MEGACHURCH

I feel like MEGACHURCH has really gotten some serious heat in recent times, and nobody's earned it more. On Thursday, May 13th, at Front Room Gallery, they're having a Record Release Show for their debut LP! It was actually recorded at Zombie Proof, which used to be in Tyler Village, the same complex that Front Room is in. It was then also pressed at Gotta Groove Records, which is ALSO in Tyler Village. Then, I drew the cover art for it in The Monastery, which is two floors directly above Gotta Groove, right behind Front Room. Then, the next day, they're going on tour with Clan of The Cave Bear.

Here's a widescreen version of the record cover:



I'm also releasing a zine, Caveman Diaries Volume Seven. Clan of The Cave Bear and Swindlella are also playing. This event promises to be a ripper.

C2E2 2010: Force Baloney

I went to the big time Comic Convention, C2E2, last weekend. It was pretty intense. I barely slept, ate little, and made constant moves in and through Chicago. Overall, I think it was a huge success, despite the fact that I didn't achieve any professional goals. I pitched those out the window almost as soon as I got there. In fact, Friday, when I rolled up onto the con floor, approaching the giant crazy huge big business displays of Marvel and DC, I immediately felt kind of nauseous. I haven't really gone to many big time cons in a while, and I kind of forgot how heavily the presence of commercial forces holds sway. I made my way to Artist Alley as quickly as I could.

Found my dudes M Gun and A Mech right away. Kicked it for a minute, then made my way around the floor. Found King Gum and Food One shortly after and proceeded to squat at their tables for most of the show. It was a total blast to hang out, and I'm grateful to have these decade long unbreakable friendships that feel like we just saw each other yesterday even though sometimes it's been years. Kindred Spirits. Comrades in Arms.

It's good to see evolution happening, Jim Mahfood's art has gotten so thoroughly buckwild and completely free in the past few years. I was knocked out looking at his originals. Seeing him or Dave Crosland draw for people is like watching brain-flowers growing in celebration hyperspeed. By comparison, I feel like a thuggish barbarian: heavy handed and brutal. A colossal mess of breaking things, falling apart. It's fleeting though, because I look around and notice that Jim and Dave, and a handful of others, they're pretty much out there way way way ahead of the pack.

For the most part there's a very strong sense of boredom looming over the majority of the tables in Artist Alley. I see the same big boob drawings, same bad ugly ideas perpetuated, same blank stare on the face behind the table. I see the dude who did one decent drawing ten years ago, got slapped on the back, and has been shilling that single move over and over and over since that day. He's happy, he's stoked, people LOVE that move. I realize this world definitely needs a thuggish barbarian, bringing the heavy brutality to the table. Maybe I love the fact that that's my role, that that's my position to take. Maybe the thing that occurs to me most over the course of looking at what washed up on the shores of Lake Michigan on Friday was "At Least I'm Not That Guy". Which, maybe that makes me a jerk. I don't mean to sound down on Artist Alley, but... Goddamn.

I did have some genuinely legit positive experiences. Saw Ivan Brandon for the first time in ages, but then barely hung out. He did give me a copy of the VIKING Hard Cover though, and it's as unreal and amazing as I expected. I met Eric Canete! One of my all time favorite dudes. Again, way ahead of the pack. His art is so full of intensity, so dynamic and killer. Looking at his originals, his pages, it was like a 16 week course in Drawing Like You Mean IT, packed into a few minutes. I rapped with Gary Gianni, and again, it felt like going to school for a bit. I actually really loved that conversation. I met Guy Davis, whose work has been a constant companion and influence on me for a very long time. I chatted with Jill Thompson for a minute about Beast of Burden. Saw Jamie S. Rich, who is totally OLD now. I think his Grandkids where there, dressed as Jedi Younglings. Saw Ignatz and EISNER AWARD WINNER Nate Powell! What a dude! I gripped Swallow My Whole, and we talked about growing into full time artists. I love that dude. He's another guy that I've only really met a couple times, but it feels like we've known each other since we were 15 or something. He was at Top Shelf's booth, which was absolutely holding it down in the belly of the beast. I never found Jose G and Mike Huddleston's table, but I saw them around, and then again at the afterparty Saturday night.

