Three Crows Press

New 'Mr. Big' cover

2009-07-09T02:25:00.000-07:00

Here's the cover for the new edition of Mr. Big. (I'll announce some news about that soon.) My friend and fellow Conspirator Scott White did the colors.

'Xoc' #2 teaser

2009-07-07T02:41:00.001-07:00

Here's a page from Xoc #2. I ink a page immediately after I pencil it.

The Photographer

2009-07-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a segment from NPR on The Photographer.

The Podcast "Ink Studs" did a wonderful recent interview with artist Emmanuel Guibert, who did the art for the book.

Fascinating!

Adam's shark

2009-06-23T03:25:00.001-07:00

I was pulling 'Xoc' pages yesterday to send to the printer. Adam was in my room with me, drawing. So I asked him to draw me a shark. He did, and I inked it for him. Here it is below. It looks very much like an ancient Mayan drawing and I'll likely use it for the next issue. Not the the fin (on the top of head), the gills, etc. Eat your heart out, Tiger Shark!

Summer illustration workshops

2009-06-22T07:37:00.001-07:00

I'm doing a series of illustration workshops for the Fairfax County Public Library system. The workshops run 1.5 hours and are free to youths ages 12 to 18. We'll work on a range of things from anatomy drawings to CD covers and art trading cards.

Here's the schedule:
June 24 7 p.m. Herndon Fortnighty
July 20 7 p.m. Tysons Pimmit
Aug. 19 7 p.m. John Marshal
Aug. 11 7 p.m. Pohick

'Xoc' is closer!

2009-06-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Here's the cover. Now I gotta do a few things that aren't as fun, like the back inside page and then layout for print. Almost there!

'Xoc' is coming!

2009-06-15T01:29:00.000-07:00

Personal things have kept me from getting Xoc done on the schedule I hoped for, but it's nearly done. I just need to finish the cover. Here's the logo, though.

War!

2009-06-02T17:59:00.001-07:00

Man, it's been too long since I posted. Sorry, folks. Organizing the Fest, work and life's little things just kept me busy! The newest D.C. Conspiracy themed anthology, Dr. Dremo's Taphouse of Tall Tales and Short Stories: The Horrors of War (Dang! That's a mouthful!), is now available for $8. By far the best group project we've done to date. The magnificent cover by Scott White itself sells the book!

Entertainment/workshops for CC Fest IV

2009-05-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

Schedule of Events for the Counter Culture Fest IV (Sunday, May 24, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Soundry in Vienna, Va.):

10 a.m.
Monster Splotching with Steve Loya

11 a.m.
Performance TBA

Noon
Making Comics with Matt Dembicki

1 p.m.
Pilesar (pronounced pie-LEE-zur) is a percussionist and songwriter who specializes in LO-FI 4-TRACK molestation. Instrumentation may include microphone, voice, toys, broken effects pedals, borrowed instruments, thrift store finds, tapes, and various environmental factors. As both a soloist and collaborator, Pilesar has released dozens of fiercely independent recordings on his DIY label, Chameleon Dish Archives.
www.myspace.com/pilesarmusic

2 p.m.
Learn to Crochet with Erica Burns of the D.C. Craft Mafia. Participants will receive a washcloth or a small rosette they can turn into a brooch. Vanessa of NinnyCat Crochet and the D.C. Craft Mafia will be on hand to show you how easy it is!
www.dccraftmafia.com

3 p.m.
Musician Jonah Knight

4 p.m.
Goyotaku (printing with fish) with Anthony Dihle

5 p.m.
Rifle Recoil
A MASTER OF THE DELAY PEDALS. Jeff Kessel, a.k.a. Rifle Recoil, has a pretty intriguing approach to his music – he largely builds his tunes on delay pedals into a big, bold sound. Some would call it a wall of sound. The Arlington, Va.-based tunesmith pulls a lot out of his limited array of parts. Worth checking out are his immaculate one-man cover of the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell classic “All I Need” and the funky Prince-like original “Bad Girl.”

6 p.m.
Embroidery with Erica Burns and Shayne of Novelty Kitten. Make your own embroidered plushie! Learn to hand embroider, stuff and hand sew a little plushie with members of the D.C. Craft Mafia.
www.dccraftmafia.com

7 p.m.
Geeks of comedy
The Geek Comedy Tour is a collective of the funniest stand-up comedians from the Washington DC area. Each one is an experienced comic, having performed at bars, clubs, and colleges all over the East Coast. Telling their normal jokes to normal audiences but all of that was about to change.
There was something amiss. For you see, they were all gigantic dorks, and comedy club crowds don't fully appreciate jokes about comic books, anime, and video games. So, they've decided to let their freak flag fly, form together, and bring their geek jokes to the horde that needs them most. Since their formation two years ago, The Geek Comedy Tour has performed at a variety of venues, from anime conventions, college shows, and even the grand opening of a comic shop!
www.geekcomedytour.com

