So, guess what?

Two weeks from today I am going to be getting off a red eye flight from San Francisco to New York, probably grabbing a terrible McDonald’s breakfast and a huge soda somewhere in the terminal, driving back up to Poughkeepsie as fast as I can…and then almost immediately after I get back, Kate and I will be taking more luggage, hopping in a friend’s car, and being taken back down to the airport to catch a flight to Amsterdam.

I’m still way behind on trip preparations. I’m so busy with SEIBEI stuff (more on that in a minute) that I haven’t even emailed my friend Jan, better known as Zeptonn, about it (he lives somewhere in those dang ol’ Netherlands), and I know Andy of Hide Your Arms has been there, but I’ve yet to e-mail him asking where a dude like myself might like to go.

We’re actually spending a few days in Amsterdam, and then a few days in Copenhagen. I’m probably going to have a friend handle shipping out basic orders, and hopefully I can find e-mail every so often…and I’m sure there will be plenty of time on planes and trains and floating buses to work on some new ideas in my sketchbook. Kate and I have been dating for more than two years, and still haven’t been on much in the way of trips together - a few visits out of state here and there, but nothing really. Plus, it’s been a few years since I’ve made it out of the country…it’s gonna be rad.

Anyway, preparations for Renegade San Francisco are going well. I’ve got my hotel room, my rented van, my plane ticket, and plenty of friends to see and stuff to be excited about (a friend reminded me of In-N-Out Burger, which I’ve never had, so I’ve been dreaming of some double-doubles Animal Style…mmmm mmmm!). As always, I’ve got a lot of stuff to print, and I’ve got some SERIOUS catching up to do on wholesale orders…we’ve been picked up in a few new countries, and need to fill some reorders for our beloved stores in the States, and I am way behind on it. Yeesh.

Alright, I have to place an order for some blank shirts so I can get ink all over ‘em later this wee, and then power down some cereal and head in to work…

I was recently contacted by a journalist doing an article on whether fellas in the indie craft scene feel at odds being in a lady-dominated scene. I guess the scene leans a bit more towards females, and the prominent figures that come to mind are probably the women of the Austin Craft Mafia (much love to them - I hope I get to see them again soon!), but I usually don’t give it much thought.

Anyway, I told the woman that it was never really an issue for me - honestly, everyone I’ve met has been so cool, and it’s all about all of us being in the same boat trying to hustle and make it, not dudes trying to make it vs. ladies trying to make it. Though, maybe that’s just me - maybe whenever I pack up and leave all the ladies yell THANK GOODNESS THAT JERK LEFT and break out the booze, like that old SNL skit where Eddie Murphy went undercover as a white person, and when the last black person got off the bus, the whole thing turned into a classy party?

But yeah, I never really worry about it, but every so often something will remind me of the ladies making up the majority of the scene in a lot of people’s eyes. I was reading the latest issue of BUST magazine, and the letter from the editor mentioned that they were about to head to the BUST Spring Fling Craftacular (where I had a table) and check out what the ladies of the craft scene were up to (I was looking for the mag in question for an exact quote, but my housemates just divided up some weed on the back of that issue, so who knows where it is now). Granted, it’s a lady oriented magazine, and usually I’m not a dick about these kinds of things, but when I noticed that, part of me was a little bitter. Give us dudes some credit too! Also, there was the brief period I was associated with the now-defunct Charlottesville Craft Mafia and would receive e-mails addressed “hey ladies!”. Eh, whatever. It’s not a big deal either way - it’s just something I think about every so often.

There’s so much to write about! I’ll spare you all the boring details (our hot water heater crapping out), not get too in-depth with the mushy stuff, and try to keep my thoughts organized so it all makes sense.

Kate and I had our two year anniversary last Friday.

It’s hard to pick out a good photo of us because one of us (usually me) is making a dumb face, so an old Halloween photo will have to do for now. I knew she was a keeper from the first date, ladies and gentlemen. Due to conflicting schedules, we’ve opted to celebrate our anniversary a little later on this summer, and just hung out and had some QT on the actual day. By QT, I mean that an impromptu barbecue had started at our house, and we had drinks in an inflatable swimming pool.

Renegade Craft Fair Brooklyn was pretty rad, even though it got rained out one day.

Don’t get me wrong, it was an awesome time as always, but it would’ve been rad if it hadn’t rained out Saturday at like 4 PM. Sunday was pretty clear and not too hot, at least.

Big ups to my friend Kim, who was a trooper throughout the whole thing, and kept me from losing my mind by staying cool. There was this very brief period where we had just loaded everything into the car, we were soaked, we were in danger of losing a lot of our stock (we didn’t), and I couldn’t reach the friend we were supposed to stay with (we reached him soon after), and I just was not feeling being soaking wet in Brooklyn with nowhere to go…fortunately, Kim was super cool and that helped me get myself back on track.