There was also a shining moment, what seemed like a half hour or so, but was really probably only just a few minutes. Andy and Ivan's table was next to some dude that had a line of people all weekend, so this line would inevitably stretch in front of their business and make it impossible for anybody to look at their stuff. At one point while I was there hanging with Andy, I noticed this little dude, maybe 7 or 8 years old waiting in line. He was just kinda looking at us so I said "Sup, Dude?". That was really all it took. He started talking about how The Force wasn't real, and it was all just made up- WELL NOW, Andy told him No Way, and pointed at me and told him I knew all about how The Force IS REAL... because I'm a Jedi. This, of course, launched into a really fun and hysterical conversation about The Force and how to use it (to find my car keys when they're lost). Mom gave us his sketch book, and I sketched a little weird big eared cat portrait, and Andy drew a full on R2D2 while the back and forth was happening. This little guy at one point said "The Force is Baloney", which led to us calling each other "Force Baloney", then "Force Macaroni", then "Force Anchovy" and finally, "Force Spumoni" which I don't think he even believed exists because how could there be an Ice Cream that tastes like FEET?!? At any rate, it was awesome, and a serious highlight of the Con for me. Engaging with a little dude about Baloney, and The Force, and making the show experience fun. It was great.

I was staying with a friend that used to live in Cleveland, Erin. Her, Andy MacDonald, and I killed a dinner at this awesome spot called Handlebar. They make their own pickles, and we split an order of the Fried Pickles, which were bangin'! I highly recommend this spot if you're ever in Chicago. The menu was all out Vegan/Veg stuff, and really good. I didn't do any other real Chicago-ish things while I was there, except hang out at a crowded bar, which, I was actually falling asleep for most of that though. Pretty uneventful. I did spend a lot of time driving around the city. I liked that, for the most part. Driving down Lake Shore in the afternoon, seeing it all at a slight distance... it's amazing. Driving deep down any street across neighborhoods is also pretty amazing. Maybe that's just me, maybe people hate traffic. I kinda get into it.

Saturday night was the Pop Cultour thing at Reggie's where Food One, King Gum, Jose G, Mike Huddleston, David Mack, Ben Templesmith, and CZR PRZ rocked some live art while DJs played ridiculous music. It was a lot of fun. Again, watching all those dudes draw, especially all huge like that, at a club, surrounded by drunk ass drinkies, while loud hip hop music blasts... it's something. I may have overstayed my welcome, but I think we peaced out just in time.

After all that, I didn't hit the Con on Sunday. I just headed out to my sister's house in the middle of nowhere (seriously, it's an hour and a half from Chicago) at 3am. Slept in my car for an hour or so before having breakfast with my nieces and nephew and then driving home all day Sunday.

Then I slept for 18 hours. Then spent a week in a stupor.

Now I have to put together CMD7.

CORNY BEASTS GALORE!

FINALLY. I'm taking the time to post this up. It's Melt-On-A-Stick Month at MELT! The Triumphant Return of The CORNY BEAST:

Our wicked version of the almighty corn dog!! An ultra jumbo all beef dog char-grilled to perfection, split and stuffed with double American cheese then slathered with our special cornbread batter and deep fried to a golden brown. Chipotle ketchup for dipping. Vegetarians Rejoice!! Meatless version available with tofu dogs!

So for this one, I opted to represent possibly the Corniest, Cheesiest, beast I know of: GREYHOUNDS. It's a DOG-Centric poster in the ocean of Kitten based jams I've been rocking hard. I'm pretty familiar with a multitude of Greyhounds, and I'm telling ya, they're the sweetest, most awesome dudes. As it happens, APRIL is Adopt-A-Greyhound Month. I think if you live in Ohio and are thinking about adopting a dog, you owe it to yourself to get in touch with Greyhound Adoption of Ohio and at the very least find out what they're all about. I mean, there's a bazillion ways to adopt a great dog, for instance, the Friends of The Cleveland Kennel always have awesome hearts in need of good homes. But in April? April is about Truly Corny Beasts, Greyhounds. Get a sandwich, then an awesome dog.



I don't know if the other specials are prominent enough, so here they are in full bonkers showcase. That tent is kind of an throwback to last year's poster. I'm pretty happy with how delicious the Fried Twinkies look. I love those things. Also, The Fried Cheese is basically the same as the Corny Beast, only minus the dog. Which is actually pretty dope.



Here's the Beast itself, more accurate than last year, Melt uses giant popsicle sticks, like tongue depressors, because the sandwiches are so big. It's fun. Winter is over, friends. It's time to have fun again.



