Dullsville update...

Things are moving along on the Escape from Dullsville pre-sales campaign. Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered a book and everyone who passed on the info to others though email, facebook, twitter, and blogs. I'm sorry if I haven't thanked each of you personally it's been a very hectic time, but you should know you have my gratitude.

super huge thanks to the following:
Meredith Yayanos of Coilhouse
Andrew Farago at the Cartoon Art Museum
Stefan Blitz of Forces of Geek
Chris McD from Meathaus
Graeme McMillan from io9
Rich Johnston of bleedingcool

Each went out of their way to write up articles and post on their respective blogs and/or email lists.

collage of press pieces on "Escape from Dullsville" featured below coilhouse, meathaus, io9, forces of geek, mysterious universe, and amazon top 100 graphic novels (of which we made it up to #21 for a day).

We are more than half way there, but we still have a ways to go. so if you know anyone who might be interested in the book please pass along the info, or if you'd like to know more about escape from dullsville just click the link.

thanks

-andy

The Story of Cap n Trade

my studiomate Lyla Warren hired me to do a little bit of animation for this film made by the guys who did the story of stuff, which you can now watch online.



-a

publishing news!

First of all spectrum 16 is out. There are a ton of amazing illustrations. you can get it here. I also recieved my copies of meathaus' Go for the Gold vol. 3 which is an amazing collection of artist sketchbook drawings (and i'm in there too!). The book has a great Chris McD cover and feels like a huge coloring book.

as you can see from the image below my piece (lower right) fits in like a sore thumb.

here's some of my stuff that appeared in go for the gold.

an update of my quest to get escape from dullsville published coming soon!

-a

i'm having a show at the cartoon art museum!!! (in san francisco)

For Immediate Release: November 24, 2009
Contact Andrew Farago, 415-227-8666, ext. 313
Images Available on Request

Small Press Spotlight on Andy Ristaino

Cartoon Art Museum Exhibition: December 19, 2009 – March 14, 2010

Beginning on December 19th, 2009, the Cartoon Art Museum's ongoing Small Press Spotlight will feature the art of Andy Ristaino.

Andy Ristaino is a cartoonist and animator currently residing in the San Francisco. Originally from Franklin, Massachusetts, he has been drawing comics ever since he could. His first published work, a comic strip based on Greek myths entitled Myth Conceptions, appeared in The Pompeiiana Newsletter when he was in high school between 1992 and 1994. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design majoring in illustration/animation, during which time he self published two issues of his martial arts comedy zine Nightblade The Nearsighted Ninja, and drew a back up story featuring the character Dangerman, in Oz Squad from Patchwork Press.

Ristaino’s first solo book Life of a Fetus, a story about a bored baby who decides to jump out of the womb early and go on a road trip, was published by SLG comics in 1999 and ran for seven issues. This was soon followed by the spin off series The Babysitter, A send-up of Japanese pop culture. All three issue of The Babysitter have recently been collected by SLG comics. Ristaino’s work tends to focus on themes of the strangeness of life and the fragility of the human psyche, claustrophobia, and the odd space between understanding and incoherence. He looks at storytelling as something liquid.

His work has appeared in numerous comic anthologies such as Meathaus S.O.S., Spectrum 16, Tales of Hot Rod Horror, Spark Generators 2, Pet Noir, Go for the Gold, and the soon to be published Popgun vol. 4 from Image comics. His children’s comic the Uncredibly Confabulated Tales of Lucinda Ziggles was a regular fixture in the now defunct Nickelodeon Magazine.

Ristaino anticipates the publishing of his next SLG graphic novel Escape from Dullsville, a 288 page collection of Life of a Fetus with over 80 pages of unpublished material, sometime in 2010.

For more information about Andy Ristaino’s works and upcoming events, please visit http://www.skronked.blogspot.com and http://www.skronked.com.

About the Small Press Spotlight:

San Francisco has been a hotbed of innovative, groundbreaking comic art since the late 1800s with the advent of the modern comic strip. In the1960s, the Bay Area gained further notoriety when the underground comix movement launched from San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Today, some of the biggest names in alternative and small-press comics hail from the Bay Area, and the Cartoon Art Museum's Small Press Spotlight focuses on the works of these talented individuals.

