Daily poster: The Park is Mine.

The Park is Mine.

This film looks rad. I will be obtaining it.

Have you ever noticed how often helicopters are in the background of 80's action movie posters?

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

Post apocalyptic surreal wildlife.

Portland artist Josh Keyes paints these sort of surrealistic post apocalyptic, museum display looking paintings, that I just love.

On Thursday, April 7th a new show of his work will be opening at the Fecal Face Dot Gallery in San Francisco.

FFDG
248 Fillmore St.
SF, CA
94117

info(at)ffdg.net
(415) 255-6479

Wed - Sat (1-6pm)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Things ain't like they used to be.

Frankenstein's Monster.

Frankenstein's Monster.

Spray paint on paper. Approximately 30”x25”

R.I.P. Mitch.

R.I.P. Mitch Hedberg. Six years ago.

There are a ton of great videos on youtube.

Daily poster: The Barbarians.

The Barbarians.

I absolutely love this film. This poster goes out to Gabe.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

 

Hollister Motorcycle Riots of 1947.

Hollister, CA had motorcycle rallys for years before World War II. Motorcycle enthusiasts would gather out at Bolado Park and Memorial Park and the rallys were as popular as the rodeo.

During World War II the races were stopped.

When the war ended, the first rally was scheduled for July 4,1947. However, since the last races, many veterans had learned about motorcylces during the war. They bought them when the returned home. Consequently, the small pre-war rallys turned into something much larger and more chaotic in the first post-war Hollister rally. Just under 4,000 bikers showed up and these new bikers partied pretty hard.

The seven man strong Hollister Police Department shut down traffic through main street and gave the bikers the run of the place. Despite lurid tales of outlaw takeover in Life Magazine, the bikers mostly kept to the heart of the city. Sure there were broken bottles, but they caused more flat tires and pains in the neck for the bikers than anyone else.

About fifty bikers were arrested for being drunk in public and disorderly conduct. About the same number were admitted into Hazel Hawkins Hospital. Bikers slept on the sidewalk and drove their bikes through the bars, there was plenty of chaos, but there was no real damage and no reported serious outlaw acts.

The rally ended on Sunday, July 6th when forty Highway Patrolmen arrived with gas masks and tear gas. The bikers split.

The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando, turned the event into outlaw legend. But forget about it's accuracy.

The picture above appeared in the Life magazine article. In the spirit of fine, yellow journalism, the picture was completely staged. The smiling gentleman in the background, Gus Deserpa, remembers:
"I was projectionist by trade. I worked at the Granada Theater, which was on the corner of Seventh and San Benito. I would have got off work around 11 p.m.. My wife came to pick me up, and we decided to walk up Main Street to see what was going on.
I saw two guys scraping all these bottles together, that had been lying in the street. Then they positioned a motorcycle in the middle of the pile. After a while this drunk guy comes staggering out of the bar, and they got him to sit on the motorcycle, and started to take his picture.
I thought 'That isn't right', and I got around against the wall, where I'd be in the picture, thinking that they wouldn't take it if someone else was in there. But they did anyway. A few days later the papers came out and I was right there in the background.
They weren't doing anything bad, just riding up and down whooping and hollering; not really doing any harm at all."

If you want to read some interesting first hand accounts of the "riot," check out this page.

Black Dynamite is bustin up trees to make paper to make a comic.

Sweet mother of pearl! First a Black Dynamite cartoon and NOW a Black Dynamite comic! What happy news.

If you haven't seen the Black Dynamite motion picture, get your turkey ass to the nearest DVD acquiring station and eyeball this film NOW. It is hilarious. I would dare say it is a perfect film, in that I would not change one frame.

The comics being published by Ars Nova and Ape Entertainment. Here is a preview, it looks just like a 70's comic. I love it.

Here is the Black Dynamite site.

You can pre-order the comic here.

David Petersen's stampin' it.

