KHAAAAAN!!
Maki| June 22, 2009 12:41 am
That’s ‘khan’ for ‘Comic Con’, but writing ‘Con’ with lots of O’s is bound to get me some hate mail. I spent the past weekend at Nadir’s place along with his brother and trusty sidekick Scooterus The Uterus. Therein we gorged on food, beer, and base pleasures of the flesh. or video games. Whatev. But the highlight of the weekend was the 2009 Philadelphia Comic Con! It was my first, sad to say, and I would gladly do it again. Here’s a slew of photos that will do the talking for me.
I have to thank Nadir for taking us to the Con, his brother Yener for the camera, and Scott for being an awesome cameraman. Nighto!
As promised I have for you some recent sketches I’ve made on my new toy. You may recognize two sketches being that of Eve, the protagonist of the Dusk series written by David Doub (and drawn twice by moi). I offered to do a pinup for volume 2 of the trade paperbacks and have been furiously scribbling away, trying to recapture the character. Then there are da bearsh.
Maki’s Going Digital
Maki| June 13, 2009 2:21 pm
That’s right, after years of pining and worrying about the learning curve, I finally got myself an Intuos4 graphic tablet by Wacom. All I have to say is, damn this thing is sweet. It is taking some time to get used to, as parodied above, but not so long that the joke got old before I could properly flesh it out (well, maybe a little bit old). The hardest part has been getting the brushes in photoshop and illustrator to behave like my paint brushes do. I have to thank a lot of online tutorials for helping me here.
Some things I envision for the future:
Faster comics– Even a comic of this simplicity took twice as long and never scanned in right when I was doing it old school. Faster also means I can flesh out ideas while they’re fresh and pump out hilarity like an incontinent newborn. You’ll definitely see more once I become comfortable enough with the tablet to properly express myself.
More art– More large, lushly colored, print-ready art— No more do I have to slave over a painting only to have my scanner make it green. Also, I can work without the limitations of paper size.
More lunch money– while these things aren’t cheap, I won’t have to buy art supplies for a long time.
I know I had a whole list of these I rattled off to my girlfriend while trying to weigh the pros and cons of buying one of these mama-jammas, but those are the big reasons I think. Stay tuned.
In other news, my little octopi sculptures have been selling like hot cakes at Destination NY, a small gallery/boutique here in NYC.
Grab your Guyliner–April Issue of Auxiliary Out and Dusk Update!
Maki| April 4, 2009 9:46 am
Two big updates this week! First off is a new issue of Auxiliary, an alternative fashion, music, and lifestyle mag headed up by friend, photographer, and fellow Alfred U alum, Jennifer Link. The magazine regularly features interviews with bands, fashion tips, music reviews, and even a pinup or two. Whether you follow the alternative music/fashion scene or not, I highly advise you to check it out for the beautiful photography and sleek design. Plus, Jennifer lets me throw in an illustration now and then!
Auxiliary is available for free in PDF format on the website, but you can purchase print editions as well.
Also, a few days ago I received an e-mail from comic book writer David Doub informing me that he has collected his Dusk series into massive 4 chapter volumes, and they are available on Amazon.com! I worked on Dusk back in 2005 as the penciller of the first two chapters. In fact, it was probably the first comic book I ever pencilled. Ha!
I should be receiving a copy to review soon. Volume 1 is available now, with a second volume on the way. You can purchase it on Amazon.com and view some of the original pencils in the sequential artwork section of the gallery! Hurrah!
Updates and Recurring Dreams
Maki| March 22, 2009 9:09 pmHoly shmoly, I’ve been slacking. Ladies and gentlemen, what you see here before you are the first stirrings of me coming out of a terrible winter funk. I’ve spent the last few months pittering around with nary a finished piece to show for it save a brewtastic, Mucha-inspired painting and a modified action figure. But mostly there has just been a lack of updates here on the site, not so much here at my desk. I’ll get to posting some new works once they get published/delivered to their rightful owners. But to start things off, how about a new webcomic?
A lovely heartwarming Christmas present for the parentals…
…and for Nadir. This used to be a John McCain action figure. GET IT? HA!
