"It Came From the Other Sketch Book..."

Why can't I remember the simple things? Like when my wife calls me in the middle of the day to asks me to pull out some butter for her so she can make some cookies with it when she get home. WHY OH WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER TO DO IT??? I want to be good and remember I just don't always follow through because I terribly distracted. Sometimes I think I'd be much happier if I were better at memory than art.

On top of all the trillions of cute animal drawings that I've been diverting brain power to over the past few years, I have started up a new sketch book that has me working in a different direction. I'm working on a more traditional comic book style of drawing that's proving to be much more challenging than my happy rabbit/lizard-on-surf-board fair. Unless you're a supreme master artist super star (which is annoying), a big mouth drooling numbskull (which is common), or too busy baking cookies with cold butter (all my fault) no one would claim that drawing the human figure comes easy. Consequently my sketch book look much more like an honest actual SKETCH BOOK with more half finished drawings and mistakes inside of it then cool drawings to show off. My wife would be most impressed if I could remember where I left my shoes last night.

Can you name all the characters?

The new sketch book is also much bigger than one old >>>> by ????I was using in the past. One of the many cool advantadges that comes along with a bigger sketch book is that I now have much more room for stickers. I could probably have more room to take notes about things I need to remember for the sake of OTHER REAL PEOPLE if I hadn't already forgotten them in my scrambled birdbrain. One of the many joys I have found in keeping a sketch book is that it employs the Obsessive Compulsive side on my personality. I tote these little books around with me everywhere I go like a toddler with a security blanket. It's more than safe to say that on top of using the books to sharpen my skill set, build a body of work, keep new artworks handy to show the public, these books also help me stay passified and able to compartmentalize the world around me like a high school year book.

So, I'm a sticker freak. I go to a lot of punk/metal shows and I'm always on the lookout for cool stickers of bands I like. I had a hard time putting the Septic Death sticker in my book because it came with the Crossed Out Twice discography which is most likely worth a little more with the sticker in it. I really need a "Your wife just might kill you in your sleep if you don't grow up, jerk" sticker.

There is also that rad Skullz sticker by Bobby Evil. He was the first artist I ever traded with and to this day he sent me the best package of stuff I've ever gotten.

Yeah, I still have some more...You have the classic" We're the MeatMen ... and you SUCK!" A great Triac, C.O.C. worship sticker and a really cool smoking banana by Frank Kozik. Anyone remember Pop Faction? Skeleton Witch are a great band and the coolest dudes ever that's why I got a hundred million stickers from them.

You want some more, well here you go. Overkill not the band just the concept. Yeah, that's a Common Enemy sticker upside down for no other reason that I had too much to drink one night. Sorry Bobby, thanks for all the great stuff! While I'm looking at this nerd pile all at once, I'll add that it's a good chance that Andy of UGLY LAW can name to most of these Ultra Man dudes...

I also have gotten a few autographs in some of these books. I got one from the animator Bill Plympton, best know for his 1987 short film "Your Face" He didn't really get why I wanted him to sign my book. I think his hands were a little tired.

I also got the cartoonist Doug Marlette to sign my sketch book. He did the ho-hum strip Kudzu and also won a Puliter Prize. He was a really interesting guy. I could tell he wanted me to buy one of the books he was selling and I didn't but he was cool about it and signed anyway. Doug died in a car wreck a few months after I got his autograph and it was in the same sketch book that I have the Septic Death sticker in and that means NOTHING!