Holiday Gift Giving Ideas

It's been a while since I updated. I've been busy working on a few pieces for a couple of shows, and drawing Danger Country #2. Here's some info on some inexpensive new LJ drawings and paintings.

First off, I have a couple of pieces in the Grab N Go show at Neon Forest gallery in Orlando, Florida. Every piece in the show is $100 and it's cash and carry, so you can have it in time for hanging above your christmas stockings.

December 11th 2010 – January 06th 2010
“THE GRAB-N-GO SHOW”
Neon Forest Proudly Presents: “THE GRAB-N-GO SHOW”
A group show featuring works of art for $100 or less


Featuring the artwork of:
Mildred, Pacolli, Sergie Loobkoff, Jeremy Kennedy, Blake Marquis, Mat Curran, Dres13, Scott Donald, Sean Hartman, Dustin Orlando, Grayson Castro, Chris Musina, Scott Lefavor, Jeff Dekal, Plinio Pinto, Brandon Mclean, Jay Bellichi aka 53, Dennis Hansbury, Johanna O’Donnell, Alex Yanes, Jason Cullsion, Adrian Halpern, John Mulder, Sarah Blacksher, L2 Design, Anna Bond, Will Gay, Daniel Williams and more…


The exhibit features up to 100 individual pieces of art, all being sold for $100 or less. The buyer is allowed to grab the art they purchase and take it with them that same night… hence Grab-n-Go! This event is a fantastic and low cost way to give original art as a gift or to start a collection of your own.


Doors open at 7:00pm – Midnight
No Cover! All Ages Welcomed

On the same day, on the other side of the country in Los Angeles, I'll have several pieces in the Post-It Show 6 at the Giant Robot gallery. This is the second time I'm in the show and I tried hard to make some pieces that would stand out in the horde of beautiful post-its wallpapering the gallery.

Art show opening Post-It Show 6 at GR2 December 11 - January 12, 2011 Reception: Saturday, December 11, 6:30 - 10:00 p.m. GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 gr2.net (310) 445-9276 Giant Robot is proud to present Post-It Show 6 at Giant Robot 2. Curated by artists Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson in conjunction with Giant Robot, the show is slated to feature roughly 2,000 works by noted contributors for only $20. These pieces will be on standard-sized 3" x 3" Post-It notes. (Larger sizes of 4" x 4" and 6" x 6" will cost a bit more.) The pieces will be cash-and-carry, making it a great chance to find one-of-a-kind yet affordable holiday gifts.

Thus far, the ever-expanding list of contributors includes the following:

Trevor Alixopulos, APAK, Nick Arciaga, Andrice Arp, Jordan Awan, Ana Bagayan, Scott Bakal, Derek Ballard, Jesse Balmer, Lynda Barry, Gary Baseman, Niv Bavarsky, Lou Beach, Melinda Beck, Drew Beckmeyer, Mike Bertino, Tigerlily Biskup, Tim Biskup, Nicholas Blechman, Cathie Bleck, Jill Bliss, Jon Boam, Aaron Brown, Jeffrey Brown, Chris Buzelli, Tad Carpenter, Lilli Carre, Christine Castro, Ako Castuera, Martin Cendreda, Ching Ching Cheng, James Chong, Kevin Christy, Chris Cilla, Greg Clarke, Angie Clayton, Frieda Clayton, Fernanda Cohen, Patricia Colli, Dave Cooper, Jordan Crane, John Cuneo, Kelsey Dake, Eleanor Davis, Luke Davis, Skinner Davis, Vanessa Davis, Bob Dob, Seth Drenner, Josearis Espinoza, Edie Fake, Korin Faught, Jesse Fillingham, David Fishel, Cam Floyd, Nina Frankel, Shannon Freshwater, Future Colors of America, Nicholas Gazin, Susie Ghahremani, Cody Griffith, Matt Groening, Steven Guarnaccia, Peter Hamlin, Andrew Hem, Pam Henderson, John Hendrix, Jaime Hernandez, Ryan Heshka, Seonna Hong, David Horvath, Mina Horvath, Rama Hughes, Nick Iluzada, Jordin Isip, Theron Jacobs, Yellena James, David Jien, Levon Jihanian, Hellen Jo, Aya Kakeda, Kevin Kawula, Sun Min Kim, Kinoko, Kozyndan, Nora Krug, Travis Lampe, Anderson Landbridge, Zohar Lazar, LeMerde, Justin Lovato, Bill Main, Ben Marra, James McShane, Jason T Miles, Keiko Murayama, Julie Murphy, Mark Murphy, Gary Musgrave, Alyssa Nassner, Tom Neely, Tru Nguyen, Anders Nilsen, Saejean Oh, Ming Ong, Martin Ontiveros, Nathan Ota, Dave Plunkert, Jason Polan, Mimi Pond, Jarrett Quon, Luke Ramsey, Ron Rege, Jesse Reklaw, Martha Rich, Pat Roberts, Paul Rogers, Souther Salazar, Brooks Salzwedel, Ben Sanders, Britt Sanders, Rob Sato, Aaron Smith, Owen Smith, Sonny Smith, Raymond Sohn, Christina Song, Zack Soto, Bwana Spoons, Becca Stadtlander, Jennifer Juniper Stratford, Shirl Sun, Daria Tessler, Jeremy Tinder, Jesse Tise, Mark Todd, Shark Toof, Twerps, Edwin Ushiro, Jon Vermilyea, Chris Von Szombathy, Ben Walker, Bruce Webb, Steven Weissman, Gillian Wilson, Leslie Winchester, Ben Wolfinsohn, Calvin Wong, Connie Wong, Andrew J. Wright, Christine Wu, Ping Zhu, Jaime Zollars, and more...

Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as an online equivalent.

An opening reception featuring many of the artists will take place from 6:30 - 10:00 on Saturday, December 11. For more information about the show, GR2, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact: 

Finally, don't forget the Fork Frenzy shop, which features several prints and books by yours truly. Order by December 17 to receive it in time for Christmas!

Levon In San Francisco

Pictured above: Run DMC

This weekend I'm heading to San Francisco!

Saturday and Sunday I'll be at the Alternative Press Expo (APE). I will be helping out at Tom Neely's table on the main floor right next to Sparkplug Comic Books and Pigeon Press. I'll be selling mini comic editions of Danger Country. Tom will be debuting a brand new mini-comic called Doppelgänger. We will have some Henry & Glenn "Special Package" collector's items for sale. We will also have Bound & Gagged and many other books and prints available for sale. Maybe even some original art.

Also debuting at the show is the new anthology Studygroup 12 #4. I have 2 pages of art in this amazing book published by Zack Soto and Floating World Comics.

Please come out and say "HI" an see all the wonderful comics from all the participating artists and publishers.

Fork Frenzy Podcast Launches!

I'm happy to announce the debut of my very own podcast, Fork Frenzy. In it I interview a bunch of artists and cartoonists that I know and like. This is co0nnected to the online store that I launched last week. the store will shortly contain books, prints, and art featured on the blog and podcast.

My first interview is with the cartoonist David King, and he talks about how he got started making comics in his signature introspective way and relationships between his life and his work. He reads us a Ralph Waldo Emerson poem and talks about Crime World and his latest book, Lemon Styles.

It's been a strange and new undertaking. I've never done a podcast before and I had a lot to learn. But this was something that I had wanted to do for a long time, just because I know so many amazing artists, and wanted to get to know some more but had no excuse to meet them.

I hope you enjoy it!

Go See: Forkfrenzy.com

Tom Devlin/Highwater Books

The fantastic and objective Peggy Burns posted an eloquent tribute to Tom Devlin in light of the Highwater tribute art show that just opened in Boston. I think this bears mentioning on this blog, because Highwater Books was a powerful force in my development as not only a cartoonist but also as an artist. In my senior year of college, I interned at the west coast branch of Highwater (also known as Jordan Crane's living room). Up until then, my education pushed a strong message of capitalism in every facet of art-making. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but having failed in that aspect, I might have long ago abandoned the notion of making my living from my art. Highwater showed me that money is the means, not the ends, of being creative, and lack of money should never hamper those efforts. My main contribution to the company was primarily production work. I scanned Marc Bell's seminal work, Shrimpy and Paul and Friends, Brian Ralph's Climbing Out, and James Kochalka's Fantastic Butterflies. Jordan Crane paid me in burritos from El Pollo Loco and showed me his mystical secrets of silkscreening. Tom Always made me feel like I was single handedly making all of those books possible, and he is still gracious and kind to me to this day, even though my beard is bigger than his. That internship still holds the record as the best job I've ever had.

