It's A Long Way Back To Germany

I thought I had posted this one long ago but apparently not. It's a poster I did a couple years back for one of the shows on Electric Frankenstein's 2008 German tour. My idea here was to combine rock poster art with comix, an approach that I plan to keep experimenting with. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Deluxe 66

Just finished this T-shirt design for hard rawkin' Norwegian combo Deluxe 66. I think they are also gonna make some buttons with this design on 'em. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Space Cowboys

The Space Cowboys were a rawk combo from Sweden back in the late '90s. This was the sleeve art for a 7" EP on Pure Vinyl Records outta Austria. 500 pink vinyl copies hit the streets back in 1999. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

High Time

High Time were an MC5-influenced rawk band from Spain back in the late '90s. I think I was under the impression that this would be a record sleeve when I drew it but it ended up being used for T-shirts and stickers instead. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Pyro-Mania

I made this cover back in 1999 for a zine chronicling the heavy duty fusion of punk and '70s hard rawk that was thriving around that time. My memory on this is a little vague but I think they were publishing out of Eastern Canada somewhere. I never got a copy of the mag and in fact I'm not even sure that it ever came out. Anyone ever see a printed copy of this thing? I wouldn't mind scoring a copy for my archives if they are actually out there somewhere. More neat stuff coming soon. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Electrocuting Frankenstein

Here is the first poster design I did for Electric Frankenstein way back in 2002. This was drawn for the first EF art book which was published by Dark Horse in 2004. This is not the actual poster that was originally used to promote this concert in 1997. The idea was to create new posters especially for the book for those shows which did not have the trademark cool EF monster graphics on the original poster and I was lucky enough to be invited to contribute this piece, joining a power-packed lineup that included over 180 wild rock'n'roll artistés from all over the world. Stay tuned for MORE ELECTRIFYIN' ACTION!

A Rock'N'Roll Nightmare On Albert Street

From way back in 2002, here's the first of the three posters I did for shows by the mighty Rock Warrior, Thor! Kicking off the evening's festivities were hard rockin' local faves The Squareheads with their original lineup featuring drummer Brian, now a rock superstar in the Demon's Claws and Primitive Hands. Squareheads singer Anthony came up with the general idea for this poster and wrote the dialogue balloons. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Psychomania

Drew this cover last year for the demo CD by local combo Blazing Saddles. Started up by ex-Hestons guitarist Paul, these guys went for a sound influenced by heavier garage combos like The Nomads with some stoner rock influence mixed in. They were basically a studio project and never played out anywhere. I hadn't used this drybrush/chiaroscuro technique in awhile and was happy to see that I still had the chops to pull it off. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Monster A-Go-Go

Here be the long awaited cover art for High Voltage Rock'N'Roll, the forthcoming Best Of Electric Frankenstein compilation on Zodiac Killer Records. This project took a few strange twists along the old lost highway but I finally handed in the artwork yesterday and finished discs should be out pretty soon. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Return To The Forbidden Dimension

Amazing Calgary ghoul rockers Forbidden Dimension (see my January 27 post for a bit of info on their early career) regrouped a few years back after a near decade-long hiatus and made their long awaited return to Winnipeg late in 2008. They put on a killer high energy show including many old classics and lots of great new songs from their comeback album Cool Sound Out Of Hell. Also on this power-packed bill were the garage stompin' Angry Dragons and theatrical grrl rockers The Gorgon. I was doing posters for most of the Dragons shows at the time and worked real hard to give them a cool one for such a bitchin' show but unbeknownst to me the FDs resident art monster TOMB was conjuring up his own poster for this show in his Calgary basement lair. His poster made mine kinda redundant so this one has remained mostly unseen... until now. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Rock'N'Roll Nightmare

From back in 2005, here's the second of three posters I did for Winnipeg gigs by the legendary Rock Warrior of the 1980s, the incredible Thor. You can't beat this guy for amazing, over-the-top hard rock tunes and the best live show ever featuring a zillion costume changes and carny-style feats of strength, all spotlighting Thor's larger than life warrior rock-god persona. This poster was inspired by a scene from Thor's cinematic classic Rock'N'Roll Nightmare wherein our hero fearlessly engages in hand-to-hand combat with the evil forces of Hell itself! Also on the bill for this show were always hard rockin' local heroes The Squareheads and Winnipeg's best ever surf/Link Wray-inspired instro combo The Rockdoras. What a night. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Van Hellsing

German rockers Van Hellsing blasted forth a speedy mix of '70s hard rawk and garage punk reminiscent of early Motörhead on the CDR that my friend Willem from Swamp Room Records sent to get me primed to design their record sleeve. Their songs reminded me of the mid-late '70s issues of Metal Hurlant somehow so I decided that the art should aim for the same mix of old school comic style and flashy/decadent sci-fi imagery that typified that fine mag in its early days. This 4 song 7"er came out in 2004. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Switchblade Martians

Quickie poster for a gig featuring two local powerhouse combos back in 2001. See below for a lengthy, semi-accurate post on The Martian Graverobbers. The Switchblade Sisters were a crazed mix of '70s r'n'r and punk, NY Dolls + Sweet + Dead Boys shot through the Killed By Glam grease. They were an unstable conglomeration of larger than life characters and were noted for their epic 90 minute plus sets crammed with a month's worth of maddening mayhem. They had a bunch of wild originals but unfortunately broke up without doing any studio recording. You can hear a low-fi live track on the Winnipeg Riot! comp CD. I remember that we went to another show at the same venue a day or two before this one and wanted to put up a few of these posters. Lacking tape or a stapler, ever-resourceful SS singer Vom stuck 'em up with bubblegum. Baby, that is rock'n'roll. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Chrome Crankin'

Here's another of my pieces from Pussycat mag #4, this one a caricature of NYC-based avant-primitive swamp garage sludgesters The Chrome Cranks. This was also printed on the label of the 7" that came with that issue, which included a track by the Cranks. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Swamp Sessions

My friend Willem from Swamp Room Records in Germany came up with a neat idea for this 2004 release. The Swamp Sessions recordings (stoner/psychedelic jam rawk recorded by various musicians associated with the label) were available for download but you could get slick printed CD sleeves featuring the artwork above to store your burned CD in. He was making the best of a bad situation since declining record sales caused by rampant music downloading had caused him to cancel the original plan of releasing these recordings on CD and pic disc vinyl, but it's still a neat little one-off novelty item if you ask me. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Horror Of Rackula

Just finished this cover art for the debut CD by Rackula, an all-grrl punk rock combo from Hamilton, Ontario. The CD should be out in February sometime. See below for an extra drawing I made which will appear (in part) on the label of the CD itself. More new stuff tomorrow. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Into The Forbidden Dimension

Forbidden Dimension are a brilliant horror rock band outta Calgary, which is without a doubt Canada's most sinister city. They differ from most other horror bands in that they are as much influenced by Link Wray, Kiss and The Damned as they are by The Misfits. They played in Winnipeg several times back in the '90s and I got the call to do the poster for one such show at the Pyramid Cabaret in 1997. As the FD have the amazing TOMB as their in-house artist I knew that I had to deliver my best work on this one and I have always been pretty proud of the way it turned out. The FD guys liked it too and at the show they did me the honor of adapting the words of their song Dial M For Monster into Dial M For Merinuk... a pretty proud moment for me. This was also the show where Personality Crisis singer Mitch Funk joined FD onstage for their cover of PC classick Vampire's Dream which was another amazing thing to see. Anyhow, fast forward to 2004 when I got a rush request for a couple of posters from my pals The Independents. I decided to give the FD poster a new lease on life and recycled it into the poster for the South Carolina show headlined by '77 punk legends The Vibrators. I made the color separations for a silkscreen version of this but unfortunately that never made it to print. To top this epic saga off, here's the FD art again, bootlegged on a poster for a Hellacopters show that my eagle-eyed buddy Lee found somewhere on the net awhile back. I think this show was in Spain somewhere. Thanks, Leroy! Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Pussy Galore Part 2

Here's my most recent Nashville Pussy poster from 2003. This show was sponsored by Soul Survivors tattoo studio, who I also worked with on my recent Misfits project which I should finally be able to post here in about a month or so. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!

Pussy Galore Part 1

Rawk powerhouse combo Nashville Pussy used to play here once or twice a year. Over the years they have probably played in Winnipeg at least a dozen times. Three of these visits were accompanied by King Merinuk poster art and this is the first one from way back in 1998. Stay tuned for MORE OF THAT NASHVILLE PUSSY ACTION!

Bellrays 2

Here's my second poster for a Bellrays show. With their late-'60s high energy sound and co-headliner Nebula's psych guitar style I thought it appropriate to try a takeoff on the Fillmore school of rock poster art for this one. Stay tuned for MORE ACTION!