The Tamblyn Show

I've been working like crazy preparing for my upcoming joint show at The Arts Project with my uncle - John Tamblyn. For almost a year now I've been drawing native trees of London (The Forest City), in my pen and ink style. At the show I'll also have some of my comic book art.

Here's a new piece I just finished of a White Oak in Mount Pleasant cemetery. A lot of the trees on the cemetery grounds are really outstanding. This one in particular really took my breath away.

John's series is on trains, specifically focusing on the graphitti art he's found on them. The combination of the rusting trains with the bright spraypaint colours provides some amazing images.

For the full info on the show, see the site I did up for it here:
http://www.thetamblynshow.com

Accidentally Pineapple Article

• I also wanted to highlight an article about me for a new site called "Accidentally Pineapple" (great name I know). I was flattered to be asked to do an interview to help launch the site.
  >> Read the article.

Behold Orion!

I've been re-reading Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga recently and it's really been blowing my mind! The visuals are just so dynamic and lush. This is one that particulary struck me from a New Gods issue (I admit I changed the text around from the original). 

I find I do learn a lot doing pieces like this. Kirby is so big and bold with his imagery. Long live the King!  

Some Recent Drawnings

Tree Series I've been working on new pieces in my "Tree Series" for my upcoming show with my uncle John at The Arts Project for November 1-12th. Here's three pieces I've recently completed.

Mount Pleasant Oak Tree

Colborne Hackberry

950 Colborne

Lockjaw!

Commission done for Dan Brown. I've always wanted to draw Lockjaw. All of the designs for the Inhumans are pretty amazing really. Black Bolt is another fave who I will draw one day soon.

The Krypton Crawl

This year I'll be exhibiting at FanExpo for the first time ever at the Koyama Press booth (many thanks to the wonderful Annie Koyama for the space at the table).

I've worked the show a number of times for the Silver Snail who always have a super gigantic booth (which was a lot of fun - never have I gotten to sell so many big items like Lord of the Rings swords, Green Lantern power batteries, Cap shields and more). Let me tell you - people save all year and they spend a ton of dough at this show! Plus hanging with the Snail crew, talking comics and having a large space behind the table where you could move around was great too - unlike the aisles which are jam-packed! One year we even had Rosie at the booth in a playpen with Ciaran's son! A family affair for sure.

I've never had a table at the show though because I've felt that the stuff I do wouldn't go over very well at such a mainstream show - figured I'd be sitting at a corner and hearing crickets you know? I know that Kevin Boyd has been trying very hard over the past few years to showcase the diversity of comics work and talent though, and I know from friends that things have changed and indie stuff gets some decent attention now.

Special Print for FanExpo

Those of you who know me well, know that I'm a hard-core nerd. My true love are 1960s DC comics, the stranger the better - stuff like Angel and the Ape, Rainbow Batman, Legion of Super-Pets and of course Jimmy Olsen comics!

I wanted to do a special print for the show (my first ever print in fact), inspired by this love. Since I'm also a fan of Robert Goodin's Covered site (where indie artist draw their version of an old comic cover), I decided to do a crazy Jimmy Olsen cover. Believe me, there's no shortage of material to work from here. But here's the cover I picked...

This cover has it all, Jimmy playing the guitar, Supes swinging and singing. Superman too busy doing the Krypton Crawl to get to the emergency he's having so much fun! References to Elvis and the Beatles! Drawn by Curt Swan! It doesn't get much better.

Here's my version.

 Note I did make some differences:

• I added in the DC "go-go checks". This is the checked top line, it ran across DC books for a couple of years in the 60's. I just really like it aesthetically. 
• I took out the drummer (the cover is pretty busy already) 
• Removed the weird banner-type thing running across the top. It looks slapped on and out of place to me.
• I don't know what kind of instrument Jimmy is strumming on the Swan cover (in the interior he plays a regular guitar), but I wanted him to have a "real" guitar. 
• Finally, I wanted to make the Elvis connection stronger, so posed Jimmy after this Elvis pic I found online that is just too cool.

This Elvis poster is just so neat, I'm going to have to do something just on it someday.

Please let me know your feedback, especially the colour! I was thinking of doing a blue-tone version of it as well as the red. Cost will be $20.00 or $25.00. Size is roughly14 x 18 inches.

Update: Not sure how I liked the red colour, so I tried it as well in Blue. Let me know which one you like better. I think I will do up prints in both colours! Will be limited. Probably just a run of 12 of each colour.

Visual Fringe

I'll be in the Visual Fringe show again this year, which is the visual arts component of the London Fringe Festival which runs June 16th - 26th this year. I'll have some new artwork on display, my comics and a new theatre-related original t-shirt design below! They'll be for sale at my table at the Arts Project during the run of the Fringe. T-shirts are all $20.00 each.

Can you get better than a Shakespeare reference? I don't know - I think not. The above is a line from A Winter's Tale and is apparently the most famous stage direction of all time.

They are all hand-silkscreened by the fabulous guys at Fresh Ink, and are white design on a black tee, AL Style brand. I got them in all different sizes (Women's cut, Men's style and some Youth 14/15 size). I hope the Fringe crowd will like them! I also got another run done up of my Kazoo shirt because that was a really hot seller at last year's Fringe.

Fringe Plays I'm Looking Forward to

This will be only our 3rd summer in London, and I haven't been to any Fringe plays before! This is a problem that will be rectified this year. I've studied the whole program, and have pegged these to as my must-sees:

The Sparrow and the Mouse
Edith Piaf is an icon, France’s greatest popular singer. However, few people know Marguerite Monnot, who devoted her life to composing songs for Piaf. The enduring friendship of these two women is an incredible story, spanning over 25 years. Featuring Monnot’s most popular songs, including: Milord and Hymne à l’Amour.

I'm a HUGE Edith Piaf fan, so I have to see this. I thought this note in the program was also hilarious: Warning: Music in both French and English (Hope you paid attention in French class!).


Only in London, Ontario would you have to put a warning that an Edith Piaf play will have French music. Well I should hope so or I would feel very ripped off!

Link: http://festival.londonfringe.ca/home/showdetails/119 
 
The Donnelly SideshowJohnny O’Connor was the boy who hid under the bed during the Donnelly murders of 1880. Now he’s back, all grown up, packing a guitar and ready to set the record straight on the Donnellys. A new solo show, with songs, directed by Jayson McDonald. Details at http://www.jeffculbert.ca/.

The story of the Donnelly family is one I can't get enough of, and I'm looking forward to seeing this musical rendition from the part of the young survivor.

Link: http://festival.londonfringe.ca/home/showdetails/99