3/24/25
Given the babecentricity of our current ouput, you may not be aware
that F&L had a substantial paperback cover art period. If you're
interested in a taste thereof, Steve provided sketches, cover repros
and brief comments about working with the likes of Byron Preiss and
Harvey Kurtzman for a nifty two-page spread in issue 49 of The
Paperback Fanatic.
 
Gorblimey! Seventy pages of paperback heaven! We suggest you obtain yours post haste!
You can find a cracking page-by-page video review of this worthy UK publication here. It's available for purchase in the US through Amazon, here.
Speaking of paperbacks, the 24th edition of the venerable Windy City
Pulp & Paper Convention (a past F&L program cover for which can
be seen in the above Paperback Fanatic review screenshot) runs this coming April 4th through
6th, once again at the Westin in scintilating Lombard, IL.
Rich will bring a tableful
of art, prints and books -- the entire F&L convention
experience (sans the usual heated vocal debate over why, e.g., Captain
America has wings now, for chrissakes. Somebody has to keep the plates
in the air here at World HQ, and that somebody would be Steve.)
Detailed convention info can be found here.
1/20/25
As we dive face first into a new year, many of you may find yourselves
adrift on a sea of uncertainty, wondering whether you should steer toward the calm shores of fiscal responsibilty, or sail right
off the edge of the world in an orgiastic fireball of consumerist
abandon. Also, you may have personal problems. Well, this is your lucky
day! Our Twins of Evil are here to help you with both!
Please don't touch the Twins
DEAR TWINS: My child has to do a book report for school, but I can't drag him away from the internet. What should I do?
BOOKIE MOMSTER
DEAR BOOKIE: Ease his way back into the world of literature with
Fastner & Larson's DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND. Its gigantic lurid
illustrations and brief but salacious text will have him exclaiming,
“Books are fun!” And his vocabulary will expand right before your eyes,
with useful words like “threesome” and “decapitate.”
DEAR TWINS: Lately my once passionate boyfriend has become cold and
unfeeling. Also, he's really let himself go, physically. Our pillow
talk has devolved into something about loving me for my brains. How can
I bring our romantic relationship back to life?
PERPLEXED IN PENNSYLVANIA
DEAR PERPLEXED: Your boyfriend is obviously a zombie. To rekindle the
spark of desire, get out of your comfort zone and into his by running
through a graveyard, spraining your ankle, and screaming, "Dear God,
somebody please help me!" He'll come around, or at least, what's left
of him will. In the meantime, check out F&L's ZOMBIESEXUAL
for more ways to keep your undead guy's undying devotion.
DEAR TWINS: I'm planning a big Halloween costume party and I want to
make sure my many hot girlfriends (I'm a politician) don't show up as
Moana or Ilhan Omar. How can I encourage them to let their hair down,
push the envelope and think outside their boxes?
DC DON JUAN
DEAR DON: Use your franking privileges to send each of your honeys all
three volumes of Fastner & Larson's LITLLE BLACK BOOK and the 15th
anniversary edition of HAUNTED HOUSE OF LINGERIE Vol.1. They'll
discover enough superheroine, swordsbabe, space hooker and scantily
clad victimette ideas to power their next dozen or so harrassment
lawsuits.
DEAR TWINS: I'm in a bind, trying to add some spice to our bedroom
sessions, but my partner has one position on the issue, and you can
probably guess what that is. What do you suggest to introduce some
adventure into our stagnant love life?
SLEEPLESS IN SCARSDALE
DEAR SLEEPLESS: The problem is you're NOT in a bind. Don't complain,
restrain! Fire up your safe words and add a few ropes, chains, straps,
hooks, pulleys, handcuffs and steak knives to your boudoir decor. Take
turns taking charge, and when you've got a free moment, order up
F&L'S BED & BONDAGE Vols. 1 & 2. The restrictively ribald
scenarios therein are bound to keep your home fires burning.
 
DEAR TWINS: I've been haunted by a recurring dream where I'm sitting in
my underwear, riding on a long train that's plunging into a tunnel. All
eyes are on me as I eat a large bratwurst. Its juices run down my chin
and into my lap. I ask for a napkin and everybody laughs. What can this
mean?
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
DEAR MIDNIGHT: You are on the verge of total psychosexual collapse, but
don't worry -- these days that's perfectly normal. Curl up with a hot
toddy and a hot copy of SEXY DREAMS, F&L's feverish folio of
harlots, hellions, and horror hostesses, and discover just how
comparatively okay you are. Sleepy time is creepy time!
You've got questions -- the TWINS of EVIL have answers. Watch this
space for more life-changing (or ending) advice from our sinister siblings!
1/21/25
News flash! F&L product rises from the grave!
A recent foray into the darkest recesses of our publication archive has
unearthed additional copies of a few of our most beloved (by us) books -- books
which we've long listed as sold out:
Fastner & Larson Gallery / Art Fantastix n.8 (2002)
  
Bear with us now: this collection was published in the US by SQP as F&L
Gallery (left) and by mg/publishing/ in a German edition as Art Fantastix n.8
(center.) The back cover (right) was used on both editions. Apart from the front
cover, inside front cover indicia and inside back cover ad, the content is the
same. You decide which editon will skyrocket in value in the years to come --
we have copies of both!
If you're looking for a representative selection of our middle period (90's - early 00's) work, this 96 page, 9" X 12"
squarebound magazine is it. Full page paintings, fully indexed, with photos, drawings and a 1,500 word introduction to/biography of F&L. Text in German and English. Details here.
AoF was our first published collection, and it's oriented toward our
comic, paperback, portfolio, record, t-shirt, card and advertising
designs and finished art. Still quite a few babes, though, and an
introduction by the immortal Jim Steranko. See here.
The Demon Baby: First Fire three issue comic book series was the follow
up to our Demon Baby: Hell on Heels trade paperback. HoH is still sold
out (no, really) but with the discovery of additional copies of Vol. 1,
you can now experience the inferno of dread that is the First Fire
story arc from the beginning. More info here.
11/4/24
The right to steer the destiny of our nation and decide on our next
commander in chief is what makes this country great, so we urge all
concerned citizens to exercise their right to
vote -- if only to get that little "I Voted" sticker afterward to show
you care. So vote like there's no tomorrow, vote with your feet, vote
like nobody's looking, but vote Tuesday, November 5th!
Laugh about it, shout about it...
10/7/24
It's always happy time here at F&L World HQ when October rolls
around, and we don't have to wrack our sclerotic brains in search of a
new home page theme.
Steve merely dons his labcoat, hies himself over to the horror corner
of our digital vault, unearths several likely specimens from our
gruesome image menagery, and stiches together bits and pieces of same
into one magnificently maleficent tableau of undying evil. Dr. Fronkensteen would be proud!
If you can't even, Halloween-party-wise, Fallcon is now mere days away. Costume until your brains ("brains") fall
out in a relaxed, monster-positive environment where the odds
of getting a drink spilled on you are virtually nil. And stop by our
table if you will -- we enthusiastically welcome all creatures of
the night and any still fungible contents of their moldering wallets.
Speaking of legal tender and the exchange thereof, we've not
coincidentally added six new originals for your delectation. They range
in size from largish to jumbo; you can give them the once-over here, and in person at Fallcon -- look for the rapidly decomposing F&L banner in the sky.
For you home page completists (and Steve, who dies a little when these
things which are like unto his children disappear into the ether,) our
previous edition:
9/30/24
The future is almost here!
Greetings, my friend! We are all
interested in the future, for that is where you are going to spend the
rest of your disposable income.
We predict...that Fastner & Larson will appear at Fallcon 2024 on October 12-13!!!
Can your heart stand 2 days of a comic book convention of mammoth proportions?
Let us punish the stodgy and reward the inquisitive with our reasonably priced, mature-audience-oriented merchandise.
Farewell, my friend, until we meet again...in the future!
The Springcon venue was terrific, but since Rich got lost driving to
and from (twice), we're thrilled to be returning, in just a couple of
weeks, to the venerable Grandstand at the Fairgrounds for Fallcon 2024.
Prepare to be entangled in our web of
commercialism!
And we're excited to note that fellow purveyors of pulchritude Joseph
Michael Linsner and Kristina Deak-Linsner are not only scheduled to
appear, but will be presenting a panel on "The Art of Comics and
Collaboration." It, and indeed all panel programming is free with your
general admission ticket (as is the spectacle of Steve and Rich at each
other's throats over who gets to go to lunch first.)
