Fantagraphics Blog Jacob Covey

  The comics world has a new heir. Arriving just one day before her daddy's birthday, Clementine Bean Reynolds was born Saturday afternoon (June 21) at 3:15 PM in Ballard's Swedish Hospital in Seattle. She weighed 7lbs, 2 oz, and is 20 inches long. And totally cute. Congratulations to Fantagraphics' right-hand man (and its kind face), Eric Reynolds, and his wife Rhea Patton. 

Tyler Stout taught me how to silkscreen when we were in school together. I shoulda paid more attention to what he was doing instead of polishing up my latest  "design a menu for a fictional restaurant" assignment or whatever. Now he's doing some of the most mind-blowing poster work around. If you like the Flight of the Conchords or maybe just his crazy great illustrations for their latest album and tour, you may want to pick up this very limited edition glow-in-the-dark x-ray poster. DETAILS HERE. And check out his film posters while you're there.

Concerning the post below– for the record, the first time I spoke to Dash Shaw was while designing the covers to BBB and, out of nowhere, he spoke at length about Ghost Rider and all these ideas he had about the character. To the extent that when we got off the phone I wasn't sure if he was talking about what he WOULD do with the title or what he WAS doing. I'm not at all kidding when I say he had the character so thought out that I figured he was secretly putting together a book with Marvel. Apparently…

"[W]hen I start painting I think of where's the water. You don't necessarily see the water, but that's the first thing I think about. You already have air, or you'd be dead. You have a while to find water. In the paintings, that's what I think about. That's the first moment, anyway. " (Above: The Fantagraphics House.)

  Dan Goodsell uploaded an old Howard Johnson's Kids Menu comic book to his Flickr page. If you've sat through 2001 you know that HoJo's really had their hand on the pulse of childhood fun with that one.

As I prepare "BEASTS! Book Two" for Fantagraphics to release this fall (mostly at night and mostly while the baby sleeps) I am doing research that ends up with very little appearance in the books but keeps me motivated to wrangle 90 artists creating original art on a deadline. Art that has more to do with symbolic passion than literal interest. "Unproven" creatures like the Unicorn and Leviathan make frequent appearances in ancient texts, but what amazes me is how frequently they turn up in zoological and generally scientific texts– usually in proving terms. It's easy to dismiss these creatures…

Opening tonight at Grass Hut in Portland, OR, a show from the artists of Yosemite Studios– Souther Salazar, Seonna Hong, Mark Todd, Martin Rich, and Esther Pearl Watson. If you like that Mark Todd "Captain America" piece you have to see the Secret Headquarters show in L.A. where Todd does interpretations of old Marvel comics covers. Awesome work.

Just got word from Pat Moriarity about this 'terrifying psychological thriller' involving Sasquatch. Paper Dolls "has won some awards and is scary!" he tells me. Pat, you had me at terrifying Sasquatch! It will be showing in Seattle on Tuesday, June 10th. 8:00 pm at the Jewel Box Theater. (The Rendezvous) Pat and the film makers will be there. Above is, of course, his EC comics style poster art.

  Recently the Peanuts Creative Director, Paige Braddock, approached me to pitch some new ideas for t-shirt branding. Unfortunately the New York offices weren't totally sold on the comps I sent over (not enough Joe Cool perhaps?) so Paige is offering one of the designs on Snoopy's CafePress page to see how it does in the ol' marketplace. Thus, for the time being you can snag this Linus design on everything from a hoody to a mug to a dog sweater.  If Linus sells then some of these other designs may see the light of day…  

One of the Beasts! made the cover of The Stranger 's new Sasquatch Music Festival Guide: The lovely and sympathetic bigfoot portrait from Renee French. (Who is a swell gal to boot– have you seen her great blog?)