Interim

I vowed that the next post on this blog would be the memorial for our westie, Pupkin. Writing about him proved to be painful, and still is now even after a whole year (hence the procrastination). It is like having to say goodbye all over again, but with the anniversary date of his passing quickly approaching I need to do it.

The last blog I wrote was about the loss of what we called the Bradbury Tree across the street from us. Little did we know that not long after we would be losing our Pupkin, who was named after Joe Pipkin from Ray Bradbury's, The Halloween Tree. Bitter irony.

Rather than have two memorials back to back I thought I'd post this tidbit about something that really cheered up Becky and me when we saw it.

Earlier this year Cody Goodfellow posted a progress report on the Perilous Press Blog and included a photo he took of Patton Oswalt holding a copy of Michael Shea's Copping Squid. Cody told me that Patton is a huge fan of Michael's work. We were stoked to see such a great comedian and actor (who is one of our all time favorites!) holding up a book sporting a cover done by me. Thanks Cody for letting me re-post the photo!


© 2011 Cody Goodfellow

Happy Autumn? Not so fast.

We woke up this morning to the wail of chainsaws. Across the street from our home, city workers were taking down a majestic old maple tree that must have been at least 80 years old.

The reason the workers gave Becky when she inquired was, "we were told to take it down 'cause its damaging the sidewalk".


Even in the strongest winds and fiercest ice storms the old girl never lost more than a branch or two. But what Mother Nature in her capricious moods nibbled in healable morsels, man in his hunger for imagined order devoured in whole.

We enjoyed watching that beautiful tree revolve through the seasons since we moved here in July of 1994. It, along with the old historic homes it complimented, was one of the reasons we referred to our little area as a "Ray Bradbury Street". Water Street could perhaps have been some unmentioned side avenue in "The Halloween Tree" or a quiet lane from "Dandelion Wine".

We'll miss the starkness of its bare branches against the winter sky, the soft pale green of its new leaves in spring, the sound of the summer winds moving through its dense foliage, and the fiery orange of its autumn cloak.

No more will its leaves skitter madly through the streets on a windy November day, no more will squadrons of dragonflies hunt above its canopy on a bright August afternoon.

The streetlight will now only have the sterile ground below for its mercury incandescence to illuminate, the leaves and branches that caught and softened the upward shine of its harsh glare hauled off and dumped without ceremony in some overburdened landfill.


Some might rejoice in the passing of "a messy tree whose leaves clogged the gutters and littered the neighborhood lawns". But there are a few of us who mourn the loss of what could be equated as an old and trusted friend. Today the City of Charlestown may have become closer to model efficiency, but we feel that it has become exponentially colder in heart.

Yes, I'm being melodramatic, but I felt the occasion called for a bit of literary decorum.

And as summer comes to a close...

I'm busy, busy, busy. I meant to have this blog entry posted by the beginning of September, but better late than never. I can't complain though. It is so nice having a full work schedule.

It was a definitely a"Butterfly" summer. Simon Clark's novella "Butterfly" sold out in a heartbeat. Simon was kind enough to include some of the images I created for his Signature Series book in this wonderful promotional video. The music and photographs are by Alex Clark.


I was once again accorded the honor of working on a Gene O'Neill novel. Coming soon from Bad Moon Books is Gene's novel "DEATHFLASH" Here are the cover and interiors.


Our final convention of the year was Context 23 . What a blast! Everyone from fellow guests to Context staff were just wonderful. I sold a lot of prints and the original illustration for my latest Chaosium assignment. And the frosting on the cake was that I scored some jobs. I love writer's conventions.


One of the jobs resulted from my highly successful art demo. More about that in a future blog.

On Saturday night during the Shroud Publishing party the Hiram Awards were bestowed. Lo and behold I was given the award for "Unique Juxtaposition in Illustration". Written on the back of the award certificate is " For demonstrating innumerable uses of cogs and fossils in horror art". Uh-oh, this is just going to provoke me to keep painting my mechanized nightmares.


