Cat Display

Here's a little display I made to go with my books at Poliwog. Poliwog is a kid's boutique and toy store in SE Portland. I wanted to make this post just to discuss how hard it is for me to make art sometimes. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard. Just a little display like this took me several tries and in the end the simplist idea worked. Feh.

The Dog Book

So it is official. I can give you a little bit of news. I am doing a dog book that is a companion to The Super Crazy Cat Dance. I'm going to hold off on showing you any more images until it's sent off to print. The artwork is almost finished and is just needing to be colored. It'll probably come out next fall.

Oh and also you can read a new review of The Super Crazy Cat Dance over at readaboutcomics.com. Are there any kids out there you need to get a gift for this holiday season? If so, you can help me out by buying a copy. It's easily available from buyolympia.com, amazon.com, and powells.com. Or better yet, you can check out your local bookstore.

One More Reason How Diamond is Screwing Your Local Comic Shop

Yesterday I went over to my favorite comic book shop to see if they had the new Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware. When I arrived, all of the new shipments from Diamond (Diamond Distribution is practically the monopoly disto.) had been neatly placed on their shelves and I was shocked to find out that the book I wanted wasn't among them. I asked the proprietor when she would expect the book to be in their stores. Once she looked up the book with Diamond's online catalog system she told me that Diamond wouldn't have it available until almost next year, December 27 or something close to that. What!? This is a book that has been available on Amazon since Nov. 9th.

Now there are only a hand full of books that I am too impatient to wait for my local comic book shop to order before I buy it. I remember last year it was Joe Sacco's new book and today it is Chris Ware's beautifully moody Acme Novelty Library #20. The proprietor agreed with my frustration and listed several other books that Diamond doesn't have available yet, which have been selling online at Amazon with deep discounts for the past two weeks. This year's Best Of American Comics, by Houghton Mifflin was among them.

In my weakened state I continued on to Powell's books whom I knew had plenty of copies of the new Acme. I bought the book and although Powell's is local and good to me they do not quite support my community in the way my local friend/owned comic book shop does. I love Powell's and it is far far better than Amazon.com but it is a siphon that often diverts my book dollars with relative ease.

Of course there are ways that comic book stores can get these books that Diamond doesn't deliver quickly, like say, ordering from one of the book-book distros that do like Baker and Taylor or Hatchett or whomever carries it... there are minimum orders to deal with and such and such but aside from all of that it all goes to show how lame Diamond Distribution really is. I have my own problems with the disto which is all subtext you can guess at, and there are a million other reasons why Diamond is bad for everyone, but I just wanted to point out one big flaw with Diamond's inability to get good books to stores on time. Just another good reason to circumvent Diamond and order for other distros... Although this brings up another subject which is too long to get into like, Drawn and Quarterly not dealing with stores directly anymore, or their no longer wanting to deal with small press comics reps. I am getting off track and out of my knowledge area. The short story is, I'm spending less money at my friend's store because Diamond sucks.

Article in the Camas Post Record

A few weeks ago I went out to my old hometown of Camas, Washington to talk to an assembly of about 230 sixth-graders. It was pretty crazy. I've never done an event so big but it was a lot of fun reading the excerpt from Neptune where the kids chant, "I hate school!" over and over.

My favorite part about doing readings like this is whenever I have panels with sound effects I choose not to make the sounds and then I can hear the kids from a distance say them to themselves. It's an incredibly satisfying experience. Especially here where the third panel implies a "lock" sound. Kids actually say it even though it's not there.

After the assembly I got interviewed by an eighth grader, Reesab Pathak, for the school's morning bulletin. He was also asked to do a write-up for the Camas Post-Record newspaper about the event. You can read it here, although there was some confusion about my education. To clarify, I got my 2-d animation certificate from The Vancouver Film School and I got my Bachelors in Arts and Letters from Portland State. Reesab I wish you all the best luck. Thanks for the interview.

The Twin Peaks Show Is Going To Be BIG!

This appeared on the front page of the Oregonian's "This Week" paper, which appears on every doorstep in Oregon whether you want it or not. Craziness. I should have made better artwork. I don't understand the Gus Van Sant part but what the hell. I guess they have to try and connect it with as many Portland references as possible.

