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

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.

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.

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!

Gabrielle Bouliane was a videographer and poet, who I met nearly a decade ago, back when I was very much involved in Slam Poetry.
She recently lost her battle with cancer.
She was a visionary, a friend, and a force of nature.
I wish I had known her better.

I did this illustration of her because most of the pictures I’ve been seeing of her in other posts of this sort didn’t really capture her the way I knew her.
To me, Gabrielle will always be in bunny ears–or a cowboy hat.
She is peering at me from behind a camera, or through a LiveJournal icon.
She is capturing something–when everyone else is too busy watching.

I am posting this poem of hers, because I think all of you should read it, whether you knew her or not.

When you hear that I have died, think of this.

Think of cool nights breezes while you walk to meet your friends for a beer on a Thursday. Think of waking up in flannel sheets on a snowy morning and kissing someone you love. Think of hung-over diner breakfasts and the best cup of coffee in the world. Think of the sound of tires on seamed highways while you travel, think of French kissing and leather jackets and push-up bras and bourbon, think of the joy of hard work with friends. Then think of me.

Not sad, not the melancholy solitude of empty skies, but the full days and crowded bars and signed contracts, a smile too big for my face, remember I said I stay busy enough to fit three lives into one. When you hear that I have died, know that I want laughter, and dancing, real dancing, to music that makes you move without thinking, you’re wearing boots and jeans and a great t-shirt and wondering if the girl at the edge thinks you’re cute. And you motherfuckers had best DANCE, none of this bullshit rock-nod hands-in-the-pockets shoegazer nonsense, no, make an ass out of yourself, feel your hips, kick off the high heels and sway on the shoulder of a stranger, when I die, you’d better be laughing your ass off on sidewalks, eating deliciously unhealthy food, drinking shots and tipping your bartender well no matter how much money you make.

And Adam has to read the poem he wrote, and Laura, and June, and Scott Carpenter has to play “Don’t Go Away, Chloe”, no fuck that, every musician I’ve ever made out with or videotaped or road-tripped with has to play, so drink some coffee, baby, it’s gonna be a long night. When you hear that I have died, the best thing you can do is to get laid that night with a comfortable stranger, use my story to get their sympathy, and when you kiss them for the first time, think of me then.

When you hear that I have died, and you will, remember your best revenge is to live well, take risks, save up money and chase your perfect happiness. Beat the system and learn to make your art really support you, craft into something your audience can’t live without. Then make the world an even slightly better place — stop throwing your cigarettes on the ground, vote in the next election, graffiti your life on the eyes of the hungry.

Then just do me one last favor. Please. Love something. Anything. Start with yourself, but find passion in everything, from an apple pie to a novel, make a family, get a degree, walk whatever path is yours with your chin up and feet planted firmly. Have the best stories to tell in the old folk’s home, about lifelong friendships and epic love affairs, about the time you lost everything and yet found yourself happier than when you began.. and remember that time we got in SO much trouble…

Poets.. remember. This is the story that never ends. When one of us leaves, another walks through the door. The pages turn, the sun keeps rising. All you can do in the meanwhile.. is to speak for yourself. Raise your voice high, tell your story, join hands against the dark and sing our souls to the sky. Know the best in me comes from the best in you, that as you tell your story, you will be telling mine, and our lives will be linked together forever, and everyone who hears you will become a part of the change we make.

So when you hear that I have died..
just ….live.

–Gabrielle Bouliane

This is her last performance in public:

Please feel free to re-post any of the contents of this post anywhere on the internet, with attribution.
I feel like these last words of hers should be carried to as many people as possible.

Also, if anybody wants the high-res version of my drawing, drop me an e-mail.
If enough people are interested, I can maybe make some prints.

Rest in peace, Gabrielle.
And to the rest of you, bunny up!

Oh my god!

After months and months of drawing and coding, This Is Star has a new look!

I’ve been doing a lot of code and design on other people’s websites for the past couple months, and it occurred to me that a new look on my own site was way overdue.
The previous design had been standing strong for just over 2 years, and I knew it was more than time for a change.

The new site has some neat features that I’ll share with you now.

Custom Category Headers

I designed the site to skin the headers of various posts, by category.
This way, when I make an audio post, it calls a header illustration with a cello bow and a microphone.
I have similar headers for several different types of posts, and plan on adding more as my collection of post topics grows.

I was inspired by the manner in which sites like Tumblr autoformat your posts by type, and I wanted to do something similar on my site, which is wordpress based.
Changing the header background dynamically by category seemed like the simplest way for me to get this feel without going overboard.

Fun with JavaScript

Seeing as I’ve grown a lot as a developer in the time that has gone by since I did my last site design, I thought I should show off some of my newer skills.
One of those skills is using JavaScript, which has become much more simple and dynamic in recent years thanks to the rise of libraries like JQuery and YUI.

I used JQuery on my site to make a few neat effects that I’ll show you here:

If you click on one of the “Advertise Here” buttons on the right hand side, you’ll notice that the information on purchasing ad space on the site expands below the ads.
This allows me to display the information without adding an unnecessary extra page, or allowing the user to navigate away from the main content.

If you hover over my logo on the top left, you’ll see that it animates slightly.
The lovely logo is, of course, designed by the equally lovely Nubby Twiglet.

You’ll also notice that all my archive pages and categories will expand using a collapsing menu.
This is powered by Collapsing Archives, and Collapsing Categories plugins, respectively.

Dynamic Footer

A web design trend I’ve seen popping up a whole lot lately is putting lots of dynamic content for social networking in your footer.
I really like the look of these big footers anchoring everyone’s pages, so I decided to do my own version, integrating design elements from my category headers, as well as the site header.

I hope all of you like the new site design as much as I do!

Please check out the rest of the pieces in the project over at SmithMag.
There are lots of other amazing renditions of Mr. Pekar for you to feast your eyes on, and I’m quite sure you’ll be glad you did.

Page 12 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!

Writing/Modeling by her,
Illustration/layout by me.

Sorry I’ve been a bit lax on posting these! We’re halfway done!

We’re almost at the halfway point!

Page 11 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing/Modeling by her, Illustration/layout by me.

Pages 8 & 9 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing/photo by her, layout/design by me.

Thanks to Lesley Denford for doing a little write up on this project!
You can read it here.

[Click for bigger!]

Page 4 of the 24hour comic I did with Miss Mary Bee!
Writing by her, illustration/layout by me (after a photo, of her, by Alan Davis).

Got all that? ha.

Page 3 of my 24 hour comic with writer, Mary Bee.

We holed up at the Comics Outpost for a full day of drawing, along with fellow 24hour participants Doctor Popular & Mike Hales.

What is 24 hour comic day?

put simply: 24 pages in 24 hours.
Here’s my second page (the first is the title page, and I’ll be posting that last):

It was a departure for me. I’ve been pushing the amount of textures and collage stuff in my work for a little while,
partly influenced by the non-digital work I’ve been doing (which deserves a post one of these days)
& I did a few sketchbook/collage things digitally recently that people responded well to.…
So for the challenge, I decided to really embrace that collage aesthetic and let go of illustration a little if the page or time limits called for it.

I’ll be posting this comic a page or 2 at a time over the next couple weeks.

I am both satisfied and shocked that I made it through all 24 hours, and left with 24 pages in hand.

Extra thanks to my writer, Mary Bee! I couldn’t have done it without you!

I began this image by laying down the basic outlines with a medium sized brush.

I then added the black background, and began adding more detail with a smaller brush.

At this point, I started drawing the hair in over the black, using white. I also started using a very tiny brush, and put in even more detailed black lines. I am always tempted to leave my line work too clean, which is something I’m trying to get over. I miss some of the messy, scribbly qualities of my early work, so I’m trying to recapture that.

Splatter gets added next, in both white and black. I also put in some heavy outlines with a thick brush.
I’m trying to get a lot of variation in my line weight lately, to try and rely on my shading & coloring less.

I also added the hand lettered text, which went through several iterations of cursive and script fonts until I just hand drew it in my usual serif.

Rough color gets added.
I hate this step every time because the image instantly loses much of it’s definition and it takes work to get it back.

Rough shading.
I’m experimenting a little with the lines coming off of the shading. I keep waffling over whether I like it.

Rough highlights.
I wanted the lighting to be really dramatic, so I chose a really high contrast palate.

Initial textures.
This texture is put on in specific spots that appear to really need it, which differs from the next step because it’s very intentional where the texture goes.

Rounded corners, color tweaks & textures.
The image wasn’t quite warm enough for me, so I adjusted it a bit.
then I started throwing texture on at random.
I often find that if I think about it too much, I never get anything I like.
This though, I am happy with.

& that’s it!

This started as a sketchbook page & sort of turned into a proper illustration.
I’m not positive that this is totally done yet, but I think it might be.
I’ll do a breakdown of how I did this if there’s enough interest.
My process has changed a bit since I last did one.

In other news, I’ve been incredibly busy with a million different projects.
I can’t really talk about a lot of it, but I’m working on a documentary about Burning Man,
an autobiographical comic, and a solo album.

I’ll post more details when I can, but I won’t be able to for a few months at least.
In the meantime, I’ll try to keep sharing as much of my personal work as possible,
such as the above piece, which is as personal as it gets.

I made this flyer for Nubby & Gala’s birthday, I mean, WEDDING!

I’ll be in attendance along with the rest of the ladybloggers. You should be there too!

Also, NYC FRIENDS: E-mail me if you want to hang, my schedule is extremely packed already.

I can’t wait!!!

Here’s a panel from a new project I’m working on with Erik Amaya.

I kind of hate the text, but I suspect I’ll be hand lettering it in the next revision.
Until tomorrow!