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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Geeked!

Brilliantly Ham-fisted got a little mini review in the upcoming January issue of Geek Magazine. Click it to read it:

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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

POST IT SHOW 3 video

I'm bummed I didn't make it to the opening night. But someone made a little video of the POST IT SHOW 3:

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BEASTS! 2 release party

Here's a Flickr set from the BEASTS! 2 show at Fantagraphics last weekend. If you look closely, you can almost see my print hanging near the bottom of the wall above the bookshelf.



I wish I could see the rest of those prints. Some of them look incredible. For more, check them out at the BEASTS! blog: here, here, here and here.

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Tuesday, December 09, 2008

2 Group Shows this weekend!

I've got work in two group shows opening Saturday, December 13th:

POST IT SHOW 3 at Giant Robot 2 in Los Angeles.
I made 19 post-it-portraits of artists and writers that I like. I posted all of them here. With most pieces priced at $20, this show is a great way to get super-inexpensive artwork by a lot of todays best cartoonists, illustrators and artists. Recession art!

Not in L.A.? Sorry- GR won't pre-sell anything from this show. It's a first-come-first-serve sell-a-thon at the opening reception. After that, they will sell the remaining post-its through their web store.


BEASTS! 2 book release party and print show at the Fantagraphics Book Store in Seattle, WA.

I have nice new prints of my Skinwalker beast. The prints are a 2 plate letterpress with hand-painted watercolors by me. Limited edition of 60 copies. Fantagraphics has numbers 1-5.
They are $60 - Cheap!
Or order the BEASTS! 2 Book here.

Not in Seattle? In January there will be another Beasts! 2 show at Giant Robot San Francisco (more details coming soon). Sometime after the holidays, I hope to get these prints up on my online store.

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Monday, December 08, 2008

ISIS t-shirt


I designed this for an ISIS t-shirt. ISIS is on a short European tour right now, and they are selling these shirts and hoodies along the way.

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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

POST IT SHOW 3 at GR2

Giant Robot is having it's 3rd Annual POST IT show.
Lots of artists are asked to do drawings on Post-it notes.
The show opens Dec. 13th at GR2 in L.A.
More info about the show soon.
Here are my Post-it-Portraits of artists and writers who I like:



















The 3x3" post its will be $20. The 3x5" post its will be $30.

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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

20 Questions

Twenty Cartoon Questions is a little blog started by comics-savant, Austin English*. Austin asks the same 20 questions to different up-and-coming alt-cartoonists. The questions focus on the artists' process and materials. The results are some of my favorite interviews.

If you're at all interested in peeking into the minds and studios of some of today's best cartoonists, I recommend all of these interviews. One of those cartoonists is me. My 20 questions can be found here. This is an on-going series, so bookmark it.


*Austin is also the author of Christina and Charles and editor of Windy Corner Magazine. Both are published by Sparkplug Comic Books.

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Review of "The Blot" from The Comics Journal is online now.

This review appeared in The Comic Journal #287. Chris Mautner has just posted it on his blog for everyone to read.

Here's an excerpt:

...And yet The Blot really is that good. I’m actually sorely tempted, for example, to compare it to the first issue of Acme Novelty Library, or The Biological Show or Good-Bye Chunky Rice. Not that it’s necessarily standing on the same high aesthetic ground as those works (though I’d find it hard to believe it won’t be included on my “best of” list come January), but rather that it’s an impressive and declarative debut in the same fashion that those other books were. This is the type of book where after reading it you get the feeling you’re going to start expecting big things from the artist from here on out.

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

You can't tell me some things weren't better back then...



For more images from old Macy's Parades, go here.

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Monday, November 17, 2008

Aquarius Records

Aquarius Records is probably my favorite record store in the universe. I discovered them when I lived in SF nearly 10 years ago, and even though it was significantly smaller than Amoeba, it felt more like my kinda place. I was sad to lose my regular trips there when I moved to L.A., but soon found that they have an amazing website and they review nearly every album they carry. The reviewers are all knowledgeable and smart and each have their own personalities and niche taste in music. They're kinda like that cool older kid in high school who introduced you to all your favorite bands. Just the other night a friend was asking me "where do you find out about all these crazy underground bands?" My secret is Aquarius Records.