8/18/24
Recent headlines have us sympathizing with a certain oft-disoriented galactic hero.
Bill: "What th...?"
Like Bill, however, our intent is to
soldier on as if everything's just peachy -- and in F&L land that
means popping up every few months to offer a passel of new originals,
including this big study for the cover of Bill the Galactic Hero #1 (Topps, 1994.) You can check them out here.
3/27/24
It's a Shortboxpalooza -- the MnCBA's redoubtable fuzzy spokesrodent is making his presence felt in a series of t-shirts...
...and a coloring book...
 
...to benefit the all-volunteer run Spring and Fall Cons. The coloring
book, featuring 32 smashing images to embellish as you see fit, will be
launched via Kickstarter later in the year. The t-shirts should be
available now. So as Shortbox would say, go nuts -- sartorially speaking.
The Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention (now in its 23rd year!) is only a (clutching) handful
of days away, and once again Rich will be bringing the full F&L
weird menace experience (books, prints, portfolio plates, originals,
jaundiced eye) to the dealer's room. Beyond our twisted take on the
genre, you'll find dozens of purveyors of thousands of examples of the
real thing, and a couple of nights worth of highly entertaining high
stakes auctions.
Plus: many shows advertise "a surprise or two"; this one actually
delivers. At once laid back and pulse pounding (and eminently
affordable,) a weekend at Windy City is the perfect way to kick off the
con season. Details are here.
3/15/24
SpringCon returns in a couple of months; this time, we're given to understand, to a new venue with
plenty of space for vendors, creators, programming, cosplaying, and
most crucially, the F&L travelling flea circus! We're
commemorating the occasion with a contribution to the forthcoming MnCBA
benefit coloring book, which we've herewith massaged into a quickie
blurb:
Like, heavy...(hat tip to the immortal Steranko!)
It's been a couple of years since we've
been able to personally foist our dubious wares on local fans, so we're excited to once again implore attendees to look for the dilapidated cardboard backdrop
in the sky, in front of which will be found not only the tangible
results of a decades-long collaboration, but the loveable geezers
themselves as well.
Everything you need to know!
SprinCon 2024 will be held from 10am to
5pm on May 18th at the M Health Fairview Sports Center in Woodbury.
Admission is $10; kids 9 and under get in free.
In the can't really get away with this anymore department, here's a cover Rich did for the American Comic Book Company's magazine catalog back in the late 70s/early 80's.
Reading is FUN-damental!
Hats off to the production person, whose two color version is about a thousand times more exciting than the original line art.
2/21/24
We have to admit we've always been pretty fond of our take on Wolverine from the second SQProductions X-Men portfolio (1983):
We recently heard from St. Louis fan Jim Perry, who told us he also really liked the image -- so much so that as
a junior in high school in 1986 he recreated it in acrylic and ink for
art class:
He also mentioned that it was part of the reason he got into graphic
design. Fast forward to today: Jim works in video production and
editing, and he recently used AI to take our Wolverine scenario to
another level:
This and other mind-blowing iterations of the scene can be found on Jim's Instagram post; here's the link.
Back in analog-land, and because nothing is forever except the
cash outflow column in our financial ledger, we've now made available
for purchase some classic F&L art from the deathless first issue of
Barbi Twins Adventures. Have a look at the images below; details are here.
10/3/23
There's Barbie and there's Barbis -- we'll get to that in a minute.
With the coming of the blockbuster Barbie film, we rejoice at all
things Barbie, and -- like the rest of the known universe -- absorb them into our very being.
 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111It's Barbie Movie II: Pink Inferno! You're welcome, Hollywood!
The movie's Weird Barbie character was made
available as a limited edition doll, and it sold out immediately. Since
all roads lead to merchandising here at F&L World HQ, we were thinking maybe Weird Barbie has an even weirder sister...?
Let the cease and desist orders begin!
Speaking of all things Barbi(e)...
Topps'
foray into comics publishing in the early to mid nineties was
formidable, and also kind of all over the place. On the one hand, for
example, there was Mignola's way good adaptation of Coppola's way less
good Bram Stoker's Dracula.
On the other, there was this:
Update: This classic original now for sale!
The
Barbi Twins were real life twin sisters, Playboy models and, for about
ten seconds in 1995, comic book heroes. We'll save the story of our
participation in The Barbi Twins Adventures for another time, but if
you happen to have a copy of the first (and only) issue, and you've
figured out what was going on there, maybe you'd be willing to explain
it to us. We did enjoy portraying the (then figurative, now literal)
hellscape that is NYC.
BOO(bs)! Update: This classic original now for sale!
That same year, Topps also published the Barbi Twins 16-Month Swimsuit
Comic Art Calendar, which featured the work of such luminaries as Adam
Hughes, Julie Bell and Joseph Linsner. We provided one of the Octobers.
So the bottom line, if you're willing to distort reality beyond
recognizability -- and we are -- is that once again we were ahead of
the curve, anticipating
Barbi(e) fever years before the masses caught it! Way back in 1995, our Barbi Twins imagery
gave discerning esthetes a double-shot of Barbiosity. Or was it a
quadruple shot? We'll leave that for the art historians of the future
to decide.
5/12/23
Those irresistably lurid men's adventure magazine covers of the 50's-70's
left their indelible mark on countless half-clad
damsels, the clench-jawed caucasians who would rescue them, the Mothers of Invention and, of
course, us.
Hell in camo heels!
We eventually created our own version, replete with sweaty captives and
brutal babe-on-lizard violence. Pretty much a dream F&L scenario,
and now the original (and five additional new pieces) are available here.
4/12/23
We
were hoping against hope this whole artificial intelligence deal would
turn out to be the next 3D television, but no such luck. If you're
wondering what could possibly go wrong, cyberbrain-vs-humanity-wise,
you haven't been exposed to enough pulp
SF. Bad machines and their futuristically yet also somehow minimally
clad victims were everywhere, and will be again we tell you! Absent the
charming little outfits, of course -- because we can't have anything nice.
Luckily, you can brush up on the revolting ramifications of sentient
silicon in a couple of weeks at the latest edition of the Windy City Pulp and
Paper Convention.
Lurid (well, for 1930) depictions of
janky robot behavior will fairly fly off the dealer tables, and as a
bonus, Rich will be there to offer up the F&L version of our soon
to be unending A.I. nightmare, plus other indispensible fantasy
babe-related material. Think and spend freely while you can!
If the whole robots-take-over-the universe scenario is a bit too
dystopian for your liking, we invite you to bask in the warm glow of
our previous homepage. It's all puppies and picnics:
10//3/22
When they're
not being waylaid by a globe-spanning contagion, DeCONgestant and
Arcana are a couple of pretty neat little conventions. The former is mnstf's fall relaxacon (low key fannishness, no Stranger Things panel) and the latter is a convention of the dark fantastic (all-hallows-adjacent, sans Minions.)
They're teaming up this weekend (Oct.7-9) to offer a little sf, a
little horror, and a bit of agreeably geekish discourse. Also some
gaming, movies, consuite folderol, and snacks. And Blackula.
If you're up for a spot of pre-Halloween socializing, we invite you to join in -- everything you need to know is here and here.
6/28/22
Grab these while the grabbing's good, art fans!
They say timing is everything, and of course there are two kinds of it,
with "bad" being the version we seem to lean toward. We've promised
repeatedly over the last couple of years to put some new originals up
for purchase, and have continuously failed to do so. "Sloth" is no
excuse for anything, but that's what we're going with here. Anyway,
it's become clear that everybody's disposable income is about to head straight
into their gas tanks, and yet we've somehow concluded that now would be a dandy
time to see if we can separate F&Ldom from their few remaining
coppers. So if you're not intimidated by the looming economic abyss,
you'll find nine new, totally fungible F&L artworks here.
5/29/22
Someone has to craft those eye-catching website home
pages that say, "Hey, it's Halloween" or "Time to Put on Your Con
Pants" or "Get Out Those Wallets, Kids", and here at F&L World HQ, that
someone is Steve.
| 
|
We've made reference to many of these designs when
they appear via links on our News page, but as soon as a new home
page goes up, the links to full size versions of the previous ones go away. Now, in the interest of home page
and digital collage posterity, we've gathered Steve's favorite past home pages into one easily
accessible archive -- and here it is.
F&L's longtime involvement with maximum rock 'n roll continues with
our album cover for Midnite Hellion's latest, Kingdom Immortal.
