Save the date: Self Indulgent Werewolf

Saturday, September 15th, 7-11 pm at Black Maria Gallery
My first L.A. solo show: Self Indulgent Werewolf.

34 new paintings!
1 large sculpture!
Soundtrack album composed and recorded by me!
My book- The Blot!
Giclée prints!
New t-shirts!
Booze!
Lots of nudity!

Also- My friend Aaron Turner, singer and guitarist for ISIS, will be DJing the opening party. He will play lots of good experimental, metal, and ambient music along with my soundtrack album.

I know every other gallery in town has an opening that night- but I promise mine is way better than any of those other shows. And I promise way more nudity than any of the other shows!

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Headin' to Toronto...

I'm going to the Toronto Comic Art Festival this weekend. I'll be tagging along with my pals at Sparkplug Comic Books. I'll be bringing as many copies of The Blot. as I can fit in my bags.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this festival. It's supposed to be really great. And I'm looking forward to seeing Toronto. If you're up in that neck o' the woods, come check it out.

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I wanna be big in Japan...

This dude hasn't read my book, but wants it really bad. Unfortunately I'm not sure if I can send a copy to Japan because they have pretty strict censorship over there and there is a lot of full-frontal nudity in my book. Anyway, he has some nice things to say about my art.

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Black Metal

I have a fascination with Black Metal, and have for a while now. You can often hear the sounds of Weakling, Xasthur, Ulver, Satyricon, etc emanating from my studio while I'm working on paintings of werewolves.

I was talking to a friend the other day about how it's kind of difficult to be a black metal fan because there is a lot of baggage attached to that genre of music. For one thing, I can't say I in any way support the politics of most black metal bands- many of which are outright fascists- nor do I believe in most of their supposed allegiance with Satanism or Odin worshipping.

The music of many of these bands is really interesting and often beautiful in a horrific way, while others are more like heavy metal clowns who never grew out of that child-hood phase of wanting to dress up like Gene Simmons and play a horribly garbled form of heavy-metal-punk. But the best of these bands create interesting, complex, avantgarde, and very emotional music. If Arvo Pärt was from Hell, he might have been in a black metal band.

Liking black metal is also difficult because so many of the bands' persona are so ridiculous and they take themselves so seriously that it seems completely unbelievable. I often find myself wondering if it's all an act, or if these guys really are as serious as they try to be. I suspect there is some of each in the mix somewhere.

Anyway... I designed my name into a black metal style logo for a t-shirt design for my upcoming art show. Most of the bands also have ridiculously complex and hard to read logos that are usually symetrical in design. Here's my attempt at a "Tom Neely" black metal style:



There is also a bit of black metal influence in the soundtrack that I have recorded for the show. I'll post more details about that soon.

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Covey...

Jacob Covey, the awesome art director of Fantagraphics, seems to be a new fan of some of my work. He blogs about me at the Fantagraphics "Flog" here and here.

Will he put me in the next BEASTS! book? We'll see...

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SOLD!

My Moby Dick piece over at Corey Helford Gallery is already sold. But you can still see it for the rest of the month.

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Post Comicon favorite comic book

I've been devouring comics since I got back from Comicon. I avoided reading most comics during the creation of my book, The Blot. But since I finished it, I've been going through several books a week, reading everything I can find. I've read a lot of great stuff recently, and I could do a post about all of them, but I'd rather just tell you about my favorite.

Hands down, the best comic book I got at SDCC this year was Reich by Elijah Brubaker and published by Sparkplug Comic Books. It's a biographical comic book about a sex analyst who was a protegé of Freud. I know nothing about the actual William Reich, but Elijah seems to be doing his research really well, and footnotes his facts in the back of the book. I was unfamiliar with Elijah's work before reading this book. The storytelling is very strong in this comic, but what really grabs me is his artwork. The cover of issue #1 doesn't do it justice (check out the cover of issue #2 for a better example of the interior art). The artwork reminds me of the artists of the period in which the story is set: George Grosz, Otto Dix, and there's even a one panel nod to Egon Schielle. But Elijah's work isn't derivative of any one of these styles... he blends them into the comics medium, with some other possible influences of Ulf K. and David B., and manages to pull off a very beautiful and interesting cartooning style of his own.

It appears that Sparkplug Comic Books intends to release this series quarterly, and I hope they are able to keep that up. I'm looking forward to every future issue of this comic book.

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A couple more short reviews...

Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics has a short review of The Blot in his post-con, recent reading book round-up post over at Flog. Scroll down about halfway through the list to read his thoughts about my book.

Sean T. Collins also has a short blurb about my book in which he says: "The Blot contains some of the most unnerving and original horror imagery I've seen in comics all year, including my favorite spread of the year thus far."

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LiterArtistry: Group Show

Literartistry is a group show in which Corey Helford Gallery has asked a bunch of artists to do work inspired by their favorite books.

I did Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I've been somewhat obsessed with that book recently and have read it 4 times in the last couple of years. My piece is over 5 feet tall. Ink on paper. I'm posting an image of it (click for larger view), but it's hard to really see all the detail on a computer screen. I hope you can come see it in person. I put a lot of effort into this one. I'm even impressed myself with how it came out. For those of you who haven't read Moby Dick, I totally give away the ending. So, come see it and I'll spoil the book for you.



The opening is this Saturday at
Corey Helford Gallery
8522 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
310-287-2340
Opening Reception Saturday, August 11th 7 - 10 pm

Among many other artists who I don't know, this show also includes pieces by my friends Gin Stevens and Paul Chatem.

Come check it out!

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Comics Reporter interview with ME!

Tom Spurgeon interviewed me about "The Blot" for his online magazine The Comics Reporter.

NOW GO READ IT! And you'll learn more about me than you wanted to know.

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