Mark Your Calendars

I'll be in 2 shows at Monkeyhouse Toys this year. The first is a skate deck show opening August 23. And the second is a small canvas show opening November 15.

Saturday....

I got my copy of Autoneurophobia. It looks pretty darned good, I gotta say. And it does have some of the production problems that I suspected it might. More importantly, seeing a physical copy gave me a better idea of what I need to do with it before (or if) I make it available to the public.

Disintegrated

The new pattern looks great as a desktop...until you have stuff on your desktop. Disintegrating it helps a bit...

Evolution....

Pattern in Development

Proof

There's something beautiful about seeing artwork set up to be printed with registration marks and cut lines.

More! More! More!

I think I may have a production problem...as in I'm addicted to producing stuff. Just found a place that does club flyers...2"x3", 4 color both sides, 1000 qty, $30. How can I stop myself? And Pictoplasma is coming up...gotta have swag for the kids...

Savage Monsters!!!

I've been going nuts the past couple weeks getting Savage Monsters stuff produced... 5 new sticker designs, a book, postcards, a couple shirt samples...and now, maybe reprinting some shirts. I did my first run of t-shirts in 2001, and they sold relatively well. In 2003, I was talked into doing some girly shirts, which proved to be a mistake. I also did another run of the classic Savage Monsters Fan Club shirts, which has also sold out.

I'm still stuck with a bunch of girly shirts that are no longer in style. No clue what to do with them.

But, on the other hand, there's been a bit of renewed interest in the classic Savage Monsters shirts. AND...I've found a place that does glow-in-the dark ink relatively inexpensively. I wanted to do glow-in-the-dark 5 years ago but it was way too expensive. But now, I may have to do it. I was selling the original white ink on black shirts for $10 or $12. The glow-in-the-dark shirts will most likely be available for about $15, which I think is a pretty good deal.

Now if only I can find a place to do lenticular stuff inexpensively...

Devilschlock

Devin Quin asked me to do some art for the upcoming Devilschlock album... And this is what I've putzed out so far. I kinda like the character, but the rest of the design is lacking. But it'll come...

Pictoplasma

I just registered for Pictoplasma. Should be really good. I loved the one in Berlin.

Gladwell Revisited

A slightly disintegrated version of Gladwell. Thanks to John Coulter for the font name.

Autoneurophobia: DONE

I finished the first version of Autoneurophobia, uploaded it to Lulu and ordered a copy. Final damage is 212 pages, and a hefty price tag...$36. Shipping bumps it up to $50. That's pretty much double the price that I'd want to sell it for, if I were to offer it to the public. So I guess I'm ending up with just a vanity piece/portfolio.

Meet Gertrude Marbleteeth

Gertrude is the new intern for Savage Monsters Industries. She's taking care of all the behind the scenes business details and whatnot. Any rumors of me having an inappropriate relationship with her are completely unfounded.

Weirdos and Greedheads in Cyberspace

Admittedly I'm on too many social networking websites. Linkedin is one of the more useful and professional among them. Recently, I received and invitation to connect from a guy who went to the same design school as me. I connected and checked his profile, which heavily promotes a couple books he's written. Sort of heavy handed, but Linkedin is business, self promotion oriented.

Not long afterward, I received another invitation to connect from a guy who is connected to the first guy. Red flags were popping up everywhere with this guy. According to his profile, he's a casting agent and talent agent at his own company. When I clicked on the link to his company, Top Linked came up. I googled his current and past and companies and found nothing. Further reading in his profile proved to be entertaining. According to it, he's been involved in the entertainment industry for the past 12 years. Nothing wrong with that. But under education, he went to Yale and is "Dr., Physics, Doctor of Medicine, 1990 – 1996." What?

His interests include "flying my plane, my 10 kids, women olllala am very hot, all kind of sport, bookwriting,and many many more, ask me"

This can't be real.

So I keep going back to the Top Linked site. Which proves to be entertaining as well. It's just a fast way to "make connections" for the sake of making connections. And paying a membership to do so. The top connector has over 40,000 connections. At that level, it's no longer personal. It's either a) just seeing how many connections they can make, or more likely b) collecting information to sell to any and all interested parties.

Name That Font!

I created this font this afternoon. And I have no inspiration for naming it. Maybe I'll call it something like "Brenda's Last Mistake."

Back to School

Sometimes I have to draw cute stuff for tweens. What can I say? It's a job.

Death Bolt

I Heart Savage Monsters

Not nearly enough hours in the day. I'm continually dropping one project for another. Since I got an e-mail about a discount from a print house, I feel compelled to make a postcard. I haven't done one in awhile. 4 color front/4 color back... I'm still kicking around what I want to do.

Zombie Life

More logos in development...

Goonhead Patrol on Facebook

Join the Goonhead Patrol on Facebook

My New Favorite Magazine

Finally Every Dimension of the Streets

Too bad this magazine is so hard to find. I lucked out and found it at the newsstand on the Uptown platform of the 6 train at Astor Place.

Note To Self:

Experiment more with rainbow rolls and gradients...

Sunday Journeys...

It Feels Like It's 1985 All Over Again...

