Sleeper Cell presents: Arts & Craft

Just finished up this flyer for the dudes who do Sleeper Cell. They're putting on an art show at the Fridge. My friend Billi French is going to be in it. I am going to be there. You should be there!

Max Levine Ensemble, Hot New Mexicans, Shitty Darkness @ Black Cat!

This here poster, see, is for this here cool show, see. Come check it out and enjoy the music.

Defiance Ohio and the Two Funerals @ The Black Cat

This here is a poster design for this here cool show. You all check it out, see. I'll be selling posters.

Yellow Dubmarine dot COM

Just launched yellowdubmarine.com. Go on and have a look at it.

A poster of firsts!

Printed these posters today. Attend audiocandy+radio's JAWBREAKER event Saturday at Jammin' Java in VA. The show begins...bah, look at the poster. I'll be selling these there. It was a micro run, so there won't be many available. But check it--they are double sided. One side brown. One side black. You don't even have to decide which color you prefer. Also attempted my first bit of split-fountain gradient action in the orange-red headband area. This is also my first poster on non-white paper. It's a poster of firsts! Get in on that action.

Fresh off the vacuum presses...

I printed these 4-color 9.5x25" posters last night with friend Kevin Gomes. Edition of 22.
I'll be selling them at the 5/21- The Max Levine Ensemble, Ambulars, Body Cop, The Gift show @ St. Stephens Church. Consider attending. Twill be enjoyable.

AC+R presents: JAWBREAKER with Tennis System, James Nasty + Dj Dredd

I drew up a poster for this fancy show. Come enjoy the music. I'll be selling screen prints.

The Max Levine Ensemble, The Ambulars, Bullfight Academy, Body Cop, The Gift

I just drew up a flyer for this cool show. Check it out. I'll be selling 9.5x25 screenprints of the design at the show. Come enjoy the music.

New Retro funky classy

My friends the New Retro are playing a classical show at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. I drew a flyer.

Sketchy McSketcherson

Here's some doodlings from whence I was on a plane.

Audrey and Me in Santa Barbara

Got back from Santa Barbara a few weeks ago. Visited my friend Graham who studies rocks at UCSB. Had some wine. Danced a little.

SQUIID LAUNCH!

Folks, the moment for celebration has come. Yesterday, Shaun Robinson and I launched Squiid, our full-service interactive web design company.

We're official now. If you want proof, head on over to the site: www.squiid.com

And if you like the illustrations on the About Us page, keep checking in because we'll soon be offering ways for you to win or purchase illustrations of yourself in the same fashion. (P.S. I drew them)

I repeat

Attend this show.

New Retro and Navid at Velvet Lounge

Hey folks be sure to check out my friends Navid and the New Retro performing at the Velvet Lounge on March 6. I'll be selling this screen printed poster there, and I'm also performing live visuals via projector during New Retro's set. Don't be square. Be at the Velvet Lounge on March 6.

Holy moley I forgot about this

At the end of December I spent three days putting an animation together to submit to the Monsters of Folk's music video contest for their song Dear God. I twittered about it when I first put it online but I completely neglected to put anything about it on my blog. To make up for that lapse, here it is now:




Hope you like it.

Making that money.

Kevin Gomes and I sold several prints this weekend, including six of the posters we designed and printed for the Moderators who opened for the Pietasters at the 9:30 club Saturday. We've still got 14 of the posters left and we're selling them for $10 a piece. Shoot me an email at obriencomics@gmail.com if you want one. We've also got plenty of copies of our other prints still available. They range in cost from $10 to $30, so shoot me an email if you want one of those too. I'll tell you what it costs and we'll figure a way for you to get it.

First set of screen prints

A month ago I mentioned I would start posting screen prints I've been working on. Here's a bunch of them. All collaborations between Kevin Gomes and me. He's an ambitious printer. We ended up laying down more than 8 layers of color on each of these designs. A lot of late nights at the print shop. Very rewarding though. Hope you like them. Most of them glow in the dark.

New Retro logo.

I've done up a logo for my friends New Retro. Look out for it in sticker format later on.

I have got to say, I like drawing afro-ed dudes for this band.

The Moderators @ 9:30 club on December 12

So I've done up a poster design for my friends The Moderators who will be opening for the Pietasters at the 9:30 club on December 12. I'll also be screenprinting a version of the design onto a 12x18 poster that I'll be selling at their merch table. They'll probably cost between $10 and $15.

I've also uploaded a photo of the transparency I've been drawing the design on in preparation for the screenprint.

The New Retro myspace design

A short while back, Shaun and I designed this myspace page for our friends New Retro. Now, they are finalists in a competition that you can help them win. Checkout their myspace page and see what they're all about. Then, follow this link and vote for New Retro so I can see them perform at halftime at the University of Maryland homecoming football game.

Screen Printing!

I've started collaborating on some posters and art prints with a screenprinting friend of mine, Kevin Gomes. I've done a few sorry ass prints in the past, using my own equipment, so it's a boost for me to work with a guy who really understands the craft.

Kevin's work blew me away when I first saw it on facebook. I'm posting a few of those images to show what I'm talking about. See that Megatron print? 24 layers of color. Nuts. Check out the Joker and Darth Vader pieces. He used a cmyk process technique, which I didn't even know was possible. There's a number of other techniques he knows that I can't even explain because I don't understand them yet. So all in all, I'm looking forward to the work we'll be doing. I'll post them as they come.

