Levon Jihanian

Danger Country reviewed on The Comics Journal

2011-12-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to receive this mostly positive review of Danger Country #1. I've started on #3 and hope it will be out in time for SPX next year. I also have some other Danger Country related things going on which I hope to announce next month.

A Princess of Mars

2011-11-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

Just did an illustration of A Princess of Mars for the latest Art Order. Trying to get my sci-fi/fantasy skills up.

APE 2011

2011-09-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be at APE, and there's a few details you should know.

1. I have a table this year! I'm sharing table #255 with my publisher Tim Goodyear/Teenage Dinosaur. He'll have a bunch of awesome books, including...

2. Danger Country #2!!!! It will debut at APE. Danger Country #1 got nominated for 2 Ignatz awards. Can #2 possibly live up to its predecessor? The answer is.... Yes. Yes, it can.

3. I'll also have a RANGER STEEL mini-comic, compiling the first 10 Ranger Steel web strips in a format deadly to trees. I'll also have some old books and zines including DANGER COUNTRY #1, FORK FRENZY #1, ORDINARY FIELDBOOK, and THE ONLY ONE THERE COULD EVER BE which is an illustrated book of extremely personal poems based on the Highlander movies.

4. I'll also have some posters!

5. And on Saturday, I'll be on the Comics Claptrap Live! Panel. That's at 2:00 PM.

A Fan

2011-09-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

Last week I got this e-mail and attached picture from Eli Bishop of Global Hobo:

hi Levon,
Thought you'd like to know that this elderly lady walked into SF Zine Fest randomly having no idea what it was, went to the Global Hobo table and read Danger Country #1 intently from cover to cover, laughed gleefully, said "I love this kind of writing!", put it down and moved on without buying anything.
best,
Eli

I love stories like this as long as I'm not there to witness it.

Dylan Williams

2011-09-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

That's him, second from the left. This is the only picture with both me and Dylan that I could find. ©David King.

Yesterday afternoon my friend Dylan Williams passed away after a long fight with cancer. He was the cartoonist behind Reporter and was the publisher of Sparkplug Comic Books. I really can't say much about him that hasn't been already said better elsewhere. I just wanted to share some of my Dylan observations from over the years.

I can't remember the first time I met Dylan. I almost always saw him in the context of a comic convention. He'd share a table with Tom Neely, and Tom would let me have a spot at his table, so we'd spend most of the weekend together. Comics folks, no matter how well adjusted they are at home around their friends, become socially awkward and dysfunctional when they are in the same room together. It happens to me, still, and it's hard to not blame myself for not being congenial enough or saying the wrong thing. Dylan didn't seem to have this problem, but he was really good at spotting it. He had this particular sidle he'd do, that always made me secretly smile. If you ever saw Dylan at a convention you'd know what I'm talking about. He'd spot you having an awkward moment with another comics person, or with a customer, and he'd sidle over and interrupt, and make a recommendation or compliment one of the people or jokingly insult one of the people or just say whatever needed to be said, and everyone would be at ease.

When we visited portland years ago, Lila and I stayed with a friend who didn't have a car so we walked everywhere, and even though we didn't plan on it, we kept running into Dylan all over the city. Any time he saw us walking around, he'd make a crazy U-turn and drove us to wherever we were headed even though he didn't know me that well at that point.

He encouraged me to make comics, and said nicer things to me than I ever felt I deserved. As a publisher his attitude seemed so insane to me at times. He built the careers of so many great cartoonists, but never strived to make a name for himself off of their efforts. He just loved the work.

His absence at San Diego Comic-con this year was really felt hard by me. In all that insanity, he was a center of gravity. Without him, it was just too crazy. I won't be going to Comic-con next year. Goodbye Dylan, I love you.

Danger Country #2 Preview

2011-09-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post a couple of preview pages from Danger Country #2. It's at the printers and should be out in time for APE, on October 1 and 2. I'll be exhibiting there with my publisher, Teenage Dinosaur. at booth #255. More on that later.

If you're at SPX this weekend please vote for Danger Country #1 for outstanding comic or outstanding mini-comic! Tom Neely will be selling copies at the I Will Destroy You booth.

Danger Country 1 nominated for 2 Ignatz awards!