8 p.m.
Michael Auger’s black-light workshop
Auger displays his techniques to crafting art that shine day-glo under black lighting.
www.arty4ever.com

9 p.m.
Donald Keesing
Keesing was the singer and rhythm guitarist for Rain Crow in 1988/89 and Mink Ranch in 1990. He sang with the short-lived 1982 DC Punk band White Zombies (not to be confused with the very popular NY band with the singular version of that name). He is currently working with Randy Austin (Overkill -DC '76, Slim Jims, Graverobbers w/Karl Straub, Throwbacks...) Bob Young (Tru Fax & The Insaniacs) and CB (Martha Hull & The Steady Jobs) in a band called Dollar Bin.

Counter Culture Fest IV

2009-05-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

Tables for the 4th Annual Counter Culture Festival are sold out.

30 vendors will sell their wares on Sunday, May 24th, at The Soundry in Vienna, VA. Below are write ups and Web links to several of them (the ones that responded to the request for info.)

8th Street Soaps are made from scratch in small batches with quality natural ingredients and a dash of whimsy. Based in DC, our goal is to make the world a better-smelling place. Visit www.8thStreetSoap.com.

Arty4ever.com offers offbeat artwork by Michael Auger. Discover an assortment of animals, crazy characters, mythical monsters, and more. Many of his unique paintings and gifts react to blacklight or glow in the dark. All are guaranteed to provoke a smile and are perfect for kids and kids-at-heart. Visit www.arty4ever.com.

August Adams is the author of National Darkroast Day, a satirical novel about a coffee company that tries to conquer America. He is also the author of the comic story 'Froggie.' Visit www.nationaldarkroastday.com

Bamn is the underdog tale of a down-and-out professional wrestler written and illustrated by the team of Jay Payne, David Dean, and Troy Jeffrey Allen. Surly and homeless, Bamn finds purpose when he decides to mentor a group of bullied high school misfits. The comic has been featured in The Gazette and The Washington Post. Visit www.BamnCan.com.

Andrew Cohen is the maker of Howzit Funnies, a collection of hijinx, rhythms, doodads and jazz, all put to a comic book beat. More information on his Funnies and other projects at howzitfunnies.blogspot.com.

Curls Studio's Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo will be selling original comics, greeting cards, handmade stuffed character dolls and more. The self-published comics include Curls, Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales,and The Legettes. Visit www.curls-studio.blogspot.com

John Bintz is wherever technology meets sequential art. He writes and draws two all-ages comic stories: A Moment of Clarity, the highly praised humor/slice-of-life comic adventure, and Dawn's Dictionary Drama, an experiment in forced creativity and utter silliness. He also works on the Inkscape and ComicPress projects, and he creates tools to speed up the production of Web and print comic projects.
A Moment of Clarity - http://claritycomic.com/
Dawn's Dictionary Drama - http://www.dawnsdictionarydrama.com/
WordPress Plugins for Webcomic authors - http://www.coswellproductions.com/wordpress/wordpress-plugins/

Jerry Carr is a local cartoonist who co-created the popular all-ages comic Cryptozoo Crew (currently in development as a major motion picture) with writer Allan Gross. Jerry is currently working with his cohorts in Badmonkeybrain Studios, and is developing two new comic properties--TikiMonkeyGirl and Brew Lagoon.

Full Sanction hates describing itself. It's a comic, it's a lifestyle, it's a friendship, it's a rivalry. It's black and white in a world of grays. And it has grays. Visit www.fullsanction.com.

Just for Jake: Hi! My name is Jake! I am a very happy 5 year old boy who has two rare conditions: Angelman Syndrome (AS) (caused by missing a part of chromosome 15) and agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) (absence of the major nerve cord in my brain). For more info about me and these conditions, please take a card and check out my website www.justforjake.org.
My Mom and Nana started making jewelry to raise money for my equipment and many therapies that will help me learn to walk and talk. I am making a lot of progress in big part with help from people like you! I can now walk with one supporting hand and can say "Mama" and "Papa."

Jen-A-Fusion Fashion Accessories offers hand-crafted fashion accessories, made from recycled, reclaimed, vintage and new materials. Visit jenafusion.blogspot.com

Steve Loya is an art teacher in the Northern Virginia area who also enjoys making some of his own art. He can be found dabbling in curious line drawings, paint splotch monsters, acrylic turtle portraits and creepy custom toys--whatever interests him at the moment. Visit http://steveloyaart.blogspot.com/

Brian Maze is the independent comic book creator of the supernatural themed Freak Central starring Monkeygoatboy and the fishmarket tale Flounder. More information can be found at www.monkeygoatboy.com

Shayne Rioux and her cat Patsy are the evil mistressminds behind Novelty Kitten. They offer silly cards and pins, Mustachio the puppet and more. Shayne can be found online at noveltykitten.com, transcraftinental.com and geekcrafts.com.

