I know, I am just as shocked as you are (if not slightly more). Work has been brutal since, well, my last post, and now I am on vacation at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Corova, to be precise. Presently I am in an Internet cafe in Corolla, NC (where the highway and civilization ends) rediscovering what this Internet thing is all about, but for the last several days I have been doing nothing but sleeping, reading, drinking, playing board games, swimming in the ocean, and flying kites.
And speaking of kites, here are some pictures I took on last year’s beach trip. These were all taken at the annual kite festival held at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, NC.
Here is the reason why Natalie Metzger is the Official Artist of Indie Squid Kid. For my birthday last year, she sent me this amazing cartoon. This year, she continued the trend by sending me the physical version of this!
Monster by Mail is the brain child of podcaster and cartoonist Len Peralta. The concept is simple–you give him money, and he sends you an original piece of art. Give him a little bit more, and you get a YouTube video of him creating your monster. At the time of this writing, the rates are $25/$35…a pretty good deal for original art.
When Len first launched the site, the rules were you had to give him an adjective, any adjective, and he would make a monster for you based on that word. Mine was “Lovecraftian.” Here’s the video.
Through the early iterations of MbM there were various other themes: cryptozoology, zombies, Halloween, etc. However, all you have to do now is give your monster a name and click the PayPal link you Len will make it for you!
Here is one I commissioned last Halloween. It is titled, simply, “The Were-Squid.”
When Len isn’t drawing awesome monsters, he is producing and co-hosting Cleveland’s best podcast, Jawbone Radio.
Every Labor Day weekend, Atlanta, GA is overtaken by Dragon*Con, a massive media convention that covers a wide variety of genres: Sci-Fi and Fantasy, science and technology, TV and movies, literature and comic books. And of course, people dressed as Stormtroopers and superheroes.
Deep in the bowels of one of the three downtown hotels that host the convention, is an area known as “Artist’s Alley.” It is here that the booths and tables of all the attending comic book artists are set up, and it is here where I first discovered the works of Andy Lee.
Andy practices a form of Chinese brush painting known as Cha’han Buddhist splash stlye, and for $20*, he will produce a custom painting of pretty much anything you want–a dragon, Batman, a zombie breakdancer, or, perhaps, some sort of cephalopod.
*At least that has been his rate all three times (over the past 5-7 years) I’ve paid him for a commission.
Andy is one of the nicest people you will every meet, and here’s why. A few years ago (I can’t actually remember. Let’s say…three.), I asked Andy to paint an octopus. He painted one in a rather crazy style (posted above), but was worried that I wouldn’t like it. (He shouldn’t have been, it is awesome!) So, he painted another in a more realistic (but every bit as awesome) style (below), but only charged me for one!
Find out more about Andy Lee at, coincidentally, FindAndy.com.
While this has nothing to do with cephalopods depicted in artwork, I thought I should mention that Darren Naish is doing his own theme week over at one of my favorite blogs, Tetrapod Zoology.
It is Sea Monster week at Tet Zoo, and each day Darren explores a lesser-known beastie from the annals of cryptozoology–using his razor-sharp scientific mind to critically analyze the evidence for each case (such as it is). Like the title of his blog suggests, Darren’s focus is on tetrapods (i.e. reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and birds), so don’t expect any Kraken or gigantic octopi. However, sea serpents, giant tadpoles, plesiosaurs and prehistoric whales are all fair game!
Since I have no idea when you are reading this (although I am very glad you are!), here are posts in question:
I feel slightly ashamed to say so, but I find this picture endlessly amusing. It’s something about the shock in the poor little guy’s eyes…the horrible realization…the fact that it seems to have taken him quite some time to realize that something was wrong…
This also makes me hungry for sushi…does that make me a bad person?
I bought this print from the artist, Andrew Bell (who signed it), a few years ago at his art show at Wootini, an art gallery and vinyl toy shop in Carrboro, NC. It is still available for sale (along with its equally disturbing companion piece) at Andrew’s website, DeadZebra.com. For a daily dose of adorably creepy monsters (both with and without tentacles) by Andrew Bell, check out the Creatures in my Head.
Also, for the record, I don’t know what kind of cephalopod this is supposed to be, unless he has four more stumps on the other side…
It seemed only fitting that the next Art Week installment after “The Kraken Always Follows Its Heart” would be the picture that hangs next to it in my front hall (next to the coat rack, and the first thing you see when you come in through the front door)–”The Squid Tree” by Ursula Vernon.
Depicted here is a weird little guy in blue, happily eating his lunch, but little does he realize that the tree–if it is a tree–has its eye on his sandwich…
Welcome back to Art Week! Today we have something that’s actually hanging on a wall in my house, “The Kraken Always Follows Its Heart” by my good friend Leah Riley. Leah is a graphic artist, creator of comics, and purveyor of robots. Once upon a time when we were still co-workers, we used to keep a running list of funny things people would say that sounded like the titles of non-existent songs by a band that didn’t have a name. Well, it made sense to us, and this is one of them.
At the time of this writing, there are still two baby doll tees of this very design (in black and red) for sale in her Esty store, but even if they’re gone, you are guaranteed to find something both awesome and ridiculously cute.
Leah is also the co-creator of the webcomics Willrad and Robohobo and the co-author of the manga review blog Hobotoku. See her art portfolio online at www.leahstuff.com.
