The True History of Valentine's Day

Okay, kids, although I am now oh-so-happily married to an incredibly beautiful woman (hey, babygirl!), I was once a miserable lonely bastard who hated Valentine's Day with a passion. I still refuse to celebrate it as it is indeed a corporate maunfactured buncha' malarkey (still love u, crazygirl!), but now at least I'm not a grumpy assh*le all day. But for those of you who still are (& I support you wholeheartedly!), here's your very righteous justification, straight from my 20-some-odd-years-ago collegiate misanthropic self...

Enjoy~

click to embiggen...

Occupy the North Pole

 
Please feel free to save, send, print, & otherwise share

in any way you'd like in the spirit of the season as it were...

You can enjoy my previous ink-stained seasonal greetings

by scrolling down the page just a bit.

Comments are appreciated
& well within the nature of this most wonderful time of the year, don'tcha' think?

Vote for my art (only if you think it worthy...)

Hey kids-
There is an online art competition of which I am a part.
It's on a very well-trafficked comix website called "Comic Book Resources" & the entry that gets the most votes gets a permanent slot in their weekly roundtable of artists (& hence some nice exposure for their work).
As much as I'd like the work to stand on its own merits (I think it's pretty good piece), there is a whole lot of social networking going on & folks are calling out their troops as it were.
So I'd like to ask you all to take a look at my drawing (at the first link) & if (& only if ) you feel it's one of the strongest of the bunch, please vote at the poll at the second link.

Thanks for your support...

Here's the piece~
   
& go here to see it @ the site itself:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/12/08/the-line-it-is-drawn-try-out-week-2-group-5/

& then you vote here (my name is about two thirds the way down; please also consider voting for one or two other artists you may enjoy as well):
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/12/08/the-line-it-is-drawn-week-2-all-7-groups/

Thanks again good internet folks.

Speaking of Lines...

As I ruminate on the "Prince Spaceknight" piece, I'm starting to think it was actually stronger in black & white, so I wanted to share that version as well, in case some of you kids may agree.
Enjoy~

Now the inks were not completely finished as I intended to color it all along & planned to add details in that process, but I think you can still get the gist of it.

The Line it is Drawn

Hey kids-
Over at "Comic Book Resources", a wonderful (& heavily trafficked) website about comix & such, you can see this here piece~

It's part of a competition those cats are running to find a permanent artist for that gig. The theme was to "superfy (I prefer "superfly") a celebrity. If you like the piece, please feel free to visit the site & comment, but only if when checking out the rest of the work, you truly feel it's one of the best posted (natch). (I say this only because a few other artists are stuffing the ballot box as it were with comments from friends & family, & I really wanna win this thang fair & square if at all possible.)
I'll be doing another piece on Thursday & will post then as well, which is I believe when the voting starts in earnest, so please do check back, true believers!

Fear of a Jack Planet

Ch-ch-check it out...

My boy, Jack Marley, is quite the musical genius indeed, if I do say so myself. Of course, this opinion is incredibly unbiased. The aforementioned declaration of his extraordinary talent (& dashing good looks (only one of which he gets from me!)) is simply truth, my friends, & I can prove its veracity by having you all point your little mouses over here:

http://fearofajackplanet.blogspot.com/

Enjoy this sneak preview of a young superstar who is destined to rock many more garages- as well as concert halls & stadiums...
A new rock god is born.

diez milésimos (or "a bridge too far 2: electric boogaloo")

Well, howzabout that... 10,000 folks have visited this here site (actually, probably more like 37; the other 9,963 were just me checking how many people came by). I guess that deserves a new post or something, so here ya' go:

I love bridges. Don't know why, just do. Earlier this year, my lovely bride & I redid our cuarto de baño & we had a wall to fill, so I did this piece...

Enjoy:

& if more than seven folks comment,
I'll consider posting more often.

The gauntlet is thrown, kids...

Colbert Portrait: "It Takes A Village, People!"

