Artists on "A" Street

For those of you on the other end of the metropolitan area, and looking for something fun to do on Saturday, Mike will be representing Tiki Machine in downtown Upland, CA at their Artists on "A" Street event. This is an event similar to the Downtown Riverside Arts Walk except it's going to be outside. That's right, all the exhibitors will be lining "A" Street! Lots of local artists, artisans as well as a Farmer's Market are just a taste of what will make this event a lot of fun.

This is Tiki Machine's first appearance so we're not entirely sure what to expect but we're looking forward to participating. We'll have our normal set-up of buttons, shirts and prints along with Monster Mythos and Deus Libris. (The bulk shipment was delivered this morning so it's now officially released. We have several events lined up so stay tuned to see what we're up to and where we'll be and when. It's all very exciting!!) And they will all be laid out on the beautiful table cover we had especially made. Tiki-thanks for Felicia over at Totally Couture for making such a great cover! So look for the Kona head logo on the Hawaiian Tapa cloth.



The event starts at 11am and runs until 4pm so there will be plenty of time to come by and see us, purchase the new book and maybe even pick up a Zombie Lucy tee. The cross-street at "A" Street is 2nd Avenue in historic downtown Upland.

Unique LA Show

Friday is here and we have a couple of events to tell you all about. The first being the Unique LA show starting tomorrow and running through Sunday. What is Unique LA? According to their website, it is "The largest independent design show in the country, attendees get the rare chance to meet and shop directly from over 250 hand-selected designers and artists. The exciting two-day shopping event makes it easy for you to buy local and support LA’s economy, discover great design and deals, join in community, and have a blast! Over 95% of the products at the show are proudly made right here in the USA!"

Two of our real great friends will be set up and selling their awesome art and t-shirts and we want anybody reading this that doesn't have weekend plans and lives in LA to go to it.



Oliver Akuin will be there alongside his brother at Booth #121 representing his t-shirt company Fluent Flyers. Not only is he is a very versatile and talented illustrator/animator plus one of the nicest guys around, he also contributed to the Deus Libris book with a great piece. We posted the info and sketches previously so if you need a recap, click HERE.



Matt Q. Spangler will be there representing his company LUNARC, which started in San Diego with one goal in mind, to put the best art on the most eco-friendly clothing as possible. Each item is hand screened then a vintage fabric label is sewn onto the garment. Each item is a unique piece of art that is meant to be passed down from generation to generation. Matt is also a robot enthusiast (His Take Care Japan shirt is one of the sweetest and most awesome designs we've seen!) and will have some pretty sweet original paintings available for purchase along with the great clothing.

Here are all the details - go check out the show and say hi to our pals!

The 1st Annual Summer Show, July 30 & 31, 2011 (11am – 6pm both days)
Where: The Barker Hangar (3021 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, California 90405)
Cost: $10 at the door (kids 12 and under are free)

Comic-Con Aftermath

Well, Comic-Con is over and we start a new week trying to get back to normal. (As normal as we can be all things considered.) Ok, SDCC was a blast! It was exciting to see Monster Mythos and Deus Libris around the convention center floor. We are extremely grateful for the contributing artists and all that they have done. A very special Tiki-thanks to all of you for being awesome! We also gave away several copies of both books to those we admire including Jeff Smith, Mike Maihack and Sean "Cheeks" Galloway and we hope they enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them.



With 150,000 nerds (including ourselves) all using their smart phones, our post updates and tweets were spotty at best and we apologize for that. But we feel that this was a great con to have attended AND participated in.

Our dear friend and Eisner-nominated artist Travis Hanson needed some help manning his table on Thursday & Friday and he asked Mike if he'd be willing to help out. Which was cool because Mike was able to see how working behind a table at the biggest convention in North America is as well as pick Travis's brain RE self-publishing, the in's and out's and all that coolness.



