Blog - COLONEL TONY MOORE

On the road again...

Tony — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 18:15:33 +0000

I’ve added a fistful of new appearances to my schedule this year, so if you’re hoping to catch up with me somewhere, be sure to check out the following dates:

FT WAYNE TATTOO FESTIVAL
Aug 12-14
www.FortWayneTattoo.com
WHISPERING BEARD FOLK FEST
Sep 23-24
www.WhisperingBeard.com
FESTIVAL CHAMBÉRY - SAVOIE
Sep 30 - Oct 2
www.ChamberyBD.fr
EVIAN TATTOO SHOW
Oct 29-30
www.Evian.Tattoo

And I’ll likely be adding more dates before these have all transpired, so make sure to check out the EVENTS page for the most up-to-date full list of upcoming appearances!

Laurel Cove Music Festival 2022

Tony — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 06:32:01 +0000

Hey, gang. It’s been a long time since I tossed any updates on here, but I figured since i’ll be rejoining society a few times this year, I might as well let people know. One such foray will be me & my wife (www.moonbloodjewelry.com) setting up our respective booths at the LAUREL COVE MUSIC FESTIVAL in Pineville, KY, on June 10-11.

I’ll also have this image as an exclusive print for the show. I won’t be making a lot of them, so make sure to swing by and get yours while the gettin’ is good!

Tyler Childers: COUNTRY SQUIRE Music Video

Tony — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 21:21:21 +0000

As you may have noticed, it’s been kinda quiet around here for the last few months.

If you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to, well, I’ve had my nose to the proverbial grindstone on my latest collaboration with Tyler… and here it is:

I had pretty much nothing in my portfolio or resumé that would show a reasonable executive that I was capable of handling such a thing, and so I am honored beyond words that Tyler and his crew took a chance on me, trusting me with the reins for this project. I wrote, designed, storyboarded, and directed this video, and thanks to the outstanding animators at Bomper Studio, I cannot fathom being more pleased with how it turned out.

If you like what you see and hear here, be sure to check out TYLER CHILDERS’ YOUTUBE CHANNEL for other videos, including the Grammy-nominated ALL YOUR’N, which I did some design work for!

New THREADLESS Shop is online!

Tony — Tue, 05 May 2020 22:02:18 +0000

So, I’ve added a new option for MERCH, signing up for one of Threadless’ Artist Shops!

My first round of stuff is a set of facemasks, featuring the artwork from Tyler Childers’ COUNTRY SQUIRE album. The proceeds from these masks go toward Threadless’ Covid-19 initiative to benefit MEDSHARE.

I’ve also added a couple of LI’L BAPHOMET masks, and a slew of other merch I’d never be able to produce on my own, from tank tops, to hoodies, to kids’ clothes, and even home accessories!

Check it out at http://TonyMoore.threadless.com !

Also, from here on out, there will be a THREADLESS link up in the SHOP menu at the top of this page.

Tyler Childers : COUNTRY SQUIRE album art

Tony — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 23:02:10 +0000

It may come as no surprise, but I love stories. I love telling stories, and I love listening to storytellers. And when it comes to music, no genre satisfies my craving for stories like well-crafted Country music. A couple years ago, I discovered the music of fellow Kentuckian, TYLER CHILDERS, and I was hooked. At a concert, I managed to get one of my Li’l Baphomet pins into his hands, and shortly after, he reached out about working on an album cover. After a LOT of spitballing and volleying ideas, we cooked up something that I feel has a nice visual punch, but also has enough conceptual meat on its bones to investigate further. So here it is, my cover for Tyler’s upcoming album, COUNTRY SQUIRE.

If you’re interested in picking up this album, you can find it, along with some handsome bundles that include signed and numbered limited edition art prints of this image, over at www.TylerChildersMusic.com

It’s A Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad World

Tony — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 18:41:07 +0000

This one’s a real gut-punch, gang. I never thought I would find myself eulogizing the most stalwart American institution that ever lived, struck down just when we needed it the most.

As a kid, laughing over MAD was a bond my uncle and grandfather shared, so naturally, I wanted in. I literally learned to read from that magazine just so that I could get in on the jokes. When I was learning to draw, I copied Sergio Aragones’ margin drawings. Jack Davis was the first artist whose name I learned and whose handiwork I could recognize by style. Every year, when I went off to summer camp, I took a briefcase filled with MADs. Their biting satire taught me the most noble joys of comedy: speaking truth to power, and bodily secretions. In high school, I had an Alfred E Neuman shirt that I wore so beyond threadbare that it literally fell apart on me. As I got older, I learned about William Gaines’ faceoff with the McCarthy witch hunts, and was inspired by the courage his entire crew. When I was feeling spunky enough to start getting tattoos, one of my first was Black Spy and White Spy, flanking my collarbones like the angels of conscience.

As a younger professional illustrator, I was struggling with my work at the time, unfulfilled and stressed beyond belief. I was trying to be something I wasn’t, and denying the cartoonist in me. It was like I was walking around trying to talk in someone else’s voice. I spoke to Jack Davis on the phone, and he told me that he was 86 and just wanted to have fun cartooning. Those simple words brought into sharp focus what I needed from my career to survive, and honestly changed my entire life.

Years later, my daughter was born, and that first Christmas, my wife commissioned Mr Davis to paint a portrait of the kid. It’s an objectively beautiful piece, but it means universe to me because it’s an image of the driving force for the rest of my life, painted by the man whose work shaped everything leading up to that point.

When The Walking Dead’s television success brought it into MAD’s crosshairs, I knew I had been part of something culturally important. When I was later contacted to do a Davis/EC-style horror spoof as a takedown of Josh Duggar, it was officially the highest honor I could imagine as a cartoonist: to be published alongside the pantheon of idiots who were, and remain, my greatest lifelong heroes. Of all the high points in my career, getting that paltry paycheck with Alfred E Neuman’s face on the envelope has been the zenith, just because it officially meant I had breathed a whiff of that rarified air.

So today, I read the news that MAD Magazine is being cancelled, and I lament the loss. Not just for what it has meant to me in my life, but for the larger undeniable cultural impact that this institution has had, carrying the torch for some 70-plus years. I mourn this loss as deeply as I would a loved one. For as long as I can remember, this stupid magazine has been like a friend who comforted me, and a mentor who guided me. I can safely say that without its deep and indelible mark, my life would not be the same. I would not be the same. The world will be truly poorer in its absence.

MAD was always too beautiful for this world. It could stand defiantly in the face of any opposition, but was ultimately gutted by the world itself becoming a joke.

The imagery feels harsh, but practically tailor-made for the occasion.

Loads of new stuff added!

Tony — Sat, 24 Nov 2018 07:35:19 +0000

Happy Holidays, gang!

I’ve just added a ton of new merch, books, and prints to the STORE, including these:

Li'l Baphomet Ornament $9.99 LI'L BAPHOMET Earrings $19.99 LI'L BAPHOMET necklace $11.99 LI'L BAPHOMET Black Tee $19.99 LI'L BAPHOMET Raglan $24.99 "Satoshi" Cryptocurrency Print $19.99 Frankenstein Print $19.99

And now through the end of Cyber Monday, just enter

THANKS18

to get 20% off almost everything!*

*Discount does not apply to Original Art of any kind.

A response to KY Gov Bevin’s attack.

Tony — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 00:16:22 +0000

Anyone who has ever known me knows that I have always been profoundly proud of my rural Kentucky roots. I spent all my childhood between my family’s failing dairy farm in Berry and my grandfather’s tobacco farm in Cynthiana. Growing up in a hardworking family struggling to make ends meet has instilled a lifelong do-it-yourself work outlook that has led me to tenaciously chase my dreams, primarily to tell stories in comic books, like my work drawing “The Walking Dead.” Becoming a Kentucky Colonel was one of the proudest moments of my career, as not only recognition of my work, but as the honor of following in the footsteps of so many before me, including my own grandfather.

