Good News & Bad News

The good news is that my new book "Parade" is at the printer and getting proofed. It is being printed in Hong Kong and if we are lucky it will be done by mid February. In Hong Kong everything shuts down for 2 weeks for Chinese New Year and hopefully we will just beat it. The book is 64 full color pages filled with comics, paintings and photos. Many classic strips including a section dedicated just to Shaky Bacon. As a bonus I did a series of new mulit panel strips just for the book. It will be a great book to introduce people to Mr Toast and a must have for all long time fans.

The bad news is that the Mr Toast children's picture book I have working on with one of the big publishers has died. That is the way it goes so it is back to the drawing board ....

Mary Blair for Meadow Gold

Years ago I bought a Meadow Gold tab button with their little girl character on it. It sat in my truck and I would admire it while waiting at stoplights. Eventually I found out that Mary Blair did the design and it really added to my love of her work. I had been admiring the simplicty and design without realizing that it was her work. A great artist's brilliance shines through, even years later and without name recognition. This is the kind of influence every artist dreams of, one that long outlives the artist.

Design Inspiration

Jeff over at the Design Inspiration blog was cool enough to do an email interview with me about my art and process. My path as an illustrator and designer is an odd one so it was fun to answer the questions.

Design Inspiration

Sick O' Beans

In today's comic, we revisit Mr Toast in his tramping days. He and Drunken Carrot met back then and often found themselves living on canned beans because of their limited funds. After a few weeks, they found themselves "Sick O' Beans". Time to find a little work.

Kellogg's Mini People

In the late 60's and early 70's Kellogg's offered 3 different series of little people. They were wood figures with felt clothes and accents. I distinctly remember having them as a kid and what kid wouldn't love to have a little wooden Og the Caveman or Rip Van Winkle.

1972

I never saw the kids show The Curisity Shop when I was a kid but in 1972 Kellogg's gave it quite a grand promotion. They featured 3 different premiums on 5 different cereals. From 1968-1971, Kellogg's had promoted such classics as the Banana Splits, HR Pufnstuf and Josie and the Pussycats. Well their promotional help didn't do much for the Curiosity Shop which is now pretty much forgotten.

Paintings for Sale

I just added this painting of Mr Toast "Strolling" and a number of new paintings to my Etsy store. Check them out.....

You're Going to be a Father

Shaky Takes A Hit

My good friend Todd Franklin of Neatocoolville took this shot of Shaky taking a snowball shot (probably thrown by Lemonhead). Todd is in the middle of the ice storm and is one of the luck ones because he has power occasionally. It is hard ot imagine that, living here in Los Angeles, but hopefully the weather will settle down.

Plush Week 2 at Gallery 1988

I love the morning after a show opening. All the anticipation is over and you have all the great memories of a fun opening. Gallery 1988 knows how to put on a show as was evidenced by the hundreds of people that show up for the openings. We got to the show a few minutes after 7 and things were already cooking. For food they had robot brownines which were quite delicious.

The show looked amazing, i had been into the gallery in the afternoon while the install was going on but the finished show was great. There were hundreds of plush and a few of the artists did installations with their dolls. The quality of the dolls throughout the show was very high. I got to see for the first time, the dolls of Jen Rarey and they were super nice. As were the dolls of Anna Chambers.

So I have to say a big thank you to Jon and Jensen for letting me be in the show. And anyone in the Melrose Avenue area in the next week should swing by and check it out.

County Fair Party Kit

I have talked about the great artist Jolly Roger Bradfield before and I am sure I will again. This incredible 1960's Pillsbury County Fair Party kit is filled with artwork he did. Masks, punchouts, a large game, invites, money, etc were all made for the mondo kit. It is amazing all the love and care thrown into this one mailaway premium.

As I mentioned before Roger did work for General Mills in the late 50's and early 60's and moved on to doing wonderful kids books. He is still alive and in his 80's and is working on doing new editions of many of his classic kids books.

Plush Week 2 Opens Tonight

It should be a great show. I will be there around 7:30 and will be wearing a green Joe the Egg shirt, so say hi, I should have some buttons to give away.....

Opening reception: Tuesday, January 23 - 7 to 10 p.m.
Valet available in neighboring parking lot

Gallery 1988 - 7020 Melrose Ave. (corner of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90038

ARTISTS include - Anna Chambers, Apak, Blobby Farm, Cameron Tiede, Candy Creatures, Carolyn Suzuki, Creature Co-op, Dan Goodsell, FluffyBadBad, Gyeong, Heidi Kenney, Jäke Henzler, Jellibat, Jen Rarey, Jill Penney, Jude Buffum, Longo-Land, Lost Monster, Love Ablan, Luisa Castellanos, Maoma, Michelle Valigura, Missy Broome, Monster Factory, Mr. Funky, OhNo!Doom, Renee Gontarski, Sandra Equihua & Kellie Smith, Sewdorky, Shawnimals, Social Studies & Suicide Kittens