Tough Guy Goods & Services

The Groovy Golden Age Batman

2012-02-21T12:46:00.003-05:00

A bit of explanation is necessary. While going through a pile of old childhood artwork, I found this bizarre drawing I did of "The Golden Age Batman." I'm not sure how old I was, probably around 8 or so (just a guess), old enough to know of the concept of The Golden Age of Comics, but not at all aware of what 1940s design looked like. Because this groovy Batman costume is something better suited for a 1970s Blaxploitation film than anything caped crusader-related. Those name-checked bell bottoms!!! Man oh man... I had to re-draw this thing.

I originally just re-drew it in the same pose, but it wasn't enough. So I did a cover re-creation of a real Golden Age BATMAN comic, issue 42 from 1947, pitting the Dynamic Duo against the Catwoman. It was an opportunity to try to match the bizarre amalgam of my incorrectly perceived Golden Age esthetic with the obvious Me-Decade era in which I was living. I put Robin in a macramé sweater, a giant collar and 70s gym clothes from the waist down.

Catwoman, meanwhile, is wearing Farrah Fawcett-Majors' red swimsuit (augmented with her name, in case people got confused) and hair, with denim cutoffs, gloves and tail. She's also clunking around in huge gladiator wedgies.

For the logo, I adapted one that I drew on the back of the original drawing. To augment the 40s/70s amalgamation, I combined elements from comic books of those different eras for the details on the cover such as the DC logo, price and Comics Code stamp. Heck, nothing about this makes sense, so why not.

And I couldn't help but add a cape to Batman's costume. It just didn't look right without it. Maybe in my original drawing, it was just at the cleaner's or something. The sad thing is, as much as I tried, I just couldn't match the sheer craziness of this old childhood drawing. There's something to be said for the unbridled imagination of youth. But, hey, I gave it a shot.

We Are Your Friends

2012-02-15T11:12:00.001-05:00

Here's what you do: You go to the WFMU Pledge Page and donate some money to keep the best freakin' radio station this side of WKRP live and on the air (and the internet, too). Maybe you'll get a copy of dee-jay Therese Mahler's compilation, WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS: A SOUNDTRACK FOR FIRST CONTACT AND INTERPLANETARY DIPLOMACY. I did the artwork. Which is, you know, why it's posted here.

Prince Street News: High Heel Fighting!

2012-01-30T15:26:00.001-05:00

Here's the new installment of PRINCE STREET NEWS, as seen in the latest issue of Michael Eury's BACK ISSUE! Magazine, available from the fine folks at TwoMorrows Publishing. You can order the issue here! Following the last installment, it's another look at comic book couture, and while that's certainly a fertile topic for discussion (as the terrific website PROJECT: ROOFTOP regularly demonstrates), it's not going to be the subject of every PSN. The next episode will appear in BI! #57 (which you can pre-order here), spotlighting Jenette Khan's revolutionary reign at DC Comics in the 1970s and 80s, and it's entitled, "Implosion Happy Hour!" When I put that one up here, I'm going to have to do a lot of annotating for the less geeky of you.

Below the finished strip is the detail of the reproduction of the cover of GREEN LANTERN #14, the original by the great Gil Kane.

Copycat

2012-01-27T13:16:00.000-05:00

Funny thing about this piece, I've seen a bunch of other artists' interpretation of the photo on which this was based... I guess there are some images that really resonate with cartoonists and a come-hithery 50s babe is up near the top of the list!

PRINCE STREET NEWS: Icon

2011-10-26T11:39:00.001-04:00

As promised, here's the full first installment of PRINCE STREET NEWS from BACK ISSUE! MAGAZINE #51. But you should still buy the whole darn thing!! Following the strip are the two recreations of the inserted comic book covers from the strip.

Claudia Chopek

2011-10-25T14:07:00.000-04:00

My very talented and very busy musician friend Claudia Chopek hired me to do some cartoon portraits of her.

Kirby Enthusiasm: The Murphy Slap!

2011-10-19T10:56:00.001-04:00

My last piece for the KIRBY ENTHUSIASM show at Maxwell's is a "tribute" to Jack Kirby's tenure on SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN, a title he took over when he temporarily migrated from Marvel to DC Comics in 1970. Kirby's wild imagination brought some crazy concepts to the DC Universe (even if his writing skills never quite matched his artistic ones), most of all the so-called "Fourth World" of the New Gods and Darkseid.

