A Mystery Afoot in C2E2

Your fuzziest dreams have come true! That's right, the first issue of Mystery Afoot has arrived! If you aren't aware of what Mystery Afoot is all about, here's the low-down:

You know Bigfoot right? And the Loch Ness Monster, we all know him as Nessie? Yep, well they went and done it. They done opened up a detective agency to track down myth-related hijinkery.

Finally the story is told of how this all started. Straight from the minds of Zoran Gvojic and Dave Schneider of LowCarbComedy fame. I provided the pencils and inks. We premiered the first issue at C2E2 in Chicago's scenic McCormick Place. Comic Vault was so kind as to spotlight our comic at their booth.

Below is the cover image of BF and Nessie stomping the competition with eye-pleasing colorwork by Dan Atherton.



In Future Bigfoot News, us Mystery Afoot creators will be at Comic Vault for Free Comic Day May 1, 1pm-3pm selling the new comic, stickers, and prints from some fantastic artists. The story will continue on www.mysteryafoot.com if you would like to receive email updates as pages get added you can sign our online guestbook on the homepage. Until then here's a sample of the story for the readin':




Comic available for 3 measly bucks at OhNo!Doom and Comic Vault. Or just hunt me down.

In other C2E2 news, everyone of us at OhNo!Doom designed a tee for all the protractor and pocket-protector possessing padawans out there. The tee shirt premiered at the Nerd City booth and the official C2E2 afterparty @ Double Door which was fun (seriously, you missed the tantalizing Nerdlesque show. I think you and I both know what Nerdlesque entails) Currently my source for MegaMan or bandana-wearing turtle news, www.nerdcityonline.com/ hosts a weekly podcast of geek speak and drunken debauchery (no joke ear-muff the kids). They've also interviewed me and the ON!Doomers on there for your listening pleasure, if you want to hunt those podcasts down on their site that is!

Tee shirt currently for sale at the OhNo!Doom shop in Chicago (1800 N. Milwaukee for those in the know). or online over here:
Nerd City T-shirt!




And here's my contribution: Nerdy girl cosplayers Represent!




And final C2E2 note, I drew a thank you card for Chicago Bears' Lance Briggs, because Matt Sardo (of Comic Vault) made me.

Here's a picture of Lance Briggs:


Alsohere'smorepicsofC2E2
Until laters,

Go Tell Somebody!

Max Bare in twenty-ten!

Tired of saying Twenty Ten yet? I'm not! Just thought I'd share..

So! Its been far too long since my last unloading of updates. One possible reason for my neglect of the blogosphere could be my current involvement with Wickerpark/Bucktown's newest gallery! ::: OhNo!Doom (Chicago)





I along with Jordan, Joe, Lana, Andrew & Oscar, make up the OhNo!Doom Collective. We've had two openings so far: "Rock the Future" (Jan 16) and "Torn Pages" (Feb 13). Our newest gallery event: "A Healthy Dosage of Restlessness" opens March 6. I'll have more pics and links about these events soon. For more about OhNo!Doom, the gallery, store and what we do, check:
www.ohnodoom.com/

and more pics of January's Rock the Future opening hosted by Sadie Woods/White Label:
Rock the Future pics/


Thought Processor:
This fall ON!D hosted the "Thought Processor: Chicago series" group show at their Logan Square location before the big move. These involved a mass of excellent artists customizing paper toys designed by Phoneticontrol/ and paper sculpted by Sjors Trimbach.
This one's titled "Caught Cross-Dresser" for obvious reasons.





What's got 4 arms, 20 legs, 5 skulls, 1 decapitated head, and 4 scoops of ice cream? ...I dunno, but I painted it. This was basically an acrylic painting of Kali, some dear friends of mine commissioned. I discovered that 4 armed ladies are fun to paint, so maybe I'll do some more...



There's a bunch more I missed, that I'll post later, like comics, conventions and interviews. So stay tuned!

Mural @ FlyBird!

