From a historical perspective, Nikola Tesla was a very cool person. He was an inventor, engineer, and an overall pioneer in a number of areas of technology. I know many engineers and scientists consider his imagination and dedication to invention to be almost heroic.

He also had a fascinating personal story that included a professional rivalry with Thomas Edison. As far as I know, that rivalry never culminated in a large scale lightning fight like something out of Return of the Jedi but why not pretend?

Actually, it’s not worth pretending because some of the stuff he did was so cool on its own that it doesn’t need embellishment. Seriously, just go read about the guy. Then you’ll understand why I decided he deserved this shiny silver and black lino block print. You can buy one here.

A few years ago I did a quick watercolor doodle of Bill Murray as Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic. I had a lot of fun playing around with the style, and my intention was to do a whole series of Bills from various movies. He is one of my favorite actors, after all.

I let that plan slip by the wayside, even though the Zissou picture remained popular on flickr and eventually Etsy as a postcard-size print. I’d also occasionally get notices of the image appearing on tumbr blogs and the like. It’s kind of fun to see where your artwork ends up!

It wasn’t until a recent revisit to Wes Anderson’s Rushmore that I decided to pick the project up again, and so far I’ve produce four new Bills, as he appears in his roles in Rushmore, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation and Ghostbusters.

I plan to do more, eventually, but until then you can build up your Murray-related art collection by visiting my Etsy Store.

Alright yous mugs, I’ll level with ya: my buddy Doug Slack is kind of a crazy person. He’s also a really talented artist who writes and draws his own comics. He’s been posting a lot of stuff on the web, but recently published a selection of his Hard-Boiled Horror Tales into real-world tangible paper form.

These are really funny, gross, great-looking comics in which the world of zombies and werewolves collides with old timey gangsters to result in something akin to old MAD Magazine by way of Dick Tracy. Only better.

Also note that Doug is a swell guy who not only contracted me to do the colorist work on the covers, but also gave me a cool looking blurb on his interior credits page. Look at that skeleton guy!

So buy his stuff! Check out Issue #1 here and Issue #2 here.

My pal Tim Neenan of the blog The Importance of Being Earnest has been helping to write a late night talk show for Second City Hollywood and asked me to contribute with a logo design for the show.

Tim described the ideal look as “classic late night” but with a specific L.A. feel. He also requested the inclusion of a caricature of the show’s host, comedian Howie Kremer.

The end result apparently pleased all involved, and it’s quite a thrill to see it on the show’s promo materials, like in these hilariously awkward videos:

Second City Late Night Promo Video from Second City Late Night on Vimeo.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, be sure to swing by Second City Hollywood on March 25th to check out the first show. The first scheduled guest is Jim Rash, who plays the dean n NBC’s Community. THE DEAN, you guys!

More info is available on the show’s Facebook page.

If you haven’t been watching NBC’s Parks & Recreation, you’re missing out.

It’s a very funny, very relevant comedy with a great cast and great writing. This is my tribute to one of its best characters, the gruff department director Ron Swanson.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with the linoleum block printing process, but it seems especially appropriate here, really lending to the idea of Swanson-based propaganda. If there’s any doubt the character deserves the tribute, check out his Pyramid of Greatness.

It’s art. Anything is anything.

Get one for your own sad walls in my Etsy Store.

Click the image to embiggen.

Click here to see them all.

Did you know that there’s a Batman adversary called Killer Moth? Well, there is.

Essentially he was a no-name crook who decided the best way to earn the power and respect he desired was to create a new identity as a criminal version of the Caped Crusader. The Anti-Batman, if you will. He also decided the best way to become that was to dress in a garish moth-themed costume, because moths are like bats in some ways, I suppose. Except not really at all. I don’t know.

You have to admire his drive, though, because he developed an entire arsenal of moth-themed gadgets including a Mothmobile, a Mothsignal, a flying winged suit and a gun that shoots cocoons. He even created a new identity as a millionaire to fund his projects. That to me seems like putting the cart before the horse, but that’s not a moth-themed metaphor so it would probably be lost on the guy.

It seems Killer Moth’s greatest crime may have been spending more energy on execution than on concept, but sometimes it takes staring from a great height to understand the flaws in your plans.

Another Entry into Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery. This time it’s Catwoman, AKA Selina Kyle, a socialite turned part-time jewel thief. She’s a character that’s been around since the 1940′s, and I’ve tried to combine my favorite aspects of each incarnation. Sharp-eyed nerds will recognize the cape and color scheme of the Golden Age costume, the mask and headband ears of the 1960′s TV show, and the general jumpsuitiness of more recent versions.

However, the biggest change I tried to bring to the character was a logical physical appearance. Catwoman, like just about every woman in comic books, is typically drawn to resemble a six-foot supermodel with unrealistic and unrestrained bustiness. Surely a woman who spends her free time leaping rooftops and dropping through skylights would have a more athletic build. I’m sure a gymnast would have an easier time evading the authorities than Heid Klum would, for instance.

At any rate, she seems happy about it.

Time for another addition to my series of illustrations of Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery! This time it’s Paul Dekker, also known as Crazy Quilt.

Dekker was an artist who committed art-and-color-related crimes in his spare time. According to Wikipedia, he also seems to have a tendency to go blind, have his sight restored, and/or have experimental insanity-inducing sight restoration procedures performed on him. Poor guy, how does he get any work done?

Well, maybe he goes to the Gotham City Starbucks to lay low and use the free Wi-Fi. But surely he can’t focus while he sits nervously longing for the cute blond barista to notice him and ask him about his latest nefarious plot to capture Batman and Robin. A true artist.

As a kid, I loved Jules Verne.

Actually, I think I loved the movie Back to the Future, and when in the third film Christopher Lloyd’s “Doc” character reminisced about the author, I decided i had to check out his work.

I was immediately hooked by Verne’s novels. For a man whose stories were essentially a vehicle for (in his time) outlandish scientific ideas, his stories were remarkably well-paced, exciting, and funny. The fact that technology didn’t quite evolve in the same way he predicted never bothered me, either. Half the fun was imagining old-timey intellectuals with mustaches and top hats getting into the kind of trouble that in the 1990′s would have been the territory of Schwarzeneggers and Stallones.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is arguably Verne’s most famous and well loved work, no doubt because its collection of memorable characters. Captian Nemo, inventor of the mysterious Nautilus submarine, was most likely the first morally ambiguous character I encountered in any entertainment up to that point, and the combination of his questionable motives and stunning intelligence still serves as a template for antagonists in literature and cinema.

I’d been meaning to do a piece of artwork involving the character for a long time, and using that as the basis for my second venture in to Lino block printing seemed like an interesting challenge. I’m very happy with the results of the piece, and the technique continues to surprise, delight and frustrate me. I hope you like it.

Prints are available in my Etsy shop.