Michael Auger's
1st Solo Gallery Show!
July 17 - August 21
R.COURY FINE ART GALLERY
(aka Jill Hackney's Studio)
Opening reception on July 17th
from 6-8 pm
The gallery is located in the Spinning Building in Historic Savage Mill,
8600 Foundry Street, Savage, MD 20763.
For additional details, visit:
www.jillhackney.com


But wait, there's more...
Also find me at the:
Bethesda Artist Markets
10am — 5pm
Saturday, July 11
Saturday, September 12, and
Saturday, October 10
Old Georgetown Rd and Woodmont Ave
Bethesda, MD
www.bethesda.org/arts/artistmarket.htm

And...
limited edition giclée prints of my "Dog Series" are on display at:
Gilly's in Rockville.

Gilly's Craft Beer & Fine Wine Bar
2009 Chapman Ave.
Rockville, MD 20852



Hope to see you out there!
Michael Auger
www.arty4ever.com

I was pulling 'Xoc' pages yesterday to send to the printer. Adam was in my room with me, drawing. So I asked him to draw me a shark. He did, and I inked it for him. Here it is below. It looks very much like an ancient Mayan drawing and I'll likely use it for the next issue. Not the the fin (on the top of head), the gills, etc. Eat your heart out, Tiger Shark!

I'm doing a series of illustration workshops for the Fairfax County Public Library system. The workshops run 1.5 hours and are free to youths ages 12 to 18. We'll work on a range of things from anatomy drawings to CD covers and art trading cards.

Here's the schedule:
June 24 7 p.m. Herndon Fortnighty
July 20 7 p.m. Tysons Pimmit
Aug. 19 7 p.m. John Marshal
Aug. 11 7 p.m. Pohick

Here's the cover. Now I gotta do a few things that aren't as fun, like the back inside page and then layout for print. Almost there!

Personal things have kept me from getting Xoc done on the schedule I hoped for, but it's nearly done. I just need to finish the cover. Here's the logo, though.

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.

If you haven't been to check out Artomatic yet, what are you waiting for?

This weekend is a great time to visit.
I will be there for two different events...

Meet the Artist Night
Saturday, June 13th from 7 to 9pm
My space is on the 3rd floor (just outside the Tattoo Parlor)

and...

1st Floor Marketplace
Sunday, June 14th from 12 noon to 7pm

For details, visit:
www.artomatic.org

Man, it's been too long since I posted. Sorry, folks. Organizing the Fest, work and life's little things just kept me busy! The newest D.C. Conspiracy themed anthology, Dr. Dremo's Taphouse of Tall Tales and Short Stories: The Horrors of War (Dang! That's a mouthful!), is now available for $8. By far the best group project we've done to date. The magnificent cover by Scott White itself sells the book!

ARTOMATIC 2009 OPENS THIS FRIDAY MAY 29th
9 floors! 1,000 artists! 600 performing artists!
Open: Wed-Thursday & Sundays from 12 noon — 10pm
Fridays & Saturdays from 12 noon — 1 am

May 29 – July 5, 2009
55 M Street, SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
Metro to the Navy Yard stop on the green line
Exit towards the Nationals Ballpark

Find my exhibit on the 3rd Floor
(just outside the tattoo parlor)

Schedule of Events for the Counter Culture Fest IV (Sunday, May 24, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Soundry in Vienna, Va.):

10 a.m.
Monster Splotching with Steve Loya

11 a.m.
Performance TBA

Noon
Making Comics with Matt Dembicki

1 p.m.
Pilesar (pronounced pie-LEE-zur) is a percussionist and songwriter who specializes in LO-FI 4-TRACK molestation. Instrumentation may include microphone, voice, toys, broken effects pedals, borrowed instruments, thrift store finds, tapes, and various environmental factors. As both a soloist and collaborator, Pilesar has released dozens of fiercely independent recordings on his DIY label, Chameleon Dish Archives.
www.myspace.com/pilesarmusic


2 p.m.
Learn to Crochet with Erica Burns of the D.C. Craft Mafia. Participants will receive a washcloth or a small rosette they can turn into a brooch. Vanessa of NinnyCat Crochet and the D.C. Craft Mafia will be on hand to show you how easy it is!
www.dccraftmafia.com

3 p.m.
Musician Jonah Knight

4 p.m.
Goyotaku (printing with fish) with Anthony Dihle


5 p.m.
Rifle Recoil
A MASTER OF THE DELAY PEDALS. Jeff Kessel, a.k.a. Rifle Recoil, has a pretty intriguing approach to his music – he largely builds his tunes on delay pedals into a big, bold sound. Some would call it a wall of sound. The Arlington, Va.-based tunesmith pulls a lot out of his limited array of parts. Worth checking out are his immaculate one-man cover of the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell classic “All I Need” and the funky Prince-like original “Bad Girl.”