So, when I read that Governor Matt Bevin decided to put “The Walking Dead” on blast, I was particularly wounded. He posits that it is a “celebration of death,” and such media is a societal ill, responsible for this ongoing wave of shootings and violence. This line didn’t fly in the ‘80s when Tipper Gore tried it, and it doesn’t fly with me now. As a nerdy kid on an isolated farm, I grew up a fan of escapism. Horror movies and comics, over the top action movies, comics, and video games. Heavy metal and gangsta rap music, Dungeons & Dragons, you name it, I was in. I wear these influences unashamed, and they spill out into my work all the time. As a kid, my high school principal called me into the office, concerned about the nefarious mind-bending effects of roleplaying games, despite his knowing that I was at the top of my class with nothing but awards and service in my record. Thankfully, my mother didn’t throttle my media intake, and I was a sponge for it all, using it as grist for my creative mill. These things swirled in my little mind and formed me into the person I am today, which includes being a community-minded citizen, and devoted husband and father. Bevin’s words paint fandom as a degenerate sensibility, when I have only ever known kindness and generosity from them.

So, now in this uneasy age, when people are more racially and politically divided than I have seen in my lifetime, Governor Bevin decides to trot out this tired old garbage position and accuse our creation of being the root of society’s problems. These stories, as many others in the genre, are generally viewed as being about the strength of the human spirit in the face of phenomenally bleak circumstances. I think this is ultimately why they resonate with people so much. If he wants to talk about a culture of death, perhaps Governor Bevin should inspect his record on dialing back Medicaid expansion to thousands of vulnerable Kentuckians, or cutting worker safety regulations and union protections in the state, likely in response to the violations his own family’s bell factory incurred. His actions prove that he clearly holds the dollar as the almighty, and that the price he places on a human life is not a very high one. Perhaps he’d like to explain his science-denying environmental policy, or maybe just his speaking at a pro-cockfighting rally.

This attack, from the same Governor Bevin who howled that modern American conservatism may need to be protected with actual bloodshed. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Bevin paraphrased Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Implying that under a liberal administration, it could be a likely necessity for a new civil war, a literal armed insurrection murdering Americans, to protect his political ideology. The irony of invoking Martin Niemöller’s poem, “First They Came...” when his own party’s preliminary targets are socialist programs and unions, is positively deafening. Well-spoken as he may be, his comments boiled down to little more than fearmongering and crypto-fascist war drumming.

So, if Governor Bevin wants to point the finger at simple escapism, at stories that celebrate survival and hope, that celebrate LIFE, and denounce them as the cause of violence, perhaps he needs to have a good long look in the mirror to see what the face of a culture celebrating death truly looks like.

-Tony Moore

Photograph by Ryan K Morris

Related Link: Zombie television shows are among the root causes of mass shootings, Republican governor says https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/14/zombie-television-shows-are-among-root-causes-mass-shootings-republican-governor-says/

Sketch of the Day! DEATH EATER (MALFOY)

Tony — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 23:00:00 +0000

Today's card is Lucius Malfoy in his rad DEATH EATER mask. Some of my favorite designs from the series.

Keep an eye out, HP nerds, I've got a pile of these done, and every day at 7PM EST (for a while), I will post one for $75.

When they're gone, they're gone, so get 'em while the gettin's good!

You can make this guy yours over in my STORE.

Sketch of the Day! HAGRID

Tony — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 00:13:47 +0000

Today's card is good ol' HAGRID, all dolled up.

Keep an eye out, HP nerds, I've got a pile of these done, and every day at 7PM EST (for a while), I will post one for $75.

When they're gone, they're gone, so get 'em while the gettin's good!

