Swellzombie's Lair of the Psychic Creature

Suspect Device #2

2012-01-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

So I got the chance to be apart of an substantial comic book undertaking by New York cartoonist and teacher Josh Bayer. It's the second issue to his well known and highly enjoyed Suspect Device comic book.

Suspect Device #1 had cartoonists filling in the space between two random Nancy panels. This time, Nancy and Garfield are victims to this device!

I've submitted my piece and now it needs to be printed. Since there are between 80 and 100 pages of art it's Josh is going to need some financial help getting this printed and distributed adequately . That's why there's a nice and shiny Kickstarter set up for it. Please check out the video, take a look at the incentives you can get from throwing in a few bucks and help out.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/241290223/suspect-device-2

Short Run 2011 Year Book

2011-11-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

At 7 am on Saturday November 12th I was struck with this idea to come up with a blank yearbook layout that would get passed around the Short Run zine fest at the Vera Project. I jumped up out of bed, made a few pages with blank panels and then a "CLASSIFIED" document folder with the "Mission" details inside.

I drew the first face based on a self-portrait phone photo. Then when I got to the fest I passed it to Max Clotfelter first. Telling him the plan and it went from there. I got it back by the end of the show. Afterwards I raced home scanned the pages and compiled a card for each of the Short Run founders: Martine Workman, Kelly Froh, Jenny Gialenes, and Eroyn Franklin. I gave them their copies at the after party held at Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery.

Thank you to everyone who accepted the mission and big thanks to Short Run!!! See you next year!!

Below are photos and files of the Yearbook, I hope are large enough for print.

Ghost Powers

2011-11-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

Another book that I've put together for Seattle's Short Run zine fest is Ghost Powers. It will also have a VERY LIMITED release of 5 copies.

Become the Mind

2011-11-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

So the 24 hour comic that I did and split up into three chapters here: Now Who's Your Enemy, Someone Who Will Die for You and Black Magic Omen will be collected in one zine called Become the Mind. Premiering at Seattlle's Short Run small press fest on November 12th at the Vera Project. VERY LIMITED EDITION first print is only 5 copies.

Hole Show #2

2011-11-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

Max Clotfelter is my mini comic hero and a friend. He invited me to do a comic that would continue after the first issue of Hole Show. I jumped at the chance.

So I finished Hole Show #2 just in time for Seattle's Short Run. I've made plenty of these puppies. So everyone who wants one can get one (that should be about 20 right?).

ALSO...

After the Short Run event there's going to be an after party gathering at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery. Where a couple of pages from this book will be displayed next to a bunch of super awesome cartoonists.

Ollie and June

2011-11-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

This comic has taken me at least 10 years to complete. Started in early 2000 +/- and finally complete in September 2011. It's based on a short story written by Chris Paul.

12 B/W pages hard board cover with hand cut window.

VERY LIMITED First print only 5 copies

Premiering at Seattle's Short Run on November 12th at the Vera Project.

4 New Accordian Fold Comics

2011-11-07T17:02:00.000-08:00

I'll be premiering these four new accordion folded mini comics at Short Run this weekend. All are print on one side black and white with full color wraps.

VERY LIMITED!! First printing is a run of 5 each!!

Table #46 at Short Run Seattle!

2011-11-07T16:59:00.000-08:00

Saturday the 12th of November will be the day that Short Run at the Vera Project will kick Seattle's ass.

I'll be holding down table #46 with about a dozen or more comics. I'm going to have brand new work, some previously released books, and some older comics that have never seen the light of day until now. Many of these comics are going to have an amazingly small print run to coincide with the event. No more than five copies of some of the books may be available.

This day will go down in history!!

After the event at the Vera Project, there will be an after party at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery where many of the cartoonists, including myself will have artwork displayed and will be partying as hard as cartoonist can.

Black Magic Omen

2011-10-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

These are some pretty amazing scenes from the Shaw Brothers' black magic boxing movie called Boxer's Omen. I could not capture all the unique images from this movie without recreating the whole film frame by frame. If the depictions above do not intrigue you then you may go, but if you are captivated by my humble drawings then I URGE YOU TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!

