Ryan McGinness

75 days

Obi-Wan never told you

I don't know what's weirder, the fact that someone named a breed of Iris after Darth Vader, or the fact that I want to plant these around my apartment.

The Darth Vader Iris


There is also a Skywalker Orchid and a Darkside Iris, apparently flower breeders are big Star Wars fans, who would have guessed.

I've been a big fan of illustrator James Jean. Sometimes it's a little too obvious in my pictures, I need to tone it down a bit. Here's a two page spread he did for Best Life magazine, about a guy that was obsessed with Star Wars, no it wasn't about me.

We all see death before our eyes

Polish artist, Zdzislaw Beksinski found murdered.
Multiple stab wounds

"We all see death before our eyes," Beksinski said at a recent opening of his work

Odd Nerdum, Giger, and Beksinski are the only modern painters that when I first saw their work,I saw my nightmares. As if they had propped up an easel in my dreams, voyeuristic, surrealstic.

With my computer being down, I had been planning a return to oils. Just last week I was studying Beksinki's work. Owing a lot to Friedrich, Dhurmer, and Knopff yet being subtle and original.

Not many people know of Beksinki's work, so here is a mini gallery. I remember many of these dreams, perhaps you do too.

Click for larger version

RIP HAL 9000

Well my hard drive is dead. I bought him in 2001 and kept with a HAL desktop theme for years. I've lost so much stuff....Remember kids, backup files..blah.
Daisy...Daisy.


A really moving Muppet film, well worth checking out.
Click here


After a lawsuit about Ford misleading the public on the safety of SUV's, the settlement led to a campaign with cg and mechanical monster called esuvee...just odd.
http://esuvee.com



I can see future commercials in the series, with this nasty looking Muppet on steroids guzzling gas and then polluting the environment with it's emmissions.

and finally...

So my home computer is down again. I wonder how many times I've said that on this blog.

In the mean time, enjoy a still from yet another weird Japanese McDonalds commercial


And click here to see
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Trailer.

Telemarketers get really confused when you try to sell them art

My version of engadget, retro style

1929 AEG Vampyr
Leave it to the Germans to come up with a vacuum cleaner called The Vampyr.
"I vant to suck your dirt".
Apparently a modern version of this model is still being made.

More cool pics at:
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/weimar/alltag/rationalisierung/

The weird thing about a blog is, you are never really sure how personal you want to be about it. To be truly interesting it should be personal, but do you really want to write about all your fears and doubts in so much detail that it lays there dissected on the table for anyone to see? It's a dilemma.
So when my grandfather died, I didn't feel comfortable writing about it, too personal and affected me in a way that was more difficult than I would imagine.
But then Kelly Freas and Will Eisner died and I felt the need to write about two people I really didn't know. It's safer. I'm just glad I knew my grandfather and can remember all the fun times I had. He will be missed.
Enough of that....
When I was young my parents would go to this little hole in the wall bookstore in Alexandria. They would spend forever there. To pass the time I would look at the old sci-fi paperbacks, studying the covers imagining the stories held within. So many of those covers were done by Kelly Freas. It's no stretch to say he was one who made me want to do illustration. He passed away the other day. He will be missed.



I came late to discovering Will Eisner. I missed The Spirit when it was popular. But when I was first starting college I discovered Comics and Sequential Art, the book Will Eisner wrote on the secrets of sequential narrative. It opened a whole new world to me on how to read comics. It led me to reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and made me dream about making comics. He's the only person I can think of that has an award named after him that someday I want to win. He passed away the other day. He will be missed.

Life can be difficult.

No Christmas cards this year from me.
instead
A collection of Edward Gorey Chritmas cards.



Peace.

As some of you know, lately I have been riding a lot on my 1949 Schwinn. Often these early morning bicycle excursions are filled with things I would never see driving around Richmond. My new favourite sight is a white plastic bag that has been caught high up in the branches of a tree.
At first glance though it looks more like a wedding dress. And each day the tree bride's dress becomes more and more tattered. Their love weathering, birds making nests, winds and storms
Okay, not sure why I told you about that.

I've been reading the Lemony Snicket books lately. Each one gets better and better. Or should I say miserable and miserabler.
A weird compulsive order that I've developed is I have to create bookmarks for every book I read. Make that a disorder. Often books I have, don't get read because I don't feel like drawing up a bookmark. But Snicket is an exception and I've already created two bookmarks...I'll need to stop myself before I create all eleven.
Here is the first one....Count Olaf from the Reptile Room.



And yes it is a lot like my myspace picture, last post.

A little housekeeping, (A little boring)
First off, I've been having trouble with modems, email etc.
My former email of nekokaiju23@aol.com is no longer valid, so please contact me at the gmail address up above.
Also for some reason paul@nekokaiju.com email is currently down so please email me again at nekokaiju@gmail.com if you have emailed recently...Blah.

I forgot to mention this when it came out, but the Fantasy Flight booster packs for the Call of Cthulhu game shipped in November. So if you feel like owning a piece of my art in card form, then pick up a pack of Unspeakable Tales from your local games shop. Maybe you'll get lucky and get one of my images. I'll have some scans up soon. I have heard that some people collect cards with the artist's signature on it, so just email me about it and I'll give you the details on signing cards. (yes email me at nekokaiju@gmail.com also.)

Been pretty busy lately. I did some coupon designs for the museum and am working on some coat of arms projects.

Here is a little photo manipulation I did for my myspace entry,

And here is a Greek/ Victorian commission I did. Yes very Alma Tadema, Goodward inspired.


So Godzilla turns 50 this year,I really should have mentioned this before on the blog. Hmmm, maybe I did.
Anyway just the other day the big green guy got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, joining the alumni of Gipsy Rose Lee, Mickey Mouse, Fay Ray, Boris Karloff, Michael Jackson and Claudette Colbert. I real high point for Kaiju everywhere.

But at the same time Godzilla has hit one of his lowest points in his career. Just the other day I saw a commercial of him hawking Immodium D. Oh how far the mighty have fallen, from titantic battling of the Smog monster to fighting the mundane battles of loose stool.

So hopefully the old saying, "If you see Doug Wilder walking down the street while you are drinking coffee then you are destined for happiness" is true.

A day late...
Modem problems

Today was a bad day.
I didn't realize the museum could be so taxing. A mailing had gone out late, so many people called just to complain, and me being on the frontline of the art wars, got to be yelled at repeatedly by customers, and all I could do was say I was sorry for something I didn't have a thing to do with...fun.
And bill collectors calling me up, reminding me that I owe them money. Like I could forget. I've tried to forget, but that doesn't work. So that in mind I think they call just to make you feel bad. "You owe us money and you don't have it, loser"
Just not necessary.

Japanese McDonalds commercial (just click)


Terryl Whitlatch, Star Wars artist has a new project, The Katurran Odyssey.
Can't go wrong with ring tailed lemurs. (again, just click)


And because I feel like it, more Julie Newmar (sorry nothing to click for her)

No more leafblowers!

More Star Wars Marketing madness coming next year



Gigantor live action teaser trailer

So Spectrum 11 is out. Here is a step by step look at the making of the cover
Is this the kind of step by step thing you would like to see on this journal?

Personal goal of mine to be included in Spectrum 12 next Nov. Wish me luck.



And because I sympathize in the hatred of leaf blowers, the fabulous, Julie Newmar


I'm a little surprised I didn't get any comments about my Fett animated thingy..hmm.

Just a quick little experiment




Animated test, might take a second or two to load.


Comments?

A Good Day

One of the benefits of renting is it forces you to go to the local laundromat. A coin operated nirvana of entertainment. My particular laundromat is decorated with beach scene wallpaper, so you can drift away in your imagination to the outer banks with the background hum of washing machines and the sounds of the Samurai Showdown arcade game (Blood curdling screams and Japanese music).

All the machines are Speed Queens, I like to think of them as the royalty of washing machines as opposed to really fast crossdressers.

So I am surrounded by female monarchy, but the true Queen of the automatons is the Bride of Pin-Bot pinball machine. She beckons with a digitzed voice calling out to give her life. The machine is an incredibly sexist creation, Your goal to shoot your ball into her mouth to give her speech and then into her eyes to give her sight. The graphics consisting of a rocket between her mechanical thighs. All the while she laughs or encourages you. This particular machine is worn from years of use and machine love.

So that is the place I was going to this morning. As I walk across the street a car pulls up on the sidewalk. An old man gets out and as I watch what he's doing, half his car blocking the walkway, he gives me a dirty look and walks away. An amazing parking job and I get the dirty look. I go in and and precede to load my clothes. On the radio is the elusive Richmond 80's radio station. The one I can't pick up in my car but the laundromat picks up perfectly. Eye of the Tiger comes on and the Bride of PinBot calls. Amazingly on one play I get the high score and on 50 cents I play until my clothes need to go in the dryer. A high score and I hear safety dance, it's amazing the small things that make you happy.

So the new trailer is out.
Yes the trailer for Dawn of War Another fine short by those folks at Blur Studios (If you haven't already, download the Rockfish video a few posts back)This time it's the game intro to a Warhammer 40K game. Generally my experience with Warhammer is the annoying Games Workshop employees jumping on you as soon as you enter the store. It's like some cult of red shirted fantasy players. But this video will sell you on 40K more than any of those devotees. The animated Dreadnought will make you want to form an army and go out and get those orcs. A great short.

Of course another trailer came out yesterday...Yeah that one.
Here is a sticker giveaway I designed for those wacky Atlanta Star Wars fans.


And mmmm, Lava Berry Explosion Pop-Tarts

Never trust a Kitty over 30

Art Spiegelman, creator of Maus: "Everything I know I learned from comic books, and I wasn't surprised that aliens had taken over our government..."


Goths for Bush

And for equal time:

Satanist for Kerry

And if you are tired of politics check out this slideshow of , Hello Kitty's Birthday

Happy Halloween

Current Mood: secularly hallowed
Current Music: Dresden Dolls

Last minute Halloween Costume ideas,
The always popular
Space Mutant Milhouse
Okay maybe not that, Everyone does Space Mutant Milhouse and as I always say, there is nothing worse than two or more Space Mutant Milhi at a Halloween party.
Perhaps this thing whatever it is from a Finnish Convention site

Maybe this?

I thought about this outfit...
(Not really, just a really weird picture, not a thumbs up, it's the peace sign when dealing with anime, how bizarre)

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on my journal before, but 2004 is the 50th Anniversary of Godzilla
yeah that one is too complicated.
Here is a really easy costume, just need to get a friend to draw all over you, Henry Rollins

Or you could go with the just plain wrong and politically incorrect

Happy Halloween

So last night I went to the Halloween event at the museum. It's the kind of event you need to have a date and a drink. I had neither. Seeing a Hindu Goddess, Poe and the Raven, Cleopatra, the usual suspects of cheerleaders, devils, and zombies was a surreal experience as they roamed the halls past the paintings of Warhol and Monet.
It was nice that at least 80 percent of the attendees were in costume.
Also nice that many of the costumes were art related. Everything from a Tiffany lamp to Frida Kahlo with mandatory uni-brow. A Georgia O'Keefe painting, an Anubis statue, and even a Caligula. Next year I'm going to have to get a group together to go...and have a drink.