Calley O’Neill

While on a trip in Hawaii, I (literally) stumbled upon artist Calley O’Neill plying her trade. We got to talking and I quickly discovered she is the Artist in Residence Four Seasons Resort Hualala’i at Historic Kaupulehu, where we were staying on our vacation. She was sketching with a mechanical pencil, so I naturally handed her a Blackwing and she began drawing with it immediately. Calley creates breathtaking murals, paintings, drawings and more inspired by the islands of Hawaii. One of her most intriguing projects, however, is an exhibition titled “The Rama Exhibition.” Rama was an Asian elephant who used his trunk to paint canvases. Calley worked with Rama by choosing the colors Rama would use and adding her own collaborative twist to the finished paintings. You can read more about Calley and Rama’s project here.

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Mahlon

Archie vs. Predator

This week saw the release the first issue of a 4 part mini-series, Archie vs. Predator… WHAT?! I wouldn’t say this is my dream crossover, but I’ll be honest here, I will consume ANY media that features the dreadlocked badass who caused Arnie so much grief back in ’87.

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Alex

Jonathan Glapion

We’ve celebrated a few comic pencilers in these posts, but this is uncharted territory. This morning, I came across a tweet recommending Blackwing pencils to Greg Capullo, the penciler behind the current run of Batman comics. Greg is one of my favorite comic artists, so I was, admittedly, pretty stoked. The Twitter user who sent the tweet was @jonathanglapion, a name that immediately looked familiar. As it turns out, that handle belongs to Jonathan Glapion, the inker who worked on the first 15 issues (or so) of the New 52 Batman series. I spent the better part of the morning scrolling through Jonathan’s DeviantArt gallery in awe of his drawings, sketches and ink work. If you’re a fan of comics or the art of inking, I highly recommend you check him out.

The post Weekly Discoveries 04.17.2015 – Calley O’Neill, Jonathan Glapion and Archie vs. Predator appeared first on Blackwing.

Berserk

I’d like to preface this week’s discovery with a statement: I am not what you would call a “manga fan.” Sure, I read Dragonball in middle school and watched Cowboy Bebop in high school, but Japanese comics and/or animation are generally not my thing. This past week, however, I played through Bloodborne, the latest offering from From Software, the Japanese video game studio behind the Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls video games. Fans of the Souls games know that the series’ creator Hidetaka Miyazaki draws a ton of inspiration from Berserk, a Japanese manga introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I saw a ton of references to the manga popping up on the Bloodborne subreddit so, starving for anything related to Bloodborne and the other Souls games, I picked up the manga’s first volume. The story follows Guts, a wandering mercenary who hunts down monsters known as the “Apostles” (sound familiar?). It’s every bit as demented and unforgiving as the games it has inspired, and I’m loving every minute of it.

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Mahlon

Justin Hager

I actually stumbled upon Justin’s work late last year, but had forgotten to mention it here until now. His work focuses on wordplay and mashups utilizing pop-culture references. Here are a couple of my favorites. Feast your eyes and take it all in:

Dogs playing Poker

Burger Kings

He produces new content pretty regularly. You can check out a good chunk of it on his Instagram.

The post Weekly Discoveries 04.10.2015 – Justin Hager and Berserk appeared first on Blackwing.

War & Pizza by Aled Lewis

Everybody knows the Shredder couldn’t beat the Turtles in a pizza eating contest. But, for the nonbelievers, artist Aled Lewis has recreated the scene of the famous showdown here with pixel art pulled straight from the old Ninja Turtles arcade game.

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Alex

Flannery O’Connor’s Reading of A Good Man is Hard to Find

As a former English major and a lover of Southern Gothic literature, I don’t know how I’ve gone my entire life without reading single word written by Flannery O’Connor. Thanks to Grant’s recommendation (who himself was turned on to the author by Andrew Combs), I picked up A Good Man is Hard to Find, a collection of O’Connor’s short stories, and I’m sucked in. While searching around the web for more info on O’Connor, I stumbled across this reading of the collection’s eponymous story. I’ll let Ms. O’Connor do the rest of the talking.

The post Weekly Discoveries 04.02.2015 – Aled Lewis and Flannery O’Connor appeared first on Blackwing.

Judson Cowan’s Laudate Solis

Two weeks ago, a massive illustration of Lordran from the video game Dark Souls started making its Internet rounds. Everyone from Polygon,to Edge and Kotaku covered the piece, but I remember it as a work in progress illustration that never would have seen the light of day if not for the outpouring of support from the Reddit community. Yesterday, my 12″ by 34.3″ giclee print version of the finished illustration arrived in the mail, and it is absolutely stunning. My hat’s off to you Judson. If only I could be so grossly incandescent.

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Mahlon

Joshua Ketchen 

Joshua Ketchen recently made headlines on Kotaku with his “Arcade Adventures” series of prints which reimagines  popular video game franchises as vintage sci-fi pulp magazine covers. That collection can be seen here, and you can check out the rest of his work here. 

The post Weekly Discoveries 03.27.2015 – Laudate Solis and Joshua Ketchen appeared first on Blackwing.

