The Highways a Callin'

Posting has been a bit scarce lately, and there's a good reason. I'm currently working on a book project with Josh Parpan, and doing more writing then drawing lately. I'll be talking more about this book project in the future, and until then, I leave you with a drawing from my notebook that I colored last night. It's an appropriate image as well, because I'm about to depart on a weeklong road trip across the country, driving from Indiana to California in a pickup truck. It should be a good way to spend the vacation.

Happy Holidays

--Justin

This weekend I'll be selling my books, prints and toys at Unique Los Angeles, a cool craft convention in downtown LA. I'll be at Booth 4014, right next to Trish Tatman, so if your in the area and want to check out some great artwork and craft fun, please swing by! 

This is going to be a busy weekend because The Hey You Guys Charity Event is also happening on Saturday Night. I have a print being auctioned off and I'm really excited to see the screening of Ghostbusters. It'll definitely be a fun night!  

--Justin 

Hey You Guys!

The "Hey, You Guys!" charity event is coming up on December 5th. It's a swell event that works with Donors Choose, an online charity that supply public schools with some much needed cash for supplies. The event is at the Rialto Theater in beautiful Pasadena. It starts with a screening of Ghostbusters and ends with a silent auction where you can bid on some cool pieces of art created by talented folks in the animation industry. I hope you can all make it out to this really cool event!

I chose one of my favorite movies, PeeWee's Big Adventure for the subject of my contribution.

--Justin

Coming soon, hopefully!

Here's a little poster I made for a bad grind house style film I want to make some day. It's about a giant monster called the Road Hog that feeds on the tourists traveling through the middle of nowhere deserts of California. The movie will have bad actors in it, along with a soundtrack by John Carpenter hopefully.

Two very cool links this week:

The official JibJab Blog is offering up a few of my designs for your desktop wallpaper pleasure. Here!

The "official" Montauk Monster Blog showcased some of the drawings I made of the beast a few months back. My life is now complete. Here!

The Scythe

The Scythe is another one of my favorite stories from Ray Bradbury. You can find it in his collection, the October Country. It's about a man who inherits a small farmhouse and discovers he's the heir for Death's job. Each blade of grass in the surrounding fields is a human life, and the character is tortured by an urge to reap the fields with his scythe.

I other news, Ape Con is coming up this weekend in San Fransisco. I'll have a table again this year, so I hope to see some of you real soon.

Happy October,

--Justin

Cartoon Brew

I was in Seattle this weekend, so I missed this post on Cartoon Brew. Looks like Jerry not only plugged the Monster Mash short but my blog as well. Very cool news to come back to!

Here's the post.

The Monster Mash

I recently had the pleasure of working on a Halloween short that was just released on the JibJab site today. The short allows you to cast yourself as a famous movie monster and utilizes some cool new JibJab technology.

The short can be viewed on the JibJab site!

Here are some of the backgrounds I created along with the logo I made for the short.



















The bottom one is a bit of development art.

'The Jar' from Ray Bradbury's collection of short stories, 'The October Country', is one of my absolute favorites. The book is filled with beautiful ink drawings by Joseph Mugnaini, and really captures the bittersweet childhood memories of the Halloween season for me. I made this after recently rereading the story.

Drawn!

The cool website Drawn! did a nice post about my Customizing Monster Kit characters today. Check it out.

Thanks for the post John.

--Justin

Big Foot, the Legendary Hipster

The Legendary monster known as Bigfoot haunts the frontier forests of Portland. He spends his days and nights whizzing through the woods on his skinny fixed gear bicycle while whistling a favorite tune by the Decemberists. But folks of the Pacific Northwest shouldn't fear this giant beast, because he's a vegan and the very thought of eating human flesh grosses him out.

You can find him in the Goblin Fish Press store later tonight, along with the new Space Cases print and Yum Yum Temple t-shirt!

--Justin

Everyone likes a big old hug every once in a while, even the enormous and deadly creatures of the deep. Doesn't this beautiful embrace leave a nice warm feeling in your gut?

Happy Tuesday afternoon everyone.

--Justin

A New Banner has arrived!

Don't be afraid folks, change is good. This leads me to the topic of today's blog post, a brand new shiny banner! Yes, it's true, I've finally updated this thing and replaced the ancient dusty old banner with something a little more current.

Enjoy the new banner smell folks!



Here's a ruff version originally set in the late evening.



--Justin

Tiki Oasis in San Diego this weekend!

Before I go into details about the Tiki Oasis, I wanted to talk about Comic Con which happened a few weeks ago. It was by far my favorite year vending at the convention. Here's the quick recap: We sold a ton, had fun doing our usual after hour hangouts with friends, Josh, Joey, Trish, Elizabeth and The Fleet Street Scandal Boys, and I even sold a Teen Wolf print to one of my all time favorite directors, John Landis. It was an epic Con!

Now about the new convention. The 9th annual Tiki Oasis is this weekend in San Diego, and I have a table this year. Here's a brand new print I made exclusively for the Tiki Oasis event.



I'll also be selling a second edition of my sold out Yum Yum Temple shirt. It'll be a great show! You can purchase both items on the Goblin Fish Press store next week.



Have a good weekend all.

--Justin

Post Cards

Apologies for the lack of posting lately, but I'm still recovering from Comic Con and now in full swing working on stuff for the Tiki Oasis convention I'm vending at in two weeks. I'll give you all the details about that one soon. Until then here's a new postcard set I made that's now available on the Goblin Fish Press store.

--Justin

Crazy 4 Cult Show Recap

Here's my piece for the Crazy for Cult show at Gallery 1988. The gallery space was a little tight and humid from the amount of people packed inside, but it was so much fun! A few highlights from the show were definitely Israel Sanchez's piece from one of my favorite films, Rushmore, and of course Scott Campbell's Great Showdowns piece.

Hopefully I'll see some of you at Comic Con next week. So until then,

--Justin

Crazy 4 Cult Show this Thursday

If your in the greater Los Angeles area this Thursday I think it would be awesome if you swung by the Gallery 1988. It just so happens that on Thursday the 16th that particular gallery is holding their annual Crazy for Cult show. I was asked to join the show and of course had to choose one of my favorite John Carpenter cult flicks, They Live! I grew up in the 80's seeing the video box cover for this movie at the Warehouse Video Rental store and had to pay homage!

Here's the ruff design of the illustration. I'll post the finished piece this Saturday along with some snapshots from the show.


until then,

--Justin

Yuki 7 Show Recap

On Saturday the Nucleus Gallery finally held the long awaited Yuki 7 show which featured the works of Kevin Dart and various artists he asked to join in the fun. I'm happy to report the show was a complete success! The turn out was huge, and best of all Kevin sold a ton of Yuki Books and most of his featured prints. My own print also sold, which was of course extremely flattering.

All the work featured in the show is included in the Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7 Book. You can purchase it now on the Fleet Street Scandal site.

--Justin

Yuki 7 is Almost Here!

I just wanted to remind everyone that Kevin Dart's Yuki 7 show is coming to the Nucleus this Friday! It's going to be a really swell party with some incredible artwork, music, cool people, and of course free martinis. It'll be a great way to start off the long July fourth weekend and I hope everyone can help celebrate the coolness of Yuki 7!

--Justin

So things have been a little crazy lately. I'm in two shows this summer, the Crazy for Cult show at 1988 and of course my pal Kevin's Yuki 7 Show at the Nucleus. I've also been working on some cool business for Comic Con, so look forward to new Goblin Fish products like postcard sets and screen prints from my brother Josh!

On top of it all I have my day job at JibJab in Venice, Ca. The above postcard was something I made at work the other week.

--Justin

If I could give you all high fives for checking out this work related blog post I would. But since I can't, I'll just say a simple HI to you all. So yeah, hi, and thanks for swinging by.

Also, I'm on Twitter now, so feel free to follow me if your interested in my work updates and late night ramblings.

--Justin

Montauk Monster number 2 & 3

Some people say I'm more then a bit obsessed with the mystery of the Montauk Monster, and that I might have a problem with my new found addiction. But I'm not admitting I have a problem. I can quit drawing these nasty monster carcasses whenever I want!

--Justin

This is something new I did at work. I was watching a certain Wes Anderson flick the week I made it.

In other news, I have a table at the Handmade Brigade in Cerritos, CA this Saturday. I'll be selling some new Goblin Fish Press goods and look forward to seeing some of you there. It should be a swell occasion!

--Justin

Montauk Monster, Number Two

Have a good weekend everyone.

--Justin

"A Kiss From Tokyo" Theatrical trailer from Stephane coedel on Vimeo.

Isn't this trailer absolutely amazing!

It was an honor for me to take part in Kevin Dart's epic Yuki 7 project. Be sure to check out the show at the Gallery Nucleus on July 3rd. It'll be the first time you can purchase the book and see all the amazing artwork created. It's going to be a swell time!

--Justin

This morning I did a bit of fan art to commemorate the discovery last week of a second Montauk Monster corpse on a beach in Long Island. Strange stuff, right?

--Justin

Seeing that it's still Monday I thought I would post this postcard I made at work. I know the card is making a bold statement, but I hope you all agree with me on this one?

--Justin

As of late I've been focusing on some of the brand new work that I'll be revealing at this Years Comic Con. I'm really excited and can't wait to post some of it! Until then here's something new I made during some recent down time. This blog has had a surprising lack of dinosaur based works, so I apologize and hope you enjoy!

Until next time,

--Justin

Here's a postcard I made at work the other week. I kind of became obsessive about Big Foot sightings as I was working on it, and found myself searching the web for every grainy snapshot and hoaky YouTube video I could find. It all definitely sucked me in, especially the famouse Patterson film shot in the 60's.

--Justin

Presenting a shiny new Customizable Monster!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the 80's flick Teen Wolf, but if I had my own stab at the concept the scruffy teen would look something like this. He's a hot rodding Werewolf from the wrong side of the tracks who spends his full moon nights hunting cool cats and helpless young vixens though the local high school!!! He also strikes a rather alarming resemblance to cartoonist and father of the Rat Fink, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.

Be sure to look out for more brand new characters in the Customizing Monster Kit line. These prints will be available at the upcoming San Diego Comic Con 09, and of course through my online, Goblin Fish Press Store.

Until next time,
--Justin

The Great Ozwald

Here's a collaboration I recently worked on with the awesome Trish Tatman. While eating food at a little diner in Venice Beach I did a quick sketch of my usual breed of aquatic cyclops monster. A few days later Trish turned the drawing into a very cute 10 inch tall plushy dude!

Hopefully in the future there will be more collaborations like the Great Ozwald.



Also, In honor of St Patrick's Day I present a strange little project I was put on at work. I was asked to take some of my fellow coworkers and transform them into Leprechauns for our recently released Leprechaun Bailout video. The results were all rather disturbing, but still a lot of fun.

Check it out on the official JibJab Blog

--Justin

Yuki 7

I was recently asked by my friend Kevin Dart to contribute to his amazing Yuki 7 book and show at the Gallery Nucleus. For those not familiar, Yuki 7 is a far out fictional movie franchise Kevin created. In his own words, "Yuki is the ultimate hip 60’s chick. She’s sexy, her clothes are to die for, and she can beat any man or woman in a game of cat and mouse. In the world of espionage, no one can keep a secret from her and no one can resist her charm."

I think that nicely sums up the world of Yuki 7. Here's the poster I made for the finale film in the Yuki franchise.


This is the synopsis of the film:

Secret Agent Yuki 7 is dispatched to Greece after a fleet of nuclear submarines vanishes in the waters of the Aegean Sea. The mystery leads Yuki to the remote island base of Dr. Calamari, a French oceanographer who controls the predators of the deep with his strange and unnatural sciences. With a legion of underwater monsters at his control, the doctor captures the war machines of the world in a bid to create an atomic super weapon with the capacity to flood continents- codename: Manta Ray. In her ninth and final film, Yuki 7 must stop the Doctor before he initiates a terrifying age of aquatic dominance upon the world!

Here's a bit of visual development I made early on for Yuki's nemesis, Dr. Calamari.



And Here's the finale ruff version of the poster.



The show opens at the Nucleus on July 3rd at 7:00PM. It will be a swell occasion and I hope everyone can make it.

--Justin