Ted May Comics Junk Drawer

Smells Bells

2010-02-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a strip I did for this week's Riverfront Times as part of a big USS Catastrophe Leon Beyond comics feature. Click the art to read the full strip. The entire feature can be found at the Leon blog.

Movie Poster

2010-01-29T10:49:00.000-08:00

Here's an illustration I did in October of last year for the film "Old Dog, New Trick," a biopic about St. Louis musician Steve Scorfina directed by Mike Steinberg and Thomas Crone. This image was used for the poster and also serves as the DVD cover. The film tracks his life as a musician thru 60's garage bands, his time with REO Speedwagon and Pavlov's Dog and what he's up to currently. And a lot more I'm probably forgetting. So if you're interested in rock-umentaries (subset blues, garage and PROG), the history of the St. Louis music scene, or indie documentaries in general, give it a go.

Here are a couple early concept sketches:

Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival: What to Buy?

2009-11-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

Fans of Beast Biplane, this blog entry's for YOU. Mike Reddy will be at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival on December 4th selling copies of Injury 3 along with a wild new Beast Biplane silk-screened poster. It's a picture of Beast Biplane in combat with a modern barbarian who has snake powers and the ability to communicate with his dead brothers. Mike did the art based on a sketch from me. Anyway, you can grab one at this comic show. I don't know how much it will be but I'm sure it will be a good deal. Especially considering how many man hours went into it.
So, go to the show, buy yourself this awesome print, make sure Reddy signs it, and then go home and slap it up on your favorite wall. We'll have some available after the show. Details to follow. But if you want one, email me and I'll let you know once they become more widely available.

Sale at Buenaventura Press

2009-11-21T13:15:00.001-08:00

Everything 20% off now thru the end of November. Lotsa stuff well worth getting and now it's a little cheaper than it was before. So maybe rather than going out and getting wasted tonight, spend some of that boozin' money on a different kind of intoxicant. The comic book. Or print or whatever.

Remembrance of 3-Packs Past

2009-10-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

From my sketchbook. Sorry for the low fidelity. This was gonna be a promo for our 3-pack. Also, Injury 3 is for sale at from my shop.

Ants Invasion - Electric Ant #2

2009-10-19T17:00:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to drop some quick promotional consideration to the hot-off-press Electric Ant #2. I haven't seen it yet, but you can follow the above link to get all the particulars. I really enjoyed the first issue - a straight-up zine in this hyper age of tweeting and blogging - so I highly recommend the new one. Also, I did a chunk of art based on an old Iron Maiden video -FWAUGHH- for one of the sections, so you KNOW it's a high class affair.

Where are the Wild Things

2009-10-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

I did a strip for Vice's tribute to "Where the Wild Things Are." Lotsa great cartoonists featured there. There's a booklet of all the strips in the October issue of Vice, and a downloadable PDF on the site.

You may now purchase Injury 3 / Treehouse

2009-09-23T18:19:00.000-07:00

I just posted the latest Injury for purchase via my online shop. If you're going to SPX this weekend, you can pick one up at the Buenaventura Press table.
Also, I've got a creepy comic in the new issue of "Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror" which goes on sale this week. This year, it's ghouly Simpsons stories parlayed by Kramers Ergot artistes. Mine is a collab with Sammy Harkham (who also edited the book). I did the story, layouts, and color and Sammy did the finished art. I've been a big fan of Simpsons for years, and also a fan of Sammy's, so a) drawing Moe Szyslak's face over and over and b) seeing Sammy's take on the characters was great. I haven't seen much else from the book, but I'm sure it will be worth your while.

Injury 3 sneak peek

2009-08-30T17:52:00.001-07:00

I just posted a preview PDF of some pages from Injury 3. You can download the PDF by right-clicking the link, or if your browser can read PDF's, just click on it. The book should be for sale soon. I'll post again when it's available.

Injury 3 debut at Comic Con

2009-07-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

The third issue of Injury will be debuting at the San Diego Comic Con this year (look for the Buenaventura Press table), and will be available for purchase via this site or from Buenaventura Press soon thereafter (early August). I'll make mention on this blog when we start taking orders. If you'd like notification via email when it's available for purchase, just drop me a line and I'll let you know.

Injury #3 will also be available in comic shops as part of a Buenaventura comics three-pack. The pack will also include comic books from Lisa Hanawalt and Eric Haven. So, if you're one of those people that likes to have your mind blown three times in a row...head down to your local comics shop and reserve your grab bag today!

Our kid

2009-07-05T13:43:00.001-07:00

Sacha and I finally had our kid! Veronica Jean May - born this past Thursday. We were relieved she didn't wait til Saturday. I was afraid she'd have to endure a lifetime of "huh-huh, born on the forth of july" comments. We'll give her a couple of weeks to get acclimated, and then we'll sit her down with a sketchbook and some Microns and have her get busy.

Custom Fact Rally

2009-03-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

USS Catastrophe is doling out the facts! And the Beyondathon gets you a piece of the ACTION!

Show-stoppers Kevin "The Snake" Huizenga, Ted "Mongoose" May, and "Big Daddy" Dan Zettwoch are makin' it happen - on the STRIP!

High-speed fuel-injected gags! They draw - the rest is up to YOU! Only at the Beyondathon! Be there!

We finished Injury, but...

2009-03-03T16:16:00.000-08:00

The third issue of Injury is in the can. Actually, it's been wrapped up for a little while. Unfortunately, our finishing it coincided with Diamond Distributor's new profitability guidelines making the release of the new issue a little uncertain at the moment. For those of you who don't closely follow the idiosyncracies of the US comics market: basically, the 300 pound gorilla of comics distribution has stopped carrying comics that don't net them a certain level of profit. And Injury has never netted anyone anything other than pain and misfortune. WINK.
So, we'll see what happens. I'll post updates here once we get a release date. In the mean time, I at least wanted to post the cover. A cover that you probably will never see on your comic store rack next to Infinity Gauntlet: Smackdown, or Impregnable Fortress of Annihilus.
With no large scale distribution, it's not feasible for Injury to continue in its current format. It was basically engineered for the direct market. I haven't yet decided how we'll proceed. At the moment we're just back to writing new stuff. But please do keep an eye out for the third ish. It's probably the best we've done so far. I'll update this blog regarding future books. The fire of comics will continue to warm (and in some cases melt) peoples' faces. That much I can say with certainty.

May-Mardou collab

2009-03-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

Hi folks. Sorry for the lack of news of late. I've got a halfway decent excuse though. Sacha and I are getting ready to have a little girl. She's doing great so far and is due in June. So I've been kinda light on the comics work. Been painting the baby room, visiting relatives, and watching "It's Alive" to brush up on what we're in for. Comics news on the way shortly.

Dream Team

2009-02-27T14:51:00.000-08:00

Strip I did for Vice online. Click here.

Happy Xmas from Injury Comics

2008-12-23T17:45:00.000-08:00

APE

2008-10-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

YO - Mardou and I will be at APE next week.
Look for us around the Buenaventura table.
I'll be doing signings for Kramers 7.
I might bring some preview pages from Injury 3 - I dunno.

This 'n' that

2008-10-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

Kevin H. just put out a book that may be of interest to Injury fans. It's a zine of thumbnail sketches from him, me, and Dan Z. Some early injury concepts in there as well as me trying to figure out what I was gonna do for Kramers #7. A very nice little volume for those of you interested in peering into others' sketchbooks. You can get it from KH here. You can also get the compiled "Amazing Facts" strips which features some of my work in it. Anyway, it's got some great strips in it and a very nice silkscreen cover.

Also - I think this is pretty incredible news. Top Shelf to publish japanese "Ax" anthology. Onsmith showed me some of these books a few years ago. I couldn't read 'em, but they looked incredible. More translations from Japan UG is to be applauded, sez me. I'd love to see more stuff from that dude who did Bakune Young.

new Hamer strip

2008-10-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a strip I did for Vice a couple weeks ago (click the image above). I've also been doing this character in Arthur. It's fun writing quasi-political gags but I'm kinda OD'ing on politics at the moment so I may need to give it a rest soon.

