Hamer

Here's my strip from the comic section of top youth culture magazine, Arthur. You can download the entire mag at their site (the comics is in section 2), or pick it up at your local record store or meth lab.

New Leon strip: Cellular Telephones

Here's the latest installment of the Amazing Facts strip. Injury 2 is in stores and available online. Wondering if it's a solid investment? Read this cool Injury review from Ken Parille and another from Rob Clough (CAUTION: reviews may contain SPOILERS).

Lets see, what else? Oh, if you're in St. Louis, that comics art show is next Friday at the Sheldon. And for those of you who enjoy walking around and looking at things, you can do this "Grand Gallery Walk" thing after the Sheldon. Wow, looks like there's might be a lot of action around this exhibit. Guess what I submitted for this show? A Heracles strip that features an elaborate fart joke. I'll never make it in the art scene here now. Ah well, what can you do? The comics rampage continues unabated.

Injury #2 Update

Injury #2 will be in finer comic shops Wednesday, April 30th. I just got a pile of them so they're available online at the shop.

Also, I've got a strip in the upcoming issue of Arthur Magazine. It's available for download on their site (it's in Part 2). It's part of a two page spread of comics curated by Alvin Buenaventura. I'll post the strip here after the mag hits the streets.

St. Louis Cartooning Exhibition

We're not quite New York City when it comes to comics heritage, but St. Louis nevertheless has a lot to be proud of. You've got Harry Tuthill who did "Bungle Family," Lee Falk who wrote "The Phantom," the first costumed superhero (and STILL doesn't have a star on the St. Louis "Walk of Fame"?? Come on!), and of course, today's little gang of upstarts.

Anyway, there's gonna be an exhibition of St. Louis cartoonists on Friday, May 16th at the Sheldon Art Galleries. I'll have a page on display (from Injury #2), as do Dan Zettwoch, Kevin Huizenga, Mardou, and Jeff Wilson. I know virtually nothing about this thing other than what's on the Sheldon site, but it should be worthwhile for comics-minded St. Louisans. Click that link for more details.



The Phantom cover above came from this fantastic Phantom cover gallery. These covers are at turns cool, surreal and disturbing. Anyway, Lee Falk is a fascinating character in his own right. If you have time and inclination, here's a nice primer.

NOTE: Like I said, I have no idea what's in this exhibit, Phantom or otherwise. I just posted these Phantom covers cause they're great.

Literature and streaking? Leon has it figured out

Strip for this week's RFT. Let me know what you think.

Injury 2 Preview

ITEM - Injury #2 will be out in comic shops in a couple weeks. In light of that, I've posted a 7-page preview. If you don't think you're local comics stockist is with it with it enough to have ordered it - you can pre-order online here.

sketchbook

Spanish Indie Comics site

Here's a wild online joint to check out. A cool spanish indie comics site:
13 Millones De Naves (that's "13 Million Ships")

It's kinda U.S.-focused. I'd like to see more stuff from the spanish indie scene - but that's not a complaint. I can't read spanish, unfortunately, but there's all kinds of quickie translation options online. Anyway, I did the art for the header currently at the top of their site.

Feel like tranlating something?

We've all been there. You go to a comics show and come back with some gorgeous high-dollar foreign language comic that's great to look at - but who knows how it reads? Whattaya do?

Check out our pal Stephen Betts' new site for comics translation: Comix Influx. The site is a kind of wiki for comics translations. Members find comics from all over the place, translate them, and post the translation to the site (just the words, no scans).

If anyone wants to translate Injury or It Lives, I'd be happy to send a copy.

While I'm on the subject - here's a link to some translated comics on Words Without Borders. The Dupuy strip on here is really good as is the Gipi interview.

It's BEYOND me

Hey, all - I did a strip for St Louis's "Riverfront Times" which will be appearing in this week's issue. Check it out at the strip blog here.

road to Injury 2

For those of you Injury fanatics who pre-order your comics at your local retailer - you can reserve your copy of issue 2 as of RIGHT NOW. It's in this month's issue of Diamond's "Previews" under Buenaventura Press. While you're at it, order a copy of Johnny Ryan's latest strip collection, also from BP.

For those of you Injury fanatics who have no idea what "pre-order" and "diamond" means: the book will be out in April, so start saving now!

Injury Family news: Buy the Sap paperback! Jeff Wilson just put his collected Sap series up at lulu.com. This volume contains the complete storyline from issues 5 through 8. Check out some pages from that story and other punk art and photos from Jeff at his flickr site.