Behold! I have just added another Chicago shop to my already lengthy list of awesome.
Flybird, OakPark's coolest shop of five years, will soon suck my wallet dry with its "curious items for the happy home, body & mind" Curious indeed! With Julie West toys, Ragnar books, run-away clocks and instructional children's material involving peeing elephants (no joke!), how could I not go broke?
Anyhoo, Julia invited me to collaborate on a mural at her lovely store along with the OhNo!Doom Crew and Lana Crooks. "10in10" involved 10 artists/teams creating 10 paintings that make up the new FlyBird mural wall.

Lana and I collaborated on the piece below. Lana created the domesticated Octopus beast, and I created the viking-ish Tapir rider (complete with He-Man fur underoos!). It was a fun weekend at a store definitely worth checking out!






more photos posted here:
Mural Pics
/
artists involved included:
ON!D crew
SuperCorn
Paul Wear
Nerfect
Paranoid Girl
Shawnimal
Jim Arnoldt
Simon Gallo
Hot Funk

ARCADE revisited

So I finally decided to reach back into the recesses of gallery cache to catologue a "Get Knifed Together" collective show way back from my days in Pilsen Park! I love video games and gamer culture (especially platforms and anything featuring a Mega-buster or SpreadGun here or there) and I was really happy with how this show turned out. Lots of super-rad artistic Chicagoans, PBR, power-ups and 2 projectors. Trying to teach some of our generation-gap visitors how to play MarioPaint on the bigscreen remains a highlight. Anyway a blast from the past featuring megablasts from the 8-bit past. You can view the entirety of the show here: ARCADE pics




Below are some pieces from a collaborative installation I worked on with a very talented artist, Alex Willan, for this show and other incarnations:



"HeatMan" -Max Bare


"MetalMan" -Alex Willan



"FlashMan" -Max Bare



"BubbleMan" -Alex Willan

Tapirs at the Columbian Exposition

If you missed it, I had the chance to visit the White City last weekend and let me tell you, it's filled with burning tapirs!

"My Kind of Town" opened last Friday, Rotofugi's group show featuring Chicago's fantastic artists.

I chose to depict the epic tale of murder and deception set in Chicago's wondrous World's Fair of 1893, with characters portrayed by tapirs, what else?




It was a fun project where I could call reference/inspiration from the Devil in the White City book, the Weird Chicago blog, and Sufjan Steven why not? This also propels my work into an ongoing series of found-wood structures depicting simple narratives. It will probably star a variety of tapirs too. New updates and pieces will follow.

"My Kind of Town" continues on at Rotofugi gallery, 1955 W. Chicago, through Oct. 11. more info: www.rotofugi.com




This past weekend also saw the opening of "Trophy", the plushinator Lana Crooks' solo show at OhNo!Doom gallery.
In "Trophy", Lana diplays her most recent acquisitions in the mythical creature community. One such beast on display, was the "Squidgeon", a tentacled and feathery friend commonly found lurking above awaiting to release their inky payload upon the heads of urban commuters below. This specimen pictured here is preserved as he was found, loitering on a sewer wall.





The piece "Squidgeon" is a collab between Lana Crooks and Max Bare. Lana created the plush Squid elements and I sculpted the charming Pigeon head.
"Trophy" continues @ OhNo!Doom through Oct. 20th. Open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
more info: www.ohnodoom.com

Toys Toys Toys 2

More delicious toys in your fabulous faces!

#1! "Cave Bunny" custom Qee

Exhibit: "Into the Darkness" @ 1AM gallery / 1st Amendment (San Francisco)
www.1amsf.com
virtual opening




#2! "You F%#K with One of Us" custom Mutt
Exhibition: "The Mutt Show: Reloaded!" @ A.Okay Official (Chicago)
aokayofficial

Posters Posters Posters

Here are a couple posters for some wonderful events that have sadly come and gone. Boo hoo!

Below! Promotional poster for Chicago's favorite sketch comedy gentlemen:
Long Pork! for the two month run: "SODA"
it was hilarious. and involved grabboids. stay tuned for future hijinks: http://www.longporkcomedy.com
You also missed out on some wikkid T-shirts silk-screened with the design.





Flyer for the A.Okay Official Group show: "Nesting"
A brilliant group show involving an array of wonderful artists customizing Russian Dolls aka Matryoshkas.
curated by Max Bare and Lana Crooks
I did the pencils/inks. Color work by Lana Crooks