According to Mark Evanier's excellent tome on Kirby, DC gave Jack carte blanche, allowing him to create new books (although some of them never saw print) as well as choose whatever assignment he liked from their current roster. Jack picked the tame JIMMY OLSEN not because he saw any potential, but because at the time, it was the only book that was lacking a regular creative team (he didn't want to take work from anyone).

The result was a metaphor for Bronze Age Comics... an exciting, yet frequently bizarre and confusing confluence of experimentation and creativity in a very traditional context. The supporting cast may have included hippies and otherworldly despots and DNAliens, the backgrounds may have featured Kirby's trademark cosmic crackle and collage splashes, but DC drew the line at the delineation of the Man of Steel himself...

Feeling that Kirby's depiction of Superman (and his trademarked "S" shield) didn't fit DC's house style, they had longtime DC artist (and frequent inker on the last son of Krypton's other books) Murphy Anderson redraw Kal-El's face and S-emblem in every issue of JIMMY OLSEN. The jarring juxtaposition was (ironically) softened by the inks of Vince Colletta, whose tame style (considered by many scholars an ill fit for the dynamism of Kirby's style) served as a bridge between the two artists.

Still, "The Murphy Slap" (my term) is considered one of many great indignities suffered upon one of comics' most important creators. In tribute, I drew the piece with the Kirby-style Superman face and S before covering them with actual Murphy Anderson artwork from an issue of JIMMY OLSEN. I made the added elements off-size and placed them off kilter to emphasize the mismatch of the artwork (and to indicate to the lay person that it's supposed to look like that).

Here are both pieces, the final version and the pre-Murphyized artwork.

For more on this topic, check out Mark Evanier's post on his site.

Kirby Enthusiasm: The Dingbats of Danger Street

2011-10-18T21:40:00.001-04:00

My second piece for the KIRBY ENTHUSIASM show was a version of one of Kirby's wackadoo creations for DC Comics, THE DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET, which appeared in the SHOWCASE-esque FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL #6 in 1975. Unlike the Maximus piece, instead of trying to replicate Kirby's style, I did this as an adaptation in my own style, changing the sex of some of the characters and adding some Kirby tribute details in the form of comics on the ground and in the garbage (horrors!).

Kirby Enthusiasm: Maximus is Pleased!

2011-10-18T21:35:00.001-04:00

I just co-curated (with Rand Hoppe of the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center) an art show at Maxwell's in Hoboken NJ called KIRBY ENTHUSIASM: A Tribute to the King of Comics! I did three pieces, this first one being a pretty straight adaptation of one of Kirby's trademark insane splash pages from his peak period of the late 1960s. "Maximus is pleased!" is from FANTASTIC FOUR #82, which continued a story introducing the Inhumans to the Marvel Universe.

Prince Street News debuts in BACK ISSUE #51!

2011-09-19T11:19:00.001-04:00

It's plug time, kids! The first installment of Prince Street News, my comic strip about comics has just hit the stands in the new issue of Michael Eury's BACK ISSUE MAGAZINE, #51, an all-interview issue featuring writer Steve Englehart, artist Walt Simonson in conversation with frequent collaborator Erik Larsen, a writers discussion between Doug Moench and Len Wein, letterers Janice Chiang and Todd Klein and the final interview with the late colorist Adrienne Roy.

My strip is the centerspread of the magazine, printed in full color. It's entitled, "Icon" and it's about the evolution of Superman's appearance in light of his new costume in the comics. I'll post the full strip here when BI #52 comes out, so if you want to see it now, head on to your local comics store, Barnes & Noble or order Back Issue from the TwoMorrows website.

The next episode of PSN will be in BACK ISSUE #54, the Liberated Ladies issue, shipping in January, 2012. It's a look at the thin line between acceptably sexy and exploitatively silly in the context of superheroine costumes.

