ninepanelgrid

Doughboys

2012-01-09T07:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a piece I did for a show in Austin that got canceled. I was just going to sit on it until they booked another show this would be appropriate for but I'm so happy with it, and how it came out that I decided to post it anyway. The band is a hardcore grind crust legendary type of band, and I wanted to go pretty far into black terrain with some guttural doomed out gasmask imagery. Also, the fans of that kind of hardcore, in general I think they respond to black and white art more than bright vibrant eye-popping oranges and pinks. So I knew I wanted to do something I could easily do a black and white version of also, and make it crusty and stark. I've done that before and I've got a couple projects I'm working on where that will be the case for other reasons (cost of printing).

I'm pretty stoked about sneaking in that Chuck Taylor. That was fun.

I always liked the term "Doughboys", which seems so locked into that time and place of the first World War and like, that generation of Americans. Trench warfare is such a completely insane idea. They did a pretty great job depicting it on the first episode of the second season of Downton Abbey, which just aired last night. Watching that might even been what encouraged me to post these. At any rate, there's a character that goes on leave from the trenches a couple times, and I just can't imagine being able to get away from that hell and then having to go back.

Get this: the last surviving Doughboy that fought in the first World War just died last year, at the age of 110! Frank Buckles! What a dude.

Anyway, here's the ink splatter I scanned and used to create the colors of the sky and background of this one. Splatters. I can't believe I'm still doing this. Just making a mess and turning it into something. I'll be posting some more stuff later this week. I've got an announcement and some other stuff. Working on some posters that I'm super psyched about! Stay tuned!

Old Friend for a New Year: Hunrgy Hungarian Returns, MELT 2012!

2012-01-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Hey friends, it's January, it's 2012, it's time for The Hungry Hungarian Paprikash Melt at Melt bar & grilled!
Pulled Roasted Chicken
Huge Homemade Dumplings
Creamy Paprikash Sauce
Provolone Cheese
Amazing Vegetarian Version Available

As you can see, I went with a nice quiet snowy winter scenario starring our favorite polar bear friends and family, Junior Bear looking out the window watching the snow fall and accumulate. I have pretty fond memories of doing that as a pup, just watching the sky full of flakes and clumps of snow. It always blew my mind, the idea that no two snowflakes are the same. Sometimes, if it was particularly clumpy snow, you could pick a cluster drifting on the wind and watch just that one, try to focus on it and follow it through the path to the ground, or watch it get pushed back up into the gusts of wind. Those were good moments.

I wanted to show the process a little more for this one, but I don't know what I did with the rough sketches I used to develop the concept. I knew I wanted to use the polar bears but I wasn't sure how. I landed on this after thinking of the "watching snow fall" idea, and wanting to do an warm color inside vs. cold colors outside juxtaposition. So, here's the black and white line art, drawn with brush and ink on 11" x 17" Bristol Board.

On to the colors, the first step was just to go bonkers in Photoshop with the warm/cool effects. I chose my pallet and kept it pretty limited. I had a good time though. I really like the looks on the cat and dog's faces.

Here, all I did was add a subtle texture to everything outside the window using a map of ink splatter I made specific for this piece, then changes the color of the line art inside the window to that brownish orange, the color of lines of the Christmas lights, and then created a glowing effect on the window and the lights on a separate layer set to a pretty low opacity. Some of these touches are overt and some are simple and subtle, but I think it's all important. I think in some cases there's a fine line between kill and overkill, especially in Photoshop.

Lastly, for the illustration at least, I added two layers of snow falling. It's just a matter of making those ink splatter pieces, dropping them over the art and changing the color to white. Then setting one of them to ...shoot, I think it's only 35% opacity, but it's pretty low.

I drew the text by hand and scanned it. Here's what it looks like before coloring it and adding it to the poster. I like these banner moves. I used to do that a lot, then migrated away from it for a long time. Now I'm finding really good uses for banners all over the place at Melt. It definitely falls into the "tattoo art" themes have been a large part of Melt's visual dynamic.

Here's the line art for the Hungry Hungarian Melt sandwich. I've drawn so many of these, I can draw them in my sleep. This is actually the last thing I do for these posters now. Sometimes I draw the sandwich when I draw the illustration and the text, but lately I've gone all the way up to final colors before drawing the sandwich. It occurred to me to just reuse the sandwich drawings from last year, but eh... that would be weak sauce. Weak. Sauce.

Here's the final again, with the text and sandwich. It's a great sandwich, too. I highly recommend it, especially on cold cold Cleveland in January nights after trekking around in the snow and winter all day.

Also, Beverly Hills Cop is being screened as one of the January Melt Late Shift movies at Cleveland Cinemas' Capitol Theatre on Saturday, January 21st at Midnight. Melt is doing a special Fried Banana in the Tail Pipe Trick Melt sandwich, with fried plantains, grilled pineapple, fresh avocado, spicy tomato relish, and muenster cheese. I can't wait to try this.

I used this screen capture from the movie to get Eddie Murphy's likeness down. Though, this image is from when Axel, Rosewood, and Taggart are in the strip club, I set him outside in what I wanted to be an 1980s styled color wash, almost an abstract blend of pastels and process colors. I really wanted it to pop. I think that worked.

Here's the dessert card for January. Continuing with these characters, I'm not sure this one is as successful as the last two, but I like it. I like using the word balloons and the panel breaks on the card. I've been working on a lot of comics lately, and this is like that bleeding into the way I'm doing everything. Also, Heath Bar Crunch Cheesecake!

That's it for now. I feel like I've been typing for a year. I hope this post made sense. Hey, check back later in the week, I'm going to post some fun stuff and hopefully you'll be into it. I figure if you're still reading this then chances are you will be.

Do They Know It's GRITMAS?

2011-12-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

To all the free peoples of Middle Earth, Merry Gritmas.

Ghost Ship Graveyard

2011-12-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've done a poster for The Mohawk in Austin. I'm pretty stoked it's for such a good show, and I was able to do something so ridiculous as a haunted pirate ghost ship. Graveyard from Sweden is a really awesome stoner-ish rock band that reminds me of everything good from classic rock radio without any of the bullshit that sucks about classic rock radio. Speaking of radio, I don't know much about Radio Moscow, but I'd definitely be down to check 'em out, give them a whirl, why not? Also, Eagle Claw! They're playing the New Years Eve show I did a poster for at Red 7. If I were in Austin, I'd be going to both of these shows.

Here's a close-up of the ghosts on the ship. I drew them separate and "ghosted" them in on the art in Photoshop. Pretty fun piece to work on.

Here's the straight up black and white line art for this one. I liked drawing this. I especially liked drawing the water. It's this brush stroke pattern that when you're doing it just looks like a mess, but the closer it gets to being done, the more it actually turns into the intended image. It's almost a surprise sometimes, when that happens.

I feel like the last few weeks, the holidays, really beat my ass this year without me even knowing it. Now I'm torched and confused as to when/how that happened. I'll hopefully be posting some more stuff this week. Been working pretty hard on some things, shaping 2012 into the best year yet. Stay tuned!

Rise MEGACHURCH, RISE!

2011-12-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, in Rusty Ol' Cleveland...

This is just a sketch piece I drew to include with an order a Megachurch fan placed for archival prints of the two record covers. Pretty quick drawing, really fun to draw. I pretty much throw in a quick sketch with every order I get over at the Shiner Comics Store.

Here's the art for a non-specific poster for Megachurch to send to venues and promoters when they play shows that don't already have a poster or flyer ready to go. Megachurch is plying a show this Saturday, December 17th, 2011 at Now That's Class, with Hot Cha Cha and VAMOS! (from Chicago). You should go, it's gonna be fun. I'm probably not going, I have to draw stuff. AND, I don't even like fun!

Hey, here's the more grim blackened white:

If you, or anyone you know, has booked MEGACHURCH to play, or you're just a huge fan, and would like a printable .pdf version of this poster, either the b/w or the full nasty color, please feel free to email me and I will send you what you want. If you would like me to add the text at the bottom, the venue and date and even the other bands playing, I can probably manage that too.

Speaking of Megachurch, here's the greatest music video of all time:

Here's the second greatest, more disturbing:

Hey look, a video of Megachurch playing at Studio-A-Rama a couple years ago:

Mad Weapons

2011-12-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

It's a Very Red 7 New Years Eve with Russian Circles, The Roller, Eagle Claw, and Boyfrndz! Kiss 2011 AD goodbye!

When I launched into this I knew for certain I didn't want to do anything ...Russian, or with circles. Also, it being N.Y.E., I wanted to do something eye-catching. This wasn't the moment to be subtle, not that I've been all that subtle over the past few batches of posters, but... y'know, sometimes it just needs to be taken to eleven. This, and the next few posters for shows in Austin, would happen to be some of those sometimes. Anyway, I started with this big ass robot not unlike other big ass robots I've done in the past. This quickly evolved into the last rough, with this primitive Shewolf rockin' mad weapons.

A lot of times I don't take my pencils this far, the refined. I usually keep them rough and then do a lot of the work in the inking stage, but this time around I opted to get more thorough and make sure everything was dope before I starting to ink.

Russian Circles is pretty goddamn good. I can think of a lot of worse ways to spend New Years Eve. Personally, my Ladybird and I will be watching the Lord Of The Rings Extended DVDs all in one sitting. Happy New Year, Gandolf!

I inked the living shit outta this with a brush, then went back in with a rapidly dying Micron .01 pen, then splattered it with a toothbrush. I'm overall pretty satisfied with how well the inks look. I like the fur and the way the robot is textured. I like these characters a lot. As with almost all of my posters, there's a story there somewhere, to be told. I did at one point have a narrative for the Shewolf character I had drawn in the past, vague intentions of a huge volume of pages that wander through that world and the moments that make up this character's reality- bouncing them off our own world and the balance between the microcosms of particular instances and the much much bigger picture of the long view, the grand scheme. The forest vs. the trees (or probably more accurately, a segment of the bark on one tree in the forest) so to say. Maybe some day, I'll make that comic? Someday, I suppose.

So, lastly, here's the lettering and splatters I used to create the textures and the splatters in the coloring stage. I was planning using this one as an example of the process of coloring, but then got carried away and forgot to take screen caps or save the file at various stages. Not that my process is all that informative or complicated, but... it's good to check in on that type of thing every now and again.

Well, I've spent way too long on this post already. I've been listening to the Drive Soundtrack as I've been typing this. Man, I know most people probably mostly love the pop jams, College song Real Hero, or Nightcall, which... great fucking jams, but the Cliff Martinez stuff on this one, the instrumental tracks... holy shit, this is good. Everything about that movie makes me super duper happy.

More coming soon. Two other Red 7 posters, Ten Imaginary Movies, and then some new comics!

Spacefighter Z Comic by J. Kelly

2011-12-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

Five copies of Spacefighter Z, Part One: The Final Report of The Dolly Five by J. Kelly are now available at the Shiner Comics Store. If you missed it's debut at this year's Genghis Con, now's your chance to get a copy of this sci-fi/horror masterwork!

Here's the first three pages:

For those new to the Spacefighter Z concept, it's part of the pantheon of ideas known as the Ten Imaginary Movies series of posters painted by J. Kelly. This series spawned an art exhibit where I, John G, created a multitude of fake ephemera for these imaginary films. This is the same project that our new horror comics anthology, The Lake Erie Monster, came from (more info on that, SOON!).

You can see more about the Ten Imaginary Movies at Kelly's blog, Pave The Ocean!

We'll be posting the Ten Imaginary Movies Poster Set in the Shiner Comics Store soon, so keep that interweb tuner clicked in right here for the latest signal broadcast faxes!

Lucy

2011-12-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

This piece will be in The Dog Days of December at Kollective Gallery, at 1908 S. Taylor in Cleveland Hts, opening Saturday December 10th, 2011. The show is a benefit for Secondhand Mutts, a great Cleveland dog adoption non-profit.

When I started this I knew I wanted to go bonkers on the details on the lady, and wanted to make it a multiple panel page layout, by design. Also, a dog, I was initially going to try and draw a different kind of dog, maybe a Rottweiler or Doberman, or some kind of huge Mastiff. As I was gunning for that and failing repeatedly, my confidence skinned it's knee and I opted for a wolfish character. I've drawn a lot of wolves in my day, so... that saved me a bunch of time that I then lost while inking like a lunatic. Not entirely sure where the name "Lucy" came from, other than it's short and fit on that heart shaped dog tag.

The finished piece is 9.5" x 16" brush and ink on poster board. I'm thinking about coloring this for the hell of it. Maybe do a limited print run and sell them to make some more loot for Secondhand Mutts?

Here's the link to the facbook event for the show: HERE. Kollective is a really awesome spot, it's also a tattoo shop. If you haven't been there, definitely check this show out, it's going to be pretty great, with contributions from a bunch of killer artists. PLUS, the main show in the gallery for December is the work of Hannah and Ian Petroni. I actually don't know anything about their work but I know both of them and they rule.

Poster Packs Up For Grabs

2011-12-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

I've added some poster packs to the Shiner Comics Store, among the other things available for your purchasing pleasure.

10+ Poster Packs
These are is envelopes crammed with between 13 and 16 random posters. By random, it means they're all different assortments, and I have no idea which posters are in each pack. Each pack includes at least one 12" x 18" poster along with the more than ten 11" x 17" posters, plus a handful of random various sized prints and fliers and postcards. They range from older posters for shows in Cleveland at the various venues like the Beachland, Grog Shop and Now That's Class, to Melt Specials posters and more recent posters for Red 7 in Austin. Some of the packs have the 3D Double Dagger 11 x 17, which I included the 3D glasses with it.

I have 5 of these ready to ship, but I can make more if there's demand. Only $10, plus $3 for shipping.

20+ Poster Pack
Just like the 10+ Packs, these are envelopes crammed with well over ten random posters. It includes the 13" x 19" archival print from the Anti-Valentine's Day Show, Love Stinks, at least one 12" x 18" poster along with the a lot of 11" x 14" and 11" x 17" posters, plus a handful of random various sized prints and fliers and postcards. Again, they range from older posters for shows in Cleveland at the various venues like the Beachland, Grog Shop and Now That's Class, to Melt Special posters and more recent posters for Red 7 in Austin.

There are only ~~5 of these~~ 4 of these left, and when they're gone they're gone. These are kind of big, so I'm only doing five sets. Only $20, plus $3 for shipping.

The Mighty Mac Strikes Back: Dec 2011 at Melt!

2011-12-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

It's December again, so that means it's time again for our old pal the Macaroni Penguin o break out that scarf and brave the elements to have fun out in the cold weather and build up the hard earned hunger for a Mighty Macaroni Melt at Melt Bar and Grilled.

The Mighty Macaroni Melt is Creamy Homemade Macaroni & Cheese, Breaded and Fried To a Golden Brown, with MORE CHEESE, Choose your favorite! I've heard some amazing combinations like Pepper-Jack and then the Bacon Add-On, or Cream Cheese and Cheddar with the Jalapeño Add-On (which is what I want to try once I finally get mine this December). You should definitely feel free to head over to the Melt Facebook Page and post your cheese/add-on combinations for all to see!

Tonight (which is pretty much over), and Tomorrow (Saturday Dec 3rd, 2011) The DUDEFATHER is on special as a cross promotion with Cleveland Cinema's annual screening of The Big Lebowski at The Cedar Lee. This sandwich is actually made up of items that are on the menu all the time! So fear not, if you can't get to Melt tomorrow, you can just order this whenever you're in the mood to smash a crazy huge sandwich!

This is one of the specials I've been most excited for this year. The Gizmo Chicken and Waffles Melt! Again, this is a tie-in with Cleveland Cinema's screening of Gremlins on December 17th at The Capitol Theatre, which... I dunno about you, but I think Gremlins is one of the best Holiday movie traditions this side of DIE HARD. At any rate, on the sandwich: Ultra Crispy Fried Chicken Breast, Fluffy Scratch Made Waffles, Pepper-Jack Cheese, served with Bourbon Maple Syrup Dipping Sauce and Melt's Signature Habanero Hot Sauce on the side.

This poster was actually really challenging to draw, gremlins, they're tough little guys. I had to watch the movie multiple times to get them right. I feel like while I was working on the poster I listened to an episode of Stop Podcasting Yourself where they talk about how Gremlins re just little guys that really really like to party, but I'm not entirely sure which episode it was. I do know that they just did a LIVE Episode, and it was one of the most incredibly hysterical things I've listened to in a long time.

Here's the desert card design for December. Continuing with the same characters from last month, I'm going to follow this path as far as it will take us. We're still in the getting to know you phase of the dessert crew though. Probably will be for a long time. Seriously though, Hot Cocoa Rice Krispie Treat Bred Pudding!

Thanks for reading, and keep checking back, I'll be trying to post more frequently!

ZULU

2011-12-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

Another bonkers joint at RED 7 in Austin, Tejas. THIS MOMENT IN BLACK HISTORY is scrambling down there to play some shows. Bangaar is playing this one, this is the first I've ever heard of Black Congress, but if http://blackcongress.bandcamp.com is any indication of anything then this band is fucking killer. Also playing: Weird Party, which also sounds like they're great. Handclaps and shit. So it looks like if you're on Earth... TODAY, Friday December 2nd, in 2011... Red 7 is where you want to be.

