two multi-dimensional weather spirits

                   

Portrait of a Timrick

I just put up another new limited edition print for sale on my Etsy Shop. Timrick's are one of my very favorite creatures to draw. One of these days I'll make a comic about them.

Missoula Made Fair

I'll be at the Made Fair all day this coming Sunday. It looks like it'll be a pretty exciting cross section of Missoula's creative community. I'll be there with new prints, woodcut originals, and other curiosities. Looking forward to it. This flyer image was made by the always awesome Courtney Blazon

Fact and Fiction signing

I'll be signing books at Fact and Fiction in downtown Missoula from 5pm to 7pm signing books as part of a benefit for Sussex School. If you happen to be downtown for the First Friday gallery walk, stop in and say hi!

To Be Continued...

Here's the piece I made for the Pony Club Gallery show. I decided to make a piece about continuation instead of visualizing an ending. Turn into an antlered werewolf and laugh, share a drink with your doppelganger, feed a sandwich to a monster, let out some ghosts. The Train keeps on going.

Pony Club Gallery group show

I made a piece for the End Of The World themed show curated by Keith Carter, opening Thursday the 6th at Pony Club Gallery in Portland, OR.

Sotokaramita magazine

I'm excited to be in this new Japanese art magazine, Sotokaramita. The editor, Graeme McNee started it as a vehicle for introducing western cartoonists to Japan. The other cartoonists included in this first issue are Dash Shaw, Gabrielle Bell, Aidan Koch, and Jeffrey Brown. Such great company! It was nice to have one of my drawings on the cover too!

new folks

At Work

                          Things on my drawing table today.

Thank you Bat Kid

Elcabob the Bat Kid holds my keys for me while I work at my studio. It helps me a lot.

holiday cards

I've got four different holiday cards up for sale on my etsy shop . There's an extra special deal for all four. Christmas action sequence time!

A Cosmic Elephant Woman sighting

another new limited edition print I just put up on my Etsy Shop!

Explorer with golden sea creatures and tiny ghosts

I'm finally getting some new limited edition prints up at my etsy shop. I just finished signing and numbering this one.

Happy Birthday, Griffin!

A green Griffin for Griffin, on his very first birthday!

New Space Cadets release!

Lyterian, Chambers of Apogee is the sixth album cover I've drawn for Space Cadets and the first full color one. It's a great album. I listened to it over and over again while I drew the cover and I feel like the music really seeped into the imagery. I also drew a new color logo image. Can't wait to get the the vinyl in the mail from London!

Today at the Thought Cloud Factory

There's some new woodcuts in progress, propped around my studio studio right now. I haven't really made new wood pieces since my show at Giant Robot in July. Ideally I want to always have a couple in the works. The bottom photo is my Drawing A Day book that I started last Christmas. Almost done!

public contemplation display

tumblr

I started a tumblr site a little while ago, mostly because I found a format option where you can show pictures really big on the screen.  I thought it'd be a good way to show some art up close and personal. This blog will still be the place where I have all my news and writings and such, but it's fun to have  this other place to put things. I've also been discovering a lot of great art through the whole weird interconnectedness thing that happens there. I've been adding a lot of new stuff to my screen saver inspirational slide show.

Something on my drawing table right now.

Google eyes and ghost statues

Coming across stuff like this just warms my heart. Finding these expertly placed google eyes in Helena, Montana and well tailored ghost sheets on a statue of George Washington in Portland, Oregon were both reaffirming experiences for me. Thank you, people. Thank you.

Short Run was Awesome

It was a fast, crazy, and fun trip. And it was already a week ago. I'm bad at recapping my excursions but you can read a nice write up about Short Run that Sean Ford wrote for the Secret Acres Blog if you like. He describes it pretty well. Short Run is a small but solid alternative comics show with a strong focus on community. I'm glad I made the trip. You can actually see Sean and I off to the left in the photo above. You can also see the always awesome Sean Christensen in his amazing teal blue pants. And look, there's Tim Root and Chris Cilla slinging their amazing weirdo comics. There were free haircuts going on behind me, huge paper and art supplies for doodling, and comics and animation performances. Basically the kind of stuff that should be going on every weekend, everywhere. Huge thanks to Eroyn Franklin for letting me crash in her living room and to everyone I met and talked to.

Twenty Two Go-Forms and Disbelief Suspension Suit

 I'm back from my amazing trip to Portland for a book signing at Floating World and Seattle for the Short Run comics fest. I'll tell you more about it soon, but for now, heres a couple of drawings I made while hanging out with my good friends Teesha and Tracy Moore.

Interview with The Comics Journal

I did a phone interview with Marc Sobel from the Comics Journal a couple of months ago and it can be read here now. I've never done a telephone interview before, but Mark was great, in depth, and easy to talk to. I climbed a tree next to a pond near my house and talked to him for 2 hours strait. He later transcribed it all into words and  there was something surreal about reading a conversation that was originally spoken aloud. I was given the option to edit anything that i said, but decided to leave it. It felt more pure that way. It definitely focuses on a whole different side of things than the other interviews I've been doing lately. We got into childhood memories, early experiences with art, the psychological experience of  art making, and so much more. Thanks for talking, Mark!

Short Run, Seattle, Saturday the 3rd!

This is where I'll be all day this coming Saturday! Comics, Zines, Art Books, Animation, Yes! Sean Ford and I will be slinging Secret Acres books and eating snacks like crazy. Come visit us and tell us things.

