While Box Brown‘s ongoing print and web comics series Everything Dies has run the gamut of examining varied religious beliefs and traditions, The Survivalist tells its story in the head-space of a conspiracy theory obsessed bunker-dweller.

As the story progresses, the initially unsympathetic character becomes increasingly human through his relationship with a fellow disaster survivor.

Fans of Everything Dies will love the longer, more involved story and beautifully detailed artwork.

» Purchase a copy of The Survivalist

Q. While the heart of the story in The Survivalist is essentially a personal journey for the main character, the context is made up of a lot of fringe political views and conspiracy theories. What inspired you to use these as a starting point for the story?

Box Brown When I was working on Everything Dies I was researching a lot of religious fundamentalists and really a lot of extremists in my opinion.

I’m fascinated by people who see the world in a way so contrary my own reality. So, I got into listening to these conspiracy talk radio shows. The host is a charismatic cult figure-head type but what stood out to me were the commercials.

The commercials were for all kinds of survival equipment. It was all stuff that would help you survive a crazy apocalypse. That got me really thinking about who the audience for the show really is. That listener is the central character in the Survivalist.

Q.The Survivalist is your first longer form, larger format comic. How was the experience of working on it compared to your earlier works Bellen! and the Everything Dies series?

Box Brown I had done longer stories in the print editions of Everything Dies but none as long as The Survivalist.

The Survivalist was drawn at twice the size of all my other comics and I drew each page on two separate sheets of bristol and assembled them in photoshop. So, it was drawn on 88 separate sheets of paper. In terms of story, it reminded me a lot of working on Bellen! because of the nature of the relationship of the two main characters.

Q.Can you tell us a bit about working with Blank Slate Books who published The Survivalist? Your earlier works are self-published, and you run your own publishing venture Retrofit Comics. Was there any kind of editorial or design collaboration involved in making The Survivalist

Box Brown I really enjoyed working with Blank Slate. They never forced any editorial changes on me but they made some suggestions along the way.

I did a few different covers before Kenny Penman finally sent me an email just kind of giving me his basic thoughts and understanding on what he thought a comic cover should be. I thought it was really insightful. The cover we ended up using is based on vintage patent application illustrations.

Q.Any plans to continue The Survivalist as a series? The end of the story feels very much like a teaser for things to come.

Box Brown I have some ideas on where the story is going. It could continue at any time! I wouldn’t mind returning to it.

Q.What items would you pack in your own survivalist kit?

Box Brown I’ve thought about buying the food packs that are supposed to last a long time just to try them out. I bet they’d make good snacks on the go.

Chaos and order collide in strange new ways in the isometric worlds of Netherlands-based illustrator Levi Jacobs.

» Visit Levi Jacobs’ website
» Buy Prints of Levi’s work!

Q1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? What inspires you, and how you got started in art and illustration?

I began my ‘career’ when I was very young. I watched cartoons and played a lot of computer games. I started drawing cartoons. When I was in highschool the somewhat boring math classes were inspiring as well. I filled my excercise books with drawings inspired by isometry. My mathteacher always gave me trouble because my mathbooks contained more drawings then calculations and formulas.

The streets became my creative outlet, where I tried to brighten up the streetlife with my graffiti. It was mostly the action itself which gave me a kick. It’s a wonderful feeling when nobody is watching you when you are creating something.

My time in highschool was mainly about drawing, so after an education in graphic design I ended up at the Art Academy, where I studied illustration. I graduated almost a year ago, but most of the time I’m still working on my own work instead of assignments.

Levi Jacobs

Q2. The central characters in your images are most often animals rather than people. Can you tell us a bit about the stories you?re telling in Catburger, Tiger and Spaghettiman?

When I draw people I always have the feeling I have to have some comparison. That’s difficult for me. My solution was born out of necessity. For example when I don’t know how to draw an arm a certain way, it becomes a tentacle. I can’t draw a human the way I want to, so animal-like creatures are born.

My work has an alienating effect this way. In short, it’s really difficult for me to explain the story behind the illustrations, because the story creates itself while I’m working on it. Yes, there is a certain idea or fascination behind each illustration, but I like to leave the rest up to the viewers’ interpretation.

My way of creating illustrations is very intuitive and from the subconscience, which makes it hard to create illustrations for a client. I see myself more as an image creator than an illustrator.

Levi Jacobs

Q3. Your Lowlands Freakshow series of posters very cleverly incorporates typography into the illustrations. What role does design play in the way you put together illustrations?

As I said before, I have also studied graphic design, where I learned to use typography. With the graffiti, letter-design became more illustrative. I still love typography, but unfortunately I’m not using it as often as I want to.