Star Clipper 20th Anniversary Art Show

2008-10-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

ART SHOW AT COMIC SHOP TONIGHT. Click here for details. Jason Robards and I teamed up for an Injury-style homage to Star Clipper, St. Louis's venerable comics institution. Jason and I drew twenty portraits of amazing comics characters. Naturally, one of the characters I chose is the Creature from Krogarr (see Kirby image above). I can't post a scan of our piece 'cause we turned it in as soon as the ink dried. You'll have to go to the show to check it out, along with a lot of other cool art.

Injury nominated for Ignatz

2008-09-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

Our little comic has been nominated for "Best Series" in the Ignatz Award battle. The award will be voted on by attendees to the SPX comics show, so it's unfortunate none of our gang will be there to glad hand, kiss babies, hand out trinkets, etc. But you know - crowds tend to settle for mediocrity, so I think we've got a fair shot. For anyone planning on attending SPX, a preview of our book can be found here.

This year's ballot actually has some great nominees. My old pal Warren Craghead is up for Outstanding Artist for How To Be Everywhere. Also up for three awards is another artist I'm a big fan of: Michel Rabagliatti. Nice to see he's getting the recognition. Not to mention Gabrielle Bell, Onsmith, David King, Trevor Alixopulos and Greg Means - very cool to see such a great group.

The Credit Crunch

2008-09-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

I finally get what's going on. Analysis from Gary Lieb via the New York Times.

Comics Panel at Mizzou this Sunday

2008-09-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

Mardou and I are gonna be up in Columbia, Mo. this Sunday (Sept 14th at 2pm) sitting on a panel about "comic artists in the digital age." This is an event sponsored by Mizzou's Comic Art Collection. It's part of the celebration they're doing for Alley Oop's 75th anniversary. Other artists on the panel include Matt Kindt and Jeff Zwirek, and Frank Stack (I think). Should be fun. I just hope they don't quiz me on "Alley Oop" cause I know virtually nothing about him.
More info and other events at the official site.

Comic Books

2008-08-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

One of the hot topics that's been kicked around the blogosphere and the messageboardiverse over the last few years is the state and fate of the indie comic book, or "pamphlet" (as opposed to its currently robust sibling, the indie graphic novel). I follow what gets said as it's long been a topic of interest and it accutely pertains to my book, Injury. Here are a few unsubstantiated thoughts.

Just to clarify, by indie comic, I'm referring to books usually created by single artists working outside the superhero genre such as Tales Designed to Thrizzle, Crickets, Lucky, Uptight, etc. The superhero fans have their own set of discussions going about the fate of the comic book as it pertains to them. Some of them, horrifyingly, refer to comic books as "floppies."

I don't think the indie pamphlet comic will ever die (as is often declared/predicted) unless people stop reading and making printed books altogether. They're just too appealing and easy to make. At worst, the disbursal of these things will just maintain a state of moribund decrepitude. Short of some kind of comic-pocalypse there will always at least be self-produced minis as well as genre-defying books from the larger comics companies (just kidding!). As it stands now, it just seems like selling them in general is an uphill climb.

So why are these things still around? Any of this material can be made available in more accessible formats - paperbacks, pdfs, jpegs etc. And that's where many of the indie comics have gone, leaving the pamphlet comic book to fend for itself in mostly hostile comics shops between such titles as Immortal Iron Fist and Invincible Iron Man. The main reason for publishers to put this kind of book out is advertising. Instead of putting out nothing for 3 years, artists continue to get their work out there and stay in circulation, hopefully building anticipation for a forthcoming and more lucrative collection of work.

The thing is, we could put out a PDF or post everything to Flickr and probably get a similar result. I'm sure many of the same places would review it. You'd have the issue of people not wanting to read stuff on screen, but you already have the issue of people saying they don't like hunting for the book in comic shops (or trying and not finding it), or they don't like paying for the pamphlet, or they don't like reading things that are only 40 pages long. Not to mention the difference in price between print and electronic. So, the negative form factors almost cancel each other out.