Announcing: Collector's Edition: Confessions of a Pop Culture Obsessive-Compulsive

2011-05-16T15:14:00.000-04:00

This is the big project that's been taking up most of my time this year (and will continue to do so for the bulk of 2011). But I thought it was time to let the cat outta the mylar (if you get that reference, you will see yourself in this book).
________________________________

COLLECTOR’S EDITION: Confessions of a Pop Culture Obsessive-Compulsive by Karl Heitmueller Jr. is an examination of the changing nature of popular culture from the early 1970s to today in the form of a memoir. Mixing history, humor and criticism with sometimes embarrassingly personal anecdotes, Heitmueller paints a picture of a life that, at the age of 46, continues to revolve around pop trappings that are usually abandoned upon adulthood. But it’s also about how the evolution of technology has radically altered the consumption of culture, making it easier to acquire and perhaps less meaningful in the process.

COLLECTOR’S EDITION is divided into chapters that deal with the numerous aspects of Karl’s obsessions: comic books, music (both collecting and compiling), Christmas, action figures, recording TV shows, books, self-publishing, archiving and a three-decades-running compendium called, “The Motion Picture Log.” There are also chapters on how sports just doesn’t fit into the equation and why Star Wars lost its luster for the author (while Superman perhaps means more than ever).

Peppered with illuminating sidebars, anecdotal comic strips and illustrations, COLLECTOR’S EDITION tries to explain the collector’s mentality, and posits that loving STUFF may not be such a bad thing after all. Readers who share the malady of nostalgia will find much to which they can relate, while those who’ve never felt the urge to scour eBay for a long-lost relic of their childhood will hopefully gain insight to the mindset of an oft-ridiculed demographic.

E-MAIL FOR PUBLISHING INQUIRIES OR MORE INFORMATION

HOOTENANNY II poster

2011-04-29T14:38:00.000-04:00

Another happy job for Secret Country, for this year's HOOTENANNY fest. This poster is based on the one-sheet for the 1963 film HOOTENANNY HOOT (see below) and expands the Al Capp tribute (Hot Dog girl is partially based on Daisy Mae, and partially based on someone else) by including Li'l Abner's younger brother, Tiny Yokum (albeit clad in a non-traditional hot dog shirt and green jeans).

Super Songs 4

2011-03-17T17:37:00.000-04:00

Based on the cover of the B-52's first self-titled album, of course.

Secret Country SUNY poster

2011-03-01T10:13:00.002-05:00

The figure in this poster is a swipe from Robert McGinnis' cover to the Mike Shayne Mystery Pulp FIT TO KILL.

When I steal, I steal from the best!

Even More Cartoon/Comic Characters' Favorite Musical Artists

2011-02-16T14:24:00.001-05:00

An old theme returns for the first time in about a decade (now technically as an installment of PRINCE STREET NEWS sans logo).

For the previous episodes:
COMIC CHARACTERS' FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTISTS
MORE COMIC CHARACTERS' FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTISTS
STILL MORE COMIC CHARACTERS' FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTISTS

Sinatra

2011-02-10T16:35:00.000-05:00

This poster was done for the WHAT EXIT! art show at Maxwell's.

Night of the Living Dead (version 2)

2011-01-19T17:30:00.000-05:00

Proving again that sometimes less is more.

Secret Country Whiskey Tee

2011-01-07T17:15:00.002-05:00

S'tan & Social Grace T-Shirt

2011-01-07T17:08:00.001-05:00

This image was designed for a never-produced S'tan & Social Grace tee-shirt

Super F•R•I•E•N•D•S

2011-01-07T17:04:00.000-05:00

I have NEVER posted this 1999 illustration anywhere because, well, it's for a TV show that I find in many ways loathsome. This spec piece was done purely as a portfolio piece back in the days when freelance illustrators would drop off their book at magazines and pick it up a few days later... is that still done? I'm finally posting it because, what the Hell. Plus the Jennifer Aniston likeness ain't bad.

Soul Coughing: The Looming Head of Yuval

2011-01-07T16:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't really posted that much of the art that I did in-house when I worked at Warner Bros. Records from 1996-1999, but here's a drawing of the band Soul Coughing that was done for some promotional reason that has disappeared into the brain wrinkles....