I've been downloading tons of stuff from various blogs...

7 Inch Punk
True Punk Metal
Born In The Basement
Hangover Heart Attack
Death to False Blogs
BorX's Ups

I've been finding all kinds of stuff that I've heard no mention of since I read about it in Puszone, Pushead's infamous column in Thrasher. And now I'm catching up on all kinds of Japanese, Swedish and Finnish Hardcore. Plus, I finally found the complete Attention album by Septic Death...

Septic Death-Attention

I also broke down and ordered the new Peter Pan Speedrock and the new Henry Fiat's Open Sore albums.

Punk rock.

Saturday Adventures...

Journey down to the Santa Monica pier and back. Multitudes of homeless people. And lots of kids in punk rock t-shirts.

4th of July Adventures

Woke up late after a late evening of downloading a bunch of punk rock mp3s ripped from 7" records. Realized I didn't have milk or juice, so I had some dry cereal, a brown banana and coffee while watching Diff'rent Strokes until I realized there was a Twilight Zone marathon going on. Around noon, after I'd had a nap and a shower, I figured it was time to get my day started. And also realized that the movie GONZO, a documentary on Hunter S. Thompson opened today. I hiked the 2 miles or so to the theater. One of the hazards of being a pedestrian is confronting the homeless men. The first time or two usually passes without incident, but soon they recognize you and want to start up a friendship. Or at least a conversation or something that will generate some money, food, booze or drugs for them. There have been times when I've walked a block out of my way just to avoid them. After the movie (it's decent, but no need to see it in the theater), I had a heart-stopping lunch at Big Tomy's...chili cheeseburger, fries and pink lemonade. And then stop off at the video store. I think I'm in the home stretch...just a mile home, with maybe a detour to the grocery store to pick up milk, juice and bananas. I cross the street and a hispanic man comes towards me and says something vaguely in my direction. I brush it of with a nod of acknowledgment. As I continue my journey, I recall all the cases of mistaken identity I've had in my life.

Earliest would probably be people confusing me with my sister in elementary school. Once, my family was at an A&W with a bunch of other families after the parents had played volleyball. Up at the counter, they had a basket with those root beer barrel candies in it. Everyone had eaten and the kids were running around like maniacs. I went up and got a handful of the candy. A few minutes later, my sister went up to just get one. The lady behind the counter snapped at her, "You just got a whole handful!" At that time, we did look a lot alike. And that night we were both wearing our school t-shirts.

In college, I was talking to kids in my Spanish class. One girl says she remembers me and has met me before. She says I "live in Missouri Hall and am in the choir." I never lived in Missouri Hall. And I certainly can't sing. She refused to believe that it wasn't someone else that she had met.

On a trip to Cocoa Beach, FL, with a bunch of friends, we stayed in a condo owned by one of my friends. Most people in the complex were retirees. So the presence of 5 college guys was fairly obvious. One night, the guys had gotten ahold of some beer and decided it'd be fun to go down to the pool and go skinny dipping. This in the days before I drank. And still, the idea of going skinny dipping with other guys didn't appeal to me. The next day, we were packing up to leave. An older guy was there in the carport. He pulled me aside and says, "I saw you naked in my pool last night." I told him that he was mistaken and that he may have seen my friends, but it wasn't me. "Like hell it wasn't you," he said.

When I participated in Artomatic when I lived in DC, I had hung my art and was leaving the building. As I walked out, a guy was walking in. He asked me how stuff was going. I just thought he was being friendly. Then he started asking if "the cabaret was set up." I didn't know the first thing about it. At some point, he figures out that I'm not Mike. Or whoever it was that he thought I was. During that time, there was at least one other person who thought I was Mike. This doppleganger I did have the privilege of seeing. And I suppose I can see people who didn't know either of us well getting us confused.

Through the years, there's been a number of these events. And as I continue my journey, I start slipping into The Secret World of Walter Mitty. A cop car passes me. I get nervous. They circle around and I hear the "woop woop" of their siren. In an instant they have me cuffed. How do I respond? I'm innocent. But I have the right to remain silent. Truth will out, won't it? They've got the wrong guy. They'll search my pockets and find my sketchbook and my business cards. I'm an artist. They'll figure out that they have the wrong guy. Won't they? $30,000 bail?! A 3 minute phone call? Who do I call? How do I get out of this? They've wasted my whole weekend because they mistook my identity. And all I get is a "sorry?"

I made it to the grocery store. Managed to pick up some items, and make it home safe and sound.

Now who's that knocking on my door?

Keith Corcoran's Overspray Art Show At AG

My former boss man just had a killer gallery show at American Greetings in Cleveland, OH. Wish I could've been there to witness the mayhem.

More here.
Keith's site.

I Lost My Head

I was bored one morning and lost my head.

Zombie Life Logo

I've revamped the Zombie Life Magazine logo a few years ago. The original design was created in 2000. The new logo no longer uses any House Industries fonts and is 100% Savage Monsters. Recently, I revamped it again, adding some gradients and highlights. Overall, it looks kinda stiff to me, but then aren't zombies stiffs?

Another change I've been contemplating is changing it from "magazine" to "maggotzine." Decisions, decisions.