Funrama

Tori Amos' Comic Book Tattoo Reviewed

2008-08-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

Bust has a sparkling review
Of Tori Amos' Comic Book Tattoo. This is the massive 12-inch anthology that everyone's been talking about. I have a 15-page story with John Ney Rieber and letters by Kristyn Ferretti. I wasn't sure if my contribution was any good, But it blew my mind when I saw it at SDCC in the flesh, with that size and paper. It's a really gorgeous product all around.

"..but the creators of this compilation really won my heart when they had Ryan Kelly illustrate Winter, my absolute favorite Tori song. John Ney Rieber spins a magical-realist story that really lets Kelly do a little bit of each thing he does best—impossibly detailed architecture, closeups on people with broken hearts–and then allows him a two-page spread to change the world entirely."
-Sarah Jaffe

You can order the book on Amazon

Con Report! Hot!!

2008-07-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

Con Report:
On Friday, the night of the Eisner Awards, I was laying in my bed at the Comfort Inn, trying to decide whether to watch Citizen Kane or Karate Kid Part 2. After much clicking back and forth, I chose to watch Karate Kid.

Now, here's some examples of the many commissions I did at the san diego con---

I didn't sell this Megan drawing to anyone. You can email me and buy it if you want.

P.S. I apologize to the young woman I gave the wrong change to at my artist table. I hope you don't think I intentionally overcharged you. I forgot to pack my brain this weekend.

SDCC08: Table JJ-12 and Signing Schedule

2008-07-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

San Diego Comic-Con, July, 24-27

Here's the good news:

I'll be at Table JJ-12 in Artist Alley selling original art, my books, prints, and original art commissions,...Big, Bold and Brassy!
I'll have:

-Copies of all my books including The New York Four.
-Free Oversize postcards
-A mini booklet of random unpublished illustrations, pin-ups, etc for $1.
-Fancy Inkjet prints of Local Toronto cover art in watercolor or matte paper.
-Giclee fine art prints and inkjet prints of music pop stars.
-Original art from Local, Lucifer and various others.
-Original art commissions in Black/White/Gray or Color.

Here's the bad news:
This is my first table in a California show and I neglected to get a Seller's Permit. I'm working hard to fix that, but *if* things go very bad and people can't find me, I'll also be appearing and signing at other booths in the convention hall. see signing schedule....

Signing Schedule

Thursday
1 - 2:00pm - signing at the Image booth for Comic Book Tattoo
4 - 5:00pm - Minx Panel Room 10
5 - 6:30pm - Signing at the DC Comics/Minx booth w/ Brian Wood for The New York Four

Friday
10 - 11:00am - signing at the Image booth for Comic Book Tattoo

Saturday
3 - 4:00pm - signing at the Image booth for Comic Book Tattoo
6 - 6:50pm - signing at the Oni booth for Local

Sunday
10:30 - 11:50pm - signing at the Oni booth for Local

Possibly more times to be added and edited.

Oh, and any Msties out there? Wild horses will not keep me away from this:

Friday
7:15-8:15 p.m.: Mystery Science Theater 3000 20th Anniversary Reunion featuring Trace Beaulieu, Paul Chaplin, Frank Conniff, Bill Corbett, Joel Hodgson, Jim Mallon, Kevin Murphy, Bridget Nelson, Mike Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl and J. Elvis Weinstein in a Q&A panel hosted by self-professed “MST3K nerd” and comedian Patton Oswalt. Room 6B

Clint Eastwoodesque

2008-07-18T10:24:00.001-07:00

CEastwood.color, originally uploaded by funrama.

This is today's warm-up drawing. Is it Clint Eastwood? No one will ever know. Although I don't think every artist in the world needs an "Art Book", I might make a mini-Kinkos style "sketchbook" of random unpublished drawings to sell at SDCC for a $1. Just for fun. And i'll call it "Just For Fun".

Mazikeen

2008-07-16T05:05:00.001-07:00

Mazikeen, originally uploaded by funrama.

So who's coming to my artist table? Raise your hand! Here's a quick Mazikeen I made that I hope to sell at my San Diego Comic Con table. It's cheesy but only a fool wouldn't buy this. Besides my Artist Alley table (why does it have to be an Alley? what about an Avenue?), I should be appearing and signing at a few other booths, more on that to come.

Suspicious Minds

2008-07-12T20:39:00.001-07:00

This song pretty much describes my life at the moment. Ok, this song describes my entire life.

This is the finest cover I've ever heard. FYC completely own this song, and dare I say it's better than Elvis. It is (I'll get hate mail for that).

Oh yes, Dave Cox and David Steele (from The English Beat--The greatest band ever in the history of music, BTW) show they can dance better than Michael Jackson and James Brown combined (1:30).