Boys Wonder

2011-01-07T16:55:00.000-05:00

A series of Robin costumes from DC Comics, cartoons and movies. First is the original, rather ridiculous design. Second is an Earth-2 version of an adult Dick Grayson in transition to taking over the mantle of the Batman. Third is, oof, from BATMAN FOREVER. Fourth is Neal Adams' redesign of the 1990s, followed by Bruce Timm's animated Robin. The final version if mine.

Elvis Costello Centerfold

2011-01-07T16:52:00.002-05:00

This piece was done to accompany an article in THE NEW YORK HANGOVER, I'm not normally in the habit of drawing naked pictures of Elvis Costello.... not that I don't love the guy, just not in that way....

Pinky Blue

2011-01-07T16:49:00.004-05:00

S'TAN & SOCIAL GRACE: Many Beer

2011-01-07T16:47:00.003-05:00

Secret Country, Hard White Snow

2010-12-19T14:25:00.000-05:00

This is the art for the new Secret Country Christmas single, "Hard White Snow!" You can git 'er here!

Gruß vom Krampus!

2010-12-09T16:42:00.001-05:00

This is the cover to my 2010 Christmas compilation, GRUß VOM KRAMPUS! featuring the beloved Germanic holiday figure from the 19th century. Mayhaps you'd be inclined to check out the single I did with my girlfriend and some chums. Here's the link to the Jingleberries' CHRISTMAS VIDEO PARTY.

You Don't Like Anything! The Vicious Circle of the Three Dollar Bin

2010-11-18T19:01:00.000-05:00

The Exorcist

2010-11-18T10:38:00.000-05:00

The final ONE-SHEET REDUX post (for now, anyway), my take on one of my all-time favorite movies.

Night of the Living Dead (version 1)

2010-11-17T10:55:00.000-05:00

Another ONE-SHEET REDUX, and (to be honest) my least favorite of my pieces for the show. I'm working on a second version, which is coming soon, but here's the first version.

Kitten with a Whip

2010-11-15T09:16:00.001-05:00

ONE-SHEET REDUX post no. 5, this adapts (pretty literally, but I put Jody in jeans and added an actual cat in the background box) the poster for Ann-Margret's KITTEN WITH A WHIP, one of my favorite B-movies. See here for a little more information and buy the DVD here!

The Night of the Hunter

2010-11-12T15:25:00.000-05:00

Another ONE-SHEET REDUX piece, a lobby card for Charles Laughton's noir masterpiece, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. The film is finally getting the Criterion Collection treatment this month (the current DVD is a scratchy, cropped travesty). I was originally going to do three different lobby cards for this film, but again, time got away from me, like kids fleeing in a skiff from a mad preacher!

X: The Unheard Music

2010-11-11T10:01:00.002-05:00

Another ONE-SHEET REDUX piece, THE UNHEARD MUSIC is an amazing 1986 documentary about one of the greatest bands of all time, Los Angeles' seminal artpunk group, X. I sent this to singer / bassist John Doe, and he passed it on to director W.T. Morgan and the rest of the band, and I'm happy to say that John said they hope to use this at some point...

The Dark Knight

2010-11-09T17:30:00.001-05:00

Another piece done for ONE-SHEET REDUX, two different versions of a poster for THE DARK KNIGHT. Originally, I was planning to do a Saul Bass-style poster for a nonexistent 1950s Batman movie directed by Alfred Hitichcock. I was partially inspired by a 2003 internet hoax that claimed Orson Welles was planning to do a Batman movie in the 1940s, but I wanted to adapt a more stylized 50s aesthetic. But as I worked on the poster, it evolved (or de-evolved) into something else. No Saul Bass am I to be sure, but a simple, stylized DARK KNIGHT poster still felt like a good idea.

The second version is because after I'd finished the poster, my girlfriend said she much preferred it without the background images. I took them out and Dammit, she was right. But what the heck, here are both versions.

Barbarella

2010-11-08T15:49:00.001-05:00

This is the first of nine pieces I'll be posting that I did for ONE-SHEET REDUX, a show of reinterpretations of movie posters hanging at Maxwell's in Hoboken NJ from November through January! C'mon out and take a gander!

