing work. And I solemnly swear to discuss the below two comic books (two of the first comics I ever owned). Godzilla will have his day in the Wild West, turkey.

Here is where and when the Karate-Kid-as-a-metaphor-for-Aryan-disco-militants discussion will occur:

Wednesday, February 24
4:30-6:30 pm
Classics 110
University of Chicago
1010 E. 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Prints From The Flat Files (Redux)

Since I've been receiving e-mails about this: yes, there are still prints available from the previous post (though The Holy Consumption posters (of which I had very few to begin with) are almost out). You can purchase them here (or just scroll down a bit).

Sock Garters, Swan, and Sci-Fi

I sat down with Brandon Wetherbee of the You, Me, Them, Everybody podcast to skip across topics such as mystery novels, crayons, Curt Swan, Robert Crumb, District 9, sock garters, Pixar, syndicated cartoons, Spider-Man, touring with bands, and facial moisturizer. A good time was had by all in a tiny room.

Royal Jelly

If you've been wondering what my arm looks like while I answer questions about the inherent worth of human experience, the wait is finally over. I know, I know, it's hard to contain all the excitement.

My apologies to interviewer John Orlow (who filmed a video of me drawing Hegel at San Diego Comic-Con): this was posted months ago, but I failed to notice that there was a centralized page for the interviews. For other interviews with Tim Hensley, Lisa Hanawalt, Sammy Harkham, and John Pham, visit Mr. Orlow's Royal Jelly Video Magazine.

The Order of Odd-Fish Paperback

James Kennedy's delirious and captivating first novel, The Order of Odd-Fish, is available now in paperback, an edition for which I drew the cover. I've yet to see the physical book in this edition, but I can wholeheartedly recommend the story in any incarnation. James' writing is as masterful as it is teetering, skittering, exploding, and crisp.

Mutton Chops and Bunny Ukes

Two videos (featuring those never fail characters: crocheted rabbit and Steve Buscemi) that have nothing to do with one another but also nothing to do with the Superbowl, exploding power plants, politicians behaving poorly, or other things you might be burned out on right about now.

Prints From The Flat Files

In reorganizing my flat file drawers, I came across heaps of various prints, some of which I thought had long ago sold out. So for a while (until they really (no, really) sell out), these three prints will be available for purchase here on the blog.

A brief explanation of the prints:The Project Superior poster (designed by Chris Pitzer of AdHouse Books and printed by Jay Ryan of The Bird Machine) was pulled from the cover art I did for the book. The Holy Consumption poster is a sort of "exquisite corpse" drawing from all four artists of The Holy Consumption, promoting an event at Quimby's years ago. The Mother, Come Home print (also printed by Jay Ryan, and representing the first time we ever worked together) is advertising an entirely fictitious reading by "author" Thomas Tennant. The yellow text is a bit hard to read in the photo, but it says "Oct. 27 6:00pm." Bonus points if you can figure out the significance of those figures.


Project Superior Poster, 2 Colors.

15x25" on French Speckletone paper. $30.

The Holy Consumption at Quimby's Poster, 3 Colors.

Approximately 15x30" on mixed stock (white and off white). $30.

"Mother, Come Home" Print, 4 Colors.

14x23" on French Kraft paper. $30.

Afrodisiac and The Time Machine

Jim Rugg can make 70's comics like nobody's business. I've yet to get my hands on this collection, which is sure to be a work of complete mastery, but I can already wholeheartedly recommend it from this trailer alone.

Forlorn Funnies Vol. 1 Panels

Here are a few panels from this fall's inaugural Forlorn Funnies Volume 1, from various stories in that collection. Above is an excerpt from "Huge Suit and The Sea," and below are panels from "Obvious Amenities" and "True Luxury."

Now bring the urine pants!

The Third Host Option

There's been endless drama between NBC, Jay Leno, and Conan O'Brien about the future of The Tonight Show's host, time, and tradition. But isn't the choice obvious? It's all spelled out here. Here between two ferns.

Stephen Worth on Boing Boing

Stephen Worth, who has a wealth of animation knowledge and is the director of the always great ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, is guest-blogging on Boing Boing currently. And he's posting an absolute treasure trove of information, clips, and articles. I wanted to be sure to post a few of my favorites thus far:

This video of Ralph Bakshi talking about being an artist and surviving in tough times should be required viewing for anyone in the creative arts, in any field. That he said all of this without preparation goes to show what a phenomenal mind he has, because it's inspirational, hilarious, and right on the mark:



Gustaf Tenggren's gorgeous Golden Book art is something I've seen a million times, but never attached to a name. Thank you, Mr. Worth, for righting that wrong.


And Mr. Worth points us to one of the weirdest Max Fleischer cartoons ever made. To say it was ahead of its time doesn't do it justice.

Forlorn Funnies Vol. 1

Here are the original scan and final colored art for the cover of Forlorn Funnies Volume One, due out this fall from Fantagraphics Books.



As for what's in the first book, here are a few teasers/descriptions:

Our principal concern of this volume, “Obvious Amenities,” is Act One of the story of Edward Molson, salesman. After the untimely osprey-induced death of a co-worker, Molson is thrust into a cross-country speaking engagement, a chance to revisit youthful diversions, and a potential extra-marital love affair. But for now, he has to walk his wife’s dog. Again.

In “Huge Suit and The Sea.” the deity/fate/ deus ex machina Huge Suit – who first appeared in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – returns to his intervening ways, prodding and poking at the destiny of a relentlessly smiley boatman. The boatman travels from island to doomed island until taking on employment pulling ghosts into a basket. Soon enough the basket of ghosts is overflowing, and the locals send him, still smiling, back to the waters, where Huge Suit waits.

The prose offering for this inaugural issue “Whither Mountain Man?,” joins a nameless protagonist on his search for a mythological beast sighted in the hills of an early 1900’s Montana. But the neighboring hunters and mining interests have other plans, punctuated with rifles.

“The Epistemics” (the beginning of what will be an ongoing serial) follows a team of military specialists and scientists in their role in the colonization of the planet Themis IV. In this first adventure, Tech Sgt. Artemis Tol is undergoing a bizarre ritual, the separation of the myriad creatures of which he is a composite, when The Epistemics must respond to a call of distress in one of the outlying camps. What they find in that camp is unlike anything they – a team made of clones, aliens, and grizzled space war veterans – have ever encountered. And Tol’s absence proves unimaginably costly.

Forlorn Funnies Vol. 1 Preparation

Here is a test panel from "The Epistemics," a recurring science fiction story (concerning a team of military scientists and explorers helping to colonizing the planet Themis IV) that will appear in the new Forlorn Funnies series of books. I'll post more about the series (including the cover) this afternoon.