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
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
My super-geeky past
Friday, June 27, 2008
Billy Reynolds at L2Kontemporary
If you're in LA go see my friend's art show opening tomorrow:
Billy Reynolds at L2Kontemporary
for those of you outside of LA there are several images on the gallery website. also billy's site is here.
he's amazing... not only are his paintings demented, they are also painted as well as an old master.
I wrote about him on my blog last summer.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Interview on Inkstuds
I really hate the sound of my voice... but that's because I sound so awesome inside my own head. The rest of you don't know how awesome I sound inside my own head, so I assume you already know that my voice sounds terrible... but despite my feelings about that, I am happy about this interview I did with Robin McConnell for INKSTUDS. I think it is pretty good.
For about 45 minutes we discuss the following topics: Wolves in the Throne Room. The Blot. Finding out about old comics through Philip Guston. Whether my Melvins Comic Book is "sad" or "hilarious." Our first concerts. Dock Boggs. Books I've been reading. Why my art is depressing and whether or not I should "cheer up." And why I don't like big monopolisitic distributors.
You also get to hear four songs that I picked for the show, including one from my Self Indulgent Werewolf record that you can buy here. ANd one that Robin says is the heaviest song ever played on his show. YAY!
So, go now and listen to me talk about myself on INKSTUDS. See if you can count how many times I say "ummm..."
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Back from Heroes Con
Just got back from Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was fun!
This kid was congratulating an adult dressed as a G.I.Joe character with a "Good job, dude!" 
This has to be the best costume ever!
One of the best parts was digging through boxes of old comics at some of the vendors booths. Among many more, I got these awesome comics: 
While I was in that neck-o-the-woods, I drove down to South Carolina to visit some relatives. I wasn't a bit shocked to see this as soon as I crossed the border into the South. Apparently some folks down there think Obama is "The Great Satan" or the "next Benedict Arnold." Yeesh- It was great to see my relatives, but I'm glad to be back in California.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Heroes Convention this weekend
This weekend I'll be at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. I've never bee to this festival, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be joining my friends at the Sparkplug Comic Books tables.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
MoCCA '08
MoCCA 2008 in NYC was a great time! 
Photo of me by Julia Rothman
I posted some pictures on my Flickr.
My book did really well at the convention, and I met a lot of new people.
I got a lot of great books, but so far I've only read two of them:
Freddie and Me by Mike Dawson is a great memoir of Mike's life-long obsession with Queen.
Welcome to the Dahl House is a collection of early work by the soon-to-be-comics-superstar Gabby Schultz (aka Ken Dahl)
Other books that I am looking forward to reading include: How to Understand Israel #2 by Sarah Glidden, BFF by Nate Beaty, Ink Weed by Chris Wright and a whole lot more.
Here's a couple of pictures of the other stuff I got: 
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
NEW WEBSITE!!!
With the help of my pal Levon Jihanian, I now have a completely new website! WOOHOO!!!
Check it out.
The Art section has about 40 new images in it.
The Store section has my book, giclée prints, my LP, and the T-Shirts from my solo show.
The Comics section has some preview pages from The Blot as well as links to some great reviews.
Everything is new and improved!
Go check out www.iwilldestroyyou.com now!!!
MoCCA in NYC this weekend
I'll be in New York City for the MoCCA Comic Arts Festival this weekend. I'll be taking up some space at Sparkplug Comic Books (at table A49 and A50).
This will be the first appearance of The Blot at this Festival. So all you New Yorkers who don't have it yet should come out and get one from me.
Sparkplug Comic Books is having a book release party on Friday along with Bodega and Secret Acres at Desert Island Comics in Williamsburg. I'll be there... you should, too!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Weekly Comic Strip: hiatus
For the next couple of months my weekly comic strip poem is going to be more sporadic. It's Comic Convention season, and I'll be traveling a lot in the near future. Which makes it difficult to keep up with the strip on top of the regular freelance work that I have to do to pay the bills. I hope I can get a few more strips done in the coming weeks, but if not, I do plan on doing more of these strips, and hope to resume a more regular schedule after July.
In the meantime, I'll be heading out to New York for the MoCCA Comic Arts Festival next week. I'll be taking up some space at Sparkplug Comic Books. This will be the first appearance of The Blot at this Festival.
