I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets

Comics by the mysterious, tragic pioneer Fletcher Hanks. This book is really fantastic.  Insane and weird, with beguiling art that is totally goofy and totally haunting.  Most stories feature an invincible superhero (usually Stardust the Super Wizard) who thwarts plots of mass destruction by gangsters, then doles out complex and brutal supernatural punishments!  I saw one of these strips a couple of years ago and was blown away, and was thrilled to stumble on this book at Borders this past weekend.  Buy this book, for the sake of humanity.

Treasured Books from the JTO Studio Collection™

On my old Graveshifter website I did a "Book of the Month" feature which was totally sporadic, not at all monthly, but fun.  I focused on stuff I found at thrift stores with illustrations I liked...usually stuff that was unintentionally creepy.  As I dig through some of the surviving junk I have saved (I threw a ton of stuff away recently...paintings, books, etc.),  I'll post some covers like these.  No blabby commentaries, just scans of stuff I could not bear to trash...yet.

New Album Cover, sort of, finally,

Here it is! I actually finished this drawing a while back, but I didn't want to post it until the record was officially released (which is happening as I type this, the release party is tonight). I was planning on going but I feel ill and old tonight. The local entertainment and news weekly, Flagpole, actually posted a pic of it with a review on their site a few days ago, but I grimly stuck to my promised timeline...although once I took the drawing downtown to show the guys in the band what it looked like "in person" and wound up flashing it around to a ton of people...a shining moment. This is a milestone of sorts because this is the first cover art where I put together the whole package...layout, logo design, everything. I didn't really have the gear until recently to do that stuff...man I love my new computer. I looked back at the earlier version I started with no studio or spare time with a borrowed computer and god how terrible-I'm so glad the first version didn't see the light of day. I have another cover coming out this winter for The HEAP, another band here in Athens, but its still top secret and can't be seen, but here are some shocking and enticing clues : monsters, foxy girls with knee boots, and pinball machines.

Album cover alert!

I'm very excited about this:

"Hello Everybody. On Oct. 17th at the Caledonia Lounge in Athens, GA, Mother Jackson will be hosting the CD release party of their much anticipated sophmore album Soundtrack to Your Damnation. Ginger Envelope will also perform. The album will also be available online. See ya at the show!"

I designed the album cover for this, my first time putting together an entire layout, as well as making a couple of drawings. I won't post any art until after the release...top secret! I was glad to hear yesterday from Richard from the band that the cds came in yesterday and they looked good! Killer!

Draw the Drums

I just got a hankerin' recently to do some drawings based on the machinery and structure of drum kits...using that as a starting point for some free form exploration (an ink equivalent to Spinal Tap's Jazz Odyssey, sort of). Here's a killer photo for inspiration...

Everyday, everyday, everyday....