Anyway- while I was up in SF for APE, I stopped by and gave them a bunch of the Melvins comic books to sell. And this review of it includes my favorite description of the comic so far. Read it on their latest "new arrivals list #305":

"For those of you who missed out on the ultra limited Melvins A Senile Animal box set (which is probably most everybody), we managed to get a handful of these super limited comics, by aQ customer Tom Neely, which came in the box along with a belt buckle and a bunch of other stuff. The comic is amazing, inspired by the album, which means it's bizarre and twisted and fucked up and garish and beautiful. For those of you who have yet to see Neely's art (you very well might have and just not known it as he does a lot of commercial stuff too), you're in for a treat, classic and old fashioned, but just a bit tweaked and damaged.

This Melvins comic is the tale of a horse, who loses his head, some sort of spectre, plenty of gore and blood and vomiting, a bandaged worm man with a very powerful tongue, being chased by little legged dots, a bar full of vampires and historical figures, a wolf in grandma's clothing, a long journey across a black sea in a rickety rowboat, a strange mountaintop female cyborg, a giant eagle, a city wrapped in living tendrils, more removable heads and a horde of horses. Sure it sounds insane, it's a comic based on a Melvins record!!! The back cover has a funny Melvins parody ad, and the inside back cover has bios of both Neely and the Melvins."


So, now you can order the book from Aquarius or from Hydra Head Records. Support independent record stores like Aquarius. They are a dying breed, but one the last representatives of the amazing diversity of arts in the world we live in.

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

BEASTS! 2 pre-order



BEASTS! 2 is now available for pre-order from Fantagraphics.

The first BEASTS! book was great and I'm very happy to be included in the second volume, which includes an even more impressive lineup of artists. The above image is my contribution to the book- The Skinwalker. There is also going to be some sort of print show at the Fantagraphics store in Seattle. I have made a limited edition of hand-painted letterpress prints of my Skinwalker that will be available at this event. More details coming soon.

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Another great review...

A very nice review of "Your Disease..." and "Brilliantly Ham-fisted" by Brian Heater can be found here.

...fans of Neely’s deservedly lauded book will no doubt be satiated by both books which provided a happy return to Neely’s strange and wonderful universe and a chance to delve even further into the artist’s happily warped psyche.


I've received e-mails asking how to order these books. "Your Disease..." can be ordered through Hydra Head Records here. As for "Brilliantly Ham-fisted," as soon as I make some more of the, I will put them up in my store.

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More Obama love

Two things I have in common with our president:

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville


I wish I could also say I can bench-press 200 lbs, but at least we have similar taste in literature.

More facts about Obama are here.

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Sunday, November 09, 2008

"Your Disease Spread Quick" available.



I haven't had a chance to get "Your Disease Spread Quick" up in the I Will Destroy You Store yet, but for those of you who want it, it's now available at the Hydra Head Records Store for only $6. This is the comic book I created for the Melvins box set for "(a) Senile Animal." That box set is selling out quickly. But the comic book can be purchased separately at the HHR store and a few comic book stores around L.A.

If you want to sell this book in your store, please e-mail me about wholesale prices and orders.

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Tuesday, November 04, 2008

A.P.E. movie

i made a video at A.P.E. this weekend.



i miss all of you already.

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VOTE!

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

APE this weekend!



I'll be heading up to San Francisco for the APE comic festival this weekend.

I'll be joining my friends at the Sparkplug Comic Books table.

This will be the first time I've had The Blot at APE.
I'll also have The Melvins Comic Book "Your Disease Spread Quick," and "Brilliantly Ham-fisted" and a few other things.

EXCLUSIVE and NEW: The Obama vs McCain poster above will be a giveaway at the APE comic festival this weekend. Don't forget to VOTE!

Also- I have a few pieces in the PANELISTS IV show at Giant Robot San Francisco.

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Saturday, October 25, 2008

3 weeks ago...



We're still not used to the novelty of calling each other "wife" and "husband."

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Panelists at GRSF



I'm a last minute addition to the list of cartoonists who will be in the Panelists Group Show at Giant Robot SF. I submitted 6 of my comic strip poems, but I'm not sure how many will be hung in the show. The show opens November 1, 2008 (During APE weekend). I'll post more info about the current show soon.

UPDATE: That's the new postcard above. Click the postcard or check the GRSF site for more information.

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

13 from our honeymoon


i don't wanna be back home.

i wish we were still in Belize...










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Friday, October 03, 2008

Somebody's Getting Married!

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Melvins Box Set Released!

UPDATE:
from the Hydra Head Blog:

"Also, this happened to some of the Melvins comics...

