Update

Coupla items of interest - I was sick most of July so I never got around to doing these updates. First, the new issue of Arthur is out - that's got my ongoing strip, "Hamer" in it. You can grab it at finer seedy establishments or download it free from their site.


Also, I've got a page in the upcoming comics antho, Kramers Ergot which will debut at the APE comics show in San Francisco in November. As far as anthologies go, this promises to be the Monolith. It's bigger than any comic ever published by man and will house work from pretty much all the top names in comic art (along with myself). If comics in the 21st century was a building on fire, THIS is the book you would wanna grab on your way out. At any rate, I tried to make this the best single page I've ever done, so please watch for it from Buenaventura Press later this year.

rest in peace, Soldy

Our cat Isolde, better known as Soldy, passed away Sunday. She was the best cat I've ever met and she made a lot of friends in the comics community. In fact, she was pretty much loved by everyone she met. She was super social, but had a "take no guff" attitude that was abundantly endearing in a little cat. In fact, she stared down Jason R.'s dog, who is like 50 times bigger than her. I've never seen anything like it! She was at least 18 when she went, and she died of old age, because no illness could keep her down. As crazy as it sounds, she was an inspiration, and a great friend. She died on the same day as Isaac Hayes, so let's hope Black Moses picked her up on his way to Valhalla. Soldy we'll all miss you dearly.

New Comic in Shop

Just added Jeff Wilson's new comic to our web shop. This is a comic Jeff did in conjunction with punk band Cross Examination. Here's the blurb:

Crazy weed-centric comics from Jeff Worm and the Cross Exam dudes leaves no turn unstoned. Features two stories, "Necroponics" and "The Omen of Prophecy." Approved of and endorsed by the Awesome Party Squad of the USA. (Note: this comic is also available as part of a set with Cross Exam's new LP, Menace II Sobriety).

If you'd like to buy the album/comic set, you can get it from Organized Crime Records.

idle sketching

Doom Dept: I get in these meetings at my work and if I have pen in hand I'll usually draw something like Dr Doom. Actually I've probably drawn like 50 Dr Dooms in the past month. This is a kinda "bring on the bad guys" take on drawing Doom and some other dudes.

Errant Pitch Dept: This is a baseball dude I sketch a lot.

In Case You Care Dept: Here's a thought on the next cover. It'll be kind of like this, but not this. But basically this.

Injury's nomination for next year's eisner

Injury family member Jeff Wilson (aka as Jeff Worm) has been cranking on this wicked and gorgeous comics project for St. Louis punk band, Cross Examination. "Tales from the Keg" is a full-length comic book to be released in July with Cross Exam's first full-length LP, "Menace to Sobriety," on Organized Crime records. Some preview pages located on Jeff's myspace and more info is available on Cross Exam's. Keep your eyes peeled for this release. I guarantee it will rock you and shock you. For further reference and edification, please view the following educational film.

Hot off press: Manhole #3!!

Just posted a new comic by my wife, Mardou, in our little online comic shop. It's the latest issue of Manhole featuring a cool new 40 page story. We'll post a preview soon. It's only $3 - GRAB ONE.

Jason Robards site updated

Injury Comics gang member, Jason Robards, has just updated his website, It's Cool Steve. Check it out and drop him a line.

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.