That night, we dried off somewhat at our friend Seth’s place, and then got some tasty Thai food…I had Duck Pad Thai for what may be the only time. So tasty, but so rich as to guarantee sleepiness right after consumption (which is sometimes awesome, and was a great end to a long day).

Here’s me holding the tent down so it wouldn’t fly away - this actually happened to a few people. Why are you still wearing sunglasses, you jerk?

Despite the rain, Renegade is my favorite group of shows, and it was awesome as always. I got to see lots of awesome people and make tons of new friends, which is the best part of the indie craft circuit. Seeing old friends from the circuit, connecting with new artists, and meeting the fans. Yes, I have those now! Ridiculous. A few people showed up wearing old SEIBEI gear they’d bought from me last year, which was pretty rad. I also got to see Sarah, my Number One Fan, who has been out to maybe every NYC appearance ever, and owns more SEIBEI gear than I do, including a Sandwich Dinosaur in maybe every color ever. Also, I had a guy and a gal come up to me and tell me they were big fans, and the gal bought a Give Us A Kiss and asked me to sign the shirt. Say what? While we were trying to figure out the best place to sign it, she asked where I usually sign shirts - if I’d had my wits about me, I might’ve said something corny like “IN MY DREAMS, DUDE”. We eventually decided on the inside, under the tag print. Sorry I got ink all over your nice new shirt…

I also tried out some new stuff for the show…

This hoodie print came out really well - it goes seamlessly over the pockets and off the bottom and is hell of soft. People seemed to like it, so expect to see this or something along these lines quite soon…

I’m gonna be in a book!

I don’t wanna spill any details that can’t be spilled, but I’m gonna be featured in a book. It won’t be out until next year, but I’m pretty excited about it. The tentative title for the book is Nice Shirt, Asshole: T-Shirts Made By Total Jerks. LOLZ J/K. Honestly, when I first started out, I picked up a copy of 200% Cotton and thought about how I was gonna be in one of the books about t-shirt designers someday…so hey, here we go!

RENEGADE SAN FRANCISCO!

I’ll post more about this later, but my next big show is going to be RENEGADE SAN FRANCISCO, July 12th and 13th at the Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion, 11 - 7. RAD. San Francisco is SEIBEI COUNTRY, from what I’ve been told - I do a lot of sales around there, and one of my biggest retailers, Villains, is there…so it should be fun. It’s the first one ever, so hopefully there will be some good press coverage.

Anyway, there’s tons more to post about…I’ll probably just write separate entries.

So, I’m taking a quick break from WORKING ON NEW DESIGNS and CATCHING UP ON ORDERS and GETTING READY FOR STUFF to tell y’all about how I went to the MoCCA Art Fest on Saturday, made new friends, caught up with old ones, and had a COMPLETE BLAST and bought a BUTTLOAD OF COMIC BOOKS.

I just barely caught the train, running to the platform and jumping on the train moments before it rolled out of the New Hamburg station, and soon enough I was a few rows behind a BACHELORETTE PARTY on its way to NYC, and a couple who was MAKING OUT FURIOUSLY. AWESOME. Eventually, I got to the station, and caught a subway down to the Puck Building, where the Art Fest was going down.

I met up with my Brother From Another Mother (as he calls us) Ryan Sands, who is the dude behind SAME HAT and whose life oddly parallels my own (or mine his, I guess - I don’t know which of us is older. If we have the same birthday I’ll probably pee myself.). We both went from Econ/Japanese double majors to getting majors in Japanese. We both went to school at the same building at overlapping times in Kyoto (we were in different programs through Stanford - his was a summer program, mine was an academic year, so we were in the same building but never met). We both dabbled in screen printing (though I stuck with it obviously), and we both are into translation (which he stuck with - he’s behind the upcoming translation of Yusaku Hanakuma’s Tokyo Zombie, which I’ll talk more about once he scores me an advance copy). I think it’s kind of like Twins - same genetic material, he’s the successful one, and I’m all the crap that’s left over. Ha!

Ryan has a ton of pictures from the show - I didn’t take any there. Here are most of the books I scored, though:

Unlike last year, where I picked up a bunch of zines haphazardly, and some of them weren’t my speed at all, I was discriminating this year (yet ended up spending twice as much), but every book in that stack is awesome. Me, Ryan, our friend Anne, and later on, our friend Helene (of the awesome Toasty), all tooled around and met/caught up with tons of great artists - too many to really list here. I will mention that we got to meet Michel Gondry - yes, that Michel Gondry. He and his son make comics, it turns out, and everyone was too busy wetting their pants over webcomic dingdongs (not to say all webcomics are made by dingdongs - it’s a rather unfair generalization I guess, but fuck it) to form a big line for MICHEL GONDRY, so I bought one of his books, blabbered something about being a big fan, and got him to sign it:

Yes, he drew me in the book, and apparently I look like a mutant. Rad!