Saturday's panel was a ton of fun! Everyone had such wonderful things to say and the turnout was quite intimidating. One friend texted that he wasn't going to be able to make it because the line was too long! The room was filled to capacity and it went off well. There were some technical difficulties but everything worked out. The crowd was great and we appreciate them coming out and showing such support and love for not only the Tiki Machine books but all the panelists books and projects. We count ourselves lucky to have been with such a talented group of artists/writers/entrepreneurs. Some great new friendships were formed and we cannot wait to work with and alongside them in the future. Here are links to the other panelists and their greatness. Go check them out.

Brianne Drouhard
Eric "The Gute" Gonzalez
Erich Haeger
Beth Sleven
Steph Laberis

For those of you who missed it, Deb was able to record the whole panel so we'll try and get that uploaded to the website in the near future. The camera is not the best but you can hear everything and get a feel of the experience. A special Tiki-thanks to Brianne for inviting us to participate and to Comic-Con for being so great to work with! We hope to do so again in future Cons.



After the panel, the wonderful friends at the Muertoons/Hard Eight booth were kind and gracious enough to let all of us panelists have a signing. The support was overwhelming! We enjoyed seeing everyone's books being so well received because we love seeing our friends and their great projects being successful.



If you wanna see some more of Mike's pics from the con, click on the link HERE.

We've got several events on the horizons so stay tuned to see all the details as well as events that our friends will be participating in. See you all on Friday! Have a great week! Thanks again to everybody who helped make this one fantastic special weekend!!

More Friends at San Diego Comic Con!

Happening simultaneously as SDCC, there is an exciting twist on the Comic Con scene this year. Spearheaded by Scott Morse, and featuring some of our friends including Deus Libris contributor Justin Ridge, TR!CKSTER is a free venue, open to the public. They offer a retail space specializing in creator-owned work, a gallery, and a Symposia area. While the Symposia are ticketed events, the TR!CKSTER shop itself is open for business at no charge and will feature a fair-trade coffee station, a full bar, animation and live-action short film screenings, gallery receptions, artist signings, drawing events, DJs, and live music. Check out the website for all the details and list of artists, featuring uber-talent from comics, film and animation.



Kazu Kibuishi, Monster Mythos and Deus Libris contributor Dik Pose and all the other contributing artists from the amazing Flight Comics anthology series will be at Table #2235

Doug TenNapel will be at Booth #1714

A cluster of very talented folks including Becky Cloonan, Jill Thompson, Rafael Albuquerque, Gustavo Duarte, Marcelo Braga Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá will be at Table #1320

Bobby Rubio will be at Booth #1943

Katie Cook will be in Artist's Alley at Table GG-01

Eric Canete will also be in Artist's Alley at Table DD-10

Skottie Young will be at Booth #4601

Mike Maihack will be at Small Press Booth O-02

Brittney Lee will be at Small Press Booth O-15

Thomas Zahler will be at Booth #2000

Martin Hsu will be at Small Press Booth G-02

We admire all these talented artists for their contributions to everything we're trying to do with Tiki Machine, comics/graphic novels, art books, illustrations, t-shirt designs, animation, film and all that kind of cool stuff. Check out their tables, talk them up and enjoy the con!

Friends at the San Diego Comic Con

As promised yesterday, here is a partial list of friends of Tiki Machine that are going to be behind the tables at SDCC. Visit them, purchase what they offer, talk to them and all that because they deserve it of you. It's going to be a fun week!

Sean "Cheeks" Galloway and Ryan Benjamin will be at Booth #2544

Fleet Street Scandal consisting of Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham will be at Booth #5507

Stephen Silver will be at Table #H-06

Jose Lopez and John Nevarez will be at Table #H-09

Mark McDonnell will be at Table J-06

Peter Wonsowski is the artist for two projects for and available at the APE Entertainment Booth #1804

More to come later. Enjoy!

San Diego Comic Con!