Stephen Colbert, an old friend of this blog (read: named in a lawsuit by yours truly) & host of my ten year old son's favorite show, "The Colbert Report", announced an art contest of sorts wherein he challenged artists to reinterpret his portrait. My lovely bride & our equally wonderful son encouraged (read: forced) me to contribute a piece which after doing was very glad to have done. Alas & alack, there has been utterly no response from the Colbert camp. He has since only changed the portrait once (duck feet? really?!) & seems to have lost interest in the whole shebang. To add insult to injury, the website just updated the online gallery a hundred-fold & my piece is artis non grata. sigh.
So I thought I'd at least post it here so the ten of you who may still read this thing might see it.
The title is, of course,

"It Takes A Village, People!"

(mebbe the intern who reads the e-mails at the show doesn't know who the Village People are?!)

Gosh, comments sure would be appreciated...

Santa Still Believes (& so should you...)

"It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you
Without a strong rhyme to step to..."

Lo siento. No excuses. Life got a hold of me & wouldn't let go (albeit in a delightful way).

I've been a bad blogger indeed.

Please enjoy this seasonal missive

as my holiday apology.

I am an errant artist who should do more work & if there was some time coming up in the near future wherein one could make a resolution promising such, I would do so.

If there is a great response to this work, perhaps I shall...

(hint, hint, nudge, nudge)

 
Please feel free to save, send, print, & otherwise share
in any way you'd like in the spirit of the season as it were...

You can enjoy my previous ink-stained seasonal greetings

by scrolling down the page just a bit.

Comments are appreciated
& well within the nature of this most wonderful time of the year, don'tcha' think?

a bridge too far...

Forgive me for another moment of artistic pride...

A piece I did was selected for Robert Goodin's great site, Covered, which allows artists to recreate comic book covers in interesting & unusual ways. (Get it? "Cover versions"?) The site has been wildly successful in its little-over-a-year existence & many artists I respect a great deal have done work therein, so I am quite thrilled & more than a lil' proud to say that the following piece was accepted by Mr. Goodin to be in the company of such luminaries of the field & actually posted just a few minutes ago.
Please check it out & give it some love (in the form of a comment) if yer so inclined both here & there (& everywhere!)~

The original cover to compare & contrast~

& if you've come visiting from "Covered", please feel free to wander around & see what these here "very secret monster things" are all about...

satchmo

How can a lil' Louis not make ya' happy, 

even on a cold Monday morn?

I like this piece a lot actually. I think it really captures the essence of the man- his character, his personality & his music as well. I dig the detail in the lines of his face as contrasted by the loose feel of the hands & the middle ground of the horn, all offset by the stark black & white of his suit & spectator shoes.
It just makes me smile, the same way listening to the man himself does, & that's the point, isn't it?

positivity 6

positivity 5

positivity 4

positivity 3

positivity 2

positivity

Back to art, back to reality...

I did a series of portraits many years ago of folks who were HIV positive. These pieces were composites from many interviews I had done & I tried to capture the ideas, feelings & spirit communicated therein to convey rather literally (or perhaps graphically would be more apt) the faces that can give a real human sense to this insidious disease.

I present this piece & the rest of the work in ensuing days in honor of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day~

so it goes...

Kurt Vonnegut has always held a special place in my heart as well as in my head.

His writings, his beliefs, simply his way of being, influenced my younger self profoundly & still hold a great deal of sway in this somewhat older body in which I now find myself. Of course, Vonnegut would claim, & I think rightfully so, that these two identities are interchangeable, occupying the same time-line albeit at different points, but both exist together, now & forever intertwined.
More important than his works & his philosophies though was his place in the literary triumvirate that is one of the foundations of my relationship with my dad. Devouring those books off my dad's bookshelf in my pre-pubescence became a catapult to help us traverse that leap from being father & son to being friends.
As high school reared it ugly head, the oh-so-long (but equally wonderful) times we spent editing my school papers dwindled. Our Scrabble games also slowed a bit (although they picked up with a vengeance whilst I was in college~ when I finally beat him for the first time!).
But Vonnegut has always remained a cornerstone.

For better or worse, he & my father are responsible for the writer I am today, & a good deal of the man I am today as well.

