Atlas, Bellerophon, Cerberus

Bellerophon is a hero who rides a winged horse; Cerberus is the three-headed dog who guards the gates of hell; Atlas is a Titan who holds up the world. To quote the tomb in question "...there is nothine he can't lift, nothing he can't bend, and nothing he can't break! Despite his alignment, if he gives his word on a matter, he will keep it even unto death!"



The text on the illustration reads, "Today, without warning, I will fear dirt and love vegetables."

New Age Nihilists

Snow Fool

DOOM! -LP

-click to enrage

Diagnosis: Monkey Disease

I encounter an idea with increasing regularity, often online, or in various print media. It goes something like this: “Man is a walking disease!”.
I believe I first heard the ‘walking virus’ line in a Bill Hicks routine. It’s a sardonic bit, to be sure.It’s where cynicism acquiesces to nihilism, in that moment of abject loathing. I understand that, I can relate. Another Hicks routine has to do with watching CNN for hours straight, blasting warnings of imminent doom: “WAR, DEATH, FAMINE, AIDS! WAR, DEATH,FAMINE, AIDS!” ( We are a disease!) . I understand this sentiment.
I admit this “world-view” is a tempting one.
After all, it is difficult to not be disgusted by the rampant ignorance, violence and apathy that we “witness” daily via mainstream media, like the ten o’clock news, CNN , and through armchair victimization junkies like Oprah ( I say, NOPRAH!). The end of Hicks’ bit has the viewer take a breath and stick his head out the window, only to hear the peaceful sounds of crickets chirping in the night.
It’s a commentary on the scrupulously constructed unreality fed to us by our “trusted news resources”.(Another bit about taking psychedelics and apprehending the divine spiritual nature of all of humanity casts a whole pile of doubt on the idea that Hicks’ really imagined himself as a bi-pedal cyst.)
This sentiment also lets us off the hook in certain ways; a slab of animated meat shaped by magic strands of DNA can’t possibly accept any moral or ethical responsibilty. We can watch a story about a drug dealer murdering some nobody, or a white-collar criminal commiting fraud and chalk it up to “human nature”. We are purely self-interested amoebas’, no? How can we be expected to not indulge every whim or consume every sugary, blinking-light trinket? A cosmic accident can only make mini-accidents, right?
It’s in our nature, of course. And there is no escape from “nature”..
We hear the same sentiments from ‘radicals’ like Howard Bloom via sites like Disinfo.com . We read Grant Morrison or Warren Ellis – penned comics that present entire populations or various warring factions as ‘viruses’, spreading their ‘memes’ like herpes at a goth club.( P.S, it’s time for a new concept, boys). But it isn’t a sardonic aside, it’s a ‘working model’ an ‘operational belief’ for many of these people.
It’s alluring to a certain strain of “cool” too; it doesn’t give a fuck, it’s reckless, it won’t delude itself with fairy tales, and that’s pretty rock’n’roll..
A slightly less ‘radical’ but very similar concept is often floated through various ‘smart’ media outlets, like the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, New Scientist magazine ( favorite of the atheistic-hipster club) Nova, Public Radio and in a remarkably propogandistic documentary I gritted my teeth through called “What The Bleep Do We Know?” .I’ve also encountered this one in normal conversation with friends and family.
This one’s a little more palatable, as its seed is planted in nearly every public school student in the United States ( and Europe, I’m sure) via Darwins’ theory ( which, right or wrong, is used to legitimize every tyranny by those ‘in the know’ : “Social Darwinism” it’s called, or “the recess period model”, as I like to think of it. ).
It goes like this: “We’re a bunch of hairless monkeys, of course.”
What seperates this one from the ‘walking virus’ line is that it seeks to preserve some fealty to a sense of ‘natural goodness’ that the ebola fraternity, with pet Cthulhus in their pocket set to wipe out all the jocks who beat them up and the cheerleaders who spurned them, dissavow out of hand.
In “What the Bleep..” this idea is used to rationalize or legitimize any and all sexual behaviors: Bonobo monkeys engage in nearly every kind of sexual activities one can imagine, we are shown in montage with pleasant voice-over narraion ; homosexuality , incest, etc., and they do this to preserve ‘social harmony”, we are told; You scratch my back, I’ll screw my daughter .It’s for the “greater social good” ( probably the most common theme presented by the ‘smart’ media), of course. And then the giant leap: Since we’re essentially hairless monkeys, there is absolutely no reason not to engage in wanton, every-whim-met, sexual behavior. Any restrictions on our behavior are the sole provenance of the uptight, the “un-enlightened”( in the luciferian sense) , the “insecure”( as in mentally unsound/dysgenic), the moralistic “cavemen’ ( ironic, no? I guess that’s the spot on the evolutionary chart when cave-guys first had a problem with their mates blowin’ the best man behind the big rock by the terrradactyl nest…) .All this presented by the calm , smiling faces of various self-styled sceintistic gurus, with light electronic music playing in the background.At the end of the film we are assured by the cult leader ( paraphrase) “ There is nothing you can do on this Earth that can upset God..”.Aaahhh…whata relief…
God is in our D.N.A, of course! And any urge we might have is a message from our D.N.A, from God, therefore the denial of the urge is Evil! ( Unless the urge involves ‘hurting’ anyone else, of course, then it must reigned-in.Why, I’m not sure.) It’s so simple!

