And Fun Was Had By All

...well, not really. I seem to have caught the baby's cold, so I'm spending NYE2007 on the couch, watching a movie, and probably going to bed early. Ho hum.

However, sick or not, I've decided to do a post every day of January to kick off the new year...I've got a ton of great projects in the works, and I can't wait to show them off! So thanks for all the hits in 2007, and keep watching Atom-Bomb Bikini!

A Tale of Two Winos

It's been the best of times, and the worst of times for Amy Winehouse this year. Last spring, I did an illo for Brick of the boozy songstress to accompany a glowing review of her (admittedly pretty solid) new record, Back To Black. She's all glamorous, a little edgy with the tattoos, but definitely rocking the old-timey starlet routine. Success was unkind to ol' Wino, however, and by late fall she'd cancelled her tour, been photographed in dozens of unflattering situations, and now she's the punchline to a joke in Savage Love.

Happy Holidays, Everybody!

Happy Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, whatever...just make it a good one!

Be a Quitter

Here's an image I created recently for a teen-targeted anti-smoking organization...they're gonna put 'em on t-shirt! Special thanks go out to Wide Awake pal Justin Gammon for setting it up. If I get any info as to how you can get one of your own, I'll post it here!

Layover

The last way you'd want to spend the holidays: Snowed in at the airport, surrounded by screaming kids. From the Stranger.

Ghosts of Christmases Past

With the big day just a week away, and inspired by a post over at the Lurid Board, here's a few of the holiday cards I've sent to friends and clients over the years:

Last year's, which I was pretty pleased with:



This one's from 1999, just a couple months after I adopted a little dog and named him Puck:



In 2003, I was buy as hell with client work and we'd just moved to Richmond in mid-November. It was all I could do to hack this out and e-mail it to everybody:

Eat Your Vegetables

This spot comes from an SF Weekly story last summer about efforts to improve nutrition standards at a women's prison. Mmmm, carrots!

Savagery

A couple recent Savage Love spots: A guy laments that he just doesn't find his "dress up and play superhero" adventures as exciting as he used to, and an examination of the sexual holy grail for your average joe: the two girls and one guy threesome.

Big Pernice Brothers Sale

If you like power pop or indie rock, and you've never heard the music of the Pernice Brothers, you are seriously missing out. That's why you should head on over to the Pernice Brothers official website and order some CDs. Best of all, all the CDs are on sale for just $7 through this coming Monday...it's such an incredible deal, I can't even describe it (T-shirts are on sale too). My personal favorite record of theirs is probably The World Won't End, but Yours, Mine and Ours is really awesome too. Aw hell, you really can't go wrong with any of them.

Here's an illustration I did for (and of) the band that I did back in 2005...it was the cover of a cool little comic book that was a special giveaway for early-orderers of Discover a Lovelier You.

Seriously, go buy some CDs. You'll thank me later.

Where Stalks...the Snakehead!

A couple years back, I posted a story that I did for McGraw-Hill that was used in a series of textbooks, with the promise that I'd soon post more. Well, here it is 19 months later and I'm finally getting around to it! Part of why I didn't post them earlier was because I wasn't exactly sure if I should, since I'd essentially be giving away for free what McGraw-Hill paid handsomely for. Thing is, I've been trying to locate the book where this and other stories I did appeared, and I'm finding it absolutely impossible..so I figure it oughta be seen by someone!

At any rate, the story...I was given the assignment to create a story about the snakehead, an aggressively carnivorous fish, native to China, that has been accidentally and ill-advisably introduced to the east coast of the US of A in recent years. Its effect on native ecosystems can be devastating...it eats everything, and can actually scoot up onto land and move from one body of water to another. It's pretty scary lookin', too.

I'd been reading a lot of Jack Kirby's Challengers of the Unknown stories around the time I began this tale, so I decided to approach it from a 1950s-brilliant scientist vs. natural threat kind of angle. I also thought it'd be cool to have the characters think they are safe as the story ends, their short-sightedness obscuring the real danger. Anyway, it was a blast to work on...of all the stories I did for McGraw-Hill, it's probably my favorite. I really should color it and put it in a mini-comic sometime...

Enjoy!

A Stylish Way to Steal

Another cool old-timey spot from Virginia Living, this one concerning a woman who stole a bunch of money, only to have her crime discovered on her wedding day! And hidden in the most inventive of places!

A Fiver of Females

U.Va. Magazine