PULPHOPE

Bullet sticker design for the (shrinkwrapped) cover of PULPHOPE. The book legally avoids an "adults only" tag because we made a late-stage editorial decision to remove all images of sexual penetration and depictions of XXX sex acts (there were more than a few). Shrinkwrapping is the most ethical way to deal with the content/community standards issue (the book is NOT for little kids), giving bookstore-owners the power of presentation depending on their own tastes and the different local markets.

Also, because the book's dimentions are almost perfectly square, we thought it'd be cool to have the book presented like the old LPs were, a "graphic album".

KISS KISS KISS

Tadanori Yokoo's curious animated film KISS KISS KISS, from 1964.

LUCANUS CERVUS

The incredibly life-like "insect portraits" of French artist Bernard Durin (1940-1988) are collected in an edition called BEETLES AND OTHER INSECTS, from Schimer Art Books. Featuring 48 different insects, each color plate is accompanied by a thorough commentary by Gerhard Schere, former Curator of the Zoologische Staatssammlung in Munich. Pub'ed 1998.

Schirmer-Mosel.

FLOATING IN 10%

It has become virtually impossible to replentish my stash of Charpak greytone dot-pattern sheets. Sadly, in this day and age, the old analogue dotscreen sheets have increasingly gone the way of the polariod, the compass circle, duotone paper, and other outmoded 20th c. graphic arts tools. Charpak's are the best since the dots are printed on TOP of the sheet, allowing you to scrape off or otherwise remove portions of the print and when done well, you can get a lot of tone and texture out of a uniform greytone pattern. While working in Japan, I purchased literally thousands of these sheets, and have only recently run out.

Now it is a bit absurd to reflect on the hours upon hours of backaching work we used to do to place these dotscreen patterns literally on top of finished drawings, but it was a requirement for almost all of the series Kodansha published. At the time (1995-2000), the only manga to escape this edict was the wildly popular GON, a series about a baby dinosaur and all the strange creatures it encountered in its Pre-historic ramblings.

This test is done over pre-existing line art. I scanned the 10% greytone from a remaining scrap and built a digital dotscreen pattern from an analogue greytone pattern sheet. Purely digital screens are perfectly adequate and good, although a little lacking in warmth I think- a little too uniform. And I hate the filter>>halftone function, never use it (it is an obvious visual gimmick when and wherever you see it used, looks tired, and has been so since circa 1997 or so...).

And so a simple test with the newly built halftone pattern, posted to see how the moire effect works onscreen at this particular resolution (reduced from 400 dpi to 72 dpi)...

PULPHOPE

I am happy to report that this week, Chris Pitzer and I sent the final edits for PULPHOPE to our printer in Singapore. The book is late and in retrospect, we should've waited to send out advance solicitations, however we sincerely hope the fans and retailers will be more than satisfied with the end results. I can honestly say PULPHOPE is the single most ambitious project I have ever undertaken, and also Adhouse's biggest, longest, and most labor intensive publication to date. Clocking in at nearly 250 pages with an almost square 9.5x10 format, PULPHOPE features page after page of never-before-seen full color artwork, including new comics, samples of my various design and illustration projects, and two large gatefold poster images. There are eight essays, covering a wide body of topics including erotica, science fiction, and child drawings, for a total word count clocking in at just over 30,000 words.

The book is shipping by freighter and it looks like it will likely leave Singapore in late May. Chris and I will have copies of the book for sale at MOCCA in NYC, the San Diego Comic Con (where I will be a feature guest this year, doing a signing with James Jean for his new PROCESS/RECESS book, also from Adhouse Books), and at TCAF in Toronto. Adhouse Books will also be at the Heroes Con show in Charolette NC. We are in the early stages of planning a sensational book release party for the week of MOCCA in NYC, and it will hopefully be something to top the legendary Batman/X Men release party John Cassaday and I threw last year.

The book has been a labor of love and a deep passion of mine for well over a year of creative work. We've put a lot of time and energy into this production, and we went through ten drafts before arriving at the final edit for the book. This is a true graphic album, unlike any other cartoonist's art book out there today. My big inspiration for PULPHOPE is the 1977 release of THE COMPLETE TADANORI YOKOO, an exhuberant catalogue of works by my artist-hero, Tadanori Yokoo. PULPHOPE includes an essay about Yokoo and the legacy of the traditional Japanese woodblock print, as well as over a dozen of my own contemporary Ukiyo-E inspired images, in a section called "Ukiyo-E-Pope".

Also included in the book are a number of images from the various projects I have done for the Italian fashion label Diesel, including some photos and pictures documenting the process used for the 12 color silkscreen I did for Renzo Rosso's 51st birthday this year. Thanks to everyone for having patience-- the wait will be worth it.

TRANSITIONS INTO THE FUTURE

In his book The Age Of Spiritual Machines, author Ray Kurzweil predicts that within a dozen years from now, computers will have the memory capacity and processing speed of the human mind. This will, among other things, allow machines to be able to read, understand, and interpret written and printed words in every possible language.

Simultaneously, we will see a gradual and steady trend away from the use and manufacture of paper books and written documents. By this time, it will be common for many people to never need to use handwriting at all-- most information will be expressed and conveyed through hands-free devices. Teaching, learning, and communication by this point will largely be done through intelligent voice/gesture activated software-based systems.

By 2029, a $1,000.00 unit of computation will have the computing capacity of 1,000 human minds. Within a decade of this, intelligent machines will have read and understood every word ever written in every human language and every code ever generated by other machines. And they will remember all of what they read.

Before the end of the 21st century, most conscious entities will not have permanent physical identities. "Life expectancy" as a concept will no longer be a viable term in relation to intelligent beings.

FLOATING IN SPACE

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space."

APACHE KID

The Apache Kid, 1887. Former scout sgt. in US Army, wanted for murder in the Arizona Territories, $15,000.00 reward, dead or alive.

FLOATING

Yet more girrrrls.

EDIT>>STEP BACKWARD

Been doing a LOT of work in photoshop recently. A lot, an ungodly amount, a ton, an overabundance, a shitload, and under constant deadline pressure. And it is why I haven't been here.

Went back to drawing the other day--finally!

The first time I need to erase something in the drawing, I noticed my eye instinctively moved up and slightly to the left. I was looking for the EDIT>>STEP BACKWARD function in my head. Then realized I was drawing. There is no EDIT function in the real world, you idiot! We call the EDIT>>STEP BACKWARD function in the real world an ERASER!

God I hate this awful digital era we've found ourselves in. For all of its obvious benefits. I don't ever want to lose the analogue, the touch, the real. There will never be an EDIT function in reality, thank god. But I do think before too long people won't notice that because they'll find a way to have one built into their heads. In the old days that was called drugs.