The Monkey-sex routine is also used in an HBO doc. Called THE THIRD SEX.. It’s the exact same message, again used to confirm to us the validity of ‘human sexual diversity”, specifically ‘trans-gendered” people. Oh, yeah, and about how traditional cultures around the globe all have a secret homosexual majority that just can’t come-out due to the fascists who arrange marriages and want their children to “breed”…
As an aside, before I’m called a fascist ( if you haven’t done so already)I’d be remiss if I didn’t state that I don’t much care what activities consenting adults engage in. I don’t have to ‘appreciate’ it, or congratulate them for representing a color in our beautiful rainbow of ‘sexual diversity’.I recognize the fundamental right of every individual to live as he or she sees fit. (My views on sex and morality will be better served by an article dedicatd solely to the subject, to be written sometime in the future, but probably not.)
What this article is really about is the exposure of a nascent web of a greater ideology.Or, more specifically, how we’re being sold an ideology by pandering to our sexual desires. It’s not surprising to me that the sexual angle is used to sell what is in fact a far-reaching ideology, one with ramifications in every arena of what we call ‘civilization”. After all, the sex drive in each of us is the most difficult aspect of ourselves to reign in, and the first to go once traditional cultures fade. Wether a pretense or an adhered-to code, our sexual mores have a defining impact on culture-at-large.
What these two inter-related concepts have in common , at their core, is the imposture of scientific logic as butress for a purely mythical, or speculative vision of humans , humanity itself and civilization. This is the sigil of scientism in plain view and ,in this specific aspect, a manufactured vision employed scrupulously to disengage individuals from traditional practices by selling a get-out-of-tradtion-free card and other forms of liscence.
I use the word “mythical” because the vision of humanity that scientism presents is informed by self-serving slection of fact, all of which serve as the ingredients of a giant stew of snake-oil feel-goodism ; The sexual practices of Bonobo monkeys is presented to us as an ideal, a system by which we might fornicate our way toward a utopian future, under the umbrella of virtual rainbows of diversity projected above us, all of us plugged-in, all of us sharing access to our genitals and rectums for “the common good” at the sybarite resort/company compound. It’s a self-serving slection, no doubt. After all, Bonobo monkeys throw their own feces at each other ( before the make-up sodomy, I imagine.) Why not throw our turds at the uptight moralists? It works for the monkeys..
(A ‘mentally challenged” kid down the street plays with his feces too. Maybe he’s got the keys to utopia! Let’s all start speaking in mono-syllables! Language is for fascists!!)

