Power to the pen!

Check out this brilliant project proposal which comes straight from the mind of a personal hero of mine, Jim Woodring.

Over the Shoulder, Tale of Genji Scroll

Cool is Creepy / Creepy is Cool

Moon Formation Comic

From Carl Sagan's 'The Cosmos,' a beautiful sequence of images.

Naked (it's not what you think)

First this.

Then this.

"Drunk" "Again"

I visited the Intuit museum today (Chicago's outsider art museum) and was lucky enough to spot this tattoo design of knock-off Mickey Mouse who is " 'Drunk' 'Again' " (love those quotation marks). The current main floor show is called Freaks and Flash, a show about tattoo designs ("Flash") and the people who sport them ("Freaks") --

-- Of course the Mickey tattoo design (which I'm considering getting, by the way, tramp stamp, perhaps?) reminded me of R. Crumb's famous poster "Stoned Agin!" --

-- which was the inspiration for another piece of art that I posted in October, and this Series 5 Garbage Pail Kids card illustrated by John Pound, card #177: Lazy Louie or (as the card that I own names him) Meltin' Milton. The image below is of the original artwork, which was already sold, apparently, on eBay, but I've already contacted Pound about the original pencil and color roughs for this painting. I've never bought a piece of art before, but it seems like this might be a good place to start; here's to inebriation and art about it!

Let's talk about myth >>>

>>>Devdutt Pattanaik<<<

Coupl'a great people who I wish I could just brain pick for a while:

J. M. Szancer, illus. for Lokomotywa by Julian Tuwim (Poland, 1954)

I found this image today on the blog A Journey Round My Skull, which has been a great source of strange drawing and illustration ephemera to feast my eyes on. This is the first in a series of images called The Wonderful Wizards of Lodz, Kids' Books from Poland Part 1. Aside from my attraction to the sunburst shape of the train wheel, this illustration is just filled with mystery. What exactly is the turtle doing? Trying to reach the center of the wheel? Avoiding being run over? Being run over? Chasing after the cloud on the opposite side? Are they enemies, friends or lovers, the turtle and the cloud? All of these questions are made possible by OUT OF CONTEXT and viewers like you.

Jordan Crane -- "Blurst Agin!" (from The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #15)

James Jarvis

Check out the drawing blog of UK illustrator, James Jarvis. I am a long time fan of Jarvis' work (my first introduction to him came from his work in the world of vinyl toys, and his comic, Vortigern's Machine, is a must read for fans of the playful & tripppy) but I had kinda sorta forgotten about his brilliant cartoons until I stumbled upon this short animation presented by Nike in collaboration with Richard Kenworthy, called "Onwards":

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

Like Vortigern's Machine, this video is a really successful marriage of hand-drawn sensibilities and a clean computer finish. And I love the crow attack. See more on Jarvis on his website, his other blog, his toy production website Amos, and the Amos blog.

Kids today

I recently came across some of the newer series of Garbage Pail Kids Cards. They make use of a lot more scatological humour than the earlier ones: here are some of the more revolting ones for you to peruse ( ;) )! I think Red-Eye Rob will probably find his way onto my bathroom mirror. And how in the world could the writers miss the opportunity to name the Batman spoof "Batty Bruce?" Seriously, Batty Brad? Better luck next time, fellas.

In My Dreams