NBT Strikes Again: November at MELT

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

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

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.