Picturebox News

Now online: Gary Panter’s vintage 1983 record Pray for Smurph! Yes, a new CD re-issue of this classic of psych country.

Dateline Mexico City: Gary Panter Signing and Multiples Exhibition: Animal Valley Tranquilizer Gun Kong
Colima 143 esq. Córdoba
Col. Roma (06700)
México DF
Tel: 1054 6094

We have some new books in stock. An experiment, if you will. Here are lavish books, somewhat difficult to find elsewhere, that I like very much. Buy them! We want to move the store into more of this kinda work. So, new books by Tom Friedman, Mike Kelley, Ed Ruscha, and Damien Hirst, as well as a good new book on Pop Art.

This week CF and PictureBox stalwart Erin Womack open a two-person show: Deaftholds CF and Erin Womack Mountainfold Gallery 55 Fifth Avenue 18th floor Opening July 3rd, 7 pm

PictureBox’s first collaborative project with Deitch Projects, Mail Order Monsters, is now available through our online store!

”Mail Order Monsters is a traveling exhibition that explores new trends in ‘fucked-up figuration.’ Originated by Kathy Grayson, the exhibition began at Peres Projects, Berlin, moved to Deitch Projects, New York, and finished at ANP, Athens. Every generation has its unique take on the figure and the most exciting new art seems to portray the figure as broken, decaying, fractured, and monstrous! Each artist in the exhibition exemplifies this pervasive tendency in a distinct way. This unique portfolio/catalogue features a 26-page booklet containing an essay by curator Kathy Grayson, as well as 20 frameable prints by Mat Brinkman, Tomoo Gokita, Evan Gruzis, Ben Jones, Eddie Martinez, Dan McCarthy, Taylor McKimens, Takeshi Murata, Aurel Schmidt, Fran Spiegel, and Dennis Tyfus. Ben Jones and Taylor McKimens each contributed spectacular wrap-around covers.”

Lauren Weinstein signs The Goddess of War at Rocketship, Brooklyn, Saturday June 28!

Gary Panter invades The Bay Area Saturday, June 28!

Saturday, 2 pm:

Devin and Gary

Amoeba Records 2455 Telegraph Ave. Berkeley, CA 94704

Description:

A rare musical performance by Devin Flynn and Gary Panter followed by a book signing with Panter.

Devin Flynn (known to many from Pixeltan, Plate Techtonics and Y’All So Stupid) and Gary Panter play music together under the moniker “Devin and Gary”. It’s best described as psychedelic country skronk – gorgeous melodies complemented by Gary’s haunting falsetto and Devin’s masterful instrumentation and backup vocals. Their first record, “Devin and Gary Go Outside” will be released on Ecstatic Yod this month. Gary Panter’s first record, Pray For Smurph, is being reissued on CD by Japan’s Overheat Records in June as well.

Contacts: Emily Boswell and Rebecca Burgan 510.549.1125 amoeba_rebecca@yahoo.com amoeba_emilyrose@yahoo.com

AND!

8 pm: Gary Panter lecture and book signing at:

Park Life Store 220 Clement Street San Francisco, CA 94118

Contact: Jamie Alexander

jamie@parklifestore.com

Phone: 415.386.7275

Now online (at right): a short film by JL Bonpoint detailing Michel and Paul Gondry’s recent adventures in comic book-land.

Last month PictureBox hit Chicago and Los Angeles in support of Gary Panter. Me and Gary had a grand old time and made what might be called a “Grand Tour” of America’s most bad-ass unsung artists.

Here’s Gary with Pedro Bell, the man responsible for most of the iconic Funkadelic covers.



And here are, somewhat distorted, with Chris Ware – Chris gave a wonderful introductory talk before Gary’s slideshow.



Then we went off to see Karl Wirsum, a hero of mine and Gary’s for many years.



Then it was off to L.A. I visited Jonas Wood, whose book PictureBox is publishing with Anton Kern Gallery in November. Jonas is a fantastic painter.





Then it was time for a visit to John Kricfalusi’s house. PictureBox is publishing the definitive book of John’s work – from childhood through Ren and Stimpy to today – in late 2009. Here’s a preview…













Oh yes, and who are these gentlemen? Why, only the best minds of a generation: Mike Kelley, Paul Reubens, Gary Panter and Matt Groening. Mike, Paul and Matt co-hosted a swanky party for Gary at the Chateau Marmont.



Mike presented Gary with a sculpture….



Gary and Devin Flynn (of “Devin and Gary” fame) rocked Family with a killer set and a sold-out book signing.



Gary at Sklylight Books with gallerist and Mrs. PictureBox, Rachel Uffner, who enjoyed the fresh air.



And finally, I visited Syd Mead, the brilliant artist and designer most notable for the production designs of Tron and Blade Runner. Here’s a painting in progress and the man himself.





I love L.A.!

Gary Panter continues his take-no-prisoners march across the country in support of his book. His newest battlefield? TEXAS! Friday, June 13 he’ll be at DOMY, Houston, and Saturday, June 14 he be at DOMY, Austin. More information on how to submit to him follows:

Friday, June 13, 2008 at Domy Books, Houston 1709 Westheimer, Houston, TX 77098 6–8pm, Slideshow to follow

Saturday, June 14, 2008 at Domy Books, Austin 913 E Cesar Chavez, Austin, TX 78702 6–8pm, Slideshow to follow

Be there!

Summer has begun, and with it, your summer entertainment. Lauren Weinstein’s The Goddess of War and Michel Gondry’s We Lost the War but Not the Battle! These two new publications will keep you happy forever! Available now!

The PictureBox store will be closed this weekend, June 6-June 8, for MoCCA. Come see us there.

PictureBox will be at the MoCCA comics festival this weekend at NYC’s Puck Building (At the corner of Lafayette and Houston). We will debut the following books and zines:

-Goddess of War by Lauren Weinstein

-Cold Heat Special 4 by Jim Rugg and Frank Santoro

-Core of Caligula by CF

-We Lost the War but Not the Battle by Michel Gondry

-Crazy Town by Paul Gondry

-Bicycle Fluids (not) by Matthew Thurber

-Faded Igloo by Jim Drain

-The Museum of Love and Mystery by Jim Woodring (a Presspop edition)

And Ryan Cecil Smith’s Cold Heat special.

Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Gary Panter, Frank Santoro, Lauren Weinstein, CF and Matthew Thurber will all be in attendance.

The schedule is:

Saturday:

11-12: Frank Santoro and Lauren Weinstein
12-2: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry and Lauren Weinstein
2-3: CF, Frank Santoro, Gary Panter
3-4: Gary Panter, CF, and Lauren Weinstein
3:45-4:55: Frank Santoro Lecture @ MoCCA!
4-5: CF, Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry
5-6: CF and Dan Nadel in Conversation @ MoCCA!
5-6: Lauren Weinstein, Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry

Sunday:

11-12: Frank Santoro & Lauren Weinstein
12-2: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Lauren Weinstein
2-3: Frank Santoro, Matthew Thurber, Lauren Weinstein
3-5: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Matthew Thurber

Tonight I’m moderating a panel with Kim Deitch, Evan Dorkin and Lauren Weinstein. Three generations of inspired lunacy. Come on out! Here’s the info:

The AIGA NY Presents:

Draw

Bamboozled beauties, hunky heroes and eccentric side-kicks populate the quirky universe of graphic novels and comic books. Dazzling drawings elevate plot points while witty repartee illuminates characters. Dan Nadel from Grammy Award-winning PictureBox, Inc. will explore this marriage of image to word with three artists that wield pen and pencil with equal dexterity. Kim Deitch introduces brilliant beings like Waldo the Cat into the comix cannon; Evan Dorkin chronicles dairy products gone bad in “Milk & Cheese”; Lauren R. Weinstein charts teenage angst in her semi-autobiographical “Girl Stories.” Come join this trio for a talk on crafting prose and drawn protagonists.