Levi Jacobs

Q4. We loved the T-shirt design on your website. Can you tell us about that design, and where can we get one of those shirts?

In the design “captured cat” my fascination for isometry and organic forms flow together. I created this design and handmade the shirts with screen printing. I only made a small number of shirts and sweaters, which were sold out inmediately. I would like to create some more designs for t-shirts in the future.

Q5. Your use of colour is really striking! How do you approach deciding colours for your images?

I used to hate colouring when I was little. Especially when I was forced to colour within the lines. The use of the computer is perfect: the paint bucket is my best friend now. I experiment a lot with the use of colours. The colour-combination in my graffiti pieces were never crazy enough. Now when i’m finished with a illustration I ask myself wether or not it can be more extreme.

Q6. Given the opportunity, what would be a dream project for you?

I’m already doing what I love the most. So a dream project would be one i’m being paid for.

On your blog you document your adventures biking 5000 miles across the United States on your own, and now your journey to Antarctica working on a remote research station. Presumably there’s not much opportunity to make art while travelling that way. Can you tell us a bit about how you balance your life as an artist with your travelling?

Tessa Hulls: My short answer is that I don’t really differentiate between myself as an artist and myself as a traveler. I’m hugely reliant on a fairly constant influx of new horizons, so when I’m in active travel mode, I tend to think of myself as being out on a reconnaissance mission. With that mindset, I find it easy to content myself with working on sketches in my “field notebook,” and I don’t really miss my usual studio practice.

Years and years ago, I remember reading something about physics and stumbling upon the notion that there are three different types of equilibrium.

I drew you a picture because it works much better visually:

It’s a concept that has stuck with me ever since, and I am only happy if I keep myself in a state of dynamic equilibrium. I need my balance to be active, always on the cusp of falling off. It leads me to adhere to a self imposed project schedule/lifestyle that many people might call masochistically busy, but it’s what works for me, and I wither if I find myself in a place of neutrality or stasis.

From the series: Oh, That Sweet Unrest

These past few years I’ve really watched my friends struggle with the late twenties/early thirties existential crisis of “What am I supposed to do with my life? What is my passion? How do I make a meaningful contribution to my community?” and it’s made me extremely grateful for the fact that I’ve always known what it is I’m supposed to be doing. The older I get, the more I realize just what a gift that certainty is. So I feel that the very least I can do is always rearrange everything in my life to make room for art.

Finding time for art down here at McMurdo Station is actually extremely challenging because of the crazy social scene. You wouldn’t necessarily expect this of Antarctica, but I’ve never been anywhere where it would be easier to just fritter away all your free time drinking and pretending that you’re in a very icy Ke$ha video. I’ve been forced to become uncharacteristically antisocial to get work done down here.

I illustrated this for you:

I have actually made an art studio under my bed and spend a lot of time down there painting.

Many of the characters in your series Oh, That Sweet Unrest wear skeletal costumes reminiscent of Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations. Can you describe the role of these characters in a series that seems very much about yearning, and living in perpetual forward movement?

Tessa Hulls: A lot of the imagery for this particular series came out of spending so much time biking through the desert. I spent over a thousand miles basically following the Mexican border, and passing through a landscape of such haunting isolation was overwhelmingly inspiring. I felt like the desert was full of latent stories that it wanted me to express. All those miles of canyons and plateaus came with their own forgotten narratives, and when I finally sat down to start painting, they came rushing out as these delicately hulking beasts that didn’t really know the measure of their own strength.

This series was hugely personal for me. I’d spent the last few years making myself miserable trying to force myself into a settled life that I didn’t genuinely want, and I set off on my bike trip at a point where I was feeling like I’d lost track of myself. I was wrestling with the contradictions between my longing for a sense of home and my pull towards the joy of my own forward momentum, and these creatures were the synthesis of that struggle and the whispered stories of the desert.

A Kind of Fighting

From the series: Oh, That Sweet Unrest

The addition of text into many of the paintings makes Oh, That Sweet Unrest read like a poem. For series like this, do you begin with the writing, or are the words derived from how you feel about the images after they’re done?

Tessa Hulls: When I’m at home and have all my supplies and a sane amount of time to work, text and image evolve more or less concurrently. They each gather focus as the piece comes together. But in this case, I was stuck on my bike and couldn’t start painting, so I instead obsessively focused on the text and allowed it to take the reins. That was a huge departure from how I usually work. Ordinarily, I have almost no gap between getting an idea and charging off to make it happen, so this trip forced me to slow down and focus on theory instead of practice. Delayed gratification is something that is so thoroughly foreign to me that I imagine it’s probably a good character building exercise.

Mysterious Something

But Now We Are Not Sure We Should Have

Looking back over your body of work it feels like your style is becoming more graphic and simplified. The result is really striking! Do you have style influences that you take inspiration from?

Tessa Hulls: I wish I could say that the simplification was a deliberate choice, but honestly, I think it might have had more to do with the time frame: when I got back from my bike trip, I had three and a half weeks to put a solo show together. I spent my first night back in Seattle in my sleeping bag on an entirely empty living room floor, and the next morning I set up my drafting table and started painting 12 hours a day. So there was very little time to experiment and hit my stride, which definitely made things a bit more… er… sparse. I’m glad that you think it worked!

In terms of style influences, my list is pretty Northwest centric these days, just because there’s such a different level of impact in seeing work in person.

Stacey Rozich is a constant favorite of mine, and Gala Bent’s drawings (and the sources that inform them) never fail to fascinate me. Some other favorites are AJ Fosik, Evan B. Harris, Tim Karpinski, Mandy Greer, Jeremy Mangan and Justin Gibbens.

Theo Ellsworth is both a stylistic and philosophical role model for me. I stumbled upon his book Capacity at a point when I was feeling isolated from other artists and my own creative practice, and it gave me a sense of renewed artistic faith that I really needed. He has a part in Capacity where he talks about wearing an imaginary outfit over his clothes every Tuesday, and about how it’s changed the way he looks at the world. When I read that, I think I might have actually shouted out something to the effect of, “Ha! So I’m not the only one!”

I’m less drawn to looking at art than I’m drawn to looking at absolutely everything. That’s the thing about inspiration: you don’t know what is going to inspire you until it DOES inspire you. It’s a strange black box like that, and I’m always surprised and delighted to discover the weird things that set a project in motion. So I consider it my job to throw myself out into the world to experience the widest, most diverse swath possible.

We loved the photos on your blog of the roof-top mural you did in Marathon, Texas. Your work looks amazing at that scale. Are there other mediums or kinds of art you’ve been wanting to try your hand at?

Tessa Hulls: Thanks! I’ve actually done a fair amount of mural work over the years. When I was in college, I wrote my undergraduate thesis on murals and street art as community building alternatives to the traditional inaccessibility of the gallery system, and I still stand firmly behind the idea that art should be an integrated part of everyday life. Particularly for people who don’t consider themselves to be artists. Everyone starts out as an artist, but somewhere along the way they buy into the notion that they’re not, and that unnecessary dichotomy has always annoyed me.

Since getting to Antarctica, I seem to have developed an insatiable appetite for making comics. Again, a lot of that is probably just a reaction to circumstance.

I’m in the kitchen working ten hour days six days a week, and have taken on way too many projects (dynamic equilibrium forever!), so when I do eke out a moment to make something, it’s pretty quick and dirty. Which, to be honest, I am reaalllllyyy enjoying. I am definitely looking forward to exploring some more comic and graphic novel styles when I find myself with free time.

I’ve also been working on some projects lately that have reminded me how much I love ridiculous word play and absurdity, so I’m looking forward to getting back in touch with the more Edward (Gorey and Lear) influenced side of my creative practice.

xxx

You refer to The Wind in The Willows and The Once and Future King as inspirations for Oh, That Sweet Unrest. What are some of your favourite books?

Tessa Hulls: Oh man, that is an enormous can of worms. I have a lot of favorite books. Maybe even an unreasonable amount. I have fond memories of hiding under my desk at school so I could stay in and read during recess…

To name a brief few: Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood. Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto. Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami. Not Fade Away, by Jim Dodge. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. The Necessary Grace to Fall, by Gina Oschner. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende. Capacity, by Theo Ellsworth. The Way Things Work, by David Macaulay.

I also cannot overstate the role that Calvin and Hobbes has played in how I turned out both as an artist and as a human being.

It’s been a while since I truly fell head over heels in love with a book. I’d love book recommendations. If anyone reading this points me in the direction of a book I end up loving, I will totally send you a thank you drawing!

Guardians

Anything coming up that we can look forward to from you?

Tessa Hulls: Why yes indeed! I’m glad you asked, because I’m currently in the middle of a participatory project and I would LOVE to have more people take part in it. Ever have one of those moments where you say something as a joke, and then pause and realize that it’s actually an idea that really needs to happen…? Well. I’ve turned my under the bed studio into the Under the Bed Gallery, and am curating local shows out of it complete with miniature art opening food—finger sized loaves of braided challah, wine from falcon tube science beakers…

In February I’m putting together a show of work about outside notions of Antarctica, and it looks like submissions are starting to come in from folks all over the US. I would love more tiny submissions (I will fit them in somehow!), so send ‘em my way. Here’s my address. I need them postmarked by January 1, 2012.