David Petersen, creator of Mouse Guard has come up with this clever idea for signing books. In the past Petersen always drew a small mouse next to his signature when autographing books. However, with five books published, he was finding the lines at his booth were growing and his artwork was getting sloppier as he tried to keep up, SO:

"I will hand carve a stamp each year and in lieu of the mouse doodle, I'll stamp your book. This will also mean that I can re-stamp it the following year with the new stamp if you like."

Petersen's stamp is carved into a Speedy-Carve block and due to the nature of block printing, will look somewhat unique for each book he stamps. I think it's a sweet idea and I can see this being copied by other artists.

I've mentioned David Petersen's Mouse Guard a few times on Lioncorn and I can't recommend it enough. Here's the Amazon link to the first book.

 

 

Spidey rides a crack.

Big Menace sent me this super cool crack art by OakOak.

OaKoAk's site is here. He's got a swarm of urban improvement art.

Daily poster: Simon, King of the Witches.

Simon, King of the Witches.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

CineMassacre: Top 10 Lost Horror Films.

CineMassacre: Top 10 Lost Horror Films
Tags: CineMassacre: Top 10 Lost Horror Films

I've only heard of six of these. Dang.

Daily poster: Ninja Terminator.

Ninja Terminator.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

The Mugoon.

Portrait of my daughter.

We were playing with nylons and toy guns this morning.

I didn't know what to title it. "The Mugoon" is what my kids call the Creature from The Black Lagoon.

Inspector Cumulus.

I'm not a junkie whore anymore when it comes to collecting toys. My taste has grown pretty limited over the last couple of years. That being said, Inspector Cumulus is pretty rad and I may have to ladle out some dinero.

The good inspector is 8" tall and has five points of articulation. His run is limited to 500 pieces and you can pre-order here for $29.95 before April 15th. He's expected to hit the streets by May, at which point he will be $39.95.

Below is Jonathan Edwards' original piece which inspired the toy.

Daily poster: Nosferatu.

Nosferatu.

I had never seen this Nosferatu poster before. Great image.

This Daily poster goes out to my Aunt Amy who was in town and we had a great visit last night. My mother laughed harder than I've seen her laugh in probably a year or two.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

Daily poster: Rubber.

Rubber.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

I love this retro looking poster. Pschotic, psychic, tire wages war on mankind. Click here for the rubberful trailer.

Here are the play dates, Rubber opens April 1st and spreads out from there.

Dolk hits the intergalactic network.

See the full gallery on Posterous

It's not "street art" if it's slapped onto the side of a remote lakeside outhouse and no one can see it, right? Norweigan artist, Dolk, proves that crap talk wrong.

His outdoor work just breathes and inspires. Now, Dolk (which means 'dagger') just opened house with his own website, here.

There is not much information and the galleryies are not huge, but the work is presented in monitor-filling glory. Dolk's indoor work is worth checking out as well, but it is his outdoor work which toots my tooter.

You can't go wrong with The Mandroid and Koochie, the ninja.

My buddies Manny and Derrick reminded me of this 80's gem. Seriously, with the Mandroid and Koochie the ninja, how could you go wrong with this one?

I did manage to sit through it last weekend and it is a eightiestastic film. There's a little flying robot, great eighties tech, and a skinny armed "river rat" guide dude who is hated by the other river guides so badly they pursue him for about twenty minutes of the film, shooting at him and attempting to murder him and his customers because they were weaseled out of the fare. A bit surrealistic.

Strong Stuff: Herakles and His Labors.

I just found this book recently, I'm not sure how I missed it. Published in 2005, Strong Stuff: Herakles and His Labors is a hirlarious and fun book chronicling Herakles' ten labors.

The book is written by John Harris and illustrated by one of my favorite painters, Gary Baseman.

Baseman's Herakles is a funny, Flintstone looking oaf who has Totoro eyes. Does he have lofty thoughts running through his head or is it an empty dome up on those massive shoulders? Decide for yourself.

