SO… The long wait for the David Mack/Neil Gaiman prints has come to an end. They are shipping now!

For your kind patience, not only did we make up full color stickers to show how Burton’s tattoo was originally drawn, and a Neil five dollar bill, but David-ever-lovin-Mack signed ALL OF THEM for you! The blues, he signed in silver, the greys in a black ink with a brush. He’s so good…

Click here to see Burton's backpiece.

and if you want to buy one of the David Mack-Neil Gaiman prints, I have some left. I won't raise the price until we get a little lower in stock, but they are ALL signed by David now. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE.

Being out on the Zombie/Megadeth tour is a bit like being underwater at all times without gills—& we run to stand still out here. I am problem-solving and throwing fire from my fingertips. We just did a huge show, with Mastadon and Marilyn Manson sharing our stage---so I have been submerged. I’d like to do a shout-out to my handsome husband for going the distance and getting all the prints signed by David. Thanks baby!

apparently i can't control the universe...

I am knee-deep in Zombie tour prep but i have gotten all the packages ready for sending out the beautifully silk-screened David Mack prints. I received the blue variant version, which I have sent on to Neil and David and Burton and the @CBLDF where they will be used to raise more freedom of speech defense funds. The print took off at the pre-sale $25.00 price and for this, we (& the CBLDF) thank you VERY much. I have already sent the check off to Charles.

sounds like there is a "however" coming...

I was in the bathtub, unfurling my mermail tail just like Darryl Hannah does in "Splash", much after midnight and I got that terrible email all people do not like to read or write, the "i'm going to miss your deadline" email from my wonderful printer Brian Rise in Austin, Texas:

Sorry to bear bad tidings but this almost got by me as I started the run. Luckily I caught it in time before ruining any of the prints. Somehow this mark opened up on the screen and I'm not quite sure how- it could be any one of a number of things and all are unpredictable parts of the process. As you can see, a very small blotch opened up right on the end of David's first name and try as I may, I was not able to correct the error. I was forced to call an end to the run temporarily. It is very frustrating to be foiled by something so tiny, especially when the everything else is so slammin'! I just about screamed- in fact, I did- quite a few times...

when i saw the photos he attached, it's clear what he is referring to, and out of respect to our David Mack who deserves an unsullied name print, Brian is re-doing them presently. We are hopeful to see them NEXT week. it's a VERY tiny detail, but I appreciate Brian's wish to have them pristine.

the printing is very exact and labor-intensive. Thank you for sending these photos, Brian.

I thank you all for your kind patience and they will be out as soon as humanly possible. ok as soon as super-humanly possible. They will all have the original artwork color sticker and a five-dollar Neil bill.

any questions, please email me: Neverwear@gaiman.net My better half will be shipping them out to you, as I have to go out on tour. I will post photos from the tour, over on my furrytiger road blog. We are sharing stages with Megadeth, while i can't get behind some of Mr. Mustaine's political beliefs, I am on fire about the music. A tout le monde!!!

FIRE print update &...RIP MCA, you bright diamond

as I was typing this Neverwear update, the news broke about Adam Yauch, aka MCA's passing. I knew he was battling cancer, but I honestly believed he had beaten it, whatever that really means. I just couldn't imagine this wonderful being hosting an invader that wouldn't love and try to help him, rather than eat away at him. Adam, a founding member of the Beastie Boys was truly one of the kindest people I have ever met. People say things like that all the time about other people, but he walked the walk of truth. His crusades for animal rights & human rights in Tibet were front page, and he was equally passionate about his love for the Bad Brains. Adam, you true lion, you live on in my heart.

I shot this in...2004, i think. In Adam's honor, I will donate a portion of proceeds from any NEVERWEAR PRINT to the Dalai Lama's organization to work towards protecting human rights for all. Also watching for what the family announces as their preferred organization. stay tuned.

Not so easy to segue into current events, but I know life is a cycle, death is the other revolution of that cycle.

News of the David Mack prints? They should arrive here on Monday. They took a little longer than we hoped, but man, look at these blue variants. They arrived this week, they will not be for sale here, but they will be at CBLDF as soon as I get them there. Last week I happily sent a nice big donation to those fighters of free speech. Only 100 of these blue alternate prints were made and they are hauntingly beautiful. They will go out to Neil, to David, to Burton, to CBLDF. #special!

I want to thank my dynamite silkscreener, Mr. Brian Rise, who is working on his new website for Rise Ink (as am i, garrrh, it takes sooo long). If you have a print job for him, contact me, and I will give you his info.

Here is my living room floor, I am prepping each order, so that as SOON as the prints arrive from Austin, I can just place them lovingly into their very-sturdy beds. I chose the recycled material envelopes which will sandwich a piece of thick cardboard and a plasticine cover for these truly gorgeous silkscreens. They are each hand-numbered and people were assigned their print number in order of arrival. You know I love a system.

Before Husband left on his tour to South America (with Noel Gallagher of Oasis--meow!) he helped to prep a batch of these. How I wish he were home to do the other half...:(

as an extra thank-you for everyone's patience, I had stickers printed up with the original artwork for Burton's tattoo from David, the colors that Mr. Mack first laid down. I loved the original, but in the case of hand-done silkscreen, I wanted to keep the print affordable, so I simplified the color scheme with Brian (& David's blessing) in order to have it stay within reach of most budgets. Every package will go out with this sticker (& a Neil bill which is also a sticker w/a discount code on the back!)

now, a brief aside on costs: Sometimes people do complain about the cost of shipping. I will say, I often do not break even with the lengths I go to for good packaging. I haven't raised my flate rate ship price for four years, while the post office has had 4 maybe, 5 rate hikes.. Flat rate means, if you order 20 things, it is still one price. Last week I sent a package to Germany which cost me $50.oo over my ship charge to send. That's okay! This guy pooled his order with friends. Socialist shipping! I love it.

To run a business costs much more than at first glance. Storage for the merchandise, the tubes, envelopes, bags, labels, ink costs, gas for the shipping trips, the postage itself, the taxes, the mistakes (haha, yes i have had many!), and I don't have any employees, so it's all me. (My time? you KNOW it's priceless) I try to appease and explain this to the people upset that things cost too much. I am watching with fascination the Amanda Kickstarter explosion and I know that even with her offering for ONE DOLLAR great reward, people have found things to disparage. Kyle Cassidy put up a kick ass blog last night, if you haven't see, click HERE. (and Amanda's amazing run at the record industry standard is: HERE. please, go & back she-who-roars.

now a few links that i wanted to throw out there before I forget. Neil reads the tattoo poem.(gods, he's good)

SEE David Mack's MAKING OF PHOTOS HERE.

I will put up more photos when Brian sends them, and you should all (ok, almost all) have your tracking confirmations, don't be puzzled if there is no record yet at the post office. There will be! It's all a system. Pepper out!

new Neil mailbox & doodle time...

Thanks to everyone for the love on the David Mack silkscreen of Neil's poem I WILL WRITE IN WORDS OF FIRE. Happy to be able to send a solid check to the @CBLDF.
In between printing out labels and preparing for when they arrive,
I just bundled off a big heavy box to The Fabulous Lorraine (@Fablor) full of all manner of reader-sent gifts and books to our Neil.

Here are some of the things old & new that have arrived in the magical #339 mailbox here in LA:

a gorgeous graphic novel from Nick Hayes, taking on Coleridge's Mariner poem.



a look inside:



i love the handwritten letters from the younger readers.
Imogen from London sends a "goth duck".



here are two books, gifts for Neil, both look fascinating.



this came in awhile ago but looking through my past Neil mailboxes, i realized I never put the photo up.
@Budjette Tan, a wonderful artist, has been very generous w/Neil.
(Boss, this is in the box that shipped to Quiche)

Another book, with a letter from an inspired author, "May your inkwell never run dry..."

 to follow Joshua on twitter @JLAJones-- 

 and this beauty came in for me, just in time for Record Store Day: David J's new vinyl. Bauhaus is a once and current favorite and when David J  announced his Kickstarter for his new record, i was all over it.  His birthday is in 2 days, HBD DJ!



Mari, over at Gillian Anderson's charity to support the fight against the genetic disorder, Neurofibromatosis,  got us started on charity doodles several years ago.  It's so important for us humans to get  artwork out into the universe. You just feel better! Neil's sketches are hugely popular and this year, I didn't even pester, he did two of them on his own. #proudpepper

to see Neil's Sandman doodle, click here.

This year, there are  so many good ones,  by the likes of Robert "Walking Dead" Kirkman, Shirley Jones, John Landis, Billy Bones/Christopher Lincoln,  Michael Sheen (click for this wonderful detailed sketch)

and my hero Chris Carter (his sketch i WILL be bidding upon, so game on!) (notice how i don't link to it, imma secret squirrel, you have to find it yourself)

Here is a mini view at what I did this year: 

series called  "Lucky"

 i took a page out of my sketch book and tore it into three panels:



each panel got stamped.



then i flat-black spray-painted them, blocked out the areas i needed for watercolor with tape and stencil.
Selina Kyle supervised. (but not near the spray-painting, of course)



then i tried to sketch a salt-shaker, a ladder (ouch) and a horseshoe.



it's true, i am so lucky, i can walk under ladders....
the three will be auctioned as a set.

also donating one of my comic book magnets from a flood-damaged Sandman issue #17 (7/1990), where Calliope thanks Oneiros/Morpheus for his assistance.
 (It's good rule to be grateful when dealing w/dream kings.)



I leave on the Rob Zombie tour in a couple of weeks, a very short run. If anyone is curious about my life on tour, it's all up over at the FurryTiger blog.

NEIL GAIMAN/DAVID MACK "I will write in words of fire"..

It started when a gentleman named Burton Olivier requested a poem from Neil. A poem that he might illustrate with the help of a willing artist. Something that he may be able to have and call his and his alone. Written on his skin---

Anyone that knows me, knows I am a fan of the tattoo. I have always said, it is only for those that can truly commit.  I have lost count of mine, truth is I never counted them to begin with. However, that is the question that i get asked the most. Why, i will probably never know...

Anyway, commit he did, our Burton. There he is, being tattooed by Farsyde Kauai, a very handsome fellow. I know that  backpiece didn't tickle, but he got the first sitting under his belt. We will wait patiently for the next batch of photos.

Meanwhile, Neil introduced me electronically to DAVID MACK, he of the Kabuki comic and the simple beautiful lines. David said he would try his hand at an illustration. What he produced, both haunting and delicate. David came out to LA, we had sushi w/ Drew and Amatosan and Kent Williams, we all went to a stellar art opening, and I even introduced him to that gorgeous pinup doll OLIVIA that same night. 

Then I went out on tour and turns out, David was a fan of Puscifer--He drove more than a couple hours to come see the show. He brought some of his beautiful books and signed some to me and some to Maynard. 

This is how prints are born.
I thought a small personal run of this piece, priced moderately, would be the best approach.  

this means.....PRESALE! I will have these posted up at $25.00 for the next 48 hours, until Saturday night at midnight west coast time, when they will go up to $38.00 and stay there, until we dwindle in stock.  ORDER THEM HERE and a 50% chunk will go to the CBLDF. We expect to have these in hand to ship these in about 10 days or so.

These 3 color seriographs (8.5" x 11") are hand silk-screened by artist Brian Rise in Austin, Texas. He chose a thick creamy 70 weight recycled French paper, these prints will ship flat, in their own little recycled kraft vessels, from me to you. I will be interviewing Brian, a friend of mine from the dark ages in Baltimore, my old Charm City buddy.

Here are some photos Brian took during his printing process. These 100 blue variants will be split up and sent out to David, Neil, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and to Burton to do what they please, the grey version (seen at the very bottom) will be the ones available here at Neverwear.

here is the entire text of the beautiful poem Neil composed:

I will write in words of fire.
I will write them on your skin.
I will write about desire.
Write beginnings, write of sin.
You're the book I love the best,
your skin only holds my truth,
you will be a palimpsest
lines of age rewriting youth.
You will not burn upon the pyre.
Or be buried on the shelf.
You're my letter to desire:
And you'll never read yourself.
I will trace each word and comma
As the final dusk descends,
You're my tale of dreams and drama,
Let us find out how it ends.

a small Neil mailbox...

One of my favorite parts of the job is seeing what people send on to the Boss...
countless letters, questions, gifts...so much appreciation for his stories.

I have to catch Neil when I can, somewhere in his uber-busy life, to answer this mail. When I do, he writes the most thoughtful answers to the questions of writers-to-be, damsels-in-distress, school-kids-with-plot-suggestions....etc.
this is an example of one of his replies, i have removed the name of the questioner, but I think almost anyone can benefit from the words on the card:

when i opened this beautiful Encyclopedia Gothica, by Liisa Ladouceur, i knew he would be happy. (and he shares a page with one of my heroes, Diamanda Galas....)

these pint glasses came in, sand-blasted by Zack T.
One for each of the Sandman Endless family members...with the corresponding Kanji character etched on the backs.
Once Zack figures out if he can make them for sale, we will put up his information. I think these are so clever and they are sturdy and they are making me think of re-visiting the Shoggoth pint glass we once considered. Shipping glasses? Not for the faint of heart, and the delivery services are manned by butter-fingered ogres it seems sometimes...but these glasses gave me new hope.
Neil holds one up while we are sitting at the airport, waiting for his lady love to arrive.

here Neil sits in his rented convertible Mustang, ready to drive off into the sunset with Amanda.
(subtitle: American muscle, British steel)

The Fabulous Lorraine packed the signed Olivia prints into Neil's suit carrier and they survived his airplane ride beautifully.
Here you can see, this new batch has Olivia signing in golden Sharpie:

while Neil signs with his fountain pen:

so we have a new batch of double-signed prints, they are HERE.
We also have unsigned prints available (but still artist embossed) for a lower price.

signed OLIVIA prints BACK IN STOCK & a new interview.

That dreamboat scribe, Mr. Gaiman has been busy signing more of the gorgeous creamy rich prints illustrated by miss Olivia.
There are about 50 of them this time.

Get them here.

I did a quick interview with the husband half of the Olivia team, the motor behind Olivia's boat, Joel Beren, one of the funniest men I have ever met.

Q: what did you want to be when you grew up?

A: less clueless

Q: tell me about the first time you laid eyes on miss Olivia….

A: when we met Olivia had a boyfriend, and I was just looking to maybe buy a painting

Q: How has the art world changed in the last couple decades?

A: internet/digital world changes everything.

Q: Anything you miss and would like to see brought back?

there were a few good psychedelics...

Q: Anything you are glad is no longer happening?

A: polio

Q: The prints you produce are so very beautiful and rich. Was there a great deal of trial and error in the beginning? Or did you know exactly what you were trying for?

A: we have been working with printers for decades-I ask a lot of questions...eventually I figure out what works for us.

Q: Hand-torn with that rough edge, I love that detail so much.
Can you tell me more about this: (is that an industry practice or something you came up with?)

A:
it's a detail that helps to elevate the prints beyond posters...not unusual in the fine art print market.

Q: Any business advice for aspiring artists?

A: art's not for sissies...

Q: Who would play you in the movie of your life?

since Pierre Clémenti is no longer available, gotta go with Crispin Glover.
(interviewer note: C. Glover played the best Grendel ever!)

Q: if you had life to do all over again, anything you would change?
A: I would grow up in California.

Q: the question I should have asked you is:

what do you want to be when you grow up?

______________________________________________