Some One Who Will Die For You

2011-10-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

This is the second chapter of a 24 hour comic that I created for 24 Hour Comic Day on October 2nd 2011

Now Who's Your Enemy

2011-10-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

7 pages of a 24 hour comic created on Oct 2

This One's for Scott M'Cloud

2011-10-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

No offense to 24 hour comic day or Scott McCloud. But this happened on October 2nd in between 6am and 7am.

4 Eyes

2011-08-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

I made 5 of these mini comic collections with four mini comics, Homeless Frankenstein Baby (made with Tim Miller, and Max Clotfelter), One Great Taste (made with Max Clotfelter), 12 Mutations (made with Nikki Burch) and Molting (made with me, myself and my molted flesh) It also includes a They Live postcard and a hand drawn bookmark.

I have a feeling that 5 won't be enough.

Swellzombie See's the Music

2011-08-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

This is a digest sized mini zine that collects 8 comics that I illustrated based on the lyrics of 8 different song by 8 different musicians. It was originally apart of the Bureau of Drawer's comics box set called COMBO #1.

Since I'm going to the Portland Zine Symposium I've reprinted it and like the original printing I've included a mix CD with the 8 tracks that inspired the art. So if you're not a weird-o like me and don't already own these songs...

New Chamber Third Printing

2011-07-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

Here's what the 3rd printing looks like. I went a little more minimal with the artwork, but went with a hard cover this time.

All 10 hand drawn covers on light pink crescent board. Measures roughly 8 1/2 w X 5 1/2 h.

These will be on sale at the Portland Zine Symposium. Aug 6th and Aug 7th!!

Eek... looks sort of like a yoo-hoo.

Only ten available!!

Molting Comic Revealed

2011-05-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

So the Olympia Comics Fest was a huge success. I managed to trade off or sell all the the Molting comics! Since that's the case I thought I'd release the comic on-line now.
I'll do a second printing for sure, but now you screen readers can enjoy it without the fuss of buying anything.

click on the images to enlarge

Molting comic

2011-05-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

So here's the front of the new comic Molting that I'm going to debut at the Olympia comics Festival this year. It's a full color 8 panel accordion style mini that is wrapped in yellow cellophane.

If I showed all of the back it would spoil it for you. I'll let you buy one from me so you can read it.

Here it is out of it's skin.

New Chamber Second Printing

2011-05-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

So for the Olympia Comics Festival this weekend I made up another small batch of The New Chamber books. Very Limited edition. Only 10 are available. All the covers are hand drawn with a hand cut section in the middle and they're bound with screw posts. 5 colors are available, gooey yellow, pulsing pink, slime green, psycho purple, and blue.

Olympia Comics Festival 2011

2011-05-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

For the first time in many many years, I'm going to have a table of my own at a comic convention. I'm sure it sounds tremendous and a bit epic. But in actuality the Olympia Comics Festival is dainty. It's only held on one day and is going to be about 5 hours long. What's cool is that it will be pretty intimate and totally oriented around independent comics.

I attended Stumptown Comic Fest a few weeks back and was so inspired by Portland's comic community and all the great works that were featured there. I thought that I might as well sign up for the next local fest and see if I can't inspire some people and meet more great artists. Also try to sell some comics and prints.

I'm going to have the second printing of The New Chamber as well as a whole new comic called Molting. I've got copies of the collected daily Lair of the Psychic Creature comics as well as some real el cheapo copies of the Big Ol' book of B.I.Z.M.A.R. published by Young American Comics.

Curious Bulges Under Fabric

2011-03-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

brush pen on color paper

New Chamber First Print

2011-03-02T12:15:00.000-08:00

Currently on sale at the Fantagraphics Bookstore in the Georgetown area of Seattle Washington. I chopped the pages in half and bound it length-wise. It turned out to be 60 +/- and the first 10 have hand drawn covers and were all hand bound by me.