Well, this week marks the start of the famed San Diego Comic Con. We look forward to seeing old friends and all the great new projects/art they've been creating as well as the opportunity to make new friends. There is a lot going on! We wanted to share all the details so that all of you attending can score some sweet swag and contribute to the success of our friends. So, here goes -



First off, Tiki Machine will not be exhibiting, however, we will have a presence at the show. Because our first two books, Monster Mythos and Deus Libris, have been collaborative art books with 20+ artists these books will be at the tables/booths of the respective artists. They are as follows -





Eric "The Gute" Gonzalez and Erich Haeger, collectively known as Muertoons will be at Booth #1802. Not only have they contributed to both books, but they have the wonderful self-published bi-lingual children's book Rosita Y Conchita and lots of other goodies. Swing by this booth, it's awesome!



Sara Jerzykowski also contributed to both books (and took the pic above of the two) and will be sharing booth #1945 with another great friend of ours, Greg Rankin. They have a lot of super-cool steampunk hand-crafted goodness that you need to buy! Also get the great comic Codename Hart they both worked on from last year!



Travis Hanson, Eisner-nominated artist of the comic The Bean, will be at booth E11 selling Bean merch as well as his inspiring prints. If you've never read The Bean, you need to . It's a fantastic fantasy tale in the same vein as Lord of the Rings and Bone. Trav will do a free sketch for anyone who drops by his table as well as share a smile and some inspiration.



On Saturday, Mike has been invited by Tiki-contributer and self-publishing artist extraordinaire Brianne Drouhard to participate in a panel. Here are the details (don't worry, we'll repost the details again on Friday)

4:00pm-5:00pm How to Create a Children's Book— Brianne Drouhard (Billie the Unicorn), Mike Collins (Monster Mythos), Erich Haeger (Rosita Y Conchita), Beth Sleven (Cryptid Case Files), and Steph Laberis (Ghost Chef) discuss the process of creating a children's book from scratch. Topics include designing a character and its world, choosing illustration materials, and creating a story. The panel participants have backgrounds in animation and gaming and will discuss how this influences their art. Development art will be presented, followed by Q&A. Room 30CDE

We'll be posting more details about other friends and where they will be and what great stuff they will have tomorrow. No need to explode everyone's head in one day. We have all week......

Events and Announcements

Happy Friday all! There is lots going on especially leading up to the San Diego Comic Con, which we find very exciting! For those of you who will be attending, we'll be shamelessly promoting our friends and all the cool stuff they're have and where they'll be, so stay tuned next week for all the gory details!



Artist Peter Wonsowski, designer of the Destiny Gauntlets logo plus the wicked Ghavin pin-up and all-around great guy has just released the great news about a project he is a part of. And we wanted to share it with you guys. PLUS, it will have a SDCC presence so you'll need to swing by the table and pick it up in support. (Peter won't be at SDCC but that shouldn't matter. Support the project regardless.)



Here's a copy of the release, in their own words...
"TAKE A BITE OUT OF VIPER COMICS LATEST BOOK, PERFECT TEETH!
Fly, shuffle, walk or lurk on over to the Viper Comics booth (#1903) at San Diego Comic Con and learn more about the music industry’s latest, greatest hits, PERFECT TEETH.
Viper has teamed up with VINNIE FIORELLO, of the awesome ska punk band LESS THAN JAKE, writer Matt Anderson (WHITE PICKET FENCES and PAPER+PLASTICK’S 50 STATES and THE EXIT INTERVIEW) and artist Peter Wonsowski to bring you a book that will lift the coffin lid off the music biz." Click the LINK to see all the details.



The Kevin Dart illustrated and Elizabeth Ito written Yuki 7 book, Looks That Kill is having a launch party on Saturday in LA.

(If you would like to read an excerpt from the book, go ahead and click the link HERE.)

The party will start at 7pm and will be at Q Pop - 128 Astronaut E S Onizuka St. Los Angeles, CA

There's plenty of links to follow and read plus lots of info for you heading into the weekend. Enjoy! Come back on Monday for more stuff, including new art. Whoo-hoo!!