I'm pretty happy with this text. I hand drew this, I don't remember if I looked at any other text for reference, but I don't think so. I hope to progress further and further down hand lettered ridiculousness. I think it's the way to go. Next month is another great sandwich and another opportunity to get crazy. Only a couple days away. Also, Melt's East Side location opens MAY 21st! So, there's that!

APRIL 17, 2010 AD

I'm in Chicago, living a vagrant life for a weekend. I'm currently sitting in a pretty awesome coffee spot called New Wave Coffee, on the corner of Logan and Milwaukee. It's kind of funny how Chicago... there's kind of a lot of people that look eerily just like Cleveland people I know, or at least see around. I can't decided if they're just doppelgangers or part of a whole big system, like components of the "urban hipster" or "dirty beardo" machine. From a distance, Chicago is really beautiful. The city spans forever the horizon, but also the vertical. Buildings on buildings, it's a time collage. I love driving without directions or an immediate destination. I've soaked in a lot of architecture and atmosphere in the last 24 hours.

SO: Today is the Day! Record Store Day, 2010! I'm hundreds of miles away, but down on Waterloo, over in Collinwood, things are gonna go bananacakes!



Music Saves, Blue Arrow Records, and This Way Out! are all having all kinds of ridonk special stuff spilling out all over the street. I'd head down that way just for the spectacle of it all, but also: tons of exclusive awesome releases and cool deals on stuff. I dunno, read these fliers!



Cleveland Bachelor, Back Again! At the Beachland tonight: DOSH, White Hinterland, the Sleeps!



I wanted to write a lot more about this piece, a lot of thought and wishfulness went into it's design and execution. I definitely approached it from a position of wanting to do something different. Something slightly cleaner and more refined. I can sometimes feel myself getting settled, getting comfortable, feeling like I'm spinning my wheels and not engaging in the constant uphill struggle. I don't like that. I like the struggle. I like pushing myself. I don't like repeating myself no matter how successfully my jams go over. It's one thing to be working something out, but it's another to beat a dead horse. However, I've been short on time and internet access for the past few weeks. Honestly, I'm shocked I'm posting this even now, as I type!



One of the themes that I wanted to stress and remember with this piece was about the notion, the idea, of community. What's been going on over there, what started with the Beachland ten years ago, is something special. The people involved have all been working together to make something that I think might be rare and ...needed, for too long. I thought about it for a long time. How to visually represent what I feel is an idealized situation.



I've had this vision, a fantasy land, with neighborhood sized buildings that scrape far into the sky, populated by vegetation and alternate energy sources. I see greenhouses that grew up. I see no stairs, but spiral ramps in every direction. I see platforms for long distance communication and open trade between these garden monstrosities. I think about how far we've come, and think about how much further we could go. I see how fragile that is, but how it doesn't have to be.



I spent a long time on these colors. I knew what I wanted to do before I even started. I think I may have even planned the colors out before the art. I wanted to do something diametrically opposed to my diptych from last month. So, when it came time to bust, I found the idea of moving from day to night just sitting there waiting for me to take it and run.



There's a LOT of text on these. It was such a tough challenge to work with, but I love it. I love the work of putting this jam together, and making it not look hideous. Which, this much text- it could have easily ended up looking hideous, even with my powers. STILL: It doesn't. It looks readable. Anyway, I'm really proud of this set, and I hope all my Cleveland people take a minute to head down to Waterloo and visit my homies. Don't take it for granted, it's there for you.

CMD7

Stability by Megachurch
Brutality by Cave Bear
Sweetness by Swindlella
Sustenance by Gangsters

CMD7.
Front Room.
5.13

VIKING BRUNCH

I'm DJing The Beachland Brunch this Sunday, April 11th. I'm not sure what I'll play, there's no real theme this time. Vikings welcome.



I recently listened to an audio version of The Saga of Eric Brighteyes by H. Rider Haggard. It's pretty awesome. It's about this buckwild Icelandic dude named ...Eric Brighteyes. He starts off as just a dude, and ends up being the most intense viking adventurer of the age. It's pretty epic.

Speaking of epic viking stuff... There's a comic called VIKING out there, by my dude Ivan Brandon and this buckwild Germanic dude Nic Klein. I think the hardcover collection of the first story arch shipped to comic shops this week. It's called The Long Cold Fire, and I haven't seen the collection, but the issues were absolutely incredible. Highest possible recommendation.