We had a blast doing the art, and can confirm that the tunes shred most
excellently. Look for MH to tour the US this summer with Anvil and
White Wizzard. More info is here, and the videos for Phantomland and Speed Demon are here and here.
Our new art book Devil's Playground
is flying off the makeshift shelving units at F&L World HQ with a
speed unmatched by any of our previous opuses, and the DP Original Color Sketch offer is a big reason why.
Remember me?
As the above example should confirm, each
sketch is a fully realized, tightly rendered gem-like artifact that
subtracts hours from our precious time left on this planet. Why do we
do it? Like the t-shirt says:
Also, we plan to use many of these in a future collection of our work,
so if you'd care to help us help you help us in that endeavour, head on
over to our Books page for details.
Here at F&L World HQ, fantasy babe-centricity does not preclude
frequent ventures back into the superhero abyss from which we came, as
evidenced by this recent private commission...
And this one, for a Micronauts fan with a stunning collection of reimagined covers...
We love this kind of stuff, so if you find yourself in a commissioning
mood, feel free to send us your pre-printed pages, your blank cover
comics, your sketchbooks yearning to breathe free --- you get the idea.
Get in touch anytime here.
If you're going to steal, steal from the best, right? Our latest
homepage is one of our many tributes to / ripoffs from the greatest
fantasy artist of the 20th century.
(We've also added a link to our previous home page (1/19/22), here. It's a killer -- and all ours.)
5/2/22
If you happen to find yourself in the Chicago area this coming weekend (May 6th through the 8th) and you're a fan of
pulp and paperback art, head on over to the Westin Hotel just
outside the City of Big Pork Shoulders in beautiful downtown Lombard for the Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention.
This edition of WCP&P celebrates the 100th anniversary of Fiction House, the publishers who brought you Sheena, The Spirit, and the immortal Planet Comics. There'll be pulp-centric movies, dealers, an auction, an art show, and
knowledgeable fans (as well as a writer and publisher or three)
immersing themselves rapturously in everybody's favorite civilization-undermining
art form.
We don't call it new pulp art for nothing!
Rich will be dropping by with the F&L traveling fun show, a choice selection of our books, prints, t-shirts and
original art, all lurid and disreputable enough to fit right in with the real deal.
1/19/22
Much like the old order, our mailing address changeth (yet again).
Send your hopes, dreams and most importantly, fungible assets to:
Fastner & Larson
c/o Steve Fastner
110 Main St. S. Apt.1
Stillwater, MN 55082-5161
Present reality not withstanding,
the new year puts us in mind of parties and partying -- subjects we
can't fully do justice to without referencing those halcyon evenings of
yore when bars were packed, new music was everywhere, and
three-for-one beverages were an actual thing.
There were several years here on the frozen tundra when it was all just
too good to pass up, and Rich didn't. And when he didn't, he often
interfaced with his good friend, the John -- a living, breathing
embodiment of over-the-top, cartoon-level good times.
So much so that Rich felt compelled to pay appropriate tribute with this one pager, from 1992.
[As mentioned above (5/29/22,) sometimes our previous homepage
thumbnails no longer link to larger versions. In the case of this
post's beauty, we neglected to even include the thumbnail -- so here it
is, with a link to a larger version -- enjoy!]
10/13/21
One F&L News page glitch that
may have you wondering if we have a small amount of brain damage is
this: once we've uploaded one of Steve's meticulously designed new home
pages, the thumbnails of his previous home page designs here on the News page
cease to link to a larger, more resplendent version of same, but rather
link, without any explanation, to the latest home page.
Here's an example. Click on that thumb and prepare to be disoriented!
If
you scroll down (pack a lunch; it's a lengthy journey), you'll see
there are many more such thumbs, all of which currently link to the
present homepage. There's an explanation for why it's this way, and we
don't blame you for not being particularly curious about what it is.
We'll just say that we're preparing an update which collects all the
thumbs in one place and links them to their full size versions. Then
design students, home page historians and Steve will be able to marvel
at Steve's intricate handiwork without squinting themselves into
premature blindness.
Examples of how the new improved home page linkage will work are here, here and here.
(Thumbs further down will continue to link to the present home page, just to keep you wondering about our cognitive situation.)
10/3/21
The view from in front of the
signature F&L cardboard backdrop (not available in stores) was
that Fall Con XL 2021 was a resounding success, with fans and friends old
and new stopping by to remind us that both our selves and our careers
are still not dead.
While "touching" is not how we usually describe
longtime Minneapolis comics fixture/z movie actor Joel Thingvall
(except in reference to his stomach), it was undeniably great of him to
dedicate his table space at the con to memorializing our pal,
benefactor and one of the founding fathers of Minnesota comics fandom, Dave Mruz.
Joel's display chronicled Dave's decades long involvement with local
comics, cartooning and fandom, including his contributions to the first
Minnesota comic collectors club and cartoonist's league, the earliest
local comic conventions, the comics fanzine Morpheus, and his editing and publishing ventures, the long-running
cartoon/animation zines Mindrot and Animania. In the spirit of Dave's
generosity, there were free copies of everything, including some of his
favorite comics.
Steve and another Minnesota comics legend, Bob Selvig, at the Dave Mruz memorial table.
A tip of the F&L fedora to
Joel and the great people behind Fall Con XL for helping to bring the
Dave Mruz story to a new generation of comics fans.
FCXL 2021 also marked the spot where a new collection of imagery clawed its way up from the stygian depths of the F&L id.
 
As if things weren't hellish enough!
Devil's Playground presents the
viewer with an all new assemblage of netherworldly nubiles, cavorting
about in monochromatic disarray as if these were the end times --
because they probably are!
Drawings by Rich, paintings by Steve, scenarios inspired by 50s horror
comics and a gaggle of our most demented commissioners -- DP truly is
art at its most sulphurously irredeemable. We think you'll like it.
We're almost certain you'll appreciate the opportunity to get in once
again on one of our most popular special offers. Head on over to our Books page for the details.
9/7/21
Unfortunately, Rich won't be bringing the F&L experience to the Windy City Pulp and Paper Show
this week. However, he's been allowed to roll his membership over to
the show next spring. Fingers crossed that things will be looking up in
Illinois by then.
We're getting ready to get our con on! Here's
hoping we don't pull a hamstring!
On a (tentatively) brighter note, Steve & Rich are still planning to have a table at Fall Con XL,
the one day supersized State Fair Grandstand comics extravaganza. The
all-volunteer staff is gearing up, the creator and vendor lists are up,
and we look forward to seeing everyone there on Saturday, September 25th.
8/9/21
Steve has a new update on his page titled In Search of the Lost Nightmare. Read it if you dare!
7/10/21
Please note -- our mailing address has changed:
As of immediately, please
direct those handwritten esthetic observations, philosophical musings,
mash notes and remuneration-related correspondence to our new USPS
mailing address:
Fastner & Larson
c/o Steve Fastner
10664 10th Street CT N
Lake Elmo, MN 55042-9582
Our email addresses remain the same. (And remember, it's Lake Elmo, not Lake Cookie Monster.) Thank you.
Who better to deliver encouraging
news these days than the girl who never fails to find a dark cloud
behind every silver lining? At present it
appears as though (all things being otherwise equal, God willing and
the creek don't rise, etc.) a couple of long-delayed conventions --
somewhat modified, but with actual people in attendence -- will be
happening in September.
Is that enough qualifiers for you? Bear with us as we maintain a Wednesdayesque level of scepticism for the time being.
Fall Con XL 2021
is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 25, at the Minnesota State Fair
grandstand. Details are understandably a bit sketchy at this point, but
we're planning on being there. Look for our signature F&L cardboard
backdrop (never imitated, never duplicated) in the sky.
If you're champing at the bit right now, the MCBF is
hosting One Crazy Summer Con on Saturday, July 25, at the Mermaid
Convention Center in Mounds View, MN.
All proceeds from the One Crazy Summer Con will go to funding Fall Con XL, which remains an entirely fan/volunteer run event.
Windy City Pulp & Paper
is scheduled for Sept. 10-12, 2021 at the Westin Lombard Yorktown in
Lombard, IL, just west of Chicago. Rich, assuming everything goes as
planned, will be there with the entire F&L experience.
Dave Mruz: Cartoon Champion
The Minnesota comics community lost its most influential instigator on
12/20/20 when David Mruz departed this planet into the cartoon cosmos.