The story is written with a brisk pace, just enough time to give kids a flavor for Herakles' superheroic life without boring them back to the TV. There is even a little pronunciation guide for each labor.

If you love Greek myths and can apprecieate Baseman's cartoony style, this is a great book. Besides, you can pick up a used copy on Amazon for about a dollar + postage.

Daily poster: Three Fantastic Supermen.

Three Fantastic Supermen.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

 

Abdullah the Butcher forks his way into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Yesterday it was officially announced that Abdullah the Butcher would be inducted into the 2011 WWE wrestling Hall of Fame. I’ve heard a couple of different stories regarding who would be inducting him. Terry Funk sounds like the most rational, but WWE works in mysterious ways.
Abdullah the Butcher was one of the wrestlers that legitimately scared me as a kid. For years, my only exposure to him was through magazines and the George Napolitano/Bert Sugar wrestling books. In every picture he was covered in gore and his forehead was so scarred up it looked like a bunch of baby vaginas.
When World Class Wrestling from Texas started airing on ESPN, I was able to see a handful of his matches. They were bloodbaths. I was older and my fear turned to excitement. Abdullah the Butcher was billed as the madman from Sudan. He didn’t talk. He was bigger around than he was tall. In every single match he pulled out a fork or some sort of “foreign object” and just decimated the foreheads of his opponents. Oftentimes, his victims were bloodied and battered before the bell even rang.
Abdullah started his career in the late 50’s under the name Zeras Amala. After being ripped off by a promoter, he left the industry and started a janitorial service. With a $1,000 loan from his father, he went back to wrestling. He was given the name Abdullah the Butcher and his career took off. WWE aside, Abdullah has wrestled in every major promotion in the world. He secured a reputation as an outlaw wrestler, one who travels from promotion to promotion without settling down. One reason he could not stay in one promotion in the U.S. is that he made frequent trips to Japan, where he was also a  major star. Abdullah’s reputation was so great that when any promotion was having financial trouble, they would bring him in for a handful of shows and business would pop.

 

I am very excited for Abdullah and know that he must be excited as well. The one time I spent a lot of time with him, he actually got a bit emotional when he talked about WWE. The one regret he had about his 50+ year career was that he had never wrestled in a WWWF/WWF/WWE ring. He had never even talked to Vince McMahon.  I don’t have the video in front of me, but Abby said something like, ‘I was in the locker room with him in Japan, when I wrestled Hogan. McMahon was talking with Hogan but he never came over and talked with me.’ Abby was a little butt hurt.
My friend, Tim, and I conducted that interview with Abby in his restaurant, Abdullah’s House of Ribs and Chinese Food in Atlanta. My book, Bruiser Brody, started as a documentary and Abdullah was one of Bruiser Brody’s great, arch enemies in the ring.
Abdullah is not a warm, sweetheart of a man. He is intimidating and he knows it. He even commented to me, “You keep looking away from me. Are you scared of me?” I did not lie and said, “Yes, you are intimidating and you know it. You’re trying to scare me and its working.” After that he was affable and we had quite a few laughs.
For Abdullah, everything comes back to money. I asked if being ripped off when he was starting in the business made him paranoid, after all, he did come back to wrestling. Abduallah just said, “All promoters lie. They all lie.”
Abby actually gave Tim and I FREE iced tea. Abby talked a lot about his early life and his family. He asked if I was interested in producing a women’s self-defense video as he is a 9^th degree black belt in judo. His idea was to market the video in Japan where he is a living icon.
He never called me. The next time I met Abby was at the WreslteReunion convention a couple of years later. He didn’t recognize me and was pissed about some money matters and blew me off.  He didn’t remember the self-defense video idea. It was my turn to be butt hurt, but, hey, I didn’t call him either.
He wrestled at the legends event at WrestleReunion. It was a six-man tag match. He broke a bottle over the ring post and stabbed Dustin Runnels in the head with the jagged bottle neck. Dusty Rhodes took the bottle away and began stabbing Abdullah’s head. I was front row and heard Abdullah whispering, “Harder. Harder. Hit me.” His forehead is so scarred he doesn’t need to blade anymore, it just bleeds if you smack it hard enough. I got a piece of the bottle and still have it as a memento.

