Sleeping In Cars

Postal Consituent Finally Here!

2012-01-19T12:11:00.006-07:00

Nabokov's Butterflies is in the mail today!!! 16 full color pages! Plus Butterflies and hand cut butterfly cases. These are also available in the Internet Emporium! Sorry for all the explanation points I am just excited.

In other news I finished constructing the walls for the Museum of Failure!

And then I had to squeeze all 20 walls into the front half of my studio. It sounds bad, but it's actually great because now I have a reading fort:

I say reading, but as you can see I also spend a lot of time on the internet. I did finish Breakfast of Champions but I hated the ending. I really hated the ending. I don't normally hate things, and I loved the rest of it, so I find my emotions about it kind of hard to deal with. So then I painted some patterns to distract myself! Recollecting the patterns of our weary little human brains, over and over ad infinitum. Please note the hand painted pattern on the yellow wall. It took me something like 42 hours to complete.

And last but not least I have a new drawing up on the GMIWC cooperative website.

Postal Constituent: Vol 3 Issue 2 Preview! Nabokov's Butterflies!

2012-01-02T00:29:00.006-07:00

I finished drawing Volume 3 Issue two last night and sent it off to the printer. This issue won't be back from the printer for 5-10 business days. This issue is LATE. I promise it's worth it! Twenty full color Pages expounding Vladimir Nabokov's obsession with butterflies!

In the mean time enjoy the above picture and check out some of Nabokov's Imagined species.

New (December) Subscribers will receive a complimentary back issue with their membership card to make up for my tardiness. If you're new keep those eyes on the mailbox.

Postal Constituent Vol. 3 Iss. 1, BLOT.

2011-12-05T14:38:00.009-07:00

The First Issue of the Third Volume of the Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent is here. A 6" x 9" accordian folded, fact-based, fictional saga! It concerns the life and times of one Hermann Rorschach, the inventor of the inkblot test. But the facts stop there. We at the Great Moments in Western Civilization Cooperative believe in fictionalizing history. It is after all, fictionalized already. In an era where you can access wikipedia, from the back seat of a megabus, facts have lost there spark. We should be propagating critical thinking skills, over facts. As always this story reveals a truth truer than the "truth" spoon fed to you from the popular meta-narrative.

This comic combines my love for towers, my obsession with inkblots, and my appreciation for tin cans all into one comic! Because of the time consuming nature of printing and assembling this comic, it will only exist in a limited edition of 50! That is just barely enough for subscribers. With only a few copies left in the WORLD there's never been a better time to subscribe to the Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent!

Nietzsche's Descends the mountain. New POstal COnstituent

2011-11-03T10:48:00.005-06:00

In the mail today! I'm pretty excited about this issue. It's the first time I've really worked extensively with halftones and greyscale. As seen below this months brings the Postal Constituent a 12" square two color screen print documenting the slow descent of one Friedrich Nietzsche. You can read it ALL right here.

I spent a lot of time researching this one. I read Nietzsche's biography and a bunch of his letters. My favorite are his "madness letters." He wrote them after his break down. In them he takes on different personas and makes a lot of references to greek mythology. He wrote several to Cosima Wagner (the wife of the composer) addressing them to Ariadne (the daugher of King Minos who helped Theseus to defeat the minotaur) and signing them Dionysus (the greek god of debauchery).

The last few frames of this comic reference one of his very last letters to Jacob Burckhardt and takes on several pseudonyms before ultimately signing his own name. In the margin he scribbled the note: "I go everywhere in my student coat, now and then slap somebody on the back and say: siamo contenti? son dio, ho fatto questa caricaturaso (which means: I am God, this farce is my creation).

I clearly took some artistic liberties, Who knows if Nietzsche actually went up to people in the town square and told them he was god, it's actually unlikely, he wrote this letter from a mental hospital. I don't really care though, because it's a folk tale that I would like to perpetuate. The historic meta-narrative, that scholars have been telling us for centuries is no truer to me than the fabricated history I've created. In fact it is significantly less true.

Subscribe to the postal constituent:

http://www.greatmomentsinwesternciv.com/subscribe.html

vol 2 issue 11: Ole Midge!

2011-10-02T12:43:00.003-06:00

New Issue of the Postal Constituent. I finished printing it late friday night. It documents the horrifying story of one Thomas Midgley, Jr, an inventor that just can't seem to do right for the world.
And Great Moments in Western Civ wouldn't be Great Moments in Western Civ without a really horrifying death scene.

As soon as the comic was printed I was off to Toronto's Nuit Blanche to dance the night away with Saving us from Destruction, an international dance sensation. See why I now have a terrible hacking cough and a sore throat at www.vimeo.com/sufd (videos of me screaming from a parapet should be posted in the next day or too.)

Comics should be going out tomorrow. Keep your eyes on those mailboxes.

Also I have plans to start scanning and uploading complete readable versions of the archived comics, so if you aren't a member, or a member who joined recently, stick around!

Great Moments In Western Civ Postal Constituent Vol 2 Issue 10

2011-09-01T12:56:00.004-06:00

The new Issue of the Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent is here! Each subscriber will receive a limited edition print in their mailbox in the next few days. Each print includes its very own scrap of encyclopedia. Combined with the rather mysterious image of a fellow spouting of patterns while the arrow of science points out the scribbles in his head, the encyclopedia pages enhance and elaborate upon each prints underlying message. There are fifty-five prints in this variable edition, and every one contains its very own philosophic, poetic or artistic statement.
There is no better time to subscribe, to the Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent.

The Book of Books

2011-08-16T22:02:00.003-06:00

Documentation of the Book of Books I built this past month at Elsewhere.

CHARACTERS FROM BOOKS OFFER YOU IMAGINED WORDS OF LUKE WARM ENCOURAGEMENT!

2011-07-30T10:00:00.004-06:00

The Great Moments In Western Civilization is here! 8.5 x 22" this fold out poster, made while in residence at Elsewhere Artist Collaborative, offers you luke warm words of inspiration for that hard day at the office. Say good bye to the days of posters promising that there is no place to go but up and that your miserable life will pay off in the end. Here at the Great Moments in Western Civilization Cooperative, we know that's just not true. But this hasn't stopped us from putting everything in perspective a little bit. So become a subscriber now and Hang a fetus on your wall as reminder: your problems lack significance!

Elsewhere!

2011-07-27T18:28:00.008-06:00

Elsewhere Family Photo July 15, 2011

So I'm in the approximate center of a month long residency at Elsewhere Artist Collaborative, and I'm having a lovely time making things and scavenging through enormous piles of things. In case I haven't yet explained it, Elsewhere is a thrift store turned living museum, where cast-off objects become fodder for art projects. It's a colorful, chaotic, startlingly public, wonderland. And merits a visit if you ever get the chance.