Ah dreams. Last November I bought myself a newfangled iPhone as a self-congratulating birthday present. Though it has more than paid for itself in usefulness, I find my recent dreams strangely haunted by it. On more than one occasion I have had a dream similar to the one depicted in this week’s comic. Some folk have tried to glean a deeper meaning from these dreams, but I’ pretty sure I’m just afraid of breaking the damn thing. In any case, you can read the first in what I hope becomes a series here. Enjoy!
Cooking Mama App!!!!!
The Buck’s Rock Camp Arts Exhibition at the Art Director’s Gallery!
Maki| December 2, 2008 8:59 pmHey folks, I’m showing some prints this weekend as part of a HUGE group exhibition from Buck’s Rock Camp. For those of you who don’t know, Buck’s Rock Creative and Performing Arts Camp is a summer camp for teens which provides a creative environment for both personal and artistic growth. I worked there for three summers as the head of the Sculpture department, and it was without a doubt the most enriching period of my life. Buck’s Rock is not only a great camp, but a veritable cornerstone of the social universe. It has connected me to people from all over the world and to Kevin Bacon by 2 degrees. The show (which opens Sunday) will feature the works of campers, staff, and even alumni. Here’s the official blurb:
The Buck’s Rock Camp Arts Exhibition is a celebration of creativity inspired from the 67 years of providing teens with learning and growing opportunities within the creative and performing arts. The show features over 400 works of art, including 270 works from over 130 campers from the summer of 2008, and 150 works from 60 alumni, spanning a 43 year period of Buck’s Rock Camp’s creative history. It will show the world the unique experience Buck’s Rock can provide for teens and teachers, and the influential effect the summers spent there have continued to have on their lives as they have grown older.
Over 100 pieces of art are for sale, including Glass, Ceramics, Paintings, Jewelry, Drawings, Prints, etc. The artists will receive 80% of the proceeds, while 20% will go to the Buck’s Rock Scholarship Fund.
The Art Directors Gallery: 106 29th Street (btwn 6th and 7th Aves.) 212 643 1440
2008 Reunion: Sunday, December 7th, 2 – 430 p.m.
Art Exhibition Opening: Sunday, December 7th, 5 -7 p.m.
The exhibition will also be open from 10am – 6pm, Monday Dec. 8th through Friday, Dec. 12th. I will be showing Octopus Jesus, Gibson Girl, and a piece from a collaboration with Snoozer Loozer! Images coming soon once I get a chance to breathe.
New Webcomic and Twitter
Maki| November 8, 2008 8:37 pm
After a brief hiatus, the weekly webcomic is back! In fact, this week we have 2 pages of goodness! The comic is pretty much word for word, weird image for weird image a dream I had Tuesday night. Spawned no doubt by the election and too much Fallout 3, it got stuck in my head all week until I could sketch it out. Enjoy the oddness!
In other news, you can now pointlessly stalk me on Twitter. You can either click the twitter icon underneath ‘Networks’ or add ‘lonelytylenol’. You aren’t missing anything if you don’t though.
Can you smell what Barack is cooking?!
Maki| November 5, 2008 12:53 am338 to 155! That’s 338 effing electoral votes versus a paltry 155. I’m sorry I missed Sarah Palin crying. But I also can’t wait for her to fade back into the obscurity from whence she came. I am psyched to have been a part of this historic moment, and relieved that I don’t have to look for a new country to move to. We can now look forward (thats forward, not backwards like the past eight years) to a new era of change and progress in all areas of life. Things are looking good from here, folks. I’m kicking myself for not being at a party right now, though! D’oh!
For the love of Velociraptor Jesus….
Maki| October 29, 2008 8:16 pm
Whoever decided that sampling the Moldovian pop song Dragostea din tei (AKA The Numa Numa song) would make for good a hip hop track, needs to be shot. And shame on T.I. and Rhianna for going along with such garbage. I never want to hear an internet fad shuffled around in order to gain popularity because an artist isn’t talented enough to come up with anything better than a reference to another piece of work. In fact, stop sampling stuff all together. Come up with your own music and leave Kraftwerk alone.
“Keep Ted Turner and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movie.” -Orson Welles, on another lame ‘remix’ technique.
Networks