They Make No Sound

Beast in The Field • The Great Flood • Centrifuge • Little Sister • Snuff Film

April 23rd @ Now That's Class.

The arrows pierce the flesh, but they make no sound. Pain, silent, maybe doesn't hurt as much. Especially when there's something to protect. Something to keep those arrows from hitting. It's a question of humility, but also a shot at redemption. Housing an ancient loyalty to a distant obsolescence, makes it possible to fight for the future, to put forward the new, the next. They come in waves and litters. Here they are, now, and it's up to you to get them through another night.

Lottery League 2010: The Big Show

I've known Jake Kelly for something like fifteen or sixteen years. We've both been doing the same thing for probably most of that time, but the ways we go about doing it couldn't possibly be more different.

He draws hundreds of fliers in black and white, completely by hand and knows about as much about digital art and design as somebody's grampa.

I draw comparatively fewer fliers and posters, almost all in full color, also by hand but then I use digital moves to take the crazy mess of drawings and turn them into finished pieces.

He mostly does stuff for The Beachland and Grog Shop. I mostly do stuff for a wide range of various gangsters and vigilantes.

He's drawing amazing epic murals for Melt. I'm doing next level posters for Melt, every month.

Tomorrow night, April 9th, he's doing an exhibit at Asterisk, hanging every flier he's ever done. On Thursday, May 13th I'm doing an exhibit at Front Room hanging a lot of the past year's worth of what I've done.

He signs his name J. Kelly. I, am John G.

He's got blonde hair. I've got dark hair. Sometimes he's bearded and I'm cleaner shaven.

We're both kind of a mess, though.

So when it came down to making this poster for The Cleveland Lottery League's Big Show, we sat down and figured it out in a shockingly easy but unsurprisingly creative way. We knew we needed to figure out a way to not have to have to put all the horrific band names on the poster, mostly because they're some seriously horrific band names. I mean, I guess there's worse band names in the history of bands... but, goddamn. What we came up with, I think worked incredibly well. It's something neither of us really ever do, unless specifically asked for. To draw a literal visual pun of the band names. In the industry, we call this "The Hess". I don't like to do this because a lot of times, there's a more creative way to communicate what the sound and vibe of the band is like. Also, I got shit to say with my posters. I'm making a point. I'm telling a story. I'm not saying that can't happen with literal visual puns, but it's definitely more limiting. As much as people absolutely love it, I think it's kinda, sorta, boring.

And that's what we decided would be the best way to do this! I love Grid Systems, and once we decided to not have any band names, it was logical to try and not have any text at all. We knew that wouldn't entirely fly with the League Chiefs, so I we kept that upper left corner with the only real text being there. We wrote out the list of band names. Jake took the first one, and I took the second. Without planning it out or knowing which band names we would get, we split them up evenly. The result was that we both got some really fun easy ones (Dead Wrestler, Super Macho Tough Guy Cowboy), but neither of us escaped having to illustrate some real head scratchers (Precious Bodily Fluids/ XFERQYRAD$).

A couple days later I got an email from Jake:

"The visual pun is... liberating.
No thought whatsoever!
Hmmm..."

After knowing each other so long, it's pretty appropriate that we finally collaborate on a poster for the first time, for the Lottery League. For The Big Show of 2008's League, we drew two separate posters that had nothing to do with each other, I drew one with every participants' name, he drew one with every band name. This poster feels a lot more... in league with what the League is all about.
I think this poster actually came out really great.

The Big Show is this Saturday at the Beachland Ballroom. It promises to be a blast of epic proportions. We have a limited edition of 33 signed and numbered 17 x 28 high quality digital prints of this poster we'll be selling for $20 a piece. There are only 33, so get 'em while they're hot!

Fresh Baked Pocket of Unholy Bananacakes

I think this is the first time in a long time that I'm posting the poster for a show AFTER the fact. I think maybe it happened a couple times during the Month of Flyers. Which... of course it happened then. That shit was insanity. Right now I'm in the throws of much the same type of insanity, only it's multiplied by ridiculousness, and then wrapped up in a fresh baked pocket of unholy bananacakes.

I've been drawing extra extra hard, and I'll be catching up and posting the living daylights out of this stuff over the next few days. Fortunately a lot of the posters are for shows that aren't for a while. Others are more immediate.