Dave was our good friend and, also known as the Sparkplug, was
responsible for many comics firsts in the Twin Cities. He sparked the
first comic book club in Minnesota: the MCFA, jump-started the first
local comic book conventions, and found a storefront for the first
Minneapolis comic book store: Comic City. He was also responsible for
bringing Steve and Rich into the same orbit, but we won't hold that
against him.
His good cheer and mega-enthusiasm for the four-color art form inspires us to this day.
Look! Up in the sky! It's SuperDave.
In the wayback machine
department, the main image in our new home page was inspired by art we
did for an American Comic Book Company catalogue cover in 1977.
A more innocent time, where an alien sorceress,
her trollish henchmen, and a luckless spaceman
could briefly coexist in the same image. Sigh.
Note the utter blasphemy that was our signature at the very dawn of our collaborative efforts.
11/20/20
Speaking of
scientists, our crack team of uncredentialed professionals are
collaborating like crazy, experimenting enthusiastically on their
courageous "volunteers", and hoping against hope not to be brought up
on charges. Godspeed, you plucky little madmen!
Dr. Thumbkin
Smedley
Be careful what you sign up for, college kids!
And speaking of uncredentialed:
even in these challenging times, some things never change. We here at
F&L World HQ remain committed to churning out our usual assemblage
of synapse-anihilating imagery.
We're all on the Devil's Carousel now. A recent private
commission.
Have you taken the pledge? Place your hand on your wallet and repeat after us...
We appreciate your continued
interest in whatever this is, and remain ready to supply your F&L
artbook, print, original art and decorative garment needs.
Achieve instant social distancing from women with one
of our unenlightened F&L t-shirts!
And speaking of garments, you may
want to add another layer of protection from decent people with one of
our thought-provoking 100% cotton F&L t-shirts. Details are here.
All shirts are size XL to make things as simple as possible for our
Inventory Control Department, but cotton being what it is, we can
confirm that a trip or two through your wash on the hot cycle will
yield a reasonable facimile of size L.
9/9/20
Update: MSP FallCon 2020 has been cancelled. Details are here.
Windy City Pulp & Paper has been rescheduled to April 16-18, 2021. Details are here.
We fully intend to bring the F&L experience to both shows next year, as well as MSP SpringCon in 2021.
We'll pass along any scheduling news about the latter when we hear it.
3/25/20
Update: As you've probably heard by now, MSP SpringCon 2020 has been cancelled.
You can find the details here.
MSP FallCon is still scheduled for October; we'll absolutely be there, and we're looking forward to see you there as well!
Update: The Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention has been rescheduled to September
11-13, 2020.
Details are here.
Rich will definitely bring the F&L traveling flea circus to the rescheduled show in September. We hope you can make it!
3/7/20
All else being equal, epidemiologically speaking, we'll be seeing you at SpringCon 2020!
Mark it down on whatever it is you kids use for calendars these days:
May 16th & 17th at the Grandstand on the Minnesota State
Fairgrounds. Over 200 guest creators, dozens of vendors, panels, demos,
cosplay, a charity auction, and the kind of expert all-volunteer staff
whose brand of casually hip conviviality you can only find right here in Minnesota! We never miss it, and you shouldn't either!
SpringCon
is the one to do when you're only doing one -- but we feel compelled to
remind you that April in Chicago can be magical -- at least for fans of
pulps and paperbacks, and the artwork that accompanies them...
We don't call it new pulp art for nothing!
Which is why we invite you to join up with Rich as he brings the F&L traveling fun show to the Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention,
this coming April 17th through the19th, at the Westin hotel just
outside the City of Big Pork Shoulders in beautiful downtown Lombard.
There'll be pulp-centric movies, dealers, an auction, an art show, and
knowledgeable fans (as well as a writer and publisher or three)
immersing themselves rapturously in everybody's favorite civilization-undermining
art form.
Rich will have a choice selection of our books, prints, t-shirts and
original art, all lurid and disreputable enough to fit right in with the real deal.
This brings the F&L itinerary to October, and the second annual
mash-up of a couple of venerable local conventions, DeCONgestant and
Arcana...
Plasmos rides and digests again!
We're guessing everybody's going
to need a nice little relaxacon along about then, and here you'll be
getting two helpings of nonchalant nerdery for the price of one. A
little programming, a well-stocked con suite, some gaming, a few choice
movies, and the opportunity to decompress with like-minded fans who
just want three laid back days of retro scary SF-inspired fun. You'll
find the particulars here.
Every
so often here at
F&L World HQ, something comes flying through the transom (or
"arrives via email" for the analog challenged among you) that, as Steve
puts it, "Pulls back the misty Dr. Martin's stained curtains of time."
The latest example being this ancient ink (!) and (yep!) Dr. Martin's drawing by Rich.
"Just like the total stranger who shows up at your door
one day with outstretched arms and shouts, 'Daddy!!!'"
We have art collector and F&L fan Todd Faulkner to thank for the
jpeg. He wrote:
"You did a commission for me several years ago of Spidey and Morbius in
a Warren-type haunted house which hangs in a place of honor on my
wall. I picked up an old piece a while back by Rich from another
collector and I have been meaning to email you a shot of it for a while
-- I thought Rich would get a kick out of it, so here it is, all the
way from 1977!"
Rich doesn't remember doing this
particular piece (or where he parked his car, for that matter)
but guesses he might have created it to display at an early local
convention (Minicon? Microcon?) art show. Subject matter-wise,
what can we say? The song remains the same.
Minneapolis' inaugural GalaxyCon was a biggun in every way: acreage,
guests, vendors, programming, attendance, money flying around -- we
loved it.
Our booth at GalaxyCon. Steve stands ready to accept your insights/cash.
Extra table space = choice artifacts from our less than illustrious past.
Headbanging illustration at its very finest.
Still life with orange and airbrush artist. Mark Bode was our neighbor to the left.
We're not sure how they top last
year, but we want to be there to watch them try. Here's hoping they
make it back to the frozen tundra in 2020!
9/31/19
Steve & Rich will be at GalaxyCon Minneapolis 2019, which is coming your way November 8-10 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
After spending three days checking out the veritable constellation of top flight talent
from every corner of the entertainment industry, you may find yourself
(a) exhausted, and (2) entirely bereft of cash -- but that's okay!
We'll be ready to stop eating convention center hot dogs long enough to
bid you a hearty hello if you stop by! Look for the dilapidated
cardboard F&L backdrop in the sky!
5/9/19
Attention, Eisner Award Committee, Mom & Dad, and anyone else who might want to get in touch: please note our new email address!
For all inquiries, commercial, artistic and/or philosophical:
fastnerandlarson@gmail.com
Our USPS address remains the same, and can be found on our Contact page.
5/8/19
If anyone were actually reading this, they'd probably be completely unsurprised to know that in a couple of weeks we'll be heading over to the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul for the two glorious days that are MSP SpringCon 2019.
How about that Thanos guy?
Thanks to the continuing tireless efforts of the superlative all-volunteer Con staff, these bi-yearly MCBA events (FallCon is equally essential!) have been and remain well-oiled machines of
continuous delight. And if you've ever felt the full brunt of any big
deal national show at any time in your con-going adventures, you know
how trivially easy it is for that not to be the case.
The best deal in comics con-dom!
Therefore, we say to attendees past,
present and future: whether you've just blown all your cash on the latest
Watchmen deluxe
edition featuring Alan Moore's vital fluids mixed in with the ink, or you're
just toying with the idea of cosplaying Brie Larson on Twitter --
there's a place for you and free parking for your vehicle at Springcon!
And while you're there, we invite you to look
for the dilapidated cardboard backdrop in the sky -- and follow it to
the F&L table, where four decades of comics and fantasy
monkey business will unspool raucously before your callow eyeballs.
P
Stay with us now: Arcana, the long-running Halloween-adjacent Convention of the Dark Fantastic, has always been undead (in its way)...but for a year (2018) it actually was dead -- and this year, it looks to return from the dead, as a programming track of MNStf's fall sf, fantasy and relaxation convention, Decongestant 4.
It's baaack...
Decongestant is scheduled for Sept
27–29, 2019 at the Hilton Bloomington. In its own words: "Decongestant 4 is a small science fiction and fantasy convention geared
primarily towards relaxation. There will be good food, music, gaming, a teen
room, a bit of programming, and whatever else
you bring to it."
This amalgam puts us in mind of the dog with a guy's head in John Carpenter's remake of The Thing
for some reason, but we're hoping it comes together, because we missed
hanging with our fellow near-corpses last year. More info should be
available at the above links as details are finalized.