6 p.m.
Embroidery with Erica Burns and Shayne of Novelty Kitten. Make your own embroidered plushie! Learn to hand embroider, stuff and hand sew a little plushie with members of the D.C. Craft Mafia.
www.dccraftmafia.com


7 p.m.
Geeks of comedy
The Geek Comedy Tour is a collective of the funniest stand-up comedians from the Washington DC area. Each one is an experienced comic, having performed at bars, clubs, and colleges all over the East Coast. Telling their normal jokes to normal audiences but all of that was about to change.
There was something amiss. For you see, they were all gigantic dorks, and comedy club crowds don't fully appreciate jokes about comic books, anime, and video games. So, they've decided to let their freak flag fly, form together, and bring their geek jokes to the horde that needs them most. Since their formation two years ago, The Geek Comedy Tour has performed at a variety of venues, from anime conventions, college shows, and even the grand opening of a comic shop!
www.geekcomedytour.com

8 p.m.
Michael Auger’s black-light workshop
Auger displays his techniques to crafting art that shine day-glo under black lighting.
www.arty4ever.com

9 p.m.
Donald Keesing
Keesing was the singer and rhythm guitarist for Rain Crow in 1988/89 and Mink Ranch in 1990. He sang with the short-lived 1982 DC Punk band White Zombies (not to be confused with the very popular NY band with the singular version of that name). He is currently working with Randy Austin (Overkill -DC '76, Slim Jims, Graverobbers w/Karl Straub, Throwbacks...) Bob Young (Tru Fax & The Insaniacs) and CB (Martha Hull & The Steady Jobs) in a band called Dollar Bin.

The 4th Annual Counter Culture Festival, brought to you by the DC Conspiracy, will be held at this year at The Soundry! Comics, zines, arts and crafts, entertainment and more!

Admission: FREE!

This Sunday, May 24th, at the Soundry in Vienna, Va.
10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

For details, visit:
http://dcconspiracy.com/events

Tables for the 4th Annual Counter Culture Festival are sold out.

30 vendors will sell their wares on Sunday, May 24th, at The Soundry in Vienna, VA. Below are write ups and Web links to several of them (the ones that responded to the request for info.)

8th Street Soaps are made from scratch in small batches with quality natural ingredients and a dash of whimsy. Based in DC, our goal is to make the world a better-smelling place. Visit www.8thStreetSoap.com.

Arty4ever.com offers offbeat artwork by Michael Auger. Discover an assortment of animals, crazy characters, mythical monsters, and more. Many of his unique paintings and gifts react to blacklight or glow in the dark. All are guaranteed to provoke a smile and are perfect for kids and kids-at-heart. Visit www.arty4ever.com.


August Adams is the author of National Darkroast Day, a satirical novel about a coffee company that tries to conquer America. He is also the author of the comic story 'Froggie.' Visit www.nationaldarkroastday.com

Bamn is the underdog tale of a down-and-out professional wrestler written and illustrated by the team of Jay Payne, David Dean, and Troy Jeffrey Allen. Surly and homeless, Bamn finds purpose when he decides to mentor a group of bullied high school misfits. The comic has been featured in The Gazette and The Washington Post. Visit www.BamnCan.com.

Andrew Cohen is the maker of Howzit Funnies, a collection of hijinx, rhythms, doodads and jazz, all put to a comic book beat. More information on his Funnies and other projects at howzitfunnies.blogspot.com.

Curls Studio's Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo will be selling original comics, greeting cards, handmade stuffed character dolls and more. The self-published comics include Curls, Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales,and The Legettes. Visit www.curls-studio.blogspot.com

John Bintz is wherever technology meets sequential art. He writes and draws two all-ages comic stories: A Moment of Clarity, the highly praised humor/slice-of-life comic adventure, and Dawn's Dictionary Drama, an experiment in forced creativity and utter silliness. He also works on the Inkscape and ComicPress projects, and he creates tools to speed up the production of Web and print comic projects.
A Moment of Clarity - http://claritycomic.com/
Dawn's Dictionary Drama - http://www.dawnsdictionarydrama.com/
WordPress Plugins for Webcomic authors - http://www.coswellproductions.com/wordpress/wordpress-plugins/

Jerry Carr is a local cartoonist who co-created the popular all-ages comic Cryptozoo Crew (currently in development as a major motion picture) with writer Allan Gross. Jerry is currently working with his cohorts in Badmonkeybrain Studios, and is developing two new comic properties--TikiMonkeyGirl and Brew Lagoon.