The idea of this jam came from a dude that often has good ideas, Zippy. Whatta Dude. We kind of brain stormed it after the recent Extra Life jam format change. I think it came out pretty good. The idea is that it's a double sided poster/flier, with the monster's back having all the info, then you turn it over and it's not a monster at all! It's some rascally kids with a big coat and a monster mask! I made an animated gif, but I'm not sure how to even post that here so that it will work.

The show was last night, I missed it because I was busy Bringing a sStorm. However, the Yukon dudes rule. MEGACHURCH and Swindlella also rule, but... I'm going to see them both really soon. I don't know who Daniel Francis Doyle is, but Kid Tested has been Kid Tested.

Happy First Birthday: BLUE ARROW!

This is cutting it hyper close, but THIS SATURDAY, March 27th, ALL DAY, Blue Arrow Records (just down Waterloo from the Beachland) is having an awesome party to celebrate their first full year of stone cold butt-kickery! Your favorite DJs from both WRUW and WCSB will be dueling to the death from noon until the party ends. I'm pretty sure there will also be free food, it's also probably a BYOB type event. This will be fun, their parties always are.

I'm really pretty stoked on how this poster played out. It's a little simple, but who can resist a kitten in a gramophone?

I think it's time to entertain the idea that I've gone soft... what happened?

I've been grinding on multiple things at once over here, so keep those eye balls peeled, for I will be updating more rapidly over the next week or so. Seriously: eye balls peeled.

Moves Minus Logic

From a million miles away, time bends and makes moves minus logic and reason. It's 1885 and H. Rider Haggard is inventing the Lost World genre. It's a hundred years later and Slick Rick is writing Children's Story. It's 1162 and a baby named Temüjin is born somewhere in Mongolia, with a blood clot in his fist. It's 1939 and Rudyard Kipling by way of Cary Grant tells the world "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din". It's 2009 and the Red Winged Blackbirds are back from their journeys. It's 1959 and the 14th Dalai Lama is fleeing Tibet.

It's March 27th, 2010 and Kid Tested, JJ Magazine, and Old Hundred are playing at the Happy Dog.



This was a lot of fun to draw, moves plus magic. I'm hearing someone say "awesome" without irony. This being the second of a disjointed series, here being the first.

The temperature has dropped again but there's a lot more work to be done. I'm holding onto you with my right arm, hoping we don't fall with my left. I'm pretty sure I'm strong enough, but if there were ever a moment to be a lot stronger, this would be it.

A kitten is saving hearts by his name and lazy eye. A Legend crosses over whole. Secret Kings now hold sway. Now the Mice are the loudest. Now we're on the roof looking for our homes. Now I'm on the ground looking up at the ending. Now celebrating a 315th birthday, on the surface of Mars. Now surrounded by seven ghosts. Now a Magenta Wolf.

Now Challa Hides:

Falling Upwards

Another show at Red 7! Red Sparowes, Dooomriders, plus My Education. The last piece I drew for them also had a very heavy magenta back ground. I love that shit.

This one kind of sort of reminds me of this series I made a couple years ago, Challenger. Here's Part 1 and Part 2. I still have some print sets available of this series. Shoot me an email if you're interested. I'm pretty sure I was selling the seven prints for $50 total.



I had originally planned, and laid out a scene involving ninjas, but then listened to Red Sparowes and realized that it didn't really jibe with the music. So, instead I drew this, which I think works at least slightly better. I'm going to use the ninja layout though, next. Working on another Red 7 jam that I think will get thoroughly bonkers.

Uhm, I joined twitter. If you're into that, follow shinercomics. I haven't really said anything yet. It's entirely possible that I might only ever tweet links to this blog.

A Decade at The Beachland

This is the design for The Beachland's Tenth Anniversary T-Shirts. This weekend is the celebration, with a bunch of awesome shows I won't be at! I have to draw my fingers to the bone, instead.

Tonight in the Tavern This Moment in Black History and SunGod are having a dual record release show. This Moment's stellar "Public Square", being released on Smog Veil Records, plus their split 12" EP with SunGod is also making it's debut. Also tonight, Pere Ubu is playing The Modern Dance in the Ballroom. Tomorrow night is Roky Erickson, The Alarm Clocks, and Living Stereo.



Here's the pencils, minus the characters and text. I drew this based on a photo I took on a pretty weird day that was sunny and bright, casting deep shadows. Personally, I love the Beachland and was pretty honored and stoked to do this shirt design. I've had some really great times there and can't imagine this city without it. I think it's an easy place to take for granted, though. Don't take it for granted, buy this shirt.