2011-08-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to quickly congratulate myself on getting nominated for 2 Ignatz awards! One for Outstanding Comic and another one for Outstanding Mini-comic. I'm standing side by side with some big league names, there. Pretty impressive!

If you end up going to SPX, please please give me a little vote or two! I'm going to go ahead and be honest with you and tell you that Danger Country is the best work I've ever done. It really deserves to win and if you read it you will agree. If you haven't read it yet, give a little click on the big graphic on the right side of the screen and buy it from the Fork Frenzy shop. Anyone who knows me will be surprised by my outspken self-confidence, but I'm damn proud of myself and I'm proud of myself for being proud of myself.

In other news, I'm now selling PDF eBooks on the ForkFrenzy shop. Right now we have 3 new David King titles for sale, for super cheap. Please buy!

color study

2011-08-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

Did I ever post this? It's a color study I did off of a film still. It's supposed to be Deborah Kerr but I think it looks more like my mom. Anyway, I was most interested in the surprisingly subtle Technicolor tones on her face. kind of a warm green?

Danger Country 1 and San Diego Comic-Con

2011-07-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

At long last, Danger Country #1, the definitive larger version published by Teenage Dinosaur, is in my hands and ready for sale! You can buy it at the Fork Frenzy store, or you can buy it at San diego Comic Con, at the Revival House/Koyama booth in the alternative comics gulag! booth Q-12. I'm going to try to hook up a gps thingie so that you can find me at the convention at any given time, and if you're lucky, maybe you'll find out my secret comic-con restroom. Anyway, up there is the new cover with finished logo, and below is the back cover, and a sneak peak of the cover for #2!!! What????!!!! Yes!!!! It should be available at APE.

Silverlake Jubilee

2011-05-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

I'll be doing a comics reading this Saturday at the Silverlake Jubilee next to some pretty amazing cartoonists.

more commissions

2011-05-09T00:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of more commissions I worked on recently:

This one is of Tyrion Lannister, a character from the Song of Ice and Fire books, or better known as the TV adaptation, Game of Thrones, Sundays 9/8c only on HBO.

This one here was for a "hot asian nurse holding an alien baby." This was a hard one for me.

And finally this one is of a "zombie wombat attacking a pack of dingos." People are weird.

Little Commissions

2011-05-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

Here's some little commissions I did to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. I still have a few more of these to do. I'll post them when they're done.

Danger Country 2 Progress #1

2011-04-21T12:05:00.001-07:00

Working on the second cover.

For a limited time: Danger Country #1 available for free online

2011-04-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded the entirety of Danger Country #1 online. It will be up until April 14th.

Thanks for checking it out. You can buy a copy of it at the Fork Frenzy shop.

That's less than a week. Meanwhile, I'm working really hard to finish Danger Country #2 by the end of May! Stay tuned for some exciting news about Danger Country released in full color.

In other news, I'll be attending the Stumptown comics fest in Portland. It will take place April 16th and 17th. And guess what... DC#1 was nominated for a Maisie Kukoc Award for Comics Inspiration!!!!!!!!! It's up against some amazing comics, among which are comics by Dan Zettwoch and Kevin Huizenga who have been among my heroes since I started drawing comics 10 years ago. Anyway, if you read mini comics, head over to the site and request a ballot by e-mailing reklaw@slowwave.com.

Update: My other host crashed, so the I moved the file to my other, cooler host and hopefully it won't be a problem anymore.

Fan Art

2011-03-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

Ever since the holidays, I've been also obsessed with the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. HBO is adapting it for the little screen in the upcoming Game of Thrones television series. I am pumped!!!! Many others have said it better, but this series is incredibly immersive and incredibly addictive. I am waiting with bated breath For the TV series, and am clawing my eyes out waiting for the 5th novel in the series, A Dance with Dragons which is supposed to come out this summer.

So I drew/painted a couple of little fan art pieces, both depicting scenes with trees. The first one is one of the first scenes of the first book (A Game of Thrones) where Eddard sharpend his family sword, Ice, under the Heart Tree of Winterfell's Godswood. The second one is linked below and is way too spoilerific to describe, but it includes events that occur at the end of the 4th book (A Feast for Crows).

You can see the other spoiler-ridden one here.

