New Theme For Monster By Mail! SUPERVILLIANS!

Ah yes, It's been two years since I first decided to open Monster By Mail and start selling my artwork. And it's also been a while since I've done a full-fledged theme. But all that will change when I start "The Summer Of the SuperVillain!" That's right. Simply name your Supervillain and I'll draw them. It's as easy as that. I'm looking forward to what kind of Villains will come out of this project. And please be creative with your names. It's your creativity that helps drive the art. So go ahead and start ordering your own Supervillain today!

Caption This: 4-27-09

Book Recommendations from Us

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but it seems like real life is catching up with us and the thought of posting a real blog post seems both futile and tiring. Like many other bloggers/podcasters I've taken to the Twitter to get my messages across, leaving little time to actually write up a thoughtful post.

That being said, I am severely behind in my posting and hope to change that in the near future.

First off, you may remember our friend Bill Maynard from show #118 where he discussed his upcoming book "The Terror Of Fu Manchu". Well, you will be glad to know that Bill has published his book and it is now available for your reading consumption. You can purchase it here. I saw Bill on Friday and he was very excited about finally getting the book done and up for sale, so please support him if you can.

Secondly, my friend and fellow hobo artists have been busy as well. M.R. Peterson AKA Halcyconsnow has written a book called Dedicat Ed, which is about a foul-mouth midget who aspires to be a basketball player. Yes, you read that right. His book is available in a Kindle-friendly edition here. Mike says about his book:

"I don't know if you read on the toilet or on the bus, or while you excrete while on the bus, but it's perfect for that.The book part of it is only 95 pages or so. Read aloud, the full version took about 150 minutes."

High praise, indeed.

Also, friend of the show, Adam "Apelad" Koford has published a compendium of his Laugh Out Loud Cat cartoons and is selling them online at Amazon as well. The newer book contains a foreword by Hobo High Priest, John Hodgman and is definitely worth your time and effort.

So there you have it. Some book recos from us to you. Please buy as many as you can and make my friends happy.

Caption This: 4-20-09

Jawbone #242: You Catch The Man!

A show title based on Front 242. Selling our home. An audio tour idea from the chatroom. Lots of fun. Thanks for joining us. Enjoy the show and please subscribe!

RSS feed.


Download now.

Crazy Cyberstalker Interviewed By Media

Ann Bruno was accused of cyberstalking a competitor by police. When the local news media goes to interview her, she goes bonkers, donning an Easter Bunny head and a monster mask. Check it out.

Working At Google = XBOX FAIL

This is from my nephew, Mark. He was "googling" as all the kids do these days and came across an article about why it's SO COOL to work at Google. Well, scroll down the photolog around 26 pics in and see that working at Google apparently makes you JAM OUT to the XBOX dashboard like never before! Thanks for the find, Mark!

Hurry and look before the Cylons, er- Google Bots - replace it with employees using a Gran Turismo steering wheel to operate the microwaves.

More Reasons To Love The Onion

Hot New Video Game Consists Solely Of Shooting People Point-Blank In The Face

Caption This: 4-6-09

Thanks to Greg Epps for this week's installment.

Art Reflected Back

Every once in a while, I'll get an e-mail so cool, so amazing, that it leaves me a little off-balance due to its sheer awesomeness. Today, I got one of those e-mails.

Seth is a guy who is a fan of my monsters. Apparently, he's been watching the videos with his kids and checking the site to see if I've done anything new. Well, his kids were so in love with the videos of my art, that he decided to take a stab at drawing homages of my art not only to do something creative, but also to impress his kids. Coulton had always talked about the odd feeling of seeing something you have created reflected back in someone else's creativity. This is the first time that my art has been reflected back at me like this and I was a little taken aback. You can see my original art and his takes on my art below. There is something very Warholesque about this process and truly I am humbled and amazed that anyone would take the time to redraw something that I have created in their own way.

Anyway, just wanted to share this pretty awesome moment with you all.

Honk for Help

Thanks to DJHojo for this.

I Don't Know What To Say

I had this link forwarded to me from a Coulton fan. Seems a little weird. Maybe you can let me know what you guys think. Could this really be true?

ON EDIT: Did a little google search. Seems this guy did a little research. All I can say is "huh".

EDIT 2: People on Twitter are claiming it's a hoax. It's hard to confirm, since the site is down now. The dude also started a Twitter account to complain. Weirdness continues.

ON EDIT: All explained here.

Caption This: 3-30-09

Department of Geek Affairs

One of my recent triumphs was to be tapped to design the official seal for the Department of Geek Affairs, an office that is currently occupied by Wil Wheaton and bestowed upon him by none other than Paul and Storm. My hope is that the seal brings hope to all those geeks among us, and that hopefully a t-shirt will be made of it one day. Only time will tell.

LED Sheep Art

I guess I'm a little behind the times since I just saw this today. But that doesn't make this video any less amazing. Thanks to Monica for the link.

Jawbone #241: One Jelly Belly Lane

Yet another solocast, full of Jelly Bellies, Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans and anger, just below the surface. Join the fun!

RSS feed.


Download now.

Caption This: 3-23-09

Starter Sketches

I don't know if anyone will have any interest in this besides me, but I thought I'd post it for posterity anyway. It might be too inside baseball, but for some artists, it might serve as helpful.

Whenever I start working on a new image, especially if it's a more involved image, I like to do a little "starter sketch" to get me rolling. Basically, the starter sketch is just a blueprint for me that I can refer to as I'm working on the finished image. I started noticing that my desk and floor has become littered with this little scraps of drawings, so I thought I would post a few. If people find this interesting, I may post more.

This is a starter sketch that I used for some art I did for Paul and Storm. The only direction Paul gave me was that he wanted to give an illustration to Mythbusters host Adam Savage. "Maybe handing him something," I think was the idea. So in about 30 seconds I sketched this:


I originally wanted to do something fully digital, with some basic shapes to represent Paul and Storm and Adam. After a few tries, I realized I was losing Adam's personality, so I decided to go with a caricature pencil sketch of the three of them. Here is how it ended up. (the little JoCo was an afterthought):



Today I did a new image for Jonathan Coulton's song "Blue Sunny Day". He had told me a few months ago to start honing up on vampires. So I kept that in the back of my mind, waiting to hear what the song sounded like. I was able to hear a live version of the song a few weeks ago, but I didn't start drawing it because I always like to hear the studio version of his songs before I draw. After he released the song yesterday, I listened to it, read his notes about the song and then formulated a mental image of what I wanted to do. As soon as I get to that phase, I do the starter sketch, just to get the idea down on paper. This is what I came up with:



I had a color scheme in my head, based on the song and I knew what I wanted the finished product to look like. The elapsed time between starter sketch to when I begin to work on the art varies from 15 minutes to a day, depending on my schedule. Here is the finished art in all its glory:



Anyway, rather than throw these little sketches away, maybe I'll post a few. It should be noted that not all images start with a starter sketch, Only more complicated ones and even then it's really for blocking and size purposes.

Ta-da!

Original Signed Artwork Available on Ebay

For all those interested, the ORIGINAL pencil sketch artwork for the Zombie Clown print that was sold during Red Nose Day is available right now on Ebay. It is signed by me with all proceeds going to benefit Comic Relief. Go forth and bid now!

Caption This: 3-16-09

Caption this, suckas. (Sorry, I don't feel like being overly creative this morning. A lot like the people who made this monstrosity.)

Red Nose Day Is Here!

A few weeks ago, I posted that I would be participating in Red Nose Day. Well, I have joined the ranks of others such as John Hodgman, Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm, Rifftrax, Adam "Apelad" Koford, Ken Plume of Quick Stop Entertainment, John Robinson from NeedCoffee and many others to help raise some dough for Comic Relief, via Red Nose Net.

So here's what I'm doing: For TODAY ONLY (3/13/09), I am making a print named "Clown Zombie" available via Zazzle.com. This print will only be sold for one day with proceeds going to benefit Comic Relief. It's a great cause and I highly recommend you get involved, donate in your own way and just have some fun!

Here's my friends, Ken and John to tell you more:



Remember, you can pick up the VERY LIMITED EDITION PRINT right here. So go. Now.

UPDATE: Thanks to all who bought the print. All in all Ken and Widge made around 4000 pounds for Comic Relief. Good on them!

Jawbone #240: Twitt-i-quette

It's a big show tonight, folks! Tonight, the voice and heart of Jawbone, Scott Fletcher and Neil join us. We talk morning DJ's, embarrassing moments Twittering and more. Thanks for listening and if you like the show, please subscribe using the links below!

RSS feed.


Download now.

Music, Art and Love

I do a lot of art for people. A lot of the time, I don't really get to see the end result. Case in point. My friend Jonathan Coulton enlisted me a while back to create a cartoon of himself for his guitar picks. A interesting job to be sure. I didn't even know the guy used picks, when he played, but okay. I'll humor the guy and draw a cartoon of him. Well, I sent the art to him and never got to see the end result. In fact, the few times I saw him in person, I asked him if he had any on him to spare and he didn't or HE SAID he forgot.

Time passes and I get a tweet from one of my followers asking me if that was my art on the JoCo guitar picks. I regale this poor follower with my 140 character tale of woe. He in turn, sends me a link to blog post about someone who is perplexed by the caricature of JoCo. The post includes a photo of my art.

I quickly type in JoCo's URL, hoping to chastise him on his own turf. Then I see he has posted an awesome video by an Israeli musician named Kutiman, who has basically remixed YouTube to make awesome songs:



After watching this video and the many other videos at this site, I'm okay with being snubbed by Jonathan. Oh hell, I can't stay mad at the guy. He's such a sweetheart! HUGS!

Anyway, enjoy the linkage.

Medina Ohio City Council Meeting

Caption This: 3-9-09

Heath Ledger lives. At least in the form of a creepy ski mask. I got this gift for my son's 12th birthday last week and it seemed too good to pass up. So have at it!