Zettwoch's Suitcase

Summer Scribbles N Strips

2008-07-16T22:52:00.006-05:00

Our pal Leon Beyond has been up to a lot this summer; here are a couple of recent strips. And so you don't feel ripped off, included are some DVD special features.
Here's the thumbnail I was working from:This is the sort of reference materials I gather:For this strip:We had just gotten back from Raging Rivers Waterpark and I was watching extreme waterslide videos on youtube like this one:

Which led me to read about the ill-fated loop-de-loop slide at Action Park:
then do this thumbnail:
etc! Here is a bonus pin-up drawing of Leon and a one-page review of the best show I've seen this summer, Torche in Louisville last month.

New Print! Mike "Moon Man" Shannon

2008-07-13T08:29:00.006-05:00

Following last year's Lou Thesz poster, I've finally got back around to my series of screenprints celebrating beloved St. Louis folk icons. This one depicts hometown South City boy turned outfielder turned 3rd baseman turned Voice of the Cardinals Mike Shannon.
He ostensibly earned the nickname "Moon Man" because of his long-ball homeruns; I heard he once apologized to owner Gussie Busch for breaking some of the outfield lights at old Sportsman's Park, (historical footnote: Shannon hit both the last homerun there, and the first at the new Busch Stadium in 1966) who replied "You keep breakin' them and I'll keep replacing them." When he was forced to put down the bat and pick up the microphone, his nickname has come to represent his broadcasting voice, equal parts sage baseball knowledge, an off-kilter cosmic logic, and hillbilly vernacular. This post from the sadly defunct Redbird Nation I think does a good job of explaining the appeal of the Moon Man, and of why I love baseball in general.
Here's a sketch of sorta how I wanted the poster to look, a portrait of Mike with microphone and a cold frosty one...

...surrounded by a bunch of classic "Shannonisms", which I copied down from a few different online archives, and a couple I wrote down right as he said them on-air while I was working on the sketches.
Here's the ink drawing. Note that the two big quotes in the moon itself are Shannon's two trademark phrases, "Get up Baby, GET UP!" being his home-run call, and "Ol' Abner's has done it again!" being his dedication to the "inventor of baseball" when the meat of the batting lineup is due up in the 9th inning of a close game.
And here's the final digital art, in 3 colors. Get a load of that fancy used-car salesman plaid sportsjacket pattern I did the separations for!
I did two print-runs, one of 75 handpulled prints with white, blue and red ink on 18x24" double-ply brown chipboard (the picture at the top of this post), and another of 25 on thicker greyer chipboard. I'll be selling these around town and in person (maybe at the gift shop at Mike Shannon's Steak and Seafood), but if you'd be interested one in the meantime let me know. I think I'm selling the two editions for $35 and $50 apiece, respectively.
Let's go you Redbirds!

CONSCIOUSNESS

2008-07-09T12:34:00.003-05:00

STREAMING doodle I did the other night in REALTIME. I'm also available to draw designs for your new tattoo, skateboard deck, or side of your 70's conversion van.

2008-06-27T13:47:00.003-05:00

Sketchbook drawin' I did while fishing last week in Louisville with my Dad and Grandpa. We caught a huge drum (32" or so) on doughball, some channel cats and a baby smallmouth buffalo on red worms. It was a good day of fishin'. That is the Belle of Louisville cruising by.

Summer Love

2008-06-10T16:44:00.003-05:00

Here's an illustration I drew last week. Yeah, I know Bonnie & Clyde didn't ever rob any trains, but I guess they do on the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. I feel like I lost something from the sketch on this one.

St. Louis Landmarks

2008-05-21T08:05:00.006-05:00

Two things in the Riverfront Times this week. A new Amazing Facts & Beyond strip (above) about St. Louis' historic standpipe watertowers (more information on these wondrous anachronisms at Built St. Louis)...
... and an illustration for the Summer Guide, in which summer activities were grouped according to the four classical elements. I did a sort of old-fashioned alchemy chart (below).
I relish any opportunity I get to include Farmer Fred and his son Clyde (from my local grocery, the Sappington Farmer's Market) in an illustration.

Foods on T-Shirts

2008-05-15T06:58:00.003-05:00

Grilled Cheese (on sale today at shirt.woot.com):
The Ballpark Franks (worn by our softball team on Friday Nights).:

Original St. Louis Style Comics

2008-05-14T11:02:00.005-05:00

above: strip taken from Little Sammy McSkinker, an STL-centric strip written and drawn by the USS Catastrophe Gang and published in the Riverfront Times, Sept. 2003
There's an opening for a big cartoon art show this Friday, May 16th! The show is called "See You in the Funny Papers: The Rich Tradition of St. Louis Cartooning" and will have original art from lots of local comics luminaries, past and present. It should be a cool show, and if seeing an original Beetle Bailey strip or Hirschfield caricature or Ted May Heracles Fart Joke comic doesn't get you going, then there will probably be fancy hors d'oeuvres and wine. And you're nuts.
I'm not gonna give away a sneak-peek of the page I'm showing, but here are some tantalizing tips: "Abe Lincoln, Cutaway, Pro-Wrestling, Logs". You'll have to check out the Gallery at the Sheldon Concert Hall to get your mind blown.
above: drawing taken from Ted May's It Lives #1, pizza box taken from local pizza chain website

