SLAY HIM, TROLL KING!

Hey, I really like this Dave Cockrum THOR cover from 1979. I think it's the purple bell bottoms + the word balloons full of ridiculous:




Also, a heads up, I've got a piece in this event: ART FUR ANIMALS, a benefit for The Friends of The Cleveland Kennel. You here in Cleveland should come out and buy some art. The list of contributors is awesome.

Here's what the piece I gave them looks like, it's actually kinda big, 15 x 20:



Originally I had planned on using this as a wrap around cover to this CLEVELYN booklet I'm working on, but now that I'm looking at it small I think I'll do something else. I tried to use three point perspective, but I'm not sure how successful that was. Those kitties in the foreground are actually my cats. Rider is the big one, Challa is the smaller one. They're probably thinking about how many mice are loose in that big decayed city. Mice they could chase and kill.

Necromantic Primordial Growler

CONANAGRAM, INDEED.



I've been reading the living bajezzus out of The Savage Sword of Conan Volume 1, published by Dark Horse. For those unfamiliar, it collects the first fifteen Conan The Barbarian stories from the Savage Tales and the Savage Sword magazines that Marvel published in the mid 70s. So, we're talking 544 pages of glorious black and white sword and sorcery by Roy Thomas and a host of amazing comics artists. It starts off with Barry Windsor-Smith and after a few pieces by a couple others (including Gil Kane inked by Neal Adams), quickly turns to John Buscema.

The stories are relatively standard D&D faire, which is to say that they're goddamn motherfucking great adventure pieces about big tough dudes with big weapons fighting monsters and dark magick and evil wizards trying to capture and subjugate beautiful young supple maidens and princesses and shit. The art is really something to behold. Whoever put this thing together should win a medal and have it pinned to their chest by Robert E. Howard's conjured up ghost. It's printed on newsprint, and the black and white line art looks incredible for some reason. John Buscema was a goddamn maniac when he threw down on these pages. Hundreds of awesome awesome pages where all the panels are pieces unto themselves, yet it never once hurts the layout or pacing, ever. I think most of the actual magic from these pages really comes from the illustrative and really intense inkers like Alfredo Alcala and Pablo Marco that give Buscema's pencils their full blown face melting due. Seriously, these guys were riffing intense Doom Jams over The Drums of The Dead.

Here's the B and W (original line art: $35 por favor, email jgritty@gmail.com for details):

Behold...

Hey, Clan of the Cave Bear is going on TOUR, into the South then across the east coast-ish area. The tour schedule is on their myspace page, so go check them out. I don't know who reads this blog but they're playing Baltimore on 5/13, and Brooklyn on the 15th. They kill, so go see 'em.

The tour wraps up with this show at Now That's Class, with Behold... The Arctopus, and my favorite metalheads, Insurrect.

Here's some sketch love I did in my Cinema class while I was supposed to be taking notes.

Narcotic Patented Gasmask

=Just a couple sketches today. Busy trying to finish this website made of Flash. I'll post it up when I get it done. The hardest part is sitting and working and not getting distracted. Oh, and the actual planning part. Planning things out before actually trying to do them is a novelty, I think. Not exactly something I'm practiced at. Usually I just "do".



Rafeeq, of CLEVELYN. Drawn in Spanish class.



Mostly done digitally, I drew a sketch with a crummy crummy pen during a history class, and then scanned it, added most of the blacks and the sky and played around to make it non-so-shitty. Halfway inspired by The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford. I really liked that film. A lot. I recommend it. It's a long slow burn, though. It's good movie to just watch and spend time with. Here's one of the posters... not that I was really trying to imitate it or pay homage or anything. I don't think I had even seen this one until just now. The cover of the DVD I had was a little different.

Novelty Prankster Gentrifiers

I've pretty much decided not to continue in school after this semester. Not that anybody cares. I certainly don't.

Here's some more CLEVELYN characters...

