Pop-Monkey Stuff...

FOLLOW MY WORK AT BEASTPOP INSTEAD!

2011-05-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hi, folks. If you've happened to stumble upon this blog via some sort of link to my work, that's great, but this blog is effectively dead. You can follow my continued art career over at my new blog BEASTPOP ARTWORKS instead, and you can also view and buy my merchandise over at my webstore BEASTWRECK SHIRTS & STUFF. Thanks for looking!

Help me choose my BRAND-NAME, please!

2011-03-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

I need more help from my BeastPop Pals. You gave excellent feedback on the shirt designs to launch with, now I need to choose a brand name. Here's some results of my brainstorm sessions. If you don't like any of these, feel free to submit your own. If I prefer yours, you'll win free shirts & stuff!

AstroTrap
BeastWreck
PulpRacket
BunglePop
BeastRacket
DangerCreep
BeastPanic
AstroRacket
RattleTrap
AstroBrute

RISEN FROM THE GRAVE: ZOMBAMA REDUX!

2010-09-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

I know this blog is supposed to be effectively dead, but what better reason to bring it shambling from the grave than the return of the t-shirt that so many of you supported and/or have been clamoring for the return of: ZOMBAMA!

I was recently contacted by TeeFury concerning the possibility of doing a reprint of this shirt, and I had to jump at the opportunity. I still get a steady trickle of emails from folks asking about how to get a hold of this shirt, so now's your chance! Well, not NOW, but soon...

I figured I should tweak the design a bit since I usually see room for improvement the day after I'm done with a design. This would give the folks who did get a hold of the shirt the first couple times around a sense that they got something limited and rare, plus added incentive to buy it again, too! Genius!

Anyway, this should be available for sale over at TeeFury soon. I will post another update as soon as I know something more concrete.

Pop-Monkey is DEAD! Long live BEASTPOP!!

2010-09-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

I know some of you probably saw this coming due to the dearth of posts on here lately, but PopMonkey Ilustration is effectively... DEAD! For an explanation on why and how, follow this link over to my new illustration and design blog: BEASTPOP ARTWORKS! I hope all of you will continue to follow and support my work over there and I thank you for all of your comments, feedback, praise, critiques and support. It’ s been a blast, but the best is yet to come, cuz BeastPop is firing on all cylinders!

Also, you can follow BeastPop over on Facebook, if you like!

ZOMBAMA THIRD PRINTING SHIRTS HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED!

2009-09-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

After much unanticipated delay, a couple of boxes full of the third print run of the ZOMBAMA shirts arrived today! Sincere apologies once again for the delays. I will be packing and shipping shirts for the next couple of days until they're all shipped and on their way. Thanks again for all the orders, patience and support.

ZOMBAMA Third printing shirts on the way!

2009-09-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Just an update for those of you who've ordered ZOMBAMA shirts. The latest batch is finally done and has been shipped to me from the screenprinter. I should have them within the next couple of days and will begin shipping them post haste! Apologies for the delays, but thanks for the support and the patience.

ZOMBAMA THIRD PRINTING!!

2009-07-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

Demand for this shirt keeps coming in at a steady clip, so I've no choice but to give the people what they want! I'm now taking preorders for the third printing of the ZOMBAMA: BRAINS shirt, so visit my webstore over at Big Cartel and place your order now to guarantee a copy. I won't be printing much more over the amount of preorders, so order asap.

Available in Guys Small thru XXL sizes and Gals XS thru XL sizes.

ZOMBIE FIGHT!

2009-07-10T18:26:00.001-07:00

Just finished a logo design project for ZOMBIE ENGINEERED FIGHT GEAR. I'm assuming they'll be selling things like sawed-off shotguns, chainsaws, aluminum baseball bats and the like, so I'm onboard like a guest on the Love Boat! Actually they'll be selling mixed martial arts fight gear and clothing and such. Oh well, not quite as exciting, but it'll do. Someone really needs to get on that other idea though, so when the Zombie Apocalypse happens (bet on it, children) we'll have a handy one-stop shopping webstore where we can go and load up on our zombie-pulping gear. Whoever decides they have the extremely risky entrepreneur spirit to start such a company, I'm the man to handle your graphics.

Spent a day or two just drawing zombie heads to see what he liked, and after he decided on what he wanted, I worked on finalizing the text and color treatments for screen printing. The smaller fly logo will be on some sort of patch or tag, while the main zombie head will appear on the website and other merchandise. Can't wait to see how they turn out.

BLACK EYED PEREZ

2009-06-27T09:10:00.001-07:00

Been a while since my last post. I've been hip-deep in two logo/mascot/banner design projects that I don't want to post any preliminary artwork for until they're in the can, and I haven't had any toss-away sketchbooky stuff to show either. I did receive a golden revelation the other day for a new quickie t-shirt design that I just had to get out there quickly before the whole thing grows stale (and it may already be too late). No, it's not a capitalization off Michael Jackson's death (though that may come later), but rather a celebratory reminder of what happens when you constantly run your mouth like a spoiled bitch and then tie up a major emergency network by twitter-crying to all your vacuous "fans" begging them to call 911 for you, subsequently getting all litigious because the big mean man shoved you for being a total hole and your daddy never taught you how to be a man and your mommy never taught you manners.

Who could I be talking about? None other than the petty, subhuman shudderingly known as Perez Hilton who makes a "living" from hatefully criticizing those he envies and being a general narcissistic and needy creep.

It took a couple of the BLACK EYED PEAS to finally put this "guy" in his place, and that's worth at least one t-shirt design, along with a lifetime allegiance to the BEP's. The pun seemed obvious immediately upon hearing the story, and I quickly went to google to see if the idea had been taken already. Surprisingly, it hadn't, so I begin the task of creating a simple design that wouldn't take too much time. I know it's risky counting on anybody wanting a picture of this guy's face on their chest, but hey, carpe diem.

Brush, pen & ink with Photoshop (and yes, the lettering is hand-drawn)

SESAME STREET FIGHTER!!

2009-06-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

This one's actually called "PUPPET BRAWLER", and it's another design commissioned by my fine friend Kino for the fat-tastic J!NX, whom I've worked with before on the FETCH FLESH shirt design, as well as the top-secret project that I still don't know if I'm allowed to talk about. The concept was, as you can see, to combine Capcom's well-awesome fighting game series STREET FIGHTER with Children's Television Workshop's well-educational long-running muppet-based show SESAME STREET. I love Capcom's games, and anything involving Muppetry is right up my smokestack, so I tackled this project with glee and enthusiasm.

This design has been done for a while now, and I had been working on it for a long time. I had hoped to get it done before starting the grueling training process at my new warehouse job (which took 5 weeks!), but it was not meant to be, and I didn't have much free time during the training to work on it, so it was slow going. By the time I did get it finished, the guys at J!NX were hip-deep in producing, releasing and promoting their new Summer line of IDentity clothing that it took a while to get this shirt produced. It's finally here, though, albeit in a slightly different color setup than I had originally created. Something went all bones with the gradients, which were jettisoned, and some of the colors were swapped around, but it still looks pretty good. I'm not as happy with the design as I want to be, though. Maybe it has to do with going through some screwy personal trials at the same time I was starting the new job and trying to get this thing nailed down, but I'm gonna stand by it and just try to do better next time.

There's an option to pursue other designs along this avenue with various other Sesame Street character whipping the stuffing out of each other, (and I've already got some sketches ready to go) so we'll see what evolves from that.

If you like the shirt, hop on over to J!NX and buy one or two!

Pencil composite drawing

Composite inks

Back logo pencils and inks

Rejected logo concept

This early layout sketch was deemed to have too extreme a perspective. I kind of prefer it to the final, though.

TIERRA DE LOS PERDIDO new color variations

2009-06-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

I realized that TeeFury's color options for printing on blank shirts is a bit more limited than I originally estimated or hoped, so I had to go back and alter the color schemes a bit to fit on the color blanks available. The red one is only slightly altered, but the turquoise and cream color are the most obviously changed. The red doesn't do much for me, and I like the cream version (though the moon doesn't really look right on such a light colored shirt), but the turquoise is my favorite.

More to come as this thing gears up for production.

I've started to hear bad reviews of the LAND OF THE LOST movie, which bums me out (and I still haven't seen it), so I hope that doesn't cause a backlash against all things LOTL. Of course, this is based off of old-school LOTL and not the revamp.

TIERRA DE LOS PERDIDO

2009-06-10T00:52:00.000-07:00

COMING SOON TO A T-SHIRT NEAR (or on) YOU!

Sid and Marty Krofft's brilliant shoestring-budget kids adventure show LAND OF THE LOST is a fondly-remembered part of my childhood. I clearly recall enthusiastically waking up early on Saturday mornings (back when this was a vital pop-culture ritual and the Saturdayscape was ripe with glorious cartoon and live-action offerings) to get my weekly dose of ULTRAMAN, HERCULOIDS, LAND OF THE LOST and other past gems. LOTL made a particular impression on my malleable, forming brain due not only to the all-important ingredient of dinosaurs, but also to the fact that the reptilian Sleestaks were downright eerie despite their guy-in-a-suit appearance. That distinctive hissing sound of theirs accompanied by their giant black-eyed, clawed and scaly appearance and weird musical cues overcame the clear budgetary limitations of the show to convince me that I did not want to run across one of these things in the real world. Sid and Marty Krofft were responsible for a fair portion of my childhood entertainment-related memories, and I've got several pieces inspired by their wonderfully bizarre creations percolating in my sketchbooks and the back of my mind.

I originally wanted to have this piece ready in time for the arrival of the big-screen adaptation of LAND OF THE LOST (which I have yet to see), but my work schedule prevented that from happening, so this is several days late. One of the things about the Sleestaks that appealed to me was that they were much more than simple beasties devised to threaten Marshall, Will and Holly -- they had their own society, technology and religion. I wanted to capture a bit of that essence in combining some LOTL imagery in a style reminiscent of Catholic iconography. So, what came out the other end was an illustration inspired by the multitude of Virgin Mary and Christ child images wherein the Virgin Mary becomes the Sleestak Enik and ape-boy Cha-Ka sits in for the Christ child. The original roughs featured several other icons from the show (such as a Sleestak skull from the Library of Skulls, and one of the pylons), but it made the image seem too busy and crowded for an effective t-shirt design. I may go back and rework the piece as a full-color illustration, but I quite like how it turned out in the end. Hopefully, the movie doesn't suck.

If all goes as planned, this will be my next t-shirt offering from TeeFury.

The Inking process

The furry Cha-ka and the infamous Sleestaks in all their Saturday morning glory!

Some Catholic iconography reference

"I'VE GOT A FANG!"

2009-06-02T00:11:00.000-07:00

"Glistening white triangular tooth.
Open up a can of tomato juice." -- They Might Be Giants ("I've Got a Fang")

More sketchbook tomfoolery to fill the gaps between projects. Got more stuff cookin' and I hope to be able to show it soon.

ZOMBAMA 2ND RUN, HOT OFF THE PRESS!

2009-05-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

After a hiccup or two with an extremely unreliable screen printer, I finally settled on another company (Graphic22) to handle the printing of the second run of the ZOMBAMA: BRAINS shirt. Well, two big boxes of shirts arrived on my doorstep today, and now begins the arduous process of packing, labeling and shipping all the preorders I've received thus far. I should be able to knock it out within the next two or three days, work schedule permitting. I've got my 8-hour day job to fit in, as well as trying to wrap up a shirt design for Jinx that I've been fiddling around with for too long now (bless you, Kino, and your patience and understanding), but it shouldn't take me too long to do once I get the shirts separated by size and go through paypal printing shipping labels.

Thanks to all the folks who have ordered shirts so far, and for your patience and understanding with the delays in getting this thing done. There will be some shirts left over, but not many, and I'll be putting the remainder up in a separate online store very soon, so if there's anybody out there who still wants one, drop me a line and we'll see if we can't get you one. There are still men's and women's sizes available in S - XL, but there are very limited quantities of them.

Oh, and there is a slight variation in this design that makes it stand out from the TeeFury run -- just so they're not exactly identical. See if you can spot it.

SKETCHBOOKING!

2009-05-10T22:23:00.000-07:00

I've always had trouble keeping a consistently updated sketchbook, and I've lately fallen into only doing sketches for whatever job I had currently on my plate. I've often found myself in the position of not having the time to just sit and sketch and work out my "sketching muscles", having instead to scramble for freelance jobs and concentrate on whatever job needs my focus, but current circumstances have given me a bit more room to concentrate on my sketchbook, so that's what I'm gonna do!

This quick sketch is part of my study for an upcoming piece based on the music of ELECTRIC SIX (It's an "evil boy eating an evil hamburger"). Their lyrics have been the inspiration for the seeds of many illustrations to come, as well as helping to power me through many long nights of working, and I hope to have more to share with you soon.

ZOMBAMA SECOND PRINT RUN & RINGLING SENIOR ART SHOW!

2009-04-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Well, those of you sick to death of hearing about ZOMBAMA nonsense may as well tune out now. I'm heading down to Sunny Sarasota Florida later this week to help out with the second print run of my ZOMBAMA: BRAINS! shirts. About half of the planned run has already been claimed and paid for, so if you want to ensure yourself one of these puppies, contact me asap and I'll send you a paypal invoice and ship it to you immediately upon my return with the booty!

There are several other factors contributing to my trip down there. First and foremost is a driving need to just get the heck out of town for a few days and leave my troubles behind. I won't elaborate on that, but I need desperately to get my mind off "things" here, and this trip should do the trick. I need to learn more about the screenprinting procees itself, and actually participate in it, because it's obviously something I'm very interested in, and I feel I should know as much as possible about it considering shirt design seems to be the avenue I've been guided down lately.

It's also a bit of providence that the Ringling School of Art and Design Senior Illustration Thesis Show will be held this coming Friday while I'm in town. I wanted to go down last year to see the show, which is always very interesting and bursting with promising talent, but I wasn't able to. So, I'm looking forward to taking in the show and meeting some of the talented students (and perhaps old instructors) at my alma mater. If any of the old Ringling crew who are reading this are going to be there as well, send me a note and let me know and I'll keep an eye out for you, and we can meet up and tell tales together.

