I’m playing a show on December 1st at The Lost Church with my dear friend Myrrh Larsen, and you all should come.

I imagine this set will be full of things you haven’t heard from me in a long time as well as things you’ve never heard before.

Also this is my favorite venue in SF right now, and it’s only got 50 seats!
They assure me that the link for presale tickets will be up at TheLostChurch.com really soon, so check there to see if you can get tickets ahead of time.

It would really mean a lot to me if you’d come.

<3
S

You guys, things have been rough in Starland.

& I suspect they’ll get worse before they get better.

I’m trying though– harder than I think I’ve ever tried at anything.

Here is a cell phone picture of a laptop screen, editing the Show and Tell video.

The raw footage is something I’m really, really excited about.

I’m hoping to screen it at the show we have at The Lost Church on December 1st, which you should come to.

I could really use the support right now.

Things are going to change soon. I’m not sure how yet, but I know that they will.

Here’s to hoping that it’s for the better.

I have about a million things to post about, but I need to take/edit photos, or do drawings for most of them. Also, my to-do list is terrifying, I’ve been sick for a week (that’s a post in and of itself), and I’m going to New York this weekend.

So to tide you over, I thought I’d show you a couple of new prints that I made and sold at APE.

The first is the finished version of the drawing you saw in this post, which just got a little bit more work on it.

This other print, however, is part of a series that I’m working on, based on scenes from the movie Chungking Express.

This film holds a special place in my heart for a bunch of different reasons. I also really love most of Wong Kar-wai’s other films (In the Mood for Love is fucking epically beautiful), but Chungking is the one that grabs onto my heartstrings and pulls.

I have 2 more images to finish this series, so watch for them.
When I finish I’ll probably make them available to buy online.

I’ll have more for you, internets, when I have some time.

So I recently had the awesome privilege of illustrating/designing a book cover for Laurie Penny!
If you don’t know who she is, you should read the things she’s been writing about the London riots.

I had a lot of fun doing this cover– mostly because it let me do my two favorite things: drawing a pretty girl, and lettering type by hand.

Now I have to run off and do more scrambling to get ready for APE.

You can preorder Laurie’s book right here.

Last night was a night not unlike most of the nights I’ve had lately, which is to say I was having a small freakout to myself about not getting enough done.

You see, my dear friend Kenan sent me a message recently, saying he couldn’t make it to the west coast for the Alternative Press Expo next weekend…and would I happen to know anybody who would want to take his table?

So, of course I jumped on it, and I’ll be exhibiting, and that means I’m currently scrambling to get my product together.
I’ll be tabling with the usual crew of Tim & Jeremy.

Also it will be my birthday. So come by and say hi and stuff.

I’ll have copies of All Over The Map, and Instabook (possibly in COLOR?), as well as prints, and OH YES FRIENDS, some necklaces as well.

Necklace merch will still be from the old line, but I’ll have some new colors for you.
All of this will be available online, along with the new lines, in time for Christmas, but if you show up in person you get the goods first.

Anyway, as I sat there having my little freakout, I realized that none of the new jewelry packaging is done yet, and I’m out of business cards, and I somehow lost my box of old necklace packages in my last move.

So I took a deep breath and started sketching, made myself the new logo you see above, and ordered new cards/packaging today.
When I get them I’ll take some pictures and show you.

This probably won’t be my totally permanent and final branding, but I’m starting to get better at just letting go and allowing for things to change over time. I used to be really good at not putting something out there until it was perfect, but the truth is perfection is hard, and I often just overworked stuff until it was totally unacceptable.

I’m taking steps to change that.
It’s a start.

So after the crazy of Burning Man, Tim and I decided that the best thing we could do was go to Napa and do nothing for a couple days. So, we threw Sky in a zipcar and the three of us headed up north for a couple days of Napa, which mostly consisted of putting delicious things in our faces. For example, these epic macarons from Bouchon. The PB&J one was my favorite.

Other noms not pictured: 4 course tasting menu from La Toque– which included the best Riesling I have ever had.
I am the only person in my friend group who drinks white wine. Every time I do it I think of that Tim & Eric Sketch.

We got this fucking epic hotel room, which I wish I had been able to enjoy more. I, sadly, had a comic book deadline, so I spent much of our stay bent over my wacom.
It was HUGE though. Also there was a bathtub in the bedroom. I wish I had taken more pictures.

The next day we visited Francis Ford Coppola’s winery. He’s turned it into a weird museum, showcasing a pretty random array of things. Some of his awards are on display, along with his first edition copy of Ulysses, and a bunch of stuff from the family that owned the winery before him.

Most importantly though, he had a huge collection of zoetropes and magic lanterns. These were actually really cool, and I was somewhat disappointed that they’re at a winery, where one wouldn’t really know to go looking for them.