Audiocandy t-shirt design

I just finished a t-shirt design for my friend Paige Dearing who runs the blog and online radio show audiocandy+radio.

T-shirts for audiocandy+radio are available at skreened.com. Check out mine and other artists' t-shirt designs here.

Redskins Animation

Here's a project I worked on at my internship this summer. It'll run as the intro to the "Inside the Redskins" program, see it Saturdays at 10am on NBC 4 if you're in the DC metropolitan area.

Vote For My Cartoon

I'm a finalist in the Union of Concerned Scientists' annual scientific integrity cartoon calendar competition. Help me get my cartoon on the calendar's cover by voting at the UCS website. I'm number eight "8. Michael O'Brien"

Neil Young remixed

My friends Mike O'Brien and Danny Falsafi remixed a bunch of Neil Young. O'Brien asked me to remix the original "Rust Never Sleeps" album cover. This is what it looks like. Listen to the beats that never rust here. It's worth listening the whole way through.

Squirrel

Colors and Characters

The New Retro

I created this flier for my friends' band the New Retro awhile back, but I wanted to post it because I'm working on a design for their new website which is turning out nicely. I'll post a link to the myspace when it's fully functional.

I missed MAY

Folks, I've not blogged for over a month. It's not that I haven't done anything, I've just been lazy...and my computer crashed and I lost lots of files. Heartwrenching stuff, but only to me. My computer's back in business no, so so check out this latest flier for my friends' Matt, Andrew and Grady's new ska band, The Moderators. They're playing their first show this Thursday and they're super siked/totally nervous because it's with the Aggrolites. So if you've got $15 and a hankering for ska this Thursday, hit up the DC9.

As for those lost files from the computer crash and the missing month of May, I'm gonna be going through my Gmail account and recovering any work I emailed out, because I know there's a good amount of it stored in there. As I do it I'll make sure to post stuff up here in a "Recovering May" series of postings. Until then, enjoy the rest of the internet.

Blogger's been giving me the business

Blogger's been having trouble uploading my images lately so I haven't been able to post as many as I'd like to. I've got some screen printing images to show and stories to tell. Hopefully when it stops being a bitch to load images I'll be able to post some stuff. Also cartoons.

I'm considering this for my next screen print

...which I will sell for five bucks. Email me if you're interested in a copy. It'll be 7in wide by 22in tall. obriencomics@gmail.com

I was reading my own blog and...

...noticed my last three posts each contained a drawing of a dude with both fists up in the air like he's flexing. Look at that. That is weird. Something must be subliminally happening to me...it took me this long to notice.

UMD fraternities get too drunk, Greek life events cut short

A while back I drew a lot of cartoons that made fun of fraternities. It was free material, poking fun at their antics, but it got old. Now I don't do frat cartoons unless something happens that makes it too easy to pass up. This one was really easy. Sweetening the deal is the fact that people can't suggest I'm playing off a worn out stereotype-- this was a case in which the organizers of Greek Week events, had to cancel activities because people got too drunk to properly participate. We're not talking puzzle games either, more like tug of war. "Here dude, grab this rope and pull that way...oh...you're puking on it..."

Check out the story about drunken fraternity members causing Greek Week events to be cut short. There's some good commentary there too.

College Park bars give beer on the cheap

Check the story this cartoon's about here:

BTMI, Good Luck, TMLE, etc Flier designed

I don't have a lot of rhythm, but these bands make me dance...or whatever it is I do at their shows...exceptionally. I can't make it out to this event because I'll be out of town, TCOB at a wedding, but thanks to Jon of the Max Levine Ensemble for letting me draw this flier. Contributing artwork to excellent musicians is a pleasure.

Check out my rough draft too. Originally I wanted to have a giant rocket coming in at the top right of the flier, but the longer I looked at it, the more and more it looked like a dong wagging about in front of this rocket man's face. I like a good porn reference, but this was drawing too much attention away from the important stuff, so I Lorena Bobbitt'd it.

Booting Scooters

Scooters run rampant on UMD's campus. They zip around, make a lot of noise and puff out smelly smoke, and make you feel like a total dope for walking. I hate them. That is to say, I hate that I don't have one. Anyhow, that's not a big deal anymore because according to the Diamondback, university police are cracking down on scooters that drive illegally on sidewalks. I don't know how they're going to catch them, though. I see a police patrolling on a segway, when suddenly a scooter flies past him. The segway cop flips on his sirens and attempts pursuit, yelling, "Stop! I am the law!" hoping to god he won't have to go over a curb or something tricky like that.

Maybe they'll use spike strips.

Don't take his cartoon as me saying athletes are stupid...it's more that athletes don't seem to realize that the things they do (ie driving their scooter up to an ATM on campus and revving the engine while they make a withdrawal) are fucking annoying.

I wasn't sure if folks would understand that its a boot I've photoshopped on there--it looks sort of odd on a scooter--so I went ahead and labeled the thing. It's hokey, but I didn't want people missing out on the joke.

Lonely in California

Congrats to Vermont for legalizing gay marriage today and to the D.C. Council who voted to recognize same-sex unions performed in other states.

Tortoise Porn

There's been a bit of hullabaloo in the news lately about the MD legislature stepping in to stop the campus movie theater from showing a hardcore porn flick. Catch the Washington Post coverage here.