12.22.2006

If I Were a Rich Man...

If I was one'a them millionaire types, here are a few items I'd buy for all of my friends, Oprah-style.

80 gig iPod: For some reason, I've always loved the idea of buying 25 iPods and handing them out to everyone I know as presents. Nothing beats cracking the plastic and loading up a new iPod! (I'd block you from being able to put The Red Hot Chili Peppers on it, however.)



Absolute New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke and Season One of Justice League Unlimited on DVD: I think even my pals who aren't into comics would appreciate these fanboy treats.



I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass by Yo La Tengo and The Life Pursuit by Belle & Sebastian: These two great CDs from 2006 redefined these bands for me...each of them explode upon the expectations of their previous offerings and deliver full-on pop masterpieces.






$50 Chipotle Gift Card: Cause who doesn't love a burrito?



Well, that was fun, wasn't it? Sadly, until my ship comes in, none of you mofoes get anything!

12.14.2006

Sittin' Pretty



12.13.2006

Rush Limbaugh is an Obnoxious, Worthless Turd

...but he makes for a funny illustration. From this week's BRiCK:

12.07.2006

Happy 57th, Tom Waits!

12.06.2006

Holiday Wishes

We're off in the morning to Ohio for the annual holiday trip, so now seems like the perfect time to show off my new Xmas promo card! And in the spirit of the season, if you leave a comment in the feedback section, or drop me an email, I'll send one your way!

11.29.2006

Trust

11.23.2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

11.21.2006

Sweet Lid, G

From October's Nickelodeon Magazine

11.20.2006

BRICKwork

A few recent pieces done for BRICK Weekly, accompanying Chris Bopst's fine "Sound Advice" column. A great opportunity to flex the caricature muscles on a regular basis. Yeah.







11.15.2006

Schulz Exhibit - Winston-Salem, NC

Mrs. Chappy and I trekked down to her parents house in North Carolina last weekend, to visit and hang out, but mostly to check out the "Charles M. Schulz: His World in Art and Objects" exhibit at the Hanes Gallery at Wake Forest University. The exhibit ran from October 7 through today, November 15, which makes the timing of this blog entry almost comically useless. It took us over a month to get there to check it out, so if you missed it, take solace in the fact that I took some pictures, which I'll share wit'cha now!

A nice establishing shot, from the mezzanine level. It was a pretty sizable exhibit, mostly from one guy's collection, and they framed it really tastefully, with huge panels from strips attached to the walls. They also had a couple TV's showing Peanuts animated features and the epoisode of A&E's Biography which focused on Schulz, and a bookshelf full of all manner of Schulz collections.


One of the most amazing things about seeing the original art was realizing how freakin' BIG they are! The dailies were probably 14" x 6" or so.


Mrs. Chappy, standing alongside a couple of the sunday strips. Like I said, they're huge! 24" by 18", or something like that!


A few of my favorite strips and panels. It's hard to hold the camera steady on the flashless "museum" setting, so forgive the blurriness!




I'm dying to read an issue of Linus.


A few other items of Schulz epherma.


I'm usually not a big fan of Tom Everhart's Peanuts-themed paintings, but the size of this thing is undeniaby impressive.


It was a great exhibit, and a real thrill to see so many strips all in the same place, all at once. And these days, with the Fantagraphics "Complete Peanuts" collections coming out twice a year, I thankfully never have to go more than a few months before being reminded why it's my favorite strip ever! Thanks, Sparky!

Mob Rule

From this week's issue of The Stranger:

11.13.2006

Girls, Girls, Girls!

Haven't posted any girlie sketches in awhile, so here are a few pages from the sketchbook, mostky quick drawings from various photo and such. Enjooooy!





11.07.2006

FrauenFuckinAwesome

My birthday's coming up in a couple of weeks, and if someone would like to pick me up one of Boing Boing scribe Mark Frauenfelder's fantastic paintings, I'd be forever in your debt. I especially like "The Poke", which probably comes as no surprise.

11.05.2006

Foxy!

This is a spot from the current issue of Virginia Living magazine...I've been illustrating their "Olden Times" column for awhile now, which focuses on a specific (and usually strange) moment in the history of the Commonwealth. This one focuses on a spike in the fox population in the 1950's, which was great news for hunters, but not so much for farmers.

11.02.2006

Single in the City (Paper), Part II

As promised, here are a few of the supporting spots to the City Paper singles story. Makes me glad I'm married!





11.01.2006

Single in the City (Paper)

Here's a cover I did for my most favorite client, the Washington DC City Paper, this week. It's a first-person article about the ups and (mostly) downs of being an older single guy in the big city. There are a few accompanying spots that I'll post later.

I like it for the most part, although there's something about the color that's bugging me...something lacking, somehow. Luckily, a deadline's a deadline so I couldn't over-obsess about it too much!

10.23.2006

Honorable Mention

My friend Patrick told me yesterday that my comic about Terry Sawchuk, the Red Wings goaltender, had earned a spot on the list of 100 Distinguished Comics in the recent Best American Comics 2006 collection, compiled by Anne Elizabeth Moore and Harvey pekar and published by Houghton Mifflin. Basically, the story was good enough to be mentioned, but not quite good enough to be printed in the book. Either way, it's really nice to be recognized. If you're interested in reading the story, it's from Old-Timey Hockey Tales #1, and is available here.