Twin Peaks Art Show This Friday!

I'm going to have a few pieces up for this show which will be on display for the month of October at Guapo Comics and Coffee. But really you'll want to attend the opening night because we'll be screening the pilot episode. Sean Christensen wrote the following about the show.

October--that magic month of costumes and candy, uneasy walks, and late night fear is upon us. The oncoming cold and colorful fall leaves blowing through the air evoke thoughts of death and rebirth, of the layers of the world, and the secrets behind everything, how the world has many disguises as do the people in it. The spreading darkness and growing damp is part of the soul of the Northwest. Nothing better evokes this sense of thrilling mystery, eerie magic, and melancholy abandon than that great, iconic TV show of the Pacific Northwest, David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks; Agent Dale Cooper and his need for a "damn fine cup o' coffee," sultry Audrey Horne, the Log Lady, and a murdered homecoming queen. It's a TV series that exudes all of the colors, smells, mythos and wondrous alien forests of our little corner of the world.

Guapo Comics has gathered together some of the Northwest's best and brightest cartoonists and artists to celebrate Twin Peaks and its intensity, fear, joy, and humor in an art show.

Ghostwood Forest debuts Friday, October 29th at 7pm. Free themed snacks and drinks will be available. And of coarse costumes are encouraged! At 9pm, the feature length Twin Peaks Pilot Episode will be screened.

Twin Peaks Art Show

My buddy Sean Christensen is curating a Twin Peaks themed art show which will be held at Guapo Comics and Coffee later this month, two days before Halloween. This is the first thing I've made for it. Viva la gouache. I am soo in love with gouache now. I can't see why I never used it much before.

Apartment Therapy and Drawn and Quarterly

So a couple weeks ago I received two posts that I wanted to tell you about. The first was a Super Crazy Cat Dance review from the super cool apartmenttherapy.com The second was from the D & Q Bookstore that Ariel and I stopped by during our Montreal trip back in July. That's Ariel's drawing by the way.

Funny article about my brother and Me in The Columbian

So you may not have ever heard of it but in the burbs, Vancouver WA, they have this paper called the Columbian. I grew up reading it and they've did an article about me in the past on my animation career back in 2001. That sure didn't pan out.

Anyway, I got a phone call last week to answer some questions and here's the post about me and my brother.

The funny thing about this article was that the day it was published I immediately got a phone call from my old middle school art teacher. It was pretty amazing and great to reconnect with her. And she wants me to come talk at my old school about my work.

My Brother's New Show!

Hey folks. Tomorrow I will be at 903... 903 is a new gallery in downtown Portland, Oregon that my brother, Jeremy Steinke, has some new paintings up at. The address is 903 NW Davis, pretty close to the Pearl Bakery. You might know the space as the home of the old Lawrence Gallery. This new gallery is already ten times better because my brother is showing there. Stop by and support "mi hermano". Plus my brother's paintings are incredible! Even Joe Sacco's girlfriend has one.

Portland Zine Symposium This Weekend!

This is where I will be. Please stop by and say hello. And if you're interested I'll even give you a preview of my newest book because I will be working on it during the show.

Super Crazy Cat on goodreads.com

Hey everybody. It'd be a big help for anyone and everyone to help me out with reviews and ratings of my new book. You can review it on Amazon and also over at goodreads.com. Every word helps.

My book is out!

I just got a box of my books two days ago. My book is out. You can get it on amazon or other places like Powell's Books. I will have copies at the Portland Zine Symposium later this month and I am planning a release party and reading in early September.

New Neptune Review

Rod Lott reviews Neptune along with a few other Sparkplug titles at bookgasm.com. It's been a year since Neptune was first published and it takes a review like this to remind me how proud of this book I am. It took me two and a half years to draw, and several more when you count the fact that I first tried to make it into an animated film back in 2004. The band Explosions in the Sky was set to make the soundtrack for it, if you can believe that. I sure dropped the ball on that one... but did I really want to live in my parents house slaving away for years to see it completed and then just put up on youtube? The whole time when I was drawing Neptune I didn't even have any idea if it'd even see print. But as luck has it it did, and if you haven't read it yet I highly encourage you to. Go buy it from Sparkplug or check it out from the Multnomah County Library if you live in Portland.