New Chamber - Mission Failure

2011-01-14T08:28:00.000-08:00

THE END

New Chamber - Final Visions

2011-01-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Save Yourself! Eat ME!

2011-01-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - FOCUS!

2011-01-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Down, to get Up

2011-01-10T09:12:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Capture!

2011-01-07T22:42:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - This is Where We've Always Been

2011-01-06T19:43:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - The Runaway

2011-01-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - The Pull Back

2011-01-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Enter the Void!

2011-01-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Reduced to This!

2010-12-31T15:09:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Tear Her Down to Tears

2010-12-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Out of Affection

2010-12-29T14:12:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Like a Statue of a God

2010-12-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Run and Hide

2010-12-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Dumping a Load

2010-12-23T23:17:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Through the Wall is Another World

2010-12-23T20:27:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Squirts

2010-12-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - In the Kitchen

2010-12-21T21:20:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Enter the Psychic Creature

2010-12-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Wrong Flavor

2010-12-17T19:26:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - I Scream

2010-12-16T10:48:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - The Mind is Open

2010-12-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Phase 1

2010-12-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - You're Going to Die, How Does It Feel?

2010-12-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Enter Dr. Awkward!

2010-12-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Packed Cone

2010-12-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

New Chamber - Don't become my mother

2010-12-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

So here's where one enters the New Chamber within the Lair of the Psychic Creature. As one steps in, the psychic powers within the lair will keep pulling you in. Deeper, and DEEPER, AND DDDEEEEPPPPEEERRR!

Enjoy your experience and make sure to leave comments, ideas, etc. There is also a Facebook page that one can fan up on the Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Swellzombies-Lair-of-the-Psychic-Creature/109537242420284

Introduction to the Reconstruction

2010-12-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

So here's the beginning of a new era in the Lair of the Psychic Creature. Where will it go from here?

Don't be rude when you eat

2010-12-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

Things are going to be changing with this comic. I'm going to change the format and start down a continuous storyline. Lets see how it goes.

AEIOU and sometimes Puke!

2010-12-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

Life Tastes Beautiful

2010-12-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

Getting an idea acrossed

2010-12-03T12:11:00.000-08:00

New Spells!!

2010-12-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

Careful who you ignore

2010-12-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

Don't look, but pay attention

2010-11-30T13:47:00.000-08:00

Offending my friend and my response

2010-11-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

So I've just gone with the creative flow and have been doing daily comics again and it keeps on going. I'm happy with my output and I hope others are too.

When I get asked (in imaginary interviews) "Who's your audience?" I usually say that I create most of my work with my friends in mind. They're the ones who inspire me, who teach me more than the internet or the books, and who I share my sense of humor with. If what I'm doing is annoying or bothering my friends there might be something wrong.

Unfortunately, my long time friend and cohort Levi Bailey (hi Levi) found my latest comic (the orange one) insensitive. This was the response I got from him, "Maybe you could make some money doing propaganda for the meat industry. This would be a great way to teach kids that it's okay to totally fuck over another species and eat their children to make our lives easier. Next you should try to make a "cute" comic about the de-beaking process, or the panic cannibalism that takes place in overcrowded cages."

I respect Levi and his beliefs and ideals. And I'm confident that my comic is purely satirical and I don't think that it honestly encourages the mistreatment of animals in the food industry. Maybe I'm taking his response too lightly by turning his "suggestions" into comics. But, I just feel that there's nothing sacred when it comes to humor and satire.

Enjoy!
If you're my friends you will.

It's Better to See Your Food Cooked.

2010-11-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

Snow and Lemonade

2010-11-27T21:10:00.000-08:00

Snot-cicles Pose Threat!

2010-11-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

Why Would God Be a Jerk?

2010-11-25T12:46:00.000-08:00

Life After Life

2010-11-24T14:42:00.000-08:00

Snow - ver Reacting!