Rafeeq:


Raquel:


Solomon:


I think I'll probably redraw Rafeeq and Solomon for the booklet I'm putting together. We'll see, they're not as terrible as I initially thought.

Noir Punk Gamblers

I've got some pieces up in a show over at Vision Gallery on E.156th street in Collinwood. It's over where TRUE Gallery used to be, across the street from Cafe Marika on the corner of 156th and Waterloo. It's a 25/25 show, so 25 artists with works for $25.

Here's three of the six pieces I contributed. These are from a little intermediary booklet that I'm making for this series of comics set in CLEVELYN, a fictional version of Cleveland. The first story was "ON DOWN THE TIMELINE" which was published in SHINER Number One. The second story will be in SHINER Number Two, which we hope will be out in August. It's still in the works.

Hank:


Julia:


Molly:


I'll probably redraw at least that last one, and then maybe the second one too. I dunno, still playing with the format of the booklet itself. I'll post the other three pieces and some additional work as soon as I get it done and a chance to bust it out.

My second semester back at school is winding down and it's kind of underwhelming. It should be totally kicking my ass, and I think it actually is, but maybe I'm just not acknowledging it. Been watching a shload of movies still. Mostly NOIR lately. Just a huge amount of NOIR.

Nefarious Post-Apocalyptic Guru

I've been working on this piece for a while, kind of a ridiculous process. Though I'm not entirely 100% happy with the illustration it's still what it is. HOLY INSANITY.



Though I still got my qualms with the illustration, I am super duper proud as punch about how this whole shabangalang turned out. The image was always every supposed to be texture under the text anyway, so... the text is the thing. 144 people are playing a show. These are they. So, yeah, hand lettering that shit was treacherous.



These inks are where I think I hurt the most. This took so long to draw and then because the clock was ticking, I busted my ass to get these inks down pronto. Wish I had started earlier and given myself the time to take making them flawless. Anyway, even with that fact, this piece is the probably the most retarded thing I've done in a long time. More retarded than going back to school. More retarded than watching ALL of LOST Seasons 1 through 3 in the span of like, a week.



If you're an illustratador and it hasn't crossed your mind to try drawing something like this yet. I highly recommend it. It's like putting together a puzzle with nothing on the pieces and no reference for what it's supposed to look like until it's done. About half way through I was adding Buddhist monks and Spider-Man and shit. By the time I was done I just couldn't believe it.

SO: Yes, the Cleveland Lottery League 2008, go to the blog for more info here: Lottery League. The gist of the thing is that a shitload of musicians here registered for a draft, then got together and by way of a lottery assembles 33 new bands all at once. Ten weeks later all the bands are playing together at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern.

Here's another new poster. See, I told you: Grizzly. From what I understand ETTRICK is really fucking awesome. Also awesome? Self Destruct Button is playing a goddamn show!



I have a couple other things to announce for April 19th, the following Saturday. One I'll hold off on until it's in the bag, but the events in Collinwood that night are shaping up to be a lot of fun. MUSIC SAVES is going to be throwing a Record Store Day event which includes a coloring contest. I'll be one of the judges along with Mikey from Little Jacket, John Dudas of Carol & John's Comic Shop, and Jon Hicks.

Here's the image:

Nebulous Planetary Gangrene

I've got a piece in this week's Free Times, it's for another Jara Anton column.

This week I'm on spring break and getting thick into some grizzly shit. Got a bunch of things on my table that I'm really taking it to the next level with. I think.

Noise Pummeled Ghosts

Saw ten bands, got six new CDs, ate like a giant and slept like a baby over the weekend. It was good times.

Here's some links:

Clan of The Cave Bear
DJ Scotch Egg
White Mice
National Suicide Day
PAIK
Pterodactyl
Parts + Labor
The X-Bolex
Giants of Gender
Extra Life

Here's some art:



This show didn't actually happen, but I think the Jigsaw is going to use this art for another one. I hope so.