While I'm posting fan art, I also wanted to post this drawing I did of David King's character, Lemon Styles.

Paintings

2011-03-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

My main problem as an artist is that I am easily distracted and excitable by new kinds of projects. Rather than try to avoid these impulses, I've made it my philosophy to embrace them, and see where they take me. One of my latest obsessions has been painting digitally. My career roots are in oil painting, and I gave it up due to fumes and constraints on studio space. It's nice to revisit the same concepts but on the computer. I see it as a step away from traditional gallery art which feels less and less relevant to me every day and into the print/web publishing art space. I still love original art objects, but I love other things too.

Anyway, here are a couple of examples. I still feel like I'm in my baby steps, but there you are.

Game Over IV at GRSF

2011-02-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

I have 2 pieces in the Game Over show at Giant Robot San Francisco. If you're in town, hop in and take a look! Info below:

Game Over IV at GRSF, March 4, 2011 - March 30, 2011

Reception: Friday, March 4, 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm

GRSF
618 Shrader Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
gr-sf.com
415-876-4773

Giant Robot is proud to present Game Over IV, a group show that pays homage to the continuous evolution of videogames and their massive influence on popular culture. The impact and inspiration of videogames will be represented through a wide assortment of styles and genres provided by top artists in the fields of illustration, painting, sewing, indie comics, and videogames. Contributors are scheduled to include the following:

Lala Albert
Esao Andrews
Nick Arciaga
Andrice Arp
Jesse Balmer
Sasha Barr
Niv Bavarsky
Eric Broers
Aaron Brown
Jeffrey Brown
Jude Buffum
David Chung
Farel Dalrymple
Enfu
Ines Estrada
Jesse Fillingham
Cam Floyd
Matt Furie
Nick Gazin
Mark Giglio
Peter Hamlin
Paul Hornschemeier
David Horvath
Martin Hsu
Rama Hughes
Levon Jihanian
Kinuko
Chris Kuzma
Patrick Kyle
Ginette Lapalme
Little Friends of Printmaking
Kiyoshi Nakazawa
Mare Odomo
Physical Fiction
Ferris Plock
Silvio Porretta
Jarrett Quon
Jesse Reklaw
Rob Sato
Cory Schmitz
Dave Stolte
Superbrothers
Daria Tessler
Jeremy Tinder
Chris Ward
Steven Weissman
Leslie Winchester
Calvin Wong
Jeni Yang
Lawrence Yang
Derek Yu

Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as an online equivalent.

A reception featuring many of the artists will be held from 6:30 - 10:00 on Friday, March 4.

Holiday Gift Giving Ideas

2010-12-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I updated. I've been busy working on a few pieces for a couple of shows, and drawing Danger Country #2. Here's some info on some inexpensive new LJ drawings and paintings.

First off, I have a couple of pieces in the Grab N Go show at Neon Forest gallery in Orlando, Florida. Every piece in the show is $100 and it's cash and carry, so you can have it in time for hanging above your christmas stockings.

December 11th 2010 – January 06th 2010
“THE GRAB-N-GO SHOW”
Neon Forest Proudly Presents: “THE GRAB-N-GO SHOW”
A group show featuring works of art for $100 or less

Featuring the artwork of:
Mildred, Pacolli, Sergie Loobkoff, Jeremy Kennedy, Blake Marquis, Mat Curran, Dres13, Scott Donald, Sean Hartman, Dustin Orlando, Grayson Castro, Chris Musina, Scott Lefavor, Jeff Dekal, Plinio Pinto, Brandon Mclean, Jay Bellichi aka 53, Dennis Hansbury, Johanna O’Donnell, Alex Yanes, Jason Cullsion, Adrian Halpern, John Mulder, Sarah Blacksher, L2 Design, Anna Bond, Will Gay, Daniel Williams and more…

The exhibit features up to 100 individual pieces of art, all being sold for $100 or less. The buyer is allowed to grab the art they purchase and take it with them that same night… hence Grab-n-Go! This event is a fantastic and low cost way to give original art as a gift or to start a collection of your own.

Doors open at 7:00pm – Midnight
No Cover! All Ages Welcomed

On the same day, on the other side of the country in Los Angeles, I'll have several pieces in the Post-It Show 6 at the Giant Robot gallery. This is the second time I'm in the show and I tried hard to make some pieces that would stand out in the horde of beautiful post-its wallpapering the gallery.

