i will destroy you news

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.

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?

Monday, September 22, 2008

Melvins Box Set

It's finally almost nearly out!

Read about it at the Hydra Head Blog.

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.

Monday, September 08, 2008

More reviews...

Another great review of "Your Disease Spread Quick" and "Brilliantly Ham-fisted" comes from comics critic Rob Clough:

"Neely's artistic style makes for an interesting series of contrasts. He draws much of his inspiration from classic animation and comics from around the 1920s, and his comics have a rubbery, cartoony quality that draws the reader to its surface qualities. At the same time, he subverts reader expectations with images that are often gruesomely visceral. Another trope of his is his use of ink blots. These blots have multiple meanings, depending on the context, but generally represent both creation and destruction. Neely also has an extensive background in fine arts, and as a result his comics have a tension between the flow between panels & pages and the powerful single image."

Read the rest of the review here.

(The article also includes reviews of two other books by Rina Ayuyang and Jonathan Baylis)

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.

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!

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!

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Another review of "The Blot"

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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