Monday, August 17, 2009

Project One: The Devil Doll

















































Awhile back I challenged Michael Jada with writing a story involving some troops in World War Two and something called The Devil Doll. It could be one page, it could be a hundred, just see where you can go with it. Well, Michael delivered and here I am making last minute corrections before part one has to get into my editor's hands. It's kind of like a giant Weird War story. The samples here are from parts two and three.

Project Two: Various Anthology Shorts For Mome









While I do like working on longer pieces, short one or two page stories are great ways to expel the ol' demons. Here's a sampling of panels from various stories that will rest in the Mome archives.




Project Three: Untitled Follow Up To Journey By Ferry



Three years in the making, this followup to the art and fiction collection Journey By ferry To Celibate City Or Thigh Town, will concentrate on art, sketches, and fiction done during the New York period of 2007-2010.


Project Four: The Lovely Sparrows Book One



This untitled project is a multi-media album/dvd/book for Austin, Texas band The Lovely Sparrows. Not too long ago I went to Texas to work on this project with Shawn Jones of the Sparrows. He hammered out a 100 page script for me that I'll be drawing and finishing in the not too distant future. The dvd will feature animation based on the artwork and will synch up to the album. The experience should be not unlike cooking a catfish in Shawn's backyard.


Project Five: Lovely Sparrows Book Two










This so far untitled project is a book and album project for Austin Texas band The Lovely Sparrows. This album will be a sort of primer/oddities/b-sides compilation. The book will have a loose linear arc around a bunch of tall tales I write and draw up involving the songs and any absurd historical tangents I may choose to add. I have alot of play with this one, should be fun.

Project Six: The House of No


Don't let anybody fool you. Gag cartoons are indeed a troublesome and tricky sport. Consider my first year of submitting cartoons every Tuesday to the New Yorker. Every Tuesday I'd tramp in to the Conde Nast building in Times Square, armed with another batch of promising sales. Bob Mankoff would look them over and sort the good ones from the dead weight and hand the initial rejects back and hold on to the others for two more rounds of consideration. A lunch at the Pergola would follow the presentation and I'd enjoy the company of artists I count myself lucky to rub elbows with. Funny, funny, lovable, brilliant people.




After an enjoyable afternoon I'd head home and wonder if I'd get that call on Friday. During the course of this procedure I noticed my art changing. Mankoff was nice enough not to tell me to take a hike and I was silently encouraged to experiment and find my niche. Anyhoo, I don't mean for this to sound like I've stopped doing it, I just do it less often, due to other whip cracking paying ventures. I miss my cronies and I eagerly await my return to lunch.



Lately I've begun compiling the cartoons lying around that have been through the system more than a few times. Rather than have them vanish in the nether regions of my studio, I'm putting together a collection of the best works to date.