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

Wow, THIS is going to be an interesting week...
The pitch from Warren Ellis:
"So here's the deal:

You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book.

You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character.

The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN.

And that's it.

It's up to you what kind of company you're at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you're in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it.

You have one week. Go."

Decided to whip out the type-fu for this one, go all Swiss on it.
Worked really hard to keep it simple, and assume nothing more than exactly what was given.

After a short hiatus, the REMAKE/REMODEL thread is active at Whitechapel. Here's this week's challenge:

"Skyrocket Steele was a hero in the year X. He was assisted by Sari Marston and Invex the Invisible Man. His nemesis was Vance Roy.
Skyrocket Steele was the first character created by Bill Everett (the guy who created the Sub Mariner."

So here's my take on it:
"Skyrocket" Steele, the most highly decorated pilot of the French Negro Air Corps of 1923. His daughter Sari served as his mechanic, and the corps were funded by the "invisible" Invex Corporation, a secret group of investors.

Massive Attack won me over from the start by how they combined so many influences into a cohesive mix. Dub, reggae, electronics, dance/club influences, rap, hip hop, all things that, if combined badly, would result in a horrible sludge of fighting and dissonance. But what made Massive Attack really standout was their fearlessness at then, on top of all that, bringing in vocalists that actually had a different angle on all of it. Tricky, Horace Andy, Tracy Thorn, Sinead O'Connor, Liz Fraser. And they let these vocalists do what they do, and in some way, it all seemed like it belonged together. The mix is their strength. Always.

My vote for strongest album is "Protection", followed right on the heels by "Mezzanine". "100th Window" and "Danny The Dog" only suffered because they strayed from the vocalist in the mix quotient, and became more a solo project of Robert Del Naja. And while he is a brilliant producer of sounds, I think he realized that his true strength lies in working with great vocalists. Hence "Heligoland". 

I will venture to drop "Heligoland" in at #3 for me, only because of the slightly uneven nature of "Blue Lines", which I'll put at #4. Part of Massive Attack's earlier albums being so ahead of the curve were that NOBODY was doing what they do. Now, there's a whole generation of musicians who have had Massive Attack's albums as part of their learning process, so they don't stand apart as much as they once did. But they must know this, because while many bands sound like them, nobody really sounds as good as they do at it. 

My first comment on hearing Gil Scott-Heron's new stuff was "Man, THIS is what Massive Attack needs to sound like." But I'll take that back a bit; Gil's new music fits very nicely in the mold made by Massive Attack years ago. Dubstep owes it's genesis at least in part to what Massive Attack paved. I loved hearing Scott-Heron's new music because it reminded me of hearing Massive Attack's mixture. 

I'll give "Heligoland" a 9 out of 10, only because I want to hear more of the remixes that are sure to come from this album, and because they can always still surprise me, so I give them room to do so.

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Here's a desktop design I did last night, again just messing around, but some cool directions may come from this.

Pretty groovy, nyet?

My "remix" of the #1 issue of SPIDER-WOMAN from the late 70's was the featured entry on the "very cool and filled with amazing art" blog COVERED

I had a soft spot in my heart for this cover, in that it was one of the first #1 issues that I was able to buy as a kid collecting comics, along with MICRONAUTS, SHOGUN WARRIORS and GODZILLA, all from Marvel during their late 70's binge of licensed comic series.

Here's the cover on its own:

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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:

My version of THE ACE OF SPACE, molded by me getting the box set of original Fleischer POPEYE cartoon shorts:

Some current drawings of people from the DRAW EACH OTHER thread:

Here's the identity on it's own. The head editor likes retro space pistols, and wanted them incorporated into the design.

2009 was a lot of mending the nets, polishing the tools, and sharpening the skills. It was also a year of planning, of sketching, of thinking and over-thinking. So now this is a time to change. A lot of seeds have been planted in the last year, creativity-wise speaking, and I'm really ready to see if things are ready for harvest. Some things need more time to grow and come to the surface, but some stuff is ready to happen. I can feel it.

So, as "Make" happens, I will post about it here. This will keep me honest. How long will I keep this up? We'll find out, won't we?