Full Sanction hates describing itself. It's a comic, it's a lifestyle, it's a friendship, it's a rivalry. It's black and white in a world of grays. And it has grays. Visit www.fullsanction.com.

Just for Jake: Hi! My name is Jake! I am a very happy 5 year old boy who has two rare conditions: Angelman Syndrome (AS) (caused by missing a part of chromosome 15) and agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) (absence of the major nerve cord in my brain). For more info about me and these conditions, please take a card and check out my website www.justforjake.org.
My Mom and Nana started making jewelry to raise money for my equipment and many therapies that will help me learn to walk and talk. I am making a lot of progress in big part with help from people like you! I can now walk with one supporting hand and can say "Mama" and "Papa."

Jen-A-Fusion Fashion Accessories offers hand-crafted fashion accessories, made from recycled, reclaimed, vintage and new materials. Visit jenafusion.blogspot.com

Steve Loya is an art teacher in the Northern Virginia area who also enjoys making some of his own art. He can be found dabbling in curious line drawings, paint splotch monsters, acrylic turtle portraits and creepy custom toys--whatever interests him at the moment. Visit http://steveloyaart.blogspot.com/

Brian Maze is the independent comic book creator of the supernatural themed Freak Central starring Monkeygoatboy and the fishmarket tale Flounder. More information can be found at www.monkeygoatboy.com

Shayne Rioux and her cat Patsy are the evil mistressminds behind Novelty Kitten. They offer silly cards and pins, Mustachio the puppet and more. Shayne can be found online at noveltykitten.com, transcraftinental.com and geekcrafts.com.

Rebecca Simms is the creator of the sassy ninja comedy, Girl Ninja. Join Girl Ninja 'Sazumi' as she battles her way though demon and zombie foes from one end of the mall to the other, in this one-two punch, dark assassin comedy. Book one comic is available along with new mens and womens fitted tee shirts at the DC Counter Culture Festival IV. Free GN stickers will be handed out when you stop by the table. Visit www.myspace.com/girlninja

Skulls for breakfast, brains for lunch, we only want your fun stuff. Visit skullsforbreakfast.com.

Spaghetti Kiss is a company that features the apparel design and graphic novel work of Baltimore based artist, Michael Bracco. Visit Spaghettikiss.com

Three Crows Press is the self-publishing outfit of Matt Dembicki. Its comics include the awarding-winning Mr. Big, the space opera Spadefoot, the sci-fi thriller Liquid Revolver and the soon-to-be published Xoc. Visit threecrowspress.blogspot.com

tiny ghosts is a creepy, melancholy, sometimes depressing, sometimes darkly humorous, weekly, photo Web comic. Each comic is a combination of two sentences of a story and two photographs. The viewer is encouraged to use this fragment as a seed and develop the rest of the story in their own minds. http://www.tinyghosts.com

Saturday, May 16th
Noon to 5pm
Baltimore Ave & Longfellow Street
Hyattsville, MD

• 30+ exhibitors
• 4 live performances
• Food & drink by Franklin’s, Ben & Jerry’s and Café Azul
• Additional artwork by ArtDC.org artists
• And more!

A free shuttle is available from West Hyattsville Metro (green line).

For details, visit:
www.HyattsvilleArts.com

This cracks me up. Here's a rapper-turned-hockey fan who changes is last name to Ovechkin. God love 'im! And "Go, Caps!"

Wale on First Take from Elitaste on Vimeo.

Whoa. Waaaay too long between posts. It's been a busy month, so I guess that's my excuse. Here's my favorite page so far from my shark book, which I think will be available in about a month.

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 will have a limited edition giclée print of my poodle painting, "Chien Fou-Fou" at the...

Pink-a-Palooza Auction
Friday, May 8th
8600 Foundry St Suite 217A
Savage, MD 20763
http://www.jillhackney.com

50% of the sale proceeds for the the Pink-a-Palooza Auction will go to the Blossoms of Hope Foundation.

...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

...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.

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.

This Sunday is the 3rd annual Bow Wow Pow Wow in Adams Morgan!

It's a fun, pet-themed festival and I will have lots of new animal artwork for sale!

Sunday, April 26, 11:00 am - 5:00pm
Location: Marie Reed School Plaza
(2200 block of 18th St NW at Wyoming Ave.)

