Name that celebrity

Here's a first attempt at a caricature of a celebrity. It still needs some work.

Is it recognizable?

Bacon! Again!

Here's the completed version of the bacon-centric strip I previewed in an earlier post.

It's included in the March 2009 Bacon of the Month club package. The club, a division of The Grateful Palate, is highly recommended to all serious carnivores.

NORTH: A guide to Pittsburgh's North Side

I'm one of many local artists who contributed to North, a visitors' guide to Pittsburgh's North Side.

Here's an edited excerpt from the press release, followed by my page.

Pittsburgh's Northside has a new visitors guide. The book, called North, features short comic vignettes of great Northside destinations such as The Warhol, PNC Park, and The National Aviary. North offers visitors and locals alike the opportunity to find new places to visit, or to be reminded of old favorites. The guide is available by request for personal use, or for mass distribution.

Funded by a grant from the Charm Bracelet Project, the ToonSeum partnered with 18 cartoonists (plus three writers) and 15 organizations to create a comprehensive visitors guide to the neighborhood. Each artist covered a popular venue or historically rich area. After countless pen strokes and hours of researching, North is ready to launch. Distributed free of charge to Pittsburgh hotels, visitor’s centers, schools, and more, the guide will allow Pittsburghers new and old to enjoy the experience that is our Northside.

The official release date is April 3. I'll have some other breaking news to report on that same day.

Ralph Carney's "Serious Jass Projekt"

Here's the final version of an illustration I did for my friend Ralph Carney's new band, Ralph Carney's "Serious Jass Projekt". As far as I can tell, the quotation marks are supposed to be there as part of their name.
I'd posted an early version today, but took it down after I saw how much better it looked with the colors rearranged a little.

Ralph's got a long and illustrious resume, and he's still going strong. I've been a fan since getting the first Tin Huey records back in the late '70s, and am truly jazzed (or jassed) to have a chance to work with him.

Ugly American Archive Item

When Scott Smith of East End Brewing Company first invited me to draw a label for his Ugly American brew, we met to discuss our ideas before settling on the concept.

Here's a scan of my "meeting notes" from that first discussion, followed by the final design. The sketch in the upper left is pretty close to what we ended up with.



We revised the label for the late 2008 release:

Recycled Meat

A patron commissioned this re-working of a previous piece at a different size.

The first version was 12" x 12" and this one is 8" x 10".



I like the look of it, but the physical object feels too small. Guess I'm used to my "album cover" size works, and will stick with that for the most part.

Of course, the customer is always right - We love commissions!

Coming in July, a new one-man show, File Under: Pop.

Saxophone, Girls, Booze

Those are the keywords I sent to Gary Panter in 2004 when I ordered one of his custom drawings.

The first 100 drawings from this project are collected in a book titles 100.1, which is also available at his website. Even if you can't spring for a custom drawing, the book is a delight and well worth $25.

R.I.P. Lux Interior

A brush with greatness: Meeting Lux Interior at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1989.

Lux died this week at age 62. Long live the Cramps!

Thanks to Mary Fleener for the photo.

Great Minds Think Alike

Just for fun, here's an identical gag that came to two cartoonists months apart.

First up is Mike Peters on October 15, 2008:


Followed by the New Yorker's cartoon editor Robert Mankoff, in the February 2, 2009 issue.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Lunar New Year!

This is my latest self-promotional postcard, the sixth in the 12-year Chinese zodiac cycle. I'm halfway through!

I was very busy during the second half of 2003, and ran out of time to do a Christmas mailing to my clients. I was in a panic. My level-headed wife suggested a Chinese New Year's card instead. It would allow me an extra month to work on it, at a time of year that's usually slower. Besides, we'd been celebrating this holiday with friends for a long time. So, in early 2004 I sent out a Year of the Monkey card, and once I'd started, my obsessive nature forced me to continue for the whole cycle.

I'll be mailing my Year of the Goat (or sheep, or ram) card in early 2015.

This Lunar Year, 4047, begins on January 26, 2009.