A BOX

The other day I went on a quest to locate some old artwork for a show coming up in Sheboygan this November--  I was looking for the oversized original pages for "Suburban Dreams" from King-Cat #59.  I found them in a large flat box that had all sorts of other cool stuff in it that I hadn't seen in a decade, if not more...  Most of these date from the late-Elgin period of 2000-2002, but some are earlier.  I thought I'd post some of it here.

Spread from "Suburban Dreams."  I usually draw at 100%, but this is one of the few cases where I drew oversized (each page is 11.75" x 18").  I drew it in black colored pencil, and had to use the blueprint machine at Kinko's to reduce to King-Cat size.

Julie Doucet silkscreen, printed on the stock pages of the Globe and Mail.

Another Julie Doucet poster.

"Listen Close," my 9/11 comic, reformatted to fit the pages of Chicago's New City newspaper for their annual comics issue.

Another oversized comic that I'd completely forgotten I'd drawn.  Never published.

Original drawing for Comics Journal #241 cover, 2002.

Hand-colored photocopy mosaic of 1923 USGS topographical maps from the Elgin area.

My comic for TCJ's Cartoonists on Music Special.  I guess I was really into drawing oversize at this point!

Photocopy of artwork for cover of Denver's Hooligan magazine, 1994.

Oil pastel drawing of one of the saddest moments of my life, late 80's.

Charcoal drawing of Marshmallow and the Old Man, before she became my cat, 1989. 18" x 24".

Pre-King-Cat comic drawn after discovering Julie D.'s comics, never published.  18" x 24" 

Charcoal and acrylic study for a painting, probably 1987 or 88.

Original art for Newshole #4 cover, ink on photocopy, 1992.

 Non 5 promotional poster by Brian Ralph

Original pages from early King-Cats that were included in a show at Angouleme, 2002.

More Angouleme pages (with Maisie hairs).

18" x 24" painting with collage on paper, circa 1988?  You can see how the charcoal from the Marshmallow drawing (above) transferred to the paint, as they were stored facing each other.

Acrylic on paper study for "Belmont Harbor" (painting, 1988?)

Page from Seattle's The Stranger, 1995, with me and Archer Prewitt.

Baltimore City Paper, 1993.

Wraparound cover for Cake magazine, by Mr. Mike.

Old Virgo Snakes flyer.

Poster for one of the Felt Pilotes' last shows, 1995.

Promo poster for Flywheel's Dirty on the Shovel CD, 1996.

(Artwork by David Nichols)

Promo poster for the Virgo Snakes CD, 1996.

Original art for Virgo Snakes poster.  It's called "paste-up," kids!

MUSIC FOR THE MASSES

Some of you may know that in the 1990's I ran a record label called Spit and a Half, and played in a rock band called the Felt Pilotes.  The most astute review the Felt Pilotes ever got during our career came from Euphony, a local metal zine, published out of Denver, Colorado.  They wrote:

"How many songs can you write with just three chords: D, G, and C?"

Strangely enough, that writer nailed our ethos on the head.

My friend Jon Pinnow, who is known for such things, has been assembling a Spit and a Half Bandcamp site.  What is Bandcamp?  It's a place you can go online to listen to and purchase music directly from the artists themselves.  So far we have all the Felt Pilotes releases up: The debut 7" single "Never Satisfied" (+2), the Moving Day ep, the 10 song album Wonderful Summer, and a couple rarities: Live 8/22/95, a recording of the group performing as a duo (including five otherwise unrecorded songs) at the Mercury Cafe in Denver, before a Debaser concert; and "Carol Aña," which was a "bonus track" previously available only on the Young Love: 92-95 cassette compilation.

Also up is Porky's Revenge, my one and only solo recording, and Profiles in Courage, a 4 band 8 track compilation of boom box punk from the 1980's that Maximum Rock n Roll called "Charming."

Please take a listen.  We'll be putting up more music as the DATs become available.

Thanks everyone!

John P.

Here's the link.

Plus, here's a place to download a free needle-drop of my pre-Felt Pilotes band, Smile.  Our first and only official release.  Might as well mention that next year I'll begin work on a book-length comics version of the history of Smile...  just waiting for the accolades over Raina Telgemeier's book to slow down!