I'm hard at work on my project making a Book of Books for the Elsewhere Library. Here's my proposal (the actual proposal has footnotes to explain the figure below). I'm basically making an unconventional field guide/ catalogue/ encyclopedia for the library that will aspire to contain everything, beg you to put forth your contribution, but inevitably remain incomplete. Just finished putting holes in 100 signatures. That's 500 sheets of paper folded in half to become the 2000 pages that will make up the final book.

The book is divided in sections labeled, convenlently, with symbols (i.e. e, 447, q , ü , Q)
Sections are then described briefly. So far I have in no particular order:

Section 5- Wherein we collect the missing pages long separated from the Elsewhere library books and identify them so as to ensure your continued library enjoyment

Section Q- Wherein we archive book plates from the elsewhere library, their respective owners and possible whereabouts

Section q- Wherein we diligently copy hand written notes from the margins of elsewhere books in effort to better understand our historic readership

Section F7- Wherein we poetically visualize and describe books from the elsewhere library so as to encourage you to read the aforementioned books from the Elsewhere Library

Section 4.2- Wherein we analyze the color choices in Elsewhere Library Coloring Books

Section W - Wherein we collect Diagrams and schemata from the elsewhere library in effort to visualize human consciousness

Section ü- Wherein we re-contextualize illustrations from the collection with disparate sentences also from the collection

Section XVI
Wherein we collect Drawings of notable endpapers in the elsewhere library

Section 478- Wherein we collect representations of stamps or insignias denoting that a book was made during war time

Section Lamda (the lower case spionic lamda, but I don't want to spend the time copy and pasting)- Wherein Characters From the Collection offer us Imagined Words of Luke Warm Encouragement

That final section (section lamda) has also been converted a poster for this months postal constituent! I don't have access to screen printing facilities here so I had to order them, and they should be arriving in a few days for me to ship out!

Above please find, my workspace and a sneak preview of section Q and section lamda!

Above please find me working awkwardly in extreme North Carolina July Heat.

The ARABIAN BABBLER, VOL 2 ISSUE 8 OF THE POSTAL CONSTITUENT

2011-06-28T13:55:00.005-06:00

Just sent out the new issue of the postal constituent. A contemporary folk tale about an unpredictable bird and a man who cares just a little too much about science.

The mailing is going out from Chicago, where I have just returned from, after a pleasant week of visiting family and friends. I am now preparing to go to Cleveland, then buffalo, then back to Chicago to attend the opening of two comics related art shows (Seriously Funny and Underground) at Woman Made Gallery (Four Issues of the Postal Constituent will be displayed!) and finally to Greensboro, North Carolina, where I will spending a month making art in a giant museum of things. So an exciting time all and all. I am going to also try to make the next postal constituent before I return to Chicago for the second time, so, with any luck subscribers might be receiving it a little early next month.

GMIWC Postal Constituent Volume 2 Issue 7

2011-05-31T21:40:00.003-06:00

Just mailed out the new issue of the postal Constituent! It is a little bit intentionally over complicated so I made this little preview/tutorial to help folks out.

A nice readable scan of the THING ABOUT THINGS from a few months back

2011-05-16T15:24:00.002-06:00

So it is summer here in Buffalo and this means that I am spending all of my time in my studio making comics and drawing. I even started a new project, which you will hear more about and perhaps see images of in the coming weeks. Other than a residency in mid-July I will be in Buffalo all summer without A JOB! This is the first summer in ten years that I have not had a job. I am living off of my tax return. Which means, I am eating lots of soup and peanut butter sandwiches. The plan is to make art like it is my job. So we will see how that goes.

I plan to update my website soon with more things like the image below. I realize I have a bit of a back log of things that deserve a high res re-post.

TCAF 2011

2011-05-09T13:03:00.009-06:00

I had a great weekend in Toronto. It was my first TCAF and I sold a ton of comics. Which means I just about broke even after travel, lodging and tabling fees. Which makes it entirely worth it. TCAF is a great festival and the fact that it is free to prospective shoppers is a huge boon. On top of everything there was plenty of room behind my table and volunteers kept coming by and asking if I needed any coffee. Which I didn't. Because I already had four coffees (Granted one was remarkably small because apparently Tim Horton's sizes are different in Canada. What we call a small is a medium there. But as an uncouth American I had no qualms drinking multiple cups.)

Anyway, Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table, and stuck around long enough to experience the side effects of the caffeine.

Here's the stuff I came home with. The last few times I've been to these things I never give myself the chance to walk around, and thus see/buy very little. But Marc was with me this time, so I tore myself away from the table for long enough to procure the following. I went downstairs with 20 Canadian dollars to limit myself and ended up spending all of it, plus 10 American dollars within minutes. Marc got the Acme Novelty 18 copy signed for me.

-The newest Sundays anthology from the kind folks at One Percent Press.
-Acme Novelty Library 18
-Lucy Knisley's. Pretty Little Book, which is mostly material that can be found online, but printed in full color with some lovely raised black ink
-And Ryan Claytor's newest installment of his project And Then One Day.

A few people also gave me some of their books when they stopped by my table. Haven't read them yet, but am posting them here for posterity because I am an appreciator of free reading material. And some of the drawings look quite nice on the first page through.

Also there is a write up about TCAF over at the Torontoist. They talk about how poor I am:
http://torontoist.com/2011/05/tcaf.php

The Unseemly Debris of 2,000 Years of Artistic Suffering

2011-05-03T21:56:00.006-06:00

A new Postal Constituent! An Abridged map of the river Styx filled with 2,000 years worth of the unseemly debris of artistic suffering! Featuring Orpheus, Edgar Allan Poe, Vincent Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, and Mark Rothko. Plus a bunch of severed heads! A Trojan Horse! And Duchamp's Urinal.

This is a nice long screen print, printed with white ink on black paper. The first half of the edition is all printed and will go out tomorrow to all subscribers. The second half is still in the works, but I promise to have prints available for the Toronto Comics Art Festival this weekend!

Speaking of which I am tabling on the second floor at TCAF in what they are calling the "Salon". Come Find me! I am in the process of reprinting tons of things and I will have lots for you to look at!

Hey remember when I mentioned that my comics were on the Toronto Subway monitors?

2011-04-07T20:54:00.003-06:00

Here's a picture.

Again for posterity.