(youtube has a fistful of great Abdullah the Butcher matches. If you're old school, check out the Japanese matches. If you're a gorehound, the more recent American, independent company, matches should satisfy.
Top photo by Bob Murphy. Middle photo of Abdullah and Bruiser Brody by George Napolitano. Bottom photo of Abby and myself outside his restaurant is by Tim Roper.)

Daily poster: Hobo With a Shotgun.

Hobo With a Shotgun.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

Dark Wave / Rising Sun.

Get your reload fingers ready, Shepard Fairey is releasing this version of Dark Wave / Rising Sun at a random time on Thursday, March 24th in his online store.

"In response to the tragedies created by the tsunami in Japan I am releasing a new variation on the Dark Wave print. Profits from Dark Wave/Rising Sun will go to relief efforts in Japan. I’m researching the best organization to receive the funds. Thanks for caring. Edition of 700. $60."

The print is 18" x 24" and is limited to one person/household.

Girls making gun sounds.

My wife and I debate this topic frequently.

Check out girlsmakinggunsounds.com for more.

(via arbroath.)

Daily poster: Missile Monsters.

Missile Monsters.

Courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

Simba vs. Kimba vs. Simba.

First off, Simba means "lion" in Swahili. Not a terribly original name, but a fine one, nonetheless.

I was perusing one of my old Jungle Tales comics last night looking for Fletcher Hanks stories (it was #120 to be exact) when I found a story about a lion, Simba: King of Beasts. Thanks to the wonderful Digital Comic Museum, I discovered that Simba first appeared in Jungle Comics #1, published in 1940.

There is little doubt that Disney's Lion King ripped off Tezuka's Kimba the White Lion in many ways. There are a hundred Kimba vs. Simba sites on the intergalactic network to prove the point. However, I haven't found one site that mentions the 1940's Simba.

Another funny note is that the story in Jungle Tales #120 has Simba fall into a salt water lake and somehow get coated with enough salt that he becomes white. Very strange.

So, let's put our hands up for the "original" KING OF BEASTS! (The word 'original' is in quotes as it will undoubtedly be discovered that there was an earlier incarnation of Simba. Perhaps in an ancient story. Perhaps the Swahili word origin has a story behind it.)

Here is the story I read last night from Jungle Tales #120, courtesy of the Digital Comic Museum. If you are a fan of golden age comics, you need to check out their site, it is a treasure chest of delight.

Let the bodies hit your eyeballs.

Whether you're an artist or just love looking at bodies, Intergalactic Messages has a cool gallery of human bodies.

From Intergalactic Messages: "This is a photoshoot of various Olympic athletes by Howard Schartz and Beverly Ornstein titled “The Athlete”. Like many others I tend to fall into the trap of drawing the same body type over and over for athletic characters. This photoshoot serves as awesome reference reminding us artists that strong bodies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and muscles show up in different ways"

(via Paul Sizer on Whitechapel.)

 

Junko Yamamoto opening up at Kobo.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Mixing hard, pop, clean looking symbols with scratchy colors of creamy wonderment, Junko Yamamoto kicks my head with gleetasia. The internet sucks for looking at art and it makes me sad not to be able to stand before one of Junko's 36"x36" fantasylands. However, if you are in the Seattle area in the next month or so, glide your body into Kobo at Higo in Japantown.

There is a reception for the show this Saturday, March 19th from 6:00-8:00pm. Go buy art!

The show runs through April 16th. Kobo at Higo 602-608 S. Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98104