Secret Country Halloween Show Poster

2010-10-12T10:02:00.003-04:00

PRINCE STREET NEWS: Groove Like a Spider

2010-10-05T17:19:00.012-04:00

Man, am I bummed that this never saw print. I did this (based on a piece I wrote for CMJ New Music Monthly in 1998) for COMIC BOOK ARTIST Magazine in 2007, with the intent being to continue PRINCE STREET NEWS as a comic strip about comics in each issue of that fine publication. Sadly, at this point it looks like CBA is no more, but I plan to resurrect the PSN for this site and perhaps elsewhere...
UPDATE, MARCH 2011: I stand happily corrected, as the next issue of COMIC BOOK ARTIST is on the way... although I'm unsure at this point if this strip is still going to make the cut...

As part of the prep for this strip, I re-drew both the GRAVE record and the cover of SPIDER-MAN #109, then pasted them into the strip later in Photoshop.

The Tough Guy Postcards

2010-10-04T10:24:00.000-04:00

These three pieces were postcards done at the same time as the Tough Guy Greeting Cards. They are entitled, from top to bottom, "What Does Blinky Think?", "Mona Sullivan" and "Casual Combat." The last one was inspired by the 1960s-70s psychedelic advertising mailings of the clothing chain Casual Corner.

Batusi

2010-09-28T12:42:00.000-04:00

Bad coloring on this one, maybe I should redo it.... when that happens, you'll be the first to know.

S'TAN & SOCIAL GRACE: Hell Is...

2010-09-28T12:29:00.002-04:00

DVF

2010-09-28T12:28:00.000-04:00

Based on an old photograph of Diane von Furstenburg.

1stgirl

2010-09-28T12:26:00.000-04:00

Titled such because this was the first time I'd played around with doing illustration work in color since I'd put down the crayons as a kid.

Guttergirl

2010-09-28T12:20:00.000-04:00

Done for the NYC band of the same name.

YDLA: Rambling Thoughts on Music...

2010-09-28T12:13:00.002-04:00

YDLA: Second Thoughts

2010-09-28T12:12:00.002-04:00

Secret Country WOMEN, WHISKEY and NIGHTLIFE

2010-09-28T12:09:00.000-04:00

I was tremendously excited to be asked to do the full artwork and layout for Kearny NJ's own Secret Country's CD WOMEN, WHISKEY and NIGHTLIFE. This is the cover. To see the rest, you have to buy the CD, a walloping slab of songs concerning the complex issues noted in the title. You will not regret it.

Secret Country Poster

2010-09-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

This Secret Country poster uses the "Hot Dog Girl" image from the inside cover of the CD WOMEN, WHISKEY and NIGHTLIFE.

CMJ Family Albums

2010-09-28T11:51:00.000-04:00

This piece appeared in CMJ NEW MUSIC MONTHLY No. 64, December 1998. Another piece done before I had a scanner, as the original of this was sent (mailed, mind you) on a giant piece of illustration board with the text boxes done in Illustrator and printed out on sticker paper, then attached to the original. This is also from my brief experimentation with mixing colored pencil and marker for color.

YDLA: 40K

2010-09-20T18:59:00.002-04:00

Josie Swirled

2010-09-20T16:18:00.000-04:00

aka THUNDERSTORM

2010-09-20T16:12:00.001-04:00

I created Thunderstorm in high school (that'd be in the 1980s) as a standard superhero strip and self-published two THUNDERSTORM comics, portions of which will NOT be posted here. My next comic, the anthology BEAT COMICS (1985-1990) featured a revamped version of the strip, focusing more on the hero's alter ego and his relationship with his wife. When the strip next appeared in the Lancaster PA free monthly, 13 MAGAZINE, from 1994-95, it had evolved further into AKA THUNDERSTORM, now almost solely about how being a superhero affected the character (named, heh, Alexander Hitchcock... no, really) and the small group of friends and family (mostly his wife Laura) who shared his secret.

The strip predated the whole "superheroes in real life" genre as Thunderstorm didn't really have supervillains to battle, he mostly used his powers (flight, invisibility, the ability to generate lightning bolts of varying intensity) to put bad drivers in their place and run errands more easily. I may get around to posting some of the later strips here, and I also have a big file of layouts and scripts for a never-finished graphic novel / screenplay (wasn't sure which). Whether or not TS remains in limbo remains to be seen.

