Hard Places

I'm not really 100% on whether or not escape artists are actually physically escaping from elaborate complicated traps, or are pulling off some illusion. I think Houdini was actually escaping. Houdini seemed to have pretty rock solid integrity. Other dudes, I dunno. I like the idea of escape artists though.

Oh, yeah. There's a show to promote: COLISEUM! Burning Love, and local bruisers Forged in Flame.



I've had this in mind for a while, but didn't really have a reason to bust it out. When this poster dropped in my lap and they needed it post-haste, I thought of this and jammed it right out with the quickness. My rough is pretty damn rough on this. I guess that's what I do when I know what I'm doing.



Inking this was fun. I had the vision for this so my brush strokes were sure, but I guess I could have centered the tank a little more. I think I drew this on an 11 x 14 drawing board. I think it's a pretty crusty drawing.



This is the texture I dropped over the colored art, using Photoshop. This shit is fun to make.



Brush and Ink. And a pen. Mostly Brush and Ink.



Not entirely sure where I'm going with the aquatic theme I've been making moves with lately. I've actually been rocking it for quite a while. I think I would include a dude being trapped underwater, constricted by a straight jacket, in chains, blind folded and gagged, part of that aquatic theme. He is underwater.



I totally had this color scheme in mind way early in this process. I knew I wanted the background to be darker than usual, and I knew I was going to change the colors of the actual line art- the dude, the tank. I knew I as going to add the texture and the glow to the tank. I knew what this looked like before I even started.



Thematically, I like this piece. It's kind of harsh and I think maybe even lonely. This singular dude, voluntarily hostage to this construct, the tank full of water, the life giving substance which makes up the majority of the planet. Stuck in place by the shackles of spectacle and challenge. The objective is to free one's self from both the chains/straps and the tank before drowning. Like I said, I'm not certain if this was ever a genuine feat of strength and daring by human heroes, or a bold faced illusion with trick locks and easily slip-able mechanisms to ensure the liberation of the charlatan conman. I like to think they were really escaping. That getting out of entirely bonkers predicaments is physically possible. That through will and integrity, escape from hard places can actually happen.

Pösehn

I'm honored and humbled to have made this poster for comedian/metalhead/nerd-overlord Brian Posehn. I've recently been listening to his new record, Fart & Wiener Jokes and it's got some pretty hysterical fart and wiener jokes on it. Though, I think I like Nerd Rage better, but mostly for the titular bit about going into a nerd rage. Also, my bud Mike Oeming drew the cover to that one.

Shane Mauss is also a pretty funny dude. I had never heard of him before, but goddamn I'm glad I got to do this poster. This show should be pretty far off the hook. I'm pretty happy with how this poster came out. I couldn't resist the urge to break out the old Goat Cheese. For those who've never seen it, I've been using this fake band logo for posters for a few years now: Here, Here, and the OG: Here.

Burn, Poseidon

Good for Cows from Oaktown, members of Xiu Xiu and Secret Chiefs 3, plus a bunch of other rad projects that rule. This is my favorite type of band. Two members: drummer and a bassist. Also playing? Clan of The Cave Bear... drummer and a guitarist. Also playing? Swindlella... a weirdo and a guitarist.

This poster is pretty self explanatory.

In case you need explanation though, I'd like to redirect your attention to the blog of one of my favorite photographers, Clayton Cubitt: Constant Siege. Cubitt originates from New Orleans and has been posting frequently on the oil spill and related topics. Also, he's kind of brutal. I like that.

Puncture Wounds

I don't know if this is a new thing, I dunno if there's been a change, but I feel like in Cleveland there has been strange strings of violence lately; shootings of artists and rockers, people getting their asses beat or robbed. Laves me wondering "What the fuck?". At any rate- that's kind of where this piece came from. Oh, also, I stole the idea of a shload of swords sticking out of the ground and, y'know... the antagonist, from the infinitely innovative Blade of The Immortal. Booyah.

Hardcore megadudes (based on hoodie popularity), BANE are playing a show at Now That's Class. Trapped Under Ice from Baltimore, Cruel Hand, Alpha and Omega (From LA?), with locals Our Fight and Ghost Breeder.

This show will most assuredly sell out. If this is your jam, you definitely want to be there and you definitely want to get your tickets in advance.

Heights Arts at The Grog

TONIGHT at the Legendary Grog Shop, Heights Arts is throwing a fundraiser show to benefit their wonderful organization.

The show starts with Workers Union promptly at 7, then Trepanning Trio, Stoned By Magic, my favorite lady Uno Lady, Chief Bromide, with the mighty Terminal Lovers\ headlining the night.