Floating World Comics, Thursday, November First!

I'll be at Floating World Comics in downtown Portland, Oregon from 6-10 pm on November first! I'm hanging some original art on the wall, drawing in copies of The Understanding Monster Book One, and giving a slide show talk at 8 pm. You can check out more details here. I'll only be in Portland for a day, but I'm going to have fun hanging out in one of the best comic shops ever and hopefully I'll get to see lots of good friends throughout the insanity of the evening. There might be no sleep.

Interview with the Comics Reporter

It was great to get interviewed by Tom Spurgeon on his Comics Reporter site. He asked some thorough technical questions about my process in the last half of the interview that made me have to sit and think for awhile. You can check it out here if you like.

Soil Gallery

 I'm excited about this upcoming art show at Soil Gallery in Seattle. I think it's a great idea for a show. It explores the creative process of 20 artists who will all be at Short Run. It'll feature doodles on scrap paper, brainstorm drawings, and sketches alongside finished pieces. It should be pretty interesting! I won't make it to the November first opening because I'll be doing a book release event at Floating World that night in Portland, but I'm planning on checking it out the following day when I take the bus up with some good friends.

 Here's a ripped out page from a random sketchpad that's in the show. It's probably one of the loosest drawings I've done that I'm actually still happy with. The bird of excitement has infiltrated the palace of boredom!

Here's another doodle from the show. I have so many crazy piles of fast little drawings like this lying around. It was fun to have an excuse to dig through a few.

hard copies

I finally have some of my own copies of The Understanding Monster, book one! As soon as I have time, I'll be putting signed copies up for sale on my Etsy shop. I'll also be packing as many as I can in a suitcase next week and bringing them to Seattle for ShortRun on Saturday the 3rd!

run through, kick, throw into the air, rake in to piles, jump in

Gentleman Werewolf for sale

I just now put this portrait of a Gentleman Werewolf up for sale on my Etsy Shop. I've been running behind on keeping my shop well stocked, but I'm planning on having plenty of new prints, books, and originals up in time for the holidays. Until then though, we have this here fine fellow who's looking for a good home. He's good with kids and kind to animals.

Mountain Sage Acupuncture

My Wife is having the grand opening of her new Acupuncture clinic today from 3pm-5pm at  the Warehouse Mall at 725 W alder street, suite 1 in Missoula. It's been a busy time! It's a beautiful space and I'm super excited for her. Plus, it's just a few blocks from my studio, so it's been easy to pass our little guy back and forth. I made some hand drawn signs for her clinic like this little one pictured plus a giant one for the waiting room.

Page 45 review

Stephen L. Holland at Page 45 wrote a really thoughtful review of The Understanding Monster Book One. It's been kind of strange and wonderful to hear other people's takes on this book. Making it was such a bizarre and personal process, I was actually kind of terrified to let anyone read it. It's a relief to know that it's reaching people who are willing to engage with it and contemplate the details. I love making comics and more and more I just want to be able to make them full time. Reviews like this definitely make me think that maybe I'm on the right track.

Articles and slideshow talks!

The Missoula Independent just ran a review/article by Mack Perry about The Understanding Monster to promote the slideshow talk/ book signing I'll be doing tomorrow evening, Friday the 19th, at 7pm at Shakespeare & Co. Huge thanks to Niki Vanek for the digital projector loan. I've gotta save up for one of my very own so I can project images anywhere and anytime. It's all happening, it's all coming true!

The Projects

Anyone in or near Portland who wants to take part in something new and amazing should come and check this out. The Projects is a new kind of experimental comics and narrative arts festival. Instead of the focus being on buying and selling comics, the focus is on collaborative projects, workshops, and performances, put on by some of the most creative people in comics.This is the kind of stuff that should be happening all the time in the future, if the future knows what's good for it.  I wish I could be there this year, but I'm already making a trip out to Portland for my book release at Floating World the day after Halloween and then up to Seattle for Short Run, and I can't be away from my awesome 10 month old little fellow for too long. This is hopefully the first year of many, so next year I'd like to plan something to contribute!

photo of a photo

I had to include a photo of my workspace for an upcoming art show, so I took the opportunity to take a second photo before sending it off with my art. I love working in my new space in the Brunswick building here in Missoula. There've been artist studios here since before I was born and it's nice to feel like I'm part of that history. I haven't been in here very long yet, but it already feels like a place where I can really focus. A big window, an electric teapot, power snacks, music, and all the right art supplies. It's a dream come true!

The Missoulian

There was a nice little article about my book in this Friday's Arts and Entertainment section of the  Missoulian this Friday by Cory Walsh. He paid me a visit in my studio on Tuesday, then sent me some email follow up questions. It's cool to have folks in town interested in what I'm up to.

Psychotropic Whimsy

Joe McCulloch at The Comics Journal talked a bit about the Understanding Monster again in his This Week In Comics column calling it "One of the profoundly immersive comics of 2012, a demanding work of psychotropic whimsy best experienced by those piqued at the implication of Pixar fusing with Fort Thunder in a happy quantum storm. "
Thanks Joe! 

ToyBoat ToyBoat ToyBoat

I'm not sure when this is coming out, but I did some art for the Portland band, ToyBoat ToyBoat ToyBoat's 10" vinyl release a little while back. They basically sent me a list of things they wanted included in the cover (pipes and wires, submarines, lightbulbs) and I sat down and started drawing. The two circular images are the labels for the vinyl.