At its core, represented here as ‘fundamentalist scientism” ( the tumor on rollerblades vision) the ideology of scientism reduces each individual to self-interested organism, a cosmic accident in which all creation, all human achievement , all art , all philosophy, all religion, all music and poetry is the merely the poisoned fruit of our denial; we deny that we are flesh set to rot, nothing more. “Family” is a feeble unit stitched together by mutual fear, by the mutual need for material security under the umbrella of a role-played fantasy in which the father acts as lord, oppressing the natural pleasure-pursuits of wife by shackling her to some children, who reinforce the RPG, making material the delusion. Traditional culture is mass delusion, a trivial accessory now sold as trinkets in gift shops, it’s signets now the logos of travel agancies, used to lure company-men to far off, exotic locales . “Nation” an even greater delusion, in which the most succesful of the role-playing fathers hoard their wealth behind imaginary lines.
The “What The Bleep” shit-thrower pitch presents all of the above-mentioned ( what we call, again, civilization) in lighter terms, as a bit of a joke, a happy delusion, one in which we might “do what thou will” with the silly ol’ playthings that got us to this point. Let’s stop fooling ourselves about things like “achievement”, it’ll have us believe; the only things we try to achieve are things that will directly improve our position in ‘the game’ of culture and society, in which the rules are made up as we go, since they were simply ‘made-up’ before we all achieved this trans-humanist enlightenment.The world of the monkey-idol is, in fact, flat.
However you slice it, the ideology of scientism is a coup for those in power, a major boon; the heads of media, government and banking systems (Usually intimately connected, if not one and the same.) are seen as ‘natural’ players in the game, acting out roles that any organism might . After all, once each individuals’ perception of self is reduced to that of a lonely amoeba ‘jus’ tryin to get mine’, tyranny itself will go unrecognized, oppression a matter of ‘bad dna’, or an unfortunate, but natural occurance that might ‘infect’ anyone at any given time. The only oppression in monkey-land is in an individual not having the capacity to ‘play the game’; nothing a dash of eugenics can’t solve. A belief in ideologies like Scienism opens the floodgates for unmitigated acquiesence to all forms of control, wether it be eugenics, population control programs ( we want better animated meat, only less of it..) or Global Government/Control Grid systems.If we are all but soon-to-be mounds of dirt, what is there to protect?
There is no moral ground to object to these decisions, and, if someone ‘ climbs the ladder’ to the position of a great ‘decider’, well, they’ve earned the right by means of their might.They’re simply listening to their DNA, no? If you cannot acquire the means to protect yourself materially, it just means you’re carrying the ball in a game of ‘smear the queer’ during recess and you’re knocked back a couple spots on Darwins’ chart. You’re bombed back to the Stoneage..You’re jus’ shit out of luck.

**UP Next: The diagnosis continues. Stay tuned for soothing, cure-all ointment**

Apollo's chariot, Ares, Athena

Text says, "Someday, when you are all grown up, I'm going to ask you a question and you will answer "yes".

Apollo, Aphrodite, paraphenalia

I kind of like this one because it looks like Apollo is passing gas.



Text reads, "If you show him the VHS box set, you have to expect him to sleep with it."

FOR FALSE MEAT & MONEY!

I arrived home from work last night & was greeted with this amazing bounty! It's quite out of control. Why had all of this arrived? I did some work for the Tofurky people, doing promotional cartoons for their new foot long tofurky dogs. I was vegan for eight years or something, for philosophical reasons, but my philosophical reasoning has really changed since that period of time. However, i taught myself to cook in the vegan style & am quite good at it, & i rather like alot of these futuristic false meats. They are no substitute for actual meat though, they've got to be judged on their own merit. I still am quite opposed to the factory farm & the poor treatment of animals, but i also buy things made in China. It's all too complicated to just cling to some sort of puritanical ideology. No matter how much i might like some sort of cure-all ideology, they just don't exist!

Here's to complexity!

Ah, speaking of which, i hear that a bunch of UN scientists have declared that Global Warming is all our fault. I'm still totally on the fence about this. On one hand, it's fairly obvious to me that burning stuff, especially oil held by lunatic Anglo & Arab crime families, in order to create energy is not the best way to make energy, therefore, we should try & create energy in other ways. Especially more decentralized ways. I also don't like the passe suburban car culture & especially the hideous design of said cars. Driving everywhere is obviously inefficient & detrimental to social cohesion. On the other hand, the weather doesn't seem any different to me & i haven't seen the reported effects of global warming with my own eyes. What i'm centrally concerned about is this issue being used to implement a bunch of new state control measures & New World Order scariness.

"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself." ~"The First Global Revolution" the Club of Rome. 1991

What is fairly obvious to me is that the change in public thinking on the environment has been sold very heavily for the last 30 years. At the same time, public consumption has gone up, instead of going down, even as people are now "more concerned" over the environment than ever. It just doesn't add up to me. It seems like a Trojan Horse, even if it is real.

Greek Mythos

It's the Greeks, which means that the names are probably more familiar, anyway. We've got the Aegis shield (that's the shield with the Medusa head on it) and Zeus — god of the air, ruler of the gods, serial philanderer, and all around good guy.




The text says, "I know Daddy's not here even when he isn't."

