"Naturalist" A Graphic Adaptation 5:08 PM

Naturalist. A Graphic Adaptation.

Island Press 2020

236 pages

Adapted from Dr. E.O. Wilson’s autobiography of the same title. Jim Ottaviani developed the script from book and I illustrated the life of famed entomologist Dr. Wilson.

You can buy it here and here 

KITTENS #3 is ready for the printers! 7:35 PM

This took way longer than I wanted it to, but now it's done and ready to be printed. I'm guessing other work and moving to Hawaii slowed my progress a bit. Definitely having to build a new studio and figuring out my new surroundings impacted how long it took. Usually an issue would take me 4-6 months to complete since I can't work on it exclusively, but this one took over a year!

Well. It's done. I probably won't have it ready for the Short Run small press expo- which is next weekend. I'm still setting up my silkscreen studio (I miss a lot things in NYC- but the SVA printlab is in the top three). SO CLOSE!

Obviously, from the cover you can see this issue has a tropical theme. No idea where I came up with that idea!

LINEWORKNW! 3:59 PM

Just some of cool things I'll be bringing this Sunday to the LineworkNW Festival!

I'm really excited to be participating in a festival in my home town! I've already seen a Timber game (they lost. Boo) gone hiking up Oneonta Gorge (Not freezing in May, if you need proof of global warming that is it) BBQ'd on the Sandy river! (Thanks Rocky!) It's been pretty sweet except my brother insists that we ride bikes everywhere. So my visit will be wrapping up with this Festival- It's free admission and chock full of amazing artists whom I'm lucky to exhibit with! So come by this Sunday and check out some cool comics and illustrations!

Linework NW will take place on Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, 2016, at the Norse Hall in Portland, Oregon. Hours of operation are 1pm-8pm both days. Attendance is free and open to the public.

NORSE HALL

111 NE 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97232

Screenprinted the KITTENS #2 Cover 6:08 PM

Just spent this afternoon screenprinting to KITTENS #2 at AS220 in Providence. I'll be debuting this book at Linework NW on May 22nd. It's been a bit since I've pulled the squeegee- I had no idea how much I missed it.

The Sounds of Indifference. KITTENS #2 3:46 PM

The inks are done, the book is lettered, I'm in post-production getting ready to print! KITTENS #2 "The Sounds of Indifference" is almost done! Above is the mock-up for the silkscreen cover.

I'll be debuting this issue at the Linework Festival in Portland, OR in late May! Pick it up then!

KITTENS #2 is getting inked! 12:22 PM

After struggling a bit with writer's block I finally came up with a decent ending for my second issue of "KITTENS"- trust me you haven't had writer's block until you're faced with writing bad jokes for a comic punk band comprised of foul tempered felines.

The second issue is in FULL SWING now and I'll be debuting it at the Linework Festival in Portland!

Short-RUN Seattle! 7:28 PM

I'll be exhibiting at the Short-Run Festival in Seattle on the 31st! yep! Halloween! I'll be selling COMICS, Silkscreen Prints, and some Textiles! I've heard nothing but good things about this fest and look forward to being in Seattle! It's been awhile, I did my undergrad at Cornish College of the Arts a LONG time ago and from what I understand the emerald city has changed a bit since then. So come by table J52 and say hello!

Short Run
Seattle Comix & Arts Festival
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Fisher Pavilion
at Seattle Center

TCAF was AMAZING 1:30 PM

You gotta give it to the Canadians! When they throw a small press and alt-comic festival they pull no punches, no. you're right. they would never throw a punch far too polite to ever do such a thing (other than in a hockey rink, which, all bets are off). Aside of the heat- yep. You read correctly. Other than the heat the festival was fantastic!

In that post-festival haze of slowly starting to get back to work. slowly.

Above is my loving homage to Xaime Hernandez and Love & Rockets! from my latest comic booklet- "Kittens" a self-titled album which debuted at TCAF!

TCAF on the horizon 9:10 AM

Pages are inked. Cover is silkscreened. Next up create separations for the risograph interior!

KITTENS! 3:26 PM

Freshly screen printed cover to my new comic that’ll debut at TCAF! Hand printed 250. Better get ‘em when they’re done cause I'm never doing that again. 

Buzzfed MoCCA 4:04 PM

My Risographed comic “fight! Fight! FIGHT!” was mentioned in a Buzzfeed article on MoCCA fest! “Full of over-the-top violence and audacious color, the action in this book comes out swinging and never stops!” Yep, that pretty much describes it perfectly. My studiomate Aya Kakeda also made the list!

Post-MoCCA Depression 1:17 PM

It's such a rush to get ready for a festival! pencils drawing. Risographs duplicating (they're duplicators not copiers!), Staplers stapling... then when it's over and Monday morning rolls around and your friends from around the country head home or you head home in kicks the post-festival exhaustion- not really depression, but it made a punnier title.