This drawing shows a costume that I never got to use for the character, with the shirt turned into a heavy pullover (seemed to me that tucking in a shirt would be very cumbersome to a crimefighter).

YDLA: 20 Things I Actually Love About the 80s

2010-09-20T15:16:00.000-04:00

This was slated for AQUATULLE Magazine, but the magazine sadly folded before it was printed. I still hate the 80s.

Alison's Parents

2010-09-20T15:14:00.000-04:00

In 1999, my friend Alison hired me to do large drawings of old photos of her parents for their 50th wedding anniversary.

Music Geek: Semantics

2010-09-20T15:11:00.001-04:00

This accompanied a piece I wrote for MTV.com's Music Geek about what to call music in the age of MP3 (is it still a "record" or not?).

Agents of P.O.O.C.!*

2010-09-20T15:08:00.000-04:00

This was the flyer for a 2003 show I curated at Maxwell's called AGENTS OF P.O.O.C.!* which stood for "Panels Out of Context," in which artists were asked to do reinterpretations of comic book panels (some of mine are elsewhere on this site). The background for the flyer was my version of a panel from LOIS LANE #93 (1969) by Irv Novick in which Superman and Wonder Woman were dancing the Froggie Underwater.

S'TAN & SOCIAL GRACE: No Reserve

2010-09-20T15:01:00.000-04:00

This was the final episode of S&SG done for THE NEW YORK HANGOVER, but the paper folded (and at the time wasn't set up for large graphics... man, how the internet has changed) before it ever saw print.

Scooby Dooby Doo

2010-09-20T14:56:00.001-04:00

What Sort of Man Reads Playboy?

2010-09-20T14:54:00.000-04:00

This illo accompanied a NEW YORK HANGOVER piece I wrote in 1998 called "Playmates, Cheap Cigars and a Goodie Bag" about attending a party for the newly crowned PLAYBOY Playmate of the Year with my then-roommate Rob and being really creeped out by the atmosphere of the shindig. PLAYBOY was a big part of my adolescence in the 1970s, and while nostalgia certainly colors interpretation, I came away from this party just skeeved at what had become of the magazine and its brand.

YDLA: The "Real" Superman

2010-09-20T14:39:00.001-04:00

Never before posted, this 1998 installment of YOU DON'T LIKE ANYTHING! was intended for publication in a friend's zine that never came to be. I'm putting it up here (despite hating the panels of George Reeves and Christopher Reeve) because it's interesting to see (post-SUPERMAN RETURNS) what was right and what was wrong. I'm just still so damn glad that Tim Burton film never got made!

POSTSCRIPT, February 2012:
Note that a few elements from this strip made their way into the ICON episode of PRINCE STREET NEWS, located above!

Christmas Video Party Invitations

2010-09-20T14:27:00.000-04:00

For the past two decades, I've been hosting an annual Christmas Video Party, where a buncha pals come over and everyone votes on what classic holiday specials or TV episodes to watch while we get all hopped up on egg nog and cookies. I ain't lying, it's my favorite day of the year. These two invitations are from 2004 and 2005.

Gang of Four

2010-09-20T14:07:00.002-04:00

Another piece done for MTV.com's MUSIC GEEK column.

Yo La Tengo, 8 Nights to Love Poster

2010-09-20T14:05:00.001-04:00

I did this poster for Yo La Tengo's 2007 8 Nights of Hanukkah at Maxwell's, a semi-annual event featuring amazing guest stars and great comedians. The band does a different set every night and proceeds all go to charity (and yes, that girl is wearing a vintage pair of Gilda Radner's Jewess Jeans).

YDLA: Fauxhawk

2010-09-20T13:54:00.003-04:00

Betty's Decorating

2010-09-20T13:52:00.000-04:00

Another Dan DeCarlo reinterpretation, from an old Archie Christmas comic book (man, I love them). For some odd reason, I did this piece on gray speckled paper, giving Archie and Betty very unflattering complexions.