Ukko and the Air Maidens

Ukko is the supreme god of the Kalevala; his air maidens look suspiciously like valkyries (Finnish and Norse mythos may have some cross pollination, I guess.)



Text reads,"Now I see where he got that stain on his pants."

leaking vaults

Here's some more sticky discharge from the vaults

Son of Pohjola, Tuonetar

The son of pohjola is pohjola's son; Tuonetar is the goddess of the underworld.

Luke suggested earlier that it would be nice if there were some variation in line width in these. I think I was starting to get something like that effect here, since I was coloring in long black stringy bits that essentially start to look like thick lines.

Or perhaps I'm deluding myself.



The text read, "You still play with your ears when you drink your milk."

E.B.D is V.I.P! -the nominations are in..

And we got one! - - Crazy and weird, weird and crazy, or some combination thereof. Sean Duffield of Paper Tiger fame alerted me to it.I'm not sure how the nomination process works, but even if it's simply an open submission process, it's a cool thing to see our humble ( i.e, best in the world) blog listed in the "Favourite Comics Related Website" category..
We should all take a moment and vote for Duffield, E.B.D and Zeke on the Eagle Awards site.

Lovecraft Art Exhibit

The curator of the Museum of Science Fiction, Utopia and Extraordinary Journeys in Switzerland recently contacted me concerning an exhibit dedicated to H.P Lovecraft this fall in honor of the 70 year anniversary of his death. I wanted to pass this info along to everyone here at the Duckblog. I'm sure we're all inspired by Lovecraft in one way or another and this is certainly a great concept for a group art show. I'm going to be contributing work for this show myself and I encourage everyone here to take it into consideration as well. Here's all the details concerning the exhibit.

An exhibition of unspeakable things: Lovecraft's Commonplace Book

The exhibition concept, in brief:

"An exhibition of unspeakable things" is an exhibition project of the Maison d'Ailleurs, Museum of science fiction (in Switzerland), based on a text by writer H. P. Lovecraft's the Commonplace Book. This work by Lovecraft, consisting of ideas to be developed at a later date, will be used as the basis for illustrations produced by brilliant comics authors/illustrators. The exhibition will present more than one hundred original works by artists whose only common ground is to be willing to embark on such a delirious journey.

Exhibition organizer and location:

The Maison d'Ailleurs (http://www.ailleurs.ch), Museum of science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys, is a non-profit foundation with two-fold mission: that of a public museum and a specialized research centre. Founded in 1976, the Maison d'Ailleurs possesses a collection of more than 60'000 objects related to its theme of specialization. This unique museum is the only public institution of its kind in Europe.

Alongside the institution’s research pole, there is great public interest in the Museum as numerous temporary exhibitions are held that encourage visitors to explore major themes in science fiction (future cities, space travel, etc.) or to discover visionary artists, film-makers, sculptors, painters and comics artists such as: Caza, H.R. Giger, John Howe, Dave McKean, Luc Schuiten, James Gurney and many more. Since 1989, the Maison d'Ailleurs has produced more than fifty exhibitions, both within and outside the Museum, and has attracted the attention of the international press.

H. P. Lovecraft:

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 - 1937), an American writer, is considered one of the fathers of XXth Century weird and fantastic fiction. He is the author of over sixty short stories, a novel, as well as poems. Although Lovecraft had a hard life and died young, he is known today as both a pioneer and genius. He influenced many important artists and writers of our time: Robert Bloch, H. R. Giger, Philippe Druillet, Roger Corman, Stephen King as well as Fritz Leiber.

→ http://www.hplovecraft.com/

→ http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/lovecraft.html

Commonplace Book:

Lovecraft's Commonplace Book is a written compilation of ideas: from 1919 to 1934, Lovecraft wrote down fragments, plot ideas and scenario outlines, all concrete elements he could put to use at any given time. The texts contain suggestions for story-writing (as many as 221 !) as well as a list of horror fundamentals, intended to stimulate the imagination. Today we would call them "pitches" for horror stories, accompanied by images, disparate quotes... This book totally immerses the reader into Lovecraft's world, almost as a witness to the birth of countless future stories yet to unfold. It is interesting to note that the Commonplace Book was actually used by other authors as a Lovecraftian source on which to base new novels and short stories.

The Commonplace Book was selected for the base of the exhibition as it sums up the work of Lovecraft remarkably well. Consisting mainly of short phrases, it is much easier to use as a source of inspiration for an illustration than a short story. The artworks produced for the exhibition will serve to “complete ” the ideas in the selected excerpt, to develop it or to bring it to life (in a quirky way or not!). Each artist can use the amount of text he desires.