Back From China!/ VOLUME 2 ISSUE 5: Qin Shi Huang

2011-04-02T22:01:00.005-06:00

I'm back from China and I have a brand new Postal Constituent for your viewing pleasure. It looks like this:

And chronicles several of the nefarious goings-on of one Qin Shi Huang, the self proclaimed First Emperor of China. Practically true! Great Moments in Western Civilization takes a break from Western Civilization to bring you a little snippet of Eastern Civilization. These will arrive in subscribers mailboxes briefly! And they come in imported envelopes that I had to glue shut. Like with a glue stick.

I wanted to do something with the Great Wall, and happily stumbled upon this lovely little story, which I have re-figured to suit my fancy. In my research I was pleasantly surprised the discover a Borges Essay about the very same thing. I've been on a Borges kick lately. You should read it here.

For Posterity here is a picture of me on the Great Wall.

Postal Constituent Volume 2 Issue 4: A Thing about THINGS

2011-03-02T09:37:00.005-07:00

Volume 2 Issue 4 is here. A fold out Thing about Things. Subscribers will be able to hold this THING in their hands so soon.

A higher res scan is coming, but I didn't want to ruin the reading experience for subscribers, so, you know.

Tabula Emphaticus-PEEPSHOW 2011!!!

2011-03-01T17:40:00.007-07:00

So it's been a busy couple of weeks. I'm in the thick of finishing up the next issue of the Postal Constituent. I should be mailing them out tomorrow, but I just wanted to update with some photos and links from my recent performance at Squeaky Wheel's Peep Show 2011 .

I was interviewed in Artvoice before the event so you should read it here. I'm all the way at the bottom of the page looking totally insane in the best way possible.

Overall the event went swimmingly and I am still trying to figure out how I will be assessing all of the information so as to make a final conglomerate statement of all the statements I was given. I have everything recorded. It all gets better as people get drunker. I promise. I will be posting more sometime in the future after I get back from China. I am going to China. Friday... Which is soon. eek.

I've also pasted my project proposal below for posterity.

Here's a picture of me figuring things out with my friend Marc. Marc had two projects on view. One with our friends Kyle and Alice for their artist platoon MommyDaddyBaby. The other was the motivational high tech team building activity Eyeswap, with our friends Alice and Tim. Crazy, mind bending, vision switching for the sake of the community. You should probably hire them for your next corporate event. Or at least read more about Eyeswap here to find out why Marc hates analog artists.
Photo credits: High Quality photos by Shasti O'leary-Soudant, Iphone shots by Katrina Boemig.

PeepShow 2011 Project Proposal[1] for Caitlin Cass

There was a time when dialogue was encouraged. We talked about things. We tried to get to the bottom of things. That time has since died, has gone up in flames along with Truth, God and the sanctity of the liberal arts. Our cities are festering, fermenting, with apathy. Our minds are pickling in jars and Rush Limbaugh is hanging them on placards next to his stag antlers—his moose head. Dialogue has retreated behind the ever-growing white walls of academia where it is being used and abused to convince our youth that they want to be lawyers. Well I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a lawyer.

The goal of this project is open it up, flesh it out, and bring back the passion. The goal of this project is to show the world that it is okay to think; to remind them that their waking hours do not need to be spent festering away on Limbaugh’s bookshelf. There is something to be said here, and we are going to say it. The artist intends to engage in one on one conversations with strangers, to get them to really think about how we can make sense of what we’re given. She will be carrying a cigarette tray, filled to the brim not with cigarettes but with ideas. These ideas will manifest themselves on small cards, printed in English, in a tasteful serif font:

--Universal Truth

--The Mind-Body Problem

--The Infinite Divisibility of the Particle.

All just some of the notions that will be discussed. But these things are abstract, elusive, so in order to pin them down, to bring them back to Earth, The tray will also provide a series of objects, a series of things from which to work. Small things, trifles really, marbles, forks, carrot sticks. The artist will beg the crowd to help her figure it out; to construct a system, to make sense of what the tray has given.

-How, sir, can we connect this eggbeater with the notion of Universal Truth? Where should we begin? I see what you’re saying and you’re right, first we must list the pertinent characteristics of this eggbeater and begin to understand how it in itself is universal. Such a lovely object, so utilitarian. If a thing is universally useful it must be universally true am I right?

The conversations will be lasting and pertinent. We’ll work toward unpacking the absurd: on confronting it, acknowledging it, embracing it. We will see a glimpse, the glory of the process; we will realize that truth does not necessitate genius, that it can instead spill out of the mundane, the silly, the mediocre. All while taking meticulous notes of course.

[1] This project requires no technological support or equipment. The artist will be bringing art to the people, in the crowd, one-on-one or perhaps in small groups. There was no room for such explicit statements in the proposal. Thus the footnote.

The Crisis of Being in Binary! Postal Constituent!

2011-01-31T00:18:00.003-07:00

The second January issue of the Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent is here! This means I have finally caught up and that I only have to worry about one comic in February. On top of all that they are limited edition letter press/ screen prints! I went totally overboard and made a fancy sleeve for them and everything. Members will be receiving one of the two different prints I have made so far. Eventually this series will have four different prints. I'm pretty excited about them. Letterpress is really important guys. I literally hand set every single letter seen below. Like I picked up the little lead letter and put it in a row with all the other letters and then I printed it. I was learning what it meant to think in printed prose all over again and it was serious. The entire history of the Western world emanates from those cases of type. And so, by extension, through these prints. I hope you guys like it! If you haven't subscribed you can do so here. But FYI, these will only be available if you subscribe today. Tomorrow is Feb 1st and new subscribers will get the February issue only.

Great Moments in Western Civ will be taking the Toronto Subway system by storm starting tomorrow. Check it out over at the Art For Commuters website. They will be showing one letter from my Not So Great Moments in Western Civ: An Alphabet of Reasoned Failure book, everyday on the monitors until they finish.

GMIWC Postal Constituent Vol 2 Issue 2 is here.

2011-01-05T22:22:00.003-07:00

I already posted a preview of the contents, but wanted to let everybody see how the book turned out. It's a Twenty-Four Page recreation of an Ancient European myth starring a nice little boy who coughs up blood. It will be arriving shortly in subscribers' mailboxes.

One and Three Chairs vs. Joseph Kosuth

2010-12-26T01:45:00.001-07:00

Finally a web comic. And about art no less. Click to enlarge.

The Wild Hunt

2010-12-23T15:05:00.005-07:00

This is a preview of the December Comic. One of my first forays into fiction. Click to enlarge. It's loosely based on this ancient european folktale. I'm not sure how I'll lay out the final version. It's more of a picture book than a comic, and I'd like to keep the pages nice a breathy, but we'll see how I end up handling it. I've been really excited lately about trying to draw comics like I drew stories when I was a kid (really fast, no planning, lying on the floor of my bedroom.) I'm getting really close to that with this one. I've done zero pencil sketching. Everything is drawn straight in ink. No preliminary sketching or anything.