COME OUT AND HAVE A DOGTASTIC TIME!

—Michael

Check the story this cartoon's about here:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227044.200-avoid-a-future-cataclysm-forget-the-past.html

In which more credence is lent to 42 being The Answer and anything is possible ... if we just forget.

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.

If you’re coming out to SPACE this weekend, be sure to stop by and visit! I’ll have copies of The Big Boss on Level 10, assorted Candynomics minis, and new minicomics for Dawn’s Dictionary Drama for sale!

Here's page 16, inked.

The pencils of page 14 of my next big project. I'll be serializing it every 20 pages (as I did with Mr. Big)--so it's not too far off!

Here's another panel from the League of Lincoln book that I'm working on with Evan Keeling. It's a nice panel with lotsa dark contrasts. I haven't finished inking the Capitol, but I think it captures how I usually work. Evan pencils fairly tightly, but I still sometimes pencil over it because it's light in some areas. It gives me more confidence when I'm inking that I won't screw something up!

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.

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.

FLUX 2009

Saturday, April 18, 6 pm - 12 am
3213 Columbia Pike
South Arlington, VA 22204
Free !

Artists: Michael Auger, Jennifer Beinhacker, Goldman Casey, Brian Chenoweth, Matthew Clark, Jacob Cohen, Andrea Collins, Paula Endo, Cavan Fleming, Vickie Fruehauf, Kevin Irvin, Julianne Fuchs-Musgrave, Mimi Xang Ho, Albert Kim, Angela Kleis, Ashira ‘2C’ Malka, Bono Mitchell, Joe Morey, Caren Quinn, Heather Schmaedeke, Raju Singh, Kimberly Stark, Ashley Sullivan, Henrik Sundqvist, Davin Tarr, Meghan Taylor, Duy Tran, Joel Traylor, Pindar Van Arman, Peter Van Riper, Liz Vance, Lloyd Wolf

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.

I had a brief interview posted at the D.C. Conspiracy Web site. It includes an inked-put-unlettered page from an upcoming series I'm working on. The first issue will be ready for SPX...I hope!

Flux
Saturday, April 18
3213 Columbia Pike • Arlington, VA 22204
http://artoutlet.org

Bow Wow Pow Wow
Sunday, April 26
2200 18th St NW and Wyoming Ave • Washington, DC 20009
http://bowwowpowwow.com

Pink-a-Palooza Auction
Friday, May 8
8600 Foundry St Suite 217A • Savage, MD 20763
http://www.jillhackney.com

Hyattsville Arts Festival
Saturday, May 16
Longfellow St and Baltimore Ave • Hyattsville, MD 20871
http://www.hyattsvillearts.com

ArtDC 12x12" show
Saturday, May 16 - Saturday, June 6
5710 Baltimore Ave • Hyattsville, MD 20871
http://www.artdc.org

D.C. Conspiracy's Counter Culture Festival
Sunday, May 24
316 Dominion Rd • Vienna, VA 22180
http://www.dcconspiracy.com

Artomatic
Friday May 29 - Sunday, July 5
55 M St, S.E. • Washington, DC 20003
http://www.artomatic.org

Hope to see you out there!
—Michael

As you’re reading this blog post, I am diligently plugging away at Chapter 4! Here’s a sneak peek:

And, sometimes when I’m working on the next chapter, I’ll stream my drawing sessions live onto Ustream! I announce my drawing sessions on Twitter, so be sure to follow me so that you’ll know when you can watch me draw LIVE!

Almost done adding grays to my five-page Plastic Farm story. Here are the first two panels (though it still needs a little touch up).

Something tickles me about stoner activists who don't drink Starbucks because they claim the company exploits coffee bean farmers.

I've made another animation. It's running on the Diamondback website tomorrow and my vimeo page forever. Enjoy.

I went to the dentist the other day to get a cavity filled. Adam asked me what cavities were. He then went off and on his own and drew a set of teeth--complete with cavities (that's why they're all black). Ha!

'Liquid Revolver' is officially for sale! The 68-page book features the talents of D.C. area artists, such as Scott White, Chris Piers, Mal Jones, Dale Rawlings, Mike Short, Khalid Iszard and yours truly! What's it about? Nazis and mind control. How can you not wanna peek? It's $6, and I'll throw in free shipping. If you'd like to buy a copy, e-mail: threecrowspress(at)gmail(dot)com.

Bash Magazine has gone exclusively online with the March issue. I've got a profile page there that includes the work I've done for the mag. What really stunned me was the photo when I clicked on the link! Ha! Good times!