"THAT'S WHAT MY CROW SAID!"

"WHAT'S WITH THESE CRAZY WALLS?!"

"EVERYBODY'S GOT A SCI-FI GUMSHOE IDEA."

...I believe is what I said in my ART OF ANDY Sketchbook. Those who've picked one up know what I'm talking about. Those that haven't...should pick up the book!



TM and COPYRIGHT Andy Suriano

CHECK THIS ARTIST OUT!!!

There's a fellow artist I've known for longer than I've been out in LA. Her blog is called TINY PICNIC, her name is MICHELLE BICKFORD, though sometimes she goes by "BIC". Anyway, she is phenomenal--at ANY style of craft. She's also lots of collectors "best kept secret". She shouldn't be. Together with her man (and fellow friend and a phenom of designer himself), created MACSKINZ and PODSKINZ a few years back. You may recall their artists series featuring Bill Wray, Tim Biskup, Coop...and those were the LEAST famous characters of the bunch!

Anyway, her newest work reminds me of those old copper wall-hangers from the 60's. They're all affordable and unique, completely one-of-a-kind pieces. Like a mad scientist, she's Frankensteined yet another idea, check out these gift/wine bag tags. Genius. I'm about to order a set. You can to at HER STORE SITE.


The kitchy, above mentioned wall-hangers...


And then, not to be outdone in any medium, her jewelry is out of this world. The missus, my wife owns a pair of gold, cherub earrings!


To get the total breadth of her work, go to her main site HERE, then I emplore you to check out all her site(s). Navigate around their websites, it's fun and well-designed to say the least--and explore all the many facets of this incredible, multiphrenic, reclusive artist.

PAINTING SHOW FRIDAY NIGHT!

The group show is called: "CRAZY 4 CULT 2: This Time it's Personal". Hosted by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier (of Clerks fame) at GALLERY 1988, this Friday night, August 22nd, 7-11pm. Their info, address and directions are here.


"Pee Wee and His Dog Spec: Before the Curious Incident with the Bike"
Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas
24"x30"

...so the deal with this piece was we had to do something representing a "cult"-type movie(s) (list included)...being one to recognize most quote unquote "cult" movies are now widely accepted, thus no longer subversive, but rather welcomed into the mainstream consciousness--I attempted to make life hard on myself by sketching out a painting for one of the weirdest films I'd scene: "GUMMO". When I went to pop in my DVD to reference a specific scene (where he's eating spaghetti in the bath), I discovered the disc missing...(so whoEVER you are that's borrowed it, give it back! AND my copy of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"...Ian.) hahaha Anyhow, I then switched subject matter and began actually painting a scene I made up from Jim Jarmusch's "Deadman". Almost finished, I didn't think anyone would see my 'irony' of painting style vs. subject matter, so I scrapped that piece too. So what you see above is more or less my compromise plus an exercise in painting my cartoon/animation-style designs. Who knows, perhaps that irony will fall on deaf ears, no, wait, blind--oh, you know what I mean. Hope you make the show or visit their website *(and buy my piece!).

CHARLATAN BALL #3 IN STORES THIS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20th!!!

Go get some!!!

Attempting to evoke a bit of Jack Kirby's "LOVE COMICS" from the 1960's, issue 3 is our romance issue.


WWW.COMICBOOKRESOURCES.COM has the first five pages on display here.

...and if you haven't already, order "The Art of Andy" via the paypal buttons on side, or ride on over to HOUSE OF SECRETS in Burbank and pick yourself up a copy (or twelve).

*And if you HAVE ordered a book, drop me a line and let me know what you thought!

BOOK #5 ROUGHS...

We're exactly 1 week away from issue #3 hitting the shelves (mark your calenders!). Instead of posting up a preview of what you'll see next week, I thought I'd post bits and pieces of CHARLATAN BALL #5, coming out in October (which feels like a long ways away!).