Got kind of obsessed with Zulu Warriors for a minute there a couple weeks ago, though I've always had a healthy love for them- I was pretty stoked on that episode of Deadliest Warrior where they pit Shaka Zulu up against William Wallace, which... y'know, it's not THAT scientific, and it's a pretty hokey show. That being said, I feel like an idiot the entire time I watch it, but I love that fucking show! It's pretty fun to watch, even when you can kind of tell that they maybe edit it to make the dudes that are showing how the weapons work and ...well, the experts... let's just say there's a lot of machismo involved, which is kind of unnecessary if you think about it. There's some episodes where I just want the opposing dudes to acknowledge how insane and awesome each others' weapons and tactics are. But, it is Spike TV so you get what you pay for. And I watch that shit for free on the internet, so... booyah. That being said the 1986 miniseries SHAKA ZULU is on Netflix "Play it NOW". I haven't finished it yet, but that's ten awesome hours of internet TV watching.

Anyway, I got a handful of Red 7 jams coming down the line, so if you're into dope shows and the promo for them... keep your web browser dialed to http://ninepanelgrid.blogspot.com

Also, I should probably be posting a bunch of the other things I've been doing lately. A LOT of Melt jams, Lake Erie Monster updates and a fistful of loose madness. Also, updates at the Shiner Comics Big Cartel.

The Lake Erie Monster #1

2011-11-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we do great things. The Lake Erie Monster #1, an all new comic by myself and J. Kelly, is debuting at Genghis Con this Saturday, November 26th, 2011 AD, at the Beachland Ballroom. The issue is 24 pages of black and white comics with a color cover, for a mere five bones.

I'll be posting more about my Genghis Con set-up later, but hopefully before the show! Stay Tuned!

DRAG'ON

2011-11-08T23:35:00.000-08:00

Here's this Rodd Racer homage, the nefarious villain Drag'on. Rodd Racer is an amazing creator owned comic by this maniacal dude Toby Cypress, that kills it. It's incredible because it's a chase comic about these bonkers OG car racers in this sprawling weirdly Hugh Ferriss-ish cityscape, but has this great gangster ass noir overtone that sets up the business that is the chases/races/disgraces. Published by Image earlier this year, in July. It's definitely still available, and I give it my highest possible recommendation. RODD RACER IS THE GOODS!

I had every intention of posting this a long time ago, but it slipped through the cracks. So now I'm trying to catch up and get my blog chops back. I may post the original for sale in the Shiner Comics Store, but that won't be for a couple days.

Anyway, Toby Cypress is also doing a crazy webcomic blog thing called KURSK, which you can check out here: http://kurskcomics.blogspot.com. As of this post, he's got 12 pages up, but hasn't posted any since July, right before San Diego Comic Con this year. So, here's me calling him out and saying GET ON IT, SON! I want more KURSK!

I can't fault him too hard though, being as he's one of the artists behind Blue Estate, another Image comic that blows my mind. It's a collaboration between a fistful of artists including Viktor Kalvachev, Nathan Fox, and Robert Valley. Also credited are the writer Andrew Osborne and Kosta Yanev. I've only really read the first issue, but I've got the Vol. One trade in the mail. I ordered that shit off Thwipster!

Okay, more sooon!

Esqueleto de la Bruja

2011-11-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

This show happened, and I bet it ruled. SkeletonWitch is a pretty awesome name for a band, especially for a band from Athens, Ohio. I'd love to meet whoever designed their amazing logo, high-five them, buy them a grilled cheese sandwich and fight against a bunch of lizard beasts with them, in honor of how much they, as a designer, have improved the overall quality of life on earth at the moment. I think it's important to recognize greatness, and whoever the hell designed the SkeletonWitch logo, you rule.

Here is the brush and ink OG drawing. I'm pretty happy with it. I knew I would be reusing the Dio De Los Muertos skull face-painted female thing that I had just done for the Doomriders poster from a couple posts ago, but it was a weird and sloppy journey to get from there to having this occult shamanic military woman with the strange ancient bladed weapon representing in from of the Rushton Triangular Lodge, which I only know anything about because it's referenced in Voice of The Fire, which I've been slowly reading lately. Good book.

Here's the text as it is when I scanned it. Messy and ...not really planned out at all. I just used a crummy brush that I can't really ink drawing with anymore to draw the big words and a small pen to ink the smaller stuff.

This was a fun poster to draw. Heavy Metal seems to be in the atmosphere these days. I'm not really sure what that means other than these days are awesome. I'll be posting some more stuff soon. So, stay tuned! Also, tune in over at the Genghis Con Blog, where we'll be updating regularly until the show!

METAL

2011-11-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

International Heavy Metal Day is 11/11/11, or November Eleventh, Two Thousand and Eleven, which I guess can only happen this year (of this century, at least). So MELT bar & grilled is celebrating by offering a special sandwich:

The 666 Number of The BBQ Roast Beast Melt!
Slow Roasted Beef Brisket
marinated in spices and then drenched in a smoky sweet BBQ sauce
Homemade BBQ Beans
Crunchy French Fried Onions
Pepper-Jack Cheese

I really wanted to keep this as simple as I could, and as vibrant as possible. I know there's a tendency in the Metal genre to keep things black and white, or toned down to dark colors, earth tones and be as visually brutal as the sound of the music is. Which is something I actually love about it. There are entire sub-sub-genres of Metal that I don't like to listen to but I love the visuals of. In fact I think in some cases, the better the art they use, the worse the band is. At any rate, I opted for vibrant psychedelics and a simple straight-forward concept.

Here's the hand drawn text, I draw all the text I use on every single thing I design by hand, which is to say that it's never an actual font. I mean, the text in the title and the information at the bottom is based on a typeface, but I drew it by hand and scanned it. This jpg is what that scan looks like. I do that to all the text of every poster or anything I design. I think the only time something I design ends up with digitally generated text on it is when I do a Scene Magazine cover- and that's because Scene Magazine's Art Director is a stone cold Design Gangster. I'm usually just the hired illustration gun in that scenario.

Here's the ÜBERMETAL Black and White version, for all y'all Metal Heads that are into this kinda thing. DOWNLOAD THE ÜBERMETAL B/W VERSION PDF for DIY Printing! The full color prints are available at the three Melt locations, though. Or, shoot me an email and I'll make sure you get what you want!

Speaking of Metal, here's a list of some of my favorite Metal records, not really in any order other than... these a good records and I like them. Not really firmly set in the Metal Genre these are, other than... I consider them Metal:

SLEEP'S HOLY MOUNTAIN is probably something I've listened to more times than is possible to count. I also like it even more when I think about the Alejandro Jodorowski movie, The Holy Mountain, which is an amazing ass movie. I want to make a giant comic called Holy Mountain just to throw my wizard hat in the ring some day.

High on Fire, Surrounded by Thieves is maybe the most D&D of all metal records that isn't just full on nerd-wuss bravado, not that I'm opposed to nerd-wuss bravado, I just said I was going to "throw my wizard hat in the ring", but this one comes from a place of true heavy hack and slash style D&D. Like if Sleep records are magic, this shit is blunt force hand to hand combat.

Carl Orff, Carmina Burana is probably the most Metal of all recorded music ever. There are multitudes of versions, including the one pictured that was performed by the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. This is the jam that plays every medieval movie when the armies of chaotic good and the undead neutral evil clash in a rapture of ridiculous violence.

Brian Posehn, Fart & Wiener Jokes is pretty goddamn great, and in addition to farts and wieners- he has a lot of funny shit to say about Metal, Metal Heads, and a being a nerd. I drew a poster for a gig he did in Austin last year, HERE.

Lastly, but not leastly, I think everyone in the universe should get hip to KRALLICE. They've been around for a while, and making incredible music the entire time. I saw them headline Champagne of Fests III, and I think I got permanent hearing damage from that set.

I think that's it for now. I spent way too long working on this post.

Nine Posters on the Third (Red 7 Owns)

2011-11-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

All these posters are for Red 7 is Austin Texas. I think the last poster I drew for them that I posted was this guy, back in promotion for the Illustrious show at Wall Eye Gallery:

This one is so obviously a Mignola/BPRD riff, though I think it predates when I just started including the BPRD logo patch on characters gear. Been doing that a little bit lately.

I've been on a pretty fierce warpath for the Red 7 this year, and here (with the exception of the latest one I'm working on RIGHT NOW) are all the posters I've done for them. I may post future blog updates about some of these individually, but here they are in one huge gang, including links to as many of these bands as I can manage and a couple sentences for each.

Cleveland's own RINGWORM, this band Nails from California, New Lows from Boston, and Bitter End. This is the left hand half of a diptych, and I knew I wanted to go post-apocalyptic nomadic warrior types. I recently found this weird art thing called The Eighth Day that kinda sorta blew my brains out, LOOK AT THIS!

Saint Vitus has been around forever, it's pretty cool to get to do a poster for them. Dixie Witch and The Roller are both from Austin. So is Mala Suerte, which I thought was Spanish for Bad Dream, but it actually means Bad Luck. Mala Sueño is Bad Dream... which I think is up or grabs as far as doom metal band names is concerned.

At any rate, I was way into this comic Orc Stain that this complete and total nutbag named James Stokoe is responsible for when I drew this. I especially like how insane that comic is. The colors are good too.

Here's the big drawing I did that I broke in half to make this dippy. Infinite Dragon, I don't know where I got that idea, other than I knew I wanted the images to flow into each other but not have like, a mirror effect so much. I did something like this before, with two dudes murdering the shit outta each other. I like to think these are all good posters on their own but then when you see the diptych it's next level type shit. At least I hope so.

A simple straight forward poster for a simple straight forward bill with three great bands. Big Business, Torche, and Thrones. This is actually also a creature design piece of the Lake Erie Monster, of which Jake Kelly and I are doing comics about. Which I will have some announcements about soon!

Man, there is no limit to how much I love Wolves In The Throne Room. I don't really know anything about Megaton Leviathan, but they were on tour with WiTTR, so they must be pretty cool. Pushmen and Skycrawler, I think are from Austin.

This piece was a lot of fun to draw, but getting a buffalo's head right was super challenging. Wolves in The Throne Room is thematically tied to nature and primitive energies, mythology and nature-based occultism, so I really wanted to do something that worked within those themes. Again, this is kind of sort of Mignola-influnced, but ...I think it stands on it's own, aside from that. Someday I'm going to book WiTTR to play on top of a mountain surrounded by a ring of bonfires in a thunderstorm. The poster for that is gonna be nuts.

Space Natives, Cosmic Nomads, I will be making a comic about these characters some day. I do strive to tell a story, imply a narrative with each piece. One poster conveying a bigger picture and a glimpse into a bigger world. Oh, hey: Dead Meadow, they're alright, Spindrift, and Rings Band (which I couldn't find anything about them but honestly didn't look too hard).

HEY New Bomb Turks! I drew this so long ago, and this show hasn't even happened yet! High Tension Wires, Grand Champeen and OBN IIIs. Did rock bands just run out of names? Or just the ambition to come up with a good one?

So, yeah, I drew this poster and then DC Comics relaunched everything they publish and included a Frankenstein comic where he rolls deep with a team of weirdos. Kinda made me happy, but then I got the first issue and was reminded that I am not the person that DC Comics are meant to be read by. Anyway, I like the idea of a carload of bonkers characters on an adventure, and Frankenstein at the wheel. Frankenstein, dudes. FRANKENSTEIN.

This poster is definitely one I will be posting a separate blog entry about. Why? SLAYER. I DREW A SLAYER POSTER. Yeah, so it's part of Fun Fun Fun Fest and it's not like I worked directly for Slayer, STILL.... SLAYER. This was a lot of fun to draw. Also, it's fun to listen to Slayer.

Fun Fun Fun Fest is this weekend and the line-up is absolutely absurd. I can't imagine the logistics of something like that, even just going there as a dude that wants to see bands play, and Brian Posehn talk about farting. I will go one of these years, but holy shit, this year is bananacakes.

Again, I'll be posting another process piece about this one. However, I will mention, this might be the most difficult thing I have drawn in forever. FOUR BMX bikes, with riders swinging various things. DOOMRIDERS to be exact. I will link to all the other bands later. They're playing at FFF Fest Red 7 for FFF Fest Nites, it's a free show you need your FFF Fest wristband to get in to. Still, I'm pretty stoked on this poster.

Next up is a handful of other show posters, and some comics pages. Genghis Con rapidly approaches! and I'll be hyping that up some more. Go check out the Genghis Con facebook page and RSVP to the event. Tell your friends, AND your enemies! Genghis Con is a demilitarized zone for all critical beefs!

Stay Gloomy

2011-11-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post today. Gotta flex them blogging muscles. Black Skies is a pretty awesome band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I'm pretty stoked to see this band. I'm not really familiar with Electric Lucifer or Threefold Law, but yeah, I'm in. Now That's Class rules.

Had a blast doing this one. Kind of a Mignola\ riff, but less good. I wanted to color this but we're keeping it black and white for the doom and gloom. It's deep fall, kids. Hoodie weather lasted all of 5 minutes this year. Gotta stay warm out here in The Forest of Wayward Illustration. At some point soon I'm going to dip my brush in the well of ink wash greys and see what happens.

NBT Strikes Again: November at MELT

2011-10-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

It's NOVEMBER again at Melt bar & grilled, which means it's time for the New Bomb Turkey to explode back onto the scene in Cleveland. It's a very popular sandwich, with very good reason. So, without further typerbole, here's the jam:

NEW BOMB TURKEY
Mesquite Smoked Turkey Breast
Mom’s Sage Stuffing
Roasted Butternut Squash
Homemade Turkey Gravy
Muenster Cheese
with a Sweet Cranberry Dipping Sauce

Yes, there are both vegan and vegetarian options. Yes, this is a poster for a sandwich. No, I don't seriously expect people to put together a turkey using the provided cut-outs, tooth picks and an actual OLD TIMEY BOMB. I do think that yes, there's a possibility that someone, somewhere, might use the instructions to make a New Bomb Turkey out of a fresh apple. It's a pretty common craft activity for children of all ages. I'm not really sure where one would even get an Old Timey Bomb... I'm pretty sure the fact that I've called it an "Old Timey Bomb" i enough of an indication that this is meant all in good fun. It's a joke. Bombs may not be funny, but Old Timey Bombs.... hilarious.

Previous NBT posters: November 2009, November 2010, uh... I still have to post the one from JUNE of this year... my blog arm has gotten soft this year.

SUPERHERO DAY at MELT, both the Lakewood, and Cleveland Hts locations. There's a facebook event page, HERE. It's going to be a blast. The staff will be dressed as superheroes, patrons are encouraged to dress as superheroes. Carol & John's Comics will be at the Lakewood Melt giving away comics. Comic Heaven and Big Fun will be supplying the freebies at the Cleveland Hts Melt.

To be honest, I don't really draw superheroes very much at all, and I'm not very certain I should. I like this piece, a lot actually, but drawing superheroes is just such a particular thing. I think feels like it's natural and inherently easy because so much of comic book illustration is based around superheroes, but it's actually a lot more complicated and difficult than you would think. You have to make things look dynamic and interesting or exciting, but not so completely unreal that it's just impossible to suspend your disbelief. At the same time you have to account for style and there's a built in visual language that has developed over the course of like, 70 years, which has all been blown away by the last decade of superhero movies like Dark Knight or Captain America (which I still haven't seen). Anyway, this was a blast to work on, a challenge, and I like the outcome. I used the Lakewood Melt facade as a model for the building and tried to incorporate the characters I used on the dessert cards from October.

So, Tremors is playing at The Capitol on Saturday November 19th at Midnight, and Melt is doing the most insane promotional sandwich since the Breakfast Club sandwich.

The 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon BLT Melt:
Hickory Smoked Bacon
Applewood Smoked Bacon
Black Pepper crusted slab bacon
Italian Pancetta
Sweet Candied Bacon
Herb Cream Cheese with crisp bacon bits mixed in
In-house made Mayonnaise infused with bacon
Sharp Cheddar
Fresh Romaine Lettuce and Tomato
What else is there to say about that?

Last, but certainly not least, here is the Dessert Card for November. I think I had kind of a break through with this one. I spent a huge amount of time on this, way more than I ever spent on a dessert card before, and I think it was worth every minute. There's comics in the air, here, in Cleveland. It's deep, and thick, and it's awesome. Like Pumpkin Cheesecake or Bread Pudding. This was kind of sorta inspired by this 360˚ shot of my homie Brandon Graham's studio/lair: HERE.

World in Shambles

2011-10-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

All the way from Tokyo, Melt Banana returns to the Grog Shop later this month, with Tera Melos and Cave Bear.

Hey, it was really fun to draw this. For real, guys. I kind of wish those Samurai half-face masks, called Menpō, would catch on as a fashion accessory, where like, mid-western suburban teenagers were all wearing them to high school football games and parents and teachers would freak out about it. Fox News could do a campaign to get them banned from schools and then it would become a big election issue. Teenagers would take to the street rioting, the National Guard would get called in. The Great Menpō Craze of Fall 2011 would leave the world in shambles.

Also, BPRD patch. Goddammit, I love the BPRD Comics. There's a new Abe Sapien series out called The Devil Does Not Jest that has some of the most awesome comic pages by this dude James Harren. The action sequences in particular are fucking great. Harren is the strange/compelling combination of Paul Pope and like, someone like James Stokoe. I hope the Dark Horse can hang onto him and keep feeding him more and more comics with monster fight scenes to draw.

More posters on the way, I promise.

Mom's Meatloaf: Melt October 2011

2011-10-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

It's October again at Melt bar & grilled, which means I'm blasting \, and that it's time for Mom's Meatloaf Melt! It's a meatloaf sandwich. Here's the desctription:

"A huge slab of homemade meatloaf smothered in a chipotle ketchup glaze with roasted garlic mashed redskin potatoes and muenster cheese. Vegetarian and vegan versions available."