I'm including a picture of me wearing one of the TeeFury print run of the Zombama shirt. We're going to reproduce this size, style and color as accurately as possible, so that should give you a good idea of what the finished product will look like.

STAR TREK II: KIRK GETS ALL SHOUTY

2009-04-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN is widely considered, throughout Trekdom and Geekdom, to be the best of the gaggle of Star Trek films, and I've kind of just went along with that declaration without putting much thought into it. It's the first Trek movie I have very distinct memories of seeing in the theater, with a beloved character actually dying and those creepy bug things crawling into and out of Chekov's ear, but I really haven't rewatched this one in its entirety a great deal of times since then.

I jotted down my thoughts while watching this time, so I would have a more immediate reaction instead of a remembered potpourri of commentary.

-I really don't like the sudden, drastic change in Starfleet Uniforms. Too stiff, too monochromatic, all the same and too faux-regal, like the formal wear of some Duke of a foreign country. No thanks. I prefer the drab uniforms of the first movie to this turn of style. The "away team" jackets some of the crew wears in a later scene are sort of cool with the fat ribbed collars, but they're too bulky with their giant shoebox pockets and they just come off as dorky winter coats.

Gettin' older...

-I pretty much immediately hate Kirstie Alley as new Vulcan cadet Lt. Saavik. She's not nearly Vulcan enough in her manner to pull it off -- there's just something about her performance that makes her come off like she's trying not to be too Vulcan, so she'll still be a likable character, and maybe Kirk will notice her and ask her out or something. She perhaps should have learned from Leonard Nimoy how to correctly play a genuinely likable Vulcan.

-The movie kicks off with a "training sequence" scene that just comes off as too fake. Several of the crew feign fatal injuries as Saavik leads them into certain death, and I guess we're supposed to reel with shock that "hey, they're killing off the whole crew and the movie just started! What is going on here!?" But the scene is obviously not fooling anybody as the direction, tone, and musical cues suggest nothing even close to a scene approaching such levels of drama. All I ended up thinking was, "why are they blowing up all the computer equipment and risking throwing their backs out cartwheeling over the railings for such an obvious simulation?"

-It seems odd that the entire crew of the Enterprise is now reduced to bad dinner theatre performances aboard a training simulation replica of the Enterprise. One of the characters remarks that "galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young", but surely these distinguished crewmembers who've proven their mettle years ago could be promoted to something a little more dignified and important than ride simulation attendants, no? Were the top brass trying to fool Saavik into thinking she really was aboard the Enterprise in a command position? Did they sneak into her room late at night, chloroform her, dress her in a uniform, prop her up in the Captain's chair then startle her awake by shaking her and blurting out "Captain Saavik, there's an urgent situation that needs your attention!" "Oh! What?! Hmm, I appear to have made Captain in my sleep. Curious. Okay, what've we got? Disabled ship in the Neutral Zone, you say? Hmmm."

-Kirk enters to gloat in front of Saavik how he passed the test she just failed by cheating. And I hate what his hair has become -- it's approaching near-fro dimensions. Spock also seems to be now experimenting with eye shadow.

-Hey, we actually get to see Kirk and McCoy kicking back at Kirk's pad in their civvies. And it's Kirk's birthday. McCoy gives Kirk a pair of antique eyeglasses (it's hard to find any with the lenses still intact) as a present. Kirk's reaction: he has to ask McCoy what they're for! Don't they teach any sort of history with visual examples in Starfleet Academy?

-Chekov certainly gets a lot more lines and screentime in this movie than he has in all the TV episodes and the previous movie combined... which only serves to hammer home how annoying his accent is. He also seems to have been demoted from serving aboard the flagship of Starfleet to the Reliant, which has an actual black Captain! Take that DEEP SPACE NINE!

-It's a nice bone to Trek fans to bring Khan back as the villain for this film, and they laid out his backstory quite nicely, but they goofed with having Chekov and Khan mutually recognize each other as they had never met before. Chekov had not yet joined the cast when the original episode featuring Khan aired. Anyway, I love Ricardo Montalban's performance as Khan, and he begins deliciously gnawing on the furniture with his performance nearly straightaway -- and you gotta love that chest-baring outfit. It was rumored that Ricardo had some sort of prosthetic chest to cover up his withered old-man chest, but this appears to have been roundly disproved by many folks involved with the film and seems like an unlikely and unnecessary measure.

-Kirk gives the Enterprise a pretty sorry inspection tour. He tried to be a big hardass about it, and even does the old finger-swipe-dust-test on one of the consoles, but he just comes off as a big lazy softie when he tries to intimidate an ensign (Scotty's nephew) to no effect and then abandons the inspection due to apparent boredom.

-We get some recycled footage of the Enterprise in drydock from the first film (which might not be so obvious to me had I not watched it mere days ago). I'm still impressed, after all these years, with just how frikkin' cool a ship the Enterprise is! It's elegant, sleek and sexy, and I think it later lost some of that appeal after they complicated its linework with extra detail and features. It's just a cool ship -- like an old-school flying saucer mating with a couple of big hair-dryers.

-Yet again, the Enterprise seems to be the only vessel in close enough range to handle the threat at hand. How many ships are in the employ of Starfleet anyway? Three? And the other two are always out on some long-distance border-run? I also wonder how these guys can perfect teleportation and warp technology, but they can't seem to manage to make a computer that doesn't speak in some stilted monotone! Kirk mentions, after listening to the sales pitch presentation for the Genesis Project, that "the tape was made about a year ago". I'm sorry, did you say "tape"? Again, teleportation, warp technology, still using "tape" for recording purposes. What doesn't belong in that group? The minds behind Star Trek are often praised with a Jules Verne-like precognition in creating futuristic technologies like cellphones, tricorders, and bluetooth headsets (I'm looking at you, Uhura), but I'm gonna have to label most of that as accidental luck if they can't imagine beyond tape recording. Or was Kirk just being old-fashioned in his terminology, like when your grandfather refers to you listening to your "ipod records"?

-The back and forth sniping between Mccoy and Spock really shines in this movie. They're like an old married couple for cryin' out loud. That is all I have to say about that.

-I always thought it was sorta dumb that, as big as these ships are, no matter where they get hit during space combat, bridge consoles start going up like the Fourth of July, sending crewmen cartwheeling over the railings. Is that really how things work on a starship? Take a shot to the rear nacelle and Spock's science-console commits sympathetic suicide?

-Khan's "gang" sure knows an awful lot about operating a Starfleet vessel, especially considering they've been stranded on a lifeless planet for 15 years. Sure, Khan's supposed to be a genius, but what did he do, give them all a super-quick crash course in Starfleet vehicle operation between scenes?

-Spacebattle! Action! Violence! Death! Why in the hell would Scotty drag his nephew's nearly-dead body all the way up to the bridge instead of first taking him to sickbay? Cuz it makes for a nice dramatic follow-up to Kirk's comment about going to check and see if there's any injuries, that's why! I'm sure the kid would have died anyway, even if you hadn't taken the precious time to personally display his injuries to your Admiral on the bridge before getting him to the medical attention he so obviously needed. Good on you, Scotty! Oh, and then we get a truly corny moment where Kirk visits the dying lad in sickbay and the kid seeks permission to pass into the next life as he uses the last of his strength to sit up and squeak out "Is the word given, Admiral?" Kirk replies and grants him permission to beam on up to heaven with "The word is given. Warp speed." Wow. Kirk not only let the dutiful pup join the Federation of Spirits, but he gave him permission to do so at "warp speed"! Surely the highest honor one can receive from a Starfleet Admiral! Most poor shmucks only get to kick the bucket at "impulse power".

-It's funny how bulky and cumbersome those communicators look compared to today's cellphone technology. I guess it's due to the necessary range the things require... yeah, that's it.

-Ah, here it is, the most quoted (and over-exaggerated) line from the film, when Kirk lets his ham show with his dialogue with Khan leading up to his quaking, echoing bellow of "KHAAAN!!" I'm stunned and consider it a real misstep in the writing of this film that Kirk and Khan never share a face-to-face scene in this entire movie! All we get between these two adversaries is phone conversations and vidscreen interchanges. It's a real shame, because this film (despite it's reputation) could have been actually great instead of just comparatively great if we'd had a scene or two of Kirk and Khan competing face to face to see who can chew up all the scenery first. And maybe one of those old-fashioned fistfights where Khan completely mops the floor with Kirk and leaves him for dead. Woulda shoulda coulda.

-I'm not a Star Trek purist or anything, but I don't like this "carrying on a conversation during transport" thing they've done here. Isn't the transporter supposed to be disassembling, beaming, and reassembling all your molecules in a few seconds time? Never mind how impossible that would be to do to sentient organic matter, but how the devil are you supposed to speak to each other while the process is occurring? How does your voicebox, lungs, tongue and mouth create and project sound which is picked up by another's eardrum and auditory mechanisms while all of that is being translated into energy and reassembled at some distant endpoint? I cry foul.

-Is it bad that I wish for Kirk's son David's death during the entirety of each of his scenes?

-Hey, we get another space battle! That's two in one movie, compared to none in the previous movie! It's hide and seek in a swirling neon nebula! Here is where I found myself really pining for a STAR WARS type asteroid field chase. Kirk beat Khan due to Khan's "inexperience in three-dimensional combat"?! Seriously? This guy's a genetically engineered super-human genius and he can't get past the concept that spaceships can go up and down in addition to going forward and backward and left and right? Yes, we definitely should have had some asteroids.

-And Spock makes the ultimate sacrifice by exposing himself to fatal amounts of radiation to do... something that looks like taking the lid off the back of a space toilet to jiggle the plunger so the water will stop running. Plus it fixes the warp drive. He dies while reinforcing his friendship with Kirk and giving one last Vulcan high-sign, then he gets a cool space-funeral with a nifty black space-coffin with a send-off by space-bagpipes. Kirk's nearly tear-choked speech mentions that out of all the souls he's encountered in his journey, Spock's was the "most human". I have no idea what that means, and that has to be a slap in the face to his pal McCoy. "Wait a damned minute, James -- I've been your friend since the academy! We've chased skirts together, we drink Romulan Ale together, we talk about growing old together, you come to me for advice for every damned thing we do, but that emotionless alien stiff was the "most human" guy you've ever met? You know what, Kirk, #@&$ you!"

I'm surprised that Spock's death and funeral didn't pack nearly the emotional punch I thought it could have and should have. Something about the handling of the scenes just didn't bring it all the way home. Having the tacked-on ending with reshoots and voice overs to show Spock's coffin safe and sound in the jungle of the new planet born from the Genesis Device's explosion didn't help convey the permanence and impact of his death either. It was said that Nimoy, despite having to be cajoled into appearing in the film at all with the promise of his character's death, had such an enjoyable time filming this movie that he requested they provide an "out" so Spock could return if they decided to make another one. When test audiences reacted poorly to the final dark ending of Spock's death, the ending coffin scene was filmed and Spock's monologue voiceover was recorded to give some reassurance that Spock would be back. And so he was... but that's for the next post.

-So, my final thoughts are that Trek 2 is not nearly as tremendous a film as it's held up to be. It's a good solid movie, but it's still lacking in so many ways that I can't help but think about what it could have been. It's much better paced than the previous movie, and certainly has more action and drama, but it still leaves me wanting more, especially in the action scenes. There still really isn't a lot of action save for the couple of space battles, and even those seem very sluggish and tepid. I think much of the problems were due to them never really having a solid idea of what they wanted this movie to be about until nearly the last minute, and the extreme budget reduction in comparison to Trek 1. While the first movie's budget was reported at $46 million, only $11 million was budgeted for the sequel! That's quite staggering, especially given the propensity for today's blockbuster sequels to have far bigger budgets than that of their predecessors.

Still, Khan is great, even if he and Kirk never showed up in the same place together, the character interplay is much better, and Spock's death added some much needed drama and tragedy to the series.

POP-METER RATING: 7/10

Next up: STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK

TO BOLDLY GO... WHERE I HAVEN'T BEEN IN SEVERAL YEARS, AT LEAST

2009-04-22T05:49:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of J.J. Abrams' upcoming STAR TREK rejiggering, I thought I'd go back and give the entire run of original series movies one more spin on the old DVD player before the new film comes along with it's' fancy new looks and bedazzles the old ones right into quaint antiquity.

I'm sure I'm going to love the new take. Here's why. STAR TREK has been a part of my collective pop-consciousness for as long as STAR WARS has, and, while STAR TREK has never had such a drastic derailment leveled against it as did Lucas' tenaciously-gripped franchise with THE PHANTOM MENACE, STAR TREK has always existed in a rather sterile and tepid zone of enjoyment -- a "neutral zone" if you will. STAR WARS always had cool aliens and fantastic space battles, while STAR TREK had... phasers that stun, effortless teleporters, and aliens with odd foreheads or weird noses. And don't get me started on which franchise had the best toys -- I don't think I've ever owned a Star Trek action figure! I enjoy a lot of the philosophy and thoughtfulness of the Trek franchises, but it always seemed a bit stale. Not that TREK's qualities are bad -- I just always wanted more. One thing that I consistently enjoyed throughout the original series and most of the films was the interplay and relationships between Kirk, Spock and Bones. I won't go into the details of what made their relationships special, but I'll just say that STAR WARS never seemed to nail down quite as interesting a handle on character dynamics (there were hints of it with the Luke, Leia, Han trio, but it changed drastically from film to film).

There is, of course, a lot more of TREK to go around than there is WARS (though Lucas seems hellbent on catching up, mostly with CLONE WARS retreading), with many TV spinoffs and a few more theatrical outings. My favorite of the shows has to be STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. It came along at that crucial middle/high school phase of my life and really captured my attention with its deft embracing of the original show's purpose and breaking of new ground. It still came off as too stiff, at times, and I don't think I'll ever like the TNG Starfleet uniforms, but you can't beat things like the introduction of the Borg and Data's quest to be more human. Anyway, multiple other spinoffs followed until the collective fanbase seemed to have had enough of Trek.