Check out the art show if you're in Boston, and read the story on the Drawn and Quarterly blog.

Announcing the Fork Frenzy Shop

For those of you who are interested in buying some of my art work, I've put a bunch of it up on my new online store, ForkFrenzy.com. Fork Frenzy will host other content as well, soon, and hopefully grow into a colossal force in pushing culture and literacy to the masses. That's the goal, any way.

But getting back to selling stuff, all of the artwork is priced extremely low, and these deals will not last very long. Keep checking back though, because I'll be adding more depressingly cheap drawings and paintings over the next couple of weeks. I've also got a couple of books and prints there, too.

Erotic Mindflayer

I just drew this sensual Mindflayer for a contest over at somethingawful.com. You can find a NSFW version here.

I've Got Changes and Donuts

I just made some updates to the website. Most obviously I've upgraded the blog with a couple of new and awesome features. I've also updated the work section to include some newer work never before seen on the internets.

In other news, Danger Country #2 is outlined and is coming along, and I will possibly have a brand new project soon that I think a lot of people will enjoy. 

Puke Force

I'm really enjoying Brian Chippendale's Puke Force comics over at the new picture box site.

Things to come

For the next cover

Bound and Gagged art show and book

I have two pieces in this art show and book. The show's theme is one panel gag strips, along the lines of Marmaduke or Family circus. The opening and release is this Friday in Secret Headquarters. More info on the book and art show are below.

 

Book:

What happens when you as a bunch of cartoonists, artists and assorted weirdos to do one panel gag comics?

COMEDY! HORROR! NAVEL GAZING! ABSTRACTION! AND MORE!!!

72 pages of color and black & white comics by some of todays best underground and alternative cartoonists and artists:

Andrice Arp, Marc Bell, Elijah J. Brubaker, Shawn Cheng, Chris C. Cilla, Michael DeForge, Kim Deitch, J. T. Dockery, Theo Ellsworth, Austin English, Eamon Espey, Robert Goodin, Julia Gfrörer, Levon Jihanian, Juliacks, Kaz, David King, Tom Neely, Anders Nilsen, Scot Nobles, Jason Overby, John Porcellino, Jesse Reklaw, Tim Root, Zak Sally, Gabby Schulz, Josh Simmons, 

Ryan Standfest, Kaz Strzepek, Matthew Thurber, Noah Van Sciver, Dylan Williams, Chris Wright and MORE!?*

Art show:

We're having a BOOK RELEASE PARTY this Friday, September 3rd!

8 - 10 pm at The Secret Headquarters Comic Book Shop

Please come out to the book release party and art show.

See some art. Have some drinks.

Get your books signed by some of the artists.

For sale online:

Tom Neely's web site

Catts & Doggs

I just discovered these little gems while looking through some old files. They were the product of an afternoon with some friends playing a game whose name slips my mind at the moment. It consists of us pulling random titles from a hat, and then drawing 4-panel comic strips illustrating the title.

Bertino's Big Bang

Mike Bertino just started posting his new strip for the amazing Nobrow anthology today. The theme is big bang theories. I just saw a book by Nobrow for the first time, and it is truly a beautiful thing. It's getting more and more rare to see such attention to production quality in print books. My cynical side says it won't be around much longer, but my optimist side that however long this lasts, I'm definitely glad it exists.

Anyway, keep checking back on Mike Bertino's blog. He'll be posting a new page every day for the next week or so.

You can see part 1 here.

Brian O'Dell is a maniac

Brian O'Dell is this artist who is also my coworker. He is silent and soft spoken but in an intense way that puts everyone else in the office on edge at all times. He silently sketches unthinkable and impossible drawings in his sketchbook all throughout the workday and still manages to get more work done than anyone else. Anyway, I wanted to post this painting he showed me today, because I think it deserves to be seen. He is a craftsman to the ultimate degree, but this painting also makes me think about the vast endlessness of the even the most minute introspections. Does that make sense? Sorry, Brian.