2010-11-24T14:40:00.000-08:00

Babbity Bobbity for Love

2010-11-22T13:27:00.000-08:00

We Don't Need More Creatures

2010-11-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

Better Bubbly

2010-11-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

Vegitarian Gods

2010-11-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

Pig

2010-11-18T20:03:00.000-08:00

Marie Test

2010-10-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

Today is officially 24 Hour Comic day, and shortly I'm going to be joining number of other cartoonist in a rented hall here in Seattle to try and accomplish 24 written and illustrated comic pages. I have confidence that I'll succeed this time."This time"?

Years and years ago, maybe the year 2000 I attempted a 24 hour comic. I started at like 10pm and then worked all through the morning but crashed at like 11am. I gave up too easily. When I woke I did have 12 pages penciled and inked. I tried to do a page an hour without planning ahead. Not a good idea. Since it was a 24 hour comic failure I later drew a few more pages then colored it. For the first time, I'm showing off that glorified failure.

"Marie Test" is titled after a psychological test called the "three-paper test" created by Marie Pierre to test for aphasia. I randomly latched on to this idea and ran with it. It by no means has anything to do with the actual test. It just helped me move the story.

Hope you enjoy this strange and very immature comic.

OOW!! Horrocious

2010-09-30T23:27:00.000-07:00

penciled inked with brush pen then digitally colored 8 1/2" x 11" 2010

The Star Eye See

2010-09-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

pen and color pencils on yellow construction paper 2004

The Devil Spoon

2010-09-16T02:14:00.000-07:00

Bloor!

2010-09-12T03:03:00.000-07:00

Silly Putty?

2010-09-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Swellzombie Sees the Music

2010-07-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

illustration by Dalton Webb

Coming soon from the Bureau of Drawers is a comic collection titled COMBO #1. A "happy-meal"-like box will contain several mini-comics created individually by members of the drawing group that meets at the Cafe Racer on Wednesdays.

My contribution will be a mini collecting 8 out of 12 weekly comics I did last year that were based on lyrics to songs. It's titled: "Swellzombie Sees the Music". It'll be a black and white digest sized book with a CD-R included that will have all 12 of the comics in color and music to accompany the comics.

Originally it was called "Combo Mix-Tape". I had the cover all drawn and laid out the way I wanted it. Then while going through a current Previews catalog I saw the cover to Alex Robinson's "Tricked". He used a photograph of a mixed tape for both the front and back cover.

I'm always saying that "great minds think a like" but this was too close for comfort. So I came up with a new title and cover. Which I feel is superior to my previous attempt. It lends more to what's inside and less to the concept.

Keep an eye out for COMBO #1 as it debuts at Seattle's Bumbershoot 2010!! Followed up by an official gallery show release that will feature loads of original art in September.

Some new Gags!

2010-06-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

Comic Collaboration

2010-05-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

A friend and excellent cartoonist via Flickr Dieter VDO and I did a comic collaboration and here's how it turned out.

Here's the bits that I came up with after Dieter sent me pictures of his characters. I sent back these along with some dialog and Dieter did the rest. It's something that we want to keep doing since we're both pretty happy with how it worked out.

Swellzombie's Lair of the Psychic Creature Daily Comic Collection!

2010-04-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

So finally after all these years. Swellzombie's Lair of the Psychic Creature Daily comics have been collected in one big volume and available at Lulu.com. http://stores.lulu.com/swellzombie

One can now read every single comic on real paper. It's not only a web comic now!!

Not only that... It just got nominated for a Trophy Award at this years Stumptown Comics Fest!!! In two categories, Outstanding Art and Outstanding Web Comic!!

I'm very excited about all of this!!

Thanks everyone who read, reads, and supports me.

Weekly 104 The END!

2010-03-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks for coming out. I've had great time doing these comics for you. This will be my last weekly comic! It won't be my last comic though. I've got plans for more stuff, I don't want to be restrained to the weekly format anymore.

Be sure to check out the 166 page Lair of the Psychic Creature Daily Comic Collection at Lulu.com.

