Bush Pilot

Here's a quick piece I did for a friend who's hosting an art show out at her place in Bushwick. Helena Petersen of Deep In The Woods Studios, 476 Jefferson Street #210, hosts "The Age of Uncertainty", in which artists were asked to create pieces "that reflects their feelings and ideas in regards to the many changes that are affecting our home planet Earth, such as global warming, the war in Iraq, the shifts in global economy." She is among many other Bushwick artists who have offered their viewing spaces as part of Arts In Bushwick's Open Spaces:

"Open Spaces," a one day art festival
December 2nd 12-8 pm

Its here! Tomorrow Arts in Bushwick presents "Open Spaces," a day of curated group shows in galleries and alternative art spaces. Over 30 galleries, local businesses and private residences will be hosting interdisciplinary art shows open to the public from 12 to 8pm (unless otherwise noted).

Programs with maps of the event will be available this weekend at the Morgan and Jefferson L stops, ADHOC art (49 Bogart St), The Wyckoff Starr (30 Wyckoff Ave.) and at all show locations.

--B

Happy 65th, Voodoo Chile!

Taking a break from the break to zip out a quick sketch of Jimi Hendrix, as today is his 65th birthday. Rock on. I would like to come back to this image and do a clean-up and proper coloring job, but that will have to wait.

--B

The Big Lebowski Sketches

Here's a few quickies I sketched up while watching the Big Lebowski recently. It's also the first, and most probably, the only post for November 2007. I will be taking a break from the whole blogging deal for a bit while I figure out what the hell I'm doing with my life. Good luck to my buddies on the right here, who all have interesting artistic blogs in their own right. Check them out and cheer them on. I will hopefully get back into this bloggo stuff in the new year. We'll see.

--B

Kegger Dingus

College is an interesting time in one's life. You're out on your own, studying for midterms, and preparing for a career. And then there's Dingus, funneling beers, doing kegstands, and acing Mass Consumption 101. And don't forget the "Freshman 10": Drunken Boy Dingus outdrank 10 freshmen in a single night. Not a bad feat, even though they're freshman. They say college are the years you will always remember fondly, which may be true for you and me, but Dingus, on the other hand, may not remember much.

--B

Down & Out Dingus

Poor little Dingus. He's fallen so far, right into the gutter. Literally. He should have gotten his GED. But, wait. He's got a friend to keep him company while wallowing down in the dumps: a pint of rotgut, eye-blinding booze. Hey, it probably won't do any good, but it's tasty.

--B

Pink Elephants

Drunken Boy Dingus gots da' DTs.

--B

Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street, New Orleans, the last bastion of the fall down drunk. Drunken Boy Dingus thrives in the Big Easy, home of Pat O'Brien's Hurricane, the to-go cup, and bars that never close. If you ever make it down to the Crescent City, you'll see a Dingus or two seeking support from the gas lit light poles on and around Rue Bourbon. You don't think they were put there to illuminate the street, did you?

This piece was done back in 2001 for a friend's birthday after a crew of us went to Jazzfest that year. It was also included in the 2002 show. I guarantee.

--B

86'ed

Who knew that running down the bar naked while making claims of being the second coming and doing scientific research under patrons' skirts could get you tossed from a gin joint? Well, watch your actions, little Dingus, it seems society has gone and gotten itself some rules. What are they? Hell if I know, but it's probably best not to flood the pool table with martinis to make your own slip-and-slide.

Another piece here from 2002, and the "Liverbender Lounge" is also based on the Abbey. The Abbey's owner even has a framed version at his home and has toyed with the idea of naming a place "Liverbender's". Life truly does imitate art.

--B

After Work

After a long day of pushing pencils, one deserves an after work drink, or two, or three, or seven. Drunken Boy Dingus is one of the after work crowd, but then again he's part of the late night crowd, and the "it's-4-AM-get-out-of-the-bar-and-go-home" crowd. Hey, after an 8 hour work day, Dingus needs to relax at the bar for a good 10 hours.

The bar in this piece is based on the window end of the Abbey, near the "power corner". It was also drawn, I guess, at a time when you could still smoke in NYC bars. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

--B

D.U.I. Dingus

Woah! Wrong turn there, little Dingus! Just goes to show, booze can totally impair your ability to drive. Next time, take a cab. Or take a nap under the pool table. Seriously, kiddies, drinking and driving ain't cool.

The D.U.I. vs. D.W.I. debate rages on. Where I grew up, you could get slapped with a "duey", driving under the influence. In other states, it's called driving while intoxicated. Either way, you're pretty screwed.

--B

J.P. Dingus

J.P. Dingus, a captain of industry, drinking a snifter of brandy after crushing unions and small businessmen alike. His favorite stock? Anything on the top shelf and lots of it! This tycoon knows how to live the good life: make money and drink champagne until you puke out the profits!

The original piece in the 2002 show had a scanned image of a stocks page from the financial section of the Times, which I'm unable to locate at this time. Cheers!

--B

Drunken Boy Dingus

Drunken Boy Dingus was first created in 2000-2001 as a quick doodle one night when I was spending a lot of time on the LES at some buddies' place on Henry Street. We were all very creative back in those days and produced a lot of work. This particular character in doodle form spent some idle time collecting dust on top of my fridge in Brooklyn until one day I saw potential in the character. I started working out drawings of the little dude, did some flash stuff with him, and even started www.drunkenboydingus.com (which is currently defunct). This particular piece was part of a show I had in 2002 here in Brooklyn and it hurts to look at it now. This was the title piece of the Dingus part of the show and it has some bad photoshop "dodge and burn" which I relied too heavily on back in the day. Well, it's history and this week I'll be posting some old Drunken Boy Dingus pics. Sit back, have a beer, then another, then another, and enjoy.

--B

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg Cover #4: Luxo, The Living Condo

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg #42- Our likable, lumbering, luxury live-in continues to soulfully search for a habitable homeland as he recovers from his battle with the dastardly duo, Bridge and Tunnel! Just as he discovers a reliable, restful refuge, a nefarious nasty returns to reap retaliation! Now five times larger and just as hungry, the Predatory Lender stalks steadily to stamp out the beloved behemoth known as Luxo! Will our weakened, weathered warrior survive the sucking smack down of a substantial scoundrel of somewhat similar size?

--B

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg Cover #3: Madam Mainstay

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg #37- Mild mannered Mabel Manicotti accepts a new tenant in her North 6th Street tranquil tenement this month. However, the benevolent boarder may be more than he seems! Will the majestic Madam Mainstay fall into a mournful, murderous mousetrap or is the most recent, red-herring renter a mere fly in the spider's web? It's inter-dimensional incitement as we experience the titillating Terror from Tenant X!

--B

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg Cover #2: The Slick

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg #23- Just when things were looking up in the Slick's personal life as Carl Carrington, a new toxic menace is born on the South Side: The Radiac Maniac! And the glimmering, glowering, gloom-gangster is gunning for the Slick! Will our nocturnal knight be able to nimbly neutralize the nuclear knave and make it to dinner on time with his special lady friend? Don't miss this issue!

--B

WTF Blogspot? Invert Me, Willya?

Don't know what is up with Blogger messing up my posts with inverted colors. The above test color field should read red left and green right. Maybe I'm an affront to God. Hhhrrrrmmmm....

[UPDATE: This one worked. God has forgiven me. Thanks, big buddy.]

[UPDATE the second: It wasn't God at all. Since I've been printing the past two pieces, I had them in cmyk, not rgb. The internets likes a da' rgb. Good to know, and this color test helped me realize it.]

--B

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg Cover #1: Captain Hipster

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg #14- Captain Hipster falls under control of I.T.H.O.D., the Ironic Trucker Hat Of Doom, when he innocently dons the diabolical dicer down upon his dome! Will the good Captain's magnanimous might be enough to break free of the malicious malcontent's mental manipulations? Find out in this month's issue, dependable devotees!

--B

Show's Over

Well, the Toxic Tales of Williamsburg came down this past weekend. It was quite an ego boost for yours truly and I would like to thank all of you who attended the opening, showed interest over the past month, purchased prints, or just supported my efforts in general. Many thanks to Mark Quinlan, gallerist and bartender supreme, who conceived the idea of hosting art shows at the Abbey, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, home to many artistic individuals. During this week, I will be posting each piece that was hanging on the brick walls of the hallowed pub, starting with this one, featuring four pinups of my local heroes. Hope to get some new stuff up as well. Word.

