BOB HOWARD • Plumber of the Unknown!

1First Comics is proud to present Bob Howard, Plumber of the Unknown in 'Caught in the Trap! the first of many book-length adventures to come! Check out Dan Dougherty's ooze-tacular cover art----is that bee-yoo-ti-ful or what? This gore-juss poster will be available in a Limited Edition of just 300 copies, debuting April 25—27 at Chicago's C2E2 convention, booth 309. Don't be a drip! Come soak up the horror!

Jessica Abel meets Alex and Godzilla--and lived!

Chicago cartoonist turned Brooklynite Art Babe Jessica Abel's latest post is a look back to the dimly remembered '90s. Read and learn.

TOY KARMA 4 Rotofugi Gallery, Chicago — October 5-27, 2013

Kuzutetsu Hakai Daikaijyu Garakutagigas, photograph by tatsrus 

Gill-Women of the Prehistoric Planet

Temp portfolio

Kidz on Film

Now that I looked up the printed covers of the London Guardian assignments, I realize I made an error: the last post with the illustration "Karaoke Rules, OK?" was the second assignment. The first gig is reproduced above, "Power Play — Children Save the Movies."

My Back Pages

After far too long an absence from posting to this blog, the sudden loss of my mundane clerical job precipitated me to get some art up on the screen and out into the world. Or at least the internet.
Today's post was commissioned by The London Guardian weekly magazine back in...'98? If memory serves, the theme was "Holiday Office Parties." My title was "Karaoke Rules, OK?" The art director liked it enough to hire me for a second cover--which will be our next post.

Harvey Pekar

October 8, 1939 ––– July 12, 2010

Jay Lynch introduced me to Harvey sometime in the early '90s and suggested we work on a story together. I borrowed Jay's VHS copies of Harvey's appearances on Letterman for reference. We didn't meet in person until at least a year or more after the stories were published. I would fax Harvey the layouts and the inks and then we'd discuss them over the phone. One time Joyce called instead of Harvey and took issue with me for making Harvey look too wild and playing his expressions too broadly. I listened but protested---exaggeration is fundamental to a cartoonist's job. After an exhausting session I hung up in frustration. The phone rang again within seconds---Harvey had been listening in from another room. "Never mind, man. You're doin' just fine." What a guy!

I posted Harvey's story, "Holding On," here,   here, and here.

Sex and Sin and Zen--Oh My!

Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn!

Langorias Reborn

Couldn't resist developing this a bit further. Some of the other Kaiju Comrades pieces are scheduled for upgrades too.

Kaiju Comrades 2

Mark Nagata presents Kaiju Comrades 2 at Design Festa Gallery, East Room #303 Tokyo, Japan from March 12—14, 2010. The opening is only a week away and all my work is finally winging its way over to Harajuku. I'll be sitting this out in Chicago unfortunately. Check out the full lineup of artists and a promo video here and here.

Thanks to Mr. Miyamoto and of course Mr. Nagata for making this all possible! I welcome your feedback on the designs-- I'm ready to start sculpting prototypes of the pieces that generate the most interest.

More Ultra art

As mentioned in the previous post, my first encounter with creating art for Tsuburaya came in 1981. I was creating on spec, the project never went into production, and the originals were lost. It wasn't until 1999 that I was hired by Brad Warner for my first official assignment for Tsuburaya, a "kaiju hell" painting for the Mipcom International Sales Brochure, visible here. From then on, I continued to get the occasional assignment to do licensing art. Below is one such assignment dating from 2002 for Ultraman Dyna.




















Ultraman Dyna vs Demagorg

Monster Attack Team

The long awaited Monster Attack Team no. 8 is coming soon with a feature on the unmade 1981 Tsuburaya Ultraman, Hero from the Stars movie. Here is one of the exclusive images, the first of a series of  designs I made 29 years ago for screenwriter Don Glut.

Dear Mr. Fentency

Our field operatives report that a foothold has been made In our continuing campaign toward global domination. The culture that spawned the famous erotic arts of the Chandela temples of Khajuraho has now welcomed the lowly Hustler and Barely Legal works by your humble correspondent.

A visit to Erotic Art and Fentency unveils a panoply of erotalexia from our salacious and illustratious past. Presented above is one image our Hindi correspondent missed. Enjoy, lotus eaters.

Instant Toy Karma's Gonna Get You!

Coming up in just a few weeks is Toy Karma 2 • Art Inspired by Classic Japanese Toys —— and, thanks to the new trend in alphabetization, I'm at the head of the list! Thanks to Mark Nagata for making me a returning Toy Karmanaut!

Handing the mic to Mr. Kirby Kerr here:

What is Toy Karma? Well, in our case, it’s an art exhibit featuring artists expressing their love for classic Japanese toys. But it’s so much more than that. As Mark Nagata, founder of Max Toy Company and curator of this exhibit explains on his blog, it’s the idea that if you’re honest in your dealings that one toy that you’ve always dreamed of getting will eventually come to you. For many serious toy collectors it’s a guideline, a mantra and yes, even a lifestyle. This exhibit pays homage to the mysterious force and power that toys have over us.