So, I came along at just the right time to be able to see all the STAR TREK movies during their theatrical release, and this one in particular was viewed multiple times thanks to my grandparents having HBO during my summer stays with them. I remember the summer following STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE's release (and doesn't that seem quaint and old-fashioned now: having the phrase "motion picture" in the actual title of the film?) it seems like I watched TREK's initial theatrical outing (or pieces of it) just about every day for a month! Id wake up early, turn on the TV, and there was TREK again (or CLASH OF THE TITANS)! I haven't watched the entire movie in one sitting for many years and it certainly isn't as spooky and enthralling as it seemed to me at the tender age of 5, which is odd given the slow pace and lack of action -- try sitting a modern kid in front of this flick and count on one hand the number of minutes before they get antsy and throw in the towel!

The thing that strikes me immediately about this movie is how different it feels from the only type of TREK we were used to upon it's release: the original TV series. I've heard tales of the massive spending surrounding this movie, and it certainly shows -- the sets are all large-scale and beefed-up and the effects and miniature work is still quite outstanding. They were obviously trying to milk every penny and were proud of their work, as evidenced by the long, lingering "beauty passes" of the new Enterprise and the colossal, eerie V'Ger ship. It's interesting that they chose to strip the Starfleet uniforms of the traditional primary color palette that was featured in the original series. I appreciate the additional detailing of the uniforms to the point where they look more like ship crew outfits than stage play shirts and slacks, but the leeching of color seems to do more harm than good -- not only is the movie long and slow, but the interior shots are sometimes maddeningly monochromatic in comparison to the TV series. I'm also reminded that the new opening theme score for this new theatrical Trek is exactly the same score that was later used as the theme for the STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION tv series -- seems like they should have fiddled with the theme at least a bit to move it into the future with TNG instead of immediately recalling so blatantly and exactly from whence they came.

Old and Colorful...

New and drab...

I had forgotten that legendary Sci-Fi master Isaac Aasimov lent his skills as a consultant (which could mean anything), and may have enhanced the hard sf plotting, but the absolute dearth of action really hurts this film overall. I mean, there's not a single fistfight or starship battle to be found in the entire film! No one even so much as fingers their phaser, and the only time the Enterprise fires off a shot is to blast a pesky asteroid that is in their path within a wormhole tunnel! This lack of action combined with the film's long running time makes for a somewhat tedious and tepid journey, despite the often fantastic and beautiful images of the V'Ger ship and it's surrounding energy cloud.

As an aside, it's amusing how many times Dr. McCoy pops back and forth from the bridge to the infirmary during the course of the Enterprise's mission. I guess since McCoy serves more as Kirk's conscience than an actual doctor (and the fact that there isn't much "doctory" stuff to do), he's better served hovering over Kirk's shoulder the entire time. McCoy often has to get shoehorned into the action so he can play off of Spock and Kirk, when he should ideally just be chilling out in the infirmary. He seems to get away with a lot more than a traditional Starfleet doctor would given his standing with Kirk. I can't imagine the ship's doctor on any other vessel being so free to come and go from the bridge as McCoy.

Might as well be wearing red shirts...

Two new "crewmates" are introduced in this movie, Cmdr Decker and Ilia, though they seem to be merely glorified redshirts inserted into the storyline to provide important sacrifices/deaths where none of the permanent cast could be spared. The end result, however, is that none of the regular crew ends up doing anything particularly heroic or necessary, and the only one that even seems to undergo any sort of change is Spock, though it's a step backwards for his character (in Vulcan terms). Kirk actually manages to act somewhat of a twit, competing with and bullying Decker so he can resume command of his precious ship. It seems hard to believe this guy has actually made Admiral.

One thing that hampered most of the ST movie series was the ages of the actors playing the crew. By the time the 6th movie rolled around, most of them were positively ancient, and no one wants to see a cool sci-fi movie where the heroes are all over the age of 60. Even in this first outing, it's apparent that many of them are already beginning to show advanced signs of aging with their drooping features, graying (or balding) hair, and rounding physiques. They've already begun to lose that young adult slickness they had in the TV series, and, as the film series progresses, it becomes harder to believe these people are actually still holding the same positions on the same ship that they held 20 years ago.

So, the movie ends with the sacrifice of the two new cast members, who end up merging into a new life form... I guess. It's a good thing Decker and Ilia had a previous hot and heavy relationship so we could get rid of them both in one fell swoop as Ilia (who has been taken over by V'Ger) needs to merge with her "creator" (of whom Decker is a willing and able representative), and the two get naked and "merge" into a blizzard of super-intelligent life... or something. While the movie was completely actionless (I still can't believe a phaser doesn't even get brandished threateningly by anyone), it did have some thoughtful elements in the plot, and I do like the notion of a super-rational entity realizing that rationality is not the be-all and end-all of existence as it strives to search for a creator and a purpose to life (take that, Rationistas!) -- a lesson that I think resonates well with even Spock acknowledging that there is a sense of fulfillment and necessity in the belief in the existence of "something more" than what ration dictates.

This film was largely successful at the box office upon it's release, probably due to the sheer novelty of a STAR TREK theatrical feature hot on the heels of STAR WARS, but it was pretty much a flop with critics who derided it for its plodding pace and lack of action. I was struck upon this repeated viewing with just what a wrongheaded misstep this movie was in its sheer unfriendliness to viewers who may be new to TREK. It seems to never even be considered that folks watching this movie might be unfamiliar with the characters or the staples of TREK, especially when so many common aspects of the TV show are neglected altogether. I've already gone on long enough, so I won't go into detail with a checklist of what went wrong, but I would love to watch this with someone who has no familiarity with TREK and witness their reaction and response to it. I'll probably end up showing this to my daughter one day and see how long it takes her to call it quits.

POP-METER RATING: 5/10

Next up... STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAAAAAAAN!!

SPECTRUM SELECTRUM

2009-04-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

I received my official letter from SPECTRUM the other day notifying me which of my entered illustrations were selected for publication and I thought I'd post them here. The book itself won't drop until sometime in the fall. I'm quite excited to get my copy, not only because this is the first year I'll be published, but it's always a thrill to look through an entire year's worth of fantastic illustration.

The pieces selected were:
GORILLA VS. OCTOPUS: STREET FIGHT!

and
PAC-SAMURAI

GOD HELP ME, I'M ON TWITTER...

2009-04-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I've bemoaned the narcissistic, trivial novelty of Twitter and the Twits who Tweet thereupon, but... I've begun to accept the possible benefits of using Twitter as a publicity/hype machine. I created an account many months ago out of curiosity to see what it was about, and quickly abandoned it, thinking it pointless and dumb. Then I realized that when you look past all the knuckleheads who use it to post every mind-numbingly boring detail of their lives in an attempt to capture some fleeting sensation of celebrity (no offense to all the knuckleheads out there who do that very thing), it has it's uses, especially for an artist who is trying to develop a following and stir up jobs and buyers of his stuff.

So... anyone who is interested in following me on Twitter, may now do so. I'm listed as popmonkey, of course. I have commenced posting updates. But, rest assured, I will not be posting things like what I am eating/just ate/about to eat, that I just stepped out of the shower, that I'm going to bed, that I just walked the dog, etc. I will only be posting work/project updates and perhaps bizarre and inexplicable meanderings.

On the work side of things, I just wrapped up what has been a grueling round of color finals for my secret project I have been working on with my new favorite client (and some of their "friends"). I did many color variations on the design, and the one they ended up going with was not my favorite, but whatcanyoudo? It's tricky sending things back and forth for approval with two sets of clients who are running on California time, while I'm 3 hours ahead of them. By the time I'm ready to wrap it up for the day, they're just getting things finalized and ready to provide feedback and further instructions. I do get several hours head start on them in the mornings, though. I am wishing they would just hire me to work in-house, which may be a possibility, though it would be a heck of a move.

Anyway, I'm hoping I'll be able to show the work I've done, soon! It's probably the biggest profile project I've worked on to date, but I've been sworn to secrecy so far.

EMPTEES "TEE OF THE DAY"? IT'S ZOMBAMA.

2009-04-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

For the handful of you left who AREN'T sick of hearing about this shirt yet, one of my daily web-stops EMPTEES has selected ZOMBAMA: BRAINS as their "Tee of the Day" for today! Emptees is "a place where the world’s best designers and tee enthusiasts can come together on common ground to show off, talk about, and love tees", and I use it as a great source of inspiration and promotion. A lot of professional tee designers (and hopeful professionals) post there, and it's a very well-constructed site with a nice "voting" system, artist info and links to where you can buy each design, if it's on sale, or vote for it at whatever respective t-shirt site it's up for voting at (Threadless, Teextile, etc.).

Thanks, Emptees-folk!

SPECTRUM LOWERS THEIR STANDARDS!

2009-04-06T04:48:00.000-07:00

I believe I forgot to post about this amidst all the Zombama-mania lately, but I was stunned and thrilled to discover that I was selected as one of the artists to be featured in this year's SPECTRUM annual art book! I can only surmise that SPECTRUM had a dearth of entries this year and they just needed filler material to round out the page count.

SPECTRUM is (in a quote from their website) an annual publication "established in 1993 by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner with the intent of providing creators with a regular showcase for the best fantasy, science fiction, horror, and otherwise uncategorizable artwork created each year." I've been a fan of SPECTRUM for many many years, and their annual book release is eagerly anticipated by myself and many other artists. I remember back in art school, the day after SPECTRUM hit the shelves, the students would be swarming around whomever brought their copy to class, eager to see if any of their peers made it in, or just looking for some exciting inspiration.

I was always a bit envious of my fellows who were accepted for publication each year. Some of them had such wonderful painted pieces, and painting just isn't my forte yet. The reason I hadn't submitted before was not only that the deadline seemed to sneak up on me too quickly (or go completely unnoticed), but that I really never felt that my work was up to par for consideration. I still don't feel that way, but at least this year, I had plenty of notice (it helps to actually get on their mailing list), and a (very) few pieces that I wouldn't be absolutely embarrassed to send in. I ended up submitting 3 pieces, and I'm not sure which one made it or if more than one made it (NOTE: the attached illustration was NOT done by me, that's the Call For Entries poster painted by industry darling Peter de Seve). I guess I'll find out soon! The book is due to be published later this year.

ZOMBAMA CONQUERS TEEFURY!

2009-03-31T11:45:00.000-07:00

Well, the figures are in, and it is indeed confirmed that the little undead President that could has shattered the skull of the previous record-setting design at Teefury and feasted on it's brains! ZOMBAMA sold very near 3 times as many shirts as their previous record-holding seller, which was a tremendous surprise to me, and a nice little publicity machine, as it's increased traffic to my blog and spawned numerous links and forum posts throughout the interweb!

Thanks much to Jimiyo over at TeeFury, whose idea it was to go with the ZOMBAMA design in the first place. Also, extra thanks to all of you who ordered a shirt (or several) or just dropped by to offer support and cheers. Don't forget to send pictures of you wearing your ZOMBAMA shirts in inappropriate places (or just out in public). I might have some prizes for the best photo...

As far as further Presidential-themed projects, I've got potentially sweet TAFT and LINCOLN designs in the works. Of course, I could try to build on the success of this by doing more zombie Presidents. Who's up for a Zombie-Polk design?

By the way, I don't know who's responsible for this, but I love you whomever you are! You can now follow Zombama on Twitter! Check out his twitter feed for updates on what America's favorite zombie-President is up to and gain access to his innermost thoughts!

NOTE:
I've been contacted by quite a few people who missed the 24-hour sale at TeeFury and want to know if they can get the shirts from me. Well, the answer is probably no. I ordered a few extra (TeeFury limits 3 shirts per customer), but I don't have a stock of the shirts in my possession. I'm considering having them screenprinted elsewhere so I have some to sell, which I may do. If that happens, I'll let you know here. In the meanwhile, if you can't wait and you need your ZOMBAMA stuff right now, you can head to my CAFEPRESS SHOP and order them there. They would not accept the red and blue color version (as it was apparently too close to the Shepard Fairy piece for their lawyers' comfort), but you can find the zombie-green and green weathered color versions on a variety of merchandise. Buyer beware, though -- I haven't ordered any of that merchandise from CafePress, so I cannot vouch for their quality. They do offer a money-back guarantee, though, I believe, so order away if you feel comfortable doing so.

ZOMBAMA HAS ARRIVED!

2009-03-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder for all you fans of Undead Presidents out there, my ZOMBAMA:BRAINS shirt is now on sale at the fantastic TEEFURY.COM from now until Monday night at midnight. It'll be on sale for only $9 for 24 hours only! Don't pull a chump and miss it! Remember, my daughter is hungry! Daddy gotsta buy some groceries!

I got my FETCH FLESH shirts!

2009-03-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

My complimentary FETCH FLESH shirts arrived from the fine flavorful folks at J!NX, and they look good! Here's a couple of pics of my daughter Parker and I modeling our new threads!

Stop by Jinx and buy a couple 'o shirts, why dontcha?

"UGLY STICK" design up for vote at THREADLESS!

2009-03-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hey, my UGLY STICK t-shirt design is up for voting over at THREADLESS.COM!
Stop by and cast your vote so this puppy can be printed and available for ugly people all over the world to wear proudly (note: you do not have to be ugly to wear the shirt). If you don't have a Threadless account, go ahead and create one, and commence voting! Be sure to leave a comment, as well, and articulate your desire for either red or gold. Thanks for your support!

J!NX + POP-MONKEY + ZOMBIES = "FETCH FLESH"!

