Zombie Toddler

Let me give a quick "shout out" to a couple of my other non-comics efforts. I've been working with my twin brother, and Jay Gish on a website called bindledog.com for a while now. It's part flash animation and live action sketch comedy. We've built up a good enough bunch of material over there to keep a person busy at work for at least an hour. Recently we've been in a long production mode for a couple of more complicated projects. The live action one is called "Guitar Hero A-hole", and we're working on getting that edited, and the Flash one is an animated short for our website's mascot, Bindledog. Please go and peruse, if you haven't recently.

Also, just recently I've become a podcaster! (cue dramatic music) Yes, my brother Adam and I have channeled our love for the Chicago White Sox, into our own weekly podcast, Oral Sox. It's mostly a couple of fans talking about their favorite team, but we try to be funny about it. We've only done a couple of shows so far, but it's been fun, and we're planning on going through the whole season. So, if you are a fan of my comix, live in Chicago, like the White Sox, and listen to podcasts.... (sigh) anyway you can get it on itunes.

Well, as for the three things...

Here are some character sketches for another bindledog project. It involves a contest that Radiohead is holding, to make a video featuring one of the songs from their new album, In Rainbows. The story is a Greek tragedy with some weird magical elements. We're going to put together a storyboard for the video first and I'll post it here when it's done.

Here's a picture of Van transforming into a zombie from his 2 year photo shoot.

The ipod shuffle song selection.

Thank You by Dido

Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler

So Fast, So Numb by R.E.M

So, the first two are Emily's songs. Songs, like Thank You are pretty and nice, but put me to sleep. Hey Dido, Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones, and all you other easy listening broads, WAKE UP! Go drink a Mountain Dew!

There is something in Total Eclipse that I do like though. The vocal on it is pretty passionate and strong, and I'll take vocals like that, over a more technically sound, but dull performance every day of the frickin' week! Bring the Passion! Bring the Heat! R.E.M.'s new album is supposed to be good. I've just about given up on them, and their last couple of albums have been too passive and plodding for me, but when they're upbeat, R.E.M. is hard to beat for feel good, American rock 'n' roll.

3 Things!

Well, I kinda figured the most interesting way for me to update the blog, with any regularity is with a theme. So I'm gonna try and update once a week, with three different items. Firstly, because he's the cutest damn thing in the world, a picture of my son. Van is nearly 2 and I'll try to include only funny pictures, as I realize that other people's kids are only interesting to a point. Nextly, and because this is a blog for my comics, I'll post a piece of art from something I'm currently working on, or is something of interest. And lastly, I'll go to the old ipod mini and list three songs that come up on shuffle, as a means of getting to know me a little better, and what better way than ipod shuffle selection? It's the new, "What's your sign?" of our era. So here they are.

and here are the songs without editing for embarrassment.

"Special" by Garbage, from Version 2.0 I believe.

" '92 Subaru" by Fountains of Wayne, from Traffic and Weather

"Take on Me" by Ah-ha. No idea about an album.

So there you have it, Van loves to pick up books and pretend to read them. So this picture isn't posed in that sense, however, I believe I gave him the Angry Youth Comix, Comic after he picked up something else, for the sake of the picture. For those not in the know, Angry Youth Comix, is the deviant rantings of Johnny Ryan, and his comics are absolutely filthy, and completely inappropriate for a child under the age of 18. That's what makes the picture so humorous :) You can see Johnny's comics and all of his other cool shit here. http://www.johnnyr.com/

The art is a preview from Issue #3 of Burning Building Comix. It's in color cause it's going to appear on Topshelfcomix.com in their online comics section. They did this for Issue #1 already and you can see that here. http://www.topshelfcomix.com/comix.php?comic=burning&page=1 Top Shelf has published some of my favorite comics, including Blankets, Box Office Poison, Jeff Brown, James Kochalka, and I could go on and on.

And finally those are the songs. I LOVE Garbage, and am "rock star in love" with Shirley Manson, and the way she sings. Last I heard they might still be putting out a new record, after Shirley does a solo project. Maybe someday I'll do a mini-comic about my love for this band. Then there's Fountains of Wayne, who I also adore. They have a extremely catchy pop sound, that Van happens to be a huge fan of as well. Then there's, to me, the best 80's song of all time, Take on me, with perhaps the best music video of all time as well. No apologies for this song, I still love it, and haven't even been F'd out on it yet. http://youtube.com/watch?v=CUod3jGQt0U

Well, that will do it for now. I am working on some video from SPACE, but I have to get it transferred over still. Okay, thanks for reading.

Your Pal, Jeff