MoCCA was a lot of fun this year! Once again my studio "Yacht Club" was there in force with not one or two, but four tables in a row. I was at one end of the table and my studiomate Jen Tong was at the other with rest in middle! We were so far a part I don't think we talked to each other more than once during the festival.

Thoughts on the new venue- by aesthetics alone the place was far better than the Armory. I was on the third floor and all the work around me looked great! That said I think the location probably hurt attendance. There was just no easy way to get there other than huffing it or springing for a cab. I also heard that the fourth floor exhibitors felt like they weren't getting as much traffic (that has whiffs of MoCCA's past). I wasn't a huge fan of the armory- but it was more democratic and it was easy to get to. I think the Society of Illustrators did a good job last year of bringing refinement to the festival and to tamp down that flea market feel that had plagued the show since had moved to the armory.

So, I liked this venue and I did very well but I'm not sure if it served all of its exhibitors equally or closer to equally.

The above image are pencils from my next comic "Kittens" which was inspired by the screenprint I did last year below- which was almost done for MoCCA but will most certainly be done for TCAF!

Character Design and Development of Nero Noir 3:25 PM

The process of developing and designing “Nero Noir” the anti-hero private investigator who’ll make his debut in Zombie Cat #2- which if all goes as planned will be ready for the MoCCA Festival 2015. 

This was a tough one for me, usually it just comes to me- a couple of sketches and good to go, but I knew this I wanted this character to be iconic, so he had to be just right.

Lightening Roy 3:03 PM

I started this comic a while ago but it kind of lost direction and I set it down until I could figure out what was going wrong. I knew I wanted to do a non-fiction comic about Roy Cleveland Sullivan, a guy who was struck by lightening seven times. My first attempt was becoming either too didactic or way more interested in drawing a guy getting struck by lightening over and over and over, which, I'm not gonna lie, was one of my early motivations (he did survive every strike!) I want to take a broader look at this subject this time- figure out all the elements that are at play. Wish me luck. I want to have it out for MoCCA 2015

SPX bound! 1:13 PM

Once again! Time to load up my wagon with my humble comic book and wares and venture south to the cartooning utopia of Bethesda, Maryland. Ok, maybe not as romantic as that but I'll along with my studiomates Jen Tong and Tory Sica, along with a former studio mate Anuj Shrestha will be exhibiting at the Small Press Expo this year! We'll be there all weekend partaking in all sorts of poor decision making that happens after the festival every year!

Find me at table C2- come check out my stuff! The image above is a sketch for series of silkscreen prints I'm working on

fight!Fight!FIGHT! (the webcomic) 2:31 PM

There probably few who are familiar with my comic "fight!Fight!FIGHT!" Mainly, actually completely because I've only released it as risographed zine that I only sell at festivals. That's changing RIGHT NOW! I'm going to put the entire thing up on tumblr as a webcomic- is it just gnarly ol'scans that I'm putting up? no sir, completely remastered and colored for a medium. I will be putting up a new page everyday (that I'm around the computer) until they run out- and since I've already posted 4 pages to get it running there's about thirty or so days left- Check it here!

http://fightfightfightcmbutzer.tumblr.com/page/4

So RIPExpo! and Lucha to the LIBRE 3:13 PM

RIPExpo was good for it's first year and I'm looking forward to it next year. There's one thing I'd really like to see different- a date change so that the festival happens when RISDI/Brown are in session. I talked to a few locals who were concerned if that were so it'd be overwhelmed with RISDI kids/influence but I don't think a) that'll happen and if it does whether it's a bad thing and b) There are a ton of SVA/Pratt/FIT/whichever NY artschool attending/exhibiting at MoCCA and no one would ever assume those schools are a dominate influence at the fest. That said Providence is a smaller town and RISDI is a big influence there- so maybe they're right, but I think by not having during school session is cutting off an audience who would have really dug the festival. That's two cents right there.

Next up! SPX!

Currently working on new silkscreens and this pile of Luchadors is a study for my next large poster- 100 Lucha Libre-

so RIPE! 8:29 AM

Possibly the worst/best festival name ever. I'll be exhibiting at the Rhode Island Press Expo (RIPE) this weekend along with my studio mate Jen Tong. So if you're in the smallest state swing by and check out some comics and prints and stuffs!

http://ripexpo.tumblr.com/

Viva la Revolución! (sort of) 8:50 AM

If I hit a wall of creative limbo I often find that if I meticulously reorganize and clean my desk, my computer, the flat files, the supply drawer, and sometimes the rest of the studio... I find that everything is much cleaner and that a mouse has been pooping behind everything, particularly the on top of the cable box (I share his sentiment with Time Warner cable)- so yes, I have a sense of accomplishment and am still blocked.

But I found this comic from Rabid Rabbit Numero Uno! ENJOY!

fight, Fight, FIGHT- webcomic cover 11:58 AM

I'm working out the kinks on putting up my Risographed mini-comic on line in it's entirety for free via tumblr- and like all things that I do I must make it so much more complicated than it should be. That. Withstanding. Here is the cover I've designed for the webcomics in all of it's cartoon violence glory