So it looks like two thousand and eight is finally approaching its death bed and I couldnt be more stoked. Not that 08 was such a terrible year, me and 08 had our swell times, but i couldnt be more excited about the future. This last year was a monumental year in transformation for me personally after taking the leap to become self employed and so far its been stupid rewarding. There’s so many exciting things in the works for the new year that i cant wait for, but im also just generally eager to see where things are going. Keep in mind, i just had my morning coffee, so i have a pretty strong caffeine buzz going. This glowing attittude could all change as soon as i start inking this piece that’s been waiting to get done for a week. I guess i better get on that. Anyway, Happy New Years everyone! Be on the lookout for beer goggles, no one wants to start their new year off next to this in the morning (if you could afford her that is).

Ive been super busy so i havent been posting on the blog too much which sucks. So i thought id just throw up my new favorite thing while i think of something more worthwhile to talk about. thanks internet for another nugget of random gold.

dont be too offended, anteaters can also be polite

Fearless Records asked me to do a couple official label designs for their online merch store. These are the 2 i came up with, should be available soon on their website. Remember when they had bands like bigwig and dynamite boy and 30 foot fall? shit makes me feel super old.

I just got back from Thanksgiving with the family last night. I havent been home to Lakeland for more than a few hours for a long time so it was great being able to see everyone and eat all of their food. Thursday morning me the wife and the dogs piled into the car and made the 2 hour treck to my cousins house where the gorging took place. Me and the wife have been predominently veggie for the last 2 years, sans fish, so we layed waste to the brocolli and squash casseroles, mashed potatoes and can-shaped cranberry sauce. After we ate we worked off some caleries with an epic battle of ping pong and some guitar hero. My mom even got in on the action. This is her taking part in her first guitar battle.

the other person in on it was my seven year old niece. My mom showed no mercy though and stole the victory.

That evening we sat around hating life because of how much we ate and it was decided for me that getting up the next morning at 4:30am to go shopping would be a good idea. awesome. I got about 3 hours of solid sleep that night and just barely made it to my feet so i could pour 20 ounces of coffee down my throat. We hit Sears first which was pretty dead and then went on to Target which was a completely different story.

When we pulled up we realized that the line was wrapped all the way from the front door to around the garden center and then back almost completely behind the store. sweet. so we got in line and fronted the 40º weather for a good 40 minutes before the store opened. When it did, hundreds of people piled in and made a mad dash to their predetermined destinations. Ours was the toy department so we could pick up some stuff for my sister’s kids for my mom. I think this pic of my mom hastily making her way through the red halls of target pretty well captures the excitement.

Ideally i would never put myself in that kind of situation, but i can see why people get into it. Its a bit of a rush. Definitely not something i would do again but it definitely helped my Mom out so for that im glad we did it. Plus i scored an amazing breakfast after it was all done so that made it all worth it.

When we made it back to the house i took about 4 thirty minute naps to try to fight my way back from the delirious coffee crashed pile of crap that i had become. Once we recharged a bit we made our way to Orlando and hit up the Mall at Millenia which was also a hot mess, we didnt stay long. Afterwords we met up with my friend Horsebites and he took us out for some amazing mexican and some drinks in downtown Orlando. One spot we hit up was this hole in the wall dive called Hoops that had some of the most horrendous karaoke that i have ever heard.

This dude’s freestyle in the middle of summer of 69 actually made Richard’s face fold in on itself.

Heidi and Vanessa got in on the action too with Scrubs from TLC. It was pretty alright, but it didnt hold a candle to me, Richard and Kevin from TeamDoom’s rendition of Kiss from a Rose by Seal. Kevin decided to sing the whole song like the Count from Sesame Street which i think took the song to a whole new golden level. The rest of the evening is kind of a blur, but it was good times for sure. Its good to be home now relaxing before another busy week of work, but not drawing for 4 days is way too long so im pumped to get back to the grind.

I just marked down my Hairy Pickle shirt to $16 to try and move a few more before Christmas. Ive still got some larges and plenty of smalls left, so if you or someone you know might be interested, hit up the store.

I usually dont go out of my way to recommend a tv show, but recently ive been blessed with the addition of Tivo to our family so ive been able to discover things i may not have given the frequency that i actually get to watch tv. Anyway, this show Estate of Panic that just started on SciFi rules my life! Basically 6 people have to rummage through these rooms of a creepy mansion, pocketing as much cash as possible but each room is fucked! Each round the last person in the room gets locked in and the person with the least amount of cash found is AXED so the contestants are wittled down super fast.

The first episode i saw they had a room getting filled with water, a garden where people got shocked by electric wires, and a room where the ceiling came down! The ceiling came down! Just like some Temple of Doom madness! Plus for good measure they through in a ton of bugs and snakes so people freak out and crap their pants. Its brilliantly hosted by this smarmy british dude that reminds me alot of Tim Curry from Clue but way more diabolical. Its seriously the best game show ive ever seen, Deal or no Deal being the worst (hate!). Its like that old nick game show Finders Keepers, where the kids destroy the crazy rooms finding puzzle pieces….anyone? Bueller? well that show, meets tales from the crypt. Go watch it now so i have someone to nerd out with next week when it comes on.

here’s a clip

I really have no idea where to start, i havent posted since before The Fest so i guess ill start with that. AMAZING! i had an insane time. The details are blurry because i spent the majority of it drinking 2 dollar Pabstsessess. I saw a ton of bands and got to hang with some friends in Wilhelm and the Swellers that i dont get to see very often, so that was rad. My good friend Horsebites did a way better job recapping The Fest, seeing as he didnt rely on the iphone to take photos (sucks), so if you have a few minutes you should read his Fest 7 entry. Im in there somewhere, probably the part where he talks about getting rescued….good times.

