The Walking Dead print by Jordan Crane

Whoa. These are pretty much the last official promotional items I ever expected to see, but man am I ever glad I’m seeing them: Alternative-comics creators Jordan Crane, Lisa Hanawalt, Johnny Ryan, and Jon Vermilyea have each created a Walking Dead print. Made to look like shooting-range practice targets, the prints tie in with Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard (and Tony Moore)’s series, the television adaptation of which will make its debut on AMC this Halloween. Each print is signed by the artist and by Kirkman himself, emblazoned with the “Grant County, Georgia Law Enforcement and Public Safety” logo, limited to a run of 100, and priced to sell at $40. Best of all, each artist worked in his or her own inimitable style: Crane’s features linework so impeccable it actually becomes somewhat menacing itself, Ryan’s is spectacularly gross and upsetting, Vermilyea’s is a riot of squiggly detail, and Hanawalt’s has a cat’s head instead of a human’s.

The prints were curated by L.A.’s Secret Headquarters. Click here to see them all and buy them, but remember: If you end up using them for target practice, headshots only!

(Hat tip: David Paggi)

Then it came to me: David Bowie. He’s my favorite musician, and it’s fair to say his outlook and approach to art literally changed my life. Plus, with all those alter egos and ch-ch-ch-changes, he’s like a superhero anyway, right? And thus, at MoCCA 2007, the David Bowie Sketchbook was born.

I’ve since collected sketches of Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, the Goblin King, Major Tom, or whatever else you care to call the former David Jones from 80 artists and illustrators. Below are the latest batches, from this year’s Small Press Expo in September and Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival last weekend. How must the others see the faker?

Benjamin Marra: When I approached Ben about being in the Bowie book, he insisted on taking it from me and working on it for some time. He killed it. This is a “wow” piece for lots of folks who flip through.

John Porcellino: I had no idea what the god of minicomics and minimalism would produce for this thing. He went with the harlequin from “Ashes to Ashes,” that look’s first and only appearance in the book so far. I love it — somehow it’s perfect for Porcellino.

Matt Furie: NSFW! Matt is the author of Boy’s Club, the funniest comic I’ve ever read, so this is fitting. The hermaphroditism is a nice touch for pop’s premier gender-bender.

Jon Vermilyea: Jon actually drew his piece on the loose sheet of paper I was using to stick behind artists’ pages as they drew so that ink wouldn’t bleed onto the subsequent page. So what, it’s still monstrously delightful like most of his work. Fun fact: I have a phobia of skin growths and yet this doesn’t bother me at all. Go figure.

Ben Katchor: Like Paul Karasik before him, Ben Katchor made it clear he wasn’t thrilled about drawing David Bowie. “I don’t think I want to draw David Bowie,” he said, as if he were narrating the thought as it occurred to him. “I don’t want to glorify him. What should I draw instead?” I told him anything he wanted would be fine, and lo and behold, he was kind enough to work the theme in anyway. Watching Katchor arrange space on a page is an all-time thrill.

James McShane: At SPX, James McShane became the first and thus far only person to turn me down for the Bowie sketchbook because he’d already decided what he would draw in it prior to my asking him but didn’t have the pencils he needed to do it with him. He wanted to draw Bowie from the cover of Earthling, so he needed the blue and red for the Alexander McQueen Union Jack coat. I caught up with him at BKCGF, he had the pencils with him, and everyone lived happily ever after. Earthling was my first Bowie record and is still one of my favorites, so I’m glad to see that era make its first appearance in the book.

Shawn Cheng: I’ve known Shawn since college, we’ve worked together, I’ve sold comics at his table, and yet all my attempts to get him into the Bowie sketchbook were in vain. UNTIL NOW. I catch a ’60s-illustration vibe off this one.

Mat Brinkman: Mat Brinkman changed the way I looked at comics with his book Teratoid Heights, no exaggeration. His presence at BKCGF was a big reason I drove there through the freezing rain in the first place. I imagine the way I gushed all over him and then shoved a David Bowie theme sketchbook in his face was a little disconcerting, but hopefully one of the 79 other artists I’ve done this to was able to contextualize it for him. Anyway he drew Bowie as a li’l monster, which is exactly what I wanted from Mat Brinkman.

Tunde Adebimpe: Tunde Adepbimpe is a member of TV on the Radio, which makes him, to the best of my knowledge, the only contributor to my Bowie sketchbook who has actually collaborated with Bowie. (Unless I missed something involving Michel Gondry.) So when I heard he’d be at BKCGF he became a must-get–but the care with which I saw him draw in another sketchbook, plus the fact that he might well have been the nicest guy at the whole show, woulda put him on the list regardless. Love love love the pink makeup–he brought a whole arsenal of drawing implements with him, and it shows.

Finally, this one’s cheating a bit as it’s not from my sketchbook, but I want to show it off anyway:

Isaac Moylan: This is an unfinished page (note the white trousers) from a biographical comic about Bowie’s less-than-healthy year-long sojourn in Los Angeles between the release of Young Americans and Station to Station in the mid-’70s; I wrote it and Isaac’s drawing it. As you might have guessed, I’m excited about it.

So there you have it, my Bowie haul for this fall. For past installments of my Bowie sketchbook, click here, here, here, here, here, and here, or see the whole shebang as a Flickr set. Thank you so much to all the artists who’ve contributed — you were my heroes, just for one day.

from Jon Vermilyea's He-Man and the 13 Trials of Eternia

He’s done comics with Frank Santoro, made videos with Animal Collective, and forever redefined the way we look at Kool-Aid and breakfast foods in his buoyantly bizarre comics for MOME, but now cartoonist Jon Vermilyea is tackling something near and dear to the hearts of nerds everywhere: The Masters of the Universe!

Behold He-Man and the 13 Trials of Eternia, a gorgeous silkscreened 11″ X 8″ booklet featuring the Herculean labors of the hero also known as Prince Adam and illustrated in Vermilyea’s inimitable day-glo style. Only 21 copies of the book were produced, and by god I’m getting my hands on one of them if I have to sell my soul to Skeletor.

(Via Sean Belcher.)

"Cold Heat" art by Jon Vermilyea, from Mome Vol. 16

For a title that was originally rejected for inclusion in the Previews catalog by Diamond on the grounds that its format was “unpopular with collectors and retailers,” Frank Santoro and Ben Jones’s psychedelic sci-fi action-adventure teen-angst punk-rock extravaganza Cold Heat sure is generating enough prequels, sequels and spin-offs to satisfy even the most dedicated fan of front-of-Previews mega-events.

At the Cold Heat Comics blog, co-creator Frank Santoro reveals that the upcoming Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, will see the release of three new CH titles, featuring the continuing adventures of sword-wielding teenage heroine Castle, resurrected rock god Joel Cannon, and their cosmic alien allies and evil government enemies. First up is Cold Heat 7/8, an omnibus edition of the PictureBox-published series’ next two issues. Next is Fantagraphics’ ongoing anthology series Mome Vol. 16, which like Vol. 14 will include a Cold Heat prequel story — two, actually, one of them featuring art by Jon Vermilyea. (A preview of the Santoro/BJ contribution, and the rest of the issue, can be found here.) And finally, another Cold Heat Special is on the way, the latest in a series of limited-run comics made by Santoro in collaboration with such artists as Dash Shaw, Jim Rugg, Lane Milburn, and Ryan Cecil Smith.

Cold Heat has been at the crest a new wave of unabashed alternative genre comics, including C.F.’s Powr Mastrs, Kazimir Strzepek’s The Mourning Star, Brian Ralph’s Daybreak, and Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit. Readers who like their science-fiction slugfests thought-provoking as well as pulse-pounding would do well to check it out.

©2009 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. The Simpsons © & ™Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

I somehow missed this in Tucker Stone’s report from MoCCA last week, but luckily Heidi over at the Beat caught it — Stone spoke with John Kerschbaum about his future projects, and the creator revealed that he’s working on this year’s Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror book for Bongo Comics.

Kerschbaum isn’t the only one working on the book, though; as you can see below in the solicitation copy that Bongo was kind enough to send us, they’ve recruited a Murderer’s Row of creators, including Jeffrey Brown, Kevin Huizenga, Matthew Thurber and many more, and it’s edited by Sammy Harkham of Kramers Ergot fame:

Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #15
Edited by Sammy Harkham
$4.99
48 pages/standard format/color/humor
UPC: 01511 (7-98342-02851-5)

Guest edited by Sammy Harkham, the award-winning creator of the popular Kramers Ergot anthology, this year’s issue is a jam-packed with some of the most idiosyncratic (and weirdest) takes on “The Simpsons” universe ever. Among Halloween-inspired short strips by such visionary cartoonists as Jordan Crane (Uptight), C.F. (Powr Mastrs), Will Sweeney (Tales from Greenfuzz), Tim Hensley (MOME), and John Kerschbaum (Petey & Pussy), are four featured tales of inspired Simpsons lunacy: heralded artists Kevin Huizenga (Ganges, Or Else) and Matthew Thurber (1-800 Mice, Kramers Ergot) collaborate on a weird and wild story equal parts Lovecraftian eco-horror and Philip K. Dick identity comedy. Jeffrey Brown (Incredible Change-Bots, Clumsy) does a creepy and suitably pathetic story featuring Milhouse in a “Bad Ronald”-inspired tale of murder and crawl space living. Harkham and Ted May (INJURY) pull out all the stops for a tragic monster tale of unrequited love, bad karaoke, and body snatching at Moe’s Bar. Ben Jones (Paper Rad) does the comic of his life with an epic tale of how bootleg candy being sold at the Kwik-E-Mart rapidly spirals out of control into an Invasion of The Body Snatchers-like nightmare of a Springfield filled with cheap bootleg versions of familiar characters. And nobody does squishy, sweaty, and gross like up and coming cartoonist Jon Vermilyea (MOME), who outdoes himself with “C.H.U.M.M.,” a C.H.U.D.-inspired parody featuring everybody’s favorite senior citizen, Hans Moleman!

With a cover by Dan Zettwoch, Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #15 is like nothing you’ve ever seen, and is sure to be one of the most talked about comics of the year by alternative comic readers and Simpsons fans of all ages!

This goes on my “must buy” list.