I'm only about half done drawing it so it'll still be a while before I get it in the mail, but I just wanted to share a bit of it with the Interweb.

I am in Chicago, It is my Birthday and I insisted on spending the entire day working on comics. It has been down right pleasant. I've been listening to Dock Boggs and Uncle Dave Macon and feeling all festive and American and such like.

Good News. I'm going to be at TCAF this year! It's kind of a juried festival and I did not get in last year so this is kind of exciting news. I've heard only good things about it and it is exceptionally close to Buffalo.

Postal Constituent Volume 2 Issue 1

2010-12-06T09:40:00.004-07:00

The first issue of the second volume of the postal constituent is here. In it I discuss the joys of picking through other peoples refuse.

I will have it in the mail in the next few days so keep an eye on those mailboxes. If you would like to subscribe you may do so here:

www.caitlincass.com/subscribe

And here's a preview!

Postal Constituent Issue 12!/ Volume 1 Complete/ ATTN: Art Goers

2010-11-08T14:45:00.005-07:00

Issue 12 is finally in the mail! A two color screen print concerning Franz Reichelt, a most ambitious tailor. Keep those eyes on the mailbox.

And the reason the comic is so late is that the Second Year MFA show here in Buffalo just took place this weekend. It was a lovely evening full of dancing and chiseling. There were forts and wombs to crawl up into, and snacks and alcohol galore. We some how managed to get it together enough to take over the giant commercial space next to Artspace. Here's a picture of my set up:

And here is my dear friend Emma Reading some of my comics:

Photos taken by Porsche Jones

Canzine! Printopolis! Toronto!

2010-10-23T22:22:00.004-06:00

So I am in Toronto for the weekend in honor of Printopolis and the Canzine fair. I gave a talk at OCAD on friday, saw some lovely prints around town, ate some crepes and chinese food and most importantly went to this store:

There are literally PILES of treasure in this place. Things spill out into the one narrow aisle until you cannot possibly walk any further back. There are random gears extracted from music boxes, typewriters, old suitcases, a couple select books (the dictionary of symbolism, caught my eye) and many an old fan. I did not buy anything, and nothing had a price tag on it, but this shop single handedly made me love Toronto. Well that and this mind blowing David Hoffos exhibit at the Museum for Contemporary Canadian Art. Tiny little windows into other worlds. People disappearing and then reappearing. Peep holes into how the magic happens. Mirrors, televisions, tape and magic. Serious.

Anywho. I will be at the Canzine festival tomorrow peddling my wares. Please come if you are in or Around Toronto. I'm pretty sure it would be worth the drive if you can go see the David Hoffos exhibit. Not kidding. Besides the fair takes place in this lovely building

Issue 11!

2010-10-05T08:17:00.004-06:00

The Great Moments in Western Civ Postal Constituent Issue 11 is finished. And while subscribers will be receiving the September issue in October, they will be happy to know that I survived a car accident that had be hydroplaning across the I-190 twice. Coffee went flying and my room mate, Katrina, and I emerged from the wreckage sopping and confused but alive. My dear car Ethel is gone for good, but we did find a snail in the parking lot of the Carstar and he is now our anti-social studio pet. His name is Eisenhower, which is the other name of my car. I am convinced my vehical was reincarnated as a snail. I tried to wake him up for this photo-op but he would have none of it.

Snails aside issue 11 is all about Franz Kafka and the way his biographers seem to fundementally disagree about who he was. It includes fold out pages and a screen printed cover. All very exciting, I promise.

Postal Constituent- Issue 10

2010-08-30T12:48:00.003-06:00

I just sent out the August issue of the postal constituent. It's a collection of cards celebrating the vices of some of your favorite literary figures. They are hand printed and will shortly arrive in subscribers' mailboxes.

In other news, I've been wrestling with my website a lot as of late and much of it is still in the works, but I did finish updating the postal constituent archives, so be sure to check that out as well!

Comics by the Cover- July 2010 Postal Constituent

2010-08-03T13:22:00.003-06:00

So the Comics by the Cover event went swimmingly. A bunch of people came out to the Crane Library and I made 15 printable comics in four hours. The print editions of this little comic are now finished. Subscribers will be receiving them in the mail shortly. Sorry I'm a little late this month. I've been in the process of moving for the last few weeks. Don't worry, though, everyone still has an August comic coming to them as well. If you would like to subscribe you can do so here.

Because it was for the Buffalo Infringement Festival I will be posting a PDF of this comic online shortly, but I wanted to give subscribers the first look.

Clarification/ Buffalo News Article

2010-07-16T12:01:00.004-06:00

So there was a write up today in the Buffalo News about the Infringement Festival. I am mentioned, which is great, but I did want to let people know that some of the information listed is a bit misleading. Just thought I should clarify: Visitors will not be able to bring home the comics I make at the Comics by the Cover event on the 28th. I am planning on assembling them into a book/ free online PDF so I will need to hang on to them. I will have the books ready by Sunday August 2nd for the Broadway market event and I will also post a link here on my blog to the PDF.

Comics by the Cover

2010-07-13T10:24:00.003-06:00

So in a couple weeks I will be taking part in the Buffalo Infringement Festival. I have three events lined up as follows:

Saturday July 24th, 6pm at the Western New York Book Arts Collaborative (WNYBAC)- This a group show and I will have some work hanging on some comics on display for folks to read.

Wednesday July 28th, 1-5 pm at Crane Library - Comics By the Cover is an interactive comic drawing extravaganza. You bring me the book that you just checked out from the library and I will draw a comic about it based only on the cover or the first few pages. I've never done anything quite like this before and am probably fairly unprepared for it, so hilarity will most likely ensue. All comics I make during this time will be assembled into a mini-comic, which will be available for sale the following weekend. I'll also post it online as a free pdf.

Sunday August 1st, 12 pm, Broadway Market- The market will be open especially for the infringement festival and artists will be around selling there wares and doing live paintings and what have you. Not exactly clear on what this will be like as I have never been to the Broadway market, but I will have copies of the Comics by the Cover collection and hopefully a few other things as well.

Johnny Illustrations

2010-06-30T14:14:00.004-06:00

I did some illustrations for the alumni magazine at my alma mater, the greatest magnet for neurotic juveniles since the children's crusade, St. John's College. So, Johnnies watch for it.

You can also read the PDF version here.

Let the GMIWC Postal Constituent help you help yourself.