I opted to return to the OG Hippo-Moms, From the first poster we did. I had this idea of looking out from inside the oven, there's something about the frame of it that works.

MELT's new Independence location opened yesterday! I might post this poster again and write more about it later. There's something to be said about the fact that a local restaurant is as successful as Melt is, and just how monumental that fact is in the context of the current local/national/global economic climate. I'm not sure I'm the person to say those things or have any real insight into that conversation, but I do know a lot about drawing the posters for promoting that local restaurant. We'll see, I guess, when I try to post that. AT ANY RATE, I have been to the new spot and I gotta say, it's pretty incredible. It's got the same exact vibe as both the Lakewood original, and the Cleveland Heights 2.0, but it's got these really high ceilings and it makes it feel HUGE. One thing I do want to point out is that Jake Kelly really outdid himself with his mural for the wall there. It's big, and just crammed with amazing detail and deep Cleveland madness. My mind's blown by how Jake is escalating and leveling up exponentially the past few years. I'm glad I'm here to see this.

The deserts this month are Apple Crisp Bread Pudding and Pumpkin Cheesecake. I went with a superheroic theme this month. As with the last few Melt dessert card original drawings, this is available in the Shiner Comics Store. Click HERE for the specific listing.

Repo Man and The Cosmic Unconsciousness

2011-09-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Friday September 30th and Saturday October 1st 2011, Melt bar & grilled will be offering the The Los Alamos Hot-Wire Tamale Melt:
Slow roasted skirt steak, braised in New Mexican chili paste and herbs
Sweet Plantain Tamale
Radioactive Red Cabbage Slaw
The Hottest-Chili-Pepper-Known-To-Man Sauce
Pepper-Jack Cheese

This sandwich is in honor of the screening of the cult classic (and possibly the greatest movie ever made), Repo Man, which will be playing at The Cedar Lee in Cleveland Heights at both 9:30pm and Midnight Saturday night, as part of their Late Shift series.

If you've never seen Repo Man, I assure you, it's an incredible movie. There's just an unbelievable amount of great dialogue, wacky characters, overall design and a completely ridiculous story that's so far out there, but at the same time kind of hits home, even now after 27 years. Goddamn, I love this movie.

Here's the quintessential scene that explains the "Repo Code", which is by no means the worst code to live your life by:

For my part, I was very tempted to try and do a collage/exploitationish type piece that had all the characters and all the crazy elements of the movie in it, but after thinking about it for a while I opted to go with representing one of the other essential scenes from the movie, where Miller talks to Otto about weirdness:

So, I also heard a rumor that Emilio Estevez was in town promoting his new movie, The Way, an that copies of this poster made it into his hands to get autographed. I have not seen them yet, but that's what I heard. Spread that rumor.

Hellboy Shenanigans

2011-09-09T14:30:00.001-07:00

I did this sketch of Hellboy, Son, Hellboy!

I went down to rap about Mike Mignola's Hellboy with 2 of the 3 gentlemen from the podcast called Comics Are Go. You can find them on iTunes, or just go to THIS PAGE. The Hellboy episode was a "Special Edition", it's the one from 9/4/11. I had a total blast talking about the big picture of Hellboy über alles, but also focusing mostly on the last few main story arcs (Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, The Storm, and The Fury), which were all written by Mignola and drawn by Duncan Fegredo.

I also sat in on the "News" segment of Episode 85 with Cleveland comics luminary Mike Sangiacomo. He also recorded a "Special Edition" about the Avengers movie filming in Cleveland, but I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet. I did hear some stories in person a couple weeks ago and they were all pretty interesting and cool, so I'm guessing it's an awesome podcast.

I'm selling this bad boy for just ten measly bones: Check it out HERE, at the Shiner Comics Big Ass Cartel Store. I've also posted some more involved drawings, mostly from Melt jams over the past few months.

BUFF CHIX: Melt September 2011

2011-09-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

This month at MELT bar and grilled, The wet Hot Buffalo Chicken Melt is back in action. Here's the description:

Super crispy breaded chicken breast, spicy authentic buffalo wing sauce, celery and blue cheese slaw, melty blue cheese, cool ranch dressing for dipping. Vegetarian version available with crispy fried buffalo tofu. Booyah!

Myself, my Ladybird, and our homie Kevin Czap checked in at the LKWD Melt last night and gripped the Buffalo Tofu “Wings” Appetizer, which is also available this month, and it was awesome! I wish I had taken a picture, they were a thing of beauty... and then they got smashed by the three of us.

As I was working on this I quickly took to referring to it as the Buff Chix, which, if I were King, is how everybody would refer to this sandwich. "Welcome to Melt! What are can I get you tonight?" "BUFF. CHIX.".

Tomorrow night ¡The Three Amigos! is playing at The Cedar Lee at both 9:30 and Midnight, as part of the Melt sponsored Late Shift series. So for today and tomorrow Melt has gone loco with ¡The Three Amigos Enchilada Melt!:

Authentic pressed corn tortillas stacked with a plethora of refried beans, cheese and El Guapo's famous Enchilada sauce. Pepper-Jack cheese, green tomatillo salsa verde and a creamy avocado ailoi. Served with Melt's red salsa and sour cream on the side.

I would love to try this sandwich, but I think perhaps we done overdid the Mexican eats up in Casa De Volcano this summer. Blame it on La Plaza.

Man, for some reason this poster was really hard to nail down. I drew something like seven or eight different variations for this one. I knew I wanted to include El Guapo, because I love his crazy 80s curly mop. The exploding church element developed when I was trying to make this more of an "exploitation" stylized poster and needed an explosion. The airplane is a no-brainer for a background element. I think I could have gone razier, but I was very interested in drawing their costumes and making them somewhat accurate and detailed. However, the more I draw celebrities and actors, the harder it gets to capture the likenesses. It should be simple. I think I did an okay job on this one, but goddamn. It's infuriating.

I think these colores came out pretty good. I dunno, by the time I was working on the colors, my eyes were bleeding a little bit. Not literally, but, y'know, in my mindgrapes. I really wanted El Guapo to look the jam. He's the best character in that entire movie. Just, the enjoyment he and his gang get out of being themselves, honestly, is such a wonderful element to that story. I think when they give him that sweater for his birthday, it's one of the funniest moments. Then there are the scenes when he's kinda bummed out and down and his sidekick, Jefe, is trying to cheer him up by actually kind of calling him on his bullshit... so so good. I LOVE THESE VILLAINS.

By the way, I drew this table card for September. Last night the Pumpkin Pecan Bread Pudding was GONE by the time we got there. I attribute that fact to how compelling and grimly happy the Magenta Bear is on this table card. But seriously, how good does that bread pudding sound???

Rich, spicy bread pudding baked with the pick of the season’s first crop of pumpkins, topped with traditional pecan pie filling, candied pecans, bourbon caramel and vanilla ice cream.

As with all the Melt Dessert table card art, I'll be putting this up in the Shiner Comics Big Cartel Store. So if you're interested in getting a unique piece of inexpensive art, maybe this piece in particular, that is where you can look. There is a bunch of other Melt piece listed right now.

Lastly, but never leastly, here is a Melt ad for Buzzbin Magazine out of Akron. I really wanted to include something anybody that's ever been by it at night would recognize as the "Emerald City", which is actually Crown Centre, on Rockside Road just off I-77, which is down the street from the new Independence Melt location, opening on October 7th. I like those green lights on the top of those buildings.

I know I have a backlog of three months of Melt posters, among many other things, I do need to post up here. Soon, faithful readers, soon.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

2011-08-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

I've been kind of shocked by the reaction this poster has gotten on Melt bar and grilled's Facebook page. I guess there's just a furious groundswell of nostalgic affinity for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Also, people seriously love PIZZA ROLLS.

The TMNT Cowabunga Pizza Roll Melt:

Real Cheese Pizza Rolls deep fried till Extra Crispy and Atomic Hot
Rich Homemade Marinara
Green Ooze Basil Pesto Cream Cheese
Provolone and Romano Cheese
Add crisp pepperoni for $1.50

This sandwich will only be available Friday, August 19th and Saturday, August 20th, 2011. This is a cross-promo with Cleveland Cinemas midnight screening of the movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, at The Capitol Theatre on Saturday night. Elias Koteas, y'all. Elias Koteas!

My own personal love for the TMNT is pretty relegated to this completely bonkers comic series by Kevin Eastman and Simon Bisley called BODYCOUNT that Image Comics published in the mid 90s(?), starring Casey Jones and Raphael in a hyper violent romp that was mostly just about killing a shitload of evil gangsters. It was definitely not for kids. It was very very strange to draw these characters, and it felt... weird. Like, I really wanted to make them my own somehow, but the reality is that you kind of have to keep them pretty close to the way they've always been drawn. It feels like you're aping all of the artists that have done them in the past, simultaneously. Well... sometimes, them's the breaks.

At any rate, I've decided to list the original artwork for this poster in the Shiner Comics Store. This is a black ink drawing on 11" x 17" Bristol Board, here's a somewhat blurry iPhone pictograph:

I've posted some other Melt art in the Shiner Comics Store, so feel free to browse! As always, you can buy nice archival prints of any of my posters at all, and the details are listed on that site. Here's the final colors without the text:

Won't Bow, Don't Know How

2011-08-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here's the thing: Last October I booked Hurray For The Riff Raff at Front Room, and it went off without a hitch. I did a crazy poster and turned the gallery into an enchanted forest and it was a pretty great evening down on E. 36th street.

Thursday, August 4th, 2011: My old homie Brandon Graham posted this thing about Starwatcher, a very great Moebius drawing- with his, and Moritat's shots taken at it. Great, great stuff. Also: A killer interview with Brandon, HERE.

Monday, August 8th, 2011: Hurray For The Riff Raff is coming back to Cleveland, and playing at The Beachland Tavern with Samuel Doores & The Tumbleweeds, and Crooked River Blues Band.

The stars pretty much aligned for this one. I really wanted to have this piece done sooner, but I feel like I've been scrambling for a while now. So on the other hand, I feel great that I got it done at all! Also, if I had done it sooner, it would not have had the influence of this Moebius jam, at the calling of challenge from Comics Trenche Warlord Brandon Graham. The title of this blog post is the name of the amazing HBO series Treme's first season. Treme is a show about Post-Katrina New Orleans, which featured a couple cameos by Hurray For The Riff Raff in an episode of season 2.

Here's the line art:

Oh, here's the Moebius art, Starwatcher:

Breaking Radio Silence, Part 2: Grand Scenesterism

2011-07-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

I've recently done a couple pieces for Scene Magazine, covers and what not. It's actually a pretty awesome gig doing work for them now. They recently took on my homie, and design powerhaüs, OKPants, AKA: Aaron Secrist, as their new Art Director and he's really whipped things into shape, with the quickness!

At any rate, I did the cover of the May 18th issue, which was for an article, The Job Machine, about an organization, Global Cleveland, that is working to bring a specific type of immigrant, H-1Bs, to Cleveland to fill jobs, and what that might mean for the region. I used the local iconic image of one of the Guardians of Traffic statues that hold sway over the Hope Memorial Bridge (Lorain/Carnegie). I think it came out pretty awesome, even in print it looked better than I expected.

In addition to that, I did the cover for an article about Ohio selling off the prisons to private corrections firms, and the impact that will have on the system, all the lives completely wrapped up in that, and the communities that have to co-exist with it.

Years ago, I did the art for a series of columns in the Cleveland Free Times written by a man who was actually IN prison at the time, called simply "The Joint". I posted a lot of them on this blog, but apparently only labeled some of them, HERE. After reading the draft of the article, Shake Up in Lockdown, I went back and looked at all the art from The Joint, which I hadn't looked at in years. I felt a strange level of pride for all that work as the memories flooded the vines of my mind grapes. There's a distinct illustrative growth that I think is apparent over the arc of the series.

These are the roughs I jammed out and sent Aaron, and the editor, Erich, to light the fuse on this piece. I knew it needed to be claustrophobic and have a great many number of people in it. One of the worst problems in the corrections system is over crowding, and the pressures that puts on the inmates and the C.O.s was something I thought would be visually compelling.

They chose the fourth option, and I just ran with it. I love drawing crowds of people and trying to make them all look like unique individuals with stories of their own. Essentially, I'd like you to be feel able to point out any single dude in that shot, and feel like you could read their story and it would be interesting, at the very least, and a compelling tale about a dude, at the very best.

I've been to prisons, I've never been IN prison, but I've been to them. I've even been to the prison they talk about in the article, in Grafton. I've visited, and spent a lot of time paying attention to the convicts, inmates, the Corrections Officers, the other visitors, who's there and the way everything is set up. I didn't use any hard number statistics as a basis for the crowd on this cover. I based this drawing on what I have seen, with my own eyeballs, in my own head, right in front of my brain. Prisons are pretty dehumanizing, and it's easy for people involved to get wrapped up in the systematic details, and what those statistics mean. To loose sight of the vast number of actual lives involved. It's also very easy for people who don't have the first hand experiences of being there and seeing it in person to not think about it, or even give a shit about what's happening. It's easy to glance at an article or catch some seconds long news bite about the system and think "hey- that's fucked up, thank god it ain't my problem. It's all those people that are statistics' problem." When I got assigned this cover, in some small way, I felt like this was an opportunity to silently state "LOOK- this is what we're talking about. THIS is what we're dealing with." I don't know if it worked or not.

Here's the final colors. I think it came out good. I think I saved a palette of swatches in Photoshop just to use for the clothes and skin tones. I knew I wanted it to be pretty colorful, but also limited. Lately I've been using this Color Scheme Designer website to cheat. It's pretty helpful, but I often then go way off into the wilds after setting up the palette.

Here's the final with the text designed by Aaron, which looks awesome. I always do all my text by hand, and I love the way that looks, but goddamn does it look great when another designer spikes it over the net straight into the opposition's faces (yes- a volleyball reference! Who knew?).

Also in the mix over at Scene, I drew this background are for the featured Happy Hour of the week, which runs in the center of the magazine every week. The art stays the same, but the Happy Hours change every week. I drew this pretty big, brush and ink on Bristol Board... 14" x 17", I think.

Here's the colors. This one I knew I could get pretty bright and vibrant. It's always a blast coloring a city scene. It's easily one of my favorite things to draw. There's definitely an opportunity to make buildings and other urban structures just as expressive and characteristic as ...characters. It's architecture and also part of bigger scheme, I think cities lend themselves to articulating something that maybe can't be said otherwise. I have to think about this way more before I keep on typing.

Aaaaanyway, here's a shitty cellular telephone camera picture of the spread in the magazine. I like it. It works.

Next up: MELT megapost.

Dr. Feelgood, Fetko- Get Better!

2011-07-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today (and yesterday), MELT bar & grilled is offering a special benefit sandwich called The Dr. Feelgood Melt, which is a Masaman Curry Chicken sandwich, with chicken roasted then bathed in a sweet and spicy curry, spicy chana del puree (chickpea lentil), mango and golden raisin chutney, and of course... pepper-jack cheese. Vegan and vegetarian options are available, if you don't dig on poultry. 25% of the loot made from these awesome sandwiches goes to Chris Fetko, a Melt employee that had a fierce bicycle accident back in June.

I don't really know Fetko, but I'm pretty stoked to have done this poster and to have been part of this benefit sandwich. The Melt Family is a pretty tight crew, and it's a Family I'm very proud to be a part of (even if, in all honesty, I'm probably more of a "crazy cousin" or "scary uncle" type member of the Melt Family). At any rate, the word was Fetko is a huge Mötley Crüe fan, so the sandwich was names The Dr. Feelgood. That record has one of the very best of all the shitty hair band record covers of that era, so I knew I wanted to include that as part of the art. It's so iconic and memorable, even if you can't stand those catchy but banal jams. I actually had a ball drawing this homage to "The Crüe", switching the snake to a chicken, and adding the Melt logo to the dagger.

Here it is, color, bigger jpg:

Here's the OG Dr. Feelgood:

Fetko's homie, and Melt coworker Jim Allison got to do a little Art Direction here, where I needed to know details about the injured man. I drew this sandwich featuring a depiction of the successful face-plant. These nerds play D&D, so note the percentile D10s- rolling to see how many hit points he lost.

Here's the full color, larger jpg. I hope it meets with approval and is somewhat accurate. I do like being able to include real people into the posters and stuff I do at Melt. It's fun, and the people I use are always super stoked. I usually turn them into robots or animals though. So, there's that.

Here's the scan of the text, which I actually really liked doing. Overall this may have been the most fun poster I've done in a while. Not that the other posters aren't fun, but all the little individual details about this one added up to being a good time. I did have goddamn Dr. Feelgood stuck in my head for a week, though. That was bad.

I wish I had had the chance to post this sooner. I do have a giant backlog of Melt stuff to post. I'll get that up here as soon as I can! Stay tuned!

No Sleep Till Blackbird

2011-07-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Cleveland People: This evening, Thursday, July 28th, 2011, there is an Opening Reception for the first exhibit at Blackbird Baking Company (1391 Sloane, at the corner of Sloane and Detroit in Lakewood). "No Sleep Till Blackbird" is an exhibition of the process and craft of award winning bicycle framebuilder Dan Polito, of Cicli Polito fame and notoriety.

Here's the Press Release:

“NO SLEEP TILL BLACKBIRD”

An exhibition of the process and craft of award winning bicycle framebuilder, Dan Polito.

