Danger Country 2 Progress #1

Working on the second cover.

For a limited time: Danger Country #1 available for free online

I've uploaded the entirety of Danger Country #1 online. It will be up until April 14th.

Thanks for checking it out. You can buy a copy of it at the Fork Frenzy shop.

That's less than a week. Meanwhile, I'm working really hard to finish Danger Country #2 by the end of May! Stay tuned for some exciting news about Danger Country released in full color.

In other news, I'll be attending the Stumptown comics fest in Portland. It will take place April 16th and 17th. And guess what... DC#1 was nominated for a Maisie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration!!!!!!!!! It's up against some amazing comics, among which are comics by Dan Zettwoch and Kevin Huizenga who have been among my heroes since I started drawing comics 10 years ago. Anyway, if you read mini comics, head over to the site and request a ballot by e-mailing reklaw@slowwave.com.


Update: My other host crashed, so the I moved the file to my other, cooler host and hopefully it won't be a problem anymore.

Fan Art

Ever since the holidays, I've been also obsessed with the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. HBO is adapting it for the little screen in the upcoming Game of Thrones television series. I am pumped!!!! Many others have said it better, but this series is incredibly immersive and incredibly addictive. I am waiting with bated breath For the TV series, and am clawing my eyes out waiting for the 5th novel in the series, A Dance with Dragons which is supposed to come out this summer.

So I drew/painted a couple of little fan art pieces, both depicting scenes with trees. The first one is one of the first scenes of the first book (A Game of Thrones) where Eddard sharpend his family sword, Ice, under the Heart Tree of Winterfell's Godswood. The second one is linked below and is way too spoilerific to describe, but it includes events that occur at the end of the 4th book (A Feast for Crows).

You can see the other spoiler-ridden one here.

While I'm posting fan art, I also wanted to post this drawing I did of David King's character, Lemon Styles.

Paintings

 My main problem as an artist is that I am easily distracted and excitable by new kinds of projects. Rather than try to avoid these impulses, I've made it my philosophy to embrace them, and see where they take me. One of my latest obsessions has been painting digitally. My career roots are in oil painting, and I gave it up due to fumes and constraints on studio space. It's nice to revisit the same concepts but on the computer. I see it as a step away from traditional gallery art which feels less and less relevant to me every day and into the print/web publishing art space. I still love original art objects, but I love other things too.

Anyway, here are a couple of examples. I still feel like I'm in my baby steps, but there you are.

Game Over IV at GRSF

I have 2 pieces in the Game Over show at Giant Robot San Francisco. If you're in town, hop in and take a look! Info below:

Game Over IV at GRSF, March 4, 2011 - March 30, 2011

Reception: Friday, March 4, 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm

GRSF
618 Shrader Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
gr-sf.com
415-876-4773

Giant Robot is proud to present Game Over IV, a group show that pays homage to the continuous evolution of videogames and their massive influence on popular culture. The impact and inspiration of videogames will be represented through a wide assortment of styles and genres provided by top artists in the fields of illustration, painting, sewing, indie comics, and videogames. Contributors are scheduled to include the following:

Lala Albert
Esao Andrews
Nick Arciaga
Andrice Arp
Jesse Balmer
Sasha Barr
Niv Bavarsky
Eric Broers
Aaron Brown
Jeffrey Brown
Jude Buffum
David Chung
Farel Dalrymple
Enfu
Ines Estrada
Jesse Fillingham
Cam Floyd
Matt Furie
Nick Gazin
Mark Giglio
Peter Hamlin
Paul Hornschemeier
David Horvath
Martin Hsu
Rama Hughes
Levon Jihanian
Kinuko
Chris Kuzma
Patrick Kyle
Ginette Lapalme
Little Friends of Printmaking
Kiyoshi Nakazawa
Mare Odomo
Physical Fiction
Ferris Plock
Silvio Porretta
Jarrett Quon
Jesse Reklaw
Rob Sato
Cory Schmitz
Dave Stolte
Superbrothers
Daria Tessler
Jeremy Tinder
Chris Ward
Steven Weissman
Leslie Winchester
Calvin Wong
Jeni Yang
Lawrence Yang
Derek Yu

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.

A reception featuring many of the artists will be held from 6:30 - 10:00 on Friday, March 4.

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?