I briefly walked by Adrian Tomine, but considering he was on the floor looking at stuff, I didn’t wanna stammer at him (again - I went to a signing of his at last year’s MoCCA Art Fest and blabbed about being a huge fan etc etc). I also passed by R. Stevens of Diesel Sweeties in a hallway, who I’ve emailed back and forth with recently, and said “Hey Rich, how’s it going?”. He looked at me like a weird internet stalker and said “Not too bad, boss” and kept walking. DEEP BURN.

Later on, me, Ryan, and Helene went to get food at this awesome Moroccan place - yellowfin tuna ceviche with glass noodles and mango hits the SPOT on a muggy summer evening. We then went from bar, to bar, to bar…

Here’s Anne, Ryan, and Eunee, a friend of Helene’s who was visiting from Maryland. They CLAIM that her wearing her SEIBEI gear was unintentional, but I’m not so sure…Helene and I were on the other side of the table, and we were all knee deep in tasty beers and good times. Eventually, me, Anne, and Ryan met up with some cartoonists at Winnie’s in Chinatown for some SERIOUS karaoke action.

There are plenty of pictures of me singing “Two Princes” by the Spin Doctors, which is my favorite song to bust out at karaoke (though that was only the second time I’ve ever done it), but they’re all on Ryan’s camera…so maybe we’ll see those soon. Meanwhile, here’s Anne and Ryan busting out “Total Eclipse of the Heart” with maximum finesse:

To wrap it up, I eventually made my way to the last train of the night at 1:50 in the morning, ate a couple of hot dogs on the train, and was sober but hung over by the time I got home around 4. What a night, what a night.

Is anyone going to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Art Festival in NYC this weekend? I’m probably going to be going on Saturday…

Looking over the exhibitor list, I’m pretty bummed that Kevin Scalzo, who rules, and was there last year, won’t be there this year, but there are still some rad names on the list.

Anyway, maybe I’ll see you there.

Alright, so here’s a quick lowdown on RENEGADE BROOKLYN, June 14th and 15th, 11 - 7 pm, at the McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn, NY.

HOW TO FIND US:

Walk in the only entrance, and pass by the info booth. Just to the left, we’ll be at the front of one of the center aisles. If you want to get technical about it, or worry that you might get lost, we’ll be in booth 76. That’s in the front, just to the left. See a dude with a mustache that doesn’t know how to dress himself working a booth? You are probably on the right track, but at these shows that might not narrow it down enough.

WHAT WILL BE FOR SALE:

This all depends on how much printing work I can cram into my tight schedule, some financial issues, how soon I manage to place some orders on stuff like stickers and belts, and how things go with the guest artists I’m currently working with, but I’m hoping for at least three new tees, more youth and toddler stuff, possibly a new sweatshirt, loads of new buttons, and, of course, all of your favorites. Oh, and if I can swing it, I may bring along a tub of discontinued designs to sell for cheap, but I can’t make any promises.

Oh, and now that I’m painting again to relieve stress (it works!), I may have a few original paintings for sale. This will be the first time I’ve ever done this, and I may make a habit of it if they go over well.

WHO WILL BE WORKING THE BOOTH:

Still not entirely sure. The original plan was to work it with Kate, since our two year anniversary is June 13th, on which I was planning a nice dinner a Nobu, but she has to work that weekend, so we’re worrying about that later.A friend of mine One of the coolest people I’ve ever met, my BFF Amanda, was going to come up from VA and visit for awhile, but that fell through too, so I’m talking to some people.

HOW STOKED AM I:

Completely. I have a lot of friends that I really only get to see on the craft fair circuit, and it’s always nice to catch up and see what everyone’s been doing. If I were to start giving shout outs to all the people I’m stoked to see, I’d be here all day, and I’d totally forget people, too. Making new friends, seeing people’s reactions when they see my work - these are some of the best parts of this gig. Who doesn’t like to get complimented all day? It’s been a long time since I’ve really had someone at a show scoff at my work, that I’ve noticed anyway, and since this used to happen to me ALL THE TIME back at little shows in Virginia, it’s nice to just work the crowd and get good feedback, and to be confident enough to not worry about some chump raising an awkward eyebrow at my magnificent weirdness, if they’ve got the balls to try it.