Weekly 103

2010-03-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

When I was sorting though the last two years of the weekly comics, I found that I skipped two of the "experimental" posts. So this piece and next weeks will be made to fill those holes. Then it will all be over. The end of the Weekly Lair of the Psychic Creature.

Weekly 102

2010-03-15T14:55:00.000-07:00

This week... only one comic. Actually only one drawing. It's not even original. I reinterpreted a gag just like this from a book, the Best Cartoons from 1956.The artists signed it Rayon.

Weekly 101

2010-03-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

This week I'm going to do a weeks worth of daily comics in honor of my upcoming book that will feature all 300 daily comics that did during 2007 and 2008. I'll keep posting the comics as they're finished here so keep an eye open.
I've completed one for every day this week. Enjoy.

Weekly 100

2010-03-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

Here's the final installment of the Lair of the Psychic Creature serial. Turned out to be 13 episodes instead of 12 like I thought it would have. Anyway, from here I'm going to start doing color pages based on these sketches with hopes to have a complete book for publishing.

Previous parts:

previous parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11

Part 12

Weekly 099

2010-02-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the lyrics of Clear Days Always AKA Levi Bailey. He and I started an independent music and comic distribution thing called Self Satisfied in 2004. He's the President and I'm the other guy.
This particular song "Marbles" was one of the earliest pieces that Levi did on his slow slow slow computer in the winter of 2000. I always thought it was a great and creepy piece.

weekly 098

2010-02-16T20:19:00.000-08:00

On Sunday February 14th one of my good friends and fellow collaborator on Monsterhead Books passed away. Charlie Burgoon was a cartoonist from Coldwater Michigan who worked on many self-published books with titles like Odd, Fizzenpop, and his auto-biographical comic Epidermolysis bullosa Narcissus. Charlie had the skin disease Epidermolysis bullosa and dealt with it for 40 years. The disease made way for skin cancer that once spread, lead to his death.

He will be missed and with luck his artwork will be archived and shared with everyone.

Weekly 097

2010-02-09T23:42:00.000-08:00

Less than a year ago I came up with two pages of the ANT and offered readers to come up with ideas for what might happen next in the story. Since I'll be putting the Psychic Creature to rest soon, I thought I'd follow through and come up with a continuation based on what people came up with.
Most suggestions had the ANT going into the basement and finding "something". So I went with that prevailing choice and then used some more parts from a couple of other suggestions.
Thanks Chris, Charlie, and Brandon for ideas.

Here are the previous pages.

Weekly 096

2010-02-01T00:45:00.000-08:00

previous parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11

Weekly 095

2010-02-01T00:41:00.000-08:00

Based on some of the lyrics to Beck's song Devil's Haircut from the album Odelay.

"Something's wrong 'cause my mind is fading
And everywhere I look there's a dead end waiting
Temperature's dropping at the rotten oasis
Stealing kisses from the leperous faces

Heads are hanging from the garbage man trees
Mouthwash jukebox gasoline
Crystals are pointing at a poor man's pockets
Smiling eyes ripping out of his sockets

Got a devil's haircut in my mind"

Weekly 094

2010-01-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

So when I reach the 2nd anniversary of this weekly comic I'm going to draw it to put it to rest. It's become an obligation as of late. And I don't want the tail to wag the dog. When I started doing these comics, it was because I had nothing creatively going on, now I have TOO much going on to sustain passion for it.

Weekly 093

2010-01-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

previous parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Weekly 092

2010-01-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

How to Remember Your Dreams by King Missile

Weekly 091

2010-01-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Weekly 090

2009-12-23T13:09:00.000-08:00

Weekly 089

2009-12-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

previous parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

Weekly 088

2009-12-07T13:04:00.001-08:00

Based off of the lyrics to "Love Your Brain" by the Flaming Lips

Weekly 087

2009-11-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

Weekly 086

2009-11-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

previous parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

Weekly 085

2009-11-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

084

2009-11-09T22:51:00.001-08:00