This is something I draw on the back of a note card from an oral Spanish test I took. Then I photocopied it. All for you.

Pink vs. Green: Alpha and Omega

Not entirely in their FINAL FINAL state just yet, but here are the other two parts to a trippy ticker I've been jamming on for next weekend. (I'll repost this with the finals later, but I wanted to get these up because both of these shows are going to be awesome and time is of the essence!)




White Mice played here a while ago and they gave me brain damage.



Easter Sunday, motherfuckers. 1 UP!

Pink vs. Green

This poster is the second part of a trip tic I'm working on for three shows on the weekend of the 21st:



More later.

Nullified Punkass Gnomes

Still really busy. Going to have a bunch of new stuff to post this week, I hope. It's snowing like crazy here right now. Kinda pretty. As long as it doesn't stick.

First things first: Here's that piece I was working on, all colored up... not sure exactly how I feel about it, but I am definitely landing on the positive side of th fence.



This should probably be a huge announcement type thing, but I'm feeling more like keeping it close to the chest, whatever that means.

SHINER Number One is out and about. SHINER is a comics anthology I've been putting together with Kevin Fagan for a while. The first issue has stories from the two of us, and our friend George McDougall. I've posted some preview pages up at http://shinercomics.blogspot.com



The issue is currently available at ASTOUND! in Westlake, Ohio. I'll bee gettingg into some other area stores this week though, so stay tuned for new info on that. The plans for the second issue are already totally in full swing, so I'll be posting about that too.

Negating Past Grievances

I've got a bunch of stuff on my table that needs to get done, because it NEEDS to get DONE. So if you're waiting for a poster or something from me, then you won't be waiting long. I'm on it.

Hit two really good art openings last week. The first was at CPA's spot over in Ohio City. Ryan Jeanky and Paul Rogers put a bunch of stuff up, and it all looked killer. Really fun opening, too. It was odd, on a Thursday night and started at 5:30. Still, good show. Friday night was Paul Sydorenko's opening at Asterisk in Tremont. I'm not collected enough to write about it at the moment, but I will say it's a really really fucking great show. The opening was really fun too. I haven't really been going out at all, and this was a nice mid-shitty-winter reminder that people are doing good things and kicking ass and just because the weather is particularly detrimental to your mental health doesn't mean it's the end of the world, even if it feels that way.

Here's a drawing, working on the colors:



The Shiner Monks have published SHINER Number One, but we're just about all out of the initial printing. We'll be printing more with a formal announcement very very soon.

Ninja Picky Gremlins

I'm about to start, already, the fourth week of my second semester back at school. Right now I'm in Elementary Spanish II and Multimedia (which is a class in Flash). I begin taking my other two classes, History of South Asia and Intro to American Cinema, on February 19th. Being back in school actually makes me feel kind of really stupid. I think it's the idea that the stuff I'm learning in my classes feels like stuff I should already know. Like I should already be fluent in Spanish, and be a wiz at Flash animation. That's obviously an idiotic thing to think, but for whatever reason, I can't shake it. I think that's just how it is, and how it will be. No matter how much I learn, I'll probably always feel like I should know more.

I think I posted before about how I've been watching a shitload of movies lately. Seriously devouring movies, via both the Avon Lake Public Library and Netflix. My Netflix queue has mostly been crammed with getting Zatoichi movies though, so... yeah. The library I use to get older, more common films that I've always wanted to see but for whatever reason never took the time or had the opportunity to actually watch. I'll post a comprehensive list this week, with accompanying comments if I can get them down. But yeah, fucking movies.

Here's some sketches:



Like I said, I've been watching a lot of Zatoichi movies, and they've all been really great. What really pulls at my heart strings about it is maybe that it's this grand epic giant idea that these dudes pulled off for years and years, and when they were done they had this giant catalog of content that all sort of exists together. It's not like James Bond where ten different dudes played the character and they keep "reinventing" him for brave new times every decade or so. I really like that.