The Small Press Spotlight is funded in part by The Zellerbach Family Foundation and The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.

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Cartoon Art Museum € 655 Mission Street € San Francisco, CA 94105 € 415-CAR-TOON € www.cartoonart.org
Hours: Tues. - Sun. 11:00 - 5:00, Closed Monday
General Admission: $6.00 € Student/Senior: $4.00 € Children 6-12: $2.00 € Members & Children under 6: Free

The Cartoon Art Museum is a tax-exempt, non-profit, educational organization dedicated to the collection,
preservation, study and exhibition of original cartoon art in all forms.

i've got it coverd.

Here's the orignal and the cover of uncanny x-men 100 i did for the most awesome blog Covered. Original cover by Dave Cockrum; Marvel 1976. ( i did the bottom one! )

HELP GET "ESCAPE FROM DULLSVILLE" PRINTED!

About a week ago I finished my newest graphic novel, a 288 page book collecting all 7 issues of my comic “Life of a Fetus.” The collection, "Escape from Dullsville" contains over 80 pages of new material including the previously unpublished L.O.A.F. issue 8.

Unfortunately, pre - orders were not high enough for my publisher SLG Comics to justify printing the book just yet, so unless i can raise enough pre-order sales quickly it might NEVER BE PRINTED

That’s where you come in!
My hope is to get everyone who would normally buy the book when it comes out to preorder it from Amazon.com ASAP! If we can get enough pre-order sales the book WILL BE PRINTED! If you can pass this message along to anyone you think would be interested in it, that would help a lot too!

Not only is it super easy to preorder the book from Amazon, you’ll be getting the book at $6 less than the cover price! Just click the Amazon links in this post. Amazon will not charge you until the book ships so if the book never gets printed you won't ever be charged.

As a bonus, if you email me a photo of yourself holding the book, I’ll will personally send you an original sketch of a character of your choosing from "Escape from Dullsville!" I'm sure with your help we can this thing printed lickety splits.

You can read the press release for more information about the book here, or puruse the images below.

Thanks again for your support!

- Andy Ristaino

(some examples of pages from the book. click the image to see em' bigger!)

Escape from Dullsville

It all starts when a claustrophobic fetus, tired of its surroundings, decides to make an early exit. Setting in motion an avalanche of bizarre happenings. Soon the fetus becomes embroiled in the plots and schemes of the likes of little green men, mad scientist puppets, government cover-ups, jet-packed babysitters, strange cults, anarchists, beatniks, psychotic magicians, truckers, and crazy mothers, as it goes on the most wigged-out of road trips through the good ol' U.S. of A.

go for the gold 3

i've got some artwork in meathaus' new sketchbook anthology go for the gold 3. (click link to see a preview of the book.) along with a bunch of other great artists.

(this is the cover)

here's the info:

Meathaus’ new anthology sketchbook features: Andy Ristaino, Arik Roper, Benjamin Marra, Bob Flynn, Dash Shaw, Dave Kiersh, Esao Andrews, Farel Dalrymple, Jason Sacher, Josh Latta, HARVEYJAMES™, Inés Estrada, Jesse Moynihan, Katie Rice, Kevin Fagan, Michaela Zacchilli, Mu Pan, Nathan Fox, Nicholas Gazin, Nick Bertozzi, Peter Chung, Rebecca Sugar, Ron Wimberly, Sam Kim, Thomas Herpich, Victor Cayro, Vincent Giard, Vincent Stall, Zachary Baldus, Tomer Hanuka, James Jean, Brandon Graham, Robertryan Cory, Al Columbia, and Chris McD.

You can pre-order it right now and it will Priority Mail out to you first week in December along with a bonus mini doodle zine and optional Chris McD doodle (just select what you want in the store).