2010-06-28T14:59:00.004-06:00

Issue 8 of the Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent is here. It is a lovely screen printed fold out poster that will scare you into straightening out your life. Stories about W.B. Yeats, Tycho Brahe and more.

Lincoln vs. The Children

2010-06-25T16:07:00.002-06:00

So Finally a new comic. They say this actually happened, Lincoln composed the poem on the spot. I wish I were Rosa Haggard. Pretty good advice if you ask me. I've been feeling sort of crotchety today so it seems fitting.

I am also hard at work on the next installment of the postal constituent so hold tight and I promise I will have it in the mail before June is out.

GMIWC Postal Constituent Issue 7!

2010-05-15T10:58:00.005-06:00

Issue Seven is here! It is a screen printed accordian style comic and tells the story of Colmcille, An Irish saint who copied a book of psalms from another monk's library, inciting a war that killed three thousand men.

Each book is taking me a long time to make as I have to hinge and fold them individually. If you have not yet subscribed now is the time. If I have any of these left after May, I will be selling them for more than three dollars.

There are some reviews of my work up at the Daily Crosshatch here and The Comics Journal here. Go check them out.

The first one talks mostly about the Postal Constituent, while the second one focuses on the longer form books and is a little bit more critical. But criticism is good. I was feeling kind of uneasy because things seemed to be going so smoothly. Some one was bound to comment on my complete disregard for rulers and pencils at some point. Of course I am all too impatient for such things. The good news is that his most critical comments are about the oldest work. This makes sense, my drawing style is a new born babe which has only recently evolved.

The TCJ review is titled Mortimer Adler's dream (!!!). While I am not sure if old Morty would really like me that much this really warmed my heart.

GMIWC presents Zeno Takes a Walk

2010-05-05T14:59:00.002-06:00

So I made this video! It flickers like mad and Zeno walks pretty strangely, but I love him anyway.

The music is The Wreck of Old Southern 97 by Ernest Thompson courtesy of archive.org

It is a beautiful day outside and I have been in my kitchen all day making this with the curtains drawn. There is ink all over my kitchen.

Gutenberg vs. My Sanity

2010-04-25T09:39:00.002-06:00

So I read somewhere that no one actually knows what Gutenberg looks like. He was largely underappreciated until he was about to die, so no one ever drew his portrait. Yet, every rendering of him on the internet shows him with this two-pronged beard, because one fellow, four or five hundred years ago drew him this way in a history book. I wish I had that kind of power.

In preparation for a new project

2010-04-23T08:03:00.001-06:00

It involves saints and betrayal and copyright. Should be interesting. More to come soon!

April 2010 Postal Constituent

2010-04-19T17:09:00.004-06:00

The Great Moments in Western Civilization Postal Constituent's April Issue is finally here! It's a triptych of three color screen prints documenting some very notable duels. This issue is taking me a little longer to make, but it should be well worth the wait. I will be mailing them out by the end of the week.

MoCCA 2010,

2010-04-12T22:26:00.008-06:00

Just got back from New York. MoCCA was lovely. I almost made back the cost of my table and I met a ton of great people. I tabled next to Zack Braun and the Trees and Hills comics group. Both parties were incredibly nice, shared their easter candy and have some great work you should check out. A fellow named Ken Wong had an amazing Schrodinger's cat comic in the form of a fortune teller. By the time he found me I had already sold out of my Schrodinger comic, but I'm going to send him one in the next few days. Any festival that has room for two Schrodinger comics is awesome in my book. I also met some folks who would have been my classmates at The Center for Cartoon Studies. (I would have started there last fall but was offered a Scholarship at UB at the last minute.) Nomi Kane, Beth Hetland and Paul Swartz all had great work. I met a ton of other people and traded lots. I came back with a huge stack of comics so I will try to post some more pictures and links in the next few days.

If you are just checking out my work for the first time you should become a fan on facebook here. I use the fans page to notify people when new comics are up.

Finally here are some bad pictures of the gussied up version of the Alphabet of Reasoned Failure I made last week for the first year MFA show here at UB, which opens THURSDAY.

The end papers are my favorite.

Heraclitus vs. Plato

2010-03-30T17:57:00.003-06:00

The Buffalo Small Press Book Fair was a huge success for me. I sold tons of comics and met some great people. Including two talented comic creators Salvatore Sciandra and Jason Viola. You should go check out their work.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table and to all the new subscribers.

I am in the middle of frantically trying to reprint comics, write a presentation, prepare for the UB first year MFA show and exist. So hopefully that all pans out okay. I spent the afternoon driving from store to store trying to find cardstock in a particular shade of red that they don't seem to sell in large quantities. After like six stores I ended up buying 250 sheets of a color I can't even use. I am too picky for my own good. Alas.

March Postal Constituent!

2010-03-15T20:41:00.002-06:00

The March issue of the Great Moments in Western Civ Postal Constituent is finished! 12 lovely pages about Erwin Schrodinger's scandalous love life for you to gawk at. Subscribers should be getting these in the mail shortly, once I find some suitable envelopes to mail them in.

If you would like to subscribe please visit: http://www.caitlincass.com/subscribe.html.

I will also be selling these at the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair in a few weeks.

And I will be at MOCCA in April, but by then the April issue should be out and this will be old news.

Bear vs. Bear!

2010-03-10T16:51:00.001-07:00

The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure

2010-03-03T08:44:00.004-07:00

A group of UK based artists have set up a blog dedicated to the Magnetic Fields album 69 Love Songs. Artists from all over the place are illustrating each of the songs. You should go check out my contribution:

To read the rest click on the above image or visit:

http://howfuckingromantic.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/the-death-of-ferdinand-de-saussure/

Some art I've been making

2010-02-27T19:33:00.007-07:00

The Uncertainty Principle
9 x 9

I have yet to title this one.
5 x7

In Search of Lost Time
12 x 9

Quoth the Raven

2010-02-16T13:32:00.005-07:00

I made this comic to mike's specifications, to prove that my comics are not "High-brow". But I don't think it really worked.

Dutchmen Love their Tulips

2010-01-31T17:29:00.006-07:00

Tulips are my favorite flower, so I can relate.

In other news Issue 4 is ready for the Postal Constituent. AND February does not even start until tomorrow. I am so punctual.

It includes three screen printed book marks and a mini-comic. I will be mailing these out to subscribers in the next few days. If you have not yet subscribed you can do so right here.

J.D. Salinger

2010-01-28T18:48:00.002-07:00

Kinda freaked out that I made this comic ten days before the man died, but I am totally excited to read all those unpublished manuscripts.

the Advent of Agriculture

2010-01-24T20:29:00.004-07:00

The dawn of civilization according to Patrick McGovern.

