Psychotronic Cinema

SIFF (Seattle International Film Fest) is putting on a promising new series called Psychotronic Cinema and I was asked to come up with a logo for it.
I was happy to get gross and grimy with this. Really pulling up all my influences from Garbage Pail Kids to Max Clotfelter.
I'm also proud to have something like this associated with the upcoming Don Hertzfeldt screening featuring the artist himself.

Meat and Potatoes Go To the Beach

Since winter here in Seattle is generally grey and depressing, Corbett Cummins asked that I put Meat and Potatoes on the beach in the Archie Universe this time.
I did so and while they were there, Meat and Potatoes kicked a little sand around.
Around the head of the bully who kicked sand in Archies cute little face! Get'em Meat! Hold'em down Potatoes!!

Drinky Movie Holiday Spectacular

So the Entertainment Show put on another Drinky Movie Show and it was for the Holidays!! You know the "holidays" I'm talking about.
I designed and illustrated another poster with Derek Sheen as the Grinch, Travis Vogt as Jack Frost, and Kevin Clarke as a lovable Gremlin.
This was also a release party for the complete Adventure Buddies DVD set. Which features artwork by me and you can BUY ONE NOW!!! 

VHS X MAS

The Grand Illusion in Seattle put on a single showing one night that honored the wonderful holiday specials and films that could still be found on VHS! Here's the poster that I created for that event! Snow flakes and lightning!!!

Meat and Potatoes in Tintin Land

Corbett Cummins puts on a show monthly called Meat and Potatoes, and I do an elaborate poster for each one. Each one has the characters Meat (arena fighter?) and Potatoes (a Agatha Christie-like detective) interacting within a new cartoon world usually based on a known cartoon franchise. The month of December we put them into a world similar to Tintin. Timely, No? Here they're looking for a mysterious man in the Tombs of the Terracotta Warriors.
Where will the end up next?

Drinky Movie Show

Here's a poster for the first Drinky Movie Show put on by Derek Sheen, Travis Vogt and Kevin Clarke at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard, Washington. It was a show dedicated to comedians talking about film, presenting short films, and dissection of horrible movies.

Relaunched!

Now that DC and other comic companies are reinventing many of their properties, Jon Morris came up with the idea to ask artists to come up with their own type of reboot by coming up with their own covers for popular or obscure characters. Most likely these will prove to be better than what the real companies can come up with. Here are my pieces that appear on the Relaunched blog.

Back when Relaunched was called "DC Fifty Too", I submitted my version of CLAW the Unconquered. Here's the post with all the information.

Then the relaunching idea spread to the Marvel Universe with "WHAT IF..." and so I did my take on Spider-man. 

Devastator Issue #4

I got to do the back cover for the 4th issue of the satire comic magazine the Devastator. Check it out! It's coming out in November and should be in all respectable book stores and comic shops.
Check out the Devastator site for a preview and then order your very own copy. If you cannot or will not support a local business.

Meat and Potatoes! Nov 6th!!

International Independent Video Store Day!!!

I whipped this poster up for such a good day!! Such a good that all video store employees should get paid time and a half. As if this day was as important as some other international holidays seem to think they are.

I'm going to be celebrating at my place of work Scarecrow Video. Come on by for some sales and discounts and other stuff. 

The yeti guy was totally inspired by "Aargh the Awful" on the artwork for the funny and weird post-apocalyptic film America 3000.

Meat and Potatoes Posters!!!

4 posters I created for Corbett Cummins for his Meat and Potatoes Stand-up Comedy Show in Seattle, WA.

Claw the Unconquered redesign

So I've got a personal project coming up and I'm using an obscure DC comics character called CLAW The Unconquered.

top: first issue of Claw the Unconquered and below: Claw the Unconquered from DC's Who's Who Vol. 5

I submitted my redesign of Claw to Project: Rooftop and wanted to know what they thought of it. Here's their post.

As far as the design goes, I told P:R "I feel that chain mail and fur are cliche. I think that if this guy has some way of getting a magical gauntlet for his evil hand then he can also get some better more sensible clothes. So I chose a layered leather look for the shoulders and chest along with something like a kilt. I wanted his gauntlet to be more like it came from a suit of armor instead of something form fitting."

I later replied to some comments, "I was trying to be pretty realistic about this design. Imagining myself wearing it (sure I’m that fit), and also imagining it’s creation. I thought a lot about how it would move when he was walking or fighting. It had to be flexible and somewhat light, but not move around on his body. Hence the sleeves around his upper arm. Those keep that whole top part from spinning around his neck.
The materials would be made up of dark thick-ish leather and some sort of forged metal. Amongst fur and chain-mail, gold is ridiculously over used.
I was trying to avoid just putting him in furry leather strapped footwear, which is another cliche. That’s where the armored slippers came in. Protected toes, hard layered leather soles and open in the back to keep them from sweating to death.
The only thing I carried over from the old design was the armor on the calves. I thought that they looked cool in the original design and it worked with the layered look I was going for with the metal and leather.
The fang/claw ornaments are a bit over the top and probably the least realistic. I imagined the person who put it together for him was taking some artistic liberties. But he’s a tough guy and those claw rubbing on his thighs would probably end up being unnoticed."

Prison Pit Show and more!

So I've been geeking out about Filmation cartoons from Star Trek to Bravestarr. These cartoons are really not the best things out there, but there are some qualities to these that I just have so much love for. The backgrounds are seriously well conceived and painted. There's probably more care put into those than most of the episodes. The character and creature designs are super creative. They're not Alex Toth quality, but they can hold their own. The special effects and the voice acting are pretty special too.

 original cel and background from Bravestarr copyright Filmation

Since this stuff has been swimming around in my mind, I had the desire to create my own scenes from fictional shows. I'm only going so far to be authentic though. I'm painting with gouache on 5" x 8" illustration board, I'm xeroxing the line art onto acetate and reverse coloring with gouache. So it's pretty close to an authentic animation cel and background painting.

They take a lot of work and planning, so I've only got three completed so far. I'm really excited about doing these though and I figure I can come up with millions of scenes in this format. So there will be more to come. I do a lot of illustration work on the computer and sometimes it's just too easy to make something look like something else, something hand painted or done the real way... manually. So these are really important to me because I'm really painting these and not cheating digitally.

So far I've made two homages to some of my favorite comic characters the Marvel Comics great Doctor Doom and Johnny Ryan's Cannibal Fuckface from the super inspirational Prison Pit books by Fantagraphics books.

The Prison Pit piece I based directly from a panel in book two page 27. I wanted something cool in the background to paint and also something where Cannibal Fuckface was interacting with the background. Since the original comic is black and white I had to imagine what the Prison Pit would look like in color. I imagined that it would actually take place in a huge colon, hence the pink fleshy walls and the miles and mounds of shit everywhere. 

This is the panel that I based the scene on.

The other, entirely original piece..."The Uninvited Visitor"

They Live Poster Phenomena!

Earlier today I saw that Shepard Fairey was going to be appearing at a showing of They Live at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin Texas. Mondo mentioned there would be a special secret poster that they commissioned Shepard to design for the event, but they wouldn't release the image until the day of the show. "We will be debuting the poster image at the screening and you will get one in a tube after the movie is over." So I clicked through to the ticket sales page and found that the image I designed a year ago, spoofing Shepard's Obama Hope poster was being use to sell this show.

They Live (prez) by Marc Palm

I got the address to the Alamo and sent them a simple e-mail:

"To whom it may concern -

I'm a huge fan of They Live and Shepard's work. That's why I designed the They Live poster a year ago that parodies his Obama HOPE poster. This is the same image that is being used on the Alamo site where you're selling tickets for the show.

I'd appreciate if I could be credited as the artist if you want to continue to use that picture.

For some sort of proof here's a link to the blog post I made over a year ago when I debuted the image. http://marcpalm.blogspot.com/2010/04/they-live-posters.html

Marc Palm"


I got a reply saying they were forwarding it onto the dept that will remedy the issue. Then I got a reply from Kayla Williams:

"Hey Marc,Thank you for letting us know about this and we apologize sincerely. We did not intend to use someone's personal image. We have changed the image to the movie poster for They Live. Thanks again for reaching out.

- Show quoted text -

--
Kayla Williams
Creative Manager
Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas"

By that time the show had completely sold out. Everyone who only saw the ticket page would have seen my image in the left and only read: "The ticket for this screening includes a THEY LIVE poster by Shepard Fairey!" They don't specify what poster, or that it's going to be special poster that has yet to be re-veiled. So it's possible that people think they are getting a copy of the poster I designed.

If you're one of those people who want one of those posters,  you can order them from me. I am offering them for sale via Imagekind.com. http://www.imagekind.com/They-Live-prez_art?IMID=1b2bd486-b828-4bd8-a636-9704811ccf70

I recommend them because of the ability for variation. You can get the size that is good for you and if you want it framed there's that too.

Anyway, this is not the poster that people who go to the Alamo show featuring Shepard Fairey will receive, unless something REALLY WEIRD happens.

If you want to use this image for your article about They Live, or use it to promote your event. ASK ME!!! It's the least you could do.

Benefit Party for Cait Willis & Amber Anderson!

I've donated two creature paintings for the auction for local artists Cait Willis and Amber Anderson who suffered all sorts of trouble when they were in an accident with an uninsured drunk driver. The Vermillion Gallery is putting on the party with the art and there is an enormous response from the city to help these women out. If you can make it out and help out, please do!

Here's the facebook page too.