I actually had some of these originals floating around in a portfolio at the con. Until my good friend and collaborator BEN KALINA scans them at full size, I've managed to pick and choose a piece-mealed sampler for you...

Issue 5 has a lot of big-robot-action:


Here's the same image, only in it's preliminary state:


To add to the thrilling excitement is a...BANK!


Pulse pounding BANK MANAGER-ACTION! haha


And one of the coolest characters around: "THE HOST", part David Bowie, part Chuck Woolery--


And no comic book is complete without WILFORD BRIMLEY!


...yeah, it's a strange comic book.

CREATING DEMON EMPTY

Upon creating the CHARLATAN BALL antagonist, I didn't have to reach much further than the baddie to end all baddies: Jack Kirby's DARKSEID. He's the quintessential villain. His Design is rough, stoic, immovable and unapproachable.


That being said, I had an idea of the tone Joe likes to write in, and someone too threatening might not be able to sell the comedic beats I need him to hit. Then I remembered this DARIUS DRUMM character from Kirby's SILVER STAR. Sure, he was terrifying, but I always found his absurd and sort of funny. I mean, just look at the way he came into this world:


This was Jack's early design...eerily similar to Darkseid.


And now slightly more "cartoony"...


I read a review somewhere that spotted this little homage to the RED GHOST. They were correct.


And while I'm laying out all my cards on the table, I have to say one of the biggest inspiration for my Demon Empty design would be 70's singer-songwriter, variety show mainstay, Mr. PAUL WILLIAMS. I'll also admit he used to scare the hell out of me!



So I began...and at first needed to confirm I DIDN'T want a big, scary monster:




Once I got that out of the way, explored my initial instinct of making The Realm's most powerful Chaos Magic Mage and grand schemer be a literal, walking juxtaposition. I love drawing 'little people'!





There. I finally hit something I liked: a Darkseid/Darius Drumm/Red Ghost/Paul Williams hybrid I could get behind--and more importantly, have a ball drawing.




And there you have it. Now, I know there are other inspirations I left out, I can think of a few of MR.MIRACLE'S antagonists off the top of my head, but this was more or less the road to and through my creative process. Hope you've enjoyed. Go buy Charlatan Ball. And a sketchbook. And a teeshirt.

BACK FROM THE BRINK...

Holy jeezuz. Who knew? Who knew?!? Inspiring and exhausting. I am back from "the con".

Here I am with a nice four o'clock grease-sheen going--on my oily, Italian face...

Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Dan and Darrick (who took this picture with his incredible new iPhone), Mr. Lambe, Uncle Phil and his cronies. I appreciated the support, as well as help with getting the Art of/Sketchbooks out there.

...and LOOK! Now I've got paypal buttons! Order a book or teeshirt, I'll throw in a sketch and signature as well. Tell your friends! Post on your blogs!

*ALSO: those of you who requested a shirt previously, they've been saved and await you! Go ahead and complete your order now.

"THE ART OF ANDY"

BIG NEWS!!!

Debuting at the San Diego Comicon, via The Art of Fiction Booth (#523)!!! "THE ART OF ANDY" idea started off as a portfolio...then turned into a sketchbook...then into this beautiful, 120 page, hardcover, full color smorgasbord of designs and sketches ranging from development ideas, Samurai Jack models and Clone Wars layouts...to comic book pages and paintings, many never before seen! Not to mention super-cool intro by Spongebob himself, TOM KENNY. All for the mere price of $25!

*I will also be @ The Art of Fiction Booth (#523) as well as the IMAGE COMICS booth (#2729) all throughout the weekend, signing and selling my wears...

Check out:

http://www.artoffiction.com/5CChome.html

For those not coming to the con, you can also purchase at:
THE HOUSE OF SECRETS
1930 W. Olive Avenue
Burbank, California 91506
(818) 562-1900
e-mail:
houseofsecrets@earthlink.net

Contact them via their website and they will tell you how to get one via PAYPAL.