And just in time for the Halloween season is my cover illustration for J. G. Faherty's forthcoming novel " Carnival of Fear" which will be published by by Graveside Books (GravesideBooks.com). It was great fun making J. G.'s vision for his cover a reality, but how can you go wrong with ghouls and ferris wheels.

Butterfly

Yay! I just saw this at Cemetery Dance Publications. The limited edition of Simon Clark's Butterfly is now listed as In-Stock.

A Facebook test.

I just want to see if Facebook will import this new entry.

NEEDS MORE COWBELL!

I thought I'd better jot down this blog while it is reasonably fresh in my mind. Camp Necon was last weekend. We had a great time as always. The title of my blog is in reference to Cortney Skinner's spot-on impersonation of Christopher Walken during this years talent show.

Cortney Skinner

This was the 30th anniversary and the campus was rocking. There were two mystery guests this time around. I think everyone had an interesting time trying to guess who they might be (it would be fun if this turned into a yearly event). As it turned out the mystery guests were none other than literary greats Brian Keene and Joe Hill. Of course it must be noted that all the writers at Necon are either current or future literary greats.

I have not read Joe's work yet, but I now have an autographed copy of Heart Shaped Box to start with.

Brian Keene, Mary SanGiovanni, and Joe Hill

Poetry extraordinaire Linda Addison was in attendance. I have to give her a nod for introducing us to St. Germain Elderflower liqueur. We brought a bottle of this potent nectar and had great fun in sharing it. We plan on bringing a bottle with us next year in addition to some other interesting spirits. It is after all a horror writers convention.

Jill Bauman, Linda Addison, and Becky.

During a round table discussion at the gazebo in the quad Rick Hautala posed the question to everyone "Who would you drive 500 miles to meet?". The answers included such greats as Ray Bradbury, Rachel Maddow, Angela Lansbury (Becky's answer) and guitarist Steve Howe.


I was preoccupied taking pics with the old Sony so I did not give an answer that night, but here it is now. Necon as a whole is my response to the question. Since 2005 I've been driving over 500 miles to meet some of the greatest folks in the world. I'm constantly learning new things at Necon, I continuously meet new and fascinating people at Necon, and getting to the nitty gritty of things, I get paying jobs at Necon. And while I'm projecting (hopefully) the appearance of a professional artist, inside I'm the biggest geek fan of all these extraordinary people. I know this might sound sappy, but it is true.

Now to a bit of Necon news I've been sitting on for a year. I now have something in common with such artistic greats as Omar Rayyan, Cortney Skinner, Alan Clark, Jill Bauman, Mike Mignola, and Richard Sardinha to name a few. In 2011 I will be the Artist Guest of Honor for Necon 31. All I can say is wow. Well, that is all I can say at the moment. But really, WOW!


A special thanks to Dallas Mayr for pointing out the sweet spot for this wonderful shot. Click on the picture to get the full sized image.

"Mechanizing the Chimera" and other news fit to print.

My show "Mechanizing the Chimera" is currently up at The Tim Faulkner Gallery. Consisiting of twelve new 16" x 20" paintings on canvas, this show explores some of my older illustrating ideas (some dating back to high school) and revisiting them with the current concepts and techniques I've been working with.

The show is up through the month of June, and if you find yourself in Louisville tonight please drop by the gallery for my "private" reception.

I'm woefully behind in my blogging duties (as usual) and up to my ears in assignments, so I'll quickly wrap this blog up with a role call of books currently available that feature my art on the covers.


To Each Their Darkness by Gary A. Braunbeck is currently available from Apex Book Company.


Jade by Gene O'Neill, published by Bad Moon Books, is available at Horror Mall


The Yith Cycle, edited by Bob Price is available from Chaosium Inc.


Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss is available from Cemetery Dance Publications.


And sporting a cover created by Alan M. Clark and myself is Lost in Cat Brain Land by Cameron Pierce, published by Eraserhead Press and available through Amazon.com