--B

The Dude Abides

First pass on Mr. Lebowski here. Meh.

--B

Gary Garage

This is a concept that just kind of hit me today. Then I banged this drawing out. Meet Gary Garage, a grunge rocker in his own right. Fussing around with a cartoon concept called "Gary Garage and the Oil Stains" starring an average garage band and all the adventures they could possibly get into. Still pretty foggy on details and have to make sure it doesn't mimic work-for-hire projects I've worked on in the past. We'll see where it goes. For now, here's the preliminary Gary.

--B

That Kind of Day...

Blah blah blah, somethin' somethin'.

--B

Unga Bunga

I've been watching a lot on the Boomerang Network and saw an episode of "Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels" the other day. I was a huge Captain Caveman fan as a kid when he appeared on the Flinstones' show in the early '80s. Unga Bunga! One of the first drawings I gave my dad was one of Captain Caveman yelling his name and fluffing out, as it was his battle cry in the cartoon. It's still up on his bathroom mirror. More Hanna-Barbera stuff to come.

--B

Hypno-Hustler

Time for another stupid Marvel villain that rules in his own stupidness: Hypno-Hustler! Created in the height of disco, HH first appeared in an issue of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man where he and his back-up singers, The Mercy Killers, attempted to hypnotize and rob some clubbers during their performance. Oooooo. I guess Spidey saved the day and the Hustler sunk back into the limbo of stupidness. Gotta dig a man with a fro and platforms, though. Outtasite.

--B

Good Buddies

Rutherford B. Hayes had a sweet beard. A very Presidential beard. I imagined he just jammed a fork through it, with the hopes of hitting his mouth, at Presidential banquets. And apparently, he liked to hang out with Muppets.

--B

Don't Care Bear

Well, during the working of this piece (from an old sketch), I found out the theme of "Don't Care Bears" was not all that original. If you google Care Bear, I'm sure you'll find a slew of variations. Well, in any case, I felt like doodling it out and here it is. Let's name him Lumpy Bear. Or maybe High Cholesterol Bear. Or whatever.

--B

Easy Like Sunday Morning...With Cthulhu

The green, sticky spawn of the stars on his Razor scooter. Trying a color version and considering a park background, but for now, here's a black and white stand alone. Hey whattayagonnado?

--B

[UPDATE September 20, 2007- Thanks go to my pal for bringing this Cthulhu drawing to the attention of ectomo.com. An entertaining blog consisting of this and that and a love for cephalopodic demonic deities. The post is featured in today's Cthulhu Cthursday here.

The New Guy At Moe's

Hey, I recognize that dude! Just stopping into Moe's Tavern for a frosty cold Duff. Mmmmmm...domestic beer.

--B

Smoking Buddies

After a long day of scavenging for droids, cleaning them up, and selling them to suck--, I mean, customers under the burning twin suns of Tatooine, you deserve a tasty smoke. Here's a Jawa with his smoking buddy, R5-D4. That droid is a bad influence on the Jawas, teaching them bad habits, like smoking, drinking motor oil, and downloading Ewok porn. What else would you expect from an astromech with a bad motivator?

--B

A Boy and His Dog

Here's another sketch found on the ol' computer here at work. Again, I colored it in and slapped it up here. This week, I'll probably just keep throwing similar sketchy stuff up here, so don't expect anything too spectacular. Except this piece here, the pinnacle of my life's work. Wow.

--B

When Hoboes Steal Your Lunch

Found this feller in some files of Wacom sketches, done in Flash during downtime at work. I changed the red lines to black (I often sketch with a red brush tool in Flash) and threw in some solid color. Just a quickie to throw something up here. Oh, and the hobo? He was successful at stealing your lunch, but he left you some coleslaw.

--B

...

--B

Can You Dig (Me Up), Man?

Like, wow, man! It's kooky being one undead hepcat, man! Jean-Paul Sartre was right when that cat started playing with existentialism, daddy-o! What a trip! Like, if I define my own reality, man, why the hell would I choose to be a rattling, rotting corpse? I must really be one zam-zoom-bam-boom messed up cat! Cosmic and outta site!

--B

Pac-Love

Pac-Man offers Ms. Pac-Man a power pellet. Now that's Pac-Love. I dig the Pac-Man, but the Missus didn't really pan out the way I wanted it to. Pesky arms [which I actually fixed and think looks better]. Anyhoo, I might reuse the Pac-Man part in another illo. After all, it's hard to be tied down when you're constantly on the go in this big maze called life.

--B

First Panda In Space

Here's a sketch the boys of The Slip asked for their summer tour t-shirts. If you check out their new album, "Eisenhower", there is an instrumental piece called "First Panda In Space", the subject of this piece. The log font and campfire ties the theme into summer tour. It eventually evolved into a poster down below (sans text) and then who knows? In any case, if you get a chance to see these guys play, I would highly recommend it. The Brothers Barr and Mr. Friedman are very talented fellows and are producing some great stuff these days.



Poster with rocket and trees.



Without trees.

--B

Brooklyn Based Plugs Toxic Tales Show

The good people at brooklynbased.net stumbled upon my blog and asked if they could post a "shout out". They feature artwork from a different artist weekly on their home/index page and this week, it's me. Luxo and the Slick are representin' and there's a link to my site, as well as info about the show. For all who are interested, you can sign up for the newsletter, which does a decent job of offering, as they explain it, Brooklyn distilled.

--B

[UPDATE: September 5, 2007- Another little plug in the article Salvaged Goods with a link to the Madam Mainstay post. Thanks, Nicole!]

Happy Labor Day!

Enjoy some hot grilling and cold suds! Don't work too hard at anything and remember: no more wearing white after today. Except the skivvies, try to keep those pretty white. For the children.

--B

Super Mario Bros. World 1-1

Mario stomping a Goomba. Enjoy.

--B

Super Mario Bros.

"It's a me, Stereotype! And he's a my brother, Whatsisface!" Here's a little cartoon of the famous Brooklyn plumbing brothers. I was pondering which color scheme to use, since the two have undergone a few color changes over the past 20 years. Here's how they appeared in 1985's Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System (arcade as well). I've always had an admiration for Luigi, since having an older brother with ownership rights to a NES, yours truly was always 2P. More Mario to come and perhaps some other video game classics. Mama Mia!

--B

The Piano Has Been Drinking...Not Me

Hey, found this little sketchy doodle at the ol' work computer. I was talking to a buddy of mine years ago about animating Tom Wait's song "The piano has been drinking", but never had the time to do it. I quickly drew this last year and sent it along to him. To my surprise, the next time I saw his desktop, this drawing was on it. Cool beans.

Anyway, the tune is just begging to be a kooky cartoon and someday we will make it. I would also like to do a revised, tighter drawing of this piece, paying a bit more attention to the caricature of Waits. He has a great face (and voice to match, natch). Well, off to pound whiskey and chain smoke some butts...

--B

The Dynamic Duo

Here's a little diddy featuring the Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder watching over the sleeping denizens of fair Gotham City. Yay.

--B

More Pics of Toxic Tales of Williamsburg Opening at the Abbey

Steve Moverley

Added a few more pictures from the Toxic Tales of Williamsburg opening at the Abbey. Want to get back to posting drawings, the reason I created the blog in the first place. With the long weekend, perhaps I can squeeze a few out and slap 'em on up the blog. Enjoy and thanks again for all those who have expressed interest in the art hanging in the show.


Meredith Rodgers and Ray Alma


Luxo in the Titanic Grip of the Predatory Lender


Charlie Reis


Pedro Delgado and myself

--B

Toxic Tales of Williamsburg Opening at the Abbey

Thanks to everyone who came to the opening and made the night a success. Several beers and not much sleep later, I sit here in awe of a great night. Thanks to Mark Quinlan for hosting, Matt Enis for his dilligent assistance in framing and hanging the pieces, and my Brooklyn and AC crews for coming, boozing, and schmoozing. Prints are available for sale and I will probably post decent files of them here soon.


Brent Cox and myself.


Mary Varn and John Holt


Carrie Oelfke


Madam Mainstay and Terror from Tenant X


The Slick and the Maddening Menace of the Radiac Maniac


Animation Collective Crew- Ray & Karen Alma, Megan Crisp, Jon Renoni, and Lauren Krueger

--B