More than anything, this visit made me wonder what I would do if I had the kind of money and wherewithal to open a museum.
Coppola’s collection was really little more than a bunch of stuff that he thought was cool, and a bunch of his personal history.
I think about this and I imagine putting every piece of sentimental ephemera I’ve ever gotten on display.

Over here is the first “do you like me, check yes or no” note I ever received.
To the left of that you’ll find the entrance to the breakup wing.

Here is my collection of mostly Boston area zines and poetry chapbooks, circa 1998–2003.
You can read them if you promise to be careful.

This is an absolutely terrible idea, so you will never visit, but I hope one day I’ll write some comics that will make you feel like you did.

As promised, here are the holga pictures I shot at Burning Man.
I can’t say they turned out as well as I was hoping, but I have a much better idea of what to do with my pinhole on the next go around.

I got pretty much an entire roll that looked like the above shot. Next time I’ll know that when I think I’m close enough, I need to get about a million times closer.

Slightly related, but not exactly, today on facebook I noticed that I’d been tagged in a couple things, so I’ll put them here as well.

Here are some shots by the excellent and talented Icka Boo:

I made the mistake of thinking that buying an incredibly cheap ebay cello to bring to the playa was a good idea.

Sadly it turned out to be more of a cello shaped object than a cello, and it was nearly impossible to make any pleasing noises on it.

Next year though, I have plans.

Hey guys. It’s been a while.
& I miss you.

I’ve had a lot of personal stuff going on for a whole bunch of months that I should probably get comfy talking with you about because I’m planning on making it into a book sometime, but it occurs to me that I haven’t really been talking to y’all about much of anything at all.
So I’m going to try to work on that for now.

Internets, are we cool?
I know I owe you email, and I have been slacking on that website I was supposed to make for you, and it’s been so long now that you’ve probably forgotten that I draw things.
I’m sorry. Let’s be friends again.
I want to hold your hand and make pretty things for you.
I’ll wear my nicest shoes.
I still have a crush on you, and I’m making you a mixtape that proves it.

Actually, I’m serious. The first 5 of you that want to trade mp3 mixtapes– drop a note and we’ll do it.
You should have some kind of blog or tumblr thing though so I have enough of an idea of what you’re about so that I can actually make you something you’ll like.

Speaking of tumblr things, I finally am getting off my ass and cross posting this to there.
I had it importing the rss feed of this blog before, but I didn’t log in for so long that it actually stopped working!
If you are on the tumblrs and would rather read these things there, you can add me and stuff.

Also, if you guys know of people I should follow on there (particularly people who DRAW STUFF) let me know.

I just spent a week at that thing in the desert, and I’m now back to my life again and just like many other years when I’ve come back from the desert — I’m exhausted and full of wanting for something I can’t name.

Maybe you guys can help me figure that out in the next couple weeks or something.

In the meantime I’ll tell you about Burning Man.

Of course, when packing, I was in the middle of a huge deadline for IDW, so I forgot a lot of useful things I should have packed, like my camera.
In true hipster fashion, though, I managed to bring both of my holgas– with which I mostly shot pinhole panoramas of the temple.
The film will be ready later this week and if anything turned out I’ll show you.

There was one contribution I made this year though that I felt pretty awesome about.
A few weeks ago, my friend Slim was off building the man with the other fearless members of the man build crew, and asking for suggestions on what images suggested Rites of Passage (this year’s burn theme) to us.
As someone who tends to think of time in apartments, I immediately suggested keys– a marker that has come along with most, if not all major changes in my life thusfar.

Out off all the ideas people suggested, my suggestion must have stuck out, because Slim picked mine.
So this year, the man’s “heart” was a key.
Also, he’s particularly clever and made the teeth of the key in the shape of the Trego mountains, which is just extra badass.

Also of note, this year I got my first playa haircut.
It was mohawk day at Barber Ella Camp, and somehow I ended up in line next to fellow MassArt alum, Rich Mackin, who I’d seen around Boston damn near a decade earlier reading letters he wrote to companies at poetry readings. I of course didn’t recognize him, but after 20 minutes of conversation we discovered we have about a billion mutual friends, and then I figured it out. Along with prodding from my friends Arlen and Space Lion, he convinced me that I should get a mohawk.

In the end I only half committed.
I am still at the phase of drastic haircut in which a vacillate wildly between thinking it’s totally badass, or the worst idea I’ve had in life, ever.

I’ll post a not-a-drawing picture of said haircut soon and you can all tell me which of my inner voices was right.

There’s a bunch of really huge stuff that happened at Burning Man that is more important than haircuts, but I’m going to save that for another day.

In the meantime, hugs? mixtapes?
Okay.