An opening reception will be held Thursday, July 28 from 7-9:30 at Blackbird Baking Company. The exhibition will run through August 19th during regular business hours. Complete custom built cycles will be on view the weekend of the Criterium bike race (July 28th-31st).

Winner of the Best in Show at the 2009 North American Handmade Bicycle Show, Dan Polito is the man behind Cicli Polito. Working out of his shop in Cleveland, Polito creates custom built bikes that have earned him international recognition and place him among the top steel frame makers in the world. Working at such a level means a lot of all nighters for Polito. In the middle of a seemingly endless night of work, his motto is often, “No sleep till Blackbird”, working until the early morning when the bakery opens its doors and he is one of the first customers.

This exhibition will highlight the process that goes into each custom frame he builds. It will include photos of the process, original drawings, and bike frames. Polito’s most recently completed projects will be on loan for the weekend of the Criterium as it passes by Blackbird’s doorstep Saturday, July 30th.

Blackbird Baking Company is flattered to provide the food for this process and is pleased to present this intimate look at Polito’s craft. After several years in the bakery business in Portland, Oregon, Tom Clark returned to his hometown to open Blackbird with his wife, Adria, a Portland native. Open in July 2009, it is an artisan bakery specializing in European bread and rustic pastries. More information can be found at blackbirdbaking.com

Blackbird is one of the sponsor’s of Lakewood’s Criterium bike race. A Criterium is a form of high speed bike racing covering less than a mile and reaching speeds up to 30 miles per hour. The Lakewood Criterium will take place on Saturday, July 30th in the west end of Lakewood. There are several racing categories with the first race beginning at 1:00. More information can be found at lakewoodcriterium.com.

I've known Dan a long time, worked with him in the past, and been able to observe from arm's length as he worked, built, and developed, while at the same time I've been working and building on my own path, which has often seemed somewhat parallel. It's pretty inspiring to see him, and Blackbird's Danielle Schroeder (also: my Ladybird), put together this exhibit, which I think comes at the perfect time in both his development and the life of the Bakery.

It's going to be a great show, and this opening party is going to be a really great time. If you aren't familiar with Dan's bicycles or Blackbird's amazing bakery, this is the perfect opportunity to get familiar and see what they're doing.

Breaking Radio Silence, Part 1

2011-07-01T10:14:00.001-07:00

• May: Ended in a whirlwind of a lot of hard work toward the last half, which was all great and I felt pretty strong being able to demolish all that in the midst of magic missiles exploding all around me. Unfortunately, this left me a little bit burnt out, a little bit exhausted.

• June: Realizing I needed it, I opted to take a slight break and chill for a piece. However, apparently the only thing holding me together was the work- because as soon as I stepped back I quickly started falling apart and crash landed in a pile of burning wreckage. Which was not as much fun as you would think. I still got the work done for Melt and some Red Seven posters done, but mostly by the skin of my teeth. Also, I will be posting those separate, later.

• July: This shit's been ridiculous. Between the 4th being an explosion rich war zone, and the brutal punishment of the earth scorching heat (and I'm not sure why, but I have absolutely no capacity for the heat anymore, due to the way I'm paralyzed I can't sweat, so I get pretty sick just being outside for a few minutes. Then I'm cooked and done for hours on end. I used to be able to handle it for longer periods of time, but not anymore), I'm just now, at the end of the month, starting to feel like I'm fighting my way back to normal. I'm still out of shape- and I'll get rocked every time I have to face the sun, but I've done some real good jobs lately, and got good jobs on the horizon.

I'll be posting some more of the stuff from late May, June and July in the next couple days. I may even dip into some older jams I never got up here before. In the mean time, I'll be drawing hard. Here's some stuff:

Most recently, I've done a couple posters for Now That's Class. I loved doing this because I feel like I was somewhat sharpening my poster chops in a way that I hadn't done in a long time. Melt posters are incredibly awesome, but I don't cut loose with the harsh gangster gruesomeness, or push the weirdness out into the absurd zones like I can for posters like these.

This one is a giant Sludge/Doom Metal show on August 11th, with bands from all over the globe. Pledge of Cain, Dead, Megachurch, The Unstoppable Death Machines, Churches Burn, and Red Sun. I fucked up the "E" in Red Sun and connected the horizontal lines after not doing that on any of the other "E"s.

Toxic Holocaust, Midnight, Holy Grail, Krum Bums. This one, I think worked out really well, even when I wasn't as confident it would, while I was coloring it. I gotta admit, the reverence that younger dudes ascribe to 80s thrash metal is fucking beyond me. I'm just old enough to remember how totally fucking stupid most people were in the 80s, and even though there were some beacons of true grim darkness out there in the spandex wrapped, hair spray tinted, day-glo cocaine storm, I can testify that the 80s pretty much fucking sucked. Then again, I'll probably be saying the same thing about NOW, in 20 more years, or... like, next summer. Goddamn, I hate guitar solos. Though, Midnight rules.

I drew this for this weirdo show. Tiger Hatchery, Moth Cock, Drake/Sceible/Henry Trio, and Dead Peasant Insurance. I had a lot of fun drawing this, I think I'll put the original up in the Shiner Comics Big Cartel store later this week. Dude's eating a Doom Sandwich.

Here's an Asbestos Breath flyer that I liked. What a nut! I bet that was a good show, too.

Here's a poster from waaaaay back in April, for the May 1st show at The Beachland, that The Cleveland Bachelor had me bust out. I'm not sure if the proximity to Cinco de Mayo inspired the use of this pyramid, which I think I based on The Kukulkan Pyramid in Mexico, outside of Sour Soul's home town of Mexico City. I was also riffing pretty hard on Spaghetti Westerns, which... of course. I still have no idea who Village Bicycle or ME is. Not that I'm actively trying to find out.

BEST FOR LAST TIME. This is one of my favorite posters I've done in a while. It was a show that Blue Arrow Records put on, and I knew I needed to include some sort of feline based imagery. I decided on the tower really early, and the band being called The Building had almost nothing to do with that. The cats are all based on The Volcano Cats. I had a really good time making this one. I liked drawing the text.

Thanks for reading. Check back for a lot of drawings of sandwiches, and some type about other junk later. Now get back to work. It's damn near August.

The Cops are on Tour, RIGHT NOW

2011-05-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

People paying attention may remember all those days ago, when I posted about The Fucking Cops' Fuck You Up With Some Truth record that comes with a magazine size booklet, which I did some art for, including a comic adaptation of their noir punk narrative, Gloria.

Here's the second two pages from GLORIA, Part II:

These two pages were a huge huge challenge, artistically. A lot going on and a lot to convey, including a mood and overall emotive tone that I think came across really well. If I had one qualm, I think it would be that my color is a little too ...much. Like, I just went a little bonkers with this one. I like it, but ...yeah. Anyway, I like that there's ways get paid to do comics without actually working in the comics industry.

Here's my homie Asbestos Breath's double page spread from Fuck You Up With Some Truth.

The Fucking Cops are on tour right now, ripping and thrashing their way across These United States of America. There's a Facebook Page for it.

5/19 – Phoenix, AZ – Sound Kontrol w/ Rumspringer
...5/20 – Riverside, CA – Back to the Grind w/ Ross Hughes (Tiltwheel)
5/21 - San Diego, CA - The Soda Bar w/ The Cut Offs
5/22 – Oakland, CA – Mama Buzz Cafe w/ Block Shot
5/24 – Portland, OR - Saratoga w/ Alas Alas, DMV
5/25 – Olympia, WA – the Voyeur w/ Sharkpact
5/26 – Seattle, WA – Galway Arms
5/27 - Helena, MT - Jesters
5/28 – Minot, ND – Pangea House
5/29 – Minneapolis, MN – Hexagon Bar
5/30 – Chicago, IL – Memories Bar (in Portage Park)
5/31 – Grand Rapids, MI- Mulligans Pub w/ Ridiculous Party Behavior
6/02 – Detroit, MI – the Trumbullplex
6/03 – Lansing, MI – The Slytherin House
6/04 – Toledo, OH – Frankies (Get Up Kids/Saves The Day after party)
6/05 – Cleveland, OH – Dag House w/ Worship This, the Credentials

http://www.thefuckingcops.com/
http://www.bigpurplerecords.com/
http://www.kindoflikerecords.com/

If you're in one of these cities on one of these dates, do yourself a favor and go see The Fucking Cops, buy Fuck You Up With Some Truth, say "Yo" to The Cops from your old pal John G, and feel free to feed them/buy them a beers. It will all be much appreciated.

If you're NOT in one of those cities, on those dates, but you still want to get Fucked Up on Some Truth, you can mail order the CD (only $8) or the vinyl LP (only $10) that shit HERE, and they will send it to you in the mail. OR, if you're not a big fan of getting mail and having physical objects that clutter up your shanty, BUT you love digital media and rocking out on your MP3 payer, you can download the Truth HERE for only $6. It's a wonderful record, no matter how you get it.

Say Anything

2011-05-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

It's the second featured time of the month again, the second of May's Late Shift series at The Capitol Theatre, Say Anything, is screening this Saturday night. Melt bar & grilled is offering a special sandwich for the occasion, it's ridiculously verbose name is The I Gave Her My Heart, She Gave Me a Pen Melt. The sandwich has two sides, like the old McDLT, only not really because it's all on one sandwich. At any rate the ingredients are... THE HEART: Artichoke Hearts, Heart of Palm, Spinach and Garlic Strudel, THE PEN: Black Bean Hummus, Sweet Balsamic Reduction, THE CHEESE is Pepper Jack!

I stayed pretty close to the OG Say Anything poster. I just boosted up the Lloyed Dobler, but probably could have gone further. I'm not a huge fan of doing the likenesses, it's difficult as hell to nail the look and expression on a really recognizable face, but it is fun to try. I watched Say Anything while I was working on this, and I was pretty surprised at the Fishbone references and how much Fishbone music was in the movie.

I'm probably not going to the Midnight screening of Say Anything on Saturday, but I'm definitely planning on going to the Midnight screening of Pirates of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides tomorrow night. In 3D. I know, I know, pretty much everyone I know is totally sick of Pirates... well, NOT ME. Fountain of Youth? SOLD. Mermaids? SOLD. Ian McShane as Blackbeard? SOLD. 3D? At a movie theater in rolling distance from my house? SOLD. I'm taking the night off and going to watch that madness!

The Commodore, 50/50

2011-05-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

This Friday is the 50/50 Show over at 78th Street Studios, in a gallery called smARTspace. You can get there off W. 80th just North of Lake Rd, which runs between Detroit and where Clifton enters the Shoreway. Follow the sirens and plumes of smoke.

Some of my favorite artists will have pieces in this show, I might add some links to this post later.

My piece in the show is this drawing of a tiger wearing a sweet coat and smoking a cigar. This is a Clevelyn stories character named Rafeeq, based n a real guy everybody knows who goes by R.A. Washington. I called it The Commodore because I gave the name tag "PERRY". It's 11" x 17", brush and ink on Bristol Board. Only fifty bones.

Den of The Volcano Cats

2011-05-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

East Side Victory: Year One

2011-05-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

I as going to wait until May 21st to post this, but I feel like jumping the gun a little and get it up online today. The East Side Melt bad and grilled opened a year ago, this month. To celebrate, I drew this poster featuring the return of the Dog Soldier from the East Side Invasion poster.

Going propaganda can be tricky for a couple reasons. Firstly, while the source material was stronger than a Yeti, aping that style is the most cliché, overused, go-to for lazy designers, and can so easily fall face first into the deep end of the snooze-pool. Seriously, it's an epidemic of weaksauce out there, ripping off the propaganda poster style, especially of the Soviet kind. That's the other main reason to steer away from the aesthetic, it's so blatantly political, and not just in a good way. I avoided Soviet Propaganda, and specifically looked to the design leanings of the poster art from the WPA Program during the Depression and then World War II era in the United States. I know Melt still took some flak over these posters, being accused of warmongering and whatnot.

My initials sketch was super rugged rough, as I had an image in mind, but I wasn't really 100% on if it would work or not- just needed to get a better idea of what it would look like on paper. Some ideas are better than others- and even though by now I'm pretty good at gauging what works in my head, sometimes I'm still kinda way off. I think this one was good though. This is actually drawn really really small.

Second attempt was drawn a little bit bigger, with slightly more details, and quickly getting a better idea of where the text should go. Still really rough, but drawn about half the size of the final. After this I just blew this version up on my copier and then used a lightbox to redraw it on a piece of Bristol Board.

Here's the finished inks. I drew it mostly with a brush, then went it with pens to add the details and the cross hatching, then splattering the thing with ink using an old toothbrush and my fingers. I used to be really into flags, for a while. I feel like I used to incorporate them into my fliers and posters a lot more. Right now, hanging off the front of my house is the flag of Commodore Perry, most famously flown from the Lawrence and Niagra during the Battle of Lake Erie.

Here's the final again. I was just at the East Side Melt again last night, and had a blast. It's such a great spot to hang. We even got to slam that Banana Split Bread Pudding, which: DUDE... astronomical.

These posters are only available at the East Side Melt, but you can also order an archival print at the Shiner Comics Big Cartel Store, as well as archival prints of any of my posters, various original drawings, and my other zines and stuff.

Mas Gatitos

2011-05-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

Space Monkey Banana Split

2011-05-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

This month the Bread Pudding at Melt bar and grilled is a Banana Split Bread Pudding. I haven't had it yet, but I'm sure it's completely ridiculous. So this month for the table cards I drew a Space Monkey on the mission to hunt down at capture the ever evasive Enormous Martian Banana-nana.

I very very loosely based this little guy on an amalgam of this space monkey from this flier I drew a long ass time ago, HERE, and this even earlier flier I drew with a space-man piece that's based on Rick Remender's Fear Agent, HERE.

I'm selling the Original Drawing of this one, HERE, in the Shiner Comics Big Cartel Store, which I've also updated with some more stuff. The Original of the Bike Rider from last month's dessert cards is also still available.

Back to WORK!

PRIME TIME: Winner and Still Champion!

2011-05-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

Melt bar and grilled's special for May is the Return to The Ring of the Flavorful Fan Favorite, the Bout Ya Can't Live Without, the Beef That's Got Beef, The Prime Time Prime Rib Melt.
The Prime Time Rib Melt!
Tender prime rib slow roasted with a cracked black peppercorn spice crust.
Sliced thin and stacked with cheesy roasted garlic mashed red skin potatoes and provolone cheese.
Zippy horseradish sauce and a deliciously rich au jus for dipping.
Vegetarian and vegan options!

With this poster, last year I kicked it off with a boxing fight style poster, juxtaposing a Bull versus a Rooster dressed as a Matador. This year, I decided to pay the ol' homage to one of the most famous boxing photos of all time. From when Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston in the first round of their rematch (it's kind of a deceptive photo actually, watch this).

So this month, instead of a diptych I did a black and white version, as a further homage to the piece.

Here's the line art, brush and ink drawing on 11" x 17" Bristol Board:

Here's the finished colors of the piece:

I did a couple other posters and some other art for Melt this month, so look for blog postings about them later this week. I know I don't post nearly enough, or take the time to type up nearly as much about these projects as I wish I could, but there are things to be drawn and things to be printed.

MEGACHURCH Kickstarter, Still Time to Get Saved

2011-05-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

MEGACHURCH has launched and already achieved a kickstarter fund drive to raise the loot to produce their new record.

This is the rough of what I'm working on for the album art for this new record, which will be a continuation, and actually somewhat of a prequel to, the art I did for their first record. Which, it's an incredible record and you can still buy HERE. I probably didn't hype that record enough when it came out, or since, but it's really great and it's some artwork that I'm really most proud of. Speaking of that artwork... even though they've met their goal, it would still help out a LOT if you're interested in pre-ordering their new record and getting some of the awesome incentives for their Kickstarter project. Namely, you could get the new record with the digital download version, the CD of the record too, this awesome version or their first record that's been converted to 8 Bit Nintendo style music by the band called MEGACHIP (Read about it HERE!), and a 16" x 26" poster of the art from their first record. You've still got about 38 hours left to get in on it!

The BELIEVER Package is still available! For a mere $500 you would be the one to get the original, huge, 17" x 28" black and white line art drawing of the preacher riding the dragon I drew for their first LP, which they will get custom matted and framed just for you!

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This is that line art, if you're curious I can provide higher resolution jpgs. Here's a photo I took with my phone:

Here's a quick color pass I took for the cover art for the new record. This will be the front an back of the record sleeve. I'll be posting the finished art as soon as it's done and be writing more about the process.

Fuck You Up With Some Truth

2011-04-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Fucking Cops are putting out an awesome 12" EP/CD Fuck You Up With Some Truth, and having an awesome release show for it at Now That's Class. Local heroes All Dinosaurs are also playing, with Filmstrip kicking off a month long tour of the Este de los Estados Unidos. Seriously, if you live in Florida- Go see Filmstrip, tell them John G sent ya. Also, Field Trip is playing and I know absolutely nothing about them.

Dudes, Big Purple Records has really gone above and beyond for this release. I loved The Fucking Cops last record, You Have The Right To Shut The Fuck Up. So I was pretty stoked to be a part of it when they asked me to contribute art to this one. With both the record and CD you get a magazine sized booklet where all the lyrics pages are laid out by different artists. I worked with their guitarist/singer Jon Rybicki to make some songs, Gloria and Gloria Part II, into a series of comic pages that go along with the narrative of the songs.