→ Examples of the author's notes:

- "Man observed in a publick place with features (or ring or jewel) identified with those of man long (perhaps generations) buried."

- "Subterranean region beneath placid New England village, inhabited by (living or extinct) creatures of prehistoric antiquity and strangeness."

- "Ancient and unknown ruins—strange and immortal bird who speaks in a language horrifying and revelatory to the explorers."

- "Individual, by some strange process, retraces the path of evolution and becomes amphibious."

Copyrights: according to the leading Lovecraft scholar, the text appears to be copyright-free (the copyrights for Lovecraft’s work are very complex). Nevertheless, both the copyright agents for Lovecraft’s work in French and the publisher of the French version of the "Commonplace Book" have authorized the Maison d'Ailleurs’ creation of an exhibition based on these texts (as well as an accompanying publication).

→ A digital version of the text is attached. It also exists in its original English version.

Illustrations: number, type and format:

- As the Maison d'Ailleurs possesses approximately 250 m2 of exhibition space on three floors, a relatively large amount of artwork is required for "an exhibition of unspeakable things ". Participating artists are therefore encouraged to create several illustrations inspired by the "Commonplace Book". There is no limit as to how many!

- Both style and technique are open (black and white, colour, etc.). The works produced may consist of mere illustrated "notes" or sketches. Even if an "illustrative approach" is applied to Lovecraft’s ideas (as oppose to a "comic strip style"), it is possible to include speech balloons (text bubbles) or to make a series of images for one text fragment (but we do not need a comic strip...).

- In order to facilitate the project's organisation and to ensure a coherent overall aesthetic presentation, we have decided to impose standard format size for all illustrations: A5, A4 or A3.

- The author’s name and the reference number corresponding to Lovecraft’s note used for inspiration, must figure on each illustration, thank you in advance for your cooperation!

- Original works remain the property of the artists and will be returned once the exhibition has been dismantled. (Please note: it is probable that the exhibition will be presented in other institutions after the first public showing at the Maison d'Ailleurs.) Copyrights for artworks will remain the property of each respective artist, who must grant the exhibition organisers permission,free of charge, to include the works in the exhibition (for public viewing) as well as to be published in the exhibition catalogue.

- Costs for the transport of works, from the artists homes to the Maison d'Ailleurs and back, will be covered by the Museum.

The exhibition:

"An exhibition of unspeakable things" will be presented on three floors at the Maison d'Ailleurs, from the end of October 2007 to April 2008. Each illustration will be presented along with the note from Lovecraft’s text that served as inspiration (original scenography will be designed in order to do so). As well, the Maison d'Ailleurs will display rare documents linked to H. P. Lovecraft (such as a hand-written postcard from the Museum’s collections) or are related to Lovecraft's "universe". The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society will be one of the exhibition partners. A viewing of the medium-length film "The Call of Cthulhu" is planned. As well, it is highly probable that several writers will also contribute to the project.

Exhibition publications:

An exhibition catalogue is to be produced, presenting a selection of illustrations from the exhibition with the Lovecraft text that served as inspiration (in both French and English). Each participating artist will receive gratuitously a certain number of catalogues (the exact amount is to be determined). Michel Houellebecq, a reknowned Lovecraft specialist, has been asked to write the prologue of the catalogue.

Subsequent exhibition locations:

Several other locations/organisations have already expressed their interest in presenting this exhibition, such as the Fumetto Festival in Lucerne, in April 2008, as well as the Utopiales Festival in Nantes, in October 2008.

Fianancial support and budget:

At this stage in the project, it does not appear possible to remunerate participating artists (other than by gratuitously supplying a certain number of exhibition catalogues).

Why participate?

Not to become rich, obviously, but rather to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Lovecraft’s death, to receive a beautiful catalogue of illustrations, to join the group of prestigious artists participating in this group exhibition, to venture “off the beaten path” into the monstrously frightful, and to “bring to life” particularly horrifying or abstract situations.

Exhibition partners:

- Mix & Remix: initiator of the exhibition project, Mix & Remix (Philippe Becquelin) is a press and television illustrator. Each weeek, as political cartoonist for the magazine L'Hebdo, he creates comical illustrations on current news. His illustrations are also published in the French newspaper Courrier international and the Italian newspaper l'Internazionale. As well, his work was on exhibition at the Festival of Angoulême in 2005.

