Traffic & Weather

Some lousy news and a request from artist Steve "Whiteout" Lieber regarding his upcoming book with Jeff Parker. Take a look and spread the word.

http://www.undergroundthecomic.com/2009/06/stolen-laptop/

Nothing gets me into the seasonal spirit like zombies, so Tor.com is publishing a new zombie holiday cartoon by me every day from today through Jan. 2 - it's "The 12 Days of Zombie Christmas!" Take a look.

It's ALIVE! Better Zombies Through Physics, the new web comic mini-series by me and writer Jim "Two-Fisted Science" Ottaviani is now online.

Cats! Zombies! SCIENCE! Through the miracle of quantum mechanics, a brilliant physicist bearing a strange resemblance to Erwin Schrödinger has produced the perfect undead feline - or has he? Go now to see the first installment this week at Tor.com.

...is up now at The Man Who Japed.

Above: my illustration for a negative review of the new "Death Race" flick.

Right, photo meme: "Take a picture of yourself right now. Don’t change your clothes. Don’t fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. Include these instructions."

Shazam...



Meh, not bad. But with a cat...



Ah, much better!

Hey all, long time no post.

Just wanted to direct you to the comic and illustration I drew regarding the resignation of Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in the free weekly here. No new info for those who've followed the saga, but hopefully it's a fun read in any case.

Plus I got interviewed on local public radio about it, so that was a first!

This thing kinda ate my lunch this past weekend, and helped screw up my deadline day on Monday too, but hopefully it was worth it. We even did it old-school Marvel style; I got a rough layout with no dialogue, did the finished art, then the writer filled in the text afterwards. Excelsior!

Well, it was a close deal, but I managed to get a kinder, gentler, Sunday brunch-style Dr. Sketchy put together in time for the last day of September. We did it at the local cafe and featured none other than wife my Sophia as the model.

It was cool, actually! Everyone seemed to like the laid-back atmosphere and the chance to draw from the natural light of the cafe's front window. A couple folks brought their kids along (generally a no-no when we're drawing burlesque dancers at the bar) and call me biased, but Soph's a lot of fun to draw, especially when she brings along some of her many, many costumes. (We'll do the Frida outfit next time, honey!)

Check out the blog here:
http://drsketchydetroit.blogspot.com/

So there's this tiny little town in Michigan, a little more than an hour north and west of Detroit, called Hell, and the friendly, good-humored folks who live there are very good at capitalizing on its name (which is fortunate 'cause there's not much else going on there). In Hell, MI, no one's ever heard of Ministry, but every day is Halloween anyway. Last weekend Soph and I went there to check out the Just Hearse'n Around car club show, buy knick-knacks and eat pumpkin ice cream. We made a great little mini-vacation out of it. Photos of the many creepy stiffmobiles on display are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanbieri/sets/72157602037682808/

So this is my cover illustration for this week's Metro Times. The cover story is about local authors and small presses around Michigan. Someone on the editorial staff remembered a drawing I'd done years ago (around 2000) for an MT in-house promo ad and thought it'd make a good cover. Except I'd already recycled that drawing in 2005 for an ad promoting another literary supplement, the annual fiction contest! Oh well. I redrew the image, amped it up a little and added color, and everyone on staff loved it, so there it is.

I'm fond of it, though it's really just an angst-ified version of the "duck hitting a computer with a hammer" art that every office on earth has a 100,000th-generation photocopy of, tacked up in a cubicle somewhere.

Tonight was the closing reception for the Hatch group's current show, an exhibit of Exquisite Corpses displayed at our local cafe. Each participant created 4 different body section and they were all mixed 'n' matched to produce the final result. Here are my four sections. (I'd started with a "7 deadly sins" theme but abandoned it for a general "angels vs. devils" motif, without deciding whose side I was on.) Also here's an article on the Hatch group that's a better explanation of the collective than anyone in it could've written, to our frustration!

Did the cover art for this week's Metro Times, illustrating an article about the 7 "deadly sins" of children's pop culture and the pitfalls they present to parents.

Also in this issue is my review of Elvis Road, a massive, manic comic strip by two Swiss cartoonists. I hear that at least one reader was asking for it at good ol' Green Brain Comics after reading my article, so that's gratifying.

Finally, here's an article about the arts group here in Hamtown, Hatch, that explains everything we're up to (and against) better than I could. Closing reception for the Exquisite Corpse show is Friday night.

To post to my poor neglected blog, that is. There's a lot on there this time, including a longish comic about a trip to Petrolia, Ontario I took, on assignment for the paper I work for, plus a Sgt. Pepper illustration and news about political cartoonist Mikhaela Reid's visit to Detroit. Take a look (please!).

(And yes, I misspelled "antiquated" and I think I misused the term "beg the (whatever)." My editors caught the first one but not the second.)

Dr. Sketchy, the burlesque figure drawing anti-art school, is still going strong in the 313, and there's lots of new drawings and photos from last Thursday's session with model Muana on the Dr. Sketchy: Motor City Division blog. Take a look!

Not the very next day, as the song goes. In fact, he didn't really come back, as such - Soph spotted Enkidu in our alley and tracked him to under the porch of an abandoned house several doors north of here. One dish of Whiskas Purrfectly Fish™ Oceanfish Entree and a firm push into a waiting cat carrier later and he was home. He's quarantined in the upstairs bathroom until he calms down a little and we figure out if he needs to see a vet (probably).

Anyway, thanks to all who were concerned for him. Sophia's been emailing everyone she can think of asking for cat-restoring energy to be sent our way thru the ether, so thanks if you were a provider of any of that.

