Limited Cumulonimbus T-Shirts Available!

I'm now selling through etsy these colorful and very limited Cumulonimbus T-shirts that I screen printed myself. You can find them for sale here, and the even more limited kid's sizes here. They're a steal for just $10!
It's based on the earlier, much rougher paper cutout version of the Cumulonimbus piece that you can see a few posts below.

Seeing Calvino tumblr

My friends Matt Kish, Leighton Connor and I have started a tumblr called Seeing Calvino, dedicated to illustrating the work of the brilliant Italian fantasist Italo Calvino.
We are rotating weekly between the three of us as each Wednesday one of us tackles one of the cities described in Calvino's incredible book Invisible Cities. There are 55 cities in the book, so it should take us a little over a year to complete them if all goes smoothly.
Please follow us, it should be interesting, and we may even have further Calvino plans for the future.

Here is Matt Kish's glorious vision of Diomira:














And here is my first city, Isidora:
"When a man rides a long time through wild regions he feels the desire for a city..."


 And Leighton Connor draws an imposing Dorothea for his first city:

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

In tribute to Ray Bradbury, who passed away today at 91, I'm sharing this cover/poster for Something Wicked This Way Comes that I made last year. It was made out of paper cutouts for a design class. I would normally refrain from sharing student work publicly, but since this is pretty much in line with what I'd like to do anyhow, I'm glad to.

Rest in peace Mr. Bradbury, and thanks for sharing your ferocious imagination with the rest of us. Something Wicked is probably my favorite book of Bradbury's, with Martian Chronicles close behind.

Cumulonimbus

This is another new piece that I made for the Lost Cats art exhibit, it's made of paper cutouts and graphite.
Both of these new pieces are for sale, wink wink!

City Dump Hot Jass

This new drawing is currently on display as part of the Lost Cats art show at Sitwells.
It's based on an old sketch, and was originally intended to be an album cover for my friends' band Wasteland Jazz Unit, which it may still end up as one day.

Lost Cats: An Inter-Generational Cartoon Art Show

I was honored to be invited by one of my artistic heroes, Justin Green, to participate in an upcoming exhibit of art by local cartoonists. The show is called Lost Cats: An Inter-Generational Cartoon Art Show, and it opens this Friday at Sitwells Coffee House in the gaslight district of Clifton in Cincinnati.
I'll be showing my Yellow Wallpaper drawing, and a couple of new pieces that I'll be sharing on this blog soon.
Justin had each of the artists draw a cat icon for the flyer, so here is mine:

Besides Justin Green and myself, the show also includes work by:

Brian Hagen
(See also Brian's joint website with Justin Green, Pen Grenades)
Tim Fuller
Craig Boldman
David Hartz
and Brian Uhl

Sitwells Coffee House
324 Ludlow
Opening Friday
May 25th 8-10pm

Book Covers I Like

My good pal Matt Kish invited me to discuss some of my favorite book covers for his blog's Book Porn feature.
You can check it out right here.

Ed Emberley Videos

A couple of videos with Ed Emberley discussing his work have turned up recently on YouTube, and they are both worth investigating. This first video gives us a peek into Emberley's beautiful 17th Century home in Massachusetts, a tour of both his drawing and his digital studio, and some memories of getting started as an illustrator.


This second video is another interview with Emberley, this time at the opening of the Ed Emberley & Friends exhibit in L.A.
I would enjoy an entire album of Ed Emberley singing sea shanties, here we at least get a sample.

Monster Parade Prints

The Cloudy Collection and Koyama Press recently released a limited series of Ed Emberley themed prints called Monster Parade. There's a wonderful print by Ed Emberley himself (seen above), as well as prints by Stephan Britt, Souther Salazar (both favorites of mine), and thirteen other talented Emberley fans. They look fantastic, I hope I can scrape together enough money to buy myself a set soon!

SPACE in Columbus, OH

I will be selling comics at the SPACE Comics Convention this weekend in Columbus.
This is my...uh...fourth year exhibiting at SPACE, and it's always a great time. The usual gang of artists will be there, with a few exciting additions: John Porcellino! Colin Upton! And Steve Willis!

the Yellow Wallpaper

This is a drawing I made for a gallery show last year, it's based on one of my favorite short stories: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's feminist horror classic the Yellow Wallpaper.
If you're not familiar with the story, you can read it at Project Gutenberg here, and there's a free audio recording at the bottom of this page.

Prestidigitonium on etsy

I'm selling my comics on etsy now, under the shop name Prestidigitonium.
Emberley Galaxy can be had for a mere $10, and you can find my old mini-comic Grouse there too, for $3. You can read a review of Grouse by Tom Spurgeon here.
I expect to put a couple more things up for sale in a week or two.

the Zortian Chronicles

Brooklyn blogger Tara Rose Stromberg maintains the site unkoshergirl, which is just littered with drawings of Zortians out of Ed Emberley's Big Green Drawing Book. Apparently Tara has been drawing Wooflers and Fwaaps since she was a little girl!

See several childhood Zort drawings here, and see how we bumped into each other here. Poke around her blog and you'll see delightful Zort doodles all over the place!

Matt Kish Finishes His Series of Moby-Dick Drawings

Congratulations to Matt Kish, friend, and contributor to Emberley Galaxy, for completing his massive project One Drawing For Every Page of Moby-Dick. There will be a book soon from Tin House Books collecting the entire series of 552 drawings!

A Few Great Stores

I've slowly been getting Emberley Galaxy into bookstores and comic shops one by one, so here is a list of stores and vendors that are now carrying it:

Stores:
Shake It Records - Cincinnati, OH (where I work)
Blue Manatee Children's Bookstore - Cincinnati, OH
Clifton Comics & Games - Cincinnati, OH
Joseph-Beth Booksellers - Cincinnati, OH
Boxcar Books - Bloomington, IN
Million Year Picnic - Cambridge, MA
Chicago Comics - Chicago, IL
Quimby's Bookstore - Chicago, IL
Copacetic Comics - Pittsburgh, PA

Distributors:
USS Catastrophe - St. Louis, MO
Sparkplug Comic Books - Portland, OR
Last Gasp Books - San Francisco, CA