In other news Not So Great Moments in Western Civ is now on sale at Amazon.com

The World According to J.D. Salinger

2010-01-17T20:04:00.003-07:00

Sometimes I wish the Glass children were real.

Everything seemed okay afterwards

2010-01-12T10:53:00.002-07:00

Back in Buffalo. Just sent out the January Postal Constituent yesterday, so you should be getting it soon. My coffee pot is broken, anyone have one they can give me?

Phosphenes

2010-01-06T15:24:00.005-07:00

So I made my third twenty-four hour comic on Monday. It is all about the patterns that appear when you close your eyes and put pressure on them. I printed the whole thing on off-white paper and it looks oh so pretty. I just need to staple and trim the edges.

Although not labeled with an issue number, this comic will be the extra special January edition of the Great Moments in Western Civ Postal Constituent.

Here's a little preview of the first eight pages (click to enlarge):

24 hour comic

2010-01-02T16:04:00.002-07:00

I'm planning to do a 24 hour comic on Monday. Just posting here so I can't back out. I'm thinking about working from midnight-midnight this time, which I have not done before. In the past I've gone from noon to noon, but I think midnight to midnight might be better, because it is brutal to see the sunrise so late in the game.

My LIfe After Hegel

2009-12-23T13:35:00.003-07:00

Click to enlarge.

So this is pretty much my life. I am soooo indecisive, and I'm pretty sure it is all Hegel's fault. I have actually had several dreams where in I am both sleeping and not sleeping because I am caught up in contemplating Hegelian Dialectic. I'm serious.

Today is my Birthday and as an unfortunate consequence I have to make like seven million decisions. What do I want for breakfast? Where do I want to go this afternoon? What do I want to drink? Sigh.

Last night I read What It Is for the first time and it made me so happy. I over think everything and that book just made me slow down for a second. I adore Lynda Barry.

Holiday mailing!

2009-12-17T11:18:00.004-07:00

I just sent out a holiday bonus issue to the Great Moments in Western Civ Postal Constituent. It is a short eight page mini-comic and it is in full color. If you are a member it should be arriving in your mailbox in a few days. If you are not a member you can subscribe here.

In other news, I am writing a paper the connects comics with Kant, Zizek and the Hegelian Dialectic. I know it sounds kind of ridiculous, but I think it could be great if I do it right. It's all about moving across the void (i.e. the comic gutter) and seeing yourself in the other (i.e. the symbolic character). Basically it should be two hundred pages and I am going to attempt to write it in 16-20. Sigh.

Various Things

2009-12-13T09:51:00.002-07:00

My Wee Pees comic is now up over at the Reality Institute. You have probably already seen it, but you should check out the site anyway. Mike just put a bunch of new things up, including some very entertaining takes on the graduate school personal statement.

I've been writing a Freudian analysis of Harold and the Purple Crayon for my intro to critical theory class. Which has been pretty entertaining for the most part, but for some reason every time I write two sentences I feel entitled to a two hour internet break. Which has to stop because I really need to turn it in tomorrow.

ZIzek vs Christmas!

2009-12-08T12:47:00.003-07:00

This is easily the most obscure comic I have ever made and that's saying something. So I am deeply sorry. I wasn't going to post it, but then it is holiday related so I figured what the hell. It is for a presentation I am doing on Slavoj Zizek's Tarrying with the Negative. Zizek uses It's a Wonderful Life to explain what it's like to reflect on the self. The argument is that in self reflection your view of yourself is that of an object. In reflecting on yourself you cease to exsist as a subject. In a way you cease to exists. Just like George Bailey here.

Ayn Rand and Ayn Rand

2009-11-30T10:51:00.001-07:00

I just got back from Chicago and have like seven million things to do in the next two weeks. But instead of doing them this morning I made this comic.

Did I mention...

2009-11-23T23:56:00.003-07:00

...that you get your very own membership card when you subscribe to the postal constituent.

Subscribe to The Great Moments In Western Civ Postal Constituent

2009-11-22T20:26:00.003-07:00

I just finished screen printing the first issue of the Great Moments In Western Civilization's Postal Constituent. It is a short little comic about Peter Roget. If I say much more I'll give it away, but for an eight page comic there is a lot of blood. You can subscribe at this lovely new page I just put together and then you can have one of these little books for your very own. Plus! There will be more to come. A comic every month. And I will do my best to print as many of them as I can by hand and not by photocopier.

Wee Peas

2009-11-12T22:52:00.004-07:00

What follows, is the finished version of the Gregor Mendel comic, that I made for a print exchange book project at UB. I posted a less finished version a while back, but I wanted to make sure to post all the nice patterns, they took me so long to lithograph and all.

so sick

2009-11-08T10:51:00.002-07:00

This is how I spent most of the last several days. On the bathroom floor. It was most unpleasant. Complete with a trip to the emergency room. But I am finally feeling a little better, because of the drugs they gave me. I have a bunch of projects that had to be postponed and I am being stressed out about that. But they told me not to go to work or school until at least Monday, so I am taking yet another day off.

But I have a comic about Roget, the creator of the thesaurus all ready to be screen printed. I am thinking about making it the first installment of a comic of the month club I am going to start. For a very small fee you could have a comic in some form delivered to your door every month. I think this will be a good way to encourage myself to make a lot of comics. But I will post more on this later, when I have the Roget comic printed.

Book!

2009-11-03T11:14:00.003-07:00

I just made the last few changes. Not So Great Moments in Western Civilization: An Alphabet of Reasoned Failure is finished! I should probably start making my titles shorter, but anyway It turned out pretty nicely. I would have preferred a non glossy cover, but other than that it looks great. You click on the image above if you would like to read more about it/ purchase it.

Comics!

2009-10-25T20:59:00.005-06:00

I finished and scanned the whole alphabet. Now I just have to edit and lay it out. T is one of my favorites.

I pretty much spent the whole weekend working on this. When I wasn't working on this I was reading Jeff Brown and Alec Longstreth comics. I actually worked a little in my studio this afternoon, which is kind of amazing, because usually I can't concentrate in there. But my back was killing me from drawing hunched over for so long and it was nice to actually sit at a drafting table, even if the drafting table in there is wobbly and has exacto marks all over it.

An alphabet of Reasoned Failure

2009-10-23T23:44:00.003-06:00

This panel is from a new project: Not So Great Moments in Western Civilization: an Alphabet of Reasoned Failure. Pretty excited about it.

Aaron is out of town so the plan was to make this comic all weekend. What I really want to do is work nonstop on it and have a totally finished 28 page minicomic of it by Monday. But that probably won't happen.

Such is life.

