HAPPY 30th M-E-T-A-L-L-I-C-A

Unused playbill for Metallica's 30th anniversary shows in San Francisco. (Shows were AWESOME, by the way.)

"HONESTY IS MY ONLY EXCUSE"

There's a few days that stick in your mind as "greatest day ever". This was, without a doubt, one of them. Pre-Metallica show, October 1992. Took six days to draw. If you drank in Bruxelles and you're not in here, it's because I ran out of time/interest/sanity. Sorry. Maybe you'll turn up if I ever get back to this...

"HOW TO MAKE A MICK..."

Family Guy's semi-regular art show and silent auction. The theme is 'Origins'. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, this idea came easy. This is just the sketch done on the Cintiq. The original's hand-inked and way too big to scan...

Somewhere in there are subtle and not-so-subtle references to Mad Max, Metallica, 2000AD, Star Trek, Ray Harryhausen, Raquel Welch's boobs and wanton alcoholism.

SUICIDE DONKEY...

Shirt design commission for the brave men and women of CJTF Paladin Southwest, Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

FUNKY GIBBON

"Tá grá ag d'athair duit."

Michael Raymond Cassidy. 1938 - 2011.

Here's a tale:

When my father passed away, my older brother and I took upon bringing the news to the patrons of his (far too) regular drinking haunt - my father had fallen outside the pub and it had landed him in hospital. Of course, it being a local pub in Ireland everybody had already heard (deaths are big news in Ireland) and before we knew it, pints of stout were being hoisted in our direction and people struggled to find sympathetic things to say. (The Irish are generally an open and empathic bunch but not so much here. A dusty web of regret, resentment, repression and finality hung over everything. This was a place where older men, in towns all over Ireland no doubt, of a certain temperament and generation came to wait out their lives. An elephant's graveyard.) We sipped the pints (well it would have been rude otherwise, right...?) and eventually myself and the brother noticed a collection of maybe ten to twelve walking sticks hanging above over the bar, looming. The barman noticed and - almost proudly - informed us that these were the walking sticks and canes owned by previous customers who had passed away inside this bar over the years. We scoffed in disbelief. "No," says the barman, "sure if you look closely you can see the names on the side there."

To use an apt cliche: A chill filled the room. My brother and I glanced at one another. We sank the pints as quickly as humanly possible and left...

In more mundane ramblings, this piece spewed from me over a weekend back in Los Angeles not long after the funeral. I was always struck that for my father, he didn't want company when he went to the pub. He wanted to be alone, drinking his pint. It practically drew itself.

In even more mundanity, I love Eduardo Risso's art for 100 Bullets. Stark blacks and whites and wanted to do something in that vein.

GIRL. STREET LAMP. Etc.

This was supposed to be sorta Gorillaz/Jame Hewlett looking. I dunno. Whatever. I like her feet.

FAMILY GUY GQ/STAR TREK

I've worked on a LOT of FG-related side-projects over the last few years. Not going to show them all as I want to concentrate more on personal work but there's a few worth posting to get out of the way...The 'GQ' one's from a FG charity art auction.
The Star Trek piece actually predates the bigger one further down by about a year or so and is in the custody of the inimitable Mr. MacFarlane himself.
(Star Trek ©Paramount. Family Guy ©20th Century Fox)

COCO LIKES 'LEMMY'...

...so will you!!!! DVD and Blu-Ray February 15th, folks with tons of extras! Champion.