There i am hanging out with Gator Face, on the right, hungover, regretting that i left my sunglasses at home

I must have brought back some kind of Gainesvillian bearded fixie virus because when i came back i was sick as a dog for 4 days and could barely do anything without snot getting over everything. It felt like my brains were leaking out of my nose. I got over it eventually and then of course Heidi spent this last weekend fighting off the same funk. So while she was doing that, i caught up on a bunch of work and stuff. Ive got a ton of it too, which is awesome, id love to post some of it but alot of it is either pending or im keeping it under wraps until stuff goes to print. lame. There’s definitely some cool stuff in the mix though so ill keep you posted. Alright, enough of the weak recap and onward with the topical and timely blog posts.

This weekend is Fest 7 in Gainesville, Florida, and I’m privileged to have some work being showcased in the Paper + Plastick Show at Studio 101. If you are going to be in town for the show, stop by and check it out.

I decided to finally break out the paints again over the weekend. I found this little framed 5×7 canvas at a Goodwill a few months ago for like a dollar. It already had a crappy flower painting on it so i just painted gesso over it and VIOLA, brand new canvas. I only spent about 20 minutes on it, but im proud of the attempt. Ive only done one other painting since highschool, and that was for Wilhelm and it was huge, and i spent about a week on it. This was much less intimidating and carefree. Its nice to have some borders to spill over into also, i dont get to do that a lot designing tee shirts all day. Im hoping to work more paintings into my schedule, got to make another trip to Goodwill to find cheap shit to paint.

Just added half a dozen shirts and some other stuff to the print section. Make sure you click the thumbnails for larger views.

This week my wife got ambitious and posted some of her sweet jewelry that she’s been making in her spare time. It started off as a hobby, but then she started getting tons of compliments at work, so she figured what the hell, post em up on Etsy and see if they sell. So if there are any ladies out there or dude’s with ladies, go check em out by clicking the image. She’s been pumping them out like crazy so if you like what you see, check back often.

My favorite and oldest clients, A Wilhelm Scream,  finally launched a new webstore. There’s a ton of new stuff including several designs ive done for them over the last couple of years. Also if you are going to Fest and you want to catch these dudes, make sure you get there mongo early. They play at 6:30pm on Friday. Balls!

Here’s a vid just in case you were unaware of how much they slay!

About a month ago i was privileged to take part in the clothing line Electric Zombie’s first ever Halloween poster pack. The brief was to make a horror movie spoof poster adapted from my own persona. The ‘Dealer’ is what me and Kyle came up. I guess I lucked out being born with a name that carries so much visual baggage. I used to hate that my name was so easy to identified with and joked on. I would dread anytime i had to introduce myself or hand over an id. You cant imagine how many times ive heard ‘Lets make a deal’ or more recently ‘Deal or no Deal?!’, which is the most retarded game show on the planet by the way (hate). As i got older, i realized it was a pretty unusual name, and i may as well embrace it for all that its worth. Now ive worked it into my branding and even have some tattoo work that plays into the name. This piece ended up being another sweet opportunity to have some fun with ‘deal’ and im really stoked on how it came out. The other artists killed it too, so check em out and pick that shit up before its gone!

So after spending a week 3 hours behind the rest of civilization, im finally back to my present day. The past is a strange and peculiar place filled with smog, traffic, people on stilts, bizarre sushi, and stupidly awesome weather. All in all my trip to LA was another amazing experience.

Ah, breath in that beautiful air. there’s nothing more inviting that a city that looks like its been hotboxing in the highschool parking lot.

This dude scored a million points in donkey kong while i was there. He probably would have broken the world record too if Connie Chung hadnt been after her pulitzer.

That’s Wolf from Gladiators accepting my proposal to make him The Biking Viking spokes person

Thats the current Mrs. Pacman and Donkey Kong world record holder, Billy Mitchel. He’s also received an Honorary Mane of Excellence Award from Vidal Sasoon.

Quigly is what happens when you’re playing Tiger Woods at 3 in the morning after slamming beers you cant pronounce in Tai town all night. He’s my inspiration. Dont judge, what he lacks in looks he makes up for with a crushing drive.

Got to party with some college homies that i havent seen in half a decade. They havent changed a bit. I on the other hand have developed the ability to grow gnarly facial hair!

guns

guns

one of the last things we did in town is eat the most sushi that any of us had ever attempted in our lives. It was an all out gluttony fest of some of the most bizarre platters i have ever seen. These 2 had the hillmans to eat these gigantic tempara shrimp heads. Yeah, sure thing dudes, the sea urchin was great and all (barf) but you go ahead and enjoy your shrimp heads. yum!

I gotta thank Michael Chevas and Andy Rooney for chaufering me around and showing me an amazing time downtown. They are both amazing photographers tearing it up in LA and I cant wait to party with those dudes again soon. Thats it for now, ill be catching up on the work posts soon i swear!