Turtles all the way Through

2009-10-20T22:21:00.004-06:00

This comic is based on a anecdote physicists tell each other. Apparently it really happened but no one really knows whose lecture it happened at. Nowadays they use the phrase "turtles all the way down" to refer to any circular argument that avoids a cause by explaining the cause with itself.

This, among other things, was the topic of conversation tonight at the Art & Science Cabaret, which was a lot of fun. Basically a particle physicist, a cosmologist, and a biologist got up in front of us and explained current scientific theories and then let us ask them questions. I love that this event occurred. I love even more that it happened in 2009 and that there were a lot of people there. I wish I had been born 13o years ago so that I could make elaborate ground breaking scientific discoveries in my parlor. They used to have these elaborate shows of "scientific wonders" where people could display their optical devices for the public. If only.

Fall

2009-10-19T23:35:00.002-06:00

I'll try to get a comic up in the next couple days. I've been playing around a lot with color lately, here is a recent experiment.

Thomson Loves Newton

2009-10-13T10:13:00.003-06:00

You should google this poem if you have not read it. Hysterical.

Flaubert vs. My Hopes and Dreams

2009-10-11T16:28:00.003-06:00

Drawn with Micron, Colored in Photoshop

Freud vs Innocence

2009-10-10T19:12:00.003-06:00

This was the first time I ever drew a penis. Serious.

I'm planning on making Great Moments more regular. Like at least one a week. We will see how successful I am.

Gregor Mendel

2009-10-04T17:59:00.004-06:00

I am all moved in now. I am living in Buffalo and working toward my MFA at UB. It is a nice brisk city to live in and I've been making pumpkin soup and sipping on cider for the last few weeks. But mostly I've been at school breaking in my new studio. Click on the image above to see a comic I've been working on about Gregor Mendel. I made it for a group book project in my printmaking class. The theme was hybridity. The final version has some nice lithographed patterns in it as well, but my camera is broken so this web version will have to suffice for now.

Marin Headlands

2009-07-19T17:42:00.003-06:00

I have been living and working at day camp in the Marin Headlands, just a quick six dollar jaunt across the bay to San Francisco. I have an extremely sporadic Internet connection and no scanner, which explains my lack of posts. But here, finally, are a few drawings from the last few months.

Nietzsche vs. Everything You Hold Dear

2009-03-05T00:21:00.001-07:00

Aristotle vs Socrates

2009-03-04T22:19:00.003-07:00

This is a remake of the first Great Moments In Western Civ that I ever did. It is also a lot better looking than the original which I'm not going to post because it is embarrassing.

Lots of things have happened since my last post. I got into the Center for Cartoon Studies and will most likely start there this fall (if I can figure out how to pay for it). I finished and turned in my senior thesis. It's called: In the Chiaroscuro of the Atelier: the Artist's Dialectic in Flaubert's Madame Bovary and I am mostly pleased with it. Unfortunately my oral exam on it is not scheduled until the end of April so I have lots of time to become unfamiliar with the paper and the book.

Spring Break is fastly approaching and I will be going on a roadtrip from here to San Francisco. We will be camping up the west coast and then I will fly out of San Francisco for Vermont. I will be visiting CCS and Mary and then I may pass through Chicago on my way back to Santa Fe or I might go to Florida for a few days with my family. It is all absurdly over complicated. I am looking forward to it any way.

Hydra on Fabric

2008-12-14T17:39:00.003-07:00

I've been working with fabric a lot as of late. I love sewing lines. It is so very relaxing to sew and watch the snow. It's supposed to snow here in Santa Fe all week and then I leave for Chicago on Friday. It all sounds so pleasant, if only I didn't have a lab paper to write.

Flaubert's Foot Fetish

2008-12-10T08:35:00.004-07:00

Scientific

2008-11-19T22:31:00.005-07:00

Anthropometry on the Wall
Spray paint, Acrylic, Ink and a picture frame on board
28'' x 28''

Embryology
Screen Monotype, Ink, String on Matboard
15 x 20

I've been using a lot of scientific illustrations in my art lately. I guess that's what all these years as a St. John's Lab assistant will do to you. Sorry the first one's so blurry. I need to procure a better camera.

24 hour comic

2008-10-21T19:16:00.003-06:00

So I did twenty four hour comic day again this year. You can see the results by clicking page 15 below.

i have to write an einstein paper. boooo.

2008-10-08T22:27:00.003-06:00

I drew this comic in the Summer of 2007 while interning at 826 Chicago. Michael was a volunteer for the High School creative writing program. We were doing an interview project during class and he ended up being my partner. He essentially told me to drop out of St. John's because "it wasn't a good background for ANY career." Which explains my hostility.

descartes shmecartes

2008-09-24T17:16:00.003-06:00

Galleria Galleria

2008-09-22T23:38:00.004-06:00

The gallery is finally up on my website. You can see many lovely pictures and comics, but not this one:
That's just how I roll.

Sum of the Parts

2008-08-22T15:04:00.004-06:00

My new comic is complete. I'm selling them for three dollars a piece but I am also willing to barter. I will happily accept your comics, baked goods, or alcoholic beverages. Email or tell me if you're interested, even if you're down on your luck we can make it work.

Each copy comes with a screen printed line and square on the cover. I have sewn the bindings by hand for longevity (and because I do not have a big enough stapler.)

It's business time

2008-07-31T22:32:00.006-06:00

This is my business card that should be coming in the mail soon. Pretty exciting. I'm going to cut off the image and use it on the cover of my Center for Cartoon Studies application comic. Which I am almost done with. I just have to finish editing it and then print, xerox, collate, and finish the cover. The application comic has to include you, a snowman, a robot and a piece of fruit. Here's a preview of the first four pages (click to enlarge):

coffee and lemon yogurt

2008-07-11T07:52:00.005-06:00

monotype/ collograph

I've been waking up earlier than usual lately so that I can have these sit down breakfasts. I make coffee and eat my yogurt and feel old. It's strange that I associate eating breakfast with age. But I think it has something to do with the regularity of it and the fact that I'm living in a house that isn't my parents and the fact that there is no one else here. Jay is always asleep. I feel like I'm forty and single.

I enjoy the solitude of it. I love clinging to my hot coffee like Frannie and pouring over War and Peace, or just thinking. I like being alone. Mark Rothko said that solitude is the only way for us to make revelations in our lives. It is only inside our heads that we can change and alter our perspectives. I thrive on those moments. I love existing for an hour or a day entirely inside my head. People are fine too, but the summers always remind me of the importance of solitude

And

2008-06-25T16:02:00.006-06:00

I made this nice book the other day. It only cost me five dollars. It's the best thing I've made in a while.