This one's for Miss Vapid

The New York Four, San Diego Commissions, etc

2008-07-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

Hi I'm Ryan. Who are you? Naw, seriously....

First up, The New York Four is in stores this week, July 10! (comics on Thursday because of the holiday). This is my second Original Graphic Novel. It's my second project with Brian Wood and we worked on this alongside Local and everything else this past year. Help feed and clothe my children

I think it's good. I hope. The first 10 pages look really crunchy to me but by the final 50 pages, I think i'm really singing. My only regret is I didn't make enough "white space" for the "eye to rest", so I'm criticizing myself before anyone else gets to do it. That's what Minnesotans do.

I'm eager to read Ross Campbell's Water Baby. I think that's going to be the best of them all. Ross is one of the 3 or 4 artists I'm seriously jealous of. "Jealous" isn't the right word. I need a word to describe, "I wish I was making the art that he's making, but I'm not, Although I'm glad he's the one making the art that he's making because he's a nice guy." Ross should get more credit as a writer. his books are scripted very naturally without all the attitude and overt self-awareness. A lot of books aren't written, but toss off sarcastic one-liners. But some people do that really well. I just think writing is more than piecing scenes together. I'm getting picky about writing. Writing should be really good, right? I pretty much like 98% of all the art out there. But the writing?... hmmm, maybe 50%. But I ain't got no right to talk-- Writing is hard. Good writing is hard. Harder than the art part. I haven't written anything yet. Yet. Plus Ross Campbell has written and drawn, like, 5 big graphic novels in 4 years or something. That's a lot if you think about it.

Also, out this week is American Virgin VOL 04: Around the World. This isn't really my book, but I helped out! Helping is helpful. I drew about 50 pages in this book including the "Paris" and "India" chapters which were a lot of fun, even though I had to draw them in 2 weeks each.Buy it why not you?

I went to Wizard World and drew some pictures. Thanks to Will Dennis , Brian Azzerello and Jill Thompson for taking me to a real restaurant. San Diego ComicCon is in a few weeks. Me have artist table. I wish i was making mini comics and buttons and coin purses with cute woodland animals like everyone else but I've been too cramped for time. I'm going to be painting custom commissions and selling prints of my favorite pieces so if you want a commission, make a request and maybe I'll do it before the show. If not, I'll certainly do it at the show. For San Diego, I do $5o for Black and white and $70 for color on 9' X 12" paper, but I try to make it really good. I probably do about 5 a day. Doodles are free.

I'm inking the last little bits of The Vinyl Underground. One thing that I've noticed, talking to people and in reviews, is that the people who are reading this book, REALLY REALLY like this book. It's all because of Si Spencer and Simon Gane. I just get to do the easy job. The final Volume 2 comes out in December, and you can Order it here

I've been doing character sketches for Northlanders. A new experience for me is seeing characters of my design realized in a pretty cover by a great cover artist. This will also be my first 22 page, full art comic job for a Big-2 publisher. Hard to believe. The notion probably is that i'm this sloppy, brushy artist that can't draw but I think I'll surprise people with the art. Well, I hope. I want people to like me. Do you Like me? JK. I'll post my sketches after the cover comes out.

Wow, that sucked. I hate long posts. That will never happen again.

Here's how we get it done in Saint Paul--

Disown, Delete

2008-07-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

The New York Four chapter 4 Break

Chicago Wizard World Table #5014

2008-06-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

This Thursday through Sunday I'll be at Wizard World Chicago Comic Con at Artist Table #5014. It's been awhile since I've been at this convention. Last time I was at WW Chicago, I had about 6 pages of Local #1 drawn to show people at my artist table. But most of the responses were like, "hmm, that's interesting, but can you draw NightCrawler beating up Lee Majors with a lightsaber?". Hee :)

I feel bad that I've been too busy to make cool stuff to sell like buttons, or leather mugs or purses with cute woodland animals painted on them. BUT, I'll be selling color prints of my work as well as original art from Lucifer, Local, American Virgin, and various others. I'll also have copies of all my books and previews of The New York Four

The real reason I'm going is to paint original art commissions like this Lucifer piece (I hope to sell) I painted last night (doing color work at night without the sun helping me out is baaad). So, please come by and say hello or buy some original art.

I'm sharing the table with Christopher Schons, artist for Tokyo Pop's EarthLight. He'll be selling his Videogame-themed art prints, copies of Earthlight and custom toys. Here's a sample of his work, check out his website to see his more of his stuff...

Lilly Allen

2008-06-20T08:52:00.001-07:00

Lilly Allen, originally uploaded by funrama.

Inks and photoshop
(My 5-year-old painted the background part)

Wolverine and Rogue in Tokyo

2008-06-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

This is my Wizard World Special. I thought this was really boss when I was drawing it now I just think it looks ridiculous and dumb, which is the circumstance 90% of everything I draw falls into.

