Halloween?

"No... this is how I normally dress."

photo by Max Gerber

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LAist interview

This interview went up on LAist while I was out of town. So, some of you may have seen it already, but I thought I'd link to it anyway.

photo by Jennifer Saxon
Read my LAist interview by Jennifer Saxon here!

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I WON A BRICK!

I won the Ignatz award for "Promising New Talent" at this year's SPX convention. Does that mean I have to promise to do better next time?
For those of you who haven't seen one, the award is an actual brick mounted on a little wooden stand with a nice image of Ignatz Mouse burned into it.


That's me giving my acceptance speech for the award. I think I said something really eloquent like: "uh... thanks... for reading it... and stuff."

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SPX and Ignatz!

I'm heading to SPX this weekend.

I'll be sharing a table with my pals from Sparkplug Comic Books.

I will also be participating in my first panel.
Kim Deitch, Roger Langridge, Jeff Smith and I will be on a panel discussion about "Comics and Animation" moderated by critic Douglas Wolk. I keep asking myself: "How the hell did I end up on a panel with three of my favorite cartoonists?"

And- I was nominated in the Promising New Talent category for the Ignatz awards. This award is nominated by a panel of judges, but voted on by everyone at the convention. So, if you're there- vote for me!

Here's hoping I come home with my very own brick!

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Wish you were here...

Why haven't you been to my art show yet?
You're crazy! It's the best show in town!
It will still be up at Black Maria Gallery for 11 more days.
Then everything will sadly go into my closet to collect dust.
GO NOW!!!

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Book Signing for "The Blot" at Black Maria Gallery

I know I've been doing a lot of stuff lately.
But if you've missed out on my art show opening, or the book signing I did at Secret Headquarters, or if you just can't get enough of me, here's another chance to see it all:

Come join us Thursday, September 27th from 6 to 8 pm
at Black Maria Gallery.
I will be signing my Ignatz Award nominated graphic novel, "The Blot."

The evening will also be another opportunity to see my solo show "Self Indulgent Werewolf" on display at Black Maria Gallery through October 15th.

Other exclusive items available:
New limited edition box set of 13 mini-prints for my series "Self Indulgence"
Limited edition giclee prints of three paintings
Self Indulgent Werewolf black metal logo T-shirts
Limited edition vinyl record of Self Indulgent Werewolf soundtrack recorded by me

So, please come out and join us.
Have a glass of wine or a beer and get your books signed.

Thursday, September 27th
6-8 pm
at Black Maria Gallery
3137 Glendale Blvd (Atwater Village)
Los Angeles, CA 90039
323-660-9393
www.blackmariagallery.com

Here's what the critics are saying about "The Blot":

"The Blot, marks a brilliant, blackly humorous milestone"
- Ron Garmon for L.A. City Beat

“The Blot is a meditation on intimacy, creativity and the loss of control over one's environment.”
- Tom Spurgeon for The Comics Reporter

“The Blot contains some of the most unnerving and original horror imagery I've seen in comics all year.”
- Sean T. Collins

"Days after reading The Blot, I was still thinking about it. So far, it’s one of my favorites of 2007"
- Jeff Vandermeer for Bookslut.com

“A very rich book, this. I strongly recommend it.”
- Joe McCulloch

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I'm in L.A. City Beat's Comics Annual '07

I'm in this week's L.A. City Beat newspaper. It's their annual Comics Issue and I'm one of the lead stories.

It also has a nice zombie-Popeye cover illustration by Tony Millionaire.



I come across as completely inarticulate about my art when quoted, but we talk about my art show, my book, beards, and other random things. So, go read Thimble Theater of Cruelty: Artist Tom Neely stalks his inner werewolf by Ron Garmon.

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Self Indulgence...

I don't know how to add an animated gif to a blog-post.
But if you click on this link you can see an animated gif of my "self indulgence" series of paintings.
Black Maria Gallery has also made a box set of mini-prints of this series.
Limited edition of 40 signed sets for $50.

Click here to see the animated gif.

Contact the gallery to purchase a set for yourself!

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2007 Ignatz Award Nominee!

WOOHOO! The Blot is nominated for an Ignatz award.

Promising New Talent
Gabrielle Bell, Lucky, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Vol. 4 (Drawn & Quarterly)
Scott Campbell, Flight Vol. 4 (Ballantine Books), Hickee vol. 3 #3 (Alternative Comics)
Lilli Carre, You Ain't No Dancer Vol. 2 (New Reliable Press)
Brandon Graham, King City (TokyoPop)
Tom Neely, The Blot (I Will Destroy You)

I love Scott Campbell and Gabrielle Bell's work, so they're tough competition.

Full list of nominees is here.

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Self Indulgent Werewolf: Preview

Here's a couple of beautiful installation shots.



Come see it in person THIS SATURDAY at Black Maria Gallery.

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The Blot has a couple more reviews...

Mondo Magazine reviews "The Blot" here.

And Bookslut reviews it here.

And you can still order a copy here.

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To hell with vinyl toys!

I wanted this to be a surprise at my show, but I can't resist posting these photos of my amazingly awesome sculpture!

It's about 6 1/2 feet tall: a life-size version of the character from my book.





Designed by me.
Sculpted by Walt (under my supervision) at the Mannequin Gallery.
Photos by Sam Sagasian.
It's in a limited edition of 3 if you want one.

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Paint it black!

I'm on the cover of Art Scene (Southern California edition) this month! Jody Zellen gave me a really nice review for the publication. You can read it here.

I especially like the last paragraph: "There is irony as well as humor in Neely’s work. He is able to fuse disparate styles. Being able to tell stories as well as illustrate them is a gift, and Neely excels as a draftsman. Working with various modes of presentation--drawing, painting, sculpture as well as the book format--Neely may represent the next step in the fusion of high art with the comic book."

I finished up all my paintings for the show last week.



This week, I've been busy getting the show put together over at Black Maria Gallery. I'm painting the gallery black!



And a big wolf head by the door to greet you!



See you next week!

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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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