Favorite Blogs Of 2006

1. BibliOdyssey - I always enjoy seeing what strange and esoteric imagery has been dug out of the depths of the internet on this site.

2. Datajunkie - The site took a break over the past month but it's back in action now. A great array of weird horror, mystery, crime and sci fi comics available for download as well as great radio programs that gravitate towards the horrific and sci fi.

3. La Main Gauche - I love the taste this blogger has with artists and imagery.

4. Dead Calm - If you've browsed through Dead Calm you might have noticed we share a very similar interest in art. I'm constantly finding great artists of the fantastic on here that I was previously unaware of.

5. Beasts! - Although geared towards promoting a single although amazing book, the site embraces and shows off imagery of various other beasts.

6. The Woodring Monitor - One of my favorite artists started up his own blog and has gone on to post dozens of incredible drawings, paintings, and photos of toys he's designed.

7. Brian McKenzie - One of my favorite artist discoveries of 06. Brian's blog displays many of the uniquely detailed and surreal etchings he's made. He's also a very cool person, thank you for the awesome Christmas card Brian! I never thought I'd have to make plans to get a Christmas card framed.

8. Craoblog - Another favorite artist that I recently stumbled across. Craoman makes very disgusting and bizarre artwork with mutated characters.

9. Richard A. Kirk - I was amazed by the intricate detail of Richard's drawings. Be sure to fully investigate his site to see all the fantastic imagery he's made.

10. Blanquet's Journal - Blanquet is up there among my favorite living artists, his blend of the horrific and fantastic is exactly what I look for in art. It's interesting to see what he's up to on a regular basis.

And of course ... 11. Eaten By Ducks! - A bunch of hooligans makin stuff, I'm excited to be part of this crazy group of artists. And I know we'll have some great collaborations in the coming year.

Royal Lacey Scoville's "The Dream of Tom Tompkins"
"The Arma-daffy-dillo, Jam-bo-reet, Trunc-o-phant and other fantastic creatures are the subjects of a special exhibition this holiday season at the Brandywine River Museum. The Imaginary Beasts of Royal Lacey Scoville features 38 whimsical watercolors that form an original narrative written and illustrated by Royal Lacey Scoville in 1915. The untitled story was never published because it was created solely for the amusement of his daughter.

Ingeniously weaving poetic verse and colorful illustrations with fantastic creatures of his own invention, Scoville tells the tale of the lazy Tom Tompkins and the wizard, Tumblebug, who casts a spell on Tom. Startled from a mid-day nap, Tom stares at a gigantic snake with a multicolored head and gaping mouth. Trapped by the spell, he is unable to escape the snake's coils as they tighten around his legs.

Scoville's snake provides a consistent visual link throughout the story, appearing in every panel. Each new image, to the horror of Tom, introduces an imaginary beast ensnared by the snake's body. By the story's completion, the snake is an impressive 44 feet long and has seized 35 creatures, among them the amusing Arma-daffy-dillo, the wild Jam-bo-reet, and the indolent Trunc-o-phant."

- quote taken from here.

5 of the 36 watercolors made for "The Dream of Tom Tompkins".

Heiko Müller
Heiko is another great artist that I am familiar with. He's been doing these great drawings of scary looking animals with white eyes. He's come up with an interesting method of decorating the borders of the drawing with strange line drawings that are worked back into the center composition, always fun to look at.

Austin Osman Spare
"Austin Osman Spare was an artist, philosopher and occult magician. Like Aleister Crowley with whom he had a brief association, Spare was a genius in his own time unappreciated and vilified by a society that could little understand him. His was the inspiration that led to the formation of the 'Illuminates of Thanateros' (IOT) in England in the late 1970’s and the practice of what is now known as 'Chaos Magic' " - link taken from here.

A large collection of Spare's art can be found at this site.

Here are a selection of drawings by Spare from the collection of John Balance (a greatly missed, unique and incredible musician) and Peter Christopherson of the amazing musical group "Coil". "The following drawings were executed by Spare in 1924, part of a series which he titled the Book of Ugly Esctacy."

This page has compiled some of the following galleries of Spare's art and writing.
Automatic Drawing
Anathema of Zos: The Sermon to the Hypocrites
Check out the "Adventures In Limbo" sketchbook.

Some of my favorite Spare pictures...
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13

Micha Lobi
More works can be seen below.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Enjoy the slug shaped Santa Clause creature in some hellish Hieronymus Bosch inspired landscape just in time for Christmas Eve.

Farmer Bob's Flickr Gallery
One of my art pals "Robert Hardgrave" has a giant collection of his art at his flickr account. I mentioned his other website on here awhile back. I'm always amazed and inspired by his unique abstractions and use of color. He was kind enough to contribute a great page to an anthology (long delayed) comic that some great artists and I put together which I'll mention on here when it's ready, which should be soon.

Concerning the remixes of a few of his drawings that he mentions me doing here...

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17

I made those by digital alteration, Here is the second of the two drawings by Robert that I made those from.

Tomomi Sakuba

A Few Russian Trolls





















1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Henry R Robinson
Title reads... "A Minister Extraordinary Taking Passage And Bound On A Foreign Mission To The Court Of His Satanic Majesty!"

The lithograph has an interesting and grotesque backstory - "The second of two prints surrounding the scandalous trial of Methodist minister Ephraim K. Avery for the brutal murder of factory girl Sarah Maria Cornell. (See "A Very Bad Man," no. 1833-13). Contrary to Weitenkampf's suggestion that the print relates to Andrew Jackson, it is actually visionary portrayal of Avery transported to damnation by demons.Avery has departed the scene of his crime (left) where his victim, now expired, still hangs strangled from a post. Her shoes, kerchief, and a note reading "If I am missing enquire of the Revd. Mr..." lay nearby. As monsters fly overhead, Avery is rowed toward a shore at right where an inferno blazes and a man is boiled in a cauldron. Avery appears again in the upper right, being forcibly led toward a precipice."

A Happy Dance For Europe - T.Tegg

Paul Lewin

James Gillray
"A British caricaturist famous for his political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810."

Gillray uses weird human animal monsters in many of his works to express his political and social views.

2nd gallery
3rd Gallery

One of my favorite works of his.
And in Color...

Devil Characters
Mushroom Human Freak