Munny Show at Star Clipper

2008-04-17T10:33:00.004-05:00

My lovely fianceé Jenny and I painted a couple of these Munny dolls that all the kids are talking about for a little art show at our favorite store Star Clipper. Basically you buy a little blank vinyl monkey-looking dude who looks like this...
Then you come up with a stupid idea, like this...
...then you paint it, apply some gross doll hair with gorilla glue, get some leftover silver spray paint from the last model rocket you built, add a bulging eyeball (of course), etc., and you come up with something like this:
Or in Jenny's case, this:
If you can't tell, we each turned our dolls into little self-portraits. The theme of the show is "The Future", and due to the fact that Star Clipper is celebrating its 20 year anniversary, we painted ourselves how we think we'll look like 20 years from now. I will have a cyborg arm resulting from years of drawing-related carpal tunnel syndrome, and a bird living in my hair, Jenny will be wearing embroidered vests and will still be frying me two sunny-side-up eggs.
Anyway, if you're around, you should come to the opening tomorrow night (Friday, April 18th) to see a whole bunch of these stupid things in person, drink beer, etc. It's at the Star Clipper gallery on Delmar, on the University City loop, a few storefronts down from the Tivoli. I think it starts at 7. See you there?!
love,
Dan & Jenny

Ghostly White-Out

2008-04-14T17:04:00.003-05:00

From wikipedia: The doppelgängers of folklore cast no shadow, and have no reflection in a mirror or in water. They are supposed to provide advice to the person they shadow, but this advice can be misleading or malicious. They can also, in rare instances, plant ideas in their victim's mind or appear before friends and relatives, causing confusion. In many cases once someone has viewed their own doppelgänger they are doomed to be haunted by images of their ghostly counterpart.

From the Dead Horse's Mouth

2008-04-08T23:32:00.006-05:00

I drew this strip tonight while eating hamburgers and watching Big Brother. It's based on quotes overheard by my friend Amy (one of my favorite people in the world) at her place of work. She says to imagine these sayings spoken with a southern drawl and with full confidence that they are being used wisely and correctly. Thanks Amy! Hopefully there'll be more to come. (Hamburgers and Big Brother I mean).

Off-Kilter Comics Art show in Minneapolis

2008-04-03T01:12:00.003-05:00

If you live anywhere near the twin cities, or will be there this weekend, you should drop by the Minneapolis College of Art & Design to see an art show I'm involved in. There will be a bunch of stuff by great artists like Ivan Brunetti, John Hankiewicz, Zak Sally, Onsmith, Lille Carre, and uh, me. Here's the neat postcard Onsmith drew:
Some of the stuff I'll have hanging are original pages from comics I've drawn for Kramers Ergot, the Drawn & Quarterly Showcase, Arthur magazine, etc. If that sounds like the same old jive, there'll also be the cover to my long-awaited new comic, Redbird #1! If you don't fancy boring ol' black india ink and white white-out, there'll be this strip which features COLORED PENCIL at least:
Anyway, it should be a cool show. What have you got to lose?!

Gross Anatomy

2008-03-20T13:50:00.004-05:00

Some brain-heavy illo's I found laying around my desktop. Here's one I did recently about Mensa.
Part of an illo I did for the Post about the mechanics of improv comedy:
This week's Amazing Facts & Beyond:Part of an XPLANATiON I did a few years ago for Men's Health Magazine, about what adrenaline does to your body:A self-portrait / How-to make comics diagram:An old 3-D "cutaway" I did for a show of Elvis busts:
And finally this sketchbook doodle of my lovely girlfriend - I mean Fiancée! - Jenny:

The Humongoussons in 3-D

2008-02-27T15:15:00.003-06:00

Hey kids! While your mom is shopping for groceries, head over to the magazine aisle. After you're done sneaking peeks at those car/motorcycle magazines with babes in bikinis on the cover, check out this month's Nickelodeon magazine. (There is a creepy looking rat-dude from The Spiderwick Chronicles on the cover). Inside I've got a one-page comic strip about a family that lives in a gigantic monster truck. The magazine comes with a set of official 3-D glasses that will allow you to see my comic in all three dimensions. I basically just did a 2-color comic strip (seen above: BOOOO-RRRRING) ... then legendary 3DFX master Ray Zone made my drawings (not to mention my word balloons) literally pop off the page! Here's a small section:
There are lots of other cool 3D comics in the magazine too, as well as a sweet ad in which Fruity Pebbles fly out at you. Check it out!