Later in June I'll be at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. I've never bee to this festival, but I'm really looking forward to it. Again, I'll be taking up some space at Sparkplug Comic Books.
Then July brings the ridiculously huge San Diego Comic Convention. More details will come soon.
I'm going to have The Blot with me at all the conventions. And I hope to have some new minis and prints, etc.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Weekly Comic Strip: #19
for Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg died last week and I didn't find out about it until yesterday. I guess I've been living under a rock lately or the art world has stopped sending me transmissions.
I can't say that Rauschenberg's death was a shock or tragedy to me personally. I never met him. But his work and his life have been very important to me. So, in case you aren't as familiar with his work, I thought I'd give an explanation for this weeks comic strip poem.
Click the link to read more...
Though there's no obvious trace of his influence in my art today, Rauschenberg was one of the biggest influences on me as a young art student. I used to try to paint like him. Him and Cy Twombly. They were my heroes of art back when I was a painting student at the University of Tulsa making large abstract and collage paintings. Back in '97, when I was just finishing up my undergrad degree and getting ready for grad school, the Guggenheim had a huge retrospective of his work in NYC and I had to fly up there to see it. A few months later I took a roadtrip with a few friends down to Houston, TX, to see the show again. I spent most of that year painting every day in preparation for entering the MFA program at the San Francisco Art Institute. During that time I was inspired by his "anything can be art" attitude. At the end of the summer before moving to California, I had a solo show at a small gallery (that was actually a warehouse attached to a friend's apartment) in Tulsa. I called that show "I Will Destroy You," which soon became my epithet. Though my art was a bit derivative at the time, that was one of the most productive and fun periods of my artistic life because I was trying to make art the way Rauschenberg did- with complete freedom and enough balls to think you could do anything. But then I went to art school to get my MFA and had all of that spirit stomped out of me. Years later I feel like I'm still trying to get back that feeling. Pouring through all of my books about Rauschenberg this week reminds me of that feeling and makes me long for it even more.
Part of the reason I began my comic strip poems was to give me a space to do anything I want. I don't worry about any preconceived ideas about my art. I don't approach them with any worries of what the viewer might think or expect. I don't restrict myself to draw in any certain way. It's my time to explore whatever ideas I have about art, comics or whatever. Doing these strips is restoring that Rauschenberg feeling that I've been trying to find for so long.
This strip is a drawing after Rauschenberg's "Automobile Tire Print" from 1953 (above is photo of a section of the piece). His piece consisted of 20 pieces of paper which he glued together and then asked his friend John Cage to drive his car over with a paint-soaked wheel. To me it's a perfect embodiment of Rauschenberg's spirit that anything and everything could and should be art. Rauschenberg was also a joker and parodist and was always poking fun at his contemporaries. This piece was a subtle jab at one of his favorite painters, Barnett Newman. Newman's abstract paintings consisted of thin lines of contrasting color that were meant to evoke spiritual contemplation through minimalist expression. Rauschenberg pokes fun at Newman's work, but with a tongue in the cheek and a friendly nod to his contemporary.
Rauschenberg often paid homage to his fellow artists through parody by tearing down the conceptions of their art. When the abstract expressionists were taking painting beyond it's known limits, Rauschenberg took it even further when he erased a de Kooning drawing. He continued to toy with his ab-ex friends when he created Factum 1 and Factum 2, a performance in which he created two identical abstract paintings.
So, when trying to think of a way to pay homage to one of my heroes, I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. I decided to recreate his tire track by drawing it by hand with a brush and ink on paper without the use of a tire or a car.
The words in this strip are also Rauschenberg's. In an interview about his process, he said:"I don't think any honest artist sets out to make art. You Love art. You Live art. You are art. You do art. But you're just doing something. You're doing what no one can stop you from doing."
Words that any artist should live by.
R.I.P. Robert Rauschenberg.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Book By Its Cover Sketchbook Series
Check out my sketchbook pages at Book By Its Cover.
If you don't regularly check out Julia Rothman's Book By Its Cover blog, then you should. She does great little snap-shot book reviews of lots of interesting art and illustration books and the occasional comic book, too. (She reviewed my book last summer)
She has also been posting a regular "Sketchbook Series" in which she asks different artists to send her pictures from their sketchbooks and comment on them.