Speakers Dan Nadel is the publisher/editor/art director of PictureBox, Inc., a Grammy Award-winning New York-based packaging and publishing company. Its most recent releases include Gary Panter. He is the author of Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries 1900–1969. PictureBox has recently opened a retail space in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood, featuring an international assortment of books, records, prints, editions and sundries.

Kim Deitch has a reserved place at the first table of underground cartoonists. The son of UPA and Terrytoons animator Gene Deitch, Kim was born in 1944 and grew up around the animation business. He began doing comic strips for the East Village Other in 1967, introducing two of his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. In 1969 he succeeded Vaughn Bodé as editor of Gothic Blimp Works, the Other’s underground comics tabloid. During this period he married fellow cartoonist Trina Robbins and had a daughter, Casey. “The Mishkin Saga” was named one of the Top 30 best English-language comics of the 20th Century by The Comics Journal, and the first issue of The Stuff of Dreams received the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 2003. Deitch remains a true cartoonists’ cartoonist, adored by his peers as much as anyone in the history of the medium.

Evan Dorkin is the creator of MILK AND CHEESE, DORK, and HECTIC PLANET, all published by SLG/Amaze Ink. He’s also put in time at Marvel (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Comic, Agent X, The Thing: Night Falls On Yancy Street), Dark Horse (Hellboy: Weird Tales, The Dark Horse Book Of Hauntings, The Mask) and DC (Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest, Bizarro), among other comics publishers. His work has appeared in such publications as Esquire, Spin, The Onion, Mad, Disney Adventures, Penthouse Hot Talk and Nickelodeon magazine and he recently provided the cover art and interior illustrations for Larry Doyle’s novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper, published by Harper Collins. He’s written for Space Ghost Coast To Coast, Superman, Batman Beyond and The Shin-Chan animated series. He was the creator of the Welcome To Eltingville animated pilot, which aired on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of programming, and was based on his Eltingville Club strips from Dork. It was a terrific bomb. His second pilot for the Swim, Tyrone’s Inferno, was shelved last year before it could reach bomb status. He is currently working as a writer and designer for the children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba!, contributing to Mad and Nickelodeon magazine, writing material for the Bart Simpson comic from Bongo, and developing a series for Dark Horse comics along with collaborator Jill Thompson.

Lauren R. Weinstein is a cartoonist. Her most recent book, Girl Stories, was published by Henry Holt and was rated one of Booklist’s top 10 great graphic novels for teens. Her work has been featured in Yale University Press’s Anthlogy of Graphic Fiction and Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Comics of 2007. Currently, Lauren teaches drawing and cartooning to children and adults at the 92nd Street Y, Parsons School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Xeric Grant, allowing her to self-publish her first book, Inside Vineyland. In 2004, she received the Ignatz award for “Promising New Talent.” Her comics and illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, McSweeney’s, LA Weekly, The Chicago Reader, Kramer’s Ergot, and Seattle’s The Stranger. Currently she is working on the sequel to Girl Stories, tentatively entitled Calamity. Her sci-fi fantasy comic entitled The Goddess of War is coming out in May, 2008 from PictureBox.

TIME AND PLACE

Wednesday 4 June 2008 6:30–8:00PM Galapagos 70 North 6th Street between Kent and Wythe Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211 718 782-5188 galapagosartspace.com

6:30–7:00PM Registration 7:00–8:00PM Presentation $20 AIGA member $10 AIGA student member $30 general public

Friday afternoon we pack up our books, throw on our new jeans and head out on a glorious book tour! Watch as Gary invades the rest of the country like Godzilla coming ashore.

May 24th, 2008, 1 pm:

Gary Panter Booksigning, Lecture, Slideshow
(Introduction by Chris Ware)
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago

May 26th, 2008, 7:30 pm:
Gary Panter Signing and Film programming
AND!
Gary Panter and Devin Flynn: Live Performance
Family
436 N. Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles

May 27th, 2008, 7:30 pm:

Gary Panter Signing, Lecture and Slideshow
(Introduction by Matt Groening)
Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles

Now in the store: Yuichi Yokoyama’s wondrous book of paintings, “Painting”.