Monday = New Art and News

Good Morning! We'd like to start off our Monday post with some new art from the Deus Libris book. Here is the South African Rain Goddess Modjadji as interpreted by our own Mike Collins. Known as the Rain Queen, this Goddess was so loved by her people and feared by her enemies, that the succession of mortal hereditary queens were named in her honor. The last Rain Queen died in 2005. There is a legend about the great Shaka Zulu sending Modjaji gifts to appease her as he crossed through her lands on his conquest of southern Africa. Wow! How cool is that?! The image above is just a glimpse of part of the final illustration from the book.



Well, our weekend was quite the whirlwind of activity, starting with Thursday night's Arts Walk which we posted about on Friday. At the Arts Walk, we were introduced to another Arts Walk type event being held in Upland in a couple of weeks. Friday was spent talking to the organizer of the event (Joe) as well as recovering from Thursday night's heat. A lot happened on Saturday, starting with the San Diego Comic Con officially announcing its Saturday schedule. Now, this is exciting because our great friend Brianne Drouhard organized a panel and asked Mike and several other friends to participate in it. Here's the blurb from the website.



It will be a lot of fun! You should set aside that hour on Saturday to go see them talk about making books. And here are the links to the other panelists blogs/websites. Go check them out.

Eric "The Gute" Gonzalez
Erich Haeger
Beth Sleven
Steph Laberis

Then, we met up with the aforementioned Joe to purchase a space for the upcoming Artists on "A" Street event in Upland. We'll announce the details of that as the event gets closer. It should be a very fun event with lots of artists, a farmer's market and the like. We're happy to be a part of it. And all of this prior to our little appearance at the Uptown Whittier Zombie Pub Crawl. We had our Zombie Lucy merch set up in Vinatero Wine Shop and had a blast! Special Tiki-Thanks to Andrew, Ernie and Lisa for helping us set that up last minute.

As you can see, lots went on and there is lots going on in the near future. We'll post the info on all events here and even tell you about special events our friends are doing. See you back here on Friday for new stuff. Have a terrific week!

Arts Walk Pics

Last night's Arts Walk was a scorcher! Summer has definitely come to Southern California. It stayed hot even after the sun went down but regardless of the heat, the Arts Walk was a lot of fun. We really enjoy meeting other artists and entrepreneurs. The advice and contacts made and given is invaluable. In fact, we're looking into other like-minded events and will keep you all up-to-date.

We feel very grateful for the fans who showed up to sneak a peek at Deus Libris as well as see the new Lucy stuff. We enjoy the young fans the most. They make our night - we're talking about you CJ! A Tiki-thanks to all who came out and braved the heat. We look forward to the next one.

Have a good weekend everybody. Enjoy the sun. And come back on Monday to see some new art work. And maybe an announcement. That's all we're saying right now....

Riverside Arts Walk - July

See? We told you there were lots of going's on at tonight's Arts Walk. We have new prints and new T-shirts as well as our normal buttons, magnets and Monster Mythos books. We'll also be offering special promos on pre-orders of Deus Libris with the proof copy available to be flipped through and looked at.

To remind you, we'll be inside the Life Arts building located at 3485 University Avenue, Riverside, CA. The Arts Walk starts at 6pm and lasts until 9pm.

Rumor has it that Bobby Hernandez might make an appearance. Maybe even some other contributors of Tiki Machine projects....
C'mon by and say hi, check out the new wares and get away from the heat all while participating in a great local event. We look forward to seeing everyone tonight.

T-shirts!

A generous family friend and Tiki Machine supporter took it upon himself to make T-shirts of our popular Zombie Lucy design! So, we now have T-shirts available for purchase. Yay!! The T-shirts are screen printed on a quality Hanes Unisex black tee, with the sizes S - XL for the time being. We are currently updating our website store so the shirts will be available for on-line purchase soon. As it stands, the only way to get one is to visit our table in person.



A very special Tiki-Thanks to Kraig for doing that and to Deb for being a model!