New Catastrophe Comic Strip & Blog

2008-02-18T22:56:00.005-06:00

Hey Friends! In case you didn't know, some pals of mine -- Kevin H. and Ted May -- and I have started a comic strip that appears 3 weeks out of every month in the Riverfront Times. It's sort of like a "Ripley's Believe or Not" style strip chock-full of fun facts relevant to our readers. The hero / narrator of the strip is a walking treasure trove of information named Leon Beyond, whose first name (and basic look 'n feel) we lifted from the character of Leon from the great 1980 Disney movie Midnight Madness.
If you don't live in St. Louis, we're posting our strips in a timely fashion up on a new blog here. Bookmark your hearts out. To save you a click (dont' get used to it!), here's this week's strip:
love,
USS CATASTROPHE

Fred G. Sanford & The Giving Tree

2008-02-11T09:24:00.001-06:00

"It's the Big One, Elizabeth! I'm comin' to see ya!" Acrylic, White-Out, & Ink on Board, 18" x 14"
"And the Tree Was Happy", Acrylic, White-Out, & Ink on Board, 18" x 14"
From this year's Famous Fictional show catalog:
Sanford and Son and The Giving Tree are moving works of art that I have enjoyed since I was a kid. I thought the junkyard and forest settings -- and the dominant personalities of Fred and the tree -- would make for interesting juxtapositions across the two paintings. I don't know if that happened, but I did have the Sanford & Son theme song running through my head the entire time I was painting. Rest in Peace, Redd Fox and Shel Silverstein.

Spirit Duplicator / Comic Art #9

2008-01-22T10:50:00.000-06:00

Todd and Alvin, the good fellows over at Comic Art, were kind enough to lend me 5 pages in the latest issue of their wonderful magazine, to draw a weird comic strip on. If you wanna read it, keep your eyes peeled for this awesome cover on the newstand: My strips are interspersed throughout the book, and take place over the course of 50 years or so. Each page includes a church bulletin comic, drawn by my (fictional) uncle Darryl Zettwoch, culled from a lifetime Sundays archive of graphic experimentation and corny Episcopalian jokes.
Each bulletin presented was ostensibly printed using a different piece of antiquated technology, everything from a mimeograph machine to a "ditto-maker" (aka the Spirit Duplicator) to a modern inkjet printer. Lots more info on these great devices at the Museum of Office Machines.
Hopefully along with the evolution in printing technology you can kinda trace an abridged history of my uncle and his church. Here are the first couple of pages:

Commissioner Gordon

2008-01-15T16:47:00.000-06:00

Here's a commission I drew recently. Ink and colored pencil on bristol, 8" x 10". It features the old Batmobile which I think is still the best Batmobile.
Incidentally, if anybody out there ever wondered what he or she (or their cute pet!) would look like in a hot rod with their eyeball popping out -- and would like me to draw it -- gimme a holler. It will probably take a long time and be outrageously expensive but you never know!

Famous Fictional 2 Art Opening

2008-01-03T11:23:00.000-06:00

If you're looking for something to do this Friday night (Jan. 4th) come out to the Mad Art Gallery for what should be a fun art opening. Everybody's got 2 paintings in the show -- the same size and shape (like last years show) -- but instead of a character from popular comics we all chose a character from popular television (along with literature). If you can't tell who my 2 characters are from the scribbled sketches above, here you go: I didn't get good photographs of my paintings before dropping them off at the gallery, so you'll have to show up to see 'em. Or wait until I post them later. In the meantime, here's a painting of a famous NONfictional character I know, my buddy Adam "Picklehead" Bertels. Happy Birthday, Adam!("Weird Science Adventures: PICKLEHEAD", Gouache on board, 18" x 24", 2007)

LOOKING FORWARD!

2007-12-31T18:13:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year's everybody!
(above: cover illustration for the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, coming out this week).

Trans-Siberian Orchestra vs. Kenny G. vs. Vince Neil

2007-12-07T13:17:00.000-06:00

A couple of music-themed illo's of mine published this week, all ink/gray wash/white-out on typing paper. They're pretty weird without the articles but you get the idea.

Electric Avenue

2007-11-29T15:32:00.001-06:00

Calendar illo' for the Night 'n' Day section of the Miami New-Times, advertising some kinda 80's retro-prom goofball barf-fest. Click for a larger view.

Happy Hunting

2007-11-21T08:40:00.000-06:00

Merry Thanksgiving, everyone!
(above: RFT illustration combining a variety of St. Louis area Turkey Day events)

St. Louis Film Festival '07

2007-11-12T11:41:00.001-06:00

This year's St. Louis International Film Festival is already in full-gear, and here's a bunch of components I put together for it. The big poster / program cover is seen above. Below are the badges, T-shirt, web-banner, silkscreened prints shown 3/4 of the way through, and my initial sketch. Go see some great movies!

Fit for Print

2007-11-05T11:11:00.001-06:00

Some recent spot illustrations for the Riverfront Times - usually for the "unreal" section.
The Backhoe Rodeo:The Pink Pistols Gay Gun-Rights Group:Muny 2007 Year-End Wrap-Up (bonus points if you can name all 7 plays):New Study: "Household Appliances Attack!":Signs of Road Rage, Before:
And After: