Happy TwentyTen dear friends! Hope you had a great beginning.
To start of this new decade with a bang, consider taking part in kickstarting the re-releases of one of Portland's most irreverent and talented graphic artists/chicken bomber, Sean Tejaratchi and his Crap Hound series. Chloe Eudaly, proprietress of Reading Frenzy has put together an easy way to be a part of which I highly recommend you do.
Image from Crap Hound 7: Church & State
Pre-blog, zines (remember those?) were handmade, xerox copied, self published magazines and journals. The Crap Hound series was a part and pusher of this era of self reliance/publication. Back in the 90s, Sean Tejaratchi painstakingly put together the series of clip art with paper, xactos, and wax. He was an old-schooler, laying out his covers with crop marks, rubylith, and actual layers. An artist himself, they are compositional works of art and hilariously clever if you spend any time reading between the images.
Crap Hound made it across the United States into alternative reading stores and celebrated by graphic designers around the world. Sean was a huge advocate for free use of art and anti-copyright (boo! mean ol' Disney) and Crap Hound was a definite part of this barbaric yawp.
Sean is an old friend of Miranda July, director and star of the movie "Me and You and Everyone We Know". She asked him to work on the film doing the graphics and I just read on her blog, that he took every opportunity to work possums into the movie graphics. Which makes me glad. Sean owned a possum named "Chumpy". And I say "owned" not "owns", because I think Chloe mentioned Chumpy is no longer. Which makes me sad.
Years ago, I saw a mess of original Crap Hound boards he had kept. They were yellowing under vellum, in a pile