2009-03-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

Hooray! One of my "top-secret" projects saw the light of day today. I was contacted a few weeks ago by a resident of the soopah-fantastic gamer/geek clothing company J!NX to work on a wickedly evil t-shirt design commemorating the release of a certain fifth entry in a popular video game series. We bounced a couple ideas around and the zombie-fetch idea was finally decided upon. I really worked hard on this and the deadline kind of snuck up on us, so I ended up pulling 2 all-nighters in a row to get it done on time. Truth be told, I wish I'd had a day or two longer to fine-tune it, but you don't always have that luxury, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. The color schemes I chose were a bit odd (maybe due to lack of sleep), but the fine art-goblins at J!NX chose the best one, and tweaked it enough to fix some of my poor choices.

All-in-all, it was a terrific experience, and I'd like to thank J!NXer Kino for being so great to work with and making the process as smooth and clearly-communicated as possible. I've worked on some freelance jobs where the communication on the other end is abominable, and it becomes quite clear the client has no idea what they're really looking for or how to best communicate their thoughts to me. Those jobs can be a headache. This was not one of those jobs, and there's a very good chance we'll be teaming up again very soon. I look forward to it.

I also look forward to your feedback, and support. Head on over to J!NX and order a shirt or two and let me (and them) know what you think!

BURGERSTAR GRILLACTICA!

2009-03-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

Hoo-boy! Well, I've just finished watching the series finale to perhaps my favorite TV show of all time, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Those of us holding out for the last-minute reintroduction of a revamped version of Muffit the Daggit were sorely disappointed. For those of you who are unaware of the gift of genius that was Muffit in the original BSG, it was a CHIMP in a ROBOT-DOG suit! Need I say more?

I'm gonna need to mull it over some more before I reach my final conclusion on the series wrap-up, but I was mostly thrilled and satisfied by how it all went down. Before I get into my ramblings, let me show you this:

I wanted to have some sort of "party" to celebrate the event, so we had a little cookout before the show (wherein we grilled hotdogs hamburgers and bratwurst) which I dubbed... wait for it... BURGERSTAR GRILLACTICA! Yes, that's right... I'm a complete nerd! That name came to me a few months ago. I had just watched an episode which featured the little saloon that had been set up aboard the Battlestar, and I thought they should open up some sort of neighboring burger joint as well. And what would be the perfect name for such a grill? That's right: BURGERSTAR GRILLACTICA! Don't even think of stealing that name and opening up your own chain of BSG theme-restaurants!

And here's a quick sketch I did before posting this -- just cuz I hate posting something on here without some piece of relevant art to accompany it.

Cylons are called "toasters" by the humans. Get it? I know, I know...

Okay, like I said I was largely satisfied and thought they closed it up nicely. A few things immediately disappointed me, though: I was expecting MUCH heavier losses from the crew of the BSG, and the final assault on Cavil and the Cylon colony came off as too easy because of it. I was expecting some very heroic and wrenching deaths, and everyone made it out pretty much unscathed. Anders' overriding of the Hybrids came off as cake, as well, and I wanted to see a bit of mental wrestling and effort put into his domination of their systems. They poor guy ended up spending the entire finale in a tub staring up at the ceiling with not much to do. I would probably also liked to see an extended shot of the Anders-piloted BSG disintegrating as it drew ever nearer to the sun.

Some of the CG effects of the various Cylon centurion models running about the dark corridors of the colony and the Battlestar were too obviously CG and stood out a bit jarringly at times. I never thought they truly nailed the Cylon centurions' movements -- especially their walk cycles, which always seemed just a bit too awkward to be fully convincing.

I can't decide if Cavil's sudden suicide in the face of defeat rang true to his character or not. I would think, given his intense drive for vengeance and survival, that he would choose any option he could to save his own hide and hope for a chance at revenge/resurrection further down the road. If he truly saw no way out, however, it's entirely plausible that he would take his own life rather than allow the slightest chance of dying at the hands of his enemies. I still would have liked to see Adama put a bullet in his head instead.

The biggest disappointment, however, has to be the sudden accidental firing of the missles by a dead Racetrack, which completely destroyed the Colony. Seriously? Racetrack was dead, her Raptor was adrift, a small asteroid smacks the ship, her limp arm is dislodged from its resting place on the controls by the impact and smacks into the button that apparently is marked "launch all missiles". The missiles fire and they all strike the Colony ship, blowing it to bits. First of all, that Colony ship seemed far too massive for a bundle of missiles from one Raptor to do that much damage, especially considering all the fire it was taking from the BSG herself earlier on, with little effect. Secondly, accidents are fine, but there are too many huge coincidences taking place at once there with consequences that so drastically effect the course of the story. I would have preferred if there was some sort of strike team send deep into the heart of the ship to destroy it, or perhaps Anders could have cause the Colony ship to turn it's own guns and missiles on itself. Accidental "heroics" like that always remind me of Star Wars: Episode 1 when Anakin "Yippee" Skywalker accidentally crawls inside the starfighter, which accidentally powers up and accidentally fires its way out of the hangar bay, then accidentally destroys the enemy base ship. I don't like being reminded of Star Wars: Episode 1. "Yippee" indeed.

The rest, I was perfectly happy with. For a minute there, near the end, I got the sinking feeling they were going to wrap it up the same way the original series wrapped up: with the BSG finding "modern day" earth. That would have totally sabotaged the vision and themes of the series, though, and I like the idea of them intermingling with and aiding prehistoric man to develop as a species. The final scene was a nice ray of hope in a series that had been quite overwhelmingly dark and hopeless at times, and served as a promising break to the repetitious cycle of "this has all happened before, and it will all happen again" that was one of the major themes of the series.

Laura's death was touching, as was Adama's role by her side, and I'm certainly glad they let her thread progress to its natural and logical conclusion, rather than pull some miracle Cylon cure or restorative Earth "magic" out of thin air to ensure a standard TV "happy ending" for her. Baltar's transformation into a less selfish, more heroic character was nice, as was his ending up with Caprica. The whole theme of God using such imperfect and flawed people, bringing them through desperation, doubt, disbelief, betrayal, pain and misery as part of his master plan to reach a better end goal was nicely realized.

The show had resonated strongly with me from the very beginning, as I was swept up by this bold new miniseries that soon turned into a series. It was unlike anything else that was on TV, and stood out amidst the adult network dramas that seemed more like the products of adolescents playing grown-up and retarded "reality" shows with their endless parade of narcissistic, devolved assholes. Science fiction on TV had never been handled so responsibly nor well-realized for as long as I could remember. BSG was about major themes and characters first and foremost with the "space stuff" as the frosting on the cake. You weren't guaranteed a space-battle or a gunfight in every episode, but when they did happen, there was a good reason for it, and it was gripping. There were no streetwise, quippy characters tossing off quotable one-liners while firing at the bad guys. There were no mustache-twirling bad guys or damsels in distress. There were no cute kids (well, except when they tried to shoehorn Boxey into the show early on, realizing he didn't belong and getting rid of him just as quickly) or robot-dogs, or aliens whose only distinguishing characteristic is some sort of funky skin-folds on their foreheads and/or noses (I'm lookin' square atcha, Star Trek).

The characters were imperfect, hard-headed, prejudiced and angry. They made mistakes, they got drunk on duty, they frakked the wrong person, they turned on their friends and fellows, they murdered. They were human and honest and real, and a great example of the realization of this is that, no matter who your favorite character was, it was almost guaranteed that they would go through a period or arc where you started to question why they deserved your admiration -- then you'd end up hating them -- then you were back to liking them several episodes later. The characters were put through hell and just when they'd arrived safely on the other side of the flames and everything seemed safe and sane, they would be jerked right back into the fire. The writing was always superb, the acting was always believable and engrossing and the effects were usually some of the best to be found on TV, considering the scope they were attempting with the budget they were limited to. It's a shame the series never seemed to get the recognition it deserved from the general public, but it was certainly a critical and industry darling, and deservedly so. I think it will go down in history as a true classic, and I'm very anxious for the upcoming CAPRICA spinoff, as well as anything else that showrunner Ron Moore and his team can conjure up in the future.

That's all I've got for now. I'm tired and I've rambled enough. I'm sure I'll think of more to blather about in the morning, but this is not the place to drone on about it. If you've never seen the show, you owe it to yourself to rent or buy the first season on DVD and give it a go.

Pop-Monkey, out. So say we all.

"UGLY STICK" Shirt Design Placement

2009-03-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a little mock-up I did to show the placement of the design on the actual shirt.

This is not a guarantee that you will be struck by a moving vehicle if you wear this shirt, so don't come cryin' to me when you walk around unscathed while sportin' the UGLY STICK...

"UGLY STICK" Shirt Design final colors!

2009-03-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

Finished fiddling around with some color schemes for the UGLY STICK t-shirt design. This is one of those things where I come up with a fake band name I think sounds cool and then design their logo and a t-shirt or two (there are many more of this type of thing in the works). This is a reworking of a concept I had come up with a couple years ago which was in dire need of redrawing. I actually did the first pass as part of a project for my junior year at art school. I went back and looked at that early attempt and I was horrified at how bad it was! It's good that I can see a definite progression and advancement of my skills and capabilities, but I wish someone had told me back then just how bad I was! It's embarrassing!

I came up with 5 different color schemes for this, which may be overkill. The yellow one was the inital design, and I definitely think it's the strongest. The rest are just further variations I did due to being somewhat unsure if I'd nailed it with just the yellow. The yellow, turquoise and red shirts feature 4-color designs while the 2 taupe variations feature 5-color designs.

What does anybody else think about which ones work and which ones don't? I'll end up submitting whichever one I feel most comfortable with (after walking away from these for a day or two) to a t-shirt design site or two and see if there's any takers. Feedback is appreciated.

DARKSTALKERS CONTEST LOSER!

2009-03-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well, looks like I am a big fat loser after all... at least as far as Udon is concerned. My Rikuo character piece entry was not chosen to be published in the upcoming DARKSTALKERS TRIBUTE art book. Oh well. I put a lot of work into this piece, including many preliminary sketches and drawings, so it's disappointing to not get in. Now I won't get to see my piece in print and receive the prize of... a free copy of the book! Guess I'll have to pay for it myself now.

Anyway, this is the piece. I've fiddled with it a bit since the original entry -- the background elements before were much flatter and poster-like, and, as you can see by the inks, I was going for a more stylized-icon look (that might make a good poster print, giant sticker, or t-shirt design) than the fully-rendered scenery approach. I thought the choice of mostly flat, bold and bright colors might be a nice contrast to the typical Udon-style artwork we're used to seeing (very digital-painterly). As I mentioned before, I did get a late start on this, despite knowing about it well ahead of time, but freelance work got in the way and I ended up working on this right up the the deadline. In truth, the original entry needed a good 1-2 more hours worth of work before it was ready. I'm interested to see the entries that did make it in, though. Anybody else out there contribute and get rejected?

Oh, and here's some images of the character from the game that I chose. His name is Rikuo, and he's a fish-guy.

I thought I'd also, along with the finished inks, post a series of inking progression pics, just in case there's anyone out there who's interested in that sort of thing. I stuck with my usual modus operandi for this piece -- pencils printed in blueline on bristol board (in this case, 2 separate sheets to facilitate scanning), inked with 95% brush and ink and 5% pens.

Framed Zombama!

2009-03-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Super-pal Brian Lott was kind enough to order one of my ZOMBAMA prints from my CafePress store and he sent me a pic just to prove it, cause he's a dirty liar and I require photographic proof of everything he says. Here it is, framed and mounted -- don't you want one?

"UGLY STICK" inks

2009-03-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

Just finished inking my UGLY STICK t-shirt design. As with most of my work, the pencils have been printed out as a blue-line image on bristol board and inked with about 95% brush and ink and 5% pen.

For inked illustrations, I'll sometimes ink a separate color-hold layer to use as a map for the flat shading and/or highlighting. This is a scan of the shading inks for this piece...

This gets scanned in and layered underneath the lineart, like so...

It gives me a nice hand-drawn lighting template so I don't have to mess around with lassos and paintbrush tools quite as much and it prevents the whole thing from coming off as "too-digital".

Preparing to scan and color right now. More soon!

ZOMBAMA IS COMING... TO TEEFURY!

2009-03-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've gotten the okay and confirmation, so here's one of the exciting things coming up next week from your fiendly neighborhood Pop-Monkey. I was recently contacted by the very cool and incredibly talented artist and t-shirt designer Jimiyo who informed me that the also-cool t-shirt website TEEFURY (they sell a fine new shirt every day for just $9!) was interested in printing and selling my soon-to-be-cult-hit ZOMBAMA design! It's scheduled to be available for sale starting March 30th at midnight and running through midnight on the next day. That's only 24-hours to buy as many ZOMBAMA shirts as you can get your supple little hands on! My mom has already committed to buying an even hundred, and you're not going to let her show you up again, are you? 'Cause that last time was just shameful!

Anyway, I'll give everybody the high-sign the minute the shirt goes on sale, but consider this your advance warning. I'm including a sneak-peek of the shirts provided by Jimiyo so you can bask in their splendor and start donating organs for cash. Hey, don't be cheap -- THEY'RE ONLY NINE BUCKS! Do the right thing and make sure my daughter gets some peanut butter with her bread this month.

As a little teaser, my next "surprise" also involves zombies and t-shirts... more to on that later next week.

UGLY STICK!

2009-03-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Got some exciting things coming up, but for now, here's the revised and finished pencil drawing for the UGLY STICK t-shirt design in progress. Inks and colors soon!

DARKSTALKERS TRIBUTE SNEAK-PEEK

2009-03-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

Last year Udon Publishing produced a nice little art book called the STREET FIGHTER TRIBUTE. This book was a collection of hundreds of pieces of fan art based around Capcom's Street Fighter video game series, culled from submissions they received after putting out a call for entries. I had a couple of friends whose pieces were published in the book, and I would have loved to contribute, but I found out about the contest only a couple of days before the deadline and it was too late for me to submit anything.

A few months ago, I found out they were doing the same thing with Capcom's DARKSTALKERS game series (which I'm also a fan of), so I made sure to get started early so I wouldn't miss the deadline this time. I initially resolved to do several illustrations based on a few of my favorite characters, thinking I had plenty of time to complete at least three illustrations, increasing my chances of getting published. I sketched out poses and character designs and worked out 4 illustrations that I wanted to complete. Alas, my various freelance pursuits caught up with me and I was only able to finish one of the planned 4 pieces. So much for planning, but I gotta put the paying jobs first.