Tessa Hulls, NANA
McMurdo Station
PSC 469 Box 700
APO, AP 96599

Other than that, I’m really looking forward to getting back to Seattle and seeing what comes out of my strange new desire to establish a sense of place. The work that I’ve been making for the past handful of years has revolved around romanticizing escapism, so I have no idea what I’ll make when I’m actually craving some measure of roots.

I actually left to come down here at a bit of an odd point in my life. I’d just met this really intriguing pack of artists, and felt like I was at this place of exciting new beginnings, and I had to leave right in the middle of it to come down here. So I’m curious to see what happens when I go back.

Mark P. Hensel – VORTEX #1

VORTEX #1 chronicles an epic battle of swordblows and slime between one of Mark’s recurring characters the Miizzzard and a new alien with unknown powers. The story begins when the Miizzz discovers a hidden energy source on an uncharted planet. Although this minicomic is the beginning of a longer story, it also stands alone.

We’ve featured Mark’s amazing comics before on S&TM (Assault On Yurg). This is just a preview of his latest comic VORTEX #1. If you’d like to know how it ends, you can pick up a copy on Mark’s site for $6.oo.

Purchase VORTEX #1 »

More comics by Mark P. Hensel »

Q1. What matters most to you when making an illustration?

I always try to come up with a good concept and a good way to convey that concept. With the exception of privately commissioned work in which people tend to ask for something more aesthetically pleasing than conceptual, I always try to have an idea behind the work. With personal work I do allow myself a bit more room to be vague in conveying the idea.

These days I find my work becoming more simple with each piece because I’ve been trying to only include what is necessary to get the idea across.

Reusing the Junkyard by Dadu Shin »

Free Play by Dadu Shin ^

Q6. Given the opportunity what would be your “dream project”?

This is surprisingly a hard question to answer. I think I would love to do a weird, makes no sense but kind of does make sense, narrative picture book, with little to no text. Hmm yeah, I like that.

ABOVE: Lots to Consider by Dadu Shin ^

RIGHT: Under Threat by Dadu Shin »

Chinese inspired landscapes by Dadu Shin ^

Dadu Real Estate by Dadu Shin ^

Aaron Costain – Entropy 7

Aaron works as an architect and lives in Toronto’s Kensington Market with his wife and cat. He was born in Victoria, British Columbia, and has lived in Halifax, Chicago, and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He is the author of numerous minicomics, including the ongoing long-format series Entropy – a re-working of a variety of creation myths, both modern and ancient. His work was been nominated for Best Emerging Talent at the 2010 Doug Wright Awards, and has been shortlisted several times for the Expozine Alternative Press Awards. He is also a member of the disreputable jam comics collective Team Society League. His comics and prints are available through his website

xo–//THT\\–ox print from artist Jon Boam on his Society 6 store ($15).

» Jon Boam prints

Forest Power Glove t-shirt by Jake Pauls ($18).

» Jake Pauls shop

Snakes in the Forest print by Hyein Lee, 10″ X 8″, ($19).

» Hyein Lee prints

The naughty comic Gloria Badcock by Maurice Vellekoop, from Koyama Press, is the prefect stocking stuffer! ($5)

» Gloria Badcock

Yeti at Night print by Ryan Snook ($18.00).

» Ryan Snook store

The Black-Tailed Werewolf Hunter print by Nik Dudukovic ($18.00).

» Nik Dudukovic prints

Klaus by Richard Short, published by Nobrow ($19.95).

» Klaus at the Nobrow shop

Comics Class, 44 pages of loosely-drawn, quasi-autobiographical comics by Matthew Forsythe ($5).

» Comics Class

The Armed Garden and Other Stories by David B.

» Fantagraphics shop

Cowboy Brooch by Matt Taylor (£16).

» Matt Taylor Shop

Upgrades print by Dadu Shin ($20).

» Dadu Shin prinst on inPRINT

Everything We Miss by Luke Pearson ($20). Touching and beautiful story by Luke Pearson. Puablished by Nobrow.

» Nobrow shop

The Great Disappointment by Box Brown ($17) – collected comics form the most excellent online and print comic Everything Dies.

» The Great Disapointment

Seriously awesome! Gifts $25 ~ $100

Better than full-body wool jumpsuit pyjamas, these are the gifts we’re really jonzing for.

The Flooding of the Prinsengracht print by Kozyndan available at Magic Pony ($45.00).

» Buy it at Magic Pony

The Klondike. A seriously epic graphic novel by Zach Worton about the Yukon gold rush ($24.95).