I've been alone in this house a bit too long

2008-06-25T15:20:00.006-06:00

There's something about this chair. It tears into me. It shows up in the most random places. It prevents me from expressing an opinion without a touch of irony. It has forced words into constant self-awareness and has made them all too arrogant.

And so I've resorted to a silent medium. A medium that presents itself without opinion. A medium that allows me to escape my own relentless judgment.

Most days I feel like this.

Trace Monotype 9 x 16

Back from Europe

2008-06-24T15:52:00.007-06:00

With lots of drawings. I am too lazy to set up my breaking scanner, so I have photographed a couple of the drawings instead. Which never looks as good, but such is life.
I became obsessed with tv antennas as soon as we arrived in Nice, they are so lovely atop those old buildings. There is something so aesthetically pleasing about them. I can't really pinpoint it but I think it has to do with the 20s. Which is weird because I don't think tv antennas existed then. I did this drawing from the window of our hostel in Firenze (the e got cut off in the photograph.)

This drawing is of one of the coolest old ladies I've ever seen. Its too bad I only saw her from the front for a few seconds. She was walking along the coast in the Cinque Terre.

Here's Aaron reading in Rome.
And steve and carols kitchen in Cetona. I actually did a print of this one at my internship:
This is a solar plate etching. Which is probably one of my favorite techniques. I have a bunch more prints that I will try to post over the next few days. My internship has been stressful but extremely rewarding. I've learned an amazing amount of information of the last few days. But I am happy to finally have a few days off.

I'm doing things

2008-04-26T22:18:00.002-06:00

See! I'm so productive. This is a painting of the house I am going to stay with Aaron in Cetona, Italy this June. The house belongs to my dad's business partner and his wife. My Dad commissioned me to paint it for them as a gift. My parents stayed there for several days last month.

Painting this house has made me excited about our trip. I have big plans to gorge myself on pasta and baguettes for 18 days straight. And draw. I am going to draw a billion Mediterranean buildings and Mediterranean old people. Itinerary is: Nice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Cetona, Rome. We leave in about a month.

I have one paper left to write before the semester ends. That will be painful, but I'm just going to ignore it until next weekend and continue to sit here on the Internet listening to the mountain goats and planning art projects.

brooding

2008-04-26T18:31:00.005-06:00

I hate it when roomates invite a million people over who take up the whole kitchen so that I can't make pasta. booo.

Here's a comic. It's a little blurry, but if you click on it all will come clear.

sometimes I drop off the face of the earth

2008-04-24T11:12:00.006-06:00

But don't worry I still make pictures, I just don't post them... until now.

I've been really into huge loose ink drawings as of late. These two are my most recent. The orchid is part of my final project for drawing II at the community college. I'm spray painting patterns onto Masonite and then drawing over them in ink. I did the oil pastel at a Palette & Chisel open studio back in January. It won best in show at the St. John's student art show in February. And the charcoal with the teapot is from the fall.

It'd be nice If I posted more often. bah. I've got a new comic as well, but it didn't fit in this post. Hopefully I'll remember to post it later.

delayed

2008-01-17T17:58:00.001-07:00

My website is up and running. I still haven't finished the gallery, but I thought I'd mention it anyway as I am at the airport and my flight is delayed three hours. It always happens when you're already in a bad mood... Anyway the website is www.greatmomentsinwesternciv.com or www.caitlincass.com whichever you prefer.

Obsessing.

2008-01-02T16:31:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I get obsessed with something to the point where I apply for three internships I really want and then get them all and then have to chose which one to pick. I know the answer but it sort of hurts to decide anyway. So I'm just going to ignore it until it goes away. Here are two pages I don't abhor from the 24-hour comic I did last October.

things

2007-12-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

Lovely things have happened in my absence. I'm on break and I got my first paying illustration job. I also received gifts and turned 21. Alcohol kinda sucks now. It depresses me. But It would probably help if I stopped drinking with my parents and started going out to oak park. But Oak Park is getting farther away as I become increasingly lazy. Besides I don't like riding the el alone really late at night or staying the night awkwardly at friends houses. I spend most of my time sitting alone in my house eating. I did work at 826 a couple of times this week, but all that amounted to was a visit to myoptic and quimby's, and now I pretty much just sit around eating and reading comics. Here are some images for your viewing pleasure.

My holiday thank you note. Please note my gifts. I got like fifty scarves and long johns. And some rather exciting bookends.

This was for a children's author that flaked out on me.

And finally a comic that I'm pretty sure doesn't make sense.

Ron Paul fighting off Zombies with the U.S. constituition

2007-10-27T17:56:00.001-06:00

to accompany Mr. Ruskey's article in the Moon...

sigh

2007-09-24T11:36:00.000-06:00

Sketchbook Extravaganza!

2007-08-17T23:05:00.000-06:00

As promised. They are in blog order (newest to oldest.) None of these have been edited or cleaned up yet, all are as I orginally drew them... without pencil. I don't know what compelled me to scan this much of the sketchbook. I am supposed to be packing. I leave for San Jose tomorrow. Aaron and I will be driving down to L.A. on tuesday, then Flagstaff on Wednesday and we should be getting to Santa Fe by Thursday. I'm now on pg 212 of Don Quixote and it doesn't look like I'll be picking up speed until we get to the desert.

Here are the last three pages in their proper order:

Oh dear...

2007-08-15T01:10:00.000-06:00

It's pretty much been way too long since my last post, i.e. all summer. But. That's because I learned to actually draw in a sketch book to the point where I only have two pages left. This will be the first sketch book I ever finish in the history of my life. I do not have the patience for such things. I buy new sketch books. I like new things. I guess it helped that this sketchbook was 7 inches tall and four inches wide, but hey I'm still proud. When i finish I'll make sure to post a monster sketchbook extravaganza. For now I leave you with a Great Moments inspired by my inability to read Don Quixote desipite the fact that I enjoy it. Page count is currently 123 out of 1170. I have like two weeks left.

It's been a while.

2007-06-03T21:42:00.000-06:00

and I have drawn a lot of pictures...

This was the official 2007 reality t-shirt. Dante's Divine Comedy was the theme but I opted to draw just the inferno.

Playing with LiveTrace

2007-04-20T11:22:00.000-06:00

A traced Baboon.
A baboon.

Rick is 50!

2007-03-19T19:23:00.000-06:00

The front of the invitation I made for my dad's 50th birthday bar crawl.

Illustration Friday- Gravity

2007-02-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

Defying Gravity. This was inspired by one of my favorite illustrators, William Pene DuBois. So, I thought I'd give credit where credit is due and post one of his illustrations as well. Here's a picture from his book The Twenty-One Balloons: