Tuesday, March 29, 2011

SAUCERS ARE BACK...round 2!

Oh you lovely, lovely print.
How I have missed you.
Jouni Koponen, the blond Bond of Finland, has sent me a new look at the old favorite.
He has brushed what looks like melted milk chocolate coming from the saucer to differentiate the second print run from the original grey beam.




yes, i said: THE SAUCERS ARE BACK!!

All the way from Finland, the smokin' hot Jouni Koponen illustrates Neil's poem: "The Day the Saucers Came" --- a personal favorite of ours here at Neverwear.
The second printing comes to you on a semi-matte silky smooth paper stock, hand-printed down the street from me here in Hollywood, US of A.


Jouni chose a milk chocolate brown background for this run.
It will be a full-color limited hand-numbered edition of 750 prints. These are unsigned.








It is a high-stakes take on obsession.  This print is filled with magical imagery: zombies and geniis, UFOs, giants, fairies... even killer bees.  Sized at 10" x 29", you can practically fall into this wonderland.  


as we Neverwear elves like to do, they will be priced at $38.00 UNTIL APRIL 1st, WHEN THEY WILL GO UP TO $48.00.





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They will be shipped in a bullet-proof shield made of recycled cardboard. Your postal carrier will be intrigued.
and if ten bucks off isn't enough for you lot, for the first two weeks of ordering (say, until tax day April 15th, 2011), we will throw in a 4" x 10" color sticker of the first run of SAUCERS, with the grey background. (Mulder & Scully would approve, don't you think??)


BUY THEM HERE.






Thanks all!



**p.s....WE SOLD OUT OF THE FIRST EDITION RUN OF 750.
This will be the case with all the prints, as they dwindle in number, they will go up in price, somewhat like a reward to those who act early...

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Michael Zulli gallery opening last night

So many people came out to see the work of Mr. Zed up close and personal.
Even the full full moon.






Here our artist is photographed in front of his pieces...




Michael and show curator Ryan Graff:


we all love miss Pam:




my Mother in law & Rod:



Michael gave out beautiful long-stem red roses to the crowd..







and for those of you who didn't look down, a detail of the sharp-dressed man's blue suede shoes.




only a few hours left to get in on the Kickstarter graphic novel project:




and lastly, Michael's print of Neil's beautiful-and-still-unpublished poem IN RELIG ORAN
goes back up in price tonight (Sunday) at midnight west coast time, save yourself a tenner in ordering it today:
BUY IT HERE.

Friday, March 18, 2011

my interview with Michael Zulli

It’s been two decades plus since your first big title with Steven Murphy: Puma Blues.
Is it available?


The books are not easily available—Ebay, perhaps.
The last 6 issues are not included in the two collected editions, by the way.

Do you ever think of revisiting this title?


Yes, Steven and I have discussed this, conclusion being, the time has to be right for both of us.
Knowing what we know now, we could do some real justice to the material. The two of us did the entire book by ourselves, under heavy deadlines. It’s just a matter of time and place…as all things are.



Your work on Sandman informed the comic world, such delicate line choices and use of color, it made a huge impact on this particular reader. Cutting out the inker middleman, your pencils made it right on to the page. How did you prepare for this, or did you?


Doing some of the Steve Bissette Taboo stories, I taught myself how to incorporate word balloons in black in the pencils –so it didn’t look just stuck on the page. For The Wake I had to submit two test pages to DC to prove that I could pull this off…Neil has these test pages framed at home.



You were a co-creator of Hob Gadling, one of the most intriguing characters in Sandman. I wonder, if you could meet any of the characters in the Sandman universe, who?


It’s always been Hob that I would love to sit down with.


What would you talk about?


Anything and everything… I’d probably ask him, what was it really really like back in the old days.
I’ve got this theory worked up on how he kept his teeth. Surely they were knocked out more than a few times in those several hundred years--- he was a soldier, he was in fights…I think maybe they just grew back after a couple of weeks, regenerating on some level—maybe he drank milk for calcium... Of course, Death is sustaining his life, so maybe she was taking care of him and his teeth, as they do magically seem to come back.


(At this point, I ask Michael what he thought about the bigger format of the Absolute Sandman volumes, since I know he likes to work big, he doesn’t like to feel cramped… He tell me he has not seen The Wake in this size. I pull mine off the bookshelf--- he proceeds to show me so many little tip-of-the-hat hidden details, I am in heaven listening. I tell him that Destruction is my favorite of the Endless characters.)



Destruction wasn’t modeled after anyone really, he’s got a dog that tells him he’s an asshole and he cooks his own food, mostly not very well. I really identify with him. He turns his back on the whole thing.



I have always drawn Delirium a little… scary. She could take anyone down. If you’ve ever experienced true delirium, it is madness. It is not a place you go to and come back from unchanged. You have to understand this madness to draw it. Her pupils were pinpoints, hollow-eyed pinpoints.



(*Kitty here again, see if you can find the Bridge of Sighs in The Wake…I am ready to re-read this with new eyeballs)

You just did a piece for Neverwear, an illustration of Neil’s
In Relig Oran what were your thoughts while in the process?



I simply tried to reach the emotional core of Neil’s poem.