When Tom went through signing and numbering the comics for the Melvins box set, he went and got all clever and did shit like this...which makes us just want to keep them all ourselves...instead we just took pics of each one and cataloged the images for safe keeping...we'll post more down the road. This Horse image here is in the batch that Secret Headquarters is sitting on right now...and no, we're not gonna tell you what number it is. Roughly 1 out of every 6 has a unique drawing in the comic...there are talking Juicy Juice boxes, black metal dudes yelling "Elton John!", knights and castles, and piles upon piles of other sketches including, as you can see above, some of the characters from "Your Disease Spread Quick".
"


The Melvins Box Set with my comic book "Your Disease Spread Quick" is released today exclusively through Secret Headquarters in L.A.

From SHQ:

Its here!
Melvins
"A Senile Animal"
Box Set
(4xLP, comic, belt buckle, limited to 300)
exclusively available
at
Secret Headquarters
of
Los Angeles, CA.
Starting today!
Accepting orders via email ONLY

Send email with "Melvins" in the subject line to:

shq@TheSecretHeadquarters.com

Include address and telephone number in the body of the email.
We will contact you once we receive your email.
Limit one per customer.

Price: $90
Shipping West Zone: $20
Shipping Mid Zone: $25
Shipping East Zone: $30

International rates on request

Don't call us - we'll call you.
We will not be accepting ANY phone orders - please follow the email instructions above.
We will contact you.

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

This is really upsetting me.

Hollywood really needs to be stopped!

"Universal Pictures has made a splashy preemptive buy of "Moby Dick," a reimagining of the Herman Melville whale tale that Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted") will direct. Studio paid high six figures to Adam Cooper and Bill Collage to pen the screenplay.

The writers revere Melville’s original text, but their graphic novel-style version will change the structure. Gone is the first-person narration by the young seaman Ishmael, who observes how Ahab’s obsession with killing the great white whale overwhelms his good judgment as captain.

This change will allow them to depict the whale’s decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with Ahab’s Pequod, and Ahab will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive.

"Our vision isn’t your grandfather’s ‘Moby Dick,’ " Cooper said. "This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects to tell what at its core is an action-adventure revenge story."

..."We wanted to take a graphic novel sensibility to a classic narrative," said Collage. They brought it to the Wibberlys, the "National Treasure" scribes ..."


What the hell is wrong with these people?

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Monday, September 22, 2008

Melvins Box Set



It's finally almost nearly out!

Read about it at the Hydra Head Blog.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Interview on Indie Spinner Rack

When I was at Heroes Con in Charlotte North Carolina this summer, I met Charlito and Mr. Phil of the Indie Spinner Rack radio podcast. They asked me to do a joint interview with my pal Jim Rugg during the convention. It happened on Sunday when I was sleep-deprived and losing my voice and not really thinking all that clearly... But anyway, it's not as bad as I expected it to be.

Our interview starts several minutes into this show (after a long bus-ride conversation about Starbucks and Japanese Engrish between Charlito and some other people in the Heroes Con shuttle). I talk about The Blot, the Melvins book, my big sculpture and other stuff.

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Monday, September 01, 2008

Two Great Reviews!

Comics critic Sean T. Collins reviews my Melvins comic book " Your Disease Spread Quick."

"Tom Neely is working the most fruitful vein of horror-slash-artcomics since Al Columbia."


And he also gives a mostly positive review of my collection of comic strip poems "Brilliantly Ham-fisted."

"...this collection of "19 comic strip poems" ... boasts some very strong work, including among them some of my favorite comics of the year."


I still don't know the release date for the Melvins Boxset, but it should be any day now.

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Thursday, August 21, 2008

THAR SHE BLOWS!!!



The surprise hit of SDCC for me was the sale of my Moby Dick giclée prints. I only had 10 of them, and sold out in a couple of hours. Well, I've got 20 left and then they are gone. They are now available to order through my store for $250 (includes shipping). As they come closer to selling out, I will be raising the price.

It is 19 x 41 inches giclée print on good quality watercolor paper. Limited edition of 30 signed and numbered copies.

Please allow 2-3 weeks for the order to process.

Get 'em while you can!

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Monday, August 11, 2008

Atwater Village Art Walk 2008


Ever wondered what my studio is like?
Wanna see all my available artwork in one small space?
Wanna hang out in my backyard on a Saturday night?
Want some free beer?

I'm participating in the Open Studio portion of the Atwater Village Art Walk this year. It happens this Saturday, August 16th, from 5 to 9 pm. It is hosted by several nearby galleries and businesses, including Black Maria Gallery (where I had my solo show last year).