Finally, in StL Comics news: scope next week's RFT (Feb 6th) for a new comic strip from Kevin H. This strip is kind of a collab thing between KH, Dan Zettwoch and myself. Well, my involvement is kinda minimal at the moment but I'm more or less "involved."

So yeah, if you live in St Louis and you're a complete nerd - go to Star Clipper next week, order Injury 2, pick up a copy of the RFT on your way out, go home and order Sap comics online, and feel secure in the knowledge that the city you live in kicks every other city's ass when it comes to comics.

Flumetti

I'm a couple a weeks late with this, but, if you haven't seen it yet, Blog Flume is a new comics blog from Buenaventura Press and Friends.
Man, reading it makes me wanna blog more. But pretty much all my spare time and energy is devoted to doing Injury. We leave it all on the bristol if you know what I mean. So I'm really glad these guys have gotten the blog flume rolling. Alone, any one of these men could kick ass at musing and linking. But together...? It beggars the imagination.

Kung fu knives and guts

Jog posted a crazy essay about Hong Kong comics legend Tony Wong here. Lotsa great, gory covers as well! Wow, man! I love this paragraph:

Before you, says the image, waits a kingdom of untethered entertainment. Comics with a maniac in charge, and he's got a message for YOU. One that promises the glory of another nation's pop, to infest the one that's here. I suppose that's the message of all pop comics from outside cultures - but Jademan Wong made it all seem to me like the product of a man's sick, wonderful personality, the eccentric alive and validated and the fore of a mass culture just some water away.

Floating and shooting

Psst, check it out. The cover for the next issue of Injury comics! Shh! In stores in a few months! Meanwhile Injury Labs is working overtime on the innards. Get ready for two hemispheres of mayhem and a molten magma core. I'll keep ya posted.

Injury #2 in progress

I thought I'd give you guys a peek at my cover sketches. These are two color treatments for the front cover. I need to get it done asap so I'll post the final in the next day or two. Let me know what you think. The book should be in stores some time in March, but don't quote me on that.
HEY - If you want to get a letter into the letters column or vote for or against Heracles, you'd better get on the stick.

Injury '07 Tour continues: SPX and Star Clipper

This weekend I'll be at the Small Press eXpo in the D.C. area. Mardou and I will be helping out at the Buenaventura table, and I'll be signing Injuries. Swing by and say hi if you're going there. But - don't feel like you HAVE to say hi.

I'll be doing a signing for the debut of "Injury" next week at Star Clipper in the U-City Loop. This is the first time I'll be signing Injury here in town. Stop by if you haven't bought the book yet.

It'll be a group signing Wednesday October 17th from 5-8pm with me, John Porcellino, Dan Zettwoch and Kevin Huizenga. John Porcellino will also be giving a slideshow presentation at 6pm. St. Louis has had a banner year for indie comics talent passing thru. Please come out for it - it should be a blast.

Speaking of St Louis comics events - thanks to everyone who showed up for our panel at the Big Read in Clayton. I've never done one of those so sorry for any stammering or poorly constructed sentences.

Comic shops

Just retooled my little online shop here. Still kind of in progress but it works if you want to order stuff. I added Injury #1, the Injury Fashion Pin set, and a Classic Combo where you can order both at once on a sweet discount.
PLUS - for the first time, you can buy Mardou's Washing Machine and Whores of Mensa #3 online. The former is a new 16 page book by Mardou and the latter is an antho she edits that includes Ellen Lindner and Jeremy Dennis. I'll put up Jeff Wilson's brand new Sap #8 as well.

Also - I think Injury is in stores? Not entirely sure. Some hype-machine I am.

Scars for life

I dunno. Sometimes I come across comics art that just leads me to wonder: man, will I ever make something this cool? I just posted such an item in my long-neglected gallery of covers.

BP Shop

Injury is now for sale at the Buenaventura Shop. The first 100 sold are signed by me and Jason Robards. There' a bunch of other cool stuff over there as well. If you're interested in Injury buttons, I'll have those up on this site soon.

Sap and Chicago

Item! Those attending the Chicago Wizard-World can grab a copy of Injury #1 before it hits stores in September. Jason Robards will have some available at the Short Pants Press table in Artist Alley.

Plus! Injury family member Jeff Wilson just released Sap #8, the latest installment of his magnum opus. Get one from his site here.

Also - thanks to all of the San Diego con-goers who bought a copy of Injury or just stopped by the table. That show is like being inside a comics-themed pachinko machine. It's bottled insanity which makes for a great weekend, but for an artist, it's also a little unsettling to see the grinding wheels of the slurry pump itself.