I’ve been having trouble keeping up with the blog lately because my life hasn’t been terribly exciting. I’ve been filling loads of orders, printing, and working on new stuff (including some guest pieces) to debut at Renegade Brooklyn, and a piece for my dudes in Hello Control, and it just seems like time is moving too quickly for me to keep up.

Things have been hectic, and it seems like stress is building on all fronts. As much as I love my day job, it’s daunting to work a standard eight hour day and then either stick around to print my work, or come home and ship orders, try to work on new pieces…lately it’s been more difficult than normal. It’s a bummer because most of my competitors and people who are at the same level as me in this business don’t have another job on the side. But, there’s nothing to do but suck it up. I’m not even sure if most people know I have a job in addition to SEIBEI.

I think I’m going to start painting again to kind of blow off steam. I used to draw comic strips and paint goofy pictures all the time, but now whenever I draw I’m thinking about what I can put on a t-shirt, what’s been done before, what’s played out…not that I don’t love bringing a new design together, but I’m going to burn myself out if it’s all business, all the time.

I had a great Memorial Day weekend - I think I went to two barbecues and we had an awesome dinner party? I’m sad to see it come to an end.

So, the RENEGADE Brooklyn vendor maps have been released, and wow, your man has got a LOT of pressure on him now. My spot in the fair is second only to Etsy, who always get the best spot since they’re essentially a huge crafter organization/network/marketplace (which I may also start selling on, thanks to meeting several nice members of the gang and wanting to give it a shot). For serious, people: you walk in and look slightly to your left, and BOOM. My mustache’d face:

I probably won’t be holding a huge beer bong (but, never say never), but I will probably have some dumb expression on my face and I will still be kinda fat (Mom and Dad, I live in a house with seven chefs in training; at least I managed to quit smoking, and I will start exercising more. Love you!).

I’m at the cap of a huge aisle of vendors, just to the left of the entrance. It is going to be completely sick.

I’ve been meaning to email the Renegade gang and thank them for giving me such a ridiculous spot; I imagine they wanted to throw me a bone for a number of reasons, such as “SEIBEI is the fucking boss”, but in all honesty it’s probably due to getting a cashbox with nearly $3000 in it stolen from me at their show last year in Chicago, so they wanted to help me recoup my losses from a simple dumb mistake of using a cashbox instead of a series of fanny packs.

So now it’s time to come up with the ILLEST booth ever. There’s a month left until the show and there’s so much to be done: I’m working with a few more guest artists on some new designs, and hopefully one or two of them will be ready in time for the show, I’m working on some new ones myself, I need to finish designing some belts so I can get those made, and there may be a new colorway or two of some of your favorite designs. So get ready, Brooklyn!

In other news, things are ridiculously hectic, I’m having trouble keeping some stuff in stock, there are production problems with the new ICE WIZARD hoodies that will be resolved by next week, and I’ve recently been picked up by a number of new retailers who hopefully aren’t too mad about the slight delay my wrecked schedule has caused, and approached by even more retailers.

In great news, one of my best friends, Phil, is moving up from VA to NY and into our house on Monday! Plus, he’s bringing another great friend, Josh, the designer of this very website, up to hang out for awhile too! RAAAAAAAAD!

My friend Suzy up in Boston sent me a message on Facebook once saying something along the lines of OMG YOUR NEW STUFF LOOKS GREAT HAVE YOU HEARD OF JOHNNY CUPCAKES? I’M KIND OF OBSESSED WITH HIM; YOU CAN BE MY LATEST CONVERT, to which I responded with this photo of a trip to Boston I took last year:

Man, I look like a tool.

Anyway, the other day I got this message from Johnny Cupcakes himself which made me feel pretty rad:

Hey,

Best,
Johnny

AWWWWWW thanks guy! Johnny is an unbelievably busy dude, and one of the biggest names in the indie t-shirt game, so I’m feeling pretty rad about it.

I was going to start this post off with a nice picture of my mom, but since I don’t have all of my photos on my computer, the only photo that I have is her looking exasperated while she and my dad were dropping me off at the airport before I left for Japan in 2003.

Now that I live in New York, I don’t really get to see my mom (or anyone else in my family, for that matter) too often, so on days like this especially I really miss her. She’s had my back since day one - not like my entire family hasn’t been incredibly supportive, and that I don’t miss the rest of them too, but I’d like nothing more than to just have a nice dinner over at her place with her and my stepdad like I used to do all the time when I lived in Charlottesville. Today I got out of the house for a bit and saw all kinds of kids out with their families, and it made me realize how much I miss mine.

But hey, if I keep my head up and keep working hard, hopefully I’ll be able to afford more trips down there to see them all, so here’s hoping. I love you Mom!