P
P
10/4/18
In just two days, Steve & Rich will pack up the traveling fun show and return to the can't miss extravaganza that is MCBA Fall ComicCon.
This Saturday (October 6th) marks the 30th anniversary of our favorite
one day show, and we intend to pull out all the stops, not only
hot-dog-consumption-wise, but also in the F&L art, print and
t-shirt vending department. You never know when the Attorney General
might turn his attention to the disgraceful half-clad heroine epidemic,
so look for the laughably archaic cardboard backdrop, and get that
Barbi Twins Calendar signed before it's too late.
We're lucky enough to be among Fall ComicCon's featured guests this year, and we're returning the favor: our entire home page is a currently a lovingly crafted plug for the show (featuring the aforementioned Some Enchanted Evening!) We have no shame!
P
Big doings in the F&L publication
department, which we can't speak of in detail just yet. Steve has been
working on paintings for the project over the last several months, and
let's just say it should bring bring our long, disreputable career
around full circle. We'll let you know more when we do.
Big doings
P
P
5/17/18
You know how every so often you mosey over to Grandpa's recliner, just to see if he's still breathing?
Similarly, it's not a bad idea to pay us a visit every now and again -- you
never know when we'll be wandering around the grounds, demanding to speak to the Kaiser.
Even though we have this disheartening tendency to only update every three to nine
months (a newly configured home page would be the tipoff that we've crawled out of
the woodwork once again,) rest assured we're still busy behind the scenes with our
various continuing contributions to the Decline of Western
Civilization.
Meanwhile, although you may not have heard from us here lately, we stand ever
ready to fulfill your ongoing F&L requests, whether they be for
mechandise, art, or answers to the questions of life, the universe and
everything.
P
The 30th anniversary of our nationally recognized, locally treasured institution, MSP ComicCon, is coming up this weekend (May 19th and 20th.)
Everything you need to know about this life-changing event is right here and also here.
As
always, we'll happily affix our signatures to as many F&L items
as you can horse over to our table, no purchase required. We'll have a
couple of nice items
in the charity auction, and we'll be drawing up an unholy storm right
there in front of everybody (look for the near-unanimous expressions of disapproval.)
As a bonus for those of you who aren't afraid of being
abused for your sartorial choices, we'll be debuting two new F&L
t-shirts at the show!
Steve hangs out the latest in a long line of dirty laundry by F&L.
These 100% cotton, XL-only, fully screen
printed counterpoints to whatever the nearest Bon Iver fan is
wearing will have your parents wondering all over again just where it
was they went so terribly wrong.
If you won't be joining us at the con but still crave the credibility boost only an F&L t-shirt can provide, please direct your attention to this page.
P
Alas, the merchandise gods giveth, and the merchandise gods taketh away,
We're sorry to report that our popular Tricks & Treats Hardcover
Special offer has to come to an end. We're sold out of the book, and
publisher SQP has informed us that there are no more to be had from
their warehouses, either.
Of course, if you can put your hands on a copy and want to send it to
us, we'll be happy to personalize it with one of our original color
sketches. Get in touch for details.
P
Jim Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D covers were among the cleverest and most visually arresting of the 70's, and Steve's latest home page design is a tribute to one of our favorites.
Steve reveals here for the
first time that the spy girl from our Lady Avengers painting (second
from the left) is Nana Peel. The rest of these guys hail from various
corners of the F&L and, of course, Marvel universes.
P
Here's Steve, on the saga of "Head's Up," a nice painting from our Aliens Tormenting Spacebabes period:
Alienmania strikes, circa 1979!
This painting was done in
September 1979 for Bob Selvig, a local comics dealer who moved to
California to work at the American Comic Book Company. This was a few
weeks before we started working on the Marvel Super Heroes Portfolios
for SQP.
I had a photo taken of the
painting before I sent it to Bob, and that version appeared in our
Little Black Book Vol.2.
A few years later, Bob contacted us and said the painting had gotten
some water damage, mostly on the foreground girl's legs. I think Bob
came up with the idea of painting the girl's legs as if she were
wearing black leggings, and Rich added some details to a few other
areas also.
Bob thought the retouched version was an improvement.
I saw the painting appear
in an ad in Comic Book Price Guide for the American Comic Book Company
some time later, but I can't recall which year, and I've been looking
for that book ever since.
We titled it "Heads Up"
for the book, but it's unofficial title is Penis Monster, which I came
up with in a moment of inspiration.
We forgot to photograph the repaired version before sending it back out
into the world (or maybe we did, but misplaced the film; it was 40
years ago -- we can't remember what we had for lunch yesterday.) So the
reconstituted "Head's Up" has remained one of a handful of our images
that we have no digital record of.
Then, just a few weeks ago, the most recent owner of
the painting got in touch via email, to ask about the publishing
history of the image, and included a jpeg.
Steve did some additional adjustments to that image in Photoshop:
Here's a side by side of the two versions. Yet another example of restorative magic by Surgical Steve!
If this tale of resurrection and rediscovery has piqued your interest in the art, it's currently being offered for your consideration on eBay.
P
P
9/2/17
These guys really do cram an entire weekend of high level con insanity into
one glorious Fall plenty-of-free-parking Saturday. Admission is $9;
advance tickets should be on sale even as we speak.
If you have any doubts about the extent or authenticity of the F&L
empire, observe the cornucopia that is our table at SpringCon 2017.
Photo by Arcana bigwig/ace auctioneer Dwayne Olson. Thanks for making the F&L
experience look something akin to legitimate, Dwayne!
Note the tools of our trade scattered about the table like
bolts of lightning from Zeus' forehead! We're regretfully taking the
briefest of pauses from our never-ending commitment to the creative
process to accomodate the camera-happy masses! Or this one guy! Isn't
that the kind of dedication to what passes for craft in our world that
you want to support by throwing money at it? Also, t-shirts are only
$10!
Fallcon is October 7th this year, and we may be a bit more disoriented
than usual by then, because a week earlier, we'll be in St. Paul at Arcana 47.
That's Steve's own hand there in the background,
after deft manipulation in Photoshop. (At least, we
hope it's after deft manipulation in Photoshop.)
William F. Nolan -- of Logan's Run fame -- will be GoH at this convocation of all things dark, omnious and off-kilter.
Steve will take part in a panel discussion on horror in the comics, and
we'll be in the movie room on Saturday afternoon with a presentation on
the horror comic work of one of our very favorite artists, Steve Ditko.
P
Speaking of the surreal, which you may not have realized we were, our
Steve has an interesting update on what's happening with the still dead
but apparently not entirely buried Salvador Dali on Steve's Page.
P
People are always asking us, "Hey,
oldsters, is it really worth $75 plus shipping to avail ourselves of
the original color interior sketch that's part and parcel of the Tricks & Treats Hardcover Special?" And our response is, of course it is, you callow youth!
Wednesday started out as a sketch in a lucky customer's T&T Hardcover
Special. Background collage effects added later by Steve in Photoshop.
Not only do you get a carefully crafted
artifact of our four decade long collaboration, but there's a very good
chance your sketch will end up a) in, or as the cover of, one of our
books, b) as the main attraction in one of Steve's glorious F&L
homepage collages (as with Wednesday, above,) or c) both. This is
without question the most cost effective way to play a significant role
in our continuing contribution to the Decline of Western Civilization.
P
A cursory examination (which is the only kind we have the attention span for these days) reveals that we haven't updated our Comics page for five years. We're surprised somebody isn't running a Bitcoin exchange out of it.
Some time ago we promised to put up some early stuff,
and now that anyone who may have been interested has probably gone
away, that time has come. Here's Rich's first published story for Charlton comics, from 1976.
His
art wasn't exactly -- what's the word? -- good, but the script was. It
was what probably got the unsolicited story submission accepted.
The script was by local writer, artist and fan Charlie Smith.
Cel from a Charlie Smith slide show (google it, youngsters!)
Charlie was an early member of the
Minneapolis Comics & Fantasy Association, and a regular contributor
of art and articles to its flagship publication, Wise Up!
Charlie Smith cover for Wise-Up!
#10, December 1974
He also provided literate commentary on the state of the comics industry in his dittozine (google!) Pan-Galactic Cornucopia (1978,) and in The Saturday Visitor (2000.)
 
Charlie channels his inner Crumb for
the cover of P-GC #2
Charlie continued to attend monthly meetings of the local Cartoonists' Society until earlier this year. He passed away in July.