10.19.2006

SPX 2006 Big-Ass Mega-Wrap-Up

Now that I've managed to get ahold of some pictures (thanks Mr. Gammon!), here's the word on SPX 2006!

The big news this year was the change in venue, a couple miles north to the huge Marriott convention center. Having had the good luck of being placed in the big room for most of the years the show was held at the Holiday Inn, moving all the exhibitors into one big room was a little less important to me personally, but nonetheless a fair and right decision. Every year at the old place I'd see those poor schlubs in the two smallest rooms and think "I hope I never end up stuck in here." Which isn't to say a lot of people didn't have some great success there...but I think giving everyone equal placement is a good idea. The hotel itself was really nice...although the staff there at times didn't seem to know what to make of all these drunken geeks shuffling around pulling beers out of their messenger bags. I heard that we just about dried out the bar, and that was with all the cheapos (myself included) smuggling booze in at every opportunity. One irritating curiosity was the lack of a usuable staircase. We got hollered at by a security guard for using what turned out to be the emergency steps Saturday night, taking a shortcut up to the second floor rather than waiting twenty minutes for a turn at the elevator. Really, you've got something like ten floors, and two elevators, and NO USUABLE STAIRS? Eat my shorts, rentacop.

The surrounding area left a lot to be desired. It was actually not bad considering all the other places where cons are held in the States...think about the area around the Charlotte Convention Center, or the Concourse in SF, or the Chicago Comicon, or the old SPACE location in Columbus (fuck that's a lot of "c"s...oh well, C is for comics, I guess)....but but one of the best things about SPX was being able to step right out of the hotel and walk the lovely streets to dozens of restaurant, that beer and wine store a block over, Big Planet Comics....this new locale is definitely missing that aspect. But if you tried a bit, you could find some nearby, walkable gems (even though McD's owns 'em, I love them Chipotle burritos). And having the staff hand out maps to local restaurants was a much appreciated and thoughtful idea.

So overall, I'm pro-new space. It's not quite as good aesthetically, but it solves a good deal of the problems the show's faced over the recent years, and if it keeps SPX thriving (and all evidence shows that it is) I'm all for it.

Now, to back up for a second...the night before the show, the Wide Awake fellas from Greenville, SC (heretofore to be known as the Greenvillians) drove up and crashed at my house in Richmond. By good fortune, Andy Runton and Rob Venditti from Top Shelf were only a half-hour or so behind them on 95, so they stopped in too and stayed for dinner. It was a blast...Mrs. Chappy stepped out for BBQ and a couple sixers, and we had a great little impromptu party. To her credit, Brooke was a wonderful and gracious host, even though she had to've felt like Dian Fossey among the apes. I'm one lucky dude. See the pics below.

(One wierd aside, re: the party, that'll only make sense to folks who've met my dogs...notice that Puck (the Golden Retriever) is in a bunch of the pictures, while Betty (the Black Lab) is nowhere to be seen. That's so odd, 'cause usually Puck's the one who freaks out at strangers, barking at them and occasionally scaring the poop out of 'em, while Betty would welcome a burglar with kisses. Thursday night, not so much. Puck was on his best behavior, and Betts was invisible.)

Justin, J.Chris, Duane, Jamie, and I packed the rented SUV full of a ton of our crap, and set out for Bethesda about 10 Friday morning. About three hours and a thousand mom jokes later, we arrived at SPX. Contrary to what I've seen reported by others, Friday was great for me...although it might've been repeat customers coming by early to beat the rush. Saturday was even better...which is just amazing. This was my ninth SPX, and each year, its gotten better (I keep waiting for the streak to end, but I hope it never does.). I made some great new contacts, and saw some old pals.

Both nights involved a lot of drinking, as usual...SPX is about the only time I ever get to hang out with my pal Mark Way, he of the oh-so uncomfortable humor. He's one of the funniest people I know, more so when he's had a few. My friend Bill came down from New York, but it was so busy at the show that we only had one lunch at McDonald's with another friend, Eric, to chat and try to catch up. Business and browsers kept me too busy to walk the floor much, too...I picked up a few nice little items, and took a few chances on some unfamiliar stuff as well (they tell me that's how you discover the gems). I managed to miss KRAYON'S EGO, a book I've been waiting for for years without realizing it. I did get to read someone else's copy...Hilarity, indeed. A lot of the other stuff I figured I'll just pick up at my shop so I'll get a discount and I wouldn't have to lug it home. Woulda liked to have grabbed that Dedini book, tho'....

Christ, this is rambling...Wrap-up party at Dave and Buster was surprisingly fun, though owed probably more to the company than anything. I had a great, inspiring chat with Chris Staros, played some video games with Chris Pitzer, Scott Morse, and Jacq from Top Shelf, got my ass kicked in Basketball by Brett Warnock, and kicked the computer's ass in Galaga, a game I still rule at after twenty years.

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention how the program cover I did turned out...It was awesome! Everybody seemed to really dig it, and there's really just something incredibly cool about seeing everybody carrying around a book with your art on it, even if it was free. Major thanks to Karon Flage and Steve Conley for giving me the gig, and to Greg McElhatton for telling me that the show likes me.

Wow, you're a patient one, aren't 'cha. As a reward, here's what you came for: the pictures! My apologies if you aren't in any of 'em.

The Night-Before Party:











Arts and Crafts the Night Before:




Mrs. Chappy Can't Believe It:


The Car:




The Show (at this point, you can make up your own captions):