I decided to add another card to my wee Cafe Press store. If you have to celebrate yet another birthday do it with a lack of enthusiasm by ordering this card:

and on the inside it says “HAT PEE BARF JAY! (or something like that)”.

I was going to put up another one but I’m not allowed to use famous people’s likenesses so you won’t be able to buy

HARPY BATH DRE! Too bad.

Also, there are two new great pictures added to the fan art section by Hambot that you should check out!

This is it! The final installment!

Atlanta

Dallas

Charlotte

New Orleans

Memphis

I was really stuck for the Bobcats until my wife-to-be suggested Bobcat Goldthwait. The other animals were tough too because the there’s nothing wrong with the Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Bulls etc. But the toughest one was the Mavericks because unelss I was going to do Tom Cruise or Ford Maverick I was stuck. How could I show someone marching to the beat of their own drum without looking silly or busy?  Luckily the dictionaries did have another definition of the word I wasn’t familiar with, where the metaphorical term comes from: an unbranded range animal especially a motherless calf.

I was tempted with the 76ers to go 1976 and Semi-Pro style but the colour scheme wasn’t right. I’ve been trying to keep the most recent colours for each team. I made an exception by adding grey to the Bulls and a biege to the Spurs, since both teams have only 3 colours. The Nuggets feels like it could also “Zork” instead.

Philly

Denver

Indiana

New York

Utah

I don’t want to give the impression that there aren’t plenty of sports logos, past and present that I don’t think are super great. Even some that have sports equipment in them. This is more of a fun exercise than a visual rant. For example, last night I was looking at the old Denver Nuggets/Rockets logos on Wikipedia and I thought they were the far-out awesomes. One of them looks like it was designed by Acitivision!

Phoenix

Chicago

Milkwaukee

Minnestoa

Toronto

Also known to locals as the Spadinasaur. It took me a long time to figure out why they decided to call them the Raptors. There is no tie between those dinos and Toronto. Unlike the suggestion to call the expansion team the Toronto Towers. That name made sense to me. Until I realized that the T was capitalized. Duh. RapTors! The old Toronto basketball team was called the Huskies and I’m glad they didn’t give that name to the Raps. I think it’s mean to call a bunch of guys who try to stay in shape “husky”. Why not just call them the Toronto Big Boned or the Toronto Heavy Set or the Toronto Nice Personalities?

I should also say, that not only are the NBA teams full of D&D names but they are salso full of horses. Trail blazers, Spurs, Mavericks, Pacers and Cavaliers. Maybe they should divide into the league into Horse Division and Dungeon Division and other zones, like Food and Outer Space.

Cleveland

San Antonio

Los Angeles

Houston

Oklahoma City

It also cracks me up that a lot of the names of NBA teams are also totally Dungeons and Dragons things, like: Magic, Warriors, Wizards, Cavaliers, Kings and Celts. If they do anymore expansion teams I think they should include Thief Acrobats, Necromancers, Displacer Beasts or Earth Elementals.

Portland

Washington

Los Angeles

 

Golden State

Orlando

I don’t get the NBA. 20 out of the 30 teams have a basketball in their logo. Is that really necessary? It’s on a multi-million dollar sports empire, member of the biggest basketball league in the world, found on tons of basketball jerseys and decorating basketball arenas. It’s like me drawing a picture of a guy with a moustache and then labeling the moustache “moustache”. It’s either really insulting to your intelligence or a European art movement.

Luckily, in my favourite sport to watch (hockey), that’s not a problem. The Toronto Maple Leafs logo isn’t a leaf with a stick and skates. The Senators logo isn’t Art Eggleton with a stick and skates. The Pittsburgh Penguins isn’t… no wait there are a few bad apples.

As you can see with the king and his flags, I’m obviously obsessed with symbols. So I’ve decided to illustrate a bunch of the NBA teams to be more “awesome”. Here is the first batch:

Boston

Detroit

New Jersey

Sacramento

Miami

The Toronto Comic Art Festival was the awesomes! My friends Steve Manale, Chris Stone and I set up a booth to do Hideous Caricatures of people and we were non-stop busy like Santa on Christmas Eve. People howled with delight over our terrible likenesses. It was the closest I’ll get to doing stand-up comedy. It’s not often I get to hear a laugh immediately after I finish a drawing. A lot of the time time there was a fun loving crowd of people clucking and jibing the subject. It was nicer than having that table between me and the crowds of con goers. People actually sat down and chatted and laughed and then went off.

Above: This lady was reporting for the Torontoist. We didn’t make it into her final article. I think the caricature might have been the swing vote.

Above: Artist Jay Stephens apartently peed his pants.

Another highlight of the show was receiving an amazing piece of art from a fan named Kathleen. How totally awesomes is that!? It’s like getting a gift from Santa in May! (There will be a better picture in the fan art section)

I set up a “stand-in” for people to take photos which was also fairly busy. Some people may even have noticed that it was associated with a comic they’d never heard of. 🙂

Outside of the con, I got to hang out a bunch with Eric Wight, author of Frankie Pickle which is an all ages book that super fun. Eric’s a really great guy and friendly as Santa Claus discovering some home made gingerbread. Although on the Saturday I realized that he, Jay Stephens, J. Bone, Sean Wainstiem and I (and at least 2 other people I didn’t know by name) were all wearing light blue plaid shirts. It was like the new comic nerd uniform or something. No more XL black tees or all-over-print Spider-Man Hawaiian shirts and non-sports related baseball caps. Or maybe TCAF was just that kind of con?

Above:  Eric and J. Bone fight with the comic book display in a rich person’s clothing store.  Comic books mean POW! and people in masks.

Here’s a photo I nabbed from someone on Flickr that showed some of the layout of the library. If you’ve ever read the amazing Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, you’ll know this library as where Knives Chau had a kung fu-tastic fight with Ramona.

It was certainly the best show I’ve ever done and I had the most fun, like lighting the menorrah on Channukah with Santa!

A Canadian newspaper has done a bunch of profiles of the comic creators who will be at TCAF this weekend. I am one of them and I mostly try to be funny in my interview.

Also, don’t forget to enter the Princess Planet contest. Seriously, no entries so far? This is like college radio concert ticket giveaways, not the lottery. Your chances of winning are pretty good.

Today is Free Comic Book Day. Most comic book retailers are giving away free comics to promote literacy but more importantly getting more people hook on comics.  I’ll be at The Beguiling (601 Markham St), a great store for indy press comics, art books and european bds.  If you can’t make it out to the store, check your local retailers to see if they’ve got the Comics Festival book because I have a new treasure inspector episode of the Princess Planet in there alongside a bunch of other great cartoonists who’ve made kid friendly comics.

And next weeked, the Beguiling’s putting on Toronto’s most interesting comic event: The Toronto Comic Art Festival! It’s free to attend and chock full of awesomes. I will be there selling prints, drawing more hideous cariactures and lots more fun and surprises. There are lots of other great guests including all the other txcomics crew.  If you’re in town, drop by the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St, on Saturday the 9th or Sunday the 10th of May for good times.

Here’s an example of a couple of the prints I am planning to have for sale.

Hope to see some of you there!