Charlie Smith art, fanzines and
photo from the archives of
original Minneapolis fandom
sparkplug and longtime Smith
fellow traveller David Mruz.
P
P
4/5/17
The local SF convention Minicon goes way back, and Steve & Rich go quite a ways back with it.
From a modest (50 or so fans) gathering on the U of M campus in 1968, Minicon grew into a monumental, annual 3,000 attendee Geekfest That Ate Easter Weekend.
The immortal Ken Fletcher captures the essence of
crazy Minneapolis Fandom
Commentary from Commies from Mars' Tim Boxell on Minicon 8
Our t-shirt design for Minicon 28 (now in color!)
It was wild and crazy fun while it
lasted, which was close to thirty years (we were art show and con suite
regulars, because free bheer!)
Then everybody calmed down, and Minicon became once again the smallish, fannish gathering it was probably always destined to be.
After the madness. Our Pratchett-inspired cover for the
Minicon 40 program book. Minicon Floundering
Father Jim Young was fan guest of honor.
Which is all by way of noting that we'll be back at Minicon 52,
this April 14-16 at the Doubletree Bloomington. If you're attending,
stop by our table in the dealer's room and say hi. To the extent that
our remaining brain cells allow, we'll be ready to reminisce. Or join
us in the film room for a viewing of our Trailer Park of Horror.
P
About a month later (May 20 & 21, to
be exact,) we'll gird our drawing hands and ensconce ourselves in the
Grandstand at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds (plenty of free parking!)
for two days of MSP ComiCon madness.
The creator lineup at MSP ComiCon is always first rate, so it will come
as no surprise that the likes of Keith Pollard, Joseph Linsner and
Angel Medina will be there -- as well as a host of top notch young guns
we're regrettably not familiar with because we haven't been able to
afford comics for the last thirty years.
And that's another thing -- this is unquestionably the place to fill
out your collection and, in fact, all your comic art needs. We always find items we had to pass on when they first came out at wonderfully realistic prices.
There's also a terrific original art show, a great auction, costumes
galore, and enough panels and presentations to keep your brain occupied
when you just have to rest your barking dogs. Which you will, because
there's a lot to see, do, buy and generally absorb.
We're especially interested this year in the guest appearance of
author/publisher Craig Yoe, who's responsible for three of our favorite
coffee table books: The Art of Ditko, The Creativity of Ditko, and Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Joe Schuster. His
entire body of work is well worth checking out, and we'd be surprised
if he's anything less than a font of knowledge and a ton of fun in
person.
P
Looking ahead to the season of the witch (Sept 29 - Oct 1, to be exact) we'll once again manifest ourselves in St Paul for Arcana 47, which continues against all odds to be not just a convention of the dark fantastic, but the Convention of the Dark Fantastic -- at least as far as at the Best Western Bandana Square is concerned. William F. Nolan (of Logan's Run and Trilogy of Terror
fame, as well as countless works of fiction and scholarship) is the
Guest of Honor. Steve once again produced a nifty poster for the show
(visit the Arcana website to see the Land of the Giants version.)
The backdrop for this image has an appropriately Arcana-ish origin story. Steve recently had the opportunity to collaborate with one of the great illustrators of the dark fantastic, Lee Brown Coye.
Coye's inspired, unsettling covers and interior drawings helped define
the golden age of pulp horror. He won the World Fantasy Award for best
illustrator twice.
Coye
is no longer with us, but Arcana stalwart and collector of all
things artfully bizarre Scott Wyatt had recently acquired one of his
hard-to-find pencil drawings (on vellum, and apparently stored in a
mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnalls' porch -- hence the somewhat
disheveled appearance,) and he asked Steve to use it as
the basis for a fully rendered painting.
The drawing was titled "The House on the End of Verndale Street," and
was made into scratchboard illustration for Hugh B. Cave's
Maxon's Mistress.
Steve cleaned up the sketch in Photoshop, and turned it into a full-blown greyscale marker & airbrush painting.
(Gareth the undead bibliophile from our Book People painting
makes a guest appearance in the Arcana 47 flier version.)
Rich wanted to add an ectoplasmic F&L babe in the window, but Scott
-- and this is unusual for him -- preferred not to have the piece thus
defiled. We're going along with his wishes...for now...
P
P
9/15/16
Attention, material participants in all things F&L: Sexy Dreams has arrived.
SQP's limited edition version is sold out, but you can obtain the exact
same cover-to-cover coeterie of demented damsels in scurrilous
situations directly from us.
Once again, Steve & Rich plumb the depths of their collective
unconscious to serve up a plenteous potlach of poisonous pulchritude.
Herein, as lasciviously limned by your creepyesque co-creators, are ogle-able old fiends and nuzzleworthy new nubiles. But have a care -- these girls bite.
Years in the making, and torn from the pages of today's headlines in some other, kinkier dimension, Sexy Dreams is a nightgowned nightmare in which your innocence and your fifteen dollars will be lost forever.
PH
Although we said it couldn't be done and still aren't sure it can be, we're happy to present the sixth iteration of our severely
limited (in print run, not magnificent flights of fancy,) highly coveted Pocket Pal series.
In case you've forgotten about Sexy Dreams already, Pocket Pal 6's
covers shamelessly shill for the scintillating six-pager therein, which
ties said volume together thematically. (If you like horror hostesses
in general, there's seven of them for you!)
As always, PP6 showcases a hefty portion of Steve's ridiculously meticulous studies.
You'll find something old, something new, something borrowed, and something community standards types would definitely
characterize as blue.
Ready to engage in commerce, or something? Details are on our Books page.
PH
Although we love the hubbub, comraderie
and being asked, "Can we see some identification?," we don't do many
national conventions these days, do to the dearth of $150 round-trip
flights and $75 hotel rooms. Yes, we can possibly be that old.
Nevertheless, if you happen to be in the Twin Cities for some ungodly
reason, we can always be found at a couple of dandy local shows.
Creators from all over flock to the Fairgrounds in St. Paul for the
MCBA's Spring and Fall Cons for the smartest, friendliest, and most
supportive fans in the country.
Rich, Steve and
comics historian, sparkplug and legend, Dave Mruz at FallCon 2015. Have
you ever seen elderly gentlemen so rejuvinated by an event? Except
maybe the Republican National Convention? Photo by Don Stenberg
Attendees, in turn, can expect artists.
exhibitors and vendors as approachable as happy puppies with
moneybelts. The conversation is easy, the deals are plentiful, and
there's never a dull moment.
FallCon is October 8, 2016. Details are here.
Stop by and watch us try to maintain our elder statesman facades while
screaming at each other about characters nobody else remembers.
PH
Before you get your standard Halloween
on, you could do worse than revisit the roots of dark fantasy with a
select group of dedicated horror aficionados at Arcana 46.
It's a cozy (what tomb isn't?) show, so there's plenty of time to grab
a snack and a beverage, take in a guest panel, watch an obsuro film or
three, and touch base with like-minded fans about your particular dark
peccadilos. The auction on Saturday evening is not only highly entertaining, it's chockablock with
ridiculous bargains. Like, books and dvds for a dollar. Many of them.
We'll be screening another clutch of rarely seen trailers in a
follow-up to our semi-well-received review of SF and horror that
influenced the twisted F&L psyche. This time, our focus will be on
the disturbing, disquieting, often criminally overlooked films that --
years later -- still make us quake in fear. It should be a lot of
laughs.
Arcana 46 is October 21-23, 2016, at the Best Western Hotel, Bandana Square, St. Paul, MN. More info is here.
PHou get your Halloween on, you could do worse than
4/15/16
Perhaps you're familiar with The Manster,
a great 50s horror flick in which an American reporter in Japan wakes up one day to find an
eye growing out of his shoulder. Gradually, the eye becomes a
none-too-engaging miniature head. It keeps evolving, and eventually is
able to separate itself from the host as a fully-formed creature, ready
to run around wreaking havoc on its own.
Above and here: suggestive snippets from
the cover of F&L's latest
This has more or less been the trajectory of our Girl Trouble project, which started
out as a b&w paean to some obscuro over-the-top horror comic
covers, grew some extra eyes and claws in the fullness of time, and, thanks to the whim of the publishing gods, ultimately
resolved itself (with much rending of garments) into two entirely
distinct animals.
So the first book, reportedly coming our way this summer, will be a full color 48 page
collection in the vein of Tricks & Treats. It features Steve's
meticulous renditions of some of the original Girl Trouble images, as
well as the fully painted 6 page story which inspired the project in
the first place. And, as they say, a whole lot more.