Secret Country Hootenanny Poster

2010-09-20T13:50:00.001-04:00

Tuff Ghosts

2010-09-20T13:21:00.000-04:00

Spectre Ballyhoo / Beerguy

2010-09-20T13:16:00.000-04:00

This piece (the pose on the girl came from an ad for a Philadelphia used clothing store that really struck me) was later reworked for the ill-fated line of Tough Guy greeting cards (the sad tale and altered version can be found in another post). I had to take out the Spectre and replace him with the gentleman below. My cat Monkey (R.I.P.) remained, however.

Sexist / Retro

2010-09-20T13:09:00.001-04:00

The only panel / gag cartoon I ever did... I can't remember if I submitted it to anyone or not. I still think it's kinda funny, although not as timeless now that the Cocktail Culture fad has passed. This was later made into a Tough Guy greeting card (see below).

Beware the Creeper

2010-09-20T12:54:00.001-04:00

This is another of my favorite pieces, later reworked for the first (and only) line of Tough Guy cards (see below). I had to replace the DC Comic in the corner that gives the piece its name with something that wouldn't get me sued. So I worked up the Tough Guy Comics cover below. To see the reworked piece, take a gander elsewhere on this site...

The Tough Guy Greeting Cards

2010-09-20T12:52:00.000-04:00

Okay, so here was the deal: In 2003, I launched TOUGH GUY GOODS AND SERVICES as a greeting card / graphics products line. The idea was to build a company that put out cards, stickers, mugs, etc. I emptied my savings, printed up thousands of cards, bought supplies, filed for a tax number, set up the website, hired an assistant, sent out hundreds of packages to stationery stores around the country.... and sold absolutely nothing. Zip. Zilch.

If anyone is interested in purchasing any of the following cards (they are 5 x 7", blank inside and come with envelopes), drop me a line. I'll give you a deal that will make your head spin. Okay, so it's unlikely that any deal on freakin' greeting cards will make your head spin, but trust me, it'll be cheap.

Supermovies

2010-09-20T12:42:00.001-04:00

This was done to accompany a piece I wrote for MTV.com about the DOs and DON'Ts of superhero moviemaking. I still can't believe that nobody's taken that cue from 007 that I mention in the piece.

S'TAN & SOCIAL GRACE: Sex and the City

2010-09-20T12:38:00.000-04:00

Laura R.I.P.

2010-09-20T12:37:00.000-04:00

YDLA: Advice from the Bartender to the Patrons at the Rock Show!

2010-09-20T12:32:00.000-04:00

YDLA: Advice from the Bartender to the Bands

2010-09-20T12:30:00.001-04:00

Violet

2010-09-20T12:28:00.003-04:00

Riverdale

2010-09-20T12:28:00.000-04:00

The Supergirl / Batgirl Plot

2010-09-20T12:25:00.001-04:00

Loosely based on a hilariously ludicrous tale from WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #169 (1967).

The Pyloric Valve

2010-09-20T12:20:00.001-04:00

A 2000 pitch for a comic strip set in a bar. Didn't sell. Most of these characters were based on people I know (but that should go without saying, right?).

Holly Jolly! CD cover

2010-09-20T12:18:00.000-04:00

The cover and inaly to my 2009 Christmas compilation... it's got naked booty on it! There was also a censored version for the kids.

Super Santa

2010-09-20T12:16:00.000-04:00

This was my Christmas card in 2004.

Spider-Man CD covers

2010-09-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

Painstakingly assembled by recording music snippets from the cartoon onto cassette, then burned to CD, the music from the first season of SPIDER-MAN (or, SPIDERMAN) is still frustratingly unavailable commercially, while The KPM Music Library used by the Bakshi Studios for the second and third seasons is now on iTunes! Download 'em and make your own cover (like I did!).

The Jazz Pack Poster

2010-09-20T11:42:00.001-04:00

Fellow former Lancastrian Michael Kauffman was for a time, the sales manager at Verve Records, and hired me to do this promotional poster for their marketing team. This art was also adapted into a promo CD.

John Doe Forever Hasn't Happened Yet Poster

2010-09-20T11:35:00.000-04:00

Los Angeles' X is, to my mind, one of the greatest bands of all time. It's been one of the great pleasures of my adult life to become friends with John Doe, whose solo output is likewise remarkable. So I was proud and excited when JD asked me to do the poster for his 2005 album, FOREVER HASN'T HAPPENED YET. He wanted a comic-stylized drawing of the cover, and the result can be purchased at the Yep Roc Records website.

