It's Ping Zhu's Birthday Today! ♥ 

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I cannot adequately express how wonderful these gems are. Jimmy's brain is just a gem mine! HAM-MURDER!?? I'm going to retire.

Soooo I think I just drew my next year’s worth of tattoos that I’m getting.

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EVERYONE: READY YOURSELVES FOR FIGHT FROGS

(please donate if you can, especially if you want to pre-order a copy -and of course you do-, and share!)

Hi everyone! My new comic Fight Frogs is almost done and ready to premier at this year’s Small Press Expo!  It’s a story about 3 frog-men brothers who live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, party hard, and FIGHT!

I’m currently running a Kickstarter to get the book funded, and would be totally stoked if you’d like to contribute to it!  Click here for more details, and to pre-order your copy today!

The first thing I will tell you is: there's a zine I'm putting out called Damn Fine Coffee! A Twin Peaks Fan Zine.

The second thing is: the owls are not what they seem.

The third thing is: Damn Fine Coffee! debuts this year at SPX.

That's right! You may have been seeing some awesome work floating around for the zine I'm putting together: Damn Fine Coffee! A Twin Peaks Fan Zine. I will be at SPX this year where you can get your hands on it and feast your eyes on Twin Peaks homages by over 30 incredibly talented artists.

Damn Fine Coffee! will be going into production soon, and I'll be posting updates on availability, price, and the possibility of pre-orders (because folks have been asking, which is very exciting) here on my blog. You can also check out my twitter for quick updates too.

Here's the cover and a quick sampling of some of the rad work you'll find in the zine by Ping Zhu, Gant Powell, and Ryan Fortney.

The support and the excitement from everybody has been really encouraging so thanks and stay tuned!

A new little piece for the New York Times Op Ed about disparity in taxes, which just went up yesterday evening. I enjoy suit-guy's ape-like arms. Thanks to AD Alexandra Zsigmond. You can read the article online here.

penta-pretzels! maybe be wary of eating these though…

This is my piece for the Silver Screen Society's February exhibition honoring the very funny podcast "How Did This Get Made?" Artists chose one of several bad movies reviewed on the podcast by Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas and June Diane Raphael (who can make the word "disgusting" the funniest thing I've heard) and my choice, if it's not obvious, was Batman & Robin.

My little brother and I have seen this movie too many times, and it is oh so silly, and we love it. There are enough nipples sculpted into costumes that I figured I'd give everyone a chance to show theirs off. And revisiting those costumes...boy are they dumb. Mr. Freeze's get-up is one of the most convoluted, stupid things I've ever had to draw. So this was tons of fun.

Check out all the great work on Silver Screen Society's online gallery here, including Jimmy Giegerich's excellent Cool As Ice piece (which got him followed BY Vanilla Ice on Twitter! A very rad outcome). And, if you haven't already heard "How Did This Get Made?", correct that error here. You'll be better for it.

Thanks to the guys at Silver Screen for inviting me to take part!

When are you guys going to be putting out the second zine? I'd like to contribute to something!

It's more a question of "if" than "when" really. "Damn Fine Coffee!" is the first large anthology-type zine I've made, and I'm undecided about whether I want to put out another issue or to move on! As I've told many other interested folks, if I make another one, it will be an open-call for submissions. I'll definitely spread the word about it if that happens, so keep your eyes open!

Also, I might add, the excitement for the zine and the interest everyone's expressed has been truly thrilling, but all I'm focusing on right now is getting this current issue out. 

<3

Some ghosts I drew while at Artscape.  One of them is a little ghost pet.

I painted this skater babe for a demo in Kali Ciesemier's lifestyle illustration class. Fun!

What brand of gouache do you use? Have you tried using student-grade gouache, particularly Lefranc & Bourgeois Fine Gouache? I am always told to stay away from student grades, but I was also told that if they worked for me (color-wise), I should be fine. I am worried about "permanency", or that my gouache paintings will break down in the future.

I enjoy Winsor & Newton a lot. I've never used Lefranc & Bourgeois before, but I used Daler Rowney throughout school. (Is that considered student grade? I don't know. I still use it occasionally and I like them ok, but oh man, their yellow ochre! what happened? s'not good.) About the worst thing I've experienced with "lower-quality" gouache is that there will be more variation in how the paint dries, so that you'll get some colors that dry with an annoying semi-gloss for some reason. But my older paintings done in said "lower-quality" gouache are still holding up just fine! I think you should be good so long as you mix (mix (MIX!)) your colors, look for a nice even consistency in the pigment of your paints, and be mindful about storage. That way, your works should last you a good while!

Good luck!