Art show opening Post-It Show 6 at GR2 December 11 - January 12, 2011 Reception: Saturday, December 11, 6:30 - 10:00 p.m. GR2 2062 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025 gr2.net (310) 445-9276 Giant Robot is proud to present Post-It Show 6 at Giant Robot 2. Curated by artists Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson in conjunction with Giant Robot, the show is slated to feature roughly 2,000 works by noted contributors for only $20. These pieces will be on standard-sized 3" x 3" Post-It notes. (Larger sizes of 4" x 4" and 6" x 6" will cost a bit more.) The pieces will be cash-and-carry, making it a great chance to find one-of-a-kind yet affordable holiday gifts.

Thus far, the ever-expanding list of contributors includes the following:

Trevor Alixopulos, APAK, Nick Arciaga, Andrice Arp, Jordan Awan, Ana Bagayan, Scott Bakal, Derek Ballard, Jesse Balmer, Lynda Barry, Gary Baseman, Niv Bavarsky, Lou Beach, Melinda Beck, Drew Beckmeyer, Mike Bertino, Tigerlily Biskup, Tim Biskup, Nicholas Blechman, Cathie Bleck, Jill Bliss, Jon Boam, Aaron Brown, Jeffrey Brown, Chris Buzelli, Tad Carpenter, Lilli Carre, Christine Castro, Ako Castuera, Martin Cendreda, Ching Ching Cheng, James Chong, Kevin Christy, Chris Cilla, Greg Clarke, Angie Clayton, Frieda Clayton, Fernanda Cohen, Patricia Colli, Dave Cooper, Jordan Crane, John Cuneo, Kelsey Dake, Eleanor Davis, Luke Davis, Skinner Davis, Vanessa Davis, Bob Dob, Seth Drenner, Josearis Espinoza, Edie Fake, Korin Faught, Jesse Fillingham, David Fishel, Cam Floyd, Nina Frankel, Shannon Freshwater, Future Colors of America, Nicholas Gazin, Susie Ghahremani, Cody Griffith, Matt Groening, Steven Guarnaccia, Peter Hamlin, Andrew Hem, Pam Henderson, John Hendrix, Jaime Hernandez, Ryan Heshka, Seonna Hong, David Horvath, Mina Horvath, Rama Hughes, Nick Iluzada, Jordin Isip, Theron Jacobs, Yellena James, David Jien, Levon Jihanian, Hellen Jo, Aya Kakeda, Kevin Kawula, Sun Min Kim, Kinoko, Kozyndan, Nora Krug, Travis Lampe, Anderson Landbridge, Zohar Lazar, LeMerde, Justin Lovato, Bill Main, Ben Marra, James McShane, Jason T Miles, Keiko Murayama, Julie Murphy, Mark Murphy, Gary Musgrave, Alyssa Nassner, Tom Neely, Tru Nguyen, Anders Nilsen, Saejean Oh, Ming Ong, Martin Ontiveros, Nathan Ota, Dave Plunkert, Jason Polan, Mimi Pond, Jarrett Quon, Luke Ramsey, Ron Rege, Jesse Reklaw, Martha Rich, Pat Roberts, Paul Rogers, Souther Salazar, Brooks Salzwedel, Ben Sanders, Britt Sanders, Rob Sato, Aaron Smith, Owen Smith, Sonny Smith, Raymond Sohn, Christina Song, Zack Soto, Bwana Spoons, Becca Stadtlander, Jennifer Juniper Stratford, Shirl Sun, Daria Tessler, Jeremy Tinder, Jesse Tise, Mark Todd, Shark Toof, Twerps, Edwin Ushiro, Jon Vermilyea, Chris Von Szombathy, Ben Walker, Bruce Webb, Steven Weissman, Gillian Wilson, Leslie Winchester, Ben Wolfinsohn, Calvin Wong, Connie Wong, Andrew J. Wright, Christine Wu, Ping Zhu, Jaime Zollars, and more...

Giant Robot was born as a Los Angeles-based magazine about Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture in 1994, but has evolved into a full-service pop culture provider with shops and galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as an online equivalent.

An opening reception featuring many of the artists will take place from 6:30 - 10:00 on Saturday, December 11. For more information about the show, GR2, or Giant Robot magazine, please contact:

Finally, don't forget the Fork Frenzy shop, which features several prints and books by yours truly. Order by December 17 to receive it in time for Christmas!

Levon In San Francisco

2010-10-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Pictured above: Run DMC

This weekend I'm heading to San Francisco!

Saturday and Sunday I'll be at the Alternative Press Expo (APE). I will be helping out at Tom Neely's table on the main floor right next to Sparkplug Comic Books and Pigeon Press. I'll be selling mini comic editions of Danger Country. Tom will be debuting a brand new mini-comic called Doppelgänger. We will have some Henry & Glenn "Special Package" collector's items for sale. We will also have Bound & Gagged and many other books and prints available for sale. Maybe even some original art.

Also debuting at the show is the new anthology Studygroup 12 #4. I have 2 pages of art in this amazing book published by Zack Soto and Floating World Comics.

Please come out and say "HI" an see all the wonderful comics from all the participating artists and publishers.

Fork Frenzy Podcast Launches!

2010-10-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce the debut of my very own podcast, Fork Frenzy. In it I interview a bunch of artists and cartoonists that I know and like. This is co0nnected to the online store that I launched last week. the store will shortly contain books, prints, and art featured on the blog and podcast.

My first interview is with the cartoonist David King, and he talks about how he got started making comics in his signature introspective way and relationships between his life and his work. He reads us a Ralph Waldo Emerson poem and talks about Crime World and his latest book, Lemon Styles.

It's been a strange and new undertaking. I've never done a podcast before and I had a lot to learn. But this was something that I had wanted to do for a long time, just because I know so many amazing artists, and wanted to get to know some more but had no excuse to meet them.

I hope you enjoy it!

Go See: Forkfrenzy.com

Tom Devlin/Highwater Books

2010-10-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

The fantastic and objective Peggy Burns posted an eloquent tribute to Tom Devlin in light of the Highwater tribute art show that just opened in Boston. I think this bears mentioning on this blog, because Highwater Books was a powerful force in my development as not only a cartoonist but also as an artist. In my senior year of college, I interned at the west coast branch of Highwater (also known as Jordan Crane's living room). Up until then, my education pushed a strong message of capitalism in every facet of art-making. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but having failed in that aspect, I might have long ago abandoned the notion of making my living from my art. Highwater showed me that money is the means, not the ends, of being creative, and lack of money should never hamper those efforts. My main contribution to the company was primarily production work. I scanned Marc Bell's seminal work, Shrimpy and Paul and Friends, Brian Ralph's Climbing Out, and James Kochalka's Fantastic Butterflies. Jordan Crane paid me in burritos from El Pollo Loco and showed me his mystical secrets of silkscreening. Tom Always made me feel like I was single handedly making all of those books possible, and he is still gracious and kind to me to this day, even though my beard is bigger than his. That internship still holds the record as the best job I've ever had.

Check out the art show if you're in Boston, and read the story on the Drawn and Quarterly blog.

Announcing the Fork Frenzy Shop

2010-10-02T01:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are interested in buying some of my art work, I've put a bunch of it up on my new online store, ForkFrenzy.com. Fork Frenzy will host other content as well, soon, and hopefully grow into a colossal force in pushing culture and literacy to the masses. That's the goal, any way.

But getting back to selling stuff, all of the artwork is priced extremely low, and these deals will not last very long. Keep checking back though, because I'll be adding more depressingly cheap drawings and paintings over the next couple of weeks. I've also got a couple of books and prints there, too.

Erotic Mindflayer

2010-09-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

I just drew this sensual Mindflayer for a contest over at somethingawful.com. You can find a NSFW version here.

I've Got Changes and Donuts

2010-09-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

I just made some updates to the website. Most obviously I've upgraded the blog with a couple of new and awesome features. I've also updated the work section to include some newer work never before seen on the internets.

In other news, Danger Country #2 is outlined and is coming along, and I will possibly have a brand new project soon that I think a lot of people will enjoy.

Puke Force

2010-09-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying Brian Chippendale's Puke Force comics over at the new picture box site.