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OK, so here's my "big news" that I've had to keep quiet about until I could talk publicly about it. Thanks for putting up with my "non-disclosure" self, it's been really hard sitting on this one!

I'm doing design work for Thomas Dolby's next music release.

As you may remember, a while back I entered and won a contest to design a t-shirt for the one-off gig at Union Chapel that Dolby did. He was very happy with my shirt design and used it extensively in the show itself. I wrote him a follow-up email, congratulating him on a successful show and thanking him for getting so much use out of the design for the show. His reply: "No, thank you. Fancy taking a crack at doing the design for my next single?"

You must understand;
I have been a hardcore Thomas Dolby fan since I picked up the UK import 12" single of "Europa and the Pirate Twins" from my local music store in 1982, and have continued to love his music solidly since then. This is a complete mind-blower for me; I imagine time-travelling back to 1985 Paul Sizer, still in college, and whispering in my own ear that in 20 or so years I would be doing design work for my musical hero! My head would have exploded, and a horrible time paradox would have occurred also (not to mention my younger self screaming when I saw what I would look like in the future)!

Thomas and I have been in constant communication from the UK (he lives along the North Sea coast with a re-constructed large life boat on his property that is his studio, powered by wind-power, of course), where he is recording his new album, "A Map Of The Floating City", due out late this year.

So yes, it's true. And here's the cool part. Thomas is also the musical director for TED, and he did a live version of a new song called "Love Is A Loaded Pistol" which you can see performed at this year's TED Talks.

And you can also sign up at his site and and download a free version of this live single with my artwork for the cover. I'm working on a lot of other design work with Thomas that is linked to some incredibly cool concepts and ideas he has for releasing a new album on his own, and making use of what the internet and mobile tech can now really offer an artist who is as tech-savvy as Dolby (his company Beatnik created the polyphonic ringtone technology that is in every Nokia phone on Earth, so he's got THAT on his resume along with "She Blinded Me With Science").

Here's the info about Dolby's announcement of the new album "A Map Of The Floating City"

Was that worth all my ominous teases? Hope so, I am seriously geeked about this, let me know what you think.

This is a strange one, but completely within the jurisdiction of how I made this available via Creative Commons. Dude gave me full credit and provided the work as a free download. It's a mod or "spray" on a game called DAY OF DEFEAT that uses my Black Angel REmake "Kick Their Axis" poster:

Actually kind of cool to see.

Here's the full entry:LINK

As you may remember, I won a contest to design a T-Shirt for one of my musical heroes, Thomas Dolby, for a one off concert he just did March 28 in the UK.

Well, they produced the t-shirts with the design for the concert, but they also used my design on a huge video screen in the church where the concert took place, and hooked up a webcam on Dolby's piano so that when he was playing, his face showed up in the center of my design! How cool is that? Here's some photos of the actual t-shirt that people sent me, along with shots of the video screen.

Had to miss this show, but Mr. Dolby has assured me he'll make it worth my while when he tours the US for his upcoming album.

(Photo courtesy of some nice fan at the show, many thanks!)

Tons more photos here: THOMAS DOLBY'S FORUM

All right, this is getting weird, in that "OK, what happens next?" level of good things popping up.

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A few months ago, I find out that my musical hero Thomas Dolby ("She Blinded Me With Science" is what everyone knows, but in some ways it's the least of what he's done as a cool musician) is holding a competition through his blog for fans to design a t-shirt for a special one-off gig in Ilsington, England, that is called "Thomas Dolby and Friends: Circumnavigating the Flat Earth". It will include many cool musicians that have worked and collaborated with Dolby over the years, and is meant to be a celebration of a lot of the music he's made with them. Sounds pretty cool, so I activate my design tools and go to work. From the outset, they say that they can't pay really for this, that the rewards are having done it, and that's about all they can promise. Still cool with me.

So, I design and submit. Others do as well on the forums. As with all things, it takes time, as it's around the holidays.

Last night, I get an email, from the moderator of the boards, alerting me that Thomas has looked over all the entries, and mine has been picked for the winner.

This morning, I get another email. From Thomas Dolby himself, thanking me for the design, and apologizing that he can't fly me over for the gig, but saying I have a "rain check" for when he tours the states for, as he puts it, "The VIP treatment".
That's what kind of nice person he is.
If you heard a distant pop this morning, it was my head exploding, many miles away.

Here's the design that will be produced:

NOW I can get on with my meaningless life...

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Look, it's OFFICIAL now; I'm an "author", because my local paper had a slow news day and did a set of articles in the A/E section of the Sunday paper.
Wonder how the other authors feel having to share page space with a self-publishing, funny-book making deviant like me?

It's me, sporting my brand spanking new custom made AMBER GUARD polar fleece hoodie, made for me by the nice people at LAST WEAR.
We did an exchange; my Soviet propaganda style poster of their AMBER GUARD for this hand made custom fit hoodie. Thom Becker saw my "KICK THEIR AXIS" poster done for the Black Angel REMAKE thread on WHITECHAPEL, and asked me to design a Soviet poster depicting his AMBER GUARD.
Check out Thom's very cool costuming and custom wear HERE

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You want weapons grade awesome? Here it is.

A few new newsbytes from the ongoing BPM Perfect Beat Promotional Tour!

1. B.P.M. ON THIS WEEK'S "COMIC GEEK SPEAK" PODCAST
"B.P.M." gets the star treatment on the latest episode of the Comic Geek Speak podcast series
Man, these guys work fast! I just did the interview over the phone last night, and the podcast is already up and ready to download!
Here's the show page link:
COMIC GEEK SPEAK Episode 545

2. NEW PHOTOS FROM THE AUTHOR TALK
Good friend and amazing photographer Thomas Deater took some killer shots of me during my author talk/DJ demo/book signing/reading at the Kalamazoo Public Library in September.
Tom has been teaching himself black and white digital photography over the last few years and has developed a killer eye, so I asked if he would shoot the event.
I finally got my lazy butt around, picked out the best of nearly 300 (!) shots and posted them as a Flickr album that you can check out:
TOM DEATER B.P.M. PHOTOS
Check out more of Tom's work at his home site: LINK

3. "B.P.M." HITS THE SHELVES NOVEMBER 19
Cross your fingers; "B.P.M." is set to hit the shelves of your local comic book stores in the US this Wednesday, November 19 if all goes according to plan.

More soon. Thanks to everyone for the tons of support you've given. As always, it is appreciated!

I am really proud of America today. Lots of work to do, but a good first step is a good first step...