Good mornin internet how are ya?

Greetins from Austin, Texas(more on that later). Here we have two brand new, 4 color screen prints. Other than that they have next to nothing in common..other than being weird as fuck. First up we have a poster for the sold out Phoenix show at the Paramount Theatre last week. Available now, signed and numbered edition of 200, 18″x24″.

The direction I went with the Phoenix design is obviously somewhat Japanese, which I thought would fit with the new single, “Entertainment“.  One of my favorite designers, and from what I know(not much) the greatest Japanese designer ever, Tadanori Yokoo. I never really know how much I actually got out of design school but Tad’s(that’s what his friends cal him…Tad) work is one of the few things that jumped out of the history of graphic design book and stabbed me in the eyes, so parts of this design are a tip of the cap to a master. If you’re hip maybe you can tell already but if you’re not here’s a couple examples of elements and themes I used, went for or almost used for the Phoenix poster…

Recurring theme: man standing in or in front of water…

Almost did the type like this..but would have changed everything.

Moving right along we have my print for “Mint Condition 2” at Ltd Gallery in Seattle, a group show paying homage to comic books and comic book culture. I’ve recently dipped back into the world of comic books after I dunno, an 8 year hiatus? I dunno it’s been a while since I read comics regualarly. In junior high and high school all I did was draw full size, pencilled comic pages. It was all I wanted to do.. then there were posters. Long story short I heard about Brian Posehn writing the new Deadpool and magically I found myself back in a comic book shop and in addition to Deadpool(which is awesome, recommend) I ended up buying a handful of graphic novels and collected reprints. The crown jewel of these finds was a Fantagraphics collection of old public domain comic strips by this dude I’d never heard of, Fletcher Hanks…

“Super Wizard Of The Jungle”

Some of the coolest, weirdest, yet somehow fun and strangely endearing stuff I’ve ever seen. I can’t really explain it, you have to buy the book(there are two actually) and have your mind blown on your own. This print is a mash up, re-draw of two of the best of Hanks characters, Fantomah “Mystery Woman Of The Jungle” and “Super Wizard” Stardust. Thus the name of the print is “Super Wizard Of the Jungle”.

The reason I credited myself in the print as “Juan Smithe” is because Fletcher would sign a lot of his strips with pseudonym’s, so I made up a quick dumb name for myself.

BUY THESE BOOKS!!!!

The prints are up in the store, have at them. There is a regular edition of 80 and a variant on 20 on french speckletone paper for a more pulpy feel..and I can’t recommend the collected Fantagraphics reprints enough. Get that shit!