Sad Superman

2010-09-18T18:06:00.002-04:00

This drawing accompanied a piece I wrote for Starpulse. com, an open letter of unsolicited advice to Christopher Nolan concerning how Superman should be handled onscreen, and what went wrong with Bryan Singer's SUPERMAN RETURNS. I appropriated the bemused Superman's pointed cuffs from the character design used of the terrific 2006-08 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES cartoon.

Mauled!

2010-09-18T17:54:00.000-04:00

This page was my contribution to MAULED! #1, published by Manual Comics / House of Twelve.

A Real Smoky Kitten

2010-09-18T17:50:00.000-04:00

Todd Barry poster

2010-09-18T17:48:00.000-04:00

What Happened

2010-09-18T17:34:00.000-04:00

Done for catharsis after the disastrous (for this leftie... oh, and for the country) 2004 Presidential election.

YDLA: Introductory Strip

2010-09-18T17:29:00.000-04:00

This "episode" of YOU DON'T LIKE ANYTHING! has never before been published anywhere, print or online. It was designed to pitch the strip to potential publications. When I did this, the idea was to incorporate bartending into the strip in a fictional context, using characters and elements from another pitch, THE PYLORIC VALVE (and bringing Rex along for the ride, even though he's never worked in a bar).

Music Geek Illos

2010-09-18T17:23:00.001-04:00

In 2005, I did the illustrations for MTV.com's MUSIC GEEK column, wherein a rotating list of writers (including myself) waxed poetic about something music-related. Here are a handful of illos for pieces that I did not write:

Summer Tours 2005

2010-09-18T17:15:00.000-04:00

This piece was done for an MTV.com piece about 2005 summer tours, spotlighting Green Day, Destiny's Child and 50 Cent w/ Eminem. I do not enjoy any of those performers.

YDLA: Despicable Concertgoers

2010-09-18T17:12:00.000-04:00

This idea was originally done for a 1997 episode of MAJOR LABEL SCUM!, the strip I did for Warner Bros. Records while I was working there. A few years later, SMUG Magazine asked if they could print it, so I reworked it into an episode of YOU DON'T LIKE ANYTHING! Happily, the lady in blue is no longer an issue at nightclubs.

Batman 2.0

2010-09-18T17:07:00.001-04:00

Project: Rooftop is a terrific website featuring redesigns of superhero costumes. I've submitted to them twice and been, waaaah, rejected both times. In 2009, they invited people to submit designs of Dick Grayson (the first Robin) taking on the mantle of Batman. The idea was to meld the looks of the two characters (or so I thought). Anyway, I don't LOVE this, as it was kind of a rush job, but here it is.

Vampirella Revamp

2010-09-18T16:59:00.000-04:00

Submitted to Project: Rooftop for their Vampirella Revamp. Rejected by Project: Rooftop for their Vampirella Revamp.

Swanky Comics

2010-09-18T16:52:00.000-04:00

From that bizarre period in DC Comics history when Batman lost his short pants (purist fanboys cried foul... the shorts were reinstated).

S'TAN & SOCIAL GRACE: Different

2010-09-18T16:50:00.000-04:00

Just for the record, my favorite episode of S&SG.

PLOP! Library

2010-09-18T16:48:00.000-04:00

Okay, the reason this piece is called PLOP! Library is that every one of the book titles is a story from an issue of one of the greatest comic books of all time, DC's 1970s weird humor book, PLOP! Some fascinating trivia for y'all.

More Days Than Not

2010-09-18T16:44:00.000-04:00

I really like Dr. Fate. Even the less-powerful half-helmeted one (he needs that one to drink beer).

The Beards CD Art

2010-09-18T16:40:00.000-04:00

Kim Shattuck of the Muffs teamed with Lisa Marr and Sherri Solinger in 2002 for this side project called The Beards. I did three illustrations for their album, FUNTOWN. Below are the CD art and an unused drawing for the inlay (if you want to see the third one, you have to buy the now out-of-print, but well worth tracking down record).