So it was with quite a good deal of joy that I found this portrait I had drawn of Mr. Vonnegut in one of my old sketchbooks. It's unfinished, smudgy pencil & all. It's certainly not an antique, but it is somewhat vintage.
I had the pleasure of sharing it with Vonnegut at a book signing that I went to with my dad. He looked at it quite intently, then looked up at me with that same bemused smile that he wears in the drawing.
That was a good day indeed.

Enjoy:

feliz cumpleaños mi amor

haven't been here for a spot, but my beautiful bride's birthday is a good excuse to post indeed~

it ends as i began...

Befitting this series should end with the first card I did- Santa skankin' to the holiday beat. Ah, I was a young buck back then. Happily this piece isn't as excruciating as it could be, given its twenty year vintage. I hope y'all have enjoyed these holiday greetings & perhaps you've even ended up sendin' off a couple to friends & family, or at the very least, one or two have made you smile, or maybe even warmed a cockle or two...

Cue up Fishbone's "It's a Wonderful Life (Gonna Have a Good Time) in one, two &...

santa gets detained...

More righteous indignation, this time from '01, casting Santa as the perfect detainee, showing all good folk that Bush's oh-so-Constitution-usurping policies would not only ruin our country as a whole but Christmas as well~

holiday pieta...

Apologies to Michelangelo~

best holiday gift ever...

This card is from '99 when my lovely bride was pregnant.
'nuff said~

seasonal equality...

Late 90's, trying to impress a pretty girl (who would later become my lovely bride) with my clumsy attempts at animal rights, worker's solidarity, et al.~

bush's brain...

From '02, Santa delivering exactly the right present to the right person~

for those who agree with our goals...

Here's one from '04 right after Kerry's heartbreaking loss to Bush.

Santa's list reflects a nation divided indeed~

performance anxiety...

This one brings the funny...

santa's got a brand new climate...

Doctored e-mails or not, Santa knows the truth about global warming~

some of the images will be in red as I am scanning from the actual cards in the instances where I no longer have the original works.

season's greetings in which we can believe...

This was last year's card which got some play around the inter-webs, again no comment really necessary~

again feel free to share at will...

holiday chads...

Man, was I pissed in 2000...

12 days o' x-mas...

Okay, in all honesty, I am deliberating at this point whether to continue to boadcast these "very secret monster things" to the worldwide web. Now that "Design For Obama" has hit the stands, I'm not feeling it as much as I did. Perhaps that will change in the new year. But whilst I dither, I give you, my dear readers, a lil' present~

For the past twenty some odd years (& some have been very odd indeed!), I have created holiday cards for friends & family to celebrate the season. Although I waiver between atheism & agnosticism, my belief in this most wonderful time of the year & the spirit of giving & sharing therein has never been stronger.
My holiday scribblings started with a skankin' Santa, rockin' to the holiday groove (replete with "Fishbone" tattoo), & have continued unabated up until this year's oh-so-topical health care entreaty. The cards have ranged from personal to political to downright ridiculous (I will spare you "Zombie Claus"!), & during the next twelve days, I will share with you some of my favorites (complete with whatever necessary context) starting with this year's ink-stained holiday greeting.

Please feel free to save, send, print, & otherwise share in any way you'd like in the spirit of the season as it were...

Comments are appreciated & well within the nature of the season, don'tcha' think?

the one where Nonny dies so I can go to the "Design For Obama" book signing

This website's very raison d'être has finally become reality~

"Design For Obama", collecting the best of the DesignForObama website & featuring two of my pieces, has finally been published & I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the book release party last week. I celebrated the momentous occasion with my lovely bride & about 300 other folks at the Taschen store in NYC. The tastemakers at the shindig included, but were not limited to, DFO founder Aaron Perry-Zucker, New York Times & School of Visual Arts design guru Steven Heller & always-Mookie-to-me Spike Lee. It was a blast & a half, no doubt, no diggity.
But I wouldn't have been able to go if not for my wonderful Nonny.