This is inspired by Uncanny X-Men #173 (Paul Smith art) when Wolverine goes to Tokyo to stalk his girlfriend Mariko, and he takes Rogue along on her first mission as an X-Men. Anyone remember? Storm went punk in this issue too. This was from the first scene where Wolverine and Rogue were beating the crap out of some 80's Yakuza dudes.

I don't gain any particular enjoyment drawing Superhero stuff. If someone actually called me to draw capes and tights I guess it would look like this. The only thing I really want to draw before I die is a Wolverine and Rogue story. This is meant to be colored but then I put too many lines in it. Maybe I'll still color it.

LOCAL The End

2008-06-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, It's all over today. Weird.

Thanks to everyone who followed the series. Taking the time to tell this story piece by piece over the past 2 years has made the overall series much stronger and the steady support for the series has made the final hardcover collection a reality.

Local #12
Today

Local Hardcover
Sept. 17

LOCAL HARDCOVER Pre-Order Now

2008-06-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

Crossposted from Brian...

"The skinny:

The Local Hardcover is:

- oversized (7.5 x 11", like the Marvel oversized hardcovers)
- heavy paper, hardcover, black taped binding (no dust jacket - see The Push Man for easy comparison)
- 384 pages!
- i believe the final 16 pages are full color, containing the original cover gallery
- 57 pages of extras
- $30
- what is gray on the cover image below will be silver

The book is available to order from comics retailers with this code: JUN08 4143

Khepri.com has it at their usual discount: http://khepricom.livejournal.com/225028.html

My personal feeling is that this book will be under-ordered and see a lot of reorder activity, and its availability will be spotty for awhile. Meaning that demand will be higher than the stock Diamond allows smaller publishers to maintain in their warehouses, and a reprint, when the first printing runs out, will take a few weeks. So I suggest everyone place pre-orders with their retailer of choice.

Thanks,"

My 2 cents:
I've seen the mock-up for this book and it's unbelievable. It's basically a Local Absolute Edition for $30. Khepri is selling it for only $19.49 until June 30. Duh, I'm going to buy a bunch for myself.
RK

Local also on Amazon

Convention Season Commissions

2008-06-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

Dream Death
Inks on watercolor paper

I'm going to have an artist alley table at Chicago Wizard World and San Diego Comic Con, so i'm doing a bunch of Commission-type pieces and, dare I say-- Fan art to take with me and sell. Here's an example of what I'll be doing at my table. I'll post some more eventually. I'm taking my paints with me, dagnabbit.

If you're in SD or Chicago, come on by and buy a sketch from me. You can even request something and maybe I can do it ahead of time and bring it with me. I do Black and White or Color, but I charge a lot more for color.

Love And Communication

2008-06-05T07:35:00.001-07:00

The New York Four Chapter Break 3

Vinyl Underground #9

2008-06-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

Hey Kids, We all know what today is! It's VINYL UNDERGROUND TUESDAY, where we all examine a new Vinyl Underground page and see if it changes colors when encountering a predator in the wild!*

Also, as usual, always and forever, Local #12 is delayed. Tell the Mean People that I finished drawing it a long time ago and it's not my fault. Hopefully it comes next week, fingers crossed!

*That's a bald-faced lie, there is no such thing as VINYL UNDERGROUND TUESDAY.

art : Simon Gane and Ryan Kelly

Iron Man Color

2008-05-29T05:25:00.001-07:00

Ironman.color, originally uploaded by funrama.

I very unseriously drew this 30 minute Iron Man sketch after not seriously seeing the movie (mostly to practice my 30 minute sketches for convention season). It's Robert Downey Jr. wearing an old 80's suit. I usually don't see comic book movies for fear of permanent loss of brain cells but i'm hopeful/excited for Watchmen.

Lucifer Art Gallery

2008-05-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

I found some more Lucifer art and I uploaded them all in a new Lucifer art gallery which is more pleasing to the eye but hard to navigate for the lack of photo titles. It's taking me a long time to compile, scan and price them. Here's the old post about purchasing art. Most are for sale but I'm preserving a good portion as "Not For Sale" so I can control the remaining art I have left.
Where did it all go?!
Here are some of the finer moments:

Scratchboard!

2008-05-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

Like me, you probably wake up every morning and say to yourself, "Why Not Scratchboard?".

As the manufacturer states - Paint on it. Draw on it. Scratch on it. Piss on it. Call it rude names - Scratchboard, or "Clayboard", provides a greatness of ease not found in any other working surface since God himself carved the Ten Commandments upon stone tablets on Mount Sinai with lightning bolts and lasers.