Listen to Gloria via this handy Bandcamp thing-a-majigg:
Fuck You Up With Some Truth by The Fucking Cops

Jon specifically wanted a film noir approach to it all, and being a pretty deep noir appreciator, I was happy to get gritty with it. They have this whole concept in mind for a much longer story, but as they compose each song, they're really just revealing one act at a time. It's serialized crime drama by way of pop-punk pulp bangers. Here's the first two pages, I'll post the second story after the record's out:

The other artists involved are Jason Lubrano, Lauren Measure, Shannon Sullivan, my homie Asbestos Breath, and more. I actually saw the books being printed while I was at the print shop for other reasons, and it looks really really awesome. That, coupled with how great this band sounds, makes this one of the more exciting things to be coming out of Cleveland in 2011. I can't wait for this show, and this record.

Magenta Vapor Stew

2011-04-21T21:17:00.001-07:00

There's this Doom/Sludge band from Providence, Rhode Island, The Body. Going full on pink/magenta vapor stew might run counter to the typical Doom/Sludge packaging for the metal-head masses, but I guess I feel like there's room for it in the Doom/Sludge dynamic. Why the hell not?

Self Destruct Button needs no explanation from the likes of me, but if you haven't seen them, now's your chance!

Griefhound, I've never even heard of. Looks like members of Snuff Film.

I had a vision of drawing a telephone pole with transformers on it, cables and wires leading off panel into the future and past, but I didn't really have a good reason to draw it until Paul at Now That's Class shot me this poster gig. I had just looped out on these sick post-apocalyptic action figure/models by this gnarly Korean (I think) dude named BHead.

I gave it a once over with the colors, spent some time trying to keep it simple, which was actually a huge challenge. I can't believe how hard it is to keep things simplified. I tried maybe four different gradient and brushy approaches to the sky, but it always looked too busy, or clashed with the pole itself.

I drew the text and made a splatter field to scan and use as texture on the poster, this was on a sheet of 11" x 17" copy paper that I just tore apart. I don't think I spent a whole hell of a lot of time on this.

As you can see, I added the texture and left it actually super subtle this time. I already knew how shitty it looked for there to be too much else going on with this piece, but I did want to add a little something to make it slightly less straight forward and as much of a snoozefest. Here's the final, with text, again.

This poster, along with two other posters and ten pages from a comic I made, will be hanging in an art show, Illustrious, that opens tonight, Friday the 22nd of April, at Wall Eye Gallery. I posted about it: HERE. Wall Eye is at 5304 Detroit, kind of over by the Happy Dog, where there will also be some kind of benefit show that The Pleasure Leftists is playing.

Stormbringer

2011-04-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Stormbringer Pages 1 - 10

An excerpt from a comic book about a Solomon, the Heavy for a small time criminal, as he does his job and ruminates over his environment, his youth, and a critical moment that changed things, as he feels another such moment eminent. Stormbringer is a chapter in the Clevelyn series of stories, originally presented in Shiner Comics anthologies volumes 1 and 2, and the supplemental zine, Heart's Blood.

These pages will be hanging at Wall Eye Gallery in the show, Illustrious, (I posted about it HERE) from April 22nd to 29th, 2011. There will also be a mini-comic print version of this piece available, which I will also make available in the Shiner Comics store when I get them in hand.

I am still slowly working on this story, but unfortunately, it is kind of on the back burner. The entire thing is almost 40 pages, so I think I could definitely finish it before Genghis Con at The Beachland, on November 26th this year.

Illustrious Opening at Wall Eye

2011-04-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Friday, April 22nd, at Wall Eye Gallery (located at 5304 Detroit Ave), the opening for Illustrious, an art exhibit dedicated to Illustration, is happening in full effect. The list of contributors is pretty awesome, and though I haven't seen the show yet, I'm assured it's incredible.

There's a facebook event for it, HERE. There's a video on Cool Cleveland, HERE.

For my contribution to this group show, I'll have two different things hanging. One is the original art or the first ten pages of this comic I've got on the back burner called Stormbringer, which I will posted about separately HERE. Please do check out those pages.

The second is a series of three recent posters for upcoming events; a niche genre rock show at an west-side punk bar, a higher profile punk showcase (part of a four day long music festival) at a larger venue in Austin, Texas, and a fund raising/awareness building night for a regional non-profit at an east-side ballroom, presented side by side with the original line art, and a smattering of the process materials (sketches, lettering, ink splatter used for texture). Here are the posters. Again, like Stormbringer, I'll post about these sparately:

I posted about this one, here: Magenta Vapor Stew:

In addition to this show, there's also a great show, Justin Durand's Strawberries, opening at Proximity, over on E. 40th and Payne. I wish I could go to both, but I think I'll be at Wall Eye pretty much all night. There's the facebook event page for that: HERE.

The Queen Mother and Sweet Moses

2011-04-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Just a short post right quick to give a heads up for this Saturday's Midnight screening of Sci-Fi seminal ALIENS at The Capitol Theatre, and the cross-promo sandwich over at Melt bar & grilled, The Queen Mother Aliens Melt! It's Calamari dusted with cornbread and brown rice flour then fried to a golden brown, Roasted Spicy Poblano Pepper Jam, Roasted Garlic Lemon Aioli, Garlic Herb Cream Cheese.

ALIENS was the movie that taught me how to swear. Sometimes I feel kinda like a lazy bum with the ninepanelgrid blog. I should be up on here way way more often posting art and the what's what. Trying to stay on top of it lately, but find myself too focused on doing the art in the first place. One of my homies in the game that I got mad respect for, Dave Crosland, AKA: King Gum, has been on the warpath his an almost daily blog called Alphabet Attack, and CLEARLY he was as influenced as I was by ALIENS, Check this piece: Heroic Hicks!

I'm going to take this last moment to HIGHLY RECOMMEND, while you're down in the neighborhood, after you've grilled down on dinner at Melt, hotfoot your way over to Sweet Moses up on Detroit between W. 67th and W. 69th Streets. It's an old school soda fountain and ice cream shop. They make all their ice cream and it's all freaking amazing. I've been there twice and both times had a blast and ate some incredible treats.

First time my girl and I went, for the soft opening, I had a root beer float (pictured above). This past Saturday night we went and shared a couple sundaes. One was The Shoreway, coffee ice cream with hot fudge, toffee chunks, and almonds. The other was a scoop of Banana Foster ice cream with peanut butter and marshmallow sauces, and Spanish peanuts. I wish we had taken some pics of that but we housed them so fast it was an impossible. The taste of the ice cream itself is really strong and distinct. It's delicious, and balances really well with the richness of the sauces.

Laughing Gas

2011-04-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Best Of Party Art

2011-04-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

This is a supplemental piece I did for Scene's Best Of party. This goes with the initial ad for the issue, and the actual art for the issue. What I knew was that there would be Burlesque Girls and Fire Dancers, that they wanted it to be set at night, and that it should match the Best Of material I had already done and been working on. Other than that I was told to go crazy.

I think I like the black and white version better, but I did color this piece very quickly. I probably should have spent some more time on the colors, colors are tricky, but ...them's the breaks. I like that I had the opportunity to use the Roxy Burlesque, which is kind of cool. Recently, William Rupnik Gallery had some of their awesome old posters available. I didn't make it to the party. I wanted to, but there was just too much else happening. I bet it was pretty insane.

The Future is Now

2011-04-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

I posted this ad I did, HERE, almost a month ago, promoting Scene Magazine's Best Of Cleveland 2011 issue, and it's finally here, out there in the world, right now.

Here's the cover art without any text on it, I think I'll pull back the curtain a little bit on this particular piece and reveal some of the process. This is easily the most visible, and honestly, I spent a lot of time on it. Not that I didn't spend a lot of time on the other pieces, but this is the cover and needed to be the most Next Level of all the Next Level jams and moves being made on this project. Also, this particular piece goes back the farthest.

Basically, the production manager at Scene emailed me and asked what I would do with Best Of Cleveland 2011 The Future Is Now and asked for a quote. I've done the Best Of issue before, back in 2008. That seems like a really long time ago, now. So I knew what goes into doing all the art for an issue like that, and how good it could be. I pulled myself up to my drafting table and roughed out a couple quick ideas, then threw some color on them in photoshop. I think about the future a lot, in general, but also in the context of Cleveland. Sometimes I think this is it, that we are, in deed, living in the future. And we ARE. Temporally speaking, we are always living in the future of the past, right now in the present. But when you think about the anticipation of building up to something, when you have a moment of clarity in your mind's eye, and that moment hasn't happened yet- it's real in the future. Not yet.

Well, Cleveland, this is what you've been building up towards, here's your moment of clarity. No longer trapped in the yet to be. It's happening, whether you're ready for it or not, welcome to the future. I chose two options, because the perspective can go either way. You can either look up at it, from the ground level, watching the spiraling towers reach for the heavens, or look down on it- from the god's eye view. The advantage of the god's point of view would have been to be able to see in actuality where the new projects like the Medical Mart and the downtown casinos are going to be. It would have made the cover a lot more green, which is definitely a direction I think this city is going to go. I've used this perspective before, and I've used it since I did this. However, I'm glad the ground level perspective was the one that got the nod, because I liked it a lot more and I think it was what was needed to make this crazy idea, this sci-fi look at a familiar place, a place the people I'm trying to reach call home, as approachable, relatable, and visceral as possible.

On a snowy, crummy day, I rolled down to Scene HQ and met with the team. I think they may have been scared of me a little. I mean, I put on a shirt with buttons and everything, but I'm bearded and kinda wild and live in a Volcano. Everyone was really excited and positive though.

SO- after getting approval for the project and the cover, I did this more comprehensive, yet ...still actually really rough drawing for this piece. At this point, I also started on the other interstitial art for the five sections: Arts & Entertainment, Food & Drink, Shops & Wares, Sports & Recreation, and People & Places. I knew I wanted to vary the perspective and keep the theme of overgrown vegetation mingling with technology and hype the interaction of people and environment. It's something I did on this triptych for Waterloo last year around this time, HERE. I wrote about it then.

Here's the brush and ink line art. It was a matter of spending the time with it. I took it upon myself to dig deep for this one. This image, completely fantastical, needed to be rooted in a place that I knew well enough to represent as if it were real. I love Cleveland, and downtown, and even though it's supremely frustrating to park down in Tower City, I like it. I like that the parking lot, and garage, tucked under the buildings and everything feels like it's ancient ruins. But that's not what this piece is about, this is about what it could be if there were no parking garage and the entire city grew out of a place that was vibrant and bustling. This drawing is on a 14" x 17" sheet of Bristol Board, and I used a Winsor & Newton Cotman 222 series #2 brush and Speedball Super Black India Ink, then went in with a .01 Micron pen and did the details, then splattered a little bit of ink with a tooth brush on it. I'm not sure how long it took total, but it was a long time.

Okay, so that process, I repeated more or less for each section, here they are:

PEOPLE & PLACES: This is an approximation of what's been going on down on East 4th street, only ...not really. I've actually only been down there once during the day, and had lunch on the patio of The Greenhouse. Back in the day East 4th used to have a lot of wig shops on it. Seriously. I liked to think of it as the "wig district". At any rate, I snuck in the logo for Blackbird Baking Company, even though they aren't anywhere near E. 4th, nor mentioned in this section. But that bakery is, by far, one of the best places in Cleveland, and run by some of the best people (Full disclosure: my ladybird works there).

FOOD & DRINK: From memory, I only really looked at a photo reference after having laid out the drawing, I tried to capture one of my favorite places in Cleveland, Le Petit Triangle Café over on Fulton just off of Bridge. There's something specific about that patio, and it's really a great restaurant.

SHOPS & WARES: This is clearly My Mind's Eye, over in Lakewood. I'm pretty glad I was able to get Charles in the mix, but in the printed magazine he's covered by text. Which, also in this image is the Megachurch record and a fake record by a fake band I like to call The Francis Scott Keys, also Goat Cheese, Keelhaul, Beckett, Dominic, and Zip.

SPORTS & RECREATION: There's a Skate Park actually planned for the Flats, right by the rowing association's secret hide-out, but that's not what's the most important part of this piece. The central figure is a dude I knew by seeing him around a lot, almost every day for a long time. He was integral to the best bar in America, Now That's Class, and he worked at Gypsy Bean which I frequent ...frequently, but he was also a huge part of the skateboarding community, though which I am pretty unfamiliar with, as a former BMX Rider I have a lot of respect for. I can't say I was friends with Jerry Malafa, but a lot of my close friends had really deep love for him. I feel like doing this, the art for this issue of Scene, was an opportunity to shed some light on the Cleveland that I live in, the Cleveland that I experience. The Cleveland that maybe isn't as in touch with the Tribe or Browns when you mention the words "Sports" and "Recreation", but has a pretty keen awareness of the importance of the other parts of the city that make it what it really is. A place where you can live and give, and love what you love without apologies. You can work hard and play hard and grow into it and be as much a part of Cleveland as you want, then be remembered fondly by all the people you came across and whose lives you touched. This was my opportunity to pay my respect to a true Clevelander, that even though I didn't know maybe as well as I should have, I'm positive was exemplary of all of those things.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT: I spent a year working in a studio space in the strange and wonderfully weird buildings now known as Tyler Village. They knocked down these warehouse/garage buildings to make room for parking. I once saw This Moment in Black History play a show in one of those warehouse/garages and it was awesome. I also saw a show at MOCA, where they projected video onto a screen behind the band performing and that was awesome. Those two experiences informed this piece more than anything else. I think it's a good thing that there are places that can facilitate the next level of creative interaction. That's something that maybe gets overlooked here, or wrapped up in politics and money, or almost gets co-opted by nefarious interests. I think every neighborhood in Cleveland is trying to attract "the arts", though I'm not certain I understand what that's supposed to mean other than it sounds better than saying you're trying to attract "industry". All I know is that somewhere there's an empty factory, or a vacant warehouse, and someone's got the keys, and someone gave the night watchman a pizza and a six pack, and someone's going to draw a poster that tells all the people that know enough to look at such things to go to that warehouse and bring their friends, and someone's going to plug in an amplifier and maybe project someone drawing live on the giant screen hanging behind the band. And it's going to be awesome.

I've been typing for way too long. If you're interested, I'll probably be posting a bunch more art and stuff soon, so stay tuned, and feel free to comment or give me a shout.

Alright, Cleveland. Welcome to the Future.

None More Corny, The 2011 Version

2011-04-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

April brings the return of The extremely popular Corny Beast to Melt bar & grilled. People love this sandwich! Here's what Melt has to say about it:
THE CORNY BEAST
Our wicked version of the almighty corn dog! An ultra jumbo all beef dog char-grilled and stuffed into the sandwich with double american cheese. Slathered with our special cornbread batter the deep fried to a rich golden brown. Served with chipotle ketchup for dipping.

I really wanted to go with dog based imagery, but also knew that today, April 1st was the Home Opener for the Cleveland Indians. So I wanted to somehow incorporate that. The Corny Beast happens to be my longtime homie, and fellow Melt connoisseur, Fred Gunn's favorite Melt Sandwich. Also, his dog Lennon is a killer (as you can see). You may remember Fred from the old So Cow poster I did for Cleveland Bachelor. With this side of the diptych, I used an old photo of the ancient Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

For the opposite side of the dippy, I went with my friend, and Friends of The Cleveland Kennel Generalissimo, Becca Becca Becca and her dog Peanut, The Nut. You may remember Peanut from the Smooches and Pooches poster I did last Valentine's Day. I used google street view to grab a reference for Progressive Field, and got to drawing.

The Desserts are staying the same, so you have another 30 days to get yourself a Thin Mint Bread Pudding!

I'll be putting the original drawing for this Dessert Card up in the Shiner Comics Store soon, but it's $26 (shipping included) if you're interested. The Octopus is still available!

I have another thing to post about today, I did all the art for this week's Scene Magazine Best Of issue (on stands now) and a couple other things on the horizon. It's been a busy year up in The Volcano!

Weapon Drawn

2011-03-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

Russian Roulette Frankenstein Melt

2011-03-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

Available this Friday, March 19th, and Saturday the 20th, is The Russian Roulette Frankenstein Melt at Melt bar & grilled! This is such an awesome idea, and I'm really glad I was able to be a part of it, but it is pretty insane. The idea is that you order the Frankenstein, choosing your cheese, and your server will bring you a deck of 30 cards with various random Melt Add-Ons, of which you will pick four. Those four Melt Add-Ons will be your sandwich.

This, along with Machine Gun Joe's Sloppy Joe Melt of course, ties in with the midnight screening of Death Race 2000 at The Capitol Theatre, on West 65th Street, as part of Cleveland Cinema's Late Shift series. Death Race 2000, dudes. Roger Corman, a Cult Classic.

I really like this Death Race 2000 poster. I love the text. I tried to aproximate it as best I could but still do something slightly different. I think it worked. I gotta admit, I'm kind of in love with the fact that after doing a bunch of these movie posters I'm accruing a lot of versions of the works MELT bar & grilled in various type-styles and logos. It's fun.

Here's the final black and white line art for this poster:

Wait.... what? Enough with the art? Graphic design blathering is a boring snooozefest? What? You want to read more about the actual sandwich? The Russian Roulette Frankenstein Melt? Okay, okay... what do you want to know?

What are the 30 different Melt Add-Ons???? What various random food elements could end up on your Frankenstein Melt????? GOOD QUESTIONS, I'm glad you asked!

Here's the full sheet of the cards, arranged in suits and numerical order:

Here's the list, in case you can't read that jpg, not in any particular order:

1. Burger - grilled, blackened or diablo style
2. Chorizo
3. Chicken - grilled, blackened or breaded
4. Smoked Turkey
5. Ham
6. Bacon
7. Salami
8. Pepperoni
9. Pierogi
10. Spinach
11. Peanut Butter
12. Veggie Burger
13. Steak
14. Jalapeño Peppers
15. Fried Tofu
16. Napa Vodka Kraut
17. Caramel Port Onions
18. Fried Egg
19. Garlic Portabellas
20. Avocado
21. Double Cheese
22. Pickles
23. Roasted Red Peppers
24. Sweet Slaw
25. Hand Cut Fries
26. Grilled Tomato
27. Roasted Vegetables
28. Grilled Banana
29. Fried Twinkie
30. Special Sandwich Main Ingredient

I assigned the different Add-Ons their card by drawing randomly from a deck of cards. Actually, believe it or not I didn't have a deck of cards so I used random.com's deck shuffler.

I drew the cards all out using grids, which is always ...rules. PUN INTENDED.

Inking the letters, sometimes you gotta go bananas, ignore the pencil, and make it pop. I shot these pictures with my iPhone. Not the best way to convey the graphic process, but it's what I got. 9 of Diamonds, a 1 in 30 chance of getting Grill-B's on your Frankenstein.

I actually ended up printing them in house on my Epson R1800, on 13" x 19" sheets of matte photo paper. I could only print single sided, so I had to also print the backs out then cement them together before laminating them and trimming them down.

I did all the drawing by hand but then colored them in Photoshop, which was fast for each card but then took forever to get through all 30. If you would like to check out the individual cards, I uploaded bigger jpgs of them all to this album here: FRANKENSTEIN CARDS.

There's the whole deck, laminated and ready to start making sandwiches! Seriously, how awesome would it be to end up with a Peanut Butter (Queen of Diamonds), Grilled Banana (9 of Diamonds), Bacon (7 of Clubs), and Fried Twinkie (Queen of Hearts) Melt? It would be FREAKISHLY AWESOME.

Here's a big giant jpg of my favorite card, the Queen of Clubs. The implication is that yes, these cards will now and forever be available for you to make a Frankenstein Melt any time you go to Melt and have no idea what you want on your gourmet grilled cheese sandwich. One of the Add-Ons you pick at random might be whatever the Special of The Month's Main Ingredient is... this month it would be Fresh Lean Corned Beef from the mighty Reuben Melt.

I encourage anyone that gets The Russian Roulette Frankenstein Melt to head on over to Melt's Facebook Page and report in on what your Melt Add-Ons were and how you liked it. Take a picture with your digital camera or cellular telephone and post it up! This is the Interaction Age, my friends. Take Heed!

In fact, speaking of the Interaction Age... I've been posting more up on Twitter recently, so if you use twitter and would like to follow me, it's @shinercomics Also, if you have some feedback to anything on this blog, feel free to comment on this post, or email me directly jgritty@gmail.com

I still have ONE Worryblind Print available in the Shiner Comics Store. That's a limited edition, and there will be only 4 of them, it's a steal at 40 bucks. Also still available is the Octopus drawing from this month's Dessert cards at Melt. If you're interested, keep an eye on http://shinercomics.bigcartel.com, where I will be posting other stuff soon!

My Machine Gun Weighs a Ton

2011-03-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

One week from right now is the window of opportunity for fans of eating off the hook sandwiches to get to MELT and give The Machine Gun Joe Sloppy Joe Melt a whirl. This is one of two sandwiches that tie into the midnight screening of the 1975 cult classic Death Race 2000 at The Capitol Theatre, over on West 65th Street, as part of Cleveland Cinema's Late Shift series.

Now, on with the details:
The Machine Gun Joe Sloppy Joe Melt

Tender Slow Roasted Shredded Beef
Tangy BBQ Sauce
Fresh Bell Peppers
Sweet Crunchy Slaw
Pepper-Jack Cheese
Vegetarian and Vegan Options

I actually drew the poster with Machine Gun Joe being a lot smaller on the page than he ended up, but realized I could bump him up a lot once I threw down all the text. This piece, of course, in a homage to one of the greatest movie posters of all time, that of SCARFACE. It's been bit on a majillion times by a zillion people, but I still felt the need to flip it a bit and make the suit he's wearing black and have him coming out if the shadows rather than being all white and facing them. Also, I felt like adding some touche of color so it didn't contrast too stark against the drawing of the sandwich. I toyed with the idea of making the art and sandwich black, white and red, but that train never left the station. Maybe I'll go back and try that?

I haven't seen Scarface in a long time, but man... what a great movie. I mean, it does kind of derail for me somewhere near the "Push it To The Limit" montage, but then that montage is so awesome on some level... I wonder if anyone's made a "Push it To The Limit" montage by taking scenes from the old 1932 Scarface, directed by Howard Hawks. I bet someone has. I bet that's out there.

I didn't want to abandon the look of the Death Race 2000 poster entirely, so I spent some time with the text treatments from it and made some moves that I think worked out pretty good. People designing text in the mid-seventies were pretty undeniably awesome. That must have been a totally weird time.

Anyway, if you haven't seen Death Race 2000, it would be totally fun to see on the big screen, and The Capitol is the place to do that. It's an beautiful theater. I might make it out, but honestly, I'll most likely be deep in the Graphics Mines digging up some raw mineral Art to forge into some more posters for you.

Days Future Presesnt

2011-03-06T20:16:00.002-08:00

That's from this week's Cleveland Scene Magazine. One of the bigger projects I'm working on at the moment is all the art for Scene Magazine's Best Of 2011 issue due out March 30th. It's a pretty awesome gig, which I also did back in 2008. To vote for things that you think are the Best Of Cleveland, head over to http://www.clevescene.com, click on the Best Of menu, then the 2011 option. Get your vote on.

Here's a bigger version of the art, which prints a lot darker than I anticipated:

I really liked doing this, I drew the image just slightly bigger than the print version. On the finals for the cover and the rest of the work for the actual issue, I think I'm working at close to 130%.

This time I was able to design the text for the project. I went with these sketchy/technical blocky letters for the main words, and numbers. They don't work for everything, but I like the way these letters function together. I like the way the V and the A are inverted versions of each other.

I made two versions of this, here's the other that I think Scene has used in some older ads for the issue:

I laid these out in Illustrator using a grid of nine rows and nine columns. I started with the word Cleveland and made the C, the L, the E, the V, I already had the E and L, made the A by inverting the V, then made the N and D... Then I made the rest of the alphabet:

After I laid out all the text, I use that as a basis for drawing the sketchy versions by hand. It's the long way around, but in the end I think it looks better. I liked using the nine by nine grid. I think it made for some interesting choices, but there are a couple letters that vexed me, the S and the Z... the U looks... eh. I wish there were better solutions for those letters, but I really like the G and Q. I think I'll us a modified version of these for this year's Genghis Con logo.

Worryblind

2011-03-02T09:11:00.001-08:00

Worryblind is the first in a series of these abstract black and white splatter art prints I'm going to make available through the Shiner Comics big cartel store. I don't have a name for the series yet, but they will all be extremely limited, probably all 13" x 19" archival art prints of matte photo paper.

I've listed Worryblind here: Worryblind

This one is limited to an edition of FOUR prints. That's right, there are only four of them, and that's all. I will never print any more. They are $42 each, which includes shipping. I ship in a padded, enforced envelope, Priority Mail, usually within a day or two of the order.

I will probably be listing one of these a month, for at least a year. This is kind of an experiment. If there is mad interest- I'll increase the numbers of the editions, but keep the price the same (meaning, I won't increase the price based on demand). If after a year they're still something people are into, I'll probably keep going.

I really like these prints. I like making them, and the way they look. I will keep them black and white, and for at least a year I'll keep them 13" x 19". After that, if I've got the opportunity, I'll branch into different sizes/processes.

BUY Worryblind, HERE.

Reuben Melt: Enter The Third Chamber

2011-03-01T11:19:00.000-08:00

Alright, here we go. SO, this is the diptych for the Reuben Melt at Melt bar & grilled for 2011. This is the first of the THIRD YEAR of Melt posters. The last two years, we've gone from doing a single poster for the monthly special that also runs as an ad in Scene Magazine, to doing a diptych for the monthly special (one for each Melt location), multiple posters for the movie tie in specials with Cleveland Cinema's Late Shift Series, multiple ads for multiple media outlets, and monthly table cards for the desserts and specials (with a variation on the specials when the movie tie-in sandwiches are available). It's been a wild escalating ride, but Year Three is looking to get that much more off the hook. We've got some other things percolating, and I think by Year Four I'll be typing up a blog post about the Reuben 2012 from our studios above the Melt Base Restaurant on The MOON.

Here's a link to the Reuben Melt Posters from 2009 and 2010. It's tried, it's true, it's TRADITION:
The Reuben Melt:
Fresh Lean Corned Beef
Barrel Aged Sour Kraut
Zippy Russian Dressing
Swiss Cheese

Here's the rough and tough, afro-puffed jam that took me about ten tries to get right. I knew I wanted to draw a parade for this one, and knew that the dippy-tych layout would allow me to stretch the vantage point a little, but I still wanted to have some depth, rather than a string of characters walking across the posters (which I like, and used for last October's Mom's Meatloaf posters).

Brush and ink, micron pens, splatters, bleeding eyes, cramped fingers... I think this took roughly 10 hours to draw, maybe a little more if I count the layout stages where I was figuring out the angles. I know the parade route doesn't really go anywhere near Public Square or Tower City, but also Robots can't rock like that and Animal People do not exist. It's fun to draw the Terminal Tower, but I kinda wish there were about 20 more skyscrapers in Cleveland.

This was a lot of fun to color, with the very specific pallet for the characters. I think it came out pretty good. I've only ever been to the St. Patrick's Day Parade on accident. One year I scheduled an appointment with the Free Times on St. Pat's, when they were on West St. Claire (or was is Superior? I don't remember). I had a bitch of a time parking and then dodging drinkie 19 year old revelers while navigating the downtown streetscape. I think that was the same day a bum actually offered me money, which gives you a little insight into how awesome my tattered state was at the time. Hobo-esque, like Batman in Year One when he's in disguise.

I'm pretty happy with this text. Sometimes the Melt sandwich descriptions get really wordy, so I instinctively left a ton of room on the poster for the text. It surprised me when I had a TON of room to play with this one. I don't think I used it as effectively as I could have, but at the same time, it works. I like having a bit of negative space. It makes creating the ads easier when I have to resize the art for different proportions.

Here's a slightly bigger version of Side A. There was a lot of confusion about the fact that the posters for each Melt location, and East and a West, were different, and are meant to go together. Especially over the Dude Abides posters. So, from here on out, starting Year Three, we'll just include both locations on both posters so they can hang at both places and people can get the full on dippy-effect and limit the amount of confusion.

My initial intention for doing two different posters was to encourage people to maybe go to both locations, not that the posters are the reason why anybody goes to Melt, obviously the food and atmosphere, maybe the giant beer list, are all what make Melt what it is. However, I thought that it would be an added bonus element for people that are on both sides of town, or are paying attention to the fact that these things are going on. I don't know, I just sensed an opportunity to draw both sides of Cleveland together in a way that was lacking. Ended up just keeping each side of town separate and also confusing everyone at the same time.

Here's Side B! I think my favorite characters on this one are the Robo-Dad and the girl on his shoulders. I also included Lolly The Trolly and the Rocket Car, in this diptych, keeping that Cleveland vibe strong.

I posted the Dessert card art HERE last night, I've got the illustration for that now up in the Shiner Comics Big Cartel Store! You can totally buy that drawing of an octopus eating seven sandwiches. Also, high quality archival prints of all my posters are available, including these Reuben Melt posters, in both 11 x 17 and 13 x 19 sizes. They are signed but not limited or numbered (unless I indicate that they are part of an edition), so they're only $24. Head over to http://shinercomics.bigcartel.com and check it out!

More Melt posters to come later this week! Also, a bunch of other blogging may occur! Stay tuned!

Hot Fudge Thin Mint Bread Pudding

2011-02-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

This is the Dessert side of this month's table cards at Melt bar & grilled, featuring this octopus enjoying seven tasty sammiches. The desserts at Melt are always pretty amazing, but his month's Bread Pudding is a Hot Fudge Thin Mint Bread Pudding:

Let me reiterate exactly what that says, in case you need me to do that:
Chocolate Fudge Bread Pudding
with CHUNKS OF THIN MINT GIRL SCOUT COOKIES
Topped With Thick Gooey Hot Fudge
and a Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream

I can't wait to try this ridiculousness. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I guess they had this last year, but I wasn't making dessert tablecards yet, and I missed out. Not this year!

If you're interested, you can totally BUY THIS DRAWING. It's absolutely for sale, in the Shiner Comics Big Cartel Store: http://shinercomics.bigcartel.com! I've got it listed super crazy inexpensive, in case there's any big Melt/Octopus/Illustration fans out there that would like to own a little piece of art, but wouldn't have the opportunity to hit up an art gallery or commission a drawing.

Housekeeping

2011-02-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

Been grinding but not on anything I can post up just yet, everything is set to go bananas next week. I do have some old jams I could dust off but I think I'll hold back for a minute.

In the mean time, here's some stuff I think you should know about:

Once upon a time, in the Magical Kingdom of Cleveland, a mythical place called Speak In Tongues actually existed, and it was amazing. A lot of messengers and creatures and ghosts and time travelers and crusties and heroes passed through the venue while it was there, and I would imagine that all of those would be hard pressed to have not been affected and influenced by the experience.

I'm not entirely sure I would know how to (or even have the license to) explain Speak In Tongues in a manner any better than that, but fortunately- I DON'T HAVE TO. One of the aforementioned heroes was a photographer named Ken Blaze. He's publishing a book of photographs of Speak in Tongues called Escaped To The Future, and it looks to be pretty incredible.

TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 25th 2011, Ken Blaze is throwing a release party for Escaped To The Future, at Visible Voice Books in Tremont. I know the weather's the worst, and there's FEET of SNOW all over the city, hell- I may not even be able to get to this event (much less out my door), but if you're stalwart and true and curious about one of the most significant cultural anomalies in Cleveland's history, or absolutely spectacular photography, or just want to schmooze and hang tough with others stalwart and true, you should go to this thing. If you can't make it to this jam, you should definitely keep your peepers peeled and grip this book post haste. Seek it out. That's your mission.

So, that flier for the release, drawn by my current collaborator on things Jake Kelly, features my dude Erick. He used to reign in Cleveland, a Speak staple, a weirdo of the highest caliber, but now he's in Brooklyn, NY. Anyway, he's been posting some great shit on Mute Tremors, which I encourage you to check out. The most recent thing is pretty awesome, and involves a confrontation with a doppelganger, which I found pretty humorous because on more than one occasion people confused us as brothers. Weird.

Speaking of doppelganger: Learn How To Defeat Them.

Speaking of Nine Panel Grids, Asaf Hanuka's The Realist has been pretty much straight up amazing for a little over a year. Really great, just start at the beginning and read on. In English, or Hebrew!

Hey, I was sitting on this until I could provide some art with it, but... whatever, I was on another episode of Astound Comics' podcast Comics Are Go! It's episode 56, you can download it or listen to it here: Comics Are Go on iTunes. It was a blast to sit in on the whole episode and rap about comics and movie trailers. Big thanks to Scott, Matt, and Hot Liquid!

Hey. Superman Annual 2011, an 80 Page Giant. The Cover, by Dustin Nguyen:

This came out about a month ago, of note because my dudes Abhay Khosla and Andy MacDonald have a story in it about Jimmy Olson. It's pretty awesome. I wish I had some art to post from it, but I didn't feel like digging around for it. Check out Abhay's comics here: TWIST STREET. You should also check out Andy's Terminator book with Zack Whedon here: TERMINATOR 2029-1984.

This weekend in LA: I have a piece in an art show.

This weekend in Cleveland: All Dinosaurs release a record.

Stay Tuned, more actual art and other stuff next week!

Fleagle Beagle Fan Art

2011-02-19T10:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a piece of quick warm-up fan art for Fleagle Beagle, which has quickly become one of my favorite things on the internet. With weekday updates by my Cheeto sister, Cheeto McCloud, the mastery of the one pager is pretty fun to see develop.

I especially like the little detailed touches, like signs indicating things that are obvious, but maybe not apparent. Or... like a Rat Driving a Shoe (which, I am kicking myself now, being that I drew my fan art without looking at the strip- and see that the rat is indeed wearing sunglasses).

But She Promised That She'd Pay it Back

2011-02-19T00:54:00.000-08:00

This is just something from something that I'm working on. Just felt like putting it up here tonight.

Been drawing a lot. It's 4am, again. My hands are bugging out, eyes hurt, starting to blur... forget about my back, wreckage.

Today, after working for about six hours I realized I didn't know where my phone was. I looked around the studio, the usual suspects and it wasn't there. It wasn't in my hoodie pockets, or my shirt. I went back to the kitchen to see if I had left it on the counter when I made lunch or... even breakfast. Nope. I checked the bathroom to see if I had taken it in there and forgotten it. I hadn't. I looked in the bedroom on the off chance that I hadn't even taken when I got up this morning. Of course it wasn't there. So I started the serious search, looking in my bag and on this futon mat thing I have in the studio that I stretched out on earlier. No dice. I checked this big chair that my ladybird sits in sometimes, and it didn't fall into the seat cushion. I searched a bunch of boxes, and the newly arranged den. I looked on all the shelves in my place. At this point I was moving everything in the studio around, hoping I had just not recognized it. I had wasted all this time looking for it, I had to find it. Who knows what I missed? What calls and texts? Some important time sensitive shit that only I could deal with? I moved the giant futon mat thing, the chair, the boxes under the giant futon mat thing, the covers and pillows off the bed.

Defeated, I was typing up an email to inform my girl I couldn't find my phone when ...*CHIME*... I heard it, the faint sound of my text message alert! somewhere in the studio. I immediately tried to locate the area of the studio the chime came from, but it was so faint it didn't matter. I moved the chair again, cleared off the futon mat, but it didn't matter. No phone.

I remembered that using iChat you could send instant messages to phone numbers, so I logged in for the first time in over a year (at least), and sent myself an SMS message. Waited.... *CHIME*! I swung around to look in the direction the chime came from, but I saw no indication that my phone had mysteriously appeared. So, I tried again. *CHIME*! This time I thought it was coming from another direction all together! Right behind me! So I tried again, but turned around during the lag between sending the IM and the *CHIME*. GHA! It sounded like it came from behind me again! So I tried another IM... *CHIME*! Freaking out a little, I moved everything around again, sent another IM... turned around really quickly... *CHIME*! Every time it sounds like it's coming from somewhere else!

I stop to think for a second. I'm paralyzed, I'm in a wheelchair... the last time I saw it was in the morning when I got dressed... so I transfer out of my chair and onto the futon mat and check the chair. Sometimes I put my phone on the seat when I'm not using it, maybe it had fallen behind or under the cushion? Nope. It then occurs to me to check inside my pants, as I can't feel my legs, maybe I had accidentally pushed it into one of the legs when I pulled my pants on this morning? Not there. I check the floor again, then transfer back into my chair. Defeat. I try the IM trick again... *CHIME*... goddammit, it's RIGHT HERE! SOMEWHERE! Again... *CHIME*. GHA!

Again... *CHIME* I look down, it's coming from the floor! Right in front of me! IM... *CHIME*...

My phone was in my right shoe. The one I had ON MY FOOT. I must have set it in my shoe this morning when I got up and got dressed and didn't realize it when I put my shoe on. Just slipped my foot into it and tied it up, oblivious. I missed three calls and two texts.

*CHIME*

Sixpence

2011-02-17T09:09:00.000-08:00

This is a piece based on Sing A Song of Sixpence for an art show in Los Angeles, called Eat Your Art Out IV, which is Nursery Rhyme themed this year. It's a fundraiser auction for Angel City Derby Girls, with Beat Bee Jane Dope at the helm. The show will be on Saturday, February 26th at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles.

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.

I tried to imbue the drawing with as many references to things in the Nursery Rhyme as I could, and hype them out a little. I was definitely drawn to this story more than other nursery rhymes, Blackbirds being a strong element. Then I opted to just turn the birds into derby girls because it's fun to draw crowds, and it was maybe a better choice over making the Queen and Maid into them. Though, now that I'm looking at it, I could have made them into derby girls and the king a ref... well, better luck next year!

This was planned to be a lot bigger, at 11" x 28" rather than 11" x 17", which allowed me the room to give the King a tower of bricks for him to count his loot, the rye and garden for the Queen and Maid, and then a "pi" sculpture behind the Derby Girl Blackbirds busting outta the "pie". Also, the King had a sword, and I'm not sure why.

I rarely, almost never, do any painting. I love it, but it's time consuming and I feel like maybe I'm not as good at it as I would like to be. I chose a painting for this particular show because the artists roster is truly apeshit bananacakes, including some of my long long time comics friends, and I really didn't want to feel like I was half-steppin' in any way. At any rate, I think this came out pretty good.

Melt Mash Misfire

2011-02-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

Way back in January, Melt did a Korean BBQ sandwich called The 4077 Hawkeye Korean BBQ Melt, I posted about it here a couple weeks ago. I mentioned how I originally thought it was going to be a poultry sandwich involving chicken or turkey, or hawk meat. I drew this homage to the original M*A*S*H poster.

You can tell this process was abandoned early, because I hadn't even gotten to the splatter effect yet. I thought it went well, even though it is kind of a ...potentially less than appetizing idea. Still, this definitely falls into the realm of the level of weirdness I think I would like to aspire to, exemplified by the Rooster Haus or the, by now trademarked, Keelhaul Sabretooth Chicken Bunny. It's 2011, weirdness abounds.

Sweet Desserts

2011-02-09T17:07:00.000-08:00

I've only been doing the tablecards for Melt bar & grilled for a few months, but it feels like I've made a lot of them.

UPDATE: There was a bunch of stuff about type and text and mistakes here, but I cut it out because I fixed it all.

True Story: Yesterday, a seven year old told me about how awesome the Red Velvet Cheesecake is.

I based this table card art on my homies Joe Penzvälto and Carolina Amunátegui. They're good peoples, and I like them a hell of a lot more than most people their age. They love Melt, and I figured they wouldn't mind if I co-opted their likenesses for this jam.

As you can see, they're quite the handsome couple. I've done this before, when I used my other good friends Zip and Gator for a Melt ad.

I don't think I had used any robots in a while, at least not for Melt stuff, and I was feeling kinda like I needed to. Also, I wasn't entirely certain what animal character Carolina would be, and she was a wicked Karen O (who?) for Halloween this past year. Joe as a koala was a no-brainer. Also, I was told that is his "power animal".

Witchfinder

2011-02-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

There's a new Witchfinder comic out from Dark Horse. It's called Lost and Gone Forever, which is most notably part of the lyrics to an American Western Folk Song, Oh My Darling, Clementine. At least, that's what I took it as, this being somewhat of a western comic, featuring an English Paranormal Victorian Era Detective named Sir Edward Grey. The Witchfinder is tied pretty closely to the entire Hellboy universe of comics.

The first volume of Witchfinder comics, In The Service of Angels was really awesome, so I was looking forward to this ever since that series ended. Little did I know it would be drawn by the legendary John Severin.

This was kind of a fast piece, drawn in short bursts while waiting for ink to dry on other things or printers to print, or files to transfer- so it took a couple days to get final, but I think all said and done, this is in the neighborhood of a 90 minute piece. Between the All Dinosaurs poster, the Dude Abide posters, and this... I think I'm addicted to these earthy palettes. I wonder what's up with that?

UPDATE: ~~I added the original drawing to the Shiner Comics Big Cartel store: HERE. Only 26 bones, shipping included. Get it while it's hot!~~

UPDATE 2: SOLD.

JOHN G AVAILABLE PRINTS & ORIGINALS

2011-02-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

I do have a Shiner Comics Big Cartel Store, where I will be posting specific prints and originals that I will be making available, as well as the occasional zines and other items. That site's address is http://shinercomics.bigcartel.com

However, in addition to that store, I think I'll use this post as a listing that I will update as I make things available and changes happen.

All of the posters I've posted on this blog are available as archival digital prints on photo quality matte paper for $24 each, as an 11" x 17" OR a 13" x 19" (Some older prints are only available as an 11" x 14" because of their proportions).

When you place the order please indicate which poster you would like by either band/sandwich name or venue, and the date or year of the event. If you have any questions please shoot me an email at jgritty@gmail.com.

The price includes shipping (unless it's overseas in which case please email me and we can work out the costs). Please allow two weeks for the delivery of your order.

Here's a handy paypal button:

Indicate which size you would like, and also include your address. If you would like multiple prints, I would be happy to work out some kind of deal.

HELL YEAH

2011-02-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

It's Vol. #5 of Freestyle Hip Hop Nite at Now That's Class, now being hosted by Muamin Collective! Sponsored by Rap Snacks! Live DJ! Battles! $2 24oz Olde E cans! $3.50 MD 20/20! Cash Prizes!

My dude, Beckett of Hoodbillies and Gangster Wraps notoriety has been putting on these Freestyle Rap Nites. He requested I draw him, Paul from Now That's Class, and the members of Muamin Collective shooting dice. I think it came out pretty good.

I haven't been to one of these yet, but I think I should probably go. I doubt I'll have time, but I bet these are fun. You should go. You'll have fun.

Applause, Funny Ol' Cleveland

2011-02-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

In addition to our January 18th Around Noon interview, Jake Kelly and I were interviewed on the January 27th episode Ideastream's Applause, on WVIZ Cleveland's PBS station. Watch that by clicking HERE.

In the "Funny Ol' Cleveland" department, I actually have connections to the artists in the other segments. I met Mike Gustovich two years ago at the first Genghis Con. Then again last year, he surprised us all by showing up early, before even we got there, and set up the entire convention floor without us! Also, I went to Horace Mann Middle School in Lakewood with Etch-A-Sketch wunderkind George Vlosich.

Today, Saturday February 5th, from around 2pm to 6pm Jake Kelly and I will be hanging out for open hours at Heights Arts at 2173 Lee Rd, just two doors down from the Cedar Lee. Come on by, say "hi", and check out A Few Hundred Posters. We will probably be doing this on some of the other Saturdays in February while the show is up, so check back for further updates.

Welcome To Ramones Pizzeria

2011-02-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

Melt bar & grilled has gone insane. A third special for a month with fewer days (and that doesn't include the special promotional jam for Valentine's Day, which I won't be doing a poster for). At any rate, February 18th and 19th, Welcome to Ramones Pizzeria:

Open Face Pizza Sandwiches!
Choose one from the Ramones Menu or Create Your Own!

The Joey Ramone 3 Cheese Meltdown
Provolone, Mozzarella and Asiago
The Johnny Ramone Veggie Lovers
Mushrooms, Roasted red peppers, Black olives, Sweet onions,
The Dee Dee Ramone Meat Lovers
Pepperoni, Bacon, Ham, Salami
The Markey Ramone Garlic White Pizza
Herb Cream Cheese, Fresh Tomato, Banana Peppers and Fresh Basil

See Rock n Roll High School, Saturday Feb 19 at The Capitol Theatre, at midnight. Part of the Cleveland Cinema's Late Shift! If you haven't been to one of these, I assure you they're a blast! I've never actually seen Rock n' Roll High School, so I'll probably go to this.

OH, and also down the street from The Capitol. Ramonesmania is going down at The Happy Dog before the movie for Ramones cover bands and true Rock n' Roll High School mayhem co-sponsored by Melt.

Matt specifically requested I use the art for the Ramones record Road to Ruin (originally drawn by Punk Magazine co-founder John Holstrom) for this poster, only set them in a pizzeria, which I promptly forgot about only to remember right after I finished the illustration...

So I used some math and magic to draw a red and white checkerboard tablecloth, a staple of the American pizzeria, in drastic perspective that I could drop in under the drawing of the Ramones, based on this record cover. It was a lot of fun to do this poster, but I can only rock Road to Ruin so many times. I had to migrate back to rap music, and heavier wackier jams eventually. It's funny sometimes I feel like The Ramones' songs are tantamount to children's music, which is a good thing- I think. It's simple and catchy and poppy, but aggro and needy and sometimes poignant beyond anything else being done at the time.

Well, I butchered the language again when I spelled "pizzeria" with an "a", but luckily it was a pretty easy fix. I think at this point, by the time I was working on the lettering for this, I had been awake and working for somewhere around 30 hours. There's a lot of text on this one, but the record cover is designed so well, it was a natural fit for this layout. I really lucked out. Matt could have asked me to base it on the actual movie poster for Rock n' Roll High School. That would have been a distaster! That poster... so crazy.

This is a case where the special is an entirely new sandwich and something Melt has never done before. I had to kinda of fly by the seat of my pants, which... I mean, I've drawn pizza before, and I'm pretty familiar with Melt food, so it wasn't intimidating or anything. I just would hate to have drawn something that is completely inaccurate and didn't represent what the sandwiches look like at all. So, I hope this looks good!

I opted to draw the veggie version, because that's probably what I'll be ordering. Man, I love a good veggie pizza. I think my favorite pizza is Angelo's (I can't even count the amount of Angelo's pizzas I've gotten late at night), but I think Danny Boy's is a pretty close second.

As a pup, I worked at (and grew up at) Lakewood's legendary Bobson's Hardware. Across the street was a Danny Boy's, where Tina's Restaurant is now, and the other dudes and I would get pizzas from them all the time. I remember I really looked up to this one dude, Pat Wadden, and he introduced me to the majesty of Danny Boy's cross between a messy sandwich and a calzone, the "woogie bear". It was an awesome, formative experience.

Man, I love pizza.

The Brat Pack Breakfast Club Melt

2011-02-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

This sandwich sounds ridiculous. For real:

The Brat Pack Breakfast Club Melt
Scratch-made Captain Crunch Infused waffles
2 Fried Eggs
Crisp Bacon
American Cheese
All Dipped in Pancake Batter then Deep Fried to a Delicious Golden Brown
Served with a side of Bourbon Maple Syrup and Pixie Stix!

I never understood the fascination with The Breakfast Club that other people even just a year or two older than me seemed to take as a given. I guess I was always much more of a Weird Science and Ferris Bueller fan for my John Hughes money.

At any rate, go see The Breakfast Club at The Cedar Lee on Saturday February 5th at either 9:30 or Midnight! This is part of Cleveland Cinema's Late Shift. While you're there take a peek at Heights Arts, which won't be open, but you can get a glimpse of A Few Hundred Posters if you're so inclined.

For iconic posters of 80s movies, this one is hard to beat. At least in the non-adventure/non-horror/non-sci-fi movie posters category. Maybe it's the simplicity of it, the hierarchy of characters, or how indicative of the actual story it is... I mean, the movie is just about these characters staying in one setting the entire time. They're not even supposed to doing anything there, either. There are no frills, barely any exterior elements, just interaction between characters. A pile of human interaction. There ya go, there's your poster.

This was a blast to color. I think it came out looking really good and even though I wasn't 100% satisfied with how well I was able to capture the looks of the actors, I think this coloring job redeems that a little. I liked doing this poster. I did have the movie on while I was working on this. I hadn't seen it in a very long time, and even then I don't think I had even paid that close attention to it.

When I was in 9th grade, at Lakewood High, I found myself in Saturday School quite a few times... I had little to no interest in watching a movie about it. A good trick to get out early was always to volunteer when a janitor would ask for some students to help move a piano or sweep a gym or something. Then you would just work hard for ten minutes and they would either let you leave, or send you back to the cafeteria unescorted and you could sneak out and go enjoy your day. Or, in my case, you could go back to work.

I don't think I had ever noticed before, that The Breakfast Club has it's own weird little corporate logo. It's such an early 80's thing, to have a corporate logo, when yuppies were kings and the idea of rising up the rungs of a corporate ladder was the ideal. It's such a great juxtaposition with the themes the film plays with, about identity and individuality, about growing up and belonging to something, a sphere, bigger than yourself but not being influenced by the bigger things that loom just outside that sphere.

In a post a couple days ago, I wrote about the importance of details, and how that can make an image compelling or meaningful in ways that can make a difference. I know it's small, and subtle, probably only the most eagle of eyed grilled cheese fans would notice, but changing the patch on Emilio Estevez's jacket to a Melt logo is a perfect example of what I was talking about. Adding the sandwiches to the characters obviously makes this a "Melt" poster, but adding a Melt logo patch gives it the further touch of a unique, almost subliminal, feel that I think is one of the appeals that makes Melt something people are into, and fans of, definitely not as much as, but along with, the sandwiches and other great food.

Crazy Ol' Matt Fish's early idea for the sandwich was to use the waffles as the bread, we call that "Animal Style", and then batter that with the Captain Crunch infused pancake batter. I think this would have been so awesome, but mostly because back when Melt had a Sunday Brunch menu, they had a Waken Bacon sandwich done Animal Style with waffles for bread, and I loved it, and miss it like a long lost best friend... *single tear rolls down cheek...

HOWEVER, I'm kinda glad that it got changed to the Captain Crunch infused waffle, because Captain Crunch infused pancake batter would have shredded the interior of anyone brave enough to eat this thing's mouth, the poor souls. I didn't mind redrawing it, at this point I think I could draw these sandwiches in my sleep!

I am pretty proud of the colors on this though. I love that it kind if "glows" a little. I think this is one of my favorite of the sandwiches I've done, color-wise.

Okay, enough typing for me today. If you're into this stuff, feel free to "follow" or subscribe to this blog. I've kinda been on a posting warpath and I've got a lot more to get to. I'm going to try and stay on top of it all. Also, comments are always welcome!

Black Eyes

2011-02-02T03:30:00.000-08:00

I just recently found this on a blogpost! I drew this portrait of the Black Keys for Columbus weirdo cartoonist Michael Neno, in his copy of Caveman Diaries Vol. 6!

I actually don't know much about The Black Keys, I had to search for a photo ref on my phone. I'll say this, though, that Blakroc is a hell of a record.

Check out NenoWorld, where you can get order copies of The Signifiers, which is a totally weird blast of bonkers comics! I think Scott at Astound Comics Shop in Westlake may still copies too.

The Dude Returns ...to Abide

2011-02-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

It's February, and there's a new Melt monthly special, and this month I'm on top of it, posting up on day one. I've still got a couple Melt jams that I have to post from 2010, but I'm going to make an effort to keep things more current here from now on. I think people may actually be reading this thing.