You can make this guy yours over in my STORE.

Sketch of the Day! ARGUS FILCH

Tony — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 01:01:01 +0000

Today's card is the ARGUS FILCH (and Mrs. Norris). Pretty much just an excuse to draw Uncle Creepy again.

Keep an eye out, HP nerds, I've got a pile of these done, and every day at 7PM EST (for a while), I will post one for $75.

When they're gone, they're gone, so get 'em while the gettin's good!

You can make this guy yours over in my STORE.

Sketch of the Day! GRINGOTT'S HEAD GOBLIN

Tony — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 23:49:13 +0000

Today's card is the HEAD GOBLIN BANKER from Gringott's. I mostly just wanted to draw Warwick Davis in that awesome makeup.

Heads up, HP nerds, I've got a pile of these done, and every day at 7PM EST (for a while), I will post one for $75.

When they're gone, they're gone, so get 'em while the gettin's good!

You can make this guy yours over in my STORE.

Sketch of the Day! NEARLY HEADLESS NICK

Tony — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 01:52:06 +0000

Today's card is SIR NICHOLAS, as played by the great John Cleese.

Heads up, HP nerds, I've got a pile of these done, and every day at 7PM EST (for a while), I will post one for $75.

When they're gone, they're gone, so get 'em while the gettin's good!

You can make this guy yours over in my STORE.

Sketch of the Day! HARLEY QUINN

Tony — Fri, 04 May 2018 19:52:02 +0000

This was a recent commission of everyone's favorite little codependent sociopath, HARLEY QUINN. I've only drawn her a handful of times, but she's always fun to do.

If you're interested in owning a piece like this, i have several finished ones up for grabs over in my STORE.

Sketch of the Day! THE JERK

Tony — Wed, 02 May 2018 19:04:00 +0000

This card was a commission, based on the classic Steve Martin vehicle, and a movie hugely influential to my personal fashion sense, THE JERK.

I had a great time doing this one, and if you're interested in owning a card like this, i have several up for grabs over in my STORE.

Sketch of the Day! DAVID LO PAN

Tony — Tue, 01 May 2018 19:04:40 +0000

This sketch was a commission for a fellow John Carpenter fan, who wanted me to do him up a DAVID LO PAN, from the classic Big Trouble In Little China.

I had a great time doing this one, and if you're interested in owning a card like this, i have several up for grabs over in my STORE.

Crypto-Commission

Tony — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 04:47:35 +0000

So, i was recently asked to do a poster image for a cryptocurrency group, which was out of left field, but super fun to do. I worked a quite bit out of my comfort zone here, especially with the colors, and i think it yielded one of my best pieces yet.

if you're interested in commissioning a piece, you can check out my sketch options over in the STORE, or to inquire about cover work, feel free to drop me a line on the CONTACT page.

Sketch of the Day! PUNISHER

Tony — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:00:00 +0000

This fine fellow commissioned a gritty PUNISHER.
If there's one thing i enjoy drawing, it's Frank Castle, all beat to shit.

You can commission your very own piece simply by visiting the SKETCHES section of my Store!

Sketch of the Day! DEADMAN SKETCH CARD

Tony — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today's card is DEADMAN.

This is a character i have fun playing with, trying to figure out exactly what my take on him is.

I've got a pile of Sketch Cards done up, and every day at 7PM EST (for a while), I will post one for $75.

When they're gone, they're gone, so get 'em while the gettin's good!

You can find the original for this piece over in my STORE.

Sketch of the Day! HARD BOILED SKETCH CARD

Tony — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today's card is NIXON from HARD BOILED.

Fun Fact: My left forearm is tattooed with the Willeford Home Appliances logo from this book.

I've got a pile of Sketch Cards done up, and every day at 7PM EST (for a while), I will post one for $75.

When they're gone, they're gone, so get 'em while the gettin's good!

You can find the original for this piece over in my STORE.