His website is specialtheories.com.

Yoda at San Diego Comic Con

Finally got to do a Yoda sketch for Mike Baehr.

Danger Country reviewed by Tom Spurgeon



My very first review is in, and it is pretty positive!  This comes from Tom Spurgeon at comicsreporter.com:

Finally, the OTBP recommendation of the day again comes from the Sparkplug row -- Livon Jihanian's mini- comic Danger Country Vol. 1, which fits nicely into the new school of fantasy comics that everyone's enthused about these days. Clean art, compellingly-paced cartooning, nice little character designs -- what more could you want in a convention mini?

Can you spot the copy of Danger Country in this picture?

Hint: It's on the right

Comic Con is here!

Comic Con is here again! I'll be showing with I Will Destroy You and Sparkplug Comic Books at booth 1630. This Comic Con promises to be just the end of the first step to making this the most prolific year of my career, so I am very excited!

The most exciting part is that I will have the advance mini edition of Danger Country 1!!!!!!!! it's 40 pages of elves, wizards, and epic questing. It's part 1 of a 6 part storyline which will make hopefully make you cry. As a special bonus the back cover has the Dungeons and Dragons character stats for one of the characters, so that you can use it for your own home campaign!!!!!



I will also have these Danger Country posters featuring the Spiral City on page 22 in full color. I have to say it looks pretty amazing. It's 18"x12" and if you miss comicon, I'll have it available in my new upcoming online store very soon.





Finally, I'll have limited amounts of these hand printed lithographs from last year. I can't wait to see you there!

Funny Towne Humor Pump

For the next few weeks, I'll be a contributing blogger at the Funny Towne Humor Pump, which I guess is a blog about San Diego Comicon.

SDCC essential supply kit: part 1

Know your tools

Danger Country: in progress

Page 22

Bookshelf Porn: part two

Here are some more of my books. You may have noticed an increase in blog posts this week. That's what smartphones will do to you.

Danger Country: sneak peek #2

Inks

Bookshelf Porn: part 1

I figured since I love checking out other peoples bookshelves, the same might go for you.

Danger Country: in progress

Inking

Henry and Glenn book signing this Friday

THIS FRIDAY! April 30th, 2010

Henry and Glenn Forever is the ridiculous idea born out of a night of too many beers shared by a group of artists who sometimes call themselves Igloo Tornado. On that night Gin Stevens said "There should be a Tom of Finland book, but with Henry and Glenn..." and Tom Neely and Scot Nobles replied: "Yes! And we're going to do it!" This bold idea (or is it a bad idea?) became a small zine that grew into a notorious legend that has now become a nice little book published by Cantankerous Titles!

Come to the book release party at
The Secret Headquarters Comic Book Shop
In Silverlake- 3817 W. Sunset Blvd, LA, CA.
8-10 pm

Get the book - it's only $4!
See the original art - also cheap!
Meet the Igloo Tornado!
Listen to soft-rock love songs!
Drink some drinks!

FRIDAY! FRIDAY! FRIDAY!

Danger Country: Chapter 1 coming this summer.

Just wanted to announce the first chapter my first comic book in 4 years! It's called Danger Country, the same as those strips I was posting a few months ago. It will be published by Tim Goodyear at Teenage Dinosaur. While it's set in the same world as the strips, it is a completely different story with completely different characters. It's much more plot-driven and fleshed out than any other comic I've done. In fact it's the only long form story where I've actually figured out the beginning, middle, and end. I really love the story I've written and hopefully you'll love it, too! Above is the cover.

If You're in New York...

I'll be in this giant group show full of small works. Perfect for a small New York apartment. Up there is one of my 3 pieces. I'll post the other 2 next week! Press release is below along with an impressive list of contributing artists.



Small Favors

March 27, 2010 - April 14, 2010

Reception: Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.

Giant Robot Gallery
437 East 9th Street
Between 1st Ave. & Ave. A, in the East Village
New York, New York 10009
(212) 674-GRNY (4769) | grny.net

Giant Robot is proud to host Small Favors, a group art show featuring small works.