→ http://www.mixremix.ch/

- The magazine L'Hebdo: a Swiss news magazine edited in Lausanne. Founded in September 1981, l'Hebdo is the most important publication of its kind in French-speaking Switzerland. They will ensure both the promotion of the exhibition and the distribution of the exhibition catalogue.

→ http://www.hebdo.ch

- The Lausanne Municipal Library: this institution possesses an extraordinary archive of comics, managed by the official curator, Cuno Affolter. The Library serves as an important contact point in this area of specialisation in Switzerland.

→ http://www.lausanne.ch/view.asp?DomID=61888

Important dates:

- 28 October 2007 - April 2008: presentation of the exhibition at the Museum

- 27 October 2007: exhibition opening at the Maison d'Ailleurs

- 1 September 2007: deadline for the reception of original artworks from artists; preparation of the publication (scans, layout, printing, etc.)

- 30 June 2007: deadline for artists to communicate the exact number of artworks to be presented (if possible including the size and format of each work)

- 31 March 2007: deadline for artists confirmation of participation

- 15 February 2007: finalisation of artists contracts"

Graphic design:

The graphic design of the exhibition (poster, publications, etc.) is by Julien Notter and Sébastien Vigne (at-elier.net), who will also collaborate in designing the exhibition scenography under the supervision of the Museum’s management team.

→ http://www.at-elier.net

Contact:

Patrick J. Gyger, Director – pgyger@ailleurs.ch

Maison d'Ailleurs, Musée de la science-fiction, de l'utopie et des voyages extraordinaires, 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains, Suisse

tél +41 24 425 64 38

Louhi, Mielikki, Loviatar

Louhi is the old crone of Pohjola (so there); Loviatar is the goddess of hurt, Mistress of Pain (no number given for bookings, though); Melikki is the goddess of nature, mistress of the forest



Text says, "You life your eyebrows when you look in the garbage can."

Bow to the Queen of Hemorrhoids

Two panels for a comic jam on the Comics Journal messageboard.

More Finnish heroes

Kullervo and Lemminkainen, both with dogs.



"We went to the zoo to see the steps. Also dirt."

Eligos

Here's a recent painting from the Goetia series.

"Natural" Man -- LP

There is no natural religion! This guys is super organic, like flowers and trees and tumors.

A Pitstop

Despite the fact that I told Luke I might not be able to post for a little while, because I was too entrenched in projects, I decided I would post today since I just finished a run of screen prints based on a character in a new comic I just finished. The 6 page comic will be published in Bailliwik Volume 4 that comes out of Chicago and the first run of prints will be included in the first 50 copies of the book. I made 20 copies beyond that, so this is the largest edition I have done on the always-a-gamble-but-still-amazing Gocco unit.
This monster breaks off the largest mountain he can find and drops it on a development that is growing too fast above his cave home. Here he is on his way to crush them.

Hisi, Ilmarinen, 1-10 evil heroes

Hisi is the god of evil; he sends into battle 1-10 evil heroes, which are also pictured (3 of them, this time round.) Ilmarinen is a hero; he's holding a mighty magical item, apparently.

The evil heroes are done relatively small and sketchy; I liked the way it turned out, and tried the style again in some later drawings.



The text says, "Shouldn't we take that away from him?"

Knock by Knock-What

Finnish Mythos

Vainamoinen is a Finnish hero; we see him sort of standing there looking heroic and also on a sled. Ahto is the God of the Seas and waters. These and a lot of the upcoming drawings I copied from are by Jim Roslof, who used a lot more solid blacks than some of the earlier art did....



The quote says, "I am too busy to talk to Mommy right now."

The Old Man Who Had An Alcohol Problem And Began Growing Rapidly PAGE 2

Thoth

Thoth is god of knowledge; he looks like an ibis. A psychedelic ibis, in this case.



The text reads, "If we will not take you to Disney world, your grandparents will not get you a puppy." I don't really remember what that meant, if anything.

minions of set

Set has evil minions who take the forms of bears, snakes, people, and scorpions — you can actually make out the scorpion, much to my surprise.



Text says, "Today is a good day for sitting on laps."

posca punks

The top drawing was done on a sticker, the other two are sketchbook drawings.