The second
book will be more in line with how Girl Trouble was originally
envisioned: a 68 page black & white sketchbooky type deal. (Since
it will showcase some of his fully rendered grayscale paintings, Steve
prefers that we refer to this as the "artbook" format.) More details
when we're sure SQP has survived the first book -- because publishing
is ever a cruel mistress. Sneak peaks are here and here.
PH
Our relationship with the X-Men goes all the way back to the Marvel portfolios of the eighties (see here and here, for a trip down memory lane) and we've been involved with some interesting private commissions along the way (like this.)
Steve's
latest home page has him revisiting the always personable Sentinels,
and incorporates a recent commission we did depicting a "one
minute later" adaptation of the revered Neal Adams cover for X-Men #57
(but sans Larry Trask, and in the airbrush style of the portfolios,
natch...)
 
And here's the art in all its type-free glory.
PH
Speaking of the X-Men: Steve has updated his page
with news about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own an important
piece of comic art history. X-men collectors, get out your checkbooks!
If you're borderline pathological about your F&L completism, you may be aware of the Be An Interplanetary Spy
series of gamebooks from the '80s, illustrated adventures wherein the
reader/hero determined the course of the story by solving a series of
video game-like visual puzzles.
Video games on paper -- the
ultimate dream!
Steve
and Rich produced the cover and interior art for one of these (The Star
Crystal, above,) and teamed up on the cover for another (Space
Olympics.)
Steve doesn't need Rich! He
doesn't need anybody!
Steve
turned out an additional eight covers for the series by himself, each,
Rich grudgingly admits, a colorful little gem of design and execution
in its own right.
Now, the enterprising folks at Crossfade Interactive
want to bring the series to a whole new audience by redesigning the
books for the digital age and releasing them for both Android and iOS.
The first book in the series, Find the Kirillian, is being Kickstarted
even as we speak, and from the looks of the demo, it's a worthy project
indeed. Signed F&L prints are among the available rewards.
PH
Here's our local convention schedule for 2016:
MSP ComicCon 2016 -- Saturday & Sunday, May 14 & 15, MN State fair Grandstand, St Paul. MN
Fall ComicCon 2016 -- Saturday, October 8, MN State Fair Education Building, St Paul, MN
Arcana 46 -- Friday - Sunday, October 21-23, Best Western Hotel, Bandana Square, St Paul, MN
You want minions? We got the Costco version of minions!
Although
it doesn't look like it from this Fallcon 2014 photo -- wherein we take
a brief break to explain one of our more salacious images to a confused Flaming Carrot fan -- we spend the majority of most
conventions drawing our eyeballs out.
What would world domination be without
hem-caressing lackeys? We prefer never
to find out.
These sketches are from recent Fallcon or Springcon events here in the Twin Cities. Note that, subject-matter-wise,
the babes, bizarre situations and babes in bizarre situations for which
we're known are welcome, but never mandatory. We run a big tent
here at the F&L revival show.
Remember Thor vs. the Destroyer? What a
great battle! This particular scene never
happened, however...
Since he only has about four costumes
committed to memory, Rich often must ask for
reference material. Yes, he feels shame. Amazingly, most
people have the appropriate samples on their person, or can obtain them straightaway. The
future is safe in these youngsters' well-prepared hands!
The Hulk is one of the few characters Rich can
draw from memory. It's okay to feel a little sorry
for him (Rich, not the Hulk.)
After
a discreet, emotionally charged (for us) exchange of funds, Rich
lovingly crafts a pencil drawing in a sketchbook, or on our own special
8 1/2" X 11" cardstock, and Steve adds an additional layer of
awesomeness with color pencil. We often spend two or three hours each
on these, which is why we've never been seen driving new cars.
Even
if commissioned art isn't your bag, we cordially invite you to swing
by our table at any of three upcoming cons this year, and watch
us try to torture it into existence for someone else. We can draw and
talk simultaneously, so feel free to engage us in spirited banter.
PH
Speaking of babes in bizarre situations, we're particularly jacked about next month's MSP ComicCon (May 14th & 15th at the Fairgrounds,) where Dawn's
J.M. Linsner will be a featured guest. Fans, aspiring artists and pros
alike will be crowding around his table, because, yes, the babes are
hot...but also because any one of his works is a master class in
composition, color and costume design.
Fall ComicCon
(previously known as Fallcon) 2016 will take place at the Fairgrounds
Education Building on Saturday, October 8th. Details to follow, but
since it's never been anything less than great, we'd be fools to miss
it. So we won't.
Arcana 46 will be October 21-23, and its Guest of Honor is Kathe Koja, about whom Wikipedia says, "Koja's novels and short stories frequently concern characters who have
been in some way marginalized by society, often focusing on the
transcendence and/or disintegration which proceeds from this social
isolation (as in The Cipher, Bad Brains, "Teratisms," The Blue Mirror, etc.). Koja won the Bram Stoker Award and the Locus Award for her first novel The Cipher, and a Deathrealm Award for Strange Angels. Koja is founding director of nerve, a Detroit-based immersive theatre company."
Arcana
takes its dark art, literature, and history seriously, features
knowledgeable netherworlders, and presents a Cthuluriffic auction on
Saturday night. About the size of a smallish funeral, it would be the perfect tune-up for whatever you have in mind, Halloween-wise.
PH
Just to follow up with additional minutiae from the World's Worst Comics saga, here's Rich's original cover idea.
Apparently Comics from Hell was a little too over the top for the folks who brought you Bizarre Sex.
Also,
in the Brush with Greatness Department: enclosed with one of their
communications, Kitchen Sink included an envelope with stats (remember
those, old timers?) of some of their standard logos so we could create
the "Pop Art Productions" version for the World's Worst covers...
Can there be any doubt that this is absolutely the closest Rich will ever come to comics immortality? No, no there can't.
P
Speaking of Hell, it's apparently frozen over: Steve has updated his page
with news about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own an important
piece of comic art history. X-men collectors, get out your checkbooks!
P
P
9/14/15
Wondering about the other gents muscling their way into the above
photo? In 1978, we had just started working with the Batman & Robin
of independent publishing, Sal and Bob at SQ Productions. Our first
painting for them was this cover
for issue 6 of their celebrated prozine Hot Stuf''. Is that a great
logo or what? We still love it, even moreso because it was created 20
years before digital typesetting came along and made title design a
comparative springtime walk in the park on soft grass before global
warming. If you've ever worked with Letraset, you
know what we're talking about. Or just ask Bob (but keep your fingers away from his mouth.)
Our second painting for the boys, and the first done to their exacting specifications, was this poster
for the '78-'79 convention season. All four of us were among the 6,000
attendees (and able to swing a cat without hitting someone, if we
wanted to and had brought one along!) at San Diego Comic-Con in '79. So
if you were there, and suddenly felt a disreputable disturbance in the comic art force, that was probably why.
At any rate, the three guys in the photo are somewhere in this
realistic depiction of hectic dealer-area hub-bub. Doesn't it make you
want to wade in and haggle over a VG copy of Devil Dinosaur #3?
(Rich was thinking about putting actual, highly-detailed covers on the comics, until Steve threatened him with an X-acto knife.)
PH
Speaking of conventions with an F&L warning on the label, we're
morally obligated to remind you about two that will descend on the Twin
Cities in about a month.
FallCon 2015
returns to the Education Building on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in
Saint Paul on October 10. Foremost among the special guests this year
is Ron Wilson,
who started with Marvel in 1973 (!) and has since done covers and stories
featuring nearly all of their classic characters, including the
Thing (teamed with everybody) in Marvel Two-In-One, and Marvel UK's
Captain Britain. If you've ever wanted to hear authentic tales from the
Bronze Age trenches, this would be your guy.
A fitting apéritif for whatever Halloween hijinx you may be planning would most certainly be Arcana 45,
which transpires October 23-25 at Bandana Square in Saint Paul. Special
guests this year include The Dead Lands author Benjamin Percy, and award
winning editor and author Catherine Lundoff. Steve & Rich will
reprise their Trailer Park presentation from last year's Britcon, in
which they'll show trailers from and discuss the unsavory B movies that
forever twisted their youthful psyches.
PH
Steve just got his beauteous contributor copies of Back Issue #83, which has an F&L cover and interview, and he insists we remind you to seek it out. Seek it out now.
As always with Two Morrows publications, the presentation is first
class...and we don't even sound all that much like doddering oldsters!