One way or another, try and get your hands on one. They are very limited, only 1000 copies were printed.

RUN, DON'T WALK: CHARLATAN BALL #2 IN STORES THIS WEDNESDAY, JULY 16th!!!

*P.S. T-Shirts (see below), are STILL available...reserve them before Comicon, and while I still have a choice of sizes!

WHO WANTS A CHARLATAN BALL TEESHIRT?

Tee Shirt #1 just arrived!!


...it's Chuck Amok and his pal Caesar in a classic vintage style look. Nicely silk-screened, no rubbery iron-on feel.

And while I'm trying to figure out how to put together a merchant account and paypal button on the blog, let me know if you want to reserve one and at what size (S-2XL). (Act fast! Quantities are limited.) They are super-high quality American Apparel ringer tees. Sort of slimming, so you may want a size up. Thinking, $20 sounds about right?



Depending on how well these sell, we'll do another run with DEMON EMPTY and his hover-car riding Demons!

PAINTING SHOW!

I am in an exciting painting show with three other artists at a fabulous place called YES Gallery in Rhode Island. So if you are close by, or know anyone on the hill (isn't that what they call it in Showtime's BROTHERHOOD??), tell them to stop by...and buy my pieces!

TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF SKETCHES...

Well, THREE, if you want to be technical. But technique is what I'm talking about, in terms of stylistically. I don't know, maybe you can find the similarities--but they're all sort of compartmentalized in my head.

This first one I did while on my honeymoon...yeah, I'm pretty romantic. Anyway, I had an idea for a CHARLATAN BALL spinoff and wanted to show Joe. I liked this sketch so much so that I redid an entire page of issue #5 to include these guys. Actually, I've pretty much redid all of book 5 because I felt like I was cutting too many corners, especially after seeing issue #1 printed and bleeding on the pages, so to speak. That being said, issue 5 is single-handedly the best work I've done, to date. I can't wait to post some...but want to be somewhat of a tease.


Another doodle for #5, PRE-honeymoon. I dug the design and shape of this guy.


And now to shift gears for something altogether different. This isn't a design for my Dynamite Jones character, per se--but he fits into the world in a strange way, curtesy of my friends Eric and Paul at HOUSE OF SECRETS in Burbank. More to come later!

STAR WARS+AWESOME MUSIC!

I've been listening to D. STICKER ENSEMBLE nonstop for the past week or so. Check them out, they only seem to be on iTunes and such; it's a purely digital age I suppose. If anyone else has heard of these guy(s?) let me know--I know nothing other than their album "Seasons of Sticker". Sort of reminds me of Neutral Milk Hotel, or Matt Suggs from White Whale.

This is SO incredible:

Video Comic Review

It's a long way to go for a sentence, but it's exciting nonetheless!

...continuing a steady flow of good reviews. I can't wait for later issues (and much better art) to hit the stands.

Thanks again to everyone that's picked up a copy.

SOMEONE ELSES ART...

--That has totally knocked me on my ass, recently.

The first is more GODLAND covers. It's interesting, in the latest KIRBY COLLECTOR #50 (or, as it appears on the cover: "KIRBY FIVE-OH!"), from Twomorrows Publishing, Godland artist and fellow JOE CASEY collaborator TOM SCIOLI said in an interview, oh God(land), I just looked it up to quote--but must've gotten my sources mixed; in any event, he had said somewhere that he was going to "stop trying to do it the Kirby way", or something along those lines--and problem solve as he, himself as an artist would. Whatever he's doing, it's working! Check these out:



Then of course, good-golly there's Tim Sale...yes, he's the artist behind the artist that paints the future, but Issac never painted like this. Those colors are amazing too, huh?



Now, check out this Argentinian artist, MAX FIUMARA. He's collaborating with writer JOE KELLY on another Image title called FOUR EYES. Wow. His inking takes my breath away. I know how that sounds, but...look at these pages!