Monday, May 19th: Gary Panter and Devin Flynn, live gee-tar and singin’ music! Oh yeah! At The Cake Shop, 152 Ludlow St., NYC. 8 pm.

C.F. will interview Gary Panter onstage on Sunday, May 18 at 2:45 pm at Tokion’s Creativity Now Conference NYC!

PictureBox is proud to participate in Tokion’s Creativity Now Conference this weekend, May 17-18, at Cooper Union in NYC. We will have a display there as well, so come by and visit.

May 13th, 2008, 7 pm - 8:30 pm:

Gary Panter Lecture and Slideshow (Introduction by Jonathan Lethem)

The Strand 828 Broadway, NYC

Saturday, May 10 6-8PM Gary Panter signs Gary Panter

A special instore signing with Gary Panter for his mammoth new 688-page, two volume monograph. Gary will be signing books from 6 to 8 pm.

PictureBox will also be offering a special onsite-only Gary-giveaway.

http://www.pictureboxinc.com/product/id/238/

New prints by C.F. and Mat Brinkman online now!

May 7, 6-8 pm

Eddie Martinez and Chuck Webster sign Eddie Martinez/Chuck Webster

PictureBox and ZieherSmith are pleased to announce Eddie Martinez/Chuck Webster, a two-volume hardcover set by the artists. Please join us for a reception in honor of the publication.

Martinez and Webster will be on hand to sign copies.

Check out the new PictureBox events calendar, rendered by our own Matthew Thurber.

Remember that Gary Panter’s fantastic show (co-curated by yours truly) is on view until May 10 at Clementine Gallery, NYC.

Rob Lowe signs Gyromancy!

Wednesday, April 30, 6-7 pm. PictureBox Departmental Store 121 3rd St. Brooklyn NY 11231

Thrill Jockey is proud to present Gyromancy, the latest in our series of limited edition book + CD packages. Following the release of Daniel A.I.U. Higgs’ Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot and Aki Tsuyuko’s Hokane, we have a new pocket-sized edition to the series. Gyromancy is a 4” x 6” soft cover perfect-bound book featuring artwork from Robert A.A. Lowe and Rose Lazar. Included with the book is a special 3” CD featuring the music of Robert A.A. Lowe; Gyromancy is offered in a limited edition of 1,000.

Robert A.A. Lowe was a member of the band 90 Day Men and formed Dreamweapon with members of Town and Country. He currently plays music under the name Lichens and as a member of Singer with Todd Rittman (US Maple) and Ben Vida (Town and Country). He is an absolute fixture in the Chicago music and arts community.

Rose Lazar runs and designs images for The Great Lakes Goods, a letter press company out of Chicago specializing in colorful hand made and printed greeting cards and stationary that are carried in independent book shops and boutiques across the US.

Gyromancy looks at future past, neo antiquity, ritual magic, and patterning. The book represents a dream walk through nature and all of it’s influences. Repetition of imagery keeps you aware of the cyclical patterns that nature presents us with. We get caught up in these patterns without noticing them, to the point that you have to stop and take a harder look. Gyromancy is an attempt at taking a harder look.

The accompanying music, titled “Psygning Off,” was composed to accompany the images in the book and to add yet another dimension to the world that inhabits it’s pages. The music was created at home through organic synthesis, which projects a science fiction aspect into the natural magical aesthetic, producing a familiar alien landscape.

The big one is out now. Gary Panter is in stores now! Signed and doodled-on copies are available at no extra charge direct from PictureBox.

Yes, there’s more. Sorry! A new book by Joe Brainard, some great clothes by Ruffeo Hearts Li’l Snotty and new prints by Leif Goldberg. Also, Galaktikrap is back in stock!