When she asked me, my first thought was "I don't use my sketchbook nearly enough..." my next thought was "My sketchbooks are full of terrible drawings that no one should ever see!" But I managed to dig through and find some stuff that might be interesting. So, go here and check out my sketchbook pages at Book By Its Cover.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
slight delay...
sorry- the weekly comic strip will be delayed slightly...
due to recent travels, i haven't finished the new strip yet.
i will post it late wednesday or thursday morning.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Back from Portland/Seattle
I can't say that I recommend Seattle's Emerald City Comic Convention as the best place to try and sell an indie comic book or graphic novel, but it was a good excuse to go up to Seattle for the weekend. It also gave me a chance to visit nearby Portland and see all my cartoonist friends that live up there.
Two of the many things I love about Portland:
Vegan Cupcakes and lots and lots of green trees
While I was at the convention I asked several of the people in costumes to pose with my book. I've done that at several cons now, but this is the first time where I got "attitude" from some of the costumed people. Some douche who is way too old to be dressed as Magneto said "are you going to pay me for this endorsement?" Do you really think I need an endorsement from an old man who dresses up like a super-villain? Here's a tip- if you wear a cartoon costume in public, you wave your right to have an attitude. But he wasn't the only one, I also received similar sentiments from a dude dressed like some kind of video-game-anime demon and a jack-ass dressed like Gambit.
But anyway... Here are a few of the nicer costumed people who were happy to pose for a photo with my book.
That scarry bunny from Donnie Darko:
Guy Gardner of the Green Lantern Corps:
A couple of the Suicide Girls:
I also came up with a new comic convention pass-time...
putting "kick me" signs on the backs of stormtroopers:
Also- if you're ever in Seattle, go eat awesome vegan pizza at Pizza Pi!!!
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Interview with Cold Hard Flash
If any of you remember, I did an animated music video for The Muffs a couple of years ago. Radiohead now has a contest for people to try and animate a music video for one of their songs. I love Radiohead and wish I had time to try out for that gig, but I'm too busy lately. However, Aaron Simpson (who runs the great Flash animation blog Cold Hard Flash) is doing a series of interviews with several animation artists who have tackled the music video in recent years.
Read my interview at Cold Hard Flash and learn more about how I made my Muffs video and other stuff. Also- this interview includes a much better version of the video than what has previously been available online, so watch it again!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Robot Boobs are FUNNY!
Every time I see robot boobs it makes me giggle... not like a kid who just saw boobies and he's embarrassed, but because I think it's silly how often they come up in comics. It happens a lot in Heavy Metal Comics (or the awful movie), but if you really want to see cheesey, sometimes gross, sexy (if you're into metal genitalia) robots, check out the fascinatingly grotesque artwork of Sorayama.
I always wonder who gets off on that stuff, but someone does and that makes me laugh. So, I couldn't resist giving the "Mechanical Bride" in my Melvins comic book some metal boobs. However, my mechanical bride is more inspired by Metropolis than anything else.
The Melvins Comic Book (which has been on hiatus due to too much freelance work) is now back on track and will be finished this month. The above image is a panel from page 15 and features The Civilized Worm, Rat-faced Granny and the Mechanical Bride- characters inspired by the song titles from the Melvins album A Senile Animal.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
American Illustration 27
I just got word that I'll be included in the American Illustration 27 Annual that will come out later this year.
They selected my "Self Indulgence" series that was a part of my solo show at Black Maria Gallery.
I was also included in American Illustration #26 and 24.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Super*Market LA today
I almost forgot to mention that and I will be exhibiting at super*MARKET L.A. this afternoon (Sunday, the 30th).
I'll have copies of The Blot, my 3 giclée prints, some shirts and other stuff available for sale.
My pal Levon Jihanian will be joining me with some of his mini-comics, prints, shirts and other things.
super*MARKET will be at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood noon to 6pm
(above illustration by Martin Cendreda)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Don't be confused...
That's by some other "Tom" whose work uses some oddly similar imagery.
This is me:
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Weekly Comic Strip: #11
I'll take this opportunity to mention that I'll be at Super*Market LA this Sunday at Meltdown Comics. I'll have copies of The Blot, my prints, and maybe some other stuff for sale. The awesome Levon Jihanian will be joining me with some of his mini-comics and prints.