So Soph and I celebrated the long holiday weekend by taking the new (used) Focus out on his very first major road trip. Turns out two of our oldest friends decided not to spend Memorial Day bullshitting themselves about why we send our troops into harm's way, while scarfing a plate of barbeque, but getting married instead.

One, Lessa, tied the knot with her beau in Chicago and the other, Tim, got hitched to his ladyfriend in St. Paul. It's 1400+ miles drive to MN and back, but stopping in Chi-town each way broke the drive up. We only made the receptions for both weddings, but got to eat lots of great food, dance, hang out with long-lost friends and rarely-seen siblings (-in-law, in my case), and meet new folks who were all gracious and friendly and interesting.

We found the occasional roadside attractions, like a beautiful scenic path thru a young forest growing up on the site of a '70s forest fire; a van that had a giant cartoon chicken straddling it like a motorcycle; a gas station swarming with pierced-n-tattoed hillbilly/goth/somethings on 4-wheel ATVs that looked like a street gang from a Jackie Chan movie; and miscellaneous funny dogs, cool cars and majestic herons. Plus, we got a little time in Chicago to visit the awesome Quimby's, one of the greatest zine and alt-media shops in the land.

On top of all that, my brother-in-law Pete's cancer is officially in remission as of today (!!!), AND one of our porch strays, Phyllis, has deigned to bring her new kittens onto our porch for proper introductions.

So you'd think we'd be relaxing after all that fun and driving instead of wandering around Hamtramck alleys at 9pm clucking our tongues and rattling treat bags. But no: Our catsitter inadvertently allowed our beloved Enkidu (aka, Zoomy) to escape out the front door and he's been lost since Sunday night.

Soph's beside herself, breaking into sobs again and again, and my belly's in knots. Enkidu's been featured on our last two Xmas cards, and lent his nickname to our home email address (zoomcat@comcast.net). As a tiny kitten, he bounded in front of Sophia's car, on our wedding anniversary no less, and has been ours since, the first cat we raised together from a kitten. He hangs out with me a lot, but he's definitely Sophia's baby and she's taking it very hard. The only consolation we have is that a lot of people are looking out for him, including our friends at the local stray cat assistance group.

The other problem is: What do I say to the catsitter, who's an old friend, a cartoonist and member of the arts group I'm in locally, and who I'm blindingly furious with right now (for losing my cat and hurting Soph so deeply in the process)? So far we've bitten our tongues - I know she feels bad about it, and it was an accident, etc. But...

So if you're passing thru Hamtown and you see a chubby tabby with a white belly wandering the streets looking confused, give us a call. And if you have any encouraging words or anecdotes about recovering lost cats, please pass them along.

Soph and I went to NYC last weekend, where we met my brother and sister, my uncle and his wife for a concert at Madison Square Gardens. The Killers were headlining, and I can take 'em or leave 'em, but I admit they have good taste in opening acts, 'cause they brought my cousin Eric's band, the Silver Beats, all the way in from Tokyo to perform.

My uncle married a Japanese woman in the '70s and had two kids with her before they divorced, one of whom is now the top John Lennon impersonator in Japan! Apparently the Killers heard his Beatles tribute band play in Japan and invited them to open on some of their tour dates. The band's pretty damn good, actually, though I bet they'd be more fun to see in their native Cavern Club back home than dwarfed by a giant stadium. But Eric pointed out on stage that Madison Square was the last place the real John played before his death, which is sort of heavy. Anyway, good times, despite an infuriating two hours dealing with music industry egos and nonsense, waiting around after the performance to see if we'd get to talk to Eric a bit.

The resemblence is pretty amazing.

Hopefully you all peek at my Dr. Sketchy Detroit blog now and then anyway, but if not, take a look at the latest entry to catch me in my slightly-too-small emerald green leisure suit and hand-painted mermaid tie, workin' it at the latest sketch session.

http://drsketchydetroit.blogspot.com/

And heck, as long as I'm in self-promo mode, check out my stuff on Serializer too - some new stuff, and some moldy oldies now in living color. (Look for "Jape" in the pull-down menu.)

http://www.serializer.net/

Anyone needing more examples of how my poor hometown can somehow be utterly beautiful and fundamentally fucked up at the same time should take a look at this.

I've known about it for some time, but I've never visited, even though I love cemeteries.

It's not often I buy a DVD for the Bieri/Raptis permanent collection sight unseen, but Borders insists on emailing me these 20% off coupons, so what the hell. I went and bought a copy of the unrated version of "Shortbus" tonight. (I haven't even seen "Hedwig & the Angry Inch" yet.)

Soph's busy with work stuff upstairs so we can't watch it all tonight, but I popped it in to take a peek at the first five minutes and... damn! One funny-startling moment, one shocking-startling moment, one squirmingly sexy moment and one all-out belly laugh, all in the first few minutes of the picture. Already, it looks like money well spent!

If you've already seen "Shortbus" and hated it, please don't tell me, I might decide to like it despite any shortcomings. Instead, clue me in on a film that was previewed on the DVD - Terry Gilliam's "Tideland." Most of what I've seen review-wise has been beyond bad; it's veered into complete revulsion. But in interviews Gilliam calls it "tender." Anyone?

The Hamtramck art collective called Hatch has its web site up and running, just in time for the Labor Day festival, where we have a table set up to sell our art and let everyone know we're here. Hatch is a group of local artists doing their bit to keep the Hamtramck arts scene vibrant and thriving. Take a look at the artist galleries (mini-comics afficionados will recognize Matt Feazell's work there) and download the podcast for a 360-degree view of the backyard folk art installation known as "Hamtramck Disneyland."

Our first event was last month's Dr. Sketchy:Motor City Division burlesque life drawing session, which you can check out here.