Ryan Duggan

Ryan Duggan is a Chicago based artist whose work I stumbled upon while I was checking out Mike Mitchell’s work. In 2014, he did a series called “Poster of the Week,” a series in which, you guessed it, he created a poster every week for an entire year. You can still see some of them on his Big Cartel site. This year, Ryan introduced a new series which will feature 12 entries instead of 52. The series is titled “The 2015 Treasury the Shitting Dog,” and will feature 12 scenic prints that, true to their name, feature a dog defecating somewhere in the art. You can see the first of the series below.

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Alex

The Dash/Plus System

In 2006, while I was busy worrying about whatever it is 18 year olds worry about, Patrick Rhone was outlining a system that would allow him to make productive use of his paper notes. Today, my 27 year-old self is in desperate need of such a system, so I was stoked to find Patrick’s dash/plus system. The system is based on a simple dash that is extended and altered depending on the status of the accompanying note or task. Patrick outlines the system beautifully on his website:

“(Dash): Undone Action Item — Individual items (action items and ideas) are marked with a dash preceding them. All items, no matter what they are, are therefore treated as items to be processed.

(Plus): Done Action Item — If the item is an action item (todo), when the item is complete, a vertical line is drawn through the “dash” thus making it resemble a “plus”. This makes the dashed items stand out quite well despite the fact that the same color pen or pencil may be used.

(Right Arrow): Waiting – (i.e. for another action) — Drawing an arrow pointing to the the item denotes that it is something that is waiting on another action to happen or deliverable.

(Left Arrow): Delegated — Drawing an arrow pointing to the left of the item denotes that it has been delegated (with a note to whom and the date) .

(Triangle): Data Point — Turning the dash into a triangle denotes a data point (a fact or figure you wish to remember for instance).

(Circle) — A circle around any of the above means that it has been carried forward, moved to another list or otherwise changed status – i.e. a “Waiting” item has now become an Action Item elsewhere (with a note about where that item has gone).”

For more information about the dash/plus system and other productivity tips, read Patrick’s full whitepaper here.

The post Weekly Discoveries 03.13.2015 – Ryan Duggan and The Dash/Plus System appeared first on Blackwing.

Title Fight – Hyperview

When Hyperview dropped last month, I didn’t give it a fair shake. I listened to it and dismissed it as a band trying to do “too much,”  before really letting the music sink in. Title Fight’s evolution from one record to the next may be a turn off for some but, like any band, Title Fight’s sound has grown along with the musicians. You can’t write the same music at 27 that you did at 17. I definitely need to be in the mood for this type or record, but it has a firm grasp on its spot in my musical rotation.

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Mahlon

Mike Mitchell

Is an American artist known for his support of Conan O’Brien during the Tonight Show conflict in 2010 (he designed this poster  in support of O’Brien). I stumbled onto his work the other day while looking for a new desktop background and found a series of Marvel comics themed headshot paintings he did in conjunction with Mondo, which you can see here (in case anybody is wondering I’m using the Venom one right now).

Check out his portfolio here, there’s a lot of cool stuff to see!

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Grant

Ryan Culwell

Ryan Culwell released a new album on Tuesday, and it’s all I’ve been listening to for the last 72 hours. I’ll let Ryan’s music do the rest of the talking.

The post Weekly Discoveries 03.06.2015 – Ryan Cullwell, Hyperview and Mike Mitchell appeared first on Blackwing.

Ready Player One

This little surprise showed up in my Loot Crate this month. Although I haven’t gotten a chance to start this yet, I’m a huge fan of anything that deals with gaming and/or Science fiction and this book has both!  The premise is basic enough to start, Teenager Wade Watts escapes reality by adventuring in a virtual utopia called the Oasis. Looking forward to checking this one out!

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Alex

Midori Traveler’s Notebook (Refill 002)

Last week, I was raving about my new Bellroy wallet. The wallet has a spot for your passport, but I don’t do much international traveling, so I looked for other uses for its remarkably-sized pocket. My hope was that a Field Notes memo book would be able to squeeze in, but those hopes were quickly thwarted by about two-millimeters. Enter the Midori Traveler’s Notebook. More specifically, enter the Midori Traveler’s Notebook Refill 002. This simple memo book is exactly the same size as a passport, so it fits perfectly inside my wallet. Refill 002 features graph paper, but it is also available in other paper styles (including a date book!). I carry notebooks with me everywhere I go, but I know this is going to come in clutch when I don’t have my Slate handy.

The post Weekly Discoveries 02.27.2015 – Ready Player One and Midori Traveler’s Notebooks appeared first on Blackwing.

Bellroy Wallets

I have what is commonly referred to as “a Costanza,” a wallet so large, it causes back pain. I don’t know how it happened, or when my wallet reached its critical mass, but it did. Thankfully, my wonderful wife recognized my plight, and bought me a Bellroy wallet for my birthday. I’ve known about Bellroy wallets for a while now (they exhibit at the Capsule Show we do each year), but that’s the true horror of the Costanza: you don’t actually realize you have one until it’s been replaced. The model she bought me is the Travel Wallet, which comes loaded with a pen and a passport-sized notebook. Even with the pen and notebook, my new wallet is less than half the size of my old one.

