Happy Halloween!

Have a good Halloween, everybody! I've got sweet plans; tonight is The Rocky Horror Picture Show and tomorrow is our semi-annual Lowered Expectations Halloween party. It's going to be a fun weekend.

You may or may not of heard of the amazing story of Machine of Death. Twitter went crazy this week when the book (filled with stories about a machine that tells you how you'll die) was released, as the marketing team of David Malki ! and Ryan North used their powers for good and helped their little book reach #1 on Amazon!

I bring this up for a very good reason; I illustrated one of the stories in the book! The story I illustrated is called "Friendly Fire" by Douglas J. Lane and it's a cracking read. I hope you have a chance to pick up the book. I'm honored to have taken part and I'm thrilled that I'm part of a #1 seller. If the I Saw You movie ever gets made, who knows how swollen my ego will become?

Plus, the book beat Glenn Beck's retarded little white-privilege screed for a day. How sweet is that? Sweet like honey, son.

As always, That's So Kraven! is updated this week. In this webisode, Spiderman and Donna decide Kraven's fate but it's not what you'll expect.

Sexy librarians with guns

Hopefully this will make up for my lack of posting last week. I was in Saskatchewan for my brother's wedding (which was lovely).

Before I went, I finished a commission that had been hanging over my head for quite awhile. Combining three of the hardest things for me to work with (guns, girls, and watercolors), this was an imposing challenge for me. I'm fair happy with the results, though, and here they are.

As ever, the Wednesday webisode of That's So Kraven! is online. ==>Click here<== to see how Donna and Spiderman resolve their war over Kraven.

Motörhead

"We are Motörhead, and we play rock and roll!"

For over thirty years, the gravel-throated warthog of rock known as Lemmy has fronted the heavy metal band Motörhead. He's bedded thousands of women, drank a bottle of Jack Daniel's every day, and written some of the greatest metal of all time. The band is known best for "Ace of Spades" (the fantastic rock classic you should go check out immediately) but they've got dozens of fantastic songs that have influenced artists in subgenres ranging from heavy to speed and thrash metal. Personal favorites include "Runaround Man", "Tear Ya Down", "Bomber", "Marching Off to War", and "We Are the Road Crew".

Motörhead's 20th album, The World is Yours, is coming out this year. Hopefully, that means a stop in Montreal for the band. It's where I first saw them, and I can't wait until Motörhead deafens me again.

The twelfth webisode of That's So Kraven! is online now; will Kraven be able to work both design jobs?

Why I Love Judas Priest

I love Judas Priest.

For those who are not in the know, Judas Priest is one of the world's foremost heavy metal bands. Formed in the late sixties, the members of Priest have been known as the "Metal Gods" since the eighties. Considered to be second only to the original lineup of Black Sabbath, Priest continue to put out albums and tour to this day, and they continue to be one of the strongest metal touring acts of all time. I love them.

Rob Halford, the fiery-falsettoed lead singer pictured above, single-handedly developed the S&M black leather-and-motorcycles look that metal has popularized. I had the pleasure of seeing him with his side project, Halford, at the Heavy MTL concert earlier this year, and it was a massive honor to be in his vicinity. With the passing of Ronnie James Dio, Halford remains one of, if not the, strongest voice in metal.

The thing that I really appreciate about metal is this: you can either do it, or you can't. If you can get up there, sing until your guts nearly rip themselves in half and play until your fingers burst into flames, you deserve to be up there. And Priest deserves to be up there; to me, they will be there, forever.

Vital albums (with links to tracks on YouTube):

British Steel (1980)
Screaming for Vengeance (1982)
Painkiller (1990)
Angel of Retribution (2005)

Webisode Eleven of That's So Kraven! is up. I really like this one, Trina did a great job on the script.