Deep cuts- rarities, outtakes & b-sides

Few weeks back, I shared the A-Sides, a collection of my "top five" works past & present (to inspire the future). Now, as promised (&/or threatened), here I throw down the flipsides to those trax: the lesser-known but sometimes funkier b-sides. 

Most of these cuts are vinyl only...

First up is a really deep cut, way back from my college daze when I did a different weekly strip in all three of the newspapers @ Rutgers. In the alternative paper, "The Medium", I drew my fave, "Fallin' Asleep", a collection of self-important navel-gazin' that one can only get away with in college. Some of 'em actually hold up tho', like this piece right here:

Next track is a funky one indeed. Done fer a comic book website contest I didn't win, I still dig it the most- a mash-up of Marvel & DC; a team-up in an alternate universe's Harlem, wherein two of the comix biggest contributions to the Blaxploitation era do their thang outside the Apollo with electrifyin' results indeed:

Here is a detail from a piece titled "Great Minds Think Alike", another work of charity to support a cause with which my lovely bride was involved: It was an animal rights group that was trying to stop the inhumane & even more sadly unnecessary deer culling in Princeton. The sexiest lawyer ever represented them pro-bono as legal counsel & I contributed this to raise money for their efforts. You can peep the full piece here, but here's that detail I promised lo so many words ago:

Here's la familia Seda-Schreiber hangin' on "Sesame Street" back in the day:

& then my quick sketch in tribute to Mr. Jim Henson upon his passing from felt to dirt:

My lovely bride asked me to include two mas:

First up, this seasonal missive from the year we found out she was with child (hopefully mine, but the blonde hair & blue eyes did indeed make it somewhat suspicious- callin' Maury Povich!). I've laid down holiday ink for the past 30 some odd years & this is not particularly a fave of mine honestly altho' I appreciate the sentiment & I think the drawing expresses it nicely. I do like the stork's Rudolph nose & oh-so-feathery-feathers but I don't think our as-of-then-yet-to-be-born son looks so safe being upside-down & all (& even moreso he looks kinda' larva-esque rather than simply bundled up...)

& my best girl really digs this piece, Moose & Goose (a romance), & the story goes a lil' somethin' like this:

So I am quite often asked, both virtually & corporeally, to draw something for someone. Usually I politely demur, citing my current penchant for donating my art to charity or supporting political causes, but the chef in my school's cafeteria came to me in such a sweet & earnest manner, I could not resist slinging some ink his way. He told me a tale of his first anniversary with his lovely bride & how they call each other "moose & goose" & this just tumbled outta' me...

& of course, no post is complete without a lil' Vonnegut...

nuff said.

Vonnegut Kindness for the Holidaze...

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 peep even more holiday frivolity of season's past by clickin' here 

Vonnegut redux...

For the last two years, the wonderful charity Eden Autism Services has asked me to contribute a piece of art for their Gala Auction. The theme this year is "Some Kind of Wonderful: A Celebration of Extraordinary Lives."
I  thought to meself who was more extraordinary than Mr. Kurt Vonnegut...

Hope it garners them some big bucks indeed!

If so inclined, you can read more of my thoughts on Mr. Vonnegut here.

& next year, Eden folks, I want two tix to your glam event so I can bring my best girl!

"There’s only one rule that I know of, babies -- God damn it, you’ve got to be kind."

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 per se, but it is somewhat vintage.
I had the pleasure of sharing it with Mr. 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.

so it goes...

Happy birthday, my friend.

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: