Troutfishing in America

I drew Richard Brautigan for some Spaniards, too.

The Great Gatsby

This summer I was asked to do a cover for the Great Gatsby for Penguin U.K. The idea was to reference old playbills from the twenties or thirties. I started out with very detailed portraits of 'the players' drawn from images I found of film stars of the time (Daisy here is Bessie Love, Tom is William Haines, most of the others are composites), the idea being that the drawings would recall vignetted, engraved portraits, also typical of the time.



Ultimately the piece called for something more graphic and simplified. following are a few variations, the last being the final accepted piece.

Engine on a Hill

This is the drawing I did for the Car Engine show. It's 30" by 40" or something like that. Drawing car engines is fun.

The Owl Scouts Debut

This show is opening in Indianapolis tonight, Friday September 3rd. If you're within two hundred miles, you should go. giant, painterly, haunting photo narrative. If you can't be there, look at these, and pine until the show comes to your town.

Benefit Engine Manual

We made a little catalog for the Car Engine show, featuring images of each of the artist's work. Full color. Proceeds from sales of the catalog will go to benefit Tommi Musturi and Marijpol, whose work was damaged in the flood at Lula a couple of weeks ago (see right to order--$10 plus postage). Below is the first spread.

Laura Park

I'm not sure exactly how I came across Laura Park's amazing and beautiful sketchbooks on Flickr. As a Chicago cartoonist type I knew her, vaguely, as friends of friends, and had seen and admired her mini-comics. But they didn't prepare me for the breathtaking color comics and drawings in her sketchbooks. It was like peering down a rabbit hole in the woods and realizing it's filled with gold. Several of these will be on display in the bar cases at Lula through December, installed in time to be featured along with the Car Engine Show for Lula's first proper art opening (Tuesday, August 24th, 6-9). In the months that follow, pages will be turned now and then as the mood strikes us.

Big Questions #15

I finished the cover yesterday. Here's another page as well. Should be out in early Fall.