Listen:

I had plans to fly into Chicago for the long weekend to see my dear old friend Neil & his family when I got the invite to the book signing & although I so wanted to go, I just couldn't justify the $600 fee for the ticket change, so it looked like I just wasn't going to get the chance to have my book signed by Mars Blackmon.
But Nonny would have none of that.
My Nonny, my mom's mom, was a very wonderful woman- kind & funny & biting as well- & as my mom would say, she simply made everything better. She was simple & yet in that simplicity she contained wonders & wisdom beyond compare & without peer. (I'm also breaking one of her cardinal rules by referring to Nonny as "she" (Who's "she"?!, Nonny would rebuke us); the other was never saying "shut up"... Both very good maxims by the way.)
Nonny had made it clear that she wanted to make it to 90 & then that was enough. Well, on Friday 16 October, she turned 90, & then she fell on the following Wednesday. She was always a women who knew what she wanted, & I find it to be no coincidence the timing of her death. She allowed us a little time in the hospital to pay our respects, & then she quietly passed on 2 November, further allowing me the opportunity to change my flight with no consequence. Airlines are known for their sympathy for the bereaved. In her passing, she also saved my uncle from an abysmal trip to see his partner's family & my brother to come home from California for a much-needed respite, & she did so in a fashion that allowed us all to say goodbye in a timely & loving way, especially my mother, who got to spend some very special time with her in the last few weeks. It is so essentially Nonny that she orchestrated all of this at the end of her life to, as always, make things better for all of us who were being left behind.
The book signing fell between her funeral, which was a simple graveside remembrance (wherein my 9 year old son informed us all very casually for the first time that he is Buddhist), & my mom's open house (or as we dubbed it, the "non-shiva"), so it was with a mixture of sadness & excitement that mi esposa hermosa & I ventured into the city.
Listen:
Far from the event I expected (a gathering of the artists whose work is in the book & their mothers), the book release party was a fantastic party & celebration of both the book's publication & the one year anniversary of Obama's momentous election. 300 people turned out, only about 25 or so of them being artists published in the book itself, although they came from very disparate locales: Canada, Mexico, Indonesia, Dominican Republic & even Connecticut. "Design For Obama" is literally & figuratively a work of art in & of itself; Taschen really did an exquisite job on the printing, the coloring, the paper-stock, the layout, et al. The heft of the book is only surpassed by its beauty. The book quickly sold out as folks got their copies signed by Spike, Aaron & Mr. Heller, & also a bunch of them requesting my signature as well! I have to say, it's unlike my generation to be un-ironic but that felt very good indeed. My wife, being the model for the better of the two pieces, also reluctantly signed her "work" as well.
The night was extraordinary & simply would not have happened without Nonny. As "she" told me once in her succinct manner after some girl had broken my heart & I showed up at her doorstep craving sympathy, "Sometimes these things happen." This perfect little dose of reality was followed by a strong but short hug & that was enough.
Well, Nonny, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to make the scene @ Taschen last week.

Sometimes those things happen too...

yet another sign of the impending apocalypse...

& his lips even fuckin' move.

people deserving of more respect, pt. j

Evan Dorkin

ain't too proud to beg...

Today I turn 40...
& I'm still not a superhero.
Please help me~

jawbone

The last piece before the "Circus" leaves town~

for the blogger who has everything...

Hey kids-

This angst funnyman's gonna' be 40 next week (egads!), so if you wanna' get yer favorite blogger a lil' somethin'-somethin' for all these years (okay- months) of entertaining you folks, you could simply fulfill my lifelong dream~

Seriously, how freakin' cool is this Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., "online purveyors of high quality crimefighting merchandise"?!

It is indeed a real store in Brooklyn that does indeed sell supplies to Superheroes (& yes, it does screen out any & all super-villians); It is also the brainchild of the uber-talented Dave Eggers & all proceeds from heroic goods go to support 826, the wonderful community writing center for youth.
I especially dig the Vapor Blaster just so's you know...

starfish (sans coffee)

The "Circus" continues~

Hello everybodeeeeeeeee!

happy birthday grover