I FORGOT I HAD INKY FINGERS AND RUBBED MY EYES.

Atomic Books is a super-cool shop that I have enjoyed since my early days in Baltimore, so I was pretty jazzed when they asked me to illustrate their new gift card.

The first design I submitted (pictured below) was scrapped because the cards couldn't do full-bleed and it was a little too comic book-y for the store (which carries a lot more than comic books). My intention was to use the cropped comic as just a way of better integrating the store's name and atomic logo, but I can totally understand why it didn't work out. The thing I drew for Strand was mentioned as a new reference point, so the final ended up sort of rhyming with that.


"Rhyming"! I really just wrote that. That Annie Wu, what a douche. Anyway, I'm not sure when the cards with my design will be available, but I'll be sure to do another post when I find out.

In other news, I've opened up commenting to more users. I think a Google or Blogger account used to be required, but now OpenID and LJ and Wordpress and a few others are supported. Yay. Oh, I also desaturated my entire site design because even dark purple eventually felt like too much color for me. So if you want to go look... Do it.

THE GIRLS WHO CROSS THEIR LEGS.

I'm low on art I can share, so here's an old, old redesign of Starbucks's two-tailed siren, from my Sophomore year. It seemed appropriate to finally upload, now that Starbucks has changed up their logo. They've dropped their name from the design but kept the siren lady spreading her fish legs apart. And if you've never noticed it, now you can't unsee. You are welcome.

What else has happened since my last post?... I've been named one of Newsarama's 11 creators to watch in 2011, so that's pretty neat. I also did some interviews, including this one. And I'm going to have a piece in the upcoming Transmetropolitan art book, which is currently raising funds over at Kickstarter, so please take a look and pre-order.