Your latest project, The Fracture of the Universal Boy, is clocking in at over two hundred pages. It is now being crowd-funded on Kickstarter, with forty some hours to go.
Will this the only way to get the book? (GET IT HERE)


Bless everyone who has supported us so far—
It will be available via Amazon and Diamond after the initial run, but buying it through Kickstarter for the next hours or Eidolion Fine Arts will be where you get the special extras, the signed books, the limited edition prints---
It's just some more bang for your buck…


***(click here for the Kickstarter link, where you can get these special extras...)





You have hinted that this will be first in a trilogy.
Can you tell me about the plans for the second/third books?


I talk a little about it in my blog ...
The first book, The Fracture of the Universal Boy is the beginning of the end of a twenty year time frame.
The second book will be a transition between the past and the future.
The third book will be brand new territory for me.
It now has a title
: THE DREAM SUITE.


What’s your dream job?



My dream job? I’m doing it.
I would however, like to see the finish of the Sweeney Todd project that Neil and I started years ago…again, it’s the coordination of available time…


Can you tell me some of the best advice you yourself got on your way up?


A teacher of mine in high school saw me as having some potential. He told me basically, don’t even think about doing art for a living unless I loved it more than anything else in the whole world.



One thing I have learned, if you are thinking about money, if it comes into your head while you are working, it’s almost impossible to not start to tailor the work for the public sale/consumption, rather than staying true to the reason you are doing it.
Unless you are very lucky, you must try to avoid thinking ahead of yourself. Be present when you are working on whatever is your discipline. Being present at all times is vital.




Tomorrow night is the opening of the group show at Gallery Nucleus Michael Zulli, Barron Storey, Kent Williams and more…
Come out and support the arts---

Saturday, March 12, 2011

MICHAEL ZULLI illustrates NEIL GAIMAN's poem IN RELIG ORAN

New print up!

Before he read the poem in Chicago last year at C2E2, Neil told us a little story.
Inspired by a book of myths and legends of Scotland by Otta F. Swire , Neil wrote the poem about a doomed saint, IN RELIG ORAN.
The grave of Oran…which is how the title translates from the Gaelic.


After reading some of the stories in the Swire book, he took his dog, Cabal for a walk.
“Sometimes, when you walk,” he said, “your mind goes into rhythms.....I found myself walking to along to the beat of the line ‘When St. Columba landed at the island of Iona.' ”
It is a thought-provoking piece and one of Neil's most beautiful word paintings.
You can listen to him read it here:



video shot by Saberkite at the opening program of the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards--thanks Saberkite aka Other Kat!




Michael Zulli of Sandman stepped up to illustrate IN RELIG ORAN for Neverwear.

We are preselling it HERE, for the first week before we get the prints in, they will be $28.00, going up to $38.00 on March 19th, 2011.
Words by Neil, artwork by Michael, and layout and lettering by that steady rock Todd Klein.
A limited edition of 750.



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Mr. Zulli is going to be here in LA next weekend for his art opening:
Gallery Nucleus
210 E. Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
March 19th 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

I will be there! the divine Barron Storey also featured in this exhibit... Word on the street? Mr. Kyle Cassidy will be attending, and come meet curator Ryan Graff...i am rallying the troops out to Alhambra.
More information here.




There is still time to get involved in the Eidolon Fine Arts Kickstarter drive, where you can help bring Michael's graphic novel to life --I did it--
eight days left!






here's a shot of his advance reader copy:

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Also this week: Pam "The amazing one" Noles is winding down her Kickstarter project, which I am so heart hopeful for:




Neil introduced me to Pam at Comicon 2007, and I have had a straight-up girl crush on her ever since.


Please, give her project a look-see, there are 4 days left, and we want this to happen. Neil got her a spot as an extra on the big film shoot of TRANSFORMERS and she has written a hilarious and heartbreaking one woman show on the events that transpired.
every American buck counts and for every $35 buck pledge, not only do you get 2 tickets to see her show here in LA, you get a piece of Austrian crystal and gemstone jewelry by yours truly...me...
see it here, modeled by miss Pam.





finally, big huge congrats to our Neil:
read here about his China news.

next blog, more on THE PRICE....

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The New CABAL tshirts are here!

Last year, we held a Draw Cabal contest.


I went out on tour with Miss Gaga and things got a bit delayed, here is the first of the delightful images,
placed like a sheriff's star on a deep inky black 100% cotton tee. Drawn by our Viking hero,Jouni Koponen,Cabal is ready for action.
(available in girly tees & unisex regular style tees)

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modelling these fine shirts, our Wendy she-of-the-broken-arm & Drew. (look at those palm trees!)



A chunk of the profits raised from this sticker will go to VALLEY OF THE KINGS, who rescue and care for abused animals. They have saved many wolf brothers, sort of cousins to Cabal. We are trying to raise money to sponsor Socrates and Obie, tigers who have been saved from a lifetime of misery and neglect. Valley of the Kings is home to approximately 50 animals: lions, tigers, llamas, lynxes, cougars, dogs, exotic birds, burros, bengals, pigs, horses, even a camel! They are not a state funded institution, they depend on the kindness of us humans. See more info on this amazing refuge HERE.
say hi to Obie!
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when you order one of these tees, we automatically throw in a full color 4" x 6" vinyl Cabal sticker.



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Here is another rescued little buddy, The Fabulous Lorraine famously saved her from a field in the midwest and sent her out to us, now she's a furry California girl...Selina Kyle poses with Drew...


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Here is miss Daisy with her arty black and white self portrait, holding up her Cabal sticker & her lime sticker...


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and finally, how about those Oscars? One year ago, Neil was attending them with the CORALINE nomination.


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