i will destroy you news: July 2008

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.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

San Diego Comic Con 2008

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.

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.

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.

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 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?

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.

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.

Back from Castle Gray Skull vacation...

We made it back from our vacation to Castle Gray Skull... actually we just got back from San Diego Comic Con.
It was great... full report coming soon.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Happy Birthday to "The Blot"

my book is now one year old!

Friday, July 18, 2008

San Diego Comic Con '08!

Next week is the most gigossamous convention of the year: San Diego Comic Con International

I'm really happy I'll be sharing some booth space with my pals at Sparkplug Comic Books and Teenage Dinosaur. We will be at booth #1533 (which you can see in yellow on this handy map). Unfortunately I don't think the Igloo Tornado will be joining me like last year, though Levon is likely to be at our booth on Saturday.

I've got some new stuff, and I've got some old stuff. Please come by and check us out.

NEW!!! NEW!!! NEW!!! NEW!!! NEW!!!

1) Your Disease Spread Quick: The Melvins Comic Book $6
I've got the advance copies of this book to sell at the con. The official release of this book will be a part of the limited edition Hydra Head 4xLP box set of the Melvins album "(a) Senile Animal" to be released sometime in August.

My fiancée says this book is "better than The Blot!"
Aaron Turner says "dude, this comic book is awesome."
Dylan Williams says "that new book is awesome and weird as fuck!"

It's a weird, funny, bleak story about our demise... with a giant hawk, too! I couldn't be happier about how this book came out. You can see a preview of the first 6 pages here.

2) Brilliantly Ham-fisted: 19 Comic Strip Poems $5
For those of you who followed my comic strip on this blog, you've already seen everything in this book. But the print version came out nice and I only made 50 of them (although I'll probably make more in the future). So, get 'em while you can in a rainbow of drab colors.

3) There's a slight chance I might have limited edition giclée prints of my Moby Dick piece, but that's still tentative.

4) Self Indulgent Werewolf soundtrack album limited edition: $20
If you didn't make it to my solo art show last september, then you probably haven't seen (or heard) my album. I recorded this as a "soundtrack" to the show and released it as a limited edition vinyl with silkscreen covers. Part folk, part metal, part ambient, and bordering on inept, it's an experiment in self indulgence that mixes up a lot of different music ideas played by me on banjo, guitars, keyboards and whatever else was laying around.

OLD!!! OLD!!! OLD!!! OLD!!! OLD!!!

1) The Blot- of course! $15
This little book of mine keeps truckin' along one year after it's debut. If you don't have it yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

2) Giclée prints galore! I've still got some copies of my three giclée prints from last year. They're beautiful- you should buy one and hang it in your bathroom.

3) Self Indulgence limited edition signed and numbered set of 13 prints. It's a dude eating himself and shitting himself out- who wouldn't want that hanging in their house?

4) T-shirt Blow-out! I've got various sizes of lots of t-shirts that I'll be selling at a big discount. Some of the shirts I'll have:
the ever popular Hall & Oates t-shirt by Igloo Tornado- make all the hipsters jealous with this one!
The Quadrapenguake by Igloo Tornado- a penguin with 4 snakes for a head- bitchin'!
Self Indulgent Werewolf Tom Neely Black Metal logo t-shirt- impress all of your black metal friends with this shirt for a band they've never heard of!
and some old I Will Destroy You shirts- pretend you've been into me since back in the old days.

So, I hope to see you there.
I'll be at the booth all week selling books and signing anything.
Look for me at a booth that will look something like this:

The Melvins Comic Book has arrived!

The Melvins Comic Book arrived at the Hydra Head offices yesterday afternoon!

It was business as usual around there, but I convinced Aaron to at least pretend to read the book while he was taking care of more important business.

I'll be debuting the book at the San Diego Comic Con next week. I'll be a part of the Sparkplug Comic Books booths which is booth #1533. We're the yellow area on this map.

Then sometime in August will be the actual release of the Melvins box set that includes the comic book.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Horror Award Nominee!

The nominees for the International Horror Guild Awards have been announced...

If you're like me, you're thinking "What the hell is the International Horror Guild and how did my book get nominated?" But hey- I'll take that nomination. Awesome! Thank you! I'm nominated for the "Illustrated Narrative" category. The only other work in that category that I'm familiar with is the Shaun Tan book.

It's interesting to me that so many people interpret The Blot as a horror story. Though I didn't write The Blot as a horror story, I like that it works that way. I'm a huge fan of horror movies, books and comics, so I guess it makes sense that some of that sensibility would seep into my work.

More info about the awards is here.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

My super-geeky past

I was in my hometown of Paris, Texas, over the weekend. I dug through some old sketchbooks and found some pretty funny stuff. This sketchbook dates back to around the 8th grade and is full of super-heroes that I created at that time. When I was a kid, I was WAY into super-heroes. From the first time I read a Spider-man comic in the 3rd grade, I wanted to draw super-hero comics. All of my spare time was spent drawing and inventing characters of my own.

Here's a few sketches from my 8th grade super-hero sketchbook. Even though they were heavily influenced by existing super-heros, all characters were created by "Tommy Neely":

C.O.P. (which apparently stands for Cyborg On Patrol)

Bastile

Poltergeist

A nameless ape who can apparently turn into a dude

Icarus

Mercury