Chill Out

A fun one for Nick Mag (and another excuse to draw a penguin). Thanks Caitlin Keegan.

Secret Levis

Designed to print on a fairly elaborate Levis hang tag - and to explain the top sectret origins of a pair of jeans - this comic was created during the height of X-Files’ popularity. The conceprt never made ot past the test market stage, but I've always liked the heavy black and white feel of the art.

Weatherman - Nozone X - coming soon

This one’s a few months out so I won't give it away-- but be sure to check out Nozone X, Forecast. It should be a terrific book and will feature a six page color extravaganza, Weatherman, by yours truly.

Manga-matic

Perhaps the cutest comic I've tried to draw-- some close friends Sally Kubo (Japanese) and Michael Starr (American) live in Tokyo but are getting married stateside this summer. Sally’s a graphic artist and Michael’s in international financing, although he’s also a surfer and artist (in fact, he sent me a huge box of his old Osamu Tezuka manga a few years ago).

They asked me to draw a comic adaption of their first meeting - for wedding guests who don't know them in their natural setting. I tried to bring some manga flavor to my comic style on this one!

LA Mag - Noir-sissus

Nothing goes together like Greek mythology and shopping at Fred Seigel’s in Hollywood (well - actually, nothing had gone together like that until this strip.) I had done regular spot illustrations for the magazine when I discovered they kept their back page open for a comic. I pitched many ideas to Joe Kimberling and this one... he liked!

New York Times Op-Art

Mommyball

Pop-Up Pop

These NYT Op-Art pieces ran on Mother’s Day and Father’s day, respectively, but not on the same year. In fact, I was called for to create the Mommyball - which ran the year that National Baseball League passed out pink bats breast for cancer awareness - because the Brian Rea, the art director remembered liking Pop-Up Pop which I did for Peter Bucannon-Smith a few years prior.

S.Z. - Gesundheit!

Rike Gause and I were expatriots to NY at the same time (she from Germany, me from the Midwest). She returned home to art direct the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Sunday Magazine and was kind enough to think of me when they ran a cover story about germs (OK, the common cold)! This one came together with the help of Louise Stausse as well, who now art directs at NY Times Sunday Magazine.

Make - Crypto Keeper

MAKE is a terrific magazine for DIY and Tech lovers. David Albertson, who set the tone for the design of the mag, called a few issues in to see if I'd be interested in doing a how-to in the style of old EC Horror comics for their Halloween effort. Of course-- I was! (Script courtesy of MAKE)

Nozone IX - Empire

I had contributed twice previously to Nicholas Blechman’s Nozone and loved the freedom of being able to run with whatever the chosen theme. “Empire” was the first issue published after 9/11, and it carried a lot of weight to everyone involved. In fact Nicholas’ studio was not far from the twin towers and many of my friends were there that day, within eye-sight of the tragedy.

A year or two passed before Nicholas had a theme. I think his choice of the word empire provided for a kaliedoscope of interpretations about America's place in the world, especially after this event.

I realized that I had been troubled by the overwhelming climate of paranoia and “Orange Alerts” around the country at the time. Obviously, America required stricter security measures where we'd been vulnerable, but somehow wholesale invasions of privacy, alarmist, suspension of habeas corpus seemed to me to be exactly what our enemies would want in the first place - that’s why they’re called terrorists.

This climate reminded me of cold war paranoia, and my mind wandered to the allegorical horror of the time like Invasion of the Body Snatchers where an enemy tries to turn us against ourselves . My contribution was Thempire.

Entertainment Weekly on Campus -Daddy’s Money

This one goes way back as well. It was my first effort with the illustrious George McCalman, who was then art directing the now defunct Entertainment Weekly on Campus. It’s kind of a sad story about college life - but hey, if that's a weird time for everyone, I don’t know what is!

Slant

Going Up North

High Roller

El Secreto

These Comics were drawn several years ago for Slant, a short lived, monthly, art and music tabloid put out by Urban Outfitters. Howard Brown and Mike Calkins (UO's art dept. at the time) decided that instead of spending their budget on ad placement in college markets, they'd create and distribute their own publication with people they wanted to work with. (thanks for including me guys!)

Each issue had a theme-- these reflect "outdoors" "gambling" and "UFOs."

Disastrous Love

This one was done as an stylistic experiment. Some romances end in disaster, these must face actual landslides, earthquakes and floods.