Whirlwind East Coast Tour

Our first stop on our east coast vacation was Montreal. And to be honest we wish we could have spent much more time there. Montreal is by far and away Ariel and my #2 favorite city right after Portland. If it weren't for the harsh winters It'd be too close to call.


We at at a cafe called Cagibi which had one of the biggest zine collections I've ever seen. It also had a copy of Zine Arcade #1 which I had a small comic strip in.

There was also a small mini comic by Marc Bell and Owen Plummer that I enjoyed finding.

The cafe and stack of zines also appeared as background in the film Les Amoures imaginaires which we saw and recommend.




In Montreal the best way to get around are the bixi bikes which you can rent for 5$ for 24 hours. Each trip you take you have 30 minutes to return the bike to one of a bazillion bike stations. There are bike stations on almost every two blocks. The weather was great and so was the biking even when we got soaked by a surprise rainstorm.


We went to the Drawn and Quarterly store where I picked up a copy of Dave Kiersh's Xeric book, Dirtbags- Mallchicks and Motorbikes. We also met the friendly Rory who invited us out to a show that night. This is Ariel's rendering of Rory and the store.



We ended up taking the Greyhound to Burlington VT where we rented a car and drove through White River Jct. where the Center for Cartoon Studies is located. Alec Longstreth was gracious enough to say hi even though he was in the middle of teaching a summer workshop. Robyn Chapman gave us a tour of the school along with the Charles Schultz Library where Chuck Forsman was working. We picked up copy of his newest issue of Snakeoil called WOLF along with his girlfriend Melissa Mendes's book Freddy. Both books were great of course. That's Robyn and Chuck.

We then went to New York.


We did a lot in NY but we were both grumpy because of the heat and how long we had to spend transferring trains in the subway. We did eat some amazing food of course and here is the best vegan crepe I've ever had courtesy of Atlas Cafe.



We also saw a great flick called Alamar at the Film Forum which helped us escape the midday heat and suffocation of people everywhere.


My fourth trip to New York and I finally got to go to the MET. I think Tim Burton stole a lot from the African and Polynesian exhibitions. This strange statue is from New Caledonia. I finally know where that is.


This drawing Ariel made pretty much sums up our thoughts on New York this time out.



One of the best parts of our trip was staying out in Chester New Jersey where the trees outnumber the people 10000 to 1. We then drove back to Maplewood to visit my super cool publisher, Blue Apple Books. Their offices were so inspiring. I wish I had taken more pictures to show you. This is a display they made for the Balloon Toon series The Super Crazy Cat Dance is in.


We spent a day in Baltimore where we saw Inception (which was pretty good) and I got to acquire some issues of Blammo and Derf's Punk Rock and Trailer Parks at Atomic Books. The center book is actually a Yuichi Yokoyama book that I found at the Kinokuniya bookstore in NY. I'm nore sure if Picturebox has any plans for publishing it but they should. You actually don't need it translated because the only words are sound effects.

The end.

Los Gatos Bailando

Es la verdad.

Click on the link to the right if you'd like to pre-order copies from Chronicle Books. You can also get it from Amazon with a big discount. But you know what that discount means to your local bookstore. So better yet, you should pre-order it with your local bookstore instead.

Animal Rights Benefit and Art Auction

So I was asked to donate art to an auction to benefit the 3rd Let Live Foundation Animals Rights Conference this month. Here's a blurb for the actual auction... Sad, they do not cite me... I am one of the "others":

Saturday night, June 27th / 7pm-2am / After-Party Benefit Art Show

"Join us Saturday night after the conference at Portobello Vegan Trattoria (1125 SE Division Street, at the corner of 12th and Division) for delicious food, great music, and lovely art. Aaron and the Portobello crew will be serving up the eats, DJ E3 will be selecting the tunes, and a dozen or so artists will have work on display. Artists include Kurt Halsey Frederiksen, Tom Neely, JT Yost, Nicole Georges, and others. The art will be for sale in a silent auction, the proceeds will help us pay the bills for the conference. The event will start at 7 p.m. and will go as long as you can!"