-a

POPGUN 4

forgot to put this in the news dump.

i am among 80 plus artists appearing in the monstrous 512 paged popgun 4. it's coming out 2/2/2010 here is the line up:

Night of the Living Vidiots by Andy Ristaino
Kill The Legend by Jonathan Silvestre
The Black Decahedron by Adam P. Knave, D.J. Kirkbride, & Jason Ibarra
Reggie 1 by Erik Larsen
7:42 by Stuart Livingston
Thinking Out Cloud by Stephanie Ramirez
The Seneschal by Tom Scioli
Theory of Colors by Jessica Fink
Reggie 2 by Erik Larsen
Agent Orange by Darren Rawlings
Family Reunion pt 1 by Dave Brenion, Joe Flood
Reggie 3 by Erik Larsen
Bastard Road: Elle Hath No Fury by Brian Winkeler, Dave Curd
Sanz Pantz in Tsugaru-Shamurai Showdown! by Chris Moreno, Thomas Mauer
Fables From Fractured Earth by Todd Dezago, Nikos Koutsis, Vassilis Gogtzilas, Mike Toris, Thomas Mauer
The Jewel of Kurvi Tasch by Andrea Kalfas
Revenge of the Kraken by Alison Acton, Jim Charalampidis
Chasing The Goldfish by JM Ken Niimura
Jacket by Amanda Becker, Janet Kim
Untangled by JEIK, Dominique Carrier
Stay For Breakfast (Or The Lonely Ghost) by Michael Dialynas
Love in the Time of Plenty by Angie Wang
Hamburgers For One by Frank Stockton
Intermission by Jock
Sisterhood of the Armageddon by Anthony Wu
He Floated Away by Elton Pruitt, Manoel Magalhaes, Osmarco Valladao, Brandon Seifert
Bacon And Tulula by Stephen Reedy, Adam Lucas
Quiet Explosions by Adam P. Knave, Wayne Nichols
Queen of Cups by Elizabeth Genco, John Bivens
The Curse of Neph by Lars Brown, MJ
The Dark Master's Reign by Jefferey Brown, Bill Crabtree
Queasy by John Malloy
Harshing The Mellow by Derek McCulloch, Anthony Peruzzo
Acid Sunset by Anna Wieszczyk
Reggie 4 by Erik Larsen
The Eye by Jeremy Tinder
The Orb by Nils Hamm
Honolulu Lorie's Lava Love Lounge by Salgood Sam
Bloom by Fernanda Jaber, Fellipe Martins
Reggie 5 by Erik Larsen
Family Reunion pt 2 by Dave Brenion, Joe Flood, Shana Brenion
Bastard Road: This Bludz For You by Brian Winkeler, Dave Curd, Eric Sandhop
Agents of the WTF in Blue Light Special by D.J. Kirkbride, Adam P. Knave, Matteo Scalera, Paolo Ferrante, Antonio
Campo, Thomas Mauer
Endangered by Michael Woods, Michael Meier
Bullets for the Poor by Mark Andrew Smith, Dave Collinsun
Rusted - Fading Signal by Nick Tapalansky, Alex Eckman-Lawn, & Thomas Mauer
Mekano Turbo by Alexis Ziritt, Elliot Blake, Mike Houlihan
The Hellbender by Michael V. Bramley, Maximo V. Lorenzo
The Mad Mauler by Robert Love, David Walker
The Golden Mantis of Chinatown by Vito Delsante, Attila Adorjany
Hate League by Alice Hung, Meg Hunt
Mr. Universe - Broken Hearts by Vassilis Gogtzilas, Nikos Koutsis, Thomas Mauer
Ruby Red Tomato by Becky Dreistadt, Frank Gibson
Sasquatch by Nick Edwards
Reggie 6 by Erik Larsen

NEWS dump!

you can see some post-its me and my compatriots drew while we were sitting at our table at a.p.e. on the post-it-project blog.

i have a piece in the Purrcasso art auction is this weekend in berkeley.

the new spectrum 16, featuring the best in contempory fantasy art, is out at your local book store and i have a piece in it. i haven't gotten a chance to look through it yet but i'm psyched to do so.

spectrum 16 cover art by melonie delon

and last but not least i am finally done with my book "escape from dullsville" for slg but due to low pre-sales the books publication date has been delayed!!!! so i'm not sure when it will be hitting the stands.

more on that and future art openings soon!