I'll have all my stuff available for purchase:
The Blot
Your Disease Spread Quick- the Melvins Comic Book
Brilliantly Ham-fisted- a collection of my comic strip poems
my giclée prints: Reborn, The Wolf and Rise Above
my new Moby Dick giclée prints
my Self Indulgent Werewolf Record
And most of my available paintings from the last couple of years will be on display and for sale (Black Maria will also have some of them in their rack room).

Please come by and keep me company. Otherwise I'll be sitting in my backyard alone with a big bucket of beer... and that might result in a bad Sunday morning.

The flyer is attached below (map removed post event).
I'm #10- way down at the bottom of the map.
But it's really only about 3/4 of a mile from the galleries. I'll have a cold beer (or soda, or water) waiting for you after you make the long trek through my beautiful neighborhood. See you then!

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Thursday, August 07, 2008

Another review of "The Blot"

Here's an interesting, but short review of The Blot.

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Weekly Comic Strip: #20



These aren't going to be "weekly" anymore, but I hope to start posting them more often as I finish them.

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Monday, August 04, 2008

I'm blogging at Fanboy Fables

I've been asked to participate in a group blog called Fanboy Fables.

This blog contains posts from comics professionals, retailers, and superfans about their experiences with certain issues of comics from their past which holds special importance to them.

My first entry is about the Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics.

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Danzig's really gonna punch me now...

I just saw this newspaper article about Comicon and there's a quote from me about Danzig:

Six years ago, Glen Danzig was tucked away in a little corner booth selling his art, trying to remain anonymous. He wasn't wearing a nametag and when a fan looking for an autograph approached him, he denied who he was. Now he has embraced the Con for a chance to sell anything he can, but has a constant security guard present. It's hard to tell whether or not they're trying to fly under the radar or make themselves known, but I'd bet on the latter since all of them are wearing Samhain or Black Aria T-shirts.

And a mere three aisles away is Sparkplug Press, a small publisher selling "Henry and Glen 4Ever," a mini comic about Danzig and Henry Rollins as life partners.

"I'm just waiting for him to see one and come by to punch me in the face," said creator Tom Neely.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

San Diego Comic Con 2008

Me and Gonzo! (I'm the one on the right)

I survived another year of the San Diego Comic Con! I had a really great time while I was there. In many ways it was one of the most pleasant SDCCs of my career.
Me and Matt Groening (no badges)
Highlights included meeting both Gonzo and Matt Groening (who said he had The Blot and he bought my new comics!), hanging out with all my comic book friends, and introducing my fiancée to the strange world of comic conventions. And she LOVED it.
Elvis Stormtrooper likes The Blot
Deadpool likes my Melvins Comic
The convention was a big success, too. I debuted my Melvins comic book "Your Disease Spread Quick" and it was well received. I also sold out of my mini-comic collection of comic strip poems. The biggest surprise was how quickly I sold out of my Moby Dick prints. I didn't have them until Saturday morning, but all week people kept stopping by and looking at the proof I had on display.

Levon brought 10 of them down from L.A. with him and within 4 hours of opening on Saturday, I had sold all of them. And I'm starting to get e-mail requests to order them already. I will have the remaining 20 copies of my Moby Dick prints available in the store soon. Check the blog for future details.
TV's Batman & Robin age 10
The convention has changed in the 10 years I've been going there. There's lots of talk about it being too Hollywood now... but I don't really know about that. Over half of the convention is taken over by movies, t.v. shows, toy companies and video games. And it does seem like that part of the convention overshadows the comics. But it doesn't seem like it really efects us that much. They seem to keep to their end of the convention center, and we've still got ours. That's fine with me. It's like me and my friends are all sitting at the nerd table in the high school lunchroom. The Jocks are encroaching on our territory, but they can't keep us from being who we are.

I love comic convention people. They fascinate me and entertain me and make me feel at home. There is something really wonderful about the freedom to express all of our geeky-weirdness in public.
I have no ideaawesome wizard shirt 2awesome suits made out of sheets view from my boothLasagna Cat and some dudes

I managed to avoid buying stuff this year. I only made one purchase the whole week: a novel based on the '60s supermarionation show Captain Scarlet. Who could resist a novel based on a puppet show?
the Sparkplug Comic Books/I Will Destroy You booth
HUGE thanks to my pals Sparkplug Comic Books and Teenage Dinosaur for letting us join them for our double booth setup. And Levon, Jeff, Shiga, Shannon, Alixopulos and David for hanging out and helping all week.
calm before the storm
I love going to cons with these guys - they help keep me grounded amidst the onslaught of interacting with thousands of people. Even though I'm completely exhausted, I'm already lookin' forward to hanging out with them at the next one.

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