This Vitorian Seance

Spooky in name, spooky in execution. Two years ago, on the very same date, March 23rd, Extra Life played at The Beachland Tavern, in Cleveland. That was Easter Sunday. This year, March 23rd, Extra Life is playing Now That's Class. This time with Self Destruct Button, and Queening.



At first, the plan was to use the same 11 x 17 format I usually use. I wanted to do a human ghost, all mixed up with some kind of tentacle ghost thing... but then I realized... fuck that. Taking it long and tall was the best option for prime Lovecraftian Demon Ghost conjuring, so long and tall it became.



I like making a mess. I've been working now pretty much consistently for just over 24 hours. I laid down from about 6am to 7am, out of a desperate need to be horizontal. Other than that- I've been smashing it. I've driven probably over 100 miles, eaten 3 oranges, drank maybe 64 ounces of coffee, and listened to almost every Wu Tang release between 36 Chambers and Bobby Digital, then Gza's Pro Tools, Iron Flag, Blackout, and ...The Chronic. Most of them multiple times. I've still got a lot of work to do.



This piece worked out. It wasn't a conscious homage, but there's a Hellboy story, "Goodbye Mr. Tod", where Hellboy is called to investigate this Medium, Mr. Tod, who accidentally channeled a big tentacle beast while in a drug induced trance. Hellboy has to chase the thing away with some arbutus. It's either in The Chained Coffin or The Right Hand of Doom. I'm not sure which. Both are great.

A Bachelor in Cleveland vs. A Street in Cleveland

One evening, Saturday, March 13th, and all this stuff is happening. It's a big party, a street wide Waterloo party. Arts Collinwood, Music Saves (CAKE!), Lowlife, and Blue Arrow throwing down to have a good time. THEN, The Beachland is having a great show, a Cleveland Bachelor approved show.



Summer Cats are coming all the way from Australia. I like Australians. Afternoon Naps are coming all the way from The Neighborhood of Make Believe. City Center is from New York. Also, there will be ghosts, specifically Lowly The Tree Ghost. But probably other ghosts as well.



Yeah, so, I guess I was wrong. I'm not as gruesome as I thought I was. I tried, but apparently... I really like kittens. What? SO? You don't like kittens? I'll fight you to the death. After I finished drawing that huge kitten, I thought: "Imagine the litter box".

Speaking of kittens, Debbie from Blue Arrow has started the North Collinwood Feral/Stray Cat Project, which is a Trap-Neuter/Spay-Return (TNR) Program. There's an article she wrote on it from The Collinwood Observer, here. You may remember Debbie from a post about one of the kittens she rescued, Lucky Sunshine. I love that dude. Anyway, Debbie is true blue, and it's a genuine issue over there. If you're inclined to help out, head over to Blue Arrow and speak up. Or donate some money- every little bit counts, and it all goes to helping these kittens in the neighborhood.

The Reuben Melt 2010

Here we go, friends, it's MELT Posters: YEAR TWO. This month marks the first anniversary of the posters I've been doing for the monthly specials at Melt. Last year, I drew the poster for The Reuben Melt as part of the Month of Flyers, where I did a poster for something every day of March. This launched the series and has now been going strong, and I think escalating to new levels, every month. As the sandwiches get crazier, I think I've been able to keep the posters right there with them. After the gut busting Hungry Hungarian, and the madness that was The Big Sandwich in Little China, we return to the tried and true traditional March masterpiece...

The Reuben Melt:
Fresh Lean Corned Beef
Barrel Aged Sour Kraut
Zippy Russian Dressing
Swiss Cheese

It's simple, it's iconic, it's March. So, for the poster this month, I decided it was time to do something slightly different. I wanted to use a traditional source for the design. I thought a lot about doing a Saint Patrick piece, and how to push that to the limit, and make it somehow Cleveland-centric. Some really dumb ideas occurred to me. You almost got a baller St. Pat slam dunking over King James.



I always liked stain glass windows; the way they look and feel. Once I realized I was going to use that as the jumping off point of this poster- everything just kind of fell into place.



I made this insane mock up where I took the actual Saint Patrick stain glass window image, an old drawing of the Terminal Tower, the Reuben Melt drawing from last year, and then laid down the text I wanted for the name. It's a total mess, but it doesn't need to be pretty. It just needs to be well thought out.