» Buy it from Drawn & Quarterly

Treading Water print by Peter Diamond.

» Peter Diamond prints

Metropolitan Hunting Season print by Victo Ngai ($95).

» Victo Ngai prints

Overkill by Tomer Hankua – amazing retrospective book by one of our favourite illustrators ($40).

» Buy Overkill at Magic Pony

Illustrators Unlimited:The Essence of Contemporary Illustration. A showcase of cutting-edge illustration talents from around the world. Published by Gestalten ($68).

» Buy Illustrators Unlimited at Gestalten

Yuko Shimizu published by Gestalten ($30). Finally a collection of Yuko Shimizu‘s work all in one place!

» Buy Yuko Shimizu at Gestalten

Cloudy Collection Print Edition: 2012 Calendar of the Impending Apocalypse ($50). Edition of three-color screen prints of twelve months.

» Buy

Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell ($44.95).

» Hot Potatoe at Drawn & Quarterly

The most ballin’ presents ever!
Gifts over $100.

Make up to that special someone for the Starbucks gift card you got them last year with a gift that lasts!

Vainglorious limited edition print by Winnie Truong.

» Winnie Truong’s prints shop

Campfire print from Tin Can Forest, 20 x 20″, ($180).

» Tin Can Forest shop

Geometric Constructions, 2011 by Mark Whalen, 3 colour off-set lithograph on Fabriano paper ($250).

» Mark Whalen Fine Art Prints

Children Shall Inherit the Earth, original art by Chris Buzelli, oil on panel/24″x36″ ($4800).

» Chris Buzelli store

Avatar of Moro Silkscreen Print by Andrew Remington Bailey ($150).

» Buy it at Magic Pony!

Jessica Hische letterpressed alphabet collectors set ($2000).

» Jessica Hische shop

We’ve been anticipating the arrival of
Nobrow 6: The Double for sometime now, as it showcases the works of many of our favorite artists we’ve featured on S&TM.

The Double refers to both the theme and format of the book. Sporting dual front/back cover art by Gwenola Carrere and Tom Gauld, the book is also divided into two halves. One half collecting full-page illustrations, while the other half is chalked-full of beautiful two-page whimsical, metaphysical and existential comics.

As with all of Nobrow’s editions, the book is beautifully designed and produced, with a careful eye to curatorial selection. The most distinctive feature of the book is the choice to print only in 4 eye-melting spot colours. It is interesting to see how the artists have worked within this constraint, each somehow finding a way to personalize the color scheme. The result is a really cohesive collection of art that carries Nobrow’s signature look an feel.

Jon McNaught

Thematically, the comics and illustrations address the theme of The Double in many ways. Where Michael DeForge’s protagonist wrestles with the realization that he’s dating his doppelganger, Matthew Forsythe’s pseudo-documentary follows pairings of similar strange creatures and their couple’s reminiscences.

The tone varies from jovial (Scott MacDonald’s Ol’ Pale Horse), to sinister (Jesse Jacobs’ life-stealing impostor story). John Martz comically catalogues all the varied ways The Double can occur in fiction, from Alternate Universe Self to Android Replacement. On the illustration side, Sam Kolchoz’ image is a hallucinatory film noir detective murder mystery. Sean Lewis’ twin hillbilly giants take in the landscape.

Weighing-in at 120 pages, the book features far too many amazing artists to list fully here. It being so close to the holidays, I would say that anyone into indie-comics and art should own a copy of Nobrow 6.

Mikkel Sommers

Each story lingers and stays with you, calling for you to pick it up over-and-over again, making it one of the most exciting releases of the year!

> BUY THIS BOOK

> SEE MORE OF NOBROWS CATALOG

Robert Hunter

Jesse Jacobs

Jack Teagle

Sean Lewis

From Nobrow’s site

From Nobrow’s site

Untitled (Fade into Monochrome) GIF animation. 2011

Untitled. Pen Ink and Marker on paper. 11 x 14 inches. 2011

Untitled. Pen Ink and Marker on paper. 11 x 14 inches. 2011

Untitled. Pen Ink on paper. Diptych. 7 x 11 inches (each). 2011

Untitled (Sequence 6). Diptych. Pen Ink on paper. 7 x 11 inches (each). 2011

Untitled (Sequence 6). Diptych. Pen Ink on paper. 7 x 11 inches (each). 2011

Ishmael. Pen ink and marker on paper. 11 x 14 inches

You can have her..if you can find her. (No. 1). Pen ink and marker on paper. 9 x 12 inches. 2011

Discovered via http://picdit.wordpress.com and beautifuldecay.com