Rebecca Simms is the creator of the sassy ninja comedy, Girl Ninja. Join Girl Ninja 'Sazumi' as she battles her way though demon and zombie foes from one end of the mall to the other, in this one-two punch, dark assassin comedy. Book one comic is available along with new mens and womens fitted tee shirts at the DC Counter Culture Festival IV. Free GN stickers will be handed out when you stop by the table. Visit www.myspace.com/girlninja

Skulls for breakfast, brains for lunch, we only want your fun stuff. Visit skullsforbreakfast.com.

Spaghetti Kiss is a company that features the apparel design and graphic novel work of Baltimore based artist, Michael Bracco. Visit Spaghettikiss.com

Three Crows Press is the self-publishing outfit of Matt Dembicki. Its comics include the awarding-winning Mr. Big, the space opera Spadefoot, the sci-fi thriller Liquid Revolver and the soon-to-be published Xoc. Visit threecrowspress.blogspot.com

tiny ghosts is a creepy, melancholy, sometimes depressing, sometimes darkly humorous, weekly, photo Web comic. Each comic is a combination of two sentences of a story and two photographs. The viewer is encouraged to use this fragment as a seed and develop the rest of the story in their own minds. http://www.tinyghosts.com

Wale Ovechkin

2009-05-10T10:53:00.001-07:00

This cracks me up. Here's a rapper-turned-hockey fan who changes is last name to Ovechkin. God love 'im! And "Go, Caps!"

Wale on First Take from Elitaste on Vimeo.

Shark III

2009-05-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

Whoa. Waaaay too long between posts. It's been a busy month, so I guess that's my excuse. Here's my favorite page so far from my shark book, which I think will be available in about a month.

Sharks II!

2009-04-11T19:36:00.001-07:00

Here's page 16, inked.

Sharks!

2009-04-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

The pencils of page 14 of my next big project. I'll be serializing it every 20 pages (as I did with Mr. Big)--so it's not too far off!

LoL panel

2009-04-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Here's another panel from the League of Lincoln book that I'm working on with Evan Keeling. It's a nice panel with lotsa dark contrasts. I haven't finished inking the Capitol, but I think it captures how I usually work. Evan pencils fairly tightly, but I still sometimes pencil over it because it's light in some areas. It gives me more confidence when I'm inking that I won't screw something up!

'Three Questions'

2009-04-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

I had a brief interview posted at the D.C. Conspiracy Web site. It includes an inked-put-unlettered page from an upcoming series I'm working on. The first issue will be ready for SPX...I hope!

'Plastic Farm'

2009-03-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

Almost done adding grays to my five-page Plastic Farm story. Here are the first two panels (though it still needs a little touch up).

Teeth

2009-03-23T01:57:00.000-07:00

I went to the dentist the other day to get a cavity filled. Adam asked me what cavities were. He then went off and on his own and drew a set of teeth--complete with cavities (that's why they're all black). Ha!

'Liquid Revolver' is available!

2009-03-10T19:00:00.001-07:00

'Liquid Revolver' is officially for sale! The 68-page book features the talents of D.C. area artists, such as Scott White, Chris Piers, Mal Jones, Dale Rawlings, Mike Short, Khalid Iszard and yours truly! What's it about? Nazis and mind control. How can you not wanna peek? It's $6, and I'll throw in free shipping. If you'd like to buy a copy, e-mail: threecrowspress(at)gmail(dot)com.

'Bash' online

2009-03-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

Bash Magazine has gone exclusively online with the March issue. I've got a profile page there that includes the work I've done for the mag. What really stunned me was the photo when I clicked on the link! Ha! Good times!

Final posters

2009-03-05T10:33:00.000-08:00

Here are the posters, all dolled up and texted!

Poster art

2009-03-05T03:08:00.000-08:00

Adam and I are working on some poster art for the D.C. Conspiracy's Counter Culture Fest IV (May 24, Vienna, Va.). I did the sketches and Adam did the "inks" and colors. I love the alternative feel to them. Kids have such brilliant simplicity to things yet their drawings tend to be so intriguing.

Bug

2009-03-02T13:31:00.001-08:00

Here's something I did with Adam. I did a quick sketch and he did the "inks" and colors. Maybe it's time to do a poster or something together....

'Iciclers"

2009-02-21T19:46:00.001-08:00

Here's another series of artist trading cards I did, focusing on ice.

'Plastic Farm' panel

2009-02-14T03:47:00.000-08:00

A panel for a story I'm working on for Rafer Roberts' 'Plastic Farm'....