Halloween...

Since Halloween is right around the corner I thought I'd post a piece I did for Tyler at Virginia Living Magazine a few years ago. The article was written by Don Harrison, it was on Tidewater late nite TV horror host Dr. Madblood. I didn't grow up in the area so I wasn't familiar with him but back in Michigan where I did grow up we had Sir Graves Ghastly, so I was somewhat familiar with what Dr. Madblood was all about. As a kid loving all things monster/sci-fi, I would try to watch Sir Graves every Sat. afternoon if I could. So when Tyler asked me if I'd like to illustrate this I was very excited to do so.

Mamma'Zu Comic's & Activities...

About a year ago Ed from Mamma'Zu approached me about doing a post card for his restaurant. During the course of conversation it evolved into a comic book, not unlike what I used to get when I was a little kid, while waiting to be seated Bob's Big Boy. Looking back it's easy to see how cheap and badly produced it was but I was a kid who loved all things comics. Not only did it have comics it also had puzzles, mazes, connect the dots and sometimes a section you could color in yourself. Our aim was to do something like that but attempt to marry it with the irreverent sensibility of the early Harvey Kurtzman, Will elder and company Mad Magazine.

Ed turned out to be a dream client with a dream job, needless to say I had a blast with this one.

Enjoy.

Mamma'zu Comic's & Activities Interior

Tomorrows Markets - Communication Design

This was a job done for a shop here in town called Communication Design. It was done for one of their clients, CFA, a financial magazine out of Charlottesville Va. The subject matter had the potential to be quite dry, the speed at which business is done today as a result of communication technologies. but thanks to the steady yet encouraging hand of AD Bil Cullen, we were able to arrive at a solution that addressed the content in a way that was both appropriate and fun.

Virginia Living Magazine

This I believe is the first job I had the pleasure of working on with Tyler Darden at Virginia Living magazine. It was initially meant to be a spot but luckily for me Tyler was happy enough with the end results that he ran it as a 3/4 page. Which I probably don't need to tell you but it always makes an illustrator happy when you print their image bigger then they expected.

I've been lucky enough to work with Tyler on a number of jobs since and everyone has been a great experience. This is probably due somewhat to the fact that Tyler is an illustrator and painter himself and none too shabby I might add. I think this obviously gives him some insight and empathy into the process of creating an image and he works accordingly with his illustrators.

This is not to say that if an AD isn't an illustrator or painter that it somehow lessens the experience but in Tyler's case he may be more sensitive to the process than your average bear.

Speaking of silk screening...

This poster was done for Ed Vasaio of Mamma'Zu fame. Mamma'Zu is one of the, if not the best, Italian or any kind of restaurant for that matter, on the eastern seaboard. My wife and I have had the pleasure to work with Ed on some projects, one of them being the poster for the Italian Film and Food festival that Ed put's on with Mike Jones and James Parrish of the Richmond Moving Image Co-op, better known as RMIC. It's a fund raiser for the RMIC and they've been doing it going on 6 years now. It's a great film festival where you can view obscure and not so obscure Italian films all while enjoying the world famous food from Mamma'Zu.

The poster was printed by Ian Sampson at the world head quarters of Team8press. I'm not sure what Ian's affiliation is with Team8 anymore. It's my understanding that he and his girl friend, Mandy, have moved to Philly to pursue grad school. He did an amazing job on our poster and we wish him the best in his academic pursuits.

popidiot Silk screen poster made with Team8press

Line work...

Finished poster.

This silk screen poster was made in close collaboration with Spencer Hansen of Team8press. It's a 7 color monster that was pulled in team8's super secret headquarters, otherwise known as Spencer's basement. to get the inside scoop check out Team8's blog, you'll be glad you did. There is ton's more art to see there by other great RVA artists.