Ptah, Seker, Set

Ptah is the creator of the Universe, Seker is the god of light (he's zapping some undead at the top, there) and Set is the god of evil and the night. Again, I didn't draw everything. And I used a lot more solid blacks in Ptah than I had up to now. I kind of like this one.




The text reads, "Maybe he really is the worst baby ever."

Bow to the Queen..

It seems every time I set out to draw very specific things in a very intentional manner, I end up with something embarrassing.Only seemingly innocuous activities like cleaning pens in the sink, and the accidental splatter that result are where I find what I'm after. Is it sort of hacky? Yep. I don't like feeling like I'm not responsible for all of it. I haven't really achieved, ( or is that a dead concept?) you know? I had a moment where I decided I was somehow being told to not try to control my art in such a severe way..

-Click to enlarge

Here's a pic that makes my fore-head look rather bulbous..

click to enlarge..

My name is Matt...

How about that?

I'm currently working on a mini-comic with no title. Short stories and single panel gag cartoons, all about cats and dating and dieting. I may call it "Cathy". Either that or "Pee Pee Doodlers for You!"

I'm Currently Working on it.

Blog.

Isis, Osiris, Phoenix

Isis is goddess of magic and fertility; Osiris is god of nature and the dead, and a Phoenix is a magic bird.


Text reads, "Pretending to sleep is Daddy's favorite game."

This was the first drawing where I *didn't* try to copy every line of the original. Instead I picked a few elements (the snake from Osiris' hat, for example.) I don't know that it entirely worked in this one....

Operational Crazoid

I just completed this little comic for a Roctober/Chica-Go-Go project http://www.roctober.com/. It's Pedro Bell, best known for his Parliament/Funkadelic art work being interviewed by Chica-Go-Go host Ratso. Here goes a cool interview with Pedro Bell from an old issue of Roctober. http://www.roctober.com/roctober/greatness/pfunk.html What i particularly found cool was that Pedro Bell found some of his earliest influence from Ed Roth/Rat Fink stuff. http://www.ratfink.org/ Because of this, i decided to up the Rat Fink influence in my own illustration here. I do believe that you will find the strength of my own cosmic understandings here with a skinhead rat interviewing a crazy black artist with a marker bandolier.

A Troll Riding A Goblin

Here's a rough sketch for a detailed ink drawing I'm working on this week.

And be sure to check out Monster Brains this week, I'm doing a weeklong post dedicated to H.P Lovecraft related artworks.

Geb and Horus

Geb is god of the earth; Horus is a hawk-headed avenger, apparently.



Text is "You used to be oblivious, but now when I yell you start to cry." But he's actually gotten beyond that now, and when I yell he just ignored me again.

Anubis and Bast

Anubis, guardian of the dead, and Bast, cat goddess. We're into the Egyptian Mythos, now, in case I didn't say that....



The text reads, "You definitely made Mommy sick, but I think it is the cat who broke the phone."

Ra and Anhur

Ra is the sun god; he's shown zapping someone offscreen and on his sun-boat. Anhur is yet another god of war.



The text reads, "He almost exploded with excitement. He squawked and flapped."

The King and the Mockingbird

I thought I'd try something different and post screenshots to one of my favorite animated films which has been very inspiring to my own comic creations. I'm using a lot of these screenshots as direct inspiration for some panels in Hob Bob. I enjoy and am hoping to emulate the fantastic angular architectural scenery and the strange perspective of buildings seen throughout the film.

Here's a quote that sums up what the film is about. "Conceived in the late '40s by animator Paul Grimault and famed screenwriter Jacques Prévert, this was intended to be France's first full-length animated feature, but, due to budgetary problems, it was left incomplete until 1980. Today it's seen as having been highly influential on animation giants such as Hayao Miyazaki, and as proof that hand-drawn images deserve life after Pixar. A pompous, cross-eyed ruler--named "King Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI"--is in love with a painting. The two-dimensional beauty, however, desires the dashing young chimney sweep in the frame next door. Drawn to one another, this pair decides to elope, stepping out of the paintings and into Grimault's endlessly bizarre castle/town. But a jealous portrait of the King gives chase, imprisoning the real King with a well-placed trap door. Grimault forsakes realism in favor of bold colors, disorienting shifts in scale and perspective, and a number of odd transformations (my favorite is when the King's throne becomes a carnival-style bumper car). Elevators look like beetles attached to telescoping cell phone antennas, buildings hang like barnacles from gargantuan Roman pillars," quote from here.









Here's 50 screenshots from the film...

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