I set this poster in Clevelyn, because I felt like this event is definitely taking place in that universe. Having a robot statue of Michelangelo's David holding a Fender Precision Bass is this possibly odd combination of classical and contemporary sensibilities. I mean, David and the Fender are masterpieces of design and artistic moves. That being said, this is a poster to promote a rock show. It's an eclectic show, but it's still bands playing music at a club, and I still wanted it to work for that.



I drew this on a 14" x 17" piece of Bristol Board with brushes and ink, then microns, then splattered it with ink off a toothbrush. Then I hit it with white out and then went back on it with more ink. I'm pretty close to being done any smaller than that. I wanted this to have as much good detail as I could, and I think that worked.

This Diptych Dirge of Decapitation

EYEHATEGOD from New Orleans is playing a show at Now That's Class tonight. With KEELHAUL, no less. I feel like it's 1999 all over again. Atlas Moth, Strong Intention and Own Weather open this up.



I drew this as a diptych, but then just now finished the colors on the left side, so the right side, with the giant severed head, was the only one anybody saw. Which, I think if you're going to choose one side to show people, that's the one you want.



I love making shit like this. Game elevating moves require so much more time than making bold but intuitive moves minus critical thought. You have to think about what you're doing before you do it. Then pay attention while you're doing it, even. It's about being patient. It's about refining things. Maybe swift unbridled boldness can elevate, can bring about significant changes, but boldness is almost all risk. Patient, analyzed moves are less risky, but take more effort, more time. More energy. I actually have no idea what I'm typing about anymore.



I think on it's own this is a seriously inferior piece. It's just not as compelling of an illustration. I knew I was going to break it in half when I drew this. I wonder if that's why I kind of let the symmetry slide a little. Got lazy with my anatomy. I dunno, I like to think not, but who knows?



I would probably write more about how I drew this, but really, it's pretty straight forward. This original is pretty big. I like to draw bigger these days. Nothing crazy huge, but bigger than what I was drawing on for years. Anyway, go to the show. Maybe I'll be there.

Here's an awesome video of EYEHATEGOD playing ON A BOAT:

EYEHATEGOD Boat Show 2009 from William on Vimeo.

Doom Heroics

Heroics and Doomed out Gloom go hand in hand. Birthdays and The Apocalypse, and there's nothing you can do. For the past few weeks I've been dodging rubble falling off crumbling buildings that were losing the war. Wrecking ball accuracy, bulldozers taking their sweet ass time. I watched it fall in increments. Those structures were over a hundred years old and it still takes forever to destroy them. That's gonna be one hell of a haunted parking lot.

You should probably go see Trigger Effect from the city of Montreal in the province of Quebec in nation of Canada on the continent of North America, plus say Happy Birthday to half the members of my homies All Dinosaurs, and I have no idea who or what The Give & Go's is, but they are playing this show. I think there will probably be mostly hot girls in attendance, that's the impression I get anyway. Hot girls that read comics and love playing video games. Right?

KARP LiVES!

Here we go: That crazy motherfucker Dirty Bill from my favorite band of all time Federation X and 1776 has made a movie, a documentary film about the legendary Northwestern mutant lunatics that were called Kill All Redneck Pricks.... KARP. It's called KARP LIVES! The good folks at Red 7 in Austin Texas are having a raging fundraiser just to raise some money so Bill can finish this masterpiece and get it the fuck done. I wanna see this thing:



That is a Converse All Star imprint, which is kind of what I figured KARP members would be prone to wearing, rather than something like boots or moccasins or whatever the hell else kids from the Pacific Northwest wore back in the early to mid 1990s. The image, I tried to conjure up the notion that the band left a GIANT AWESOME IMPOSSIBLE TO FILL impression on the barren scape where only the few weirdo D + D type adventurers would ever really dare to ...venture. I kept things pink and brown because that's kind of funny, if childish. I dunno, I laughed.

The Dead See, Red X Red M, and The Fleshlights are playing music. If you're in Austin and you enjoy live music, or documentaries about awesome bands, or hanging out with wild out motherfuckers, you should go to this show.

A Bachelor in Cleveland 6: From Russia With Grub

I based this on a Soviet Propaganda Poster by request, and I think it came out really awesome. I know the title of this post was a cheap easy shot, but I couldn't really resist. Another Cleveland Bachelor jam.

This show is TONIGHT, as I'm posting this. Which, hopefully if you're a Coco Rosie fan, you're reading this before the show. Apparently they're not really from France, but just moved there. I dunno, I'm under an avalanche of work so I won't be able to see them and ask to find out.

ALSO TONIGHT, at The Beachland in the Tavern, Holly Golightly is playing. That might have been where I would've ended up if I were going to to go anywhere other than the trance-like state where I get a lot of drawing done.

Anyway, back to work.

