New Images

A couple stills from the upcoming animated Witch Watch "Pink Salt" video. It's a unique project that bridges various visual elements from Eel Mansions, Enough Astronaut Blood To Last The Winter and some of my work from Mome.

Frank & Shelby Rough Scan

Eel Mansions No. 2 Page

So yeah, kinda under the creative, fun hammer these days with two bands and the second Eel Mansions book due. I'll be posting Eels pages more roften on the Eel Mansions blogspot and Tumblr, just thought I'd give you a taste here as well. Thankfully a steady diet of Wire, The Velvet Underground, and Eno records keep my mind occupied. Couple shouts to Lispector, Valet, and Oh-Ok for more music fun.

Eel Mansions/Doomin Mini

Just finished drawing this puppy...

Log Lady Transmissions

Here's a taste of the newest in Eel Mansion reviews from the land of the worldly web-

"Eel Mansions also works in another framework and that’s the melodramatic soap opera world that’s heavily reminiscent of Mark Frost and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. It actually has the confidence that’s seen in the pilot of Twin Peaks. What I mean by that is, when you first see Twin Peaks, it’s characters and the world feels lived in and we, the viewer, got dropped in one day and it’s up to us to navigate and understand this lived in world and it’s history: Eel Mansions pulls aspect of Twin Peaks perfectly….”

Read more of Larry Vossler’s review over at the 9th Blog .

"Probably the most Lynchian (as in filmmaker David Lynch) comic to be made since Dan Clowes’ 1993 graphic novel Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Derek Van Gieson’s Eel Mansions has plenty of Eraserhead’s confusing imagery but with Twin Peaks’ wry sense of humor as well….”

Rich Barrett discusses more Eels/Lynch vibes over at Mental Floss.

Copies are available at most bookstores or directly from the massive, sprawling Uncivilized Books compound.

Eel Mansions Tasting Notes: Volume One

ON PAIRING, VOLUME ONE

There’s plenty of discussion these days about what 20 year old port wine best accompanies chicken fried steak, but when it comes to books, there’s little to no dialogue on the matter. With that problem in mind, I bring a few tasting notes in regards to my damn damn damn new graphic novel, Eel Mansions. The moods and scenes shift rapidly in Eels, which calls for some sonic diversity.

1. Jerry J. Nixon- Gentleman of Rock n’ Roll : All of Englishman Nixon’s New Mexican recorded rockabilly sides are offered here on one collection. Fiesty, dusty, occasionally off key in a charming way, and engagingly flavorful. Perfect for bumpy reading. Check out the song “Moonlight”.

THE DELMONAS 5 : Before Billy Childish put together the Headcoatees, there were the Delmonas, another of his garage rock girl groups. Plenty of groups aim for stark naked honesty but seldom do they deliver the danger and joyful spark captured here. Check out “Keep Your Big Mouth Shut”.

The Motels "Suddenly Last Summer" : Absurd? Never. Kinda. A great moody pop song that suits the heavy inky Eels vibe like a warm black sock.

UNWOUND- "Totality": This is for when the sanity is nowhere to be found and there’s no telling the bleeding seas from the crispy flesh of the Earth. Harsh chaos made by artists.

JOHNNY CASH & The TENNESSEE TWO- There are five million directions you can take with this stark country crooner, but I’d direct you to the old Sun Records stuff. “Train of Love”, “Next In Line”, and “Guess Things Happen That Way”- The pluck and cluck of the chicken train powers this lean and mean ride.

PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED- “Death Disco" : A high watermark from 1979, this richly constructed cyclone of punk rasta dancefloor engineering tears through the crowd leaving a gasping, deconstructed maw of gene spliced gasps. Another agent and siren song for the more abstract moments.

HANK WILLIAMS-“BLUE LOVE" After the carnage comes the calm, and Hank delivers one of his more obscure cuts "Blue Love" for a big ass bear hug that let’s you cry it all out. It’s gonna be ok. You’ve got Hank now. Wonderous Hanky.

Eel Mansions, Fresh From Canada!

Tom K, publisher of Uncivilized Books must have caught wind of my French Canadian/Dutch/Hillbilly German/Mexican roots and paid me partial tribute by having my book printed up north. Anyhows, advance copies of the collected Eel Mansions have arrived. Pre-order copies and review copies are shipping from Uncivilized Books now, the store copies will follow shortly.

The fine folks at Uncivilized are still selling copies of Eels at the discounted pre-order price until the end of the month as part of their French Canadian/Dutch/Hillbilly German/Mexican tribute sale. If you're of age, grab some whiskey and get ready to curl up with the book that's gonna treat you right in 2015. Well, there might be another book that's gonna treat you right. We'll have to wait and see. Meow.

Milk City

New page from a story inside a story inside a story. Yes, more meta absurdist behavior.

Official Eel Mansions No.2 Pre-Order Info From Uncivilized Books

Eel Mansions No.2 By Derek Van Gieson is coming!

Issue number two features the further noir happenings of semi-retired demonic cultist Armistead Fowler, Tales of Abstraction House, The Negative Orphans, Janet and Frank, Doomin’, Record Store Guys, Secret Agent Types, and the Lizard Lords.

PLUS we take things into 2nd gear with Buffalo Ruffs, The Death of Jazz, Anthony Hopkins vs. Dennis Hopper, Post Punk, Nub Nub’s Bar and Grill, along with a few random head scratchers.

The 2nd issue is even thicker than the first! If you have the first issue already (and if you don’t there’s a nice deal on the site if you would like to order both) you know how chock full of stuff it was (and if you don’t believe us, check out this intense roundtable sparked by the first issue!). We will be debuting at the Autoptic Festival in August. In the meantime, you can pre-order the book from us here.

Eel Mansions No. 2 (Available In August) Triple Preview

Last night I finished drawing the last page to another 38 page issue of Eel Mansions for Uncivilized Books. The editing and scanning part is happening now and once that wraps, issue No. 3 commences for release in September. That's right, back to back releases. oof

Check out two other Doomin'/No. 2 previews here:


Eel Mansions Blog

Sasquatch Verde Blog

EEL MANSIONS Page 8 NO. 2

EEL MANSIONS Index Fig.6 (The Floyd)

And I give you more in the "too much information" department.

Eel Mansions No. 1 available from Uncivilized Books.

Need convincing? Read this hilarious and wickedly entertaining roundtable review over at Comics Bulletin.

The Haps 2/15/13 Edition

Hello- brief update on what's cookin'.

In fine art news I've started doing oils again and will debut a few new pieces in tandem with plenty of new pen and ink work. The show is still being set up and so I'll have to dish details on that laters.

In music news, Marriage At Nevers (Chris White & I) are putting the finishing touches on the last song for our 7" EP this sunday. Then it's off to get mastered and then to the pressing plant. Finances pending. We've got about 12-15 more songs just lying around in various stages. We are a prolific bunch.


In comics news, work on Eel Mansions No. 2 has now started in earnest, as I had to rewrite the second issue more than a few times. The first issue was more of an introduction to some plotlines and all of the characters. The next several issues will explore the chracters one by one until they all reconverge for the rest of the story. This is just to flesh everybody out and to give some character development. Probably the order will be such:

No.2=Janet Planet
No.3=Armistead Fowler
No.4=The crazy orphans
No.5=Frank
No.6=The Lizard Lords
No.7=Record store guys
No.8 will resume all characters

Every Tuesday over on the Uncivilized Books Tubmlr page I'll be running a serialized index to all of the references in Eel Mansions. Here's a few excerpts to get you interested/started. Later today I'll post a tutorial on cooking Brussel Sprouts.Trust me, they're good.

Eel Mansions No.2

I change my mind alot. Anyways, issue No.2 of Eel Mansions will center on Janet Planet, the hard drinking cartoonist who's been in the business for... a while....
Includes further excerpts of Doomin' and Claudette..

EEL MANSIONS Now available for pre-order from Uncivilized Books

I doft my hat for Uncivilized Books publisher Tom Kaczynski, as he has managed to squeeze out the first issue of Eel Mansions despite his punishing end of the year schedule. The first issue, a 40 page mini juggernaut, is now available for pre-order HERE. The copies will be mailed out as they are put together, with the official debut of them being at the November 10th Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival in New York.

Below is the front and back cover design done by Tom K. The cover itself was printed on spiffy navy blue French paper on the La Mano press.

The first issue is an introduction to the characters and story arcs that will be built upon with every new issue. There's the usual conspiracy theory humor, non sequitors, ghoul hounded orphans who eat retro cereals, know it all comic book drunkards, secret agents, new wave military satanists, record store clerks, and murder condiments. In short, it's a noir soap opera about America. So that makes me a journalist. Of the mind. Or something.

Anyways, everybody likes a good serial every now and then.

Enjoy!