With that plan under me, I got to drawing the pencil version. I knew I would draw this piece on a 14 x 17 board. I also decided to draw the whole thing in one go, incorporating the text into the art. This was probably a big mistake. This is a photocopy of penciled image. However, I did enjoy the process of putting it all together as one image.



Inking this took a little longer than I expected. It's one thing to throw down inks, splattering, brush strokes, making a mess then cleaning it up. It's another to try and stay clean, make lines bold and deliberate. Disciplined. True. It was a challenge. I really really wanted to splatter this thing with ink. It felt like I was cutting some corner not to.

When it came time to color, I knew I wanted to keep it simple, to make it bold and smart. I think it worked. It's different, a departure from my usual jam. The signature style I've developed over the past few years. I love it and continue to take it on it's logical path. Still, there's room to expand in other directions. I think that's where MELT Posters: YEAR TWO needs to be taken. Bold, different directions.

White Mice

This is the first of probably many "attendance mandatory" shows of 2010. There's just no other way to think about this. White Mice are easily one of my favorite bands to see play. I would not usually draw a band, or do anything quite so literal for a poster, but this is my fourth White Mice jam, and of those one was part of a triptych, and another was part of Month of Flyers. So, that being the case, and the fact that White Mice bring it visually, spectacle-wise, as much as they bring the sonic assault... yeah, it's about time I drew the Mice the way they are.

I missed Tinsel Teeth last time, but have heard great things about their shows. I also missed Liturgy last time they played here, which, I have no idea where I was or what I was up to that was more important. Probably working. I have no idea who Stress Ape is, but they have a cool name and nice messy logo. That bodes well.

I think I know who's in Weird River, but I don't know much about them other than what's up on their myspace page. Based on that, though, I think it's pretty safe to expect good things. The Family Chapter is, again, another project where I know the members but very little else. Actually... maybe I don't know the members- in fact, that shit could go in any direction. This could be anything. It will probably be brutal though.



My original concept sketch, not nearly dynamic enough. I liked the way the mice looked, but it just felt a little flat. To get pumped for this poster and as a reference point, I looked at this post on Brooklyn Vegan with White Mice shots from a show in NY. I had drawn some really sketchy versions of them already, here's one of those:



I spent a lot longer on this, and worked it out to try and build the pile of severed heads up, to be looking at them from a worm's eye view (which didn't really work that well). I wanted the mice to look as menacing as I could manage. I feel like I haven't done enough gruesome stuff lately. I feel like I've spent some time being a nice dude. Cupid Dogs and Dumpling Eating Contests and Presidents. Saints, even. There's nothing wrong with that. I LOVE drawing that stuff. But... I've missed moves like the old "pile of severed heads". I like piles of severed heads.



I drew this pretty big again. It's on a 14 x 17 piece of Bristol Board. It's fun to draw bigger. I'm not sure if it takes longer, it might. I dunno.



I can't wait for this show. You should come. You should bring your friends. You should wear your fancy dancing shoes. You should be prepared to get your bells rocked, then your head cut off. It'll be a blast.

Something Like An Obamenon

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Here's a poster commissioned by none other than Cleveland Bachelor Dr. Justin Vaughn. I've drawn President Obama a couple of times now, and I think this is at the least the most accurate I've been able to get. He's kind of a hard nut to crack, our Prez.



Because this isn't for a rock show, or DIY type event, I knew I wanted to keep it somewhat more straight forward and cleaner looking, design-wise. I still wanted it to be pretty raw though. So, I sort of knew my approach from the start. Keeping the suit black, creating an almost silhouette against the gritty background, made for a perfect platform to place that block of text at the bottom. In the past I've also drawn The President in a light blue ...almost leisure suit. I definitely didn't want to do that.



Again, elements of grittyness, I drew this flag with a broken old crusty brush, just splattering the ink and making a mess. I drew the stars separately.



I did look at some photo reference of the White House, and Chicago for this, but that all went out the window in the inking stage.



I'm not sure this even needs an explanation. So instead I'll write about how today I spilled a cup of coffee inside my bag, and onto the leg underneath it. As soon as I noticed, I thought to myself "I wonder how hot that is". Turns out, not very hot. So now I smell like old coffee and I'm staying tired. What a day.



I think I like how this piece turned out. It was a nice break from some of the other things I've been working on lately. Bigger projects, long term things. Things that require grim visions and heavy lifting. Hard decisions. Making moves.