Runner Runner

It’s only sort of true that I don’t do comics anymore. No, actually it’s not true at all. But most of what I’ve been doing recently is still hiding from the world, waiting till it’s ready. Believe me, it’s not nearly ready. Oh no, wait, that makes it seem like I’m working on like a 250-page graphic novel or something. That is not the case. Anyway, irrespective of what I’m doing or not doing right now, here is a small piece of evidence that I’ve been doing some things recently. It’s a full-color one-page comic for the back cover of Runner Runner, Tugboat Press’s annual free comic book. You can get it during Free Comic Book Day at a bunch of stores (listed on Tugboat’s website). There’s some other lovely stuff in there, including but not limited to work by Corinne Mucha, Sean Christensen ABT, Julia Gfrörer and Greg Means himself.

I also just learned something from the Tugboat website: Runner Runner is named after a poker term and not, as I always thought, after Logan’s Run. I guess then it would have been “Runner! Runner!” or maybe nobody even said “runner!” twice in a row in Logan’s Run.

Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday, May 4.

Taurus Time

So maybe I’ve been looking at too many sci-fi paperback covers from the ’70s lately. Whatever, I think maybe it’s OK. I’m also super excited to be OIL PAINTING again! I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while, and this show seemed like a good opportunity to pull out my box of oil paints that I haven’t opened since I moved to Portland. I did these on Arches oil paper, which I think is a new product, and I’m really into it. It has a similar texture to nice printmaking paper, and allegedly you can paint straight on it with oils and it’s still archival.

This show:
Dig In Your Heels: A Taurus Art Show
SoHiTek Gallery
625 NW Everett St #102
Opening Thursday May 2, 6-9 pm
Art by Andrice Arp, Sean Christensen ABT, Cameron Hawkey, Graham Kahler, Marsuplala, Mark Quemada, Amber Smith, Daria Tessler, and Rebecca Urias.

Gridlords

Some comics from my zine will be performed tonight at February’s loosely romance-themed Gridlords. Also: Animations by Ian Obermuller, comics readings by Julia Gfrörer, Sean Christensen ABT, Cameron Hawkeye, and Elizabeth Pusack.

Saturday February 23
The Waypost
3120 N Williams Ave
Portland OR
8 pm
FREE

Happy Year of the Snake

The Year of the Snake show at Giant Robot is opening tonight! This is not my piece for the show, but I thought you would like to look at it. If you would like also to look at my painting, it’s on the GR website.

(from a Russian website)

YEAR OF THE SNAKE

Feb 2 – 20th, 2013

An amazing collection of artists to celebrate Year of the Snake.

A group art exhibition featuring:

Rob Sato, Ako Castuera, Aaron Woes, Jeremiah Ketner, Michael Hsiung, Christine Wu, Jeff McMillan, Cristina Paolos, Mari Naomi, Joe To, Gosha Levochkin, Kohei Yamashita, Theo Ellsworth, Hiro Hayashi, Stella Hultberg, Luke Chueh, Deth P. Sun, Sara Saedi, Dionne Bang, Yoskay Yamamoto, Edwin Ushiro, Audrey Kawasaki, Miso, Sean Chao, Martin Hsu, Bubi Au Yeung, Joe Hahn, Heidi Hahn, Mu Pan, Jen Tong, Pam Henderson, Stasia Burrington, Eleanor Davis, Kio Griffith, Silvio Porreta, Susie Ghahremani, Edwin Ushiro, Andrice Arp, Jeni Yang, Diem Chau, Andrew Hem, Shawn Cheng, Nao Harada, Aaron Brown, Ryuji Oguni, Ken Taya, Saelee Oh, Jeremiah La Torre, Wayne Johnson, Mari Inukai, Shihori Nakayama, Elliot Brown, Kerry Horvath, APAK, Sana Park, Jon Lau + More

Opening Reception: 

Saturday, Feb 2, 2013

6:30 – 10:00 PM

GR2

2062 Sawtelle Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90025

For any other information, contact Eric Nakamura at Giant Robot.

Feb 2 – 20th, 2013

http://gr2.net/

Post-it Show 8!

I think I like the post-its I did for this show better than any previous ones, and maybe had more fun doing them. As always, I wish I could be at the actual show but it’s in Los Angeles and I am not.

POST IT SHOW EIGHT

December 8-16, 2012

Over 260 Artists!

Over 2000 Post Its!

$25 each

Cash & Carry

Opening Reception:

Saturday, December 8, 2012

6:00 - 10:00 PM

GR2

2062 Sawtelle Boulevard

Los Angeles CA 90025

Planned Obsolescence

My zine is now available in my Etsy shop. I made my first zine! I know, right? What.

It felt like something I had to do. The idea (sort of/partially) was to put something out without thinking too much about it, something that was sort of personal. Of course I tend to think endlessly about anything I put out (except the times when, inexplicably, I don’t) so that didn’t exactly work out as planned. Some of the pages are carefully considered, some aren’t. The conflict between the desire to just put it all out there and the desire to a.) make something I was proud of and b.) control everything, as usual, made for a very strange end product. I think.

It’s about the balance between how much you reveal and how much you obscure. And I’m revealing too much right now. So don’t read this, okay?

Also, whatever, it’s only 32 pages. Including the cover. And I’m acting like it’s like the most amazing feat I’ve ever accomplished.

Another embarrassing fact: it took me (more than) a year to make this.

I’m pretty excited about it.

The Cocktail Hour

The first round of Cocktail Hour books is out from Scout Books, featuring rum, gin and vodka. I have a few recipes in here. These books were illustrated by Trevor Alixopulos (who also contributes some recipes), Tuesday Bassen and Anna Hurley.

Unfortunately some of my sub-recipes got lost in the doings and were not published in the book. So in case you don't know what “cold chocolate” is (since I think I made that up?) or how to make toasted-coconut-infused rum, here they are:

Toasted Coconut Rum:
2 cups unsweetened flaked coconut
light rum to cover
Preheat oven to 375º. Spread coconut evenly on a baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally, checking after 5 minutes and watching carefully.
Cool coconut and place in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Cover with rum and let sit for 1-3 weeks. Strain through cheesecloth before using.

Cold Chocolate:
In a 1-cup measure, mix 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder with enough hot water to form a paste. fill with cold water to equal 1 cup, mix well and chill.

Brown Sugar Simple Syrup
1 part brown sugar (I prefer dark brown but you can use light brown if you want)
1 part hot water
Dissolve the sugar in the water and chill.

Caramel Syrup
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
10 tablespoons hot water
Stir together the sugar and 1/4 cup water in a heavy light-colored saucepan. Stop stirring and heat over high heat. Brush the sides of the pan with water to prevent crystals from forming. When the sugar starts to turn light brown, watch carefully until it’s the color you want. Don’t let it get too dark! Immediately remove from the heat and add the hot water, stirring until all the caramel is dissolved. Chill before using.

Illustration by Trevor Alixopulos