www.dannyzabbal.com

Gabriel Silveira

He’s a man who hails from São Paulo, Brasil (where my grandma was born). More importantly he’s a man who’s illustration is a compelling combination of clean drawing technique and very sharp design.  Despite inability to speak Portuguese, I understand his language. His work is clean and crisp, and his subject is always expressive and energetic. Still, a lot of his work has a subtly aged finish to it, a veneer bends the character of his work away from the wacky and towards the appealing.

Make sure you check out his flickr gallery as well as his portfolio site. The portfolio is in Portuguese, so you’ll have to click on Trabalhos (Works) to access his material.

The Book

When I was a boy there was a kid in my fourth grade class called Gavin. I don’t remember his last name, but I remember we were pretty good friends. We’d hang out on the weekends, play video games, and go to each other’s respective birthday parties. When I turned ten he got me an educational hydroponic science kit. He was a good friend, I suppose, but he had this one quirk that I never understood. This bizarre affectation that, since then, has mutated and been absorbed into my character.

Whenever Gavin didn’t have anything interesting to say, whevener there was a brief silence, he’d put on a scottish accent and yell, in his best early ninties rap-rhythm, “Yo DJ, spin that orange!”

I never understood what exactly it meant. Never. So great was my incomprehension that I came to adopt it as my own anthem for non-sequiturs. Anytime I see something that’s disjointed, or doesn’t seem to fit with my worldview, my inner-monologue slyly whispers, “Yo DJ, spin that orange.”

I said it today when I took a long look at this drawing. It makes sense, in the context of the book, but outside of that I would have never guessed that I’d drawn it.

MUTO by BLU

A favorite of mine. I’m sure the majority of you have seen it, but for those who haven’t, enjoy.

Visit BLU’s site: http://www.blublu.org/

A special sorry for all my peeps out there. Apparently the comments settings were all wonky, they required a  user name and login…? Don’t know how how it happened, but it’s all fixed now. Leave comments at your leisure.

Outer Space Fantasy – Now in Technicolor.

Follow the White Rabbit

During a visit to San Francisco Emily Beaulieux (Bo-lee-uh) bought me some pizza. Very posh, expensive, spinach covered pizza. It was delicious. She also told me about her plush toy project which, at the time, was just being born.

Follow the White Rabbit lives. Of course, it’s been alive for a while but the first I heard about it was Saturday. Emily told me while we were eating some souvlaki. Very posh, expensive souvlaki.

In case you couldn’t already tell, these toys are insanely cool. They’re all amazing extensions of Emily’s artistic sense. Like her personality, they range in varying degrees of wholesome, cheery and upbeat… but every so often, she digs deep and delves into the grotesque.

To see her full plush portfolio go here.

Here’s the deal, the Follow the White Rabbit store isn’t open right now. However, it will reopen eventually, so I’m going to give you the link anyway. Besides, I have a feeling you want to wait in line to buy one of these critters. –> Follow the White Rabbit Store <– In the meantime, go to the Follow the White Rabbit blog for all sorts fun, coolness and information. Same goes for Emily’s flickr gallery as well, it’s loaded amazing things.

PS

She’s also an animator, so her illustration kicks a$$ too.

Blood Freak

This is and old horror film about an ungainly, oafish, cleft-chinned, half-man, half-turkey, maniac. I highly recommend you see this, it’s terribly delicious.

Young Gavin

This is a project that Daniel Beirne and I have been working on for a while. It’s a really cool sci-fi story called Young Gavin. A couple of months ago I finished our first ten sample pages, and since then Daniel has been hard at work coming up with a knock-out proposal. I haven’t really shown it up until now because, well, the thought never occurred to me.

Anyway, if you want to see the rest (and if you’re interested in *cough* financing it) go to my flickr gallery and peruse all ten pages.

Alex Hadjiantoniou

I’ve known Alex now for nigh on ten years. Originally he was the amusing, somewhat nerdy, staff member at my local move theater, The York. Now, however, he’s a professional illustration machine! Since those days of mopping up popcorn he’s made titanic strides in the work of commercial art.

I have to say, I really enjoy his stuff. He has that deft and decisive style that professional illustrators always seem to have on ‘Making of…’ DVDs. As my old art teacher used to say, he has confident lines. At any rate, you should check out his site and enjoy the many treasures he has to offer: www.alexantoniou.com

As an aside, I want to also give him a personal thanks for helping me develop my new price list in the :FREELANCE+CONTRACT: section.

Jeffrey Lewis

I’m jealous of his supercoolness. He’s not only a fabulous cartoonist but a very talented musician. A couple of months ago in Montréal, I had the privilege, no, the honor of seeing him open for British Sea Power. I was so moved by who whole act that immediately purchased all his comics.

Please, please, please check out his site and watch his videos. You’ll really love them. And if he shows up in your town, make sure to check him out. It’ll be worth it.

http://www.thejeffreylewissite.com/

Here’s the Complete History of Punk Rock:

Mr Frivolous

He describes himself as an “…artist, designer and 5th ninja turtle.” It’s true, he’s all of these things. Of course I’ve never met him but I think his work speaks for itself. Check out his flickr gallery as well as his website, for a multitude of designs and sketches. You wont be disappointed.

Well Wishes For All

Happy New Year! Here’s a toast to 2009, the year that has yet to come. May it be one big, long, fun, dance party! One of those great ones, where nerds get to boogie with beautiful people… and everyone is in their underwear.

He’s an evil door-to-door salesman. Who knows what nasty tricks hide in his magic briefcase sampler…?

For more drawings, go to my flickr gallery.