Here's this week's strip. 
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Weekly Comic Strip: #10
Tomorrow night, Thursday the 20th, there will be a closing party for the Igloo Tornado show at Black Maria Gallery from 6 to 9 pm. Come out to that and you can see the originals of these strips.
Here's this week's strip:
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Weekly Comic Strip: #9
People keep telling me these are depressing. I promise there will be some "happy" strips in the future.
Next Thursday there will be a closing party for the Igloo Tornado show at Black Maria Gallery from 6 to 9 pm. Come out to that and you can see the originals of these strips.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Hydra Head Poster part 2
Here's the finished poster with lettering and color by Aaron Turner. 
If you want one of the silkscreen posters, you'll have to catch them at SXSW or at the Hydra Head Store after the festival.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Weekly Comic Strip: #8
I almost forgot it was Wednesday!
Here's this week's strip:
The first 15 strips are still up at Black Maria Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. They are also for sale through their website. The originals are 12 by 30 inches on heavy archival 500lb watercolor paper.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Hydra Head Poster
This time a year ago, I was busy in my studio working on the final art for The Blot. While working on the book I listened to a lot of music. But probably the band I listened to the most during this period was ISIS. The tone and mood of their music felt very similar to what I was going for with my story, so it was inspiring to listen to them while working on my own art.
After I published the book, I was sending out review copies and I tried to figure out a way to send a copy to ISIS. But I figured any mail I sent to them would just end up thrown in some unread pile of fan-letters. So, I gave up that idea. Little did I know that Aaron shops at the same comics shop that I do, and we happened to meet by chance and all my metal-head fantasies were crushed as I found out that he's a comic-book geek like me.
Since then we've become good friends and now I'm happy to say we're doing our first collaboration. Here is the drawing I just completed for a Hydra Head Records show at SXSW later this month. Part of the drawing was inspired by a painting I once saw by Francisco de Zurbarán. Aaron is going to be doing the design, coloring and text layout for the poster, and then it will be a limited editions silkscreen sold at their shows. I'm looking forward to seeing what Aaron does with the image. In case you didn't know, he's also the art director and designer of most of the Hydra Head albums and he's quite good at that. 
I'm still working on the Melvins Comic Book (another project for Hydra Head). I'm a little behind schedule, but it will be done later this month.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Part 3 of my interview with Daily Crosshatch
I didn't know this went up the other day.
So, go read through the rest of my stumbling answers in the last installment of my interview with Brian Heater.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Weekly Comic Strip: #7
A reminder to anyone in L.A. this month- the first 15 strips are all up at Black Maria Gallery. They are also for sale through their website. The originals are 12 by 30 inches on heavy archival 500lb watercolor paper.
Monday, February 25, 2008
33
I share my birthday with:
Painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Cartoonist Arnold Roth
Actor Jim Backus (best known as Thurston Howell III)
Novelist Anthony Burgess
Beatle George Harrison
Wrestler Ric Flair
Musician John Doe of X
Actress Tea Leoni
Hobbit and Goonie Sean Astin
Brother Zeppo Marx
Annoyance Carrot Top
I'll be spending my birthday at the new BCAM building at LACMA.
UPDATE: I just returned from the BCAM. What a waste. A waste of a nice birthday afternoon. Yeesh! Other than a few nice Basquiats, Rauschenbergs and Twombleys I was completely uninspired by the whole thing. At one point I found myself more interested in the scrapes on the concrete floor caused by the installation of Richard Serra's sculptures than I was in any of the art. If anything, this BCAM building is a tribute to everything that is wrong with the last half of 20th Century art- a time when artists became clever jokers who fooled billionaires into investing in their shallow bullshit. It makes me long for L.A. to have a museum as great as the Met in NYC where we could go see some real art.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Igloo Tornado Opening Night
The opening of the Igloo Tornado show was a good night. Despite the rain we had a good crowd, some artwork sold, and fun was had by all. Check the Igloo Tornado blog for more photos of the evening. 
Friday, February 22, 2008
LAist Interview with the Igloo Tornado
Go read this LAist interview and find out why Levon is the most loveable among us.