PH
We do a fair number of Vampis and similarly much-beloved maidens for our Tricks & Treats Hardcover Special,
but we also get quite a few requests for bodacious demoiselles of
relatively obscure, marginal or bizarre origin. Which, as guys who can
spend 20 minutes extolling the virtues of Barbara Steele in An Angel for Satan, we couldn't be happier about.
In 1990, Rich teamed with the late, great Bill Fugate to illustrate Levy's Law creator James Schumeister's World's Worst Comics Awards
for Kitchen Sink. The story took the form of an Academy Awards like
program hosted by Siskel & Ebert-esque critics Jean-Paul Frommage
and Robert Whitelump, and their comely Woo-Woo Award presenter, Berri
(as depicted in all her sparkly-gowned splendor on the cover and
interior page above.)
Now, 25 years later, Berri
-- personable though she may be -- is probably remembered by about six
people worldwide (two of whom are Jim and Rich,) so we were tickled
when someone requested her as an T&T hc interior sketch. And check
out Steve's expert handling of her evening wear! Woo-woo, indeed!
P
Steve's latest homepage design features our very first animated gif. Wait for it...wait for it...there it is! Spooky!
P
We have 15 new originals for your perusal (12 here, and one each here, here and here)
-- including four with plenty of ersatz Egyptian hijinx going on, in
case you're as big a fan of complete historical inaccuracy as we are.
P
P
4/12/15
First
up: In case the economy really is improving and you're swimming in
excess cash, we've added a bunch of new original art pieces (32 to be
exact) to all four of our originals pages. Begin your fundage
divestment process here.
Next, a few more teasers from our Girl Trouble project...
Observant viewers will note that, like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, this new collection appears to be morphing into something...better.
Originally designed to showcase B&W paintings and pencil art, the new book is currently shaping up as a perverse potpourri of color paintings
and drawings, pencil art, and a duotoney six page story, all in the wildly popular Tricks & Treats format.
We'll keep you updated, but whatever form this thing ends up taking, you can be sure one aspect won't change...
Which would be, you know, the girl thing.
PH
PH
It's that time of year here in the frozen tundra, when a young person's
fancy lightly turns to thoughts of comic conventions.
Here's our con schedule for 2015. Steve would like you to print this out and carry a copy in your wallet:
May 1-3, 2015, Friday, Saturday, Sunday -- Wizard World Minneapolis, Minneapolis Convention Center, Minneapolis, MN
May 16-17, 2015, Saturday & Sunday -- MSP Comicon, State Fairgrounds Grandstand, St. Paul, MN
October 10, 2015, Saturday -- FallCON 2015 State Fairgrounds Education Building, St. Paul, MN
October 23-25, 2015, Friday, Saturday, Sunday -- Arcana, A Convention of the Dark Fantastic, Best Western Hotel, Bandana Square, St Paul, MN
PH
We're looking
forward to lowering the class quotient with our presence at not one,
but two highly anticipated shows next month.
As you probably know, Wizard World
throws a massive comics wingding every summer in Chicago. Over the
years, they've brought shows to a number of other cities throughout the
US, and in 2014, they arrived in our hometown, Minneapolis. This year,
they were kind enough to invite us to appear, so we'll be packing up
the F&L flea circus and heading over to the Convention Center for
the first three days of May.
Together with our usual hefty sampling of F&L product, original art and all-around joie de vivre, we're
also bringing as our guest Minneapolis' own Dave Mruz, sparkplug,
nucleus and living legend of local fandom and comics history. Look for
the big guy in the porkpie hat, engage him in casual conversation, and
be astounded by the breadth, depth and minute detail of his comics and
pop culture knowledge. Or ability to BS. We'll let you decide.
And feel free to stop by and say hello to us (probably in Artist Alley,
in front of the lowest-tech backdrop you'll ever encounter) at your
convenience. We'll be there (as the standup comedians say) all weekend.
May would be a good month to just hang out in the Twin Cities and soak
up some Minnesota Nice. Before you realize what's happening, it'll be
the 16th, and you'll find yourself at the Fairgrounds for our favorite
con of the year...
MCBA's Springcon is now MSP Comicon, and as their nifty new website will attest, our favorite local con is reaching for even greater levels of sheer fantasticness.
Creators, dealers, exhibitors and comics fans of every stripe come from
the four corners of the earth to attend the (no longer particularly)
little convention that could, did and does!
We
cordially invite you to bring any and all F&L stuff you may have
accidently acquired over the years to our table for our invaluable (in
the sense that they have no value) signatures. Plus -- as we're the
most approachable humans on the planet -- you can engage Steve in a
Q&A about the finer points of airbrushing, while trying not to
stare as Rich attempts to simultaneously draw Captain America and
consume a chili dog.
PH
Steve's latest home page design incorporates one of four paintings we
did for an unpublished c.1980 Fantastic Four art portfolio. The others
featured Dr. Doom, the Fantasti-car, and the Skrulls (invading a Baxter
Building rooftop black tie soirée!)
PH
Speaking of portfolios, the September 2015 number of Back Issue,
from the fine folks at TwoMorrows, spotlights international heroes, and
features an F&L cover and interview. The cover image is our
painting of The X-Men vs. Alpha Flight at the Edmonton Mall, for the
second X-Men portfolio.
All of TwoMorrows' publications are essential reading for comics and comic art fans, and right now, all digital editions are 15% off.
PH
And speaking of interviews, the very excellent international online art magazine TAZ The Art Zine has a brief but insightful interview with us, and nice big images of some of our favorite work.
TAZ covers a wide range of art, artists and
art happenings, and you could easily spend a couple of hours there. We
encourage you to do so, and become, like, hip to what's going on in the
wider, wilder world of illustration, sculpture, street art,
photography, and more. (We highly recommend the NSFW area. Of course.)
PH
Junk Robot has completed their F&L-inspired Damsels of Darkmyre mini collection! Have a look at the full set here!
PH
9/30/14
Even geezers such as ourselves have a spring in our step when we head over to St. Paul for an MCBA convention; we're not kidding when we say they've always been just the best. Complimentary tables. Lunch. The best volunteers on the planet.
Like a lot of creator-types, we've
benefited many times over from Nick Post's generosity. He provided the
vision and the follow-through for Springcon and Fallcon, and we were
crushed to hear of his passing.
Fallcon happens
this Saturday, and if you've ever enjoyed one of Nick's shows, you may
want to don a Superman tee (Nick's favorite character) and head over to
the Education Building at the Fairgrounds, where you'll find yourself
among several thousand like-minded folk. There'll be a community
memorial booth, and a silent auction in Nick's memory, with all
proceeds going to set up a scholarship in the Minneapolis College of
Art and Design's Comic Art program.
PH
Earlier this year, word came down from Above
(Sal & Bob at SQP) that it might be time for another compendium of
never-before-seen F&L content. Contrary to what you may think if
you've ever heard us talking about Bob behind his back, we take their
suggestions very seriously, and so we're currently putting the
finishing touches on our first all-new artbook since ZombieSexual.
We're tentatively calling this one, for reasons that should manifest themselves momentarily, Girl Trouble.
Inspired by some of the most over-the-top and
hopefully entirely-copyright-free horror comics covers of the fifties,
it's 64 pages of drawings by Rich, paintings by Steve, a new six page
story, and lots and lots of gratuitous nudity. Bonus for you
Spider-Woman fans: all of the anatomy is completely inaccurate!
PH
We'll make our second annual pilgrimage to St. Paul on Oct.17 for Arcana 44...
...a cozy convention of all things altogether ooky. Pulp art is near
and dear to our hearts, and this year's guest is publisher, historian,
and long-time Shadow impersonator Anthony Tollin.
Tony's brain is a vast storehouse of arcane knowledge, and we've always
found him way beyond eager to share its contents with anyone in the general
vicinity. Plus, the Saturday night auction always offers at least a small clawful of jaw-dropping bargains.
PH
Steve is borderline psychotic about having
some aspect of each new post reflect the season and its major events,
so our latest home page (collect them all) reflects the essential
pagan-y Halloweeniness of the weeks to come.
If memory serves, this painting was created during our Eye-Dye t-shirt
art period, when the guys with the money gently pointed us in the
direction of elves, fairies, dragons, winged steeds, and similar
uncharacteristically inoffensive subject matter. Steve has always excelled at
rendering the moon, and look at how flat-out gorgeous this one is.
(Previous news can be found here.)
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