CMD7 Closing Party

Friday, June 18th, 2010, starting around 7ish, I'll be having a closing party/hangout at Front Room Gallery, which is in the 42 Building of Tyler Village over on E. 36th and Superior. There will be pizza, there will be root beers, you're more than welcome to bring whatever you want, perhaps your own beverages.

I will have some more copies of CMD7, if you ordered one, or would like to get a copy. As always, I'll have copies of CMD6 and maybe even some CMD5s. I'll also be selling my back catalog of older prints, the 16 x 24 and larger ones, at a "Buy One Get One" discount. So if you were ever interested in getting some prints, this is a damn good opportunity.

I would also like to strongly encourage you to go to the opening of my studio-mates Josh Rex and Andy Curlowe's "Primary Sources" at Legation, over in the 1300 building on W. 78th St. Here's the facebook event. Seriously, this is going to be a pretty impressive show.

Failure

It's easy to see the failures. Beacons of burning failures lighting the past, behind me. Every misstep, every mistake. They dwell and follow, and stay lit as a reminder. Smoldering landscapes of "how not to". The plumes of smoke rising from these fires obscures any visions of successful moves. I should have posted these before the events they're supposed to promote, instead of now, after the fact. After the fact, what do they even do? Serve as a reminder? A token? A design artifact? Later, tonight, I'm going to post some new posters for stuff coming up. Those might serve their actual purpose, their reason for being. These are just going up to say "Hey- I made these". Failure.



The Head Shop is now open for business. Waterloo's newest addition is right down over by Arts Collinwood and the Café. I haven't actually been in the store yet, but I saw the place being built, and it was really impressive. Much like how that whole neighborhood has come into it's own over the past few years. I've written about this elsewhere, but I'm very pleased about how close that community is, and happy to be a peripheral member that can swing by every now and then and still feel at home there.



I drew this poster sooooo long ago. I had a whole behind the scenes process thing I was working on to post about it too. Maybe I'll try and get that up later as well, but ...don't hold your breath. At any rate, it was kind of a response to hearing about people assuming that I, and other artists, just make all these posters by using google image searches and Photoshop. I got pretty annoyed with that. Anyway, Cro-Mags, hardcore legends. Fuckers Municipal Waste, plus Austin's Iron Age and Rat King.



It was a punk show! RVIVR, Tin Armor, Unwelcome Guests, and The Fucking Cops. I bet this was a lot of fun.

So, about the conclusion of LOST. I drew this at least a couple weeks before the finale, and I was hoping Hurley would end up as the guardian of the island. Hurley was easily my favorite character. My favorite episode was in Season 3, I think it's episode 10, "Tricia Tanaka is Dead". It's the one where he finds the micro-bus in the jungle and he gets Charlie, Jin, and Sawyer to help him start it up. It's such a fun and funny episode, even with the "Cheech was a deadbeat dad" plot element. Especially since it follows the dreadful ass opening handful of episodes of that season, which are all kind of ridiculously over the top with frustratingly bad drama.

At any rate, Jorge Garcia kept a pretty good blog about his experiences here: http://dispatchesfromtheisland.blogspot.com/ and has continued to blog here: http://furtherdispatches.wordpress.com/

Whatta dude.



Lastly, but certainly not leastly, it's the poster for The Prime Time Prime Rib Melt, from Melt Bar and Grilled. I can't believe I dropped the ball on posting this last month, OR that it's already the 16th and I have yet to post the Pig Roast poster. Which, again... later today maybe, I'm catching up! These Melt posters are my bread and butter (and cheese), I should totally be on top of this shit.

I have, however, been to the amazing East Side Melt location over on the corner of S. Taylor and Cedar in Cleveland Heights. Talk about success! It's huge and awesome. I've even lucked out with the parking every time I've gone. My heart still resides at the Lakewood location though. It always will. If anybody reading this is interested in some night-time patio hanging in the next couple weeks, get at me.

I think that's everything that I missed. I know I've done more work, but some is still upcoming and I'd like to write more about it. Y'know, successfully promote these events.

All Will Be Revealed

I will soon explain the nine panel grid. I have a bunch of blog postings on deck. Some posters for awesome things coming up. Some absurd shit, as usual. Also, maybe I still have things to say. Maybe.



Here's a couple thumb prints. My thumbs are huge.

Doom Kittens

This was art I did for the Art Fur Animals auction a couple weeks ago, on May 28th. The benefit raises money for the Friends of The Cleveland Kennel. They help save cats and dogs and place them, giving them the best homes and care even possible. I know this because I got my two cats through the Friends. I couldn't make it to the event, but I'm sure it was a huges success. I stopped by beforehand and it looked amazing. However, they always need help, and they always have wonderful pets that need new homes. Like Lilly, or Sadie!

ten dollars