I drew this while listening to a Radiolab podcast about some singles event they did in NY. It was about the science and chemistry of "love", hence the dopamine, norepinephrine, and oxytocin. Yay, burning buildings!



These were all the items I had with me when I was sketching at work.

Narcissistic Posthaste Graphics

This week I've got a piece in the Free Times again. It's a drawing of Lebron James, King James, The Chosen 1, The New Jesus Christ... of Nike. We Are All Witnesses. The article I drew this for is actually a review of a book, The Franchise, which is apparently about Lebron James and the remaking of The Cavs a couple years ago.

Anyway, here's the art:

Nice Procured Goods

I found this awesome Danijel Zezelj piece in a random Business Week magazine that I was flipping through at a doctor's office. Zezelj is probably one of my favorite artists ever. I still look at Air Mexico about once a month. Right now the Junkies over at Optimum Wound have been publishing Zezelj's REX over at webcomicsnation.com. I actually have a copy of it in... some other language. A Mad Scientist that was traveling the globe sent it to me from... somewhere.

Nervously Preaching Gusto

Well, here I am posting again. I missed this thing, and all that it entails. Busy busy non-internet having man that I have been, I've neglected it and the three people that check this shit on their "Readers".

Hey, look, a poster! This is for the mighty First Annual Festival 71: Ten Bands, both rooms of the Beachland, the release show for Times New Viking's new "Rip it Off" LP/CD on Matador Records, Radio Dystopia.



Here's a poster I did, which, I didn't even get to go to this show. I was out earlier that night at a couple different art openings, including one called Onion Skins (a group show that in which I have a bunch of prints, including prints of these posters), and by the time it came down to deciding whether or not to head down to Pat's I was flat beat. I ended up just going home and watching Invisible Man movies until I passed out. Yo, Invisible Man movies are creepy as hell. In an awesome awesome way. I made a list the other day, and totaled out the amount of movies I've watched between like, Mid December and now at well over 30. That includes the DVD box sets of TV shows Lost Season One, Into The West, and James Clavell's Shogun! I'll post more about movies later. And by later I mean soonish. I promise.

Convergence Closing Party

Convergence is having a closing party on Friday December 28th!

This would be a great chance to check out the show, if you couldn't make it to, or slept on, the opening. This time we have Darren & Dave, Thumbs Up!, and Surah featuring Jeff Dixx playing. It's both BYOB, and a Pot Luck, so don't be stingy with your Aunt Florence's fruit cake.

¡Viva Dormir!

Profuse apologies for the long strange gap in posts. Not that anybody's been clamoring for posts, but now that finals are over and I'm free from any other entanglements I've got the breathing room to sit back and type out some rambling rant-y type stuff for the old ninepanelgrid... before throwing myself head first into the backlog of projects that have accumulated on my table.

The opening for Convergence went really really well. I've wanted to write about it since it happened but haven't found the time or the words just yet to express exactly how I feel about that event. I'm still working on it; it's something I'll probably write about in a future zine or something. It was really surreal and strange and extremely fun. I'm insanely grateful to every person who came or sent well wishes. The show is still up, and we're planning a closing/christmas party for the 21st, which... just over a week away? I don't really know what we're going to do, but we'll figure it out.

Anyway, in the mean time I did these flyer/posters for shows that happened and were probably great!





Last weekend I was set up at the Beachland Ballroom's Rock and Roll Flea Market. It was pretty fun and I did kind of well. Being that time I year, I spent a couple hours painting my brains out, making x-mas pieces to try and capitalize on that market. I scanned them this year, so here's 6 of the 7... I sold the biggest one:





I'll try and post again soon. I've wanted to post up some of the work I've been doing for school, but just... no time for blogging when you're scrambling to survive and not fail at everything.

