GODZILLASUIT at the Minneapolis Indie Xpo, November 5th & 6th

Last year's inaugural Minneapolis Indie Xpo was a great time, and I'm super pumped about the second one.  It's November 5th and 6th at the Soap Factory, 514 2nd St. SE in Minneapolis.

Come say hello!  I'll be posted up at table 81 with the comics publisher 2D Cloud.  Despite at one point juggling 3 jobs and a very patient girlfriend, I managed to produce two new books this year.

The first, GODZILLASUIT, is my self-published retrospective on the first couple of Godzilla movies.  Godzilla was one of the first things I creatively latched onto as a kid.  This book made its debut proper at Twin Cites Zinefest, but there's still some left.

GODZILLASUIT has a cover screenprinted by the name takers/ass kickers at Black Collar Studios in Minneapolis.

The second is the culmination of my long-time creative partnership with Joseph Gillette, aka Monster, aka Party Food, aka Chocolate Thundah and 2D Cloud.  More on that beast soon though.

BUTTONS

Some buttons I did for Minneapolis Zinefest.

Raymond Burr narrated Godzilla's rampage in the American version of the original GODZILLA

Little murder muppet

My kitty Marla will kill anything that moves.  I've seen her follow ants around, stomp on them, and then lick them up.  She's kept my apartment pest-free for two years now.  Thanks, you bloodthirsty little furball.

"Hyuk hyuk hyuk hyuk!"

Ryuk, the shinigami from the manga Death Note.  I love this series, it's incredibly gripping even though there's almost no action.  I highly recommend reading at least halfway through until you hit a MAJOR (seriously, can't miss it) plot point, and then cut your losses 'cause it doesn't get any better.  It'll be the best half-comic you'll read.

THE DEMON

Myself and some fellow Minneapolis comic artists have started a group blog called ARMAGETTO FABULOUS.  We do weekly themes, this week being Jack Kirby's demon, Etrigan.  This is my contribution, and probably the last time I'll cross-post something from there:

Liberty Tree Farm buttons

My friend owns a tree farm out by Maiden Rock in Wisconsin.  It is a beautiful, unspoiled place that's walking distance from a number of awe-inspiring views of the Mississippi River.  One morning last summer, my friend woke up to the sound of a bunch of unannounced workers chainsawing through his land, removing all the branches that were 30 feet on either side of his power lines.

For safety's sake these branches have to be removed, but the idea of having his land look like Godzilla stomped a path through it was of course unappealing.  The alternative: bury the power lines, which costs more money than he just has lying around.  His solution: a series of fundraiser parties.  I did a series of buttons for his sale.

Ohhhh no, there goes Tokyo

Martin

Now that Prizon Food is in the can, I've been working diligently on Nerve.  Pages soon!

Studio drawings

From an upcoming Nerve page.

Bus drawings

Did these on the bus into St. Paul.

PRIZON FOOD is done

PRIZON FOOD, my collaboration with Joseph "Monster" Gillette, wrapped itself up nicely for Spring Con, which ended up getting rained out and menaced by tornadoes.  It's the biggest comic I've ever put my name on at 72 color pages.  We're currently at work on a web presentation as well as the second installment.  More coming soon!

"This is madness!"

Stripped way down

Sleeping one off

Pixel Hermit Crab

Yet more ocean scenery from Prizon Food.

Pixel Piggy

more from PRIZON FOOD

"Introducing first, the challenger..."

I've started a new blog for the pro wrestling drawings and commentary.

Apologies(?) to John Baldessari

from the upcoming PRIZON FOOD.

more from GODZILLASUIT

The 1969 movie GODZILLA'S REVENGE took place in the head of a lonely kid named Ichiro.  He daydreamed that he was hanging out with Minira, the adopted son of Godzilla.  Almost all the monster action in it was footage from earlier Godzilla movies.  It's unanimously regarded as the worst Godzilla movie, which puts it in good running for worst movie of all time.

The American distributors of the 1954 GODZILLA inserted a bunch of extra scenes with Raymond Burr as a travel journalist who narrates Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo.

Ishiro Honda directed the first Godzilla film, and several of the better sequels.  He was an assistant director for Kurosawa and a WWII vet.

Phone Home

I found this while I was sifting through my back up drive.  It was part of an intended series with this and this but for some reason it didn't get posted...

back on the grind

Not too long ago I got my mitts on the Adobe CS5 creative suite...though I've barely scratched the surface, it's been nice to have proper Photoshop again after dicking around with Photoshop Elements 4.0.  You miss things like swatches when they're gone.

It's been useful in the production of new work for the upcoming conventions this spring/summer...here's a glimpse of the new Prizon Food, the expanded Nerve, and an image from the ultimately aborted GODZILLASUIT zine I was working on last summer (those drawings will likely be in a collected sketchbook or something similar.)

Seagull you fly across the horizon

Workin on it

contemplating