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Mahlon

Bradley Mountain Adventure Logs

Earlier this week we were at the Capsule Show in Las Vegas. It’s always a great time with great people who make equally great products, which brings me to the Adventure Log notebooks by Bradley Mountain. Anybody can make a pocket notebook, but the good ones stand out through unique formatting, and that’s exactly what we have here. The Adventure Log is built to cleanly document your adventures wherever they may be.  Each page has a section for the location, date, companions, weather conditions and a space at the bottom where the user can go into detail about said adventures. Now, I’m no rugged outdoorsman chronicling mountains I’ve climbed or pitfalls I’ve escaped, but with the recent release of Monster Hunter 4 for the Nintendo 3DS I’ve come up with some clever and fun ways to utilize mine.

The post Weekly Discoveries 02.20.2015 – Bradley Mountain Adventure Logs & Bellroy Wallets appeared first on Blackwing.

Snarky Puppy

Snarky Puppy is an instrumental  jazz fusion band based in Brooklyn and is one of the funkiest groups I’ve heard in a long time. The core group is made up of about 18 musicians and several different instruments. They are known for performing and recording their albums live. In addition to writing and performing music, they perform as a production team and  session band for various individual artists and host workshops and clinics at colleges, high schools and middle schools around the world. Their latest album “we like it here” was recorded with a live audience  in Norway over the course of 4 nights. If you like music that will make you move be sure to check them out!

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Alex

Blacklisted – When People Grow, People Go

Few bands can satisfy my craving for fast-and-heavy music like Philadelphia’s Blacklisted. 2008’s Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God is one my top ten hardcore albums of all time and, while I appreciate the direction they tried with 2009’s No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me, I’m glad the band’s first release in over five years has seen them return to their heavier roots. From the album’s first muted chord to its feedback-laden finale, When People Grow, People Go is aggressive, cohesive and heartfelt. It’s also the first album that’s made me want to move my feet in a long time. If you’re in the mood for some loud noises, give it a listen.

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John

Future – Monster (Mixtape)

Future was on top of the rap world this time last year. Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan quickly knocked him out of his seat in the Top Autotune Rapper chair – His second studio album, Honest, didn’t meet the massive hype that ushered it in when it came out this summer.  My problem with Honest is that the lavish, slow, emotional side is stellar (title track, “I Won,”) while the party-rap side is too weak.  Now Future’s back with Monster, and it seems like the pressure of a studio release is off and as a result the material’s more unhinged. Future really benefits from the mixtape format (see Pluto), and here he offers up 15 quality tracks and one unfortunate skit.  He’s rapping more adventurously and the party bangers are back. You have no excuse not to cop this and blast it at your next party.

The post Weekly Discoveries 02.13.2015 – Snarky Puppy, New Blacklisted Album, Future’s Monster appeared first on Blackwing.

Birthright

I picked up the first issue of this book based off a recommendation from a buddy at one of my regular comic shops. Written by Joshua Williamson and with pencils by Andrei Bressan, the opening pages of this book present the reader with some pretty heartbreaking stuff. The story begins with a child gone missing and the family fallout that unfolds over the course of a year as the father stands wrongly accused for the disappearance and presumed murder of his youngest son. The first issue has a great hook and some genuine surprises. Issue 5 released this week so I’ve got some catching up to do.

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Grant

Skyline Motel

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned since jumping into the music business is that great projects often include Ian Fitchuk. Ian is an incredible musician, singer, writer and producer. As Andrew Combs once told me, “It’s unusual NOT to see Ian whenever I walk into a studio.” It wasn’t until this week that I discovered Skyline Motel, a supergroup of sorts formed by Ian and some of the most accomplished songwriters in Nashville. Sarah Buxton, Kate York and Daniel Tashian fill out the quartet which is often joined by David LaBruyere (John Mayer) and one of my faves, Tom Bukovac. Bukovac is one of the best session guitarists in the world; a multi-time winner of the ACM guitarist of the year award.

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Charles

Hard Book Habit

I’m an active practicer of marginalia  when I read and find I’m more effective and focused in notating and recording my thoughts and key concepts when reading a printed book vs. using highlight or note function on my Kindle or iPad. This site Hard Book Habit by bibliophiles (and Blackwing fans) Sarah and Lucy ponder some of history’s greatest literary works.

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Alex

The Sketchbook Project

While I was in New York, wandering through the streets of Williamsburg, I stumbled upon a sidewalk sign that read, in bold block letters, “Art Library.” “I love art libraries,” I thought as I strolled through the door, only to be greeted with one of the most inspiring and breathtaking collections of notebooks, sketchbooks and journals I’ve ever seen. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t heard of the Sketchbook Project before walking through the door of their Art Library and seeing the 30,000 plus volumes of their collection in person, but now I’m a lifelong fan. I even bought a sketchbook of my own so I can contribute to this growing, global collaborative art project.

The post Weekly Discoveries 02.06.2015 – Birthright, The Sketchbook Project, Hard Book Habit, Skyline Motel appeared first on Blackwing.