The Big Apple is a place where people have to pay big bucks to live in not-so-big spaces. But who says bigger is better? It's the little things in life that mean the most, and Small Favors is a group show centered around small, affordable works for people who want to support the arts but don't necessarily have a lot of wall space. Artworks created for this show can be in any medium, but most are no larger than 5 inches by 5 inches--a perfect fit for cozy city spaces.

Contributors will include the following:

Selina Alko
APAK
Jashar Awan
Jordan Awan
Sean Boyles
Sasha Barr
Aaron Brown
Jeffrey Brown
Jon Burgerman
Ako Castuera
Kris Chau
Louise Chen
Shawn Cheng
Alex Chiu
Josh Cochran
Allison Cole
Molly Crabapple
Eleanor Davis
Jennifer Davis
Michael Deforge
Morgan Elliott
Grant Falardeau
James Benjamin Franklin
Matt Furie
Mark Giglio
Tim Gough
Matt Haber
Tim Hensley
Lizz Hickey
Patrick Hruby
Jay Horinouchi
David Horvath
Martin Hsu
Mari Inukai
Jordin Isip
Yellena James
Levon Jihanian
Marc Johns
Mr. Kiji
Dan-Ah Kim
James Kochalka
Stephanie Kubo
Jesse Ledoux
Abe Lincoln Jr.
Jack Long
Justin Lovato
Sara Antoinette Martin
Aaron Martinez
Jeffrey Ashe Meyer
Mika Mood
Tru Nguyen
Grant Reynolds
Julia Rothman
Julianna Parr
Sidney Pink
Sean Qualls
Deth P. Sun
Zack Soto
Rodger Stevens
Ric Stultz
Gary Taxali
Daria Tessler
Peter Thompson
Elisabeth Timpone
Jeremy Tinder
Joe To
Aiyana Udesen
Jing Wei
Chelsea Wong
Lawrence Yang

Disappointing news

Didn't know where else to post this (from Wikipedia):

"Mavis Beacon" is not a real person; the original photo of Mavis Beacon was of a retired Caribbean-born fashion model named Renee L'Esperance who was introduced to Les Crane in 1985, the former talk-show host, while he shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. Crane, who was then a partner in Software Toolworks, invented the name. Her first name was taken from Mavis Staples, lead vocalist for the Staple Singers, and from beacon, as in a light to guide the way.

IMAG0094

snake people

Interviewed by Hurley

I was recently interviewed by Hurley.com. It was a separate phone interview from the video a few weeks ago. I think that they really touched on some cool stuff and I come off looking pretty artistic or whatever.

The really cool part is that the story was reblogged on juxtapoz.com, with the title "Robert Williams and Levon Jihanian" which is pretty good company.

Year of the Tiger at GR2

The above image is a piece I did for the Year of the Tiger show at GR2. The weird coloration of the tiger might be familiar to you, because the tiger is "Cringer" from the Masters of the Universe cartoon series from the 80's. The panther in the drawing is his evil counterpart, "Panthor". In the cartoon, Cringer was a talking tiger and the ultimate coward. When he was shot by a lazer beam which bestowed upon him a "Power", he became "Battle-Cat" and donned a helmet and a saddle and was aggressive and brave, however he seemed to lose the ability to speak. I wanted to depict Cringer without the helmet and saddle, because I was always bothered by the sublimation of Cringer's intelligence, independence, and identity at the hands of his master. In the scene above Cringer is Cringer, and he has held onto his ego, for better or for worse, and has harnessed his inner power which comes from his love for his friends. No lazers required.

The show opens tonight (sorry for the late notice, my blog was broken). See the press release below:



Group art show opening Year of the Tiger at GR2 February 13, 2010 - March 10, 2010 Reception: Saturday, February 13, 6:30 -10:00 GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 gr2.net (310) 445-9276 Giant Robot is proud to host Year of the Tiger, a group art show celebrating year 4708 on the lunar calendar. Pieces will include illustration, oils, pencils, prints, watercolor, sculpture, and other media - all dedicated one of the most powerful but also most sensitive animal in the Chinese zodiac.

Hurley Feature

They just posted a feature of me and my art up on the Hurley web site. I have little to say about this other than I'm embarrassed at my lack of eloquence, and I probably should have run a comb through my hair... I am overall pretty proud of it, though.