-a

last issue of nickelodeon magazine is out today...

i received my comp copies of the last issue of nickelodeon magazine

Under the guidance of Chris Duffy and Dave Roman, the comics section of Nickelodeon magazine was a monthly showcase for all the superstars of the current alternative comic scene.

Not only does this issue have my last Lucinda Ziggles strip in it but it contains comics by alot of other great artists such as gregg schiegiel, j. torres, dave cooper, steve weissman, evan dorkin, sarah dyer, jonny ryan, and many more!

I'm sad to see it go.

here's my last lucinda ziggles strip.

-a

it's on!

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release - 10/22/09

SLG Publishing
P.O. Box 26427
San Jose, CA 95159

www.slgcomic.com
For more information or review copies, contact Jennifer de Guzman - slgchief@slgpubs.com

Extraordinary Experiences Take to the Road in
Escape from Dullsville

It all starts when a claustrophobic fetus, tired of its surroundings, decides to make an early exit. An avalanche of bizarre happenings follows because, after all, a single extraordinary circumstances tends to allow for more incredible circumstances to happen. In Escape from Dullsville by Andy Ristaino, due out from SLG Publishing in December, the precocious fetus becomes embroiled in the plots and schemes of the likes of little green men, mad scientist puppets, government cover-ups, jet-packed babysitters, strange cults, anarchists, beatniks, psychotic magicians, truckers, and crazy mothers, as it goes on the most wigged-out of road trips through the good ol' U.S. of A.

Escape from Dullsville, a 288-page black-and-white graphic novel, collects the entire run ofAndy Ristaino's comic Life of a Fetus, which was published by SLG from 1999 to 2001. It also features more than 80 new pages, including the previously unpublished issue eight, "Little Billy and Dr. Otto" comic strips, and background material. A hefty dose of of science fiction, politics, non-linear storytelling and innovative art, Escape from Dullsville tells an extraordinary story as only Andy Ristaino (The Babysitter) can concoct.

"Escape from Dullsville combines all of the genres I like," said Ristaino. "Crazy road trip movies, sci fi, '60s exploitation, comedy. It's basically a jumble of cult movie culture. The comic was designed around creating a universe that could change and grow as my ideas changed and grew," he explained. "A place to put any and all characters I created and a platform on which they can all exist at once, in a kinetic mental jumble with fluidity of storytelling, both visual and textual."

Escape from Dullsville can be pre-ordered at comic book stores now with the Diamond code OCT090664. Its ISBN is 978-1-59362-182-7.

Established in 1986, SLG Publishing is a San Jose, CA based publisher of comic books, graphic novels and related merchandise. Some of SLG's more notable comics and creators have included Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez, Milk and Cheese by Evan Dorkin and Zombies Calling by Faith Erin Hicks. More information about SLG can be found at its website, www.slgcomic.com.

thar be buzz...

WOW. This is unusual but i'm alreaady getting buzz about escape from dullsville.

First I was contacted by the blog Comics and...Other Imaginary Tales for more info on my upcoming book. See what they had to say about my book in their indie preview section of the blog.

And then i got a Psychedelic A.P.E. award for 2009 from the website Psychedelic Central, an international music magazine focusing on psych music. You can see their A.P.E. review here. The review is written up by none other than John Thompson, who was not only one of the pioneers of San Francisco underground comics in the 60's but whom talking to was one of my personal highlights from last years wondercon.

-a

almost done...

almost done with escape from dullsville. I've got 6 more pages to finish. hoping to get them all in the can by next weekend. APE was cool I'll post more about it later this week. in the meantime here's one of the bonus pages from the book.

enjoy!

-a

hi-fructose magazine

Matt Holdaway of Hi-Fructose magazine, an online art blog and print magazine dedicated to raising global awareness of "under the counter culture", was kind enough to take the time to buy me a beer and interview me a little while ago. The results of that interview are now on their online blog.

thanks to Matt, Annie, and Attaboy!
keep cataloging the weird and wonderful.

-a

A.P.E. 2009!!!

this weekend if you're in the bay area and like comics you should stop on by the alternative press expo or a.p.e. for short. if you do come, stop on by table 143 and 144 i'll be sharing two tables with Liz Walsh and Chris Bennett.


-a