AT ANY RATE, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY:

THE DUDE ABIDES MELT, AKA: THE 7-10 SPIT, AKA: THE BALLS & PINS... Returns!
(Now also dubbed THE MEATBALL MASTERPIECE)
This sandwich is awesome! It's:
Homemade Beef & Pork Italian Style Meatballs
Fried Mozzarella Cheese Sticks
Smothered in Rich Basil Marinara
Provolone & Romano Cheese
Amazing Vegetarian Version available

This sandwich was so popular back in December, when it was available for one weekend only, as a tie in with Cleveland Cinema's Late Shift screening of The Big Lebowski, that Melt has brought it back for an entire month. I had the veggie version before, and honestly, I'll probably eat at least two of them in the next four weeks. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This time I drew one big image and cut it right down the middle, much like I did on this Gyakushu diptych I did for RED 7, back in November. Rooster Cogburn was actually super easy and a LOT of fun to draw, The Dude is a fun but also difficult dude to capture though, at least for me it was.

Here's the black and white line art for the sandwich drawing. I've drawn so many of these at this point that I have a huge stack of sandwiches over here in the studio. It's getting a little ridiculous. Every couple months though, I get thrown a curve ball, which I will be posting tomorrow!

Here's the finished colors without the text. I wanted to make this piece as simple as I could, and focus on the characters. I wonder if the Coen Brothers will ever see this insanity. Do you think they're aware of how influential they are, not just on storytelling and film making, but also on sandwiches and posters for sandwiches?

Here's the text, minus colors. I think maybe I botched it on the colors of these on the posters. I think the texture of them gets lost in a way that I hadn't intended. In retrospect I think I know what I could have done differently to improve on that but... I also misspelled "Marinara", which was immediately pointed out on the Melt facebook page, thank you public.... thanks you for pointing that out.Well, for your information I spell words wrong all the time. I misspelled like, 290 of the 35,000 names on the Love Stinks poster (which... (that wasn't entirely my fault, I didn't book that show or give myself the final list to put on the poster, but I should have spent the ten minutes it would have taken to check all the spellings) that show is going to be off the hook, you should definitely make an effort to go, and buy some goddamn art), and 67,982 or the 3,889,278,666 names on the original Lottery League poster. True story: on the very first print run of the very first comic I ever made, way back when I was just a pup, I spelled my last name wrong on the cover. MY LAST NAME. ON THE COVER.

Stay tuned! I have more posters to post later, two more Melt posters this month, even. Maybe THREE. Plus a bunch of odds and ends.

Last Chance, Never Too Late

2011-01-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

That's it, I have to apologize for not getting this up here until today, but TODAY, MONDAY, JANUARY 31st, 2011 is the LAST DAY you can get the Hungry Hungarian Melt at Melt bar & grilled. Here's the lowdown:

HUNGRY HUNGARIAN PAPRIKASH MELT
Tender and Flavorful Pulled Roasted Chicken
Huge Homemade Dumplings
Creamy Paprikash Sauce
Provolone Cheese

This month I went with a sequential narrative based diptych, where we see the before and after of our hero, Mr. Polar Bear shoveling and then warming himself by the fire with a tasty hot bowl of Chicken Paprikash. It's a slight extension of the idea of the Mighty Macaroni Melt posters from December. In that one, the dippy was also sequential but in an action-based immediate way. Both were really fun to draw. I liked doing the contrasting inside/outside shots and schemes. I like depicting a scene that is probably pretty typical to a Clevelander winter experience; the drill of clearing a driveway (which in and of itself can bring a sense of accomplishment) and the eventual reward of finally getting inside and sitting down in the warmth.

Even though today is the last day you can get yourself a Hungry Hungarian, really nice prints of both of these posters, plus the original drawings of both, including the drawing of the sandwich, and the text, and some roughs, with an explanation that maybe goes deeper than I have here, are all hanging at Heights Arts as part of A Few Hundred Posters By John G and Jake Kelly, which will be up through the end of February. In addition to these, both of my Melt Soul Vegetarian posters, plus about 30 other posters, including a bunch more that have originals, roughs, and explanatory accompaniment, AND about 30 of Jake Kelly's originals (some of which have the explanations with them), AND a giant monolithic installation piece in the center of the gallery completely covered with both of our work from floor to ceiling. It's quite an art exhibit. I'm planning on being at the gallery for open hours on Saturdays through out the month.

I think what a strive for in a lot of these pieces, is the details. It's the details that are compelling and sell the ideas. The cat watching the food (maybe hoping for some renegade paprikash to try and make a breaak for it that she can get her fangs into?), the boots by the fire, the pink slippers, the shovel from the west side poster with the snow still melting. Jake Kelly tried to nail me on the fact that the house depicted in the west side poster couldn't be the Polar Bear's house because the chimney is in the dead center of the house from the exterior but it's only along one wall on the interior. I had to explain to him that the Bear's house has more than just that room, and that there's a hall beyond that fireplace, a bedroom, a kitchenette, but what we're seeing is the den. Mr. Kelly remains skeptical.

I totally forgot to post this forever ago, I think this was for Scene Magazine's Best Of 2010 issue last year. This ad is based on the cover Primus' record Sailing The Seas of Cheese.

I took a lot of liberties with it, which was a total blast to draw. I loved getting to play around with the weird longer format.

Earlier in the month M*A*S*H was the Late Shift film at the Capitol Theatre. So the 4077 Hawkeye Korean BBQ Melt was the tie-in sandwich. I missed out on both, just from being super busy, but I heard very good things about the sandwich. I thought thiswas originally going to be a poultry sandwich, hawk-meat or something, so I drew the OG MASH poster of the lady's legs with the peace sign hand with the helmet on the finger tip, but drumsticks instead of the legs... but it ended up being beef. So I went with an homage to this DVD cover art or whatever this is:

Lastly, I drew this elephant for January's desert cards that are on the tables at Melt. We've been doing these for a while now, and I really like the absolute freedom of them. I like them because they just are what they are. I wonder if people steal these off the tables?

I still have a mountain of work to do... at the moment I think I've slept maybe like, 4 hours of the last ...72 ...96? So after this I'm going to take a nap before getting back up to my elbows in work. I have a piece for a group show in LA, a fistful of posters, a weird apparel design gig, a pretty prominent illustration gig, and a physically huge collaboration with Jake Kelly to get done. And a couple comics things. Also, not to let the cat outta the bag too early, but a second record cover for a monumental Cleveland band. I have a ton of art, and maybe a story of two, to post up in the next few days, so stay tuned!

If you're waiting to hear back from me about something, or waiting on prints, I'd like to publicly apologize and promise that I'll be getting to everything this week! I truly am sorry I've let a few things slide, but Hang Tough like New Kids... I gotcha back.

EDIT: I'll add links to this one later.

Cleveland Panel Grid

2011-01-31T10:45:00.000-08:00

Nine Letters to a name. Nine chances by design: three beginnings, three middles, three ends. It's the prefect foundation, the perfect building blocks to tell a story. To say something. To get it right. For math and magic.

It's time for proto-logo works. Still in progress. As you read this, chances are I'm somewhere making something new, looking at nines. Nine rows and nine columns. The letters are built. An 81 part grid.

Dinosaurs

2011-01-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

Been super busy working really hard over here in The Volcano. Things are kind of outta control. I've got a bunch of things on deck to post, business junk, new jams, and older jams that never made it up. For now here's this...

Cleveland's All Dinosaurs are putting out a record and playing a show to release it. Friends Trigger Effect, Hot Cha Cha and The Strutting Cocks will get ridic at The Beachland Tavern. You should go, buy the record, and you will have fun.

Out of curiosity, I just looked at the wikipedia entry for Dinosaurs, check this shit out:

The term "dinosaur" was coined in 1842 by the English paleontologist Richard Owen, and derives from Greek δεινός (deinos) "terrible, powerful, wondrous" + σαῦρος (sauros) "lizard".

Terrible, Powerful, and Wondrous... Lizard! What I like about that is how "Terrible" and "Wondrous" aren't mutually exclusive.

In informal speech, the word "dinosaur" is used to describe things that are impractically large, slow-moving, obsolete, or bound for extinction, reflecting the outdated view that dinosaurs were maladapted monsters of the ancient world.

Maladapted Monsters of The Ancient World! I dunno about you, but I don't think that view is outdated at all. I also like the part about things being bound for extinction. Pretty much everything falls into that category on some level.

Way back when, in July of 2009, I drew the poster for their first show. Then they put in an influential appearance on the old Gauntlet of Truth Jam. They were part of a triumvirate of bands that were a part of something I'm pretty proud of. Something New we had never tried before that turns out worked really well. Because we killed it. They were a part of the dark half of duality. Which is necessary, which is where we live. All Dinosaurs helped The Beachland celebrate Christmas that year. The Cleveland Bachelor and I helped promote it. They were here for friends, Trigger Effect on their birthdays last summer.

They played this insanely awesome show with Valient Thorr last fall. Alright, Let me tell you about Valient Thorr. This was easily one of the most fun shows I went to last year. All Dinosaurs opened it up and they completely rocked it. They sounded great and played hard but were having an absolute blast the entire time. I didn't get to all the shows I just listed above. Those links are just to posters I drew (this being their EIGHTH poster I've done with their name on it, in the hundreds of posters and fliers I've done- very few bands can claim that many). I did see them play at the Happy Dog on Sept. 12th, in 2009. I was paying attention that night, it was a pretty early show in their lifespan. They were good, but they were new. This time, a few scant days more than one year later, after they'd played probably close to, if not more than, a hundred shows in between, they were already seasoned veterans. They still burned with a youthful excited danger that takes itself very seriously. They still shot from their hip with mad confidence, and made a point to knock around a few heads, including mine. But they were obviously having a lot of fun, and it made them that much better than being just great, talented musicians that write good rock songs (which, clearly, they've nailed). Both Bo Bowersmith and Dave Gibian play guitar and sing and are tangibly serious about it. You can tell that they love what they're doing, that they work really hard. Drummer, Joe Willis, is an awesome percussionist, even if he loves Death Cab For Cutie (huge fan, really(?)). Their bassist, Gheramy Demery, is the goofballingest goofball to ever goofball a show, but that fact balances the band in an very evident way, which I think is one of the integral components that makes All Dinosaurs a great band to see.

After they played, there were two bands that were pretty standard fare, took themselves very seriously, and after half a song each- bored me to death.

Then Valient Thorr came on stage and turned the place into an ape-shit bonkers carnival of positive energy exploding out all over the place, complete with motivational hyperbole, masterful riffage and rhythms fueled by child-like exuberance, and I swear- a really weird moment where the entire audience(!) was sitting on the floor doing some crazy row-boat dance move initiated by the shirtless, sweaty, singer known as Valient Himself. I'm pretty sure his name is actually Herbie, but... either way, that dude totally ruled. He said some of the funniest and nicest shit between songs I think I've ever heard a dude say into a microphone. He was the physical embodiment of "having fucking fun" the entire time. It was a blast and I'm stoked I got to be there for it. At one point he said something about how they've been doing this a long time, how their beards are a little bit longer, about how they're all a little bit older, but that "you can't just Rip Van Winkle it, Man! You gotta get out there and do that shit!!" It kind of came out of the blue and caught be by surprise.

Actually, this kinda blew my mind. He was right. You can't just Rip Van Winkle it, Man! We've all just got this weird short moment, this stretch of time to do something with ourselves. You can take it seriously, and be focused, and bust your ass (it would be foolish not to). However, it's equally as important to not forget to make it fun, and have a good time. While you're killin' it, maybe crack a smile, say "hi" to your parents on stage, dance like a dummy, and laugh it off when you make a mistake. Then try it again. Do good things well, and honor them by enjoying it. You have to, because in the end... and maybe in the distant future we'll be considered maladapted monstres of the ancient world, but in the end... in here and now, we're all just bound for extinction. We are All Dinosaurs.

This is the original line art. Here, I was going to try and write something about how some dinosaurs grew feathers and evolved into birds, tie that to how some Native Americans tribes used eagle feathers in their headdresses to symbolize acts of bravery and honor. I drew this with a brush and ink, and used micron pens for details and splattered ink all over it with a toothbrush.

Then I took that toothbrush and splattered another sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper and when I scanned it, I set it to double the dpi and cut the sheet in half, layering them over the art, setting them to different reds. Works every time.

I laid this out in photoshop, it took me forever, then I pinted it out, and redrew it using micron pens making it look hand-drawn and making the letters of the band names all fucked up like that. It's fun but tedious and time consuming. It's worth it though.

Here's a close up of the lettering, I like to break up the letters. Originally, I think I was going for a crusted type look, like I was trying to replicate what text that had gotten worn and damaged over time would look like, or degenerated in a copying process, but after I had done this a buttload of times, I think I now just want to make the lettering look wicked and ...organic but cleanly crusty.

One last thing:

Love Stinks, An Anti-Valentine's Day Show

2011-01-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

Much like the posters for A Holiday Art Massacre, and MAYhem, this is for another awesome Staci McNasty/Dave Lowlife/Heather Young joint. There's even more artists and information that have been added since I was given the list for the poster, so please go check the facebook event page for the full list: HERE.

It started really rough, as you can see, with an original plan to include some word balloons with Skullface saying: "AAAGH! Again?". I opted out of that, just to simplify the piece. I guess I wanted to leave the story open ended, open to interpretation. I liked the word balloon though, just felt it was a better piece with it left out and open to interpretation.

So it's Skullface, pierced by an arrow, fired by who I'm going to claim is Voluptas, Cupid and Psyche's daughter. Why not? I've always really liked Jacques Louis David's Cupid and Psyche painting that's hanging in the Cleveland Museum of Art, but I think maybe Cupid is a little overexposed for St. Valentine's Day representations. I also knew I wanted to include the roses with the thorns. I used Skullface maybe because I miss the character a little. Maybe he needs a little love.

My contribution to hang in the show will be this original art and an edition of inexpensive archival 11" x 17" digital prints of the color version. The prints will only be $24 and the framed OG will only be $144.

If you are not going to the show, or don't live in Cleveland, and would like a print, I'd be more than happy to ship them! Below I've added a handy paypal button for your convenience, which I've added a $4 shipping charge which I'm pretty sure will cover the cost of the flat mailer and postage. If you would like me to ship international, no problem, just shoot me an email and we'll work it out!

UPDATE!: THESE ARCHIVAL DIGITAL COLOR PRINTS WILL BE 13" X 19" INSTEAD OF 11" X 17"! Same Price!

Thank You, Cleveland.

2011-01-21T21:04:00.000-08:00

SO, as previously mentioned, way back in the dark ages of ye olde December of 2010 AD, Jake Kelly and I have two split shows up in Cleveland Heights right now, and through to the end of February. Ten Imaginary Movies at the B-Side Liquor Lounge, and A Few Hundred Posters by John G and Jake Kelly at Heights Arts.

Here are some photos from the opening reception of A Few Hundred Posters, graciously snapped by the keen camera of Leia Von Hohenfeld.

In the center of the gallery is an installation piece papered with literally hundreds of posters and fliers. A mishmash of both mine and Jake's work all tacked and stapled up in an bonkers interactive exhibit.

Along one wall, I've got a chronology of select prints of posters hanging, including this diptych.

Along another wall Jake has a selection of a selection of 30 or so of his amazing originals.

Jake and I, schmoozing! On Tuesday we had a great time kicking off our promotional blitz on WCPN's Around Noon, talking with Dee Perry about the two shows. Then we were interviewed by Astound Comic's Scott Rudge for Comics Are GO! podcast, which can also be found on iTunes. Monday we'll be taping another interview with Dee Perry for Ideastream's Applause. There was also a nice write up in Cleveland's Scene Magazine about the two shows.

And ...Stew Cats.

For any further information about A Few Hundred Posters, check out http://heightsarts.org/, I think Jake and I be there next Saturday for open hours if you would like to come check out the show, meet us, and talk about posters or movies or whatever.

Cuatros Gatitos

2011-01-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

Rider. Yeti. Chalita. Sherpa.

Vigil

2011-01-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

It's easy to forget who's there, paying attention. Watching you make moves in silence and hindsight. It's easy to get lost in the day to day action of doing what you do. Big Picture paradigm only matters way up above the details. On the roof of the maze of hustle. You forget, but someone sees all, and knows.

This is the twenty ten Santa Claus for The Boss. It was a good Christmas for the old man. I think it might possibly have been a good year for him. A few scary days aside. Still, scary days don't end the world. They remind us of that forgotten big picture.

Gritmas 2010

2010-12-24T05:52:00.000-08:00

It's Gritmas 2010. Clevelyn is kind of ...buzzing. The energy has gone weirdsmobile. All my friends are geniuses. I've been listening to GZA's Liquid Swords Instrumentals and ...you wouldn't think it, but without the vocals, it's pretty much an entirely different record. There's a black and white cat that stalks territory outside The Volcano. I call him Grand Master. My Winterbeard's in fierce effect. My Ladybird's fierce. The Boss is still watching the over arcs. Dope Lights abound. Work, unyielding.

Go. Find your families. Eat something. Spend some time warm, and at rest. Don't worry, the Angels and Heroes will hold the line until you get back. With a full heart for 2011.

Peace, Love & Rock n' Roll

2010-12-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

My good friend Bonnie hired me to draw/design her holiday card this year. It came out great and I'm stoked I was able to nail it the way she requested.

Bonnie works at The Rock Hall, which you can see in the background on the left. The layout and everything is pretty similar to my postcard for Gritmas, 2009, but it's such a universal image I think it carries over pretty well.

I hope everybody is staying warm out there in Clevelyn and around the world. I had a couple minutes to kill yesterday so I stopped by Lakewood Park. I was the only person there. Just me and about... 100 geese? Anyway, Someone had made these enormous snow man components (three huge balls of snow), but then clearly had no way to lift them and create the actual snow man. I felt kinda bad for him, but... I was still pretty impressed by whoever did that.

Thanks Again, Bonnie!