In fact, it is said, that after Moses broke the tablets in anger, God offered him two Scratchboard plates from the art store to "try again".

I had to do a quick Scratchboard demo for my class so I took these old clayboards that were sitting around collecting dust and I made these. As you can see, I lost patience with the "scratching" part of Scratchboard. And, I'll never be as good as Mark Summers. I have some scratchboard nibs, but Mark Summers only uses a #11 XActo blade and he's a MACHINE so I mostly used the Xacto. But I encourage everyone to give scratchboard a try. Here, I started with a fully inked plate and scratched out the Snoop Dogg type. With the buildings and explosions, I drew them with a tech pen and scratched out lines for windows and highlights and used steel wool for a softer drybrush effect.

On the Snoop Dogg figure, I stated with a plain white clay surface and I drew it with tech pen, brush and a Hunt 102 crowquill. Making corrections, highlights, and speed lines is super easy as long as you have a sharp Xacto blade. I ran out of time, but I'll put it away and work on it later.

Winter by John Ney Rieber and Ryan Kelly

2008-05-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

Here's the sample page for the upcoming Tori Amos Comic Book Tattoo Anthology by John Ney Rieber, Ryan Kelly and lettered by Kristyn Ferretti.

Our story is based on the song, "Winter". Look for it in July!

Dear Prudence

2008-05-07T06:16:00.001-07:00

Well, that was a lot of snow. I got so busy I didn't have to notice how it snowed for 7 months. But little Harold likes the snow! (seen here in a rare scene where he's not hitting or crying) He's become quite the artist too. Soon he will be spotting blacks.

Schools's out, Old projects are done, Spring has started. I loose my desire to work when the weather gets this crazy nice. Here's my springtime song. As usual, cover songs ONLY.

Nick Rhodes

2008-05-02T08:37:00.001-07:00

Nick Rhodes, originally uploaded by funrama.

Nick Rhodes, Duran Duran
Colored version, Ink and Photoshop
More Microphone here.

Local #11 Today

2008-04-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Local #11 is in stores today! Let us know what you think.
Here are the responses to choose from:

A. "I Love It!!"
B. "Meh"
C. "I Hate Megan!"

Special thanks to Chris Butcher, Kayla Hillier, and Eric Kim for helping with the Toronto photos. This was the heaviest photo reference issue yet, I spent forever pouring through images on the web trying to figure Toronto out. I couldn't have done the issue without their help, especially the scene of the Women's bathroom in the end.

I've been working on the art for the LOCAL COLLECTION this week. I did some little concept sketches that look like this. But I think we found the winning version for the final book. Exciting!

Cassingle Of The Week: Girlfriend

2008-04-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

Kids today, with their rock and roll and Chat Rooms and hula hoops.
They can have your .99 cent Download. Give me a Cassingle and I’m a happy man. No object so perfectly personifies my generation, the early-to-mid 90’s, than the commercially produced Cassette Single. Why, for the unbelievable low price of only $3.99 I could get not only a song, but also a B-SIDE, WITH a cardboard sleeve. A sleeve. CARDBOARD.

Go ahead, shoe shine boy, make a “Playlist” and set it to “shuffle” like a lazy ass. I get to push eject, flip the tape over, place it back into the deck and listen to it again. The Cassingle involves the listener to participate in the enjoyment in the music instead of sitting there passively, tapping their littlest finger on an Ipod like a slave to the establishment.

The comforting “whir” of the magnetic tape sliding against plastic. The muscular smell of the paper sleeve. So begins a new feature on my blog: Cassingle Of The Week (Or Month, whatever) where I share with you the magic of my Cassette collection. Strap yourself in…..it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Matthew Sweet’s album “Girlfriend” is one of the only albums I remember listening to, besides “Check Your Head” and The Cure’s Disentegration, in 1992. All the songs on “Girlfriend” are about girlfriends, except for a couple about religion and war like “Holy War” , one of my favorite tracks. Matthew Sweet was one of the first examples of 90’s “Alternative rock” I got into, because I didn’t listen to Nirvana. Sweet does the sunny 60’s style alternative guitar pop with sad lyrics that I normally don’t listen to but he’s the best at it so I give him respect. I love the slow country song “Your Sweet Voice” and “Winona” which might be about Winona Ryder.

Matthew Sweet appears to be “One of us”, that is to say, a comic nerd. The song “Evangeline” is apparently based of the Chuck Dixon comic by the same name. I have a copy. And check out the video for “Girlfriend” which features clips from the anime/comic called “Space Adventure Cobra” . though, I wish the video would stop showing his creepy head floating around and focus on the anime.

The B-side, “Superdeformed” is a rough, demo-style rocker that’s not as good as the songs on the album.

Paths Of Victory

2008-04-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

The New York Four Chapter Break 2
Minx books, July 2008