Anyway, the characters I chose to illustrate were Rikuo, Q-Bee, Hsien-Ko (my favorite), and Anakaris. I figured there would be a ton of entries featuring Morrigan and Felicia (probably the two most popular characters), so I wanted to avoid them. The one I managed to complete was Rikuo. I would have loved to finish Hsien-Ko, and I had a pretty cool pose for Q-Bee, but it wasn't meant to be.

I'm not going to post the whole image here, as Udon "recommends" against spoiling the images before the book is published, but I will provide a tiny peek (one of the inks and one of the colors), and you can bet I'll post the entire image here once the book is published (or sooner, if I find out the piece didn't make it in).

"You don't know what 'disgusting' really is."

2009-02-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

No artwork to share just yet, so I thought I'd share a funny story. While eating dinner tonight, my precious, darling 7 year-old daughter seemed to be having trouble eating part of her dinner. It wasn't anything particularly kid-unfriendly (it was chicken) so I asked her why she wasn't eating it.

"It's disgusting!", she responded.

I told her that with her relatively sheltered and pampered life (compared to those standard parental fallback "kids-in-less-fortunate-countries"), she really didn't know what "disgusting" really was. I told her I could cook her something truly disgusting tomorrow night, so she'd have some standard of comparison and perhaps learn to not complain so much.

"What are you gonna make me eat, Hobo Snot?" she shot back.

I found that endlessly funny, not just because of the way it sounds, but because I find it adorably perplexing that a girl of seven would immediately think of something so bizarre, and yes, disgusting as "hobo snot". She's definitely her daddy's girl. Hobo Snot would make a great band name, doncha think? There's a future illustration in there somewhere...

I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'RE NOT BUTTONS!

2009-02-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

Bunch of preliminary artwork for some upcoming odd button designs.

DONKEY KONG WINS!!

2009-02-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

Finished polishing off my first DONKEY KONG illustration last night (though I may still tweak it here and there). Been working on this one for a while in my "spare time" (between 10pm and 3am), but I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. The coloring actually didn't take as long as I thought it would -- as usual, the added effects and details took a bit longer to hammer out than I'd have liked.

Apologies to all you Mario fans out there -- looks like the little-carpenter-that-could bit the barrel! That's right, "carpenter". Mario (or "jumpman" as he was known before being given a name) began his career as a carpenter before he was shamed out of the profession and had to learn plumbing from his brother, Luigi.

Apparently, Mario used to be a bit of a bad guy before Nintendo decided to polish up his image and pit him against King Koopa. I love the game DONKEY KONG, but couldn't we play as the gorilla instead? He's a much more sympathetic character once you know the story behind the game. Apparently, Mario kept DK as his pet, yet treated him poorly, keeping him locked up in a cage and perhaps beating him while the poor ape is forced to watch from behind bars as Mario incessantly makes out with his hot girlfriend, Pauline, right in front of the imprisoned beast! Can you blame him for busting out, kidnapping Pauline and tossing barrels and flaming fireballs at the creepy carpenter? I'd do the same thing! Mario was later recaptured, of course, only to have his son come and rescue him and take out Mario in the process. Is it any wonder DK went crazy and eventually holed up in a greenhouse, communing with insects (see DONKEY KONG 3)?

Anyway, this time, much to the distress of Pauline, Donkey Kong wins and Mario eats a barrel. Hooray! I wonder what ever happened to Pauline anyway? Mario seems to have taken the golddigger route, ditching the sassy lass for the royal Princess Toadstool. I think you made a big mistake, Mario -- sure the princess is loaded (except their currency is probably mushroom-based), but Pauline is way hotter! Your loss.

Critiques and feedback are appreciated, please. The second DONKEY KONG illustration is underway and I'll post more progress on that when applicable.

DONKEY KONG LOVES PAULINE!

2009-02-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

Here's the final large drawing of Pauline and Donkey Kong for my 2nd DONKEY KONG based illustration, done over the weekend. Inks and colors coming soon.

SLEESTACKS!

2009-02-01T16:07:00.000-08:00

I just saw some new Sleestacks!
You might know they're remaking yet another childhood favorite of mine: LAND OF THE LOST. Just caught the trailer for the new movie (starring Will Ferrell) and I got to see the new Sleestacks in all their glory!
The original show was poorly produced and, though I enjoyed it as a child, I certainly wasn't wowed by the rubber dinosaurs and shoddy bluescreen work. What did hold my attention, though, were the Sleestacks. Clearly just men in suits, yet somehow they creeped me out and seemed very eerily alien to me. Maybe it was their big expressionless eyes, or the sounds they made, or both. I dunno.

Anyway, can't wait to see them on the big screen, and I hope the movie doesn't take itself too seriously (doesn't look like it). The new design looks pretty cool as they didn't stray from the original designs much at all except to add some detail and alleviate the "rubber suit" feel. I do feel a Sleestack illustration coming on, though...

SUPAH SYBORAH!

2009-01-30T14:20:00.001-08:00

Another quick character design. This one is from the Kaiju concept that's been rattling around in my head for some time now. I love Kaiju, and I've got a small notebook devoted to notes and scribblings for a massive giant-monster themed project that I've been slowly adding to for the past couple of years. Anything involving Kaiju needs to be given at least a bit of the tongue-in-cheek approach. Treating it too seriously often results in disaster as happened with Emmerich and Devlin's American GODZILLA, although that could be blamed solely on them being plain bad filmmakers. CLOVERFIELD showed that it can be done completely seriously, however, as did the original GODZILLA, but I think those instances of success are few and very far between. The most far-out crazy treatment of the subject, I think, can be found in the wonderfully fun and intentionally hilarious KAIJU BIG BATTEL. KBB's giant monsters appear as brilliantly-costumed wrestlers beating the parts off each other amidst foamboard skyscrapers. I've had the pleasure of attending one of their live matches and it was sheer bliss.

Anyway, I haven't yet decided where on the Kaiju spectrum I want to seat my project. It's not going to be CLOVERFIELD-type storytelling, but I may not want to go quite as ridiculous as KBB. We'll just have to see where this takes me. I'll be digging out more character sketches as I go and fleshing out some of the beasts and monsters bit by bit. This guy is named SUPAH SYBORAH, and he's basically the JET JAGUAR (or ULTRAMAN) of my Kaiju universe. Who is JET JAGUAR, you ask? He's a human-sized robot that can grow to monster-size to battle alongside (or against) Godzilla. That's all I've got to say about him for now. More later!

WRESTLE SPROUTS!

2009-01-30T14:19:00.001-08:00

These are a couple of quick character designs for something I've got stewing in the back of my head. All I know is that it's focused at children and it's somewhat nutrition-based. Since my wife got her job working for the local hospital's "healthy kids" program, I've been thinking about some sort of imaginative children's concept that promotes healthy living without resorting to the sort of brainless, ham-fisted conceptualizing that usually accompanies that sort of thing (y'know, where there are bad guy characters who are invariably anthropomorphized soda pops and candy bars and the fearless good-guy in a ridiculous costume always gathers the kids around in a huddle to hammer home the importance of exercise and good nutrition as they nod and feign excitement). I want to be a bit more creative and far-out in characterization and plot, staying far away from anything so obvious as to get in the way of the enjoyability of it all. Kids aren't stupid, after all (well, most of them anyway), and they can smell something designed by men in suits to push a "message" a mile away.

All I know about these characters so far is that they're part of a wrestling troupe called the "Wrestle Sprouts". I came up with the name while eating brussel sprouts and ruminating about wrestling. Aren't I clever?

MARIO!

2009-01-30T14:16:00.001-08:00

Here's a quick peek at Mario for my second DONKEY KONG illustration, currently in-progress!

SNEAK PEEK AT "DONKEY KONG" COLORS!

2009-01-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

Howdy, folks!
I'm in the thick of coloring my first DONKEY KONG piece, trying to fit it in between a few freelance jobs and other odds and ends. It's progressing quite smoothly and I thought I'd share a peek at it with you to fill in the gaps in my posting schedule.

"KEEP ON WANGLIN'" SHIRTS 'N' STUFF AVAILABLE NOW!

2009-01-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

I finished coloring this design a while ago, yet somehow neglected to post it here. Ah, well. The design is based on Robert Crumb's famous "KEEP ON TRUCKIN'" design, and is now available at my CafePress shop on a multitude of clothing, button and miscellaneous other items (you know your dog wants a Wanglin' shirt).
If you like ridiculous pink squids that seem to be stuck in some sort of 70's timewarp, then follow the link and buy yourself a shirt or two!

Merchandise includes, shirts (sleevy and not-so-sleevy), sweatshirts, hoodies, buttons, apron, thong, boxers, mousepad, onesie, bib, dog-shirt, tote bag, messenger bag, mugs, steins, coaster and throw pillow. I know... it's shameful.

DONKEY KONG inks!

2009-01-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

Finally finished the inks for my first DONKEY KONG piece. I wish I had a larger scanner. I had to ink each element on separate sheets of bristol (DK, Mario, Pauline, the girder) and scan them individually, then piece them together in Photoshop. I think my scanner is wearing out, too, because it seems to be starting to slightly distort each scan so it's not as easy to get scanned elements to fit together anymore. Oh well... gotta have money for a new scanner, and that's not happening right now.

Colors will follow soon!

BATMAN'S "SCARY VOICE" COSTS FILM OSCAR NOMINATION!

2009-01-22T06:37:00.000-08:00

Well, the Oscar nominations are out, and, much to the surprise of many hopefuls in the comics community, THE DARK KNIGHT did not get nominated for Best Picture, though it did appear in many other categories (and Heath Ledger did secure that Best Supporting Actor nom). Despite the fact that I didn't think the film quite deserved getting a Best picture nomination, you know what I think was the one major detracting factor that prevented a Best Picture nomiation? Christian Bale's ridiculous "scary-Batman" voice.

Seriously, it was over-the-top, mostly indecipherable and laughable. Was the director simply too intimidated by Bale to not pipe in almost immediately and say, "Uh, Christian... no, that's not gonna work. Do you maybe need a throat lozenge or... no? You meant to do it like that? Okay, yeah, that's not gonna work. Let's try something that's nothing like what you just did. Remember, this is a serious movie, not a comedy, and folks need to be able to understand what you're saying."

This better get cleared up for the inevitable sequel.

HELL BELOW, STARS ABOVE inks

2009-01-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

Finished inking the HELL BELOW, STARS ABOVE piece. Proceeding with colors...now!

"CARRION, WAYWARD SUN" take two

2009-01-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

Another item on my "finish it off already" list, this is the revised drawing for my CARRION, WAYWARD SUN t-shirt design. As usual, I dug out the old unfinished design and deemed it below my current skill level. It needed to be pushed further and tuned up, so that's what I did. I originally had a more stark and pure beam of light blasting forth from the sun's mouth, but that seemed too rigid and cold, so I changed the moon-blasting radiation to more of a liquid fire look. Also curled the sun's beams just a bit to give it a bit more of a dynamic sense of direction. I'm quite happy with this one, and I fully intend to finish this one off and have it on some shirts at my CafePress store before I get the desire for another "do-over". Inks and colors soon to follow.

Just as a note, back when I first conceived this design and coined it's name, I put the phrases "Wayward Sun" and "Carrion, Wayward Sun" in my google alerts, which I often do to see if anyone else has thought of the name or is using it in a similar fashion. The only hits I've really gotten so far are from people who simply misspell the lyrics from the Kansas song from which the title is derived ("Carry On Wayward Son"). Instead of "Wayward SON", they believe it to actually be "Wayward SUN", which doesn't make any sense if you listen to the song's lyrics.

"HELL BELOW, STARS ABOVE" -- the final pass, I swear it!

2009-01-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

A big part of getting back into the swing of things is going through my rather large backlist of personal projects that have been started but never finished. Call it my "new year's resolution", if you will. I started going through my files of in-progress work and was stunned at how many ideas I had been tinkering with or nearly-completed but then abandoned either due to freelance work monopolizing my time or just from setting the thing aside and forgetting about it. Going through a housing move recently didn't help either, as all the stuff I had strewn about in my work-pile got packed away and fell victim to the out-of-sight out-of-mind rule.

Anyway, this is something that's been in-progress for far too long. It's time to polish this thing off once and for all, but not before retouching it a bit. A big problem with setting something aside for so long is that, inevitably, when I come back to it I'm not at all satisfied with how it looks or (perfectionist that I am) I simply look at it and think "I can do better". Actually, that may not be such a bad thing. Sometimes an artist can benefit greatly from stepping away from a piece for a while and coming back to it with "fresh eyes". That's a big part of the reason why I don't like to rush my illustrations and let them progress at a natural pace. Unfortunately, if I take too long on them, or rushed them in the first place, I usually just want to redo the thing 4 months later!

It's always good to have a few projects going on concurrently. This keeps things fresh and allows you to jump back and forth at your leisure, and keeps a piece (and your interest in it) from stagnating. I'm always doing this, but I think I've taken it to ridiculous extremes by allowing my backlog to bloat to an overwhelming size. I made a list of all the illustrations and personal projects I have in various stages of completion and there are about 30 items on the list (and I know I'm still forgetting some). So, while it's very hard for me to promise that I will not begin something new before finishing off the old stuff, I can at least try to complete 3 new illustrations before beginning one new one. Hopefully I can whittle this list down within the next few months and build up my portfolio nicely in the process.

Currently, I'm in the midst of inking this thing, as well as the first DONKEY KONG piece, as well as reworking the final revision pencils for both the UGLY STICK and CARRION, WAYWARD SUN t-shirt designs. Also tightening up the final drawing for the second DONKEY KONG piece. More updates soon!

DONKEY KONG UPDATE!

2009-01-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

Things are moving along at a snail's pace with my 2 DONKEY KONG pieces. I'm in no hurry to get them done, and I can only work on them late at night after the freelance work is done. This is a cleaned-up pencil drawing of the first piece with some odds and ends adjusted and tightened up -- the most notable adjustment is the size and position of Pauline on DK's shoulder. She seemed a bit too large in the first pass.

Next is a tightened up sketch of the second layout with the background and setting elements fleshed-out and the positioning of the objects adjusted. I really like how these are both turning out, so maybe I won't feel the desire to go back and redo these in 6 months, as seems to happen with many of my pieces (if you call them "pieces" instead of "drawings" it makes you sound like a real artist).

Finally, there's a page of DK head studies that I forgot to include in an earlier post.

I'm also including a cool DONKEY KONG QUILT that my magic computer showed to me the other day. It's done by Carolina Patchworks. It's nearly there and I wish it was a more pixel-perfect translation, but hey -- it's a Donkey Kong quilt! That alone makes it cool.

ZOMBAMA REMIX

2009-01-08T17:18:00.001-08:00

Decided to do a bit of a retooling of the ZOMBAMA poster. This takes it a couple of steps further away from copying the design of the original, and fits the zombie theme a bit better. So there.

ZOMBAMA IS HUNGRY!

2009-01-03T16:59:00.000-08:00

Betcha didn't know that Barack Obama had a twin zombie brother who was also running for president last year, didya? Alas, his platform was far too simple, and his rallying cry of "Brains..." lost to Barack's more popular and inspiring "Hope". What's a zombie to do?

Anyway, the lesser brother's campaign was just as historical as Barack's, so why not commemorate the first undead candidate in US history by buying a print from me? I've only minutes left until the secret service helicopters land in my front yard and haul me away for tastelessness involving a US President!

Oh, and by the way, if your interest in this piece is borne from some racist, murderous feelings you might have towards President Barack Obama, and you are mistaking this artist as harboring some wishful death threats against the president, please go away. I do not want your attention or your money. Good day.

I wanted to do an Obama piece (along with everybody else on the planet, evidently), but since my brain has been irreparably warped by cartoons and pop-culture nonsense I simply could not realize this intent with any level of serious meaning or maturity. I was looking at some of the parody images out there, several of which were based on the popular Shepard Fairey piece seen here...

And here's a collection of some of the parodies. Most are lame. My fave by far is the Bob Hope piece. The Soup Nazi image would be great as well, if it were at all competently executed. Oh well. (Revised to include the Luke Skywalker "New Hope" piece which my friend Adam Volker called my attention to. Thanks Adam)

Most (if not all) of the parodies I came across were a bit obvious, choosing to rely on simply basing their ideas on words that rhymed with "hope". I wanted to run in the opposite direction, so I chose to parody the parodies (as well as Fairey's reputation for using appropriated images in his art) by turning Obama into a zombie at the risk of coming across as an Obama-hater and attracting the attention of the FBI. Also, zombies are teetering on the edge of being overexposed in pop-culture (if they haven't already tumbled mindlessly over the edge of that pop-culture precipice). The slogan was easy, cuz what other slogan would a zombie choose for his campaign? Also "BRAINS" does not in any way rhyme with "HOPE", yet it somehow totally does. Think about it...

I did a search before moving forward with this image to make sure no one had beat me to the punch. A fairly thorough web search turned up many crappy "zombie Obama" images, but no one seemed to have thought to combine the concept of a zombie Obama with the "hope" poster, and no one had so far thought to coin the name "Zombama". Victory is mine! Just a note that there was no filtering an photo manipulation involved in this image. A drawing was made from scratch based on the original design and the color areas mapped out carefully with pencil and paper, imported and completed in Illustrator.

I can hear the Secret Service knocking at my door, so I must sign off for now.

Mo' Betta Donkey Kong!

2008-12-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

Hey, here's some more DONKEY KONG drawings as I refine my images and slog towards the finish line. Freelance bidness is hampering my progress on this and I can only work on it during the dead of night after the day's work is done.
Still, progress is being made. I'm also working on some new button ideas in the meanwhile, but more on that later.

DONKEY KONG IS... STILL COMING!

2008-12-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

More DONKEY KONG sketches from the ol' sketchbook, as well as some other cool samplings of DK fan-art.

Thorsten Hasenkam produced this first piece of fan art. Nicely produced piece with a seemingly oblivious Donkey Kong. Bonus points for being hand-painted, but I'd like to have seen a bit more relation between the characters of the piece. Seems like two separate images tossed together in the same frame. The pixellated blocks save it by tying the whole thing together from a design standpoint, if not thematically. I like his other work, too. His paintings feel like a fun mash-up of Glenn Barr and Shag.

Next up is a charming and adorable little hand-made Donkey Kong by Anna Chambers. All I gots to say about this one is "I want one!" Anna, let's trade!

Here's a fantastic feat of paper-engineering spearheaded by Ian Rickard. Some folks at the Jack Baskin school of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz built a huge-scale replica of the DK game board with about 14,000 post-it notes in 4 stories worth of windows in their Engineering building.
There's also a time-lapse video of them setting it up.

To round things out, I'm gonna close this chapter with one of the most bizarre reimaginings of Mario and his simian nemesis that I've come across. What's even more bizarre is that it is an officially licensed piece that was acually used as packaging art for an Intellivision game cartridge port. It's like they very loosely described the concept of the game to some freelance artist who'd never heard of such a thing as a "Donkey Kong" before. Mario seems to have ditched his job as a carpenter to become some sort of Mexican 90's superhero version of the god of thunder, complete with golden hammer, while the decidedly un-gorilla-like Donkey Kong holds the homely Pauline captive in some sort of boundless Tron-type laser-scape and hurls shiny untapped kegs of beer at our mullet-sporting hero! It's so bad, I want a poster of it! I should research this a bit and find out if there's an amusing story behind this piece of art.

More tomorrow!

DONKEY KONG is coming!!

2008-12-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

I'm in the midst of working on preliminary sketches, character designs and layouts for my upcoming DONKEY KONG piece, based on another old arcade favorite of mine. I'm having a great time puzzling through interesting layouts and poses (there's so much more you can do with giant gorillas and valiant carpenters), and I have enough ideas to perhaps do 3 or 4 pieces, so we'll see how that goes.

I thought I'd share some of my sketchbook work. I don't usually share sketchbook scans and I don't really keep a traditional sketchbook, mainly cause I don't think my sketchbook stuff is any good. It takes some noodling on an idea before I get it the way I want it usually, and I'm trying to be a bit more loose and uninhibited with my sketching. More scans soon.

Accompanying my sketches are some DK tribute pieces I like by other artists that I came across whilst doing the ol' Google reference search (I also use something called "books"). I wanted to see what other artists had done with the Kong, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't treading on someone's toes by doing something too similar to another piece.

The first piece is a bit of fan-art by someone who goes by the name Question Josh. Simple, but a decidedly different and original interpretation. DK sort of reminds me of Homer Simpson in this one. Original image can be found here

The next piece is a twisted bit of eye-popping fun by Jorge R. Gutierrez. It's got a great style and an almost creepy metaphysical slant.

The new Donkey Kong Jenga game. I don't know how this works, but I want it!

More sketches tomorrow!

Q*BERT FINAL COLORS

2008-11-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Ah, the arcade classic Q*Bert. One of those fixtures of childhood whose memory is tinged with equal parts joy and frustration. I recall fondly the infrequent trips to the local mall, which meant at least three things: browsing at the toy store, having a rainbow sherbet cone melt all over my hand while I furiously licked away at it, and getting to take another crack or two at Q*bert at the arcade. I was never any good at Q*bert. I never had enough quarters at a time to gain any sort of mastery over it, and my height combined with the awkward diagonal joystick control (which completely clashed with my strict horizontal and vertical instinctive movements cemented by Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Frogger) left me helpless and frustrated in the shadow of Q*Bert's towering yellow arcade cabinet and alien foul language.

I've had a few occasions over the years to take additional cracks at the game, hoping that coming at it from a more seasoned gamer's level of experience would aid in my quest to help the poor orange fellow finally change the colors on all those doggone pyramids! Well, I certainly am not as bad at it as I used to be, but I'm still no expert. My love for the game and its mix of a simple goal, challenging tactics and bizarre creatures persists, however. I hope to one day own the arcade cabinet so I can perfect my game. I know there have been several console ports and flash adaptations of the game, but I don't recall any of them being exact reproductions of the arcade, and that's what I truly want.

Anyway, here's the final colored version of my Q*BERT piece. As I stated in the previous post, I've retooled Q*Bert, Coily, Sam, Slick, Ugg and Wrong-Way to bring them out of the 80's and more into the Pop-Monkey camp. And, yes, I turned Slick and Sam into pineapples with hands-for-feet. It just made sense to me.

Special thanks to Warren Davis, Jeff Lee and David Thiel, the co-creators of Q*BERT!
Check this site for a nice article on the history of Q*Bert: http://coinop.org/features/qbstory.aspx

PRINTS OF THIS PIECE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER! Just drop me a line for more info.

Q*Bert is copyright Sony Pictures

I'm Back In the Saddle Again! (And by "saddle", I mean "chair", though that's not nearly as exciting-sounding)

2008-11-21T06:03:00.000-08:00

Holy jeez! I know, I know -- "Jared, we thought you died! What the heck happened to you?" Well, I clearly did not die, but that's not to say I didn't feel a bit dead for a while there. I was captured by a bounty hunter and delivered to Darth Vader, where I was frozen in carbonite for a spell. Luckily, Princess Leia came to rescue me from Jabba's palace before I was -- no, no, that's clearly a lie!
I'm not going to go into detail about my hibernation period, but I was occupied by my day job doing concept art for Automatic Pictures as well as trying to slog through an incredibly difficult and taxing period of my personal life. Things got very bad and very upsetting for a while, and my life has been turned nearly upside down as a result. I've come through it a better person with some rearranged priorities and outlooks, but things aren't necessarily all birds 'n' flowers now, either.

Regardless, I'm trying to get back on the wagon here, and I'm going to finish and freshen up all the projects I've let stagnate, as well as work on some new stuff I've had simmering in my cranial crock-pot for a while.

First up: a new video game-based piece involving a Pop-Monkey reimagining of another childhood arcade favorite of mine, Q-BERT! My Pac-Samurai print was a great success and attracted quite a bit of unexpected attention (and money), so I'm hoping the response to this will be just as good (preferably better). I'm busy working on the colors right now, but I thought I'd go ahead and post the preliminary pencils and stuff in the meanwhile.

Colors coming very soon!

"See ya' next year, Heroes Con!"

2008-06-24T17:34:00.001-07:00

Well, Heroes Con was great, as usual. This year saw an even more impressive array of artists and creators -- I spent too much time walking around and browsing (sometimes buying), and not quite enough time at the booth, but it was great to meet everybody.
Special mention to (in no particular order): Joe Quinones, Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi, Team Eight, Dan & Dawna Davis (of Steam Crow), Renae De Liz, Ray Dillon, Chris Grine, Dennis Hopeless, Kevin Mellon, Jim Mahfood, Dave Crosland, Alberto Ruiz, Derek Ballard, Mark Brooks, Erik Jones and the others I might have forgotten.

Special thanks to Kyle Cross and Nick Black of GORILLA RIOT for having me aboard this weekend. It was a blast (though tiring). Also to Shelton Drum and all who helped him put on the convention -- super job, as always!

For now, I've got a lot of (paying) work to catch up on and a lot of prints to mail out. Thanks to everyone who dropped by and said hi, even if you didn't buy a print. See you soon!

HEROES CON IS NEAR!!

2008-06-17T22:37:00.001-07:00

Hey, one of the best comic conventions in the US is happening this weekend, June 20-22 in Charlotte NC! The little show that grew into a favorite stop for industry professionals and industry hopefuls gets better every year, and I'm always excited when this time of year rolls around.

I'll be part of the GORILLA RIOT booth 420 (next to the amazing Indie Island), so stop by, introduce yourself and buy some stuff. GORILLA RIOT sells awesome t-shirts and stuff, and I'll be selling prints of 3 of my pieces at the booth. I had my "GORILLA VS. SQUID", "PAKKU-MAN" and "PAC-SAMURAI" pieces professionally printed on 100# cover stock, and they look fantastic! They will be $20 each, or get all three for $50!!

Be sure to stop and buy a print before browsing around too much, before you run out of money! Hope to see you at the show!

"GORILLA VS. SQUID: FINAL ROUND!" -- prints available!

2008-06-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's finally finished! Been fiddling with this piece for a while, but I finally got it colored well enough to satisfy me for now. I wanted to do this in a limited and flat enough palette so it could be easily screen printed on shirts, but I think it's a powerful enough design to stand on it's own. Thus, I'm also selling prints of this piece! I'm having these professionally printed, as I did the last two pieces, and they'll be available from me via mail, or in person at the GORILLA RIOT booth at HEROES CON in Charlotte, June 20-22!
Pen & Ink with Photoshop. Coming soon as a t-shirt!

PRINTS OF THIS PIECE ARE AVAILABLE FROM ME! 11"X17" ON 100# COVER STOCK PAPER, PROFESSIONALLY PRINTED BY INDIGO INK! $10 + $5 SHIPPING! CONTACT ME VIA EMAIL FOR MORE INFO!

"Thanks, Boing-Boing!"

2008-06-15T20:33:00.001-07:00

A favorite blog of mine, Boing-Boing Gadgets, has featured my recent hit "Pac-Samurai" piece on their site! I'm honored, flattered, and swamped with requests for prints. Thanks again to everyone who has passed along civil comments, linked to my blog, and/or purchased a print! I've had to go and have professional prints done to try and keep up with the orders!
Here's the link to the feature!

"Thanks, Kotaku!"

2008-06-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Kotaku.com has just posted a blog entry spotlighting my "Pac-Samurai" piece! Might this lead to me landing a job blasphemously giving Pac-Man a facelift for a new generation of gamers?!? I say "yes"! Fate, what do you say?...
...
Hmmm.

"Pac-Samurai"

2008-06-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

I loved the "ancient Pac-Man" concept so much, I was inspired to do another piece. This one is an attempt to merge my style with an old Japanese print style complete with faux-antique paper. Took me a bit longer to finish than I thought it would. Even though the color scheme is very flat, achieving that authentic old and worn look to it was a real bear. It's not a technique I'm used to utilizing in my work, and it's much more complicated than scanning in an old beat-up piece of paper and converting the artwork to "multiply" on top of it.

Er... what I meant to say is -- here's a recently discovered rare Japanese print which is rumored to have contributed to Toru Iwatani's inspiration for the genesis of Pac-Man. It was a print that had been in his family for generations, but had been lost in a warehouse shortly after his tragic suicide.

This piece, too, will be featured in the upcoming "Big Trouble in Little Gainesville" show at GORILLA RIOT'S STORE 101 this Friday (6/06/08). If you're in the area, come on by and tell me how full of it I am, and marvel in amazement as genuine concern nearly creeps in at the corners of my eyes.

PRINTS OF THIS PIECE ARE AVAILABLE!! $10 (plus $5 for US shipping), 11"X 17" 100# cover stock paper. EMAIL ME FOR MORE INFO!!

"Pakku-Man: What Could Have Been..."

2008-05-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

In 1979, Japanese citizen/artist Toru Iwatani, wanted to make amends to the United States on behalf of Japan for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. His initial thought was to create another statue-like monument in the tradition of the Statue of Liberty. After several months of futile efforts hacking and carving away at a great slab of rare yellow marble, Toru came to the cold realization that he was not, in fact, a sculptor by any stretch of the imagination. In a fit of rage and frustration before he sulked off to commit seppuku, he knocked the head off his prototype "monument", sending it crashing to the ground, where it broke into pieces upon impact. Searching for an implement sharp enough to carve his own guts out into a steaming heap on the floor, Toru noticed that the once rounded head-shape now seemed to be gaping at him with an open, hungry mouth, due to the wedge that had been chipped free during his fit. Suddenly, inspiration struck, sending Toru scrabbling for his drawing pad. There, Toru sketched out the basic outline for what would become the greatest video game in human history (suck it, Grand Theft Auto!), which made much more sense than the whole statue thing, since he happened to work for the electronics company Namco.

The technology of the times, however, proved to be extremely limiting for poor Toru. As a result, the finished product was a far cry from the expansive and imaginative fantasy epic Toru called "Paku-Paku Taberu". All he could manage with the creative electronic tools at his disposal was a shamefully simplified, flat chase game with simple colors, sounds, and objectives. The noble yellow hero he spent days sketching was reduced to a flat gobbling pie. His ever-pursuing enemies, the dreaded Oni of Japanese mythology, became simple cookie-cutter, dead-eyed "ghost monsters". The game's title was changed to Pakku-Man, which became "Pac-Man" in the United States, and quickly ascended to it's rightful position as the greatest and most popular video game phenomenon in history. Tragically, Toru would never live to see the success of his creation, as he buckled under the shame and dishonor from what he perceived as a "pathetic failure destined to bring misfortune upon Japan". Toru took his own life even as the first Pac-Man game cabinets made their way to US shores.

This is my version of the original concept for Pakku-Man, based on Toru's original sketches. Pakku-Man is chased across the Japanese landscape by the evil oni Oikake, Machibuse, Kimagure, and Otoboki. It will be part of the upcoming gallery show entitled "Big Trouble in Little Gainesville" at GORILLA RIOT'S STORE 101 in Gainesville, Florida on June 6th. If you're in the area, come by and soak in the heady aroma of jacked-up art-funk!

The final colored version is followed by the black & white inked version and the rough pencils. Pen & Ink, colored in Photoshop.

PRINTS OF THIS PIECE ARE AVAILABLE!! $10 (plus $5 for US shipping), 11"X 17" 100# cover stock paper. EMAIL ME FOR MORE INFO!!

"Rest in Peace, Piston Vinegar..."

2008-05-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

Finished inks for the t-shirt design for PISTON VINEGAR, the greatest band you've never heard of! Why have you never heard of them? Because they don't exist! Piston Vinegar was the name of the "garage band" I was in for a bit, years ago. In an alternate dimension, however, we never broke up, and went on to grow in stature and talent to become quite the formidable band in the metal/hard rock scene. This design is from their upcoming new release entitled "R.I.P. Piston Vinegar". I believe zombies and gravestones are entirely appropriate for the occasion, but I tend to believe that for most any occasion!

Colored version coming post-haste!

GORILLAS HATE OCTOPI!!

2008-05-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a while since my last post. Been super-busy with my top-secret concept art project. Can't share any of that work with anybody until the project is complete, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Got a chance to catch up on some "me" work this week and finished inking some of the t-shirt designs I'd started working on months ago.
First up: another variation on the Gorilla vs Cephalopod theme. This one might end up with GORILLA RIOT APPAREL, as well, if all goes well. In the meanwhile, thought I'd share this look at the final inks.

In the original thumbnail for this design (which I think I posted here earlier), I had a squid instead of the octopus. I got some calls from the Anti Squid Defamation League, however, claiming I was singling squids out as evil and malicious. I tried to explain to them that these are just two natural enemies goin' at it -- there's no good guys or bad guys in this fight. But, you can't argue with folks who are fixated on the victim mentality -- they're bound to see speciesism everywhere they look. Might as well represent some other cephalopods before I start getting more angry phone calls. I think it makes for a better design, anyway, so suck it ASDL!!

Colored version coming soon!

"DR. DOORNAIL"

2008-03-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

Pencil drawing -- t-shirt design for a proposed series of shirts featuring fake hot sauce label style designs. Reminds me of some 80's metal album cover -- maybe that'd be a good direction to take this with the finishes. More to come...

GORILLA VS. GIANT SQUID: ROUND 1!

2008-03-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Been a while since my last post. Been super-busy working on my top-secret project which I am forbidden from posting any images from until the project is complete, which won't be until the end of the year. I can tell you it's an online multiplayer game, but I can't say any more than that. I've produced a LOT of work thus far for it, and there's a lot left to go, but I cannot share it!

In the meanwhile, I've been working on a few side projects, which I CAN share. These images are some small sketches I've done for a t-shirt design for GORILLA RIOT APPAREL. Gorilla Vs. Giant Squid -- right up my alley! More to come.

VOTE FOR "PHANTASMA EX MACHINA"!

2008-02-29T19:30:00.000-08:00

My PHANTASMA EX MACHINA t-shirt design (formerly known as GHOST OF THE MACHINE) has been accepted and is up for vote on threadless.com! My last entry, the DIRTY RAT design, did not get enough votes to be printed, so we have all been robbed of the privilege of wearing a smoking rodent on our torsos. Don't let the same thing happen again! Those of you who've been bellyaching about being able to buy t-shirts featuring the designs I churn out almost weekly better go and vote! Don't forget, you've got to create an account at threadless, or you'll be treated like a black Floridian democrat (your vote won't count)! Be sure to check the box that says "I'll buy it" when you vote, and leave a ridiculously glowing comment, if you please. I will forever be in your debt!

P.S. Click on the above pic for a gif showing the design in 3 different color schemes with shirt placement. Click on the below pic to go vote!

"Anush was a Belly Dancer..."

2008-02-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

Just finished a job for a fellow whose wife teaches belly-dancing classes here in town. It's a t-shirt design that (I believe) is going to be given to those who take her class. Possibly used in other formats, as well. Anyway, it took longer than I thought to get it they way they wanted it, and there were artistic decisions made that I wouldn't necessarily have chosen to do if it were completely up to me, but (as is the case with freelance work) it ain't up to me. I think it still turned out quite nice. Hopefully, they'll send me one when they're printed.

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR A TRUE "DIRTY RAT"!!

2008-01-22T10:30:00.000-08:00

YAY! "DIRTY RAT" has been approved for voting over at Threadless.com! I would sincerely appreciate if you'd hop on over and vote for "Dirty Rat" -- maybe even leave a comment. Be sure to check the box that says "I'd buy it!" as you are giving it a score of 5. Follow the link below, register on the site, and commence voting!

"REAPER VS. TEDDY" t-shirt design inks!

2008-01-19T18:42:00.000-08:00

Inked version of my "REAPER VS. TEDDY" t-shirt design. Colors to come soon.

"KEEP ON WANGLIN'" inked version

2008-01-18T21:02:00.000-08:00

Finished inking my "Keep On Wanglin'" t-shirt design. Based (of course) on the R. Crumb "Keep on Truckin'" comic. Colors to come.

"GHOST OF THE MACHINE!!" -- Inked version

2008-01-17T22:42:00.000-08:00

Completed inks of my upcoming t-shirt design. This is a reworking of a previous design that I just wasn't happy with. Plus I had an expensively bad experience with a screenprinter involving the previous design, so I wanted to amp it up a bit to lessen the stigma associated with it in my mind. Thus, the new improved "Ghost in the Machine" t-shirt design! Colored version to come!

"Dirty Rat" T-shirt Submitted to Threadless.com

2008-01-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

Hi, gang! Check out my new t-shirt submission for Threadless.com! Click on the image for an "animated" gif showing what the image will look like on a shirt. If it gets enough votes, I can be a millionaire! Sort of. Okay, not really -- but I do get some nice prize money and my shirt will be produced by one of the finest shirt screenprinters on the net! Celebrities eat these things up!
Here's the LINK!

"HELL BELOW ME, STARS ABOVE" -- Take two!

2007-12-14T22:01:00.000-08:00

I guess you could call this a reworking of my original "Hell Below Me, Stars Above" piece. It's the same basic theme and layout(astronaut on rocky peak besieged by tentacles and claws, blasting away at the advancing hordes), just a bit modified. I have a bad habit of wanting to continually go back and tinker with old pieces I'm no longer happy with. I hope I don't spend the rest of my life going back and revisiting the same bunch of illustrations.

This is just the pencil stage, of course. I flipped the original and kind of like how it looks in reverse, reading more from left to right. Haven't yet decided which version I like. Inks and colors to come.

"The GREEP is coming to chew on you!"

2007-12-04T15:33:00.001-08:00

My little girl, Parker, is 6 years old, and she loves to tickle and play with her daddy. One of her favorite games involves turning off all the lights in the bedroom (when it's dark outside), shutting the door so no light comes in, and trying to avoid me as I pretend to be a monster/dinosaur/fiend who's trying to eat her. I gave my monster an off-the-cuff name the other night: the Greep. It's also the sound the Greep makes as it stalks it's prey: "Greep, greep!"

She wanted to sit down with me and draw what the Greep looks like, so we each sketched out what we were seeing in our heads as we played. So, these are our versions of the Greep. Guess which belongs to whom...

"What the @#$%&* is Wanglin'"

2007-11-28T08:22:00.001-08:00

Every once in a while, it's fun to dig up an old phrase or colloquialism and toss it back out into the public arena to see how it plays. "Keep on truckin'" (popularized in Robert Crumb's comic strip) was one that I thought was due for another ride around the neighborhood, so I started tossing it out there in casual conversation and using it to sign off the occasional correspondence. I don't know why (perhaps it came to me in a dream), but one day the phrase "Keep on Wanglin'" popped into my head (perhaps I was just bored with "truckin"). I liked the sound of it, and jotted it down in my omnipresent notebook for future rumination.

Most of my illustrations and designs are born from odd words or phrases that happen to jump to mind and are immediately captured in my notebook, and this is a perfect example -- I just had to figure out what "wangling" is! It came to me just the other day, and it seems so obvious in retrospect: "wangling" is "the action of a squid, octopus, or other tentacled creature walking across a solid surface using a majority of its appendages for locomotion". See? It's so obvious. And so, another future t-shirt design is born (with apologies to Mr. Crumb)!

"Don't Fear the Reaper"

2007-11-20T20:56:00.000-08:00

This is the rare illustration that went from rough doodle to finished pencils in one sitting (while rotting my brain in front of the tee-vee, no less). Unless I'm watching the rare TV show that really engages my mind, I persistently doodle/pencil while watching TV with the wife before she retires for the night. I usually sit on the couch with my lightbox on my lap refining pencils or noodling out a work-in-progress sketch whilst "watching" TV, and this design went from concept to finished pencils in one day, which is rare for me, as I usually work on things in slow stages, allowing for a bit of time to let something sit before I come back to it to see if it needs some rethinking/retooling. This was a simple enough design, inspired by nothing in particular (just a sort of stream of consiousness sketch) save for a need to work on something while watching HEROES.

PISTON VINEGAR was the name of the crappy garage band that my brother and I were in before I moved off to Florida to attend art school. I haven't really played guitar since, due to living in apartments where the neighbors would certainly be irritated, and the plain lack of time to mess around with practicing. I still do the occasional t-shirt/poster design for a band that no longer exists, however, so whenever I come up with a random sketch that seems to fit nowhere else, it ends up as a PISTON VINEGAR design. The name PISTON VINEGAR, is of course a wordplay on the amusing phrase "full of piss and vinegar". I came up with that myself. Aren't I a clever boy?

"GEEKROCKET" t-shirt design pencils

2007-11-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

Finished pencils for another t-shirt design I'm working on (for myself). This design was born from a simple coincidental "accident". I had arrived home from my latest trip to BOOKS-A-MILLION several months ago with two magazines I had purchased to try out. The magazines were fairly new launches: GEEK and ROCKET magazines, both of which dealt with similar pop-culture themes and interests. Seeing them lying next to each other on my coffee table, I smooshed them together and this image popped into my head. I did a quick sketch and it's been waiting patiently in my sketchbook to be fleshed out until now. The original sketch did not feature the coin-operated kiddie-ride angle, rather it featured the two "geeks" in a simple cartoon rocket. I thought the geek angle could be accentuated by having the two riding in one of those coin-operated "rides" you see outside of Wal-Marts and K-Marts, and a t-shirt design was born!