CONVERGENCE

There's a show opening on Friday, November 23rd at 7pm in this big empty space at 6706 Detroit, a couple blocks west of W. 65th. It's a split show between myself and photographer Billy Delfs. I'll post more about this soon. Not online in the cave right now, so I'm doing all my internet biz on the fly.

Notable Power Gap

I haven't seen a copy of the magazine yet, but I drew the artwork for the cover of this week's Free Times. It's a piece for an article titled "The Murderer's Apprentice", or, I guess they changed the title to "The Serial Killer's Disciple". I think this piece came out pretty good. I like coloring more and more, and although I'm not a huge fan of some of the assignments that I've been working on in my Raster Based Imagery class, I've already learned a lot. It's simple simple stuff, but because I was largely self taught in Photoshop, it's aspects that escaped me for whatever reason. Maybe I'll post some of my assignments here? Not sure there's any need for that, but it might be fun.



On the other side of that coin is the fact that knowing Photoshop alone can not a good artist you make. Um, I think. I mean, sure. Anyway, here's the negro y blanco of that piece. I spent a lot of time making it right. I used layers upon layers of splatter, both black and white. I used Math and Magic to get the bricks in proper perspective, when I usually just eyeball it. Over all I'm pretty happy with this cover. I haven't even read the article yet so I have no idea how close this plays into it. I can't say I like working that way. When I do editorial illustration I'd much rather spend some time with the actual piece and find the subtleties to work from. Try and illustrate more the idea of the piece in a way, rather than just representational images of actual words from an article. Unfortunately that's not always feasible in the publishing world. That's another thing I find hard to get my head around: the fact that I'm part of the Publishing World. I won't rant on it now, but yeah... being aware of your place in the grand scheme isn't always as easy as it should be. However, it's probably one of the more important things to have a grasp of if you want to achieve any set goals, no matter what they are. Seems obvious, but I think it's easy to lose sight of in the hustle bustle games we all have to play on the daily just to make it to tomorrow.



Finally, here's a self portrait, kind of a work in progress. I'd like to color it, but so far this is where I'm at with it:



I hope to post more frequently, but school is totally kickin' my ass. I'm still watching Samurai movies, but have slowed down a lot. Post to follow. Still working on comics, post to follow extremely soon.

I've added some new links to the sidebar:

Obsolete References is a blog by a guy that works at a CD/DVD store in Seattle. It's always pretty funny, especially if you've ever worked retail, or been to a retail store. He and I used to work around the block from each other in Downtown Cleveland, and it was always awesome to visit him at his crappy job, or when he visited me at mine.

Rick Spears has a new site/blog. Rick is the publisher of Gigantic Graphic Novels and probably the foremost killer scriptist throwing down comics awesomeness for your hard earned dollar. Seriously, he's got Black Metal with Chuck BB from Oni Press, REPO with Rob G and Pirates of Coney Island with Vasilis Lolos from Image, and if you haven't read Teenagers From Mars, or Dead West (both also with Rob G) yet, it's not too late! It's never too late!

Negligent Passing Getaway

It's labor day, and I'm in labor. Giving birth to drawings and comics and bad jokes. I just drew this face as practice and then colored it up to experiment with it. I think it took maybe a half hour. I like how it turned out. I'm not sure where my style is going with some of these things, but I guess that's not really my concern. I'll worry about style when I'm dead.



I'm back to school for the first time in a long time and it's a strange thing. Nothing has really changed but it's all different. It's taking me a minute to get used to the ideas of it all, but I'm happy to be back and in the game and making some use of my time. I like having a schedule.

I traded a copy of the fifth volume of The Caveman Diaries for this drawing. It's by this dude Corey, who, coincidentally enough, I went to school with six years ago the last time I took any classes. I hadn't seen him since then. He approached me at the Normal Love/Giants of Gender/Cave Bear show a couple weeks ago and offered a trade. I think I basically robber the poor bastard. LOOK at this:



Next up is the first panel from the first story from the first issue of this thing called Shiner. More on that to come.