Toy Karma, the exhibit, is held every other year at Rotofugi Gallery, Chicago. The first Toy Karma exhibit was held in September 2007. Toy Karma 2 (aka TKII) will be held at Rotofugi Gallery September 5-20, 2009. We hope you can join us!

Toy Karma 2
Rotofugi Gallery
1955 W Chicago Ave • Chicago, IL
Opening Saturday, September 5 • 7pm-10pm
Music by dep

Exhibit continues through September 20

http://www.toykarma.rotofugi.com/

Alex again...

Here are the preview jpegs of my pieces.

"Tura Satana in Violent Planet" will be available in two editions: the "Classic" design with blue-green sky and a psychedelic, or "Hawaiian" edition featuring heavy doses of yellow, pink and orange. (Sorry, no Glow in Dark available. Maybe next time...) The prints are 13" x 19" giclees on Ultra Premium Matte 100% cotton rag stock. There will be only 25 signed and numbered copies of each edition —— don't miss this! And don't make me use so many exclamation marks!!!

Hope to see you there!

Tura Satana - Tattoo Factory Gallery

Marvelous Mitch O'Connell sent me a photo CD from the fabulous fire-eating TURA!TURA!TURA! Hallowe'en shindig. More photos from Rebecca Kaufman and Charlie Athanas. Thanks, everybody!

"Come sit on my lap, little boy!" I gladly comply. © 2008 Mitch O'Connell

Tura signs a print of Bouryoku Wakusei for Alex © 2008 Mitch O'Connell

Deborah and Miss Tura Satana © 2008 Mitch O'Connell

©2008 Charlie Athanas

Dave Dorman, Mitch O'Connell, Deborah Teven and Alex Wald © 2008 Charlie Athanas

Mitch, Deborah and Alex © 2008 Charlie Athanas

The Flaming Dames get their heat on. ©2008 Rebecca Kaufman

MIAO Custom Vinyl Show at Subtext Gallery

Our friends Zakka and Rae Huo have birthed a new breed of the classic Japanese folk figure Maneki Neko (beckoning cat) and sent the first litter of blanks out to 50 lucky artists around the world to customize in their inimitable styles. I just finished mine last week and packed him off for this Friday's debut at Subtext Gallery in San Diego.

"Subtext has teamed up with Zakkamono to bring you an incredible custom vinyl show just in time for the holidays. The format will be the new Miao (Lucky Cat & Mousubi), and we have curated nearly 50 artists from around the globe to do custom versions of this great toy! Miao is the first collectible designer vinyl figure designed by Zakka. It is an updated design of the Japanese Maneki Neko/Lucky Cat (an iconic Japanese figure that brings good luck and good fortune). Miao measures 7-inches tall and comes with his BFF Mousubi, a 3-inch character designed with the elements of a musubi/onigiri (Japanese rice ball wrapped with Nori/seaweed) and a mouse."

"Participating Artists include Simone Legno/Tokidoki, Touma, Phu!, Aaron Martin (Angry Woebots), Brent Nolasco, Brian Flynn (Super7), Julie West, Mar Hernández, Matias Vigliano, Joel Nakamura, Nick Deakin, Kelly Vivanco, Rudy Fig, Slobot, Long Lé, Sandra Equihua, N.C. Winters, Bucky Lastard, Justin White, Reactor-88, Newkon,CKaweekS, Phoneticontrol, Persue, Mark Nagata, Amy Davis, Jasper Wong, Urban Medium, Paul Wee, Serge Seidlitz,Vogue, Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki, Satoshi Tomioka, Alex Wald, Rae Huo, Estria, DOLCEQ, Malakias, Hans-Peter Schutt, Zakka, Steve Forde, Shawnimals, Hawk Ostby, Pose 2 & more."

Subtext Gallery 680 West Beech Street, No.1 San Diego, California 92101

Nov. 14th - Dec. 7th, 2008

Opening Reception: Friday, November 14th, 6-10pm

This promises to be an exciting show and event. Here's a preview of my critters, Kuromanko and Kuronezu.

Windy City Comicon Interview

Elliott Serrano of ComicsWaitingRoom encourages me to run off at the mouth during last week's Windy City Comicon. Thanks, Elliott!

Windy City Comicon

I'm pleased to be a guest this weekend at Windy City Comicon. "Join us for this old-school comic book convention on Saturday Oct. 25th. The only comic convention held within the city of Chicago featuring Heroclix and Magic Tournaments, Comic Book Vendors & Publishers, dozens of Special Guests from the entire world of comics, and more. Don't miss out on Chicago's Best Comic Book Convention!" They spelled my name right, so I have to go! Check here for tickets.