In doing a bit of web research on coin-operated kiddie rides, I thought I'd like to continue this theme in a few other designs. I've started several other sketches featuring various odd folks/creatures enjoying assorted coin-operated kiddie rides, and I think it'd make a nice sub-category of designs. I'd have to come up with something other than "GEEKROCKET" though, because they obviously won't all be riding in rockets. I (briefly) considered branding the series "KIDDIE-RIDE", but quickly discarded this as no respectable citizen wants to be seen wandering about in public with a shirt that potentially labels them some as sort of pedophile (though I could market them to the NAMBLA crowd). More thought is needed -- details to come.

"LUCHADOLOROSO VS. DEMONIOPULPO" ROUND 1: pencils!

2007-11-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

And here's the brave Luchador with the "wee flopsy legs" confronting his archenemy. "LuchaDoloroso" roughly translates to "painful wrestler" while "DemonioPulpo" is, of course "Demon-Octopus"! I'm trying to decide whether to give them a setting at all, or to just use some sort of graphic element as a background (stylized speedlines or radial explosion, etc). I'm thinking the luchador could use a battle scar or two, as well. Still hammering out the details.

LUCHADOR!!

2007-11-15T06:40:00.000-08:00

Top half of an work-in-progress featuring this big boy leaping upon his natural enemy! Finished piece coming soon!

PULP-SQUID, the ARTCHITEUTHIS!!

2007-11-09T07:26:00.000-08:00

Finished colored inks for my new mascot that will go on the reverse side of my new business cards (with the other mascot, the Pop-Monkey, on the front). Pulp-Squid here represents the pulpier, grittier side of my artistic romps, while the Pop-Monkey covers the whimsical, cartoony stuff!
Squids 'n' Monkeys...natural enemies in the wild, but a common love for art has brought them together as friends -- nay, as allies! That's a tag-team duo you do not want to have staring you down!

"Hey, PLODD, let's put on a FASHION SHOW!"

2007-11-08T22:53:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've revealed PLODD's backstory yet, so here's the brief: PLODD is an ex-superhero from a parallel dimension. He doesn't know how he got here, and he doesn't remember much about his past or his origin. He has a gas-powered sledgehammer, big feet and some sort of odd hermetically-sealed costume or second-skin that won't come off, so he's got no idea what's underneath! He's abnormally strong and can sustain pretty serious damage without permanent effect (his costume remains completely indestructible), and any other powers he had seem to have gone dormant when he crossed to this dimension. He lives in a trailer by himself and works odd jobs and as the trailer-park handyman to earn a living, trying to avoid the attention of the world at large (as he'd certainly be a scientific curiosity). That may sound a bit boring, but greater things are in store for PLODD, especially when a few folks from his home dimension come looking for him!

My original designs for PLODD were much more outrageous and included a gas-mask with breathing tubes, and other assorted doodads. I like this streamlined version much better.

FEAR AGENT pin up pencils -- now with 50% more detail!

2007-11-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

I usually do a lot of the detail work while coloring a piece in photoshop, but I wanted to rework this piece and give it a more old-school black and white pulp illustration feel. All the detail and lighting information is here in the drawn piece, so I think I'll do an inked version to be colored in photoshop as well as try to do a digital painting on top of the pencils. We'll see what happens.

"WhiskeyChimp" : It's not a disease, it's entertainment!

2007-11-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

Awww... aren't alcoholic monkeys just the cutest! Now, you too can expose your inner inebriated simian by proudly wearing a snappy Pop-Monkey brand WHISKEYCHIMP t-shirt. Coming soon to my t-shirt website.

Before the first weisenheimer pipes in with "but chimps don't have tails", I know that -- it just works better this way... trust me.

YOU DARE NOT EAT THE "HELLBISCUIT"!

2007-10-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

Final color design for my HELLBISCUIT t-shirt.
Baked in the ovens of hell and buttered with pure evil! Eating this biscuit will probably condemn your soul to eternal damnation. On the other hand... it IS delicious...
Available for purchase soon!

"HELLBISCUIT: BAKED IN THE OVENS OF HELL!!"

2007-10-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

Evil biscuits are not to be eaten! Always check for horns and tail before eating! If Satan had a favorite biscuit, it would be... the Hellbiscuit! But Satan doesn't even like biscuits, which makes Hellbiscuit even more bitter and ornery! Butter at your own peril!

Pencils for upcoming t-shirt design. The Hellbiscuit cometh! Final colored version coming soon!

Hide the booze, it's..."WHISKEY-CHIMP"!!

2007-10-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

This li'l fella is going to be a t-shirt design when he grows up. Don't worry, he's not an alcoholic -- he can stop drinking whenever he wants. He just doesn't want to.
Final colored version with official "Whiskey-Chimp" logo coming soon!

"THIRTEEN STEPS" PINUP

2007-10-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

Finished coloring a pinup for my friend Kevin's comic THIRTEEN STEPS. It's a werewolf comic with some nice twists to it regarding a sort of Alcoholics Anonymous for monsters. Kevin Mellon handles the art like the champ he is, and the writing chores are tag-teamed by Phil Hester and Chuck Satterlee. I've met Chuck at a comic convention, and he's a tremendously friendly guy, but I've yet to meet Phil, though he's been one of my favorite comic artists since he was toiling away at books like THE WRETCH.

Anyway, check out the book, if you can -- it's published by DESPERADO PUBLISHING. The piece follows my standard modus operandi: pen & ink colored in photoshop. The book is printed in black and white with grayscale shading, so I did a grayscale version, though I wanted a full-color piece just for fun!

"Behold... PLODD!"

2007-09-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

In high school, I created a character called PLODD who was born of boredom and a hankering to simply draw a really bizarre character who didn't fit into the mold of a typical superhero. Basically, he was an amalgamation of a bunch of doodles -- taking the most bizarre elements and mashing them together. He originally ended up having a full bodysuit, scuba mask with oxygen tanks and breathing tubes, goggles, plastic head "feathers", a kilt, big-ass boots and a giant hammer. I cooked up a whole backstory and some plot outlines and begin drawing a comic with the help of one of my friends, but it was abandoned due to my realizing I really didn't know what I was doing. Plodd's been simmering in the back of my mind ever since, and I've always wanted to revisit him, so why wait any longer?

I did this sketch while basking in the warmth of the new fall TV season. I kept most of the elements of the old Plodd, though I've simplified and streamlined him (losing the scuba mask and hoses). His hammer is now gas-powered (linked to the tank on his back), and his boots aren't quite so big and bulky. I'm going to try and dig out all the plot outlines and scripts I wrote and see what I can make of them. More Plodd to come, hopefully.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD!"

2007-09-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here's the Birthday card image I did for my Dad's birthday last weekend. I've been an artist for a long time, and I don't think I've ever actually MADE a card for anybody before! Does that seem lazy and thoughtless? It sort of does, and I've wanted to do it in the past, but schoolwork and the job always seemed to get in the way. Hopefully family members and loved ones can look forward to my "homemade" cards from now on (of course, now they'll expect it).

It seemed like such an easy task -- one that would allow me to skirt my usual frutrating perfectionist hang-ups which cause me to redo a piece several times before I'm satisfied -- but, alas, it was not meant to be. After sketching, penciling, inking and scanning in my first attempt, I convinced myself I needed to start over from scratch. The idea was kept, but I decided I needed to take it further along Exaggeration Avenue, and I'm glad I did. You want to go a little further with a goofy concept like this, and the first attempt was a bit too tame and stiff. I'm not going to reproduce the interior text here, but the gag has to do with a "birthday suit" (get it?). Har-dee-har!

Happy birthday to my dad! He turned 60 this year, but I wouldn't guess it from looking at him. We had a great time visiting, especially now that we're closer (a 2 1/2 hour drive instead of 12), and I wish him the best.

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN: "Gearhead" Pinups!

2007-08-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the swing of things (sort of), so here's my first offering in my new home... final colored versions of the two pinups I did for Kevin Mellon and Dennis Hopeless' GEARHEAD comic. Hopefully these will make it into the collected edition. Gotta go sleepy-sleep for now... I'm sick, and I've been up late trying to get these finished. More later.

MOVIN' ON UP!!

2007-08-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

I've been back from my spectacular and mind-blowing adventure to the San Diego Comic Con for a week or so now, but I haven't had time to catch my breath or post my thoughts here because I'm getting ready to move back to North Carolina in 2 days!! It was a rather sudden thing that was thrust upon us and the reasoning revolves around my wifes job, but we REALLY needed to get out of this tiny duplex and spread out a bit. As an artist, art enthusiast, toy collector and all-around pop-culture junkie, I've accumulated a lot of stuff over the years and it all becomes a real bitch to store and/or display. I would have gotten rid of a bunch of it, but there simply wasn't time for the usual yard sale/ ebay bonanza. I'll end up selling some stuff once we get settled in and unpacked, and I threw a lot of junk out (the garbage collectors are going to hate me in the morning), but the rest has been packed up in boxes and will be hoofed up to Raleigh, NC early Friday morn. The biggest hassle has been my massive comics/ graphic novel collection and the library of reference and art books I've accumulated. Toys aren't that heavy to move, but boxes and boxes of books can be a real back-breaker. I'll definitely be sore by Saturday, and I can already hear my lower back and knees beginning their protests,

Anyway, I'll be incommunicado for several days during the move and unpacking process if you're trying to contact me, and I should be back on the horse and ready to ride in about a week or so. Until then, it's movin' time!!

APE-CONTROLLER!

2007-07-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

It started as a simple, eureka-like, brainstorm: A robot controlling a gorilla controlling a bigger robot! It's monkeys AND robots combined, and we all know that's a cliched, yet reliable, formula for gold-plated success! I sketched it out, keeping the larger robot rather simple (I had just seen the TRANSFORMERS movie and, as good as it was, It put me in the mood for some ... less complicated robots), and the smaller one even more simple. The idea of a small robot manipulating a gorilla in order to manipulate an even larger robot just seems like a winner to me, and I've got some plans to extend this idea, which I can't go into yet. Anyway, for now, here's the pencils for the large robot and a blow-up of the gorilla controller (with minirobot in his head). Enjoy.

GEARHEAD PINUP #1 PENCILS

2007-07-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

I mentioned last post about meeting two cool guys at Heroes Con, Dennis Hopeless and Kevin Mellon. They write and pencil (respectively) a great comic called GEARHEAD from Arcana, and were impressed enough with my work to invite me to do a pinup to be featured in the upcoming trade paperback collection of GEARHEAD. I did two, so here's the pencils for the first one (second will follow soon). Inked and colored version to come soon. Check out the GEARHEAD comic, if you haven't already. Also, be on the lookout for another book penciled by Mellon (written by Chuck Satterlee and Phil Hester) called 13 STEPS from Desperado Publishing. Scheduled to release in August, and looks fantastic!

RETURN FROM ... HEROES CON '07!!

2007-06-27T19:18:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm finally back from my trip to NC. After HEROES CON, the wife and I took a tour around NC visiting family. The con was great, and was a wonderful experience for my first time on the other side of the table at a comic convention! It was very nice meeting folks who happened to stop by the booth to look at my stuff, and I thank everyone who I met, whether you bought a shirt, sticker, button or print, or just said hi! The best part of the con, however, was the social aspect -- hanging out after the show with fellow table-mates ERIC and SEAN, and new freinds and industry pros DENNIS HOPELESS and KEVIN MELLON was a blast, and it was great to meet (and in some cases impress) some super-talented and very kind and generous industry artists and writers.

It's hard to stay behind your table when there's so much cool stuff to go out and look at and so many cool people to meet! There are so many other talented folks who are fun to talk to and very approachable and interesting as long as you take the time to talk to them for a bit. I got several trade paperbacks and comics signed by some of my favorite creators, and I got to meet a few idols of mine (like ERIC POWELL) for the first time ever!

I'd like to thank the following pros and attendees for their kindness and generosity, and for just taking the time to talk for a bit: RICK REMENDER, TONY MOORE, MATT FRACTION, JOHN LUCAS, DANIELLE CORSETTO, LIZ GREENFIELD, J. CHRIS CAMPBELL, ED MCGUINNESS, ERIC POWELL, KERON GRANT, CHAD THOMAS, KEVIN MELLON, DENNIS HOPELESS, ROBIN FURTH, PETER DAVID, MISS DANIKA, and a few others who are escaping my memory's grasp right now. Special thanks to ALBERTO RUIZ for his continued support, encouragement, and generosity! He's always a joy to see and talk to at these cons, and he's got such a postive and enthusiastic attitude for what he does... plus he produces some high-quality books! Also, it was awesome meeting a few of the hosts of one of my favorite comics podcasts, COMIC GEEK SPEAK! I introduced myself to BRYAN DEEMER, PETER RIOS, and JAMIE D at one of the after-parties and talked with each of them for a bit -- great guys, and I wish I'd spent more time with them... maybe at the next con!

Anyway, back to the grind... time to get ready for the SAN DIEGO COMIC CON!! This will be my first time attending the show, and I want to beef up my portfolio to get some decent jobs! I've wanted to go to this con for a LONG time, and I can't wait!!

COME SEE ME AT HEROES CON THIS WEEKEND!!

2007-06-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

Finally got my table assignment for my appearance at the HEROES CONVENTION in Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend of June 15th-17th. POP-MONKEY ILLUSTRATION will be at tables A411 and A412, and I'll be hosting fellow artists and friends SEAN CHAPMAN and ERIC JONES!! Unfortunately, despite the listing on the HeroesCon website, EMILY GROSS will not be able to join us at our tables due to her landing a sweet job and having to move and settle in. Her presence will be missed, but I wish her the best of luck, and hopefully she'll be able to join us at the BALTIMORE COMIC CON in September!

Heroes Con is always a fantastic show -- not overblown and super-crowded like the huge "name brand" conventions, but still chock full of great guests, cool merchandise, and fun! I always discover at least two new "favorite artists" each time I go, and it's been a regular stop on my yearly convention circuit for most of the past 15 years (although this will be my first time on the other side of the table, so to speak)!

Anyway, drop in, if you can and visit, buy some shirts, stickers and buttons and say hi! I'll be doing quick cheap cartoon sketches too, for those interested in those sorts of things!