So...

Special Annoucement

Today is exciting! We will have a couple of posts today because we've got some sweet news to share with everyone. First off, we realized that we haven't revealed the cover design, so here it is. Why? Well, we wanted to show you all pictures of the proof copy of Deus Libris that showed up as a surprise on the doorstep from Taiwan. And it was a very welcome surprise indeed! Tiki-thanks to Karl at Given Creative for all his hard work in helping us put this book together and get it printed.





Deus Libris is another compilation art book that features 30 artists, and their interpretation of Deities from cultures all over the world. They include -

Adam Scarpitta
Alison Donato
Bill Alger
Bob Harper
Bobby Hernandez
Brad Sutton
Brett C Nance
Brianne Drouhard
Chris Borges
Dave Warner
David Church
Dik Pose
Eric "The Gute" Gonzalez
Erich Haeger
François Gomes
Justin Ridge
Kenya Marshall
Kyle Smith
Le Tang
Mike Collins
Mike Morris
Nate Funaro
Oliver Akuin
Phil Stooksbury
Rowel Roque
Sara Jerzykowski
Sencia Kim
TJ Collins
Thomas Perkins
Travis Hanson





The book looks outstanding! And we wanted to share some pics of it. Enjoy! And stay tuned for more posts about another special announcement as well as the details of tonight's Arts Walk.

Another Arts Walk Week

Happy Tuesday all! As those of us in the U.S. celebrated the 4th with BBQ, fireworks and friends, we hope that the Independence Weekend went well for everyone. With the new month just starting (as well as the new week), that means a new Arts Walk is upon us. So we find ourselves readying up for Thursday night's Arts Walk in downtown Riverside. Once again, we'll be located inside the Life Arts Center from 6pm - 9pm. For those of you who need an address for Mapquest, it's 3485 University Avenue
Riverside, CA.

We always enjoy the Arts Walk and look forward to this Thursday night. In honor of the month of July, Mike made some special Felix the Cat as Captain America buttons from a piece he did for the Autumn Society as few years back. We also have some new Lucy buttons and prints (we shared one of them with you on Friday.... remember the cowgirl?) as well as our usual Monster Mythos fare.

So for those of you in the Riverside area this Thursday night, swing on by. It'll be a fun event. We'll try and get a reminder post put up on Thursday and hopefully we'll have photos to share on Friday. See you all later!

Some More Friendly News

Happy Friday everyone! Today's post will be short and sweet.

Here's the final and finished Cowgirl Lucy for the ABC's book due out in the Fall. We'll have prints of this available at next weeks Arts Walk as well as buttons for those who would like this little sheriff on their walls or backpacks. Expect more info next week prior to the event starting.



Here's some info about some of our friends -



For those of you in LA this weekend, the Anime Expo is happening at the Convention Center. Once again our good friend Brianne Drouhard will be signing her Billie the Unicorn books to those who have yet to buy the awesomeness. She'll be at the Animebooks table at 1pm tomorrow. She's also part of a panel called "Getting Into the Animation Industry." All the details can been seen at this LINK. It's from 5pm - 7pm so if you're gonna be at the Expo, go ahead and spend all day there and listen to her and several other peeps give the low-down. Rumor has it that she's making gifts for attendees of the panel....so if you needed more reason to attend, there you go.



Kevin Dart's new Yuki 7 book is still available for pre-order on his website. Beautifully illustrated by Kevin and written by Elizabeth Ito, it's a must-have for everyone. Or it should be. And the pre-order has more than just the book. There are all kinds of goodies included.



Sean "Cheeks" Galloway's new book is also available for pre-order. For every pre-ordered book, you'll get an awesome Kuta bag. Be sure to get yours now because he normally sells out pretty quickly.

Boy, this post sure has lot of free swag info in it. Consider it a weekend present from us to you. Have a safe one. If we forgot anyone, we'll remedy that at a later date. Let's get our fireworks and BBQ on!