Good Is Dead.

The new book I worked on for Alex Ross, Rough Justice, will be available any minute. It features his astonishing DC sketch work, with no overlap from Mythologyat all.

Lots more info in this interview with Comic Book Resources.

Cover binding Easter Egg alert: Under the jacket there’s a not-so-little surprise—a pencil drawing of Batman clocking the Joker, commissioned by Yours Truly. Insert your favorite sound effect here.

A friend just sent this vid-link to me on Facebook (thanks Tommy!). From the folks at Dorling Kindersley in the UK, the simplicity and ingenuity of it is a bit breath-taking (and the message isn’t bad either). You have to watch the whole thing, don’t quit half way out of disgust. You can find out all about its origin from links on the YouTube page. Bravo to all involved.

As you may or may not know, I interviewed the legendary Milton Glaser four years ago for The Believer magazine. That was an honor and a thrill, and now I’ve been asked to do it again, this time live and on stage at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in NYC on Tuesday, March 2nd, at 6:30pm. Admission is $10 for museum members, $15 for non. Come see what the grand master has been working on, and what he thinks about graphic matters past, present and future. I have no idea how big the venue is, but I would imagine seating is limited.

Cheers, and hope to see you there.

Okay, never say never, I’ve taken the plunge and done a design job for Marvel: the cover design for the collected edition of Strange Tales.

Let me say here that in this interview, I neglect to mention how talented Pete Bagge is, and that it’s a thrill for me to do something with his artwork, no matter how vicariously.

Thanks to all at Marvel for going with this.

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I have bad days just like everyone else, and yesterday ranks right up there (or down there) with one of the worst in recent memory (work-wise).

I won’t go into detail, but the point is, then I got this Facebook message from Molly Jo Shea, and it was like magic. Like she knew I needed to hear something like this. I know it’s probably on the verge of self-congratulatory, but I wanted to share it anyway.

Thanks, Molly Jo. Hang in there.

Hey Chip,

This is a little note to show you what an almost 10-year-old book looks like when it is read often. I figure most of the books you design always stay in beautiful pristine condition but my copy of The Cheese Monkeys is crying leaves and the sharp corners are becoming rounded off. I’m probably going to buy another copy soon but this copy has gotten my through ultra-conservative Lutheran middle school, free-spirited art high school, and, if it survives a year, my B.F.A. It has red lipstick smears, highlighted sections, cryptic underlines, dog-ears galore, and awkward folds that run up pages like cellulite. I can only hope it’ll last grad school.

Anyways, the more art school education that is crammed in my head the more relevant this book becomes. Thanks for writing this. Though I might not be designing anything anytime soon (I’m far too messy), this book really got me thinking about art as something that interacts and affects people, not just a reiteration of metaphors and visual cues. That, and it’s damn funny.

Just another Art major,

Molly Shea

Hey all, here’s a couple pics from the Dixon Place concert. Photos by Gary Nadeau, Garson Yu, and my dear friend Helen Houghton. Thank you all, hopefully this gives a little of the flavor. Gary shot the heck out of it on video, and it will take a while to edit all the footage, but once we have it we’ll post.

Peace, let’s welcome 2010!
xxoo
Chip

Okay, all, I’ve been dying to announce this and now that all the arrangements are in place, I can. Artbreak will be playing a benefit concert for the Dixon Place performance space on the lower east side in NYC. It’s on Tuesday December 29, starting around 7pm. Tickets are just $25, then $30 after December 1. Space is extremely limited, so please order now.

If there’s enough interest, the kind folks at DP will add another night, the 30th. The first artbreak t-shirts and EP disc will be available at the show, our maiden voyage into shameless merchandizing.

Really hope to see you there!

I have to say, if there was a speck of doubt left in my mind that Rick Warren is a total idiot, this item in USA Today handily removed it. The comments that are posted at the bottom sum it up as well as I ever could. Anyone who works on spec is a fool, but this goes beyond that—it’s an object lesson that even if Hope springs eternal, it can always be destroyed by terrible taste.

And so we bid farewell to another Comic-Con. On the last day, here’s a little of what caught my eye (and lens):

Con super-chicks just hangin’.

It’s Vixen! About to swat Green Lantern with a rolled up flier!

Goth girl looks shell-shocked. What. What!!??

Ray Bradbury, still going like the Energizer Bunny.

The boufont leather lady with really big guns.

Wonder Woman has a time-out with a wonder-burger.

Also, Alex Ross was kind enough to allow me to do a signing at his (amazing) booth for the up-coming Rough Justice.

Many thanks to the inimitable Sal Abbinanti for his ever-gracious hospitality; and to Simon Powell, super-collector supreme, for keeping me company.

Here’s just a few examples of the many folks who came by to say hi.

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Greetings all, from Day 2 and 3 of Comicon.

Highlights have included, as ever, the people here.

And more of the stuff.

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