[ n o s t a l g i a ]

Ditched by Kate is soon to release their first full-length album, "Nostalgia." i was invited to do the art, and i obliged them with pleasure. here is the final build, which (as we shall see) differs wildly from my initial concept. click to embiggen.

the original artwork below told a story. a vibrant, raw shard of recollection. the band dug it and loved the tale, but wanted art that evoked a more all-encompassing flavor of nostalgia than i suggested, and more importantly something that departed from their last EP, "Stumble".

here's what i got out of it, particularly from the title track.

imagine sitting next to, close to, a former lover at a bar. you stare through your drink, speak in low tones, obliquely, of a favorite shared memory, and you're both excruciatingly aware that at any moment the walls will fall and you'll plunge back into it. that's what this was to me. that hot, waiting gap between your gun-shy fingers, that shared reminiscence.

too bad. the final (above) artwork captures some of the warm, smoky tones from that scene and the music in general.

the liner and disc were just me having fun with the theme and story.

if i can get around to it, next up is a postmortem of "Deep of the Well." rollout. /.n [while listening to Ditched by Kate]

[ d e e p _ o f _ t h e _ w e l l ]

here is a thing i did over the summer and into the Halloween season. it is called "Deep of The Well." i would be indebted to you if you would spare a moment to read it. a full discussion will follow soon on this page. "no spoilas," as it were. that said, i would not judge you were you to listen to Dethklok's "Murmaider" beforehand...

banner below leads to the regular-rez version. if you're feeling 1680x1050 fancy, click here instead for the high rez version.

this is dedicated fully and completely to Jillian, who endured without complaint my ridiculous hours and secrecy over the summer and miscellaneous fall moments in service to this project. she is the one for me.

more soon. happy hallows.
/.n [while listening to Dethklok]

[ t h e _ w a t c h e r s ]

first piece of the new year, one of two i knocked out the other day for the upcoming co-billing with old Rossi-time. this is for his short (!) story "The Watchers."



new year's itself was the stuff of legends: a long weekend in ATL with the crew and the lady-love. we may have partied, briefly, with the lead singer from Cake.

always good to see my boys.

/.n [while, five minutes later, still listening to Cake]

[ e d e n _ L I V E ]

Phil's Parsec award-nominated novella "Eden" is out. oh boy. if you like, you can snag a dead tree edition here at Amazon (there's a hardcover edition too, but the link seems to come and go), or for five bucks on Kindle.

here are my pretties.



another short fiction cover should be out asap - Phil's been sitting on it since November.

/.n [while listening to Cake]

[ a n a m e l e c h ]

it is Halloween, my blu-ray player is working overtime and owls are going nuts outside my window. rapture.

working on the short fiction collaboration with Phil Rossi, and the season is ripe for such nonsense. this first plate is for his short story "Anamelech," available for free here as part of his "Fiction in Five" collection. it's done in the style, as best my clumsy hands can approximate, of Stephen Gammell. Gammell, known best for his work on the "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" series, shaped much of my childhood and ranks among my personal deities. thank you, Stephen.



the final book should have ten tales to it. so. onward.

enjoy today. this is life.
/.n [while watching "House of 1000 Corpses"]

[ r e n d e z v o u s ]

every Halloween story i've ever done is more or less a love letter to the season.

this one is just a little more overt.



i think this is the first time i've used a pun in art. i blame my time in Japan.

short and [hopefully] sweet this year - the new job, life, etc hasn't exactly bestowed upon me infinite seas of time to invest in cathartic exercises that would probably land me on any number of psychiatric watchlists. i always saw moving to Iowa as an opportunity to participate in a "proper, Midwest Halloween," but of course we ended up in some crazy Indian summer that's made it unduly difficult to get into the season. the good news: Indy Screampark with my crew was implausibly even more epic than last year, and some of the local attractions have been up to snuff.

trust me. i have sampled across a number of states this season alone.

close your eyes and embrace those dark dreams. that's what October is for.

/.n [while listening to Samael]

[ s t u m b l e _ L I V E ]

seven months later, this showed up:



but it came with a DBK tshirt, so it's all good. ended up redoing the back cover art (see 19 Mar 11) with black-trimmed white lettering, which works much better.

i'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

"Eden" hits print next month, and now that this year's Halloween project is going live (post in about five minutes) it's time to focus on my next co-billing with Phil, an illustrated print collection of ten dark microfiction tales.

get it.

/.n [while listening to Black Sabbath (Dio!)]