The real hook should be that the auction is at Portobello, hands down the best vegan restaurant in Portlnad. If you've never eaten there, you should. The polenta is to die for. For more information about the festival itself go here. Here are some drawings I am very sad to give up to the auction... Unless people actually pay a lot and want them... then I will be happy.

New Comic Soon!

Sorry for not posting anything lately. I am now a Master... That is I just got my masters in Teaching degree so maybe that will help excuse my lateness in posting stuff. Here are some drawings from a new story I just finished. I'm going to try and get it into an anthology and if that doesn't work, it might just be Big Plans 5. These drawings are from a story bout a mall shooting I witnessed.

Crumb's Genesis at the Portland Art Museum

This show at the Portland Art Museum was made possible by the persistent efforts of one assistant curator. Unfortunately, I can't remember her name. My uncle helped in the effort as well and I was happy to see free tickets to the opening night arrive at my door yesterday. This should be a great show and it sounds like this is the first time the Portland Art Museum has curated a show on comics.

new ideas

I've been kicking around some new ideas for another early reader comic. Here's just a couple drawings for one of the ideas I'm liking the most. It's called Boris and Jasper. Or Boris and Jasper are Brothers.

I'm also doing a new autobiographical comic based on my relationship to guns and why I hate them so much. I recently reread Big Plans #1 and I was laughing the whole time I read it. I was also impressed by my early drawing ability. I had a lot more detail and thinner lines. I will try to capture this energy again with these new comics. Smaller panels and more detail. This comic will probably be done in a month or two. I don't know what I'll do as far as publishing yet.

L'âge dur drawing

I just did this drawing for Max de Radiguès and a new issue of his comic l'âge dur. The drawing is supposed to be of some random teenagers but they somehow ended up looking like me and Ariel again.

Ever since Max started as a fellow at the Center For Cartoon Studies he's been crankin' out the comics. Check out his site to read his most recent comics from The Stumptown Comics Fest, which includes hanging out with Alec Longstreth's beard and admiring the tall bikes. My French is weak so I'm not sure if this is correct. My apologies to Alec and the obvious beard joke.

Thanks Theo!

Earlier this week I asked the creative genius behind Capacity and Sleeper Car, Theo Ellsworth, if he'd come to my class to do a reading and guest lecture. Theo did a great job with the kids. The whole time he was reading they were mesmerized. I'm not sure if they've ever seen anything like his work before.

After a Q and A session we asked him if he'd make a drawing for us on the white board. Here it is. After that all of my students began to hound Theo for his autograph and to take pictures of his drawing. Thanks Theo!

If you've never been exposed to Theo Ellsworth before then I don't believe you. Either way you should still go here!

Neptune Review

This year's Stumptown Comics Festival was probably my favorite yet, despite the fact that I lost my voice a day early due to a cold. Good weather and great people! Today I returned home to find a very kind review of Neptune by the Poopsheet Foundation's Justin Giampaoli. Click here if you're interested.

Stumptown Comics Festival

This will be my 5th Stumptown convention I've tabled at and each year seems to get better and better.

This year's Stumptown Comics Festival is held today, Saturday, April 24th and tomorrow, Sunday, April 25th from 10 am to 6 pm at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel in Portland, Oregon.

Come check it out if you never have. The image above comes from the extremely talented Theo Ellsworth who made this year's poster.

Wowee Zowee!

You can pre-order copies of The Super Crazy Cat Dance from Chronicle Books now. Blue Apple Books is my publisher but Chronicle does the distribution. Go here to pre-order. Oh and the logo and the hand-lettering on the spine was all done by yours truly.

Comics Reading at Herbivore with Tom Neely

Hey guys, this is the poster I made for a show Tom Neely and I are doing at Herbivore on Earth Day, the week of the Stumptown Fest. Be there! We might even have a draw-off.

Just bragging

Ariel and I returned from our honeymoon to finally open our presents. We got many great gifts from friends and family but I must admit that this here was the gift we were hoping for but did not expect. Wow! Nicole Georges! Thank you so much!

Austin Murals

Austin has some pretty cool murals. Here's just some that I came across today. There's the Daniel Johnston one of course and the bottom one is outside of the very rad Domy Books.