Last month, I went to Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Oregon.
I made the image above on the plane, using the iPhone applications classictoy, photofactory, diptic, camerabag, and instagram.
All the rest of the photos in this post are by Tim unless otherwise noted.

[photo by Merrick Monroe]

My dearest comrades & collaborators, John C. Worsley, Myrrh Larsen, and Tim Riot!

These are some of my favorite dudes on the planet. All three of them are responsible for making me make the best art that I possibly can, in ways that are progressive and collaborative. I am so effing grateful that they’re all a part of my life, and that they’re around to inspire and challenge me.

On that note, this year it was more apparent than ever that all of us are sort of becoming a collective.
We are all doing things having to do with music and comics, and I suspect that next year we will have a lot of really awesome music/comics things to show you.

If you’re a person who makes both comics and music– please holler at us! We want to hear from you!

This year, the fest moved to the convention center. The lighting was very futuristic, as you can see.

The table was a nice mix of new and old stuff this year. John and I were still hawking copies of All Over the Map, along with copies of the new split mini he made with Myrrh, The Edge Of The World. John also had another new book out called Never Let Go.

When I arrived in Portland, John and Myrrh were a flurry of activity trying to get their books printed and ready for the show.
I had already decided to not stress myself out trying to make a new mini, but the boys were all making stuff & I suddenly found myself wanting to make stuff too!

I had come prepared with prints of some photos I’d recently shot and shared with Instagram.
It was at this point that I had an idea, and I knew it would continue to nag me until I made it a real thing.

I decided to take a bunch of photos that I’d shot with my phone, as part of my everyday life, and do some really quick drawings of them.
I had a plethora of stuff to choose from, thanks to my addiction to instagram!

Since I had a really limited amount of time to make this, I used in-phone processing applications on my photos to cut down on my drawing time as much as possible.
Afterwards, I exported them, and went to town drawing on them with John’s wacom.

The result was Instabook! a little tiny mini made in less that 24 hours.
I sold out on the first day and had to do a second print run.

I think that I’m going to do more instagram based books and later compile them into a longer, colored work.
Keep an eye out for more on this soon!

The Art battle and afterparty this year were both held at the Jupiter Hotel, which we had the pleasure of staying at for one night.

I spent the majority of this particular evening a few sheets to the wind– hanging with Molly Crabapple, Erika Moen, and Nubby Twiglet.

I totally love this Red Riding Hood mural they have out front. Red is my homegirl, y’know.

As always I had a super fun time! Looking forward to next year!

p.s. I also did a podcast with Tim and Neil about the fest for Destroy All Podcasts– listen here!

Today and tomorrow, I will be exhibiting at Stumptown Comics Fest alongside my talented comrades, John C. Worsley, Myrrh Larsen, and Tim Riot. We will be rocking out at table F-9, so please stop by and say hi!

I will have copies of All Over the Map, as well as a brand new mini based on my Instagram photos, called Instabook!
If you follow me on Instagram and go to the fest, you can get one for free!

Hope to see you there!

MUSIC VIDEO: This Can’t End Well “I’ll Let You Watch” from Chad Michael Ward on Vimeo.

At long last! The anxiously awaited debut of our first music video “I’ll Let You Watch.“
A million thanks to Chad, Niko, and everybody who had a hand in making this possible!!!

Please let us know what you think, and if you like what you hear, friend us on facebook.

If you’re viewing in a reader that strips out flash embeds & you don’t see a video above this text– CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT!

Written, Produced, Directed, Shot and Edited by Chad Michael Ward and Niko Sonnberger
Assistant Editors: Diana Lopez and Mary Taylor
Gaffer: Carlos Oropeza
Production Designer: Sarah Taub
Grip/PA: Fefe Amazing
Makeup: Cris Alex

Lolita: CourtLyn Canñan
Man: T.C. Smith

This Can’t End Well is:
Star St.Germain – Vocals, Cello, Laptop, Guitar
Kristen Adam – Viola, Glockenspiel
Adam Willumsen – Violin

Location courtesy of Sarah Taub
Lighting package courtesy of Dean Nichols
Additional props courtesy of Allan Barnes

Camera: Canon 7D

Shot on location in Hollywood CA, January 2011.

WWW.THISCANTENDWELL.COM
WWW.DIGITALAPOCALYPSE.COM
WWW.NIKOSONNBERGER.COM

Stay tuned for more behind the scenes stuff coming up next week!

It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of This Can’t End Well’s brand new music video!
It is coming out TOMORROW!

Just to get you properly excited, I have a couple preview stills and some behind the scenes photos for you!

The above images are stills from the video, by the directors Chad Michael Ward and Niko Sonnberger.
I have a whole lot to say about working with these lovely folks, but I’m going to save that for after you can actually see the video!!
Suffice to say they are awesome, and professional– awesomely professional!

Here are a couple shots from behind the scenes– so you have a teaser of what’s to come.
Our lovely Violist Kristen shot the ones of me, and I shot the rest!

Come back tomorrow to see these pictures MOVE!

I will have a lot more to say about shooting with Katie whenever she has time to unload the pictures we took, but in the meantime, Lydia posted a bunch of shots of me that I thought I’d share.

You can see the rest of the shots at the end of Lydia’s Blogger collaboration set.
Thanks Lydia!!

This weekend, Kristen and I spent an afternoon in lovely Port Costa, CA.
More on our whole adventure later this week, but for now, enjoy this impromptu photoshoot we did.

It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of my most ambitious project to date!

I have joined forces with Mr John C. Worsley to create a multimedia project of epic proportions.

This started in the spring, when John was about to embark on a road trip from Oregon to Massachusetts.
After discussing his plans, I discovered I had previously taken a trip along nearly the exact route he was planning– just in the opposite direction.

The Comic

We decided to make a comic about the concept of the cross country road trip, based on my previous experience, and the one he was about to have.

We came up with a format, which allowed for the book to be read in either direction.
We each wrote a loose story, and printed them in opposite directions on the same page– using the road itself as the dividing line between our stories.

The Album

As we began working on the comic– John had begun working on an album about the experience.
Initially it was his plan to do this separately from our comic project– but seeing as we are both musicians, I suggested that perhaps I should write my own album.

This was where things really got interesting.

We decided it would be really excellent if I were to write all my songs in the same key and time signature as John’s, in the hopes that we’d be able to play them at the same time and have them sound good.
John’s songs were largely electronic and instrumental, so we knew it would be possible for me to write things with words that would compliment what he had already done.

John began writing out all the parameters of all his songs for me– key, time signature, length, bpm, etc.
I vowed to not listen to any of his material until I was finished composing my own.

The Process

John finished his album and released it.

I spent considerably more time on my half– seeing as I was also having to write words that would work with the content of the comic.
I can vouch that my half of the project ended up being about every road trip I have ever been on, and then some.

Since he was finished, John listened to me while I worked.
He would occasionally say things like “This isn’t working– you’re going to have to scrap it.”

While I was less than thrilled by those sort of developments, I was determined to make a good record that would work with John’s half– without compromising the integrity of the project and listening to his work.

The Result

Months later, I finally finished.
I heard the songs playing in sync for the first time.
The results were better than I ever could have expected.

Here is the first track, combined with John’s last track:

We decided we needed a nice way to show people exactly what we did.

As such, we built a player for the music that crossfades the music between John’s half, my half, or both.

It is flash, and it won’t work on your iThings. Sorry about that.

We made a bandcamp page, where you can buy the combined album, either half on it’s own, or all three with the pdf of the book.
If you buy the deluxe package of all 3, please wait patiently, as it takes bandcamp a long time to shell out 36 tracks and a pdf.

Of course, you can stream the whole thing for free– either through our player, or on bandcamp.

I’d love to hear any comments you have on any aspect of this project.

Thanks for listening!

Hi guys.
Just a quick note to say that I am alive and kicking.
I am juggling more big projects right now than I perhaps, ever have.
Expect lots and lots of big stuff from me real soon.

The above drawing is not finished. I started it right after SDCC, and I haven’t had any time to work on it.
I’d say this is at about 50% completion.
I will post the finished drawing when it’s done, which probably won’t be until November, at this rate.

Speaking of SDCC, and cons in general, I will be vending at the Alternative Press Expo!
Please come see me there, and check out all the NEW STUFF I’ll be hawking.

Saturday, Oct. 16
11am — 7pm
Sunday, Oct. 17
11am — 6pm

The Concourse
635 8th Street
San Francisco, CA

Expect some regular blog posts with a TON of new work real soon!

Destroy All Podcasts — Comic-Con San Diego 2010 from Star St.Germain on Vimeo.

I’ll have another post coming up with a ton of photos and general reflection on the trip, but hopefully this video will satiate you for now.

Hey guys! Girl Comics #3 is out now, in which I had the immense pleasure of lettering for Ann Nocenti and Molly Crabapple!

This is a Typhoid Mary story, and as such, one of the characters had several personalities, and needed letter styles for each one.
Needless to say this was one of the hardest, and also most rewarding pieces that I’ve ever lettered.

A million thanks to Marvel, Ann, and Molly for having me!
It was an honor to work with such talented ladies!!

Speaking of comics, I’m leaving for San Diego Comic Con tomorrow night!!
Leave a note if you are going and want to meet up!

I am at table 34! Come say hi! Buy my new mini!
Also, I have an awesome big surprise on the horizon that you will see either at the fest, or on here shortly thereafter.

<3!