I've almost actually convinced myself to just make pdfs. But - as far as that goes, I think the on screen reading experience is pretty crummy. I read stuff on screen like old scanned comics or scanlations, and I usually find myself just breezing through them. I've yet to see a screen that I don't mind staring at for very long. And paperbacks are great, but you have to crank out a ton of work before you can collect it all. I guess that's alright if you don't have a day job.

And there's still quite a few of these books being made. The main problem with comic books is distribution. That's where the creativity needs to be applied. It will be interesting to see how the new publisher-owned comic shops (D&Q, Fantagraphics, Picturebox) pan out. Stores like these, as well as forward-thinking traditional comic shops, are friendly markets for indie comic books. That's still a pretty thin market, though. It'd be great if there was a website that specialized in marketing these kinda books. Indie comics, minicomics, etc. I could see that working really well, but there's a lot of expense tied in with that kind of venture. It'd be a huge pain to operate and the profit margins are already razor thin. You'd pretty much have to also be selling porn or weed or right-wing propaganda like the Catastrophe Shop used to do (wink!).

On the other hand, not that long ago bookstores like Borders were pretty harsh climates for graphic novels. Now that those kinds of books are selling, you've got people coming out of the woodwork making graphic novels. The same could become true of indie comic books if next-generation comic shops drum up a market for them. I would also add though, that artists also need to push to make these things (meaning more books out there - a critical mass). And I apologize for using the term next-generation.

You hear reference to the early 90's being a golden age for indie comics, and there were indeed some great books out at the time, but I feel like the shops were much less sympathetic to those types of books than they are now. Most places I went to would dump Eightball or Dirty Plotte in a box or drawer with the porno comics. These days at least some shops and their customers seem to be open to different stuff. There's definitely more indie/arty stuff out there in general. But paper prices and the overall economy is much different now. I guess that's the main difference - I don't know.

Regarding webcomics - man, let's just not go there for now. That's a whole other RGB-soaked ball of wax.

One thing to think about, your larger book companies that are getting into comics don't seem to see any need for the "pamphlet sells the paperback" thinking. Maybe now that non-comics people are more accepting of graphic novels, there's not as much need to drum up business with the comics cognoscenti by cranking out pamphlets. Maybe when artists are producing books that connect with people in ways other than making character-based adventure stories, it's not as necessary to do the song-and-dance of pamphletizing them. Books about growing up in Iran, or loving the band Queen will find their own audiences.

One sad thing about the state of indie comic books, I feel like if they dry up as an option for artists, it hurts the art of comics in general. If these books are out of the equation as a viable way to develop your stuff, you don't have that graduated step between messing around with minicomics and doing a full blown graphic novel. As an artist, I've got much more incentive to work in 30-40 page chunks rather than to grind away at a 200 pager.

I'm not alone in wishing there were more indie comic books out there. I mean, seriously, what would you rather do, pick up a new issue of Injury, or download a PDF of it and "fan" us on Facebook? As much as I like making these books - I'll do whatever makes the most sense getting the stories and art out there. I'm hoping we never have to go straight to squarebound or digital, and at this point I don't see an immediate threat of that happening. However, just to cover our asses, watch this space for news about downloading a sick PDF of Injury #1, I guess!

Update

2008-08-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

Coupla items of interest - I was sick most of July so I never got around to doing these updates. First, the new issue of Arthur is out - that's got my ongoing strip, "Hamer" in it. You can grab it at finer seedy establishments or download it free from their site.

Also, I've got a page in the upcoming comics antho, Kramers Ergot which will debut at the APE comics show in San Francisco in November. As far as anthologies go, this promises to be the Monolith. It's bigger than any comic ever published by man and will house work from pretty much all the top names in comic art (along with myself). If comics in the 21st century was a building on fire, THIS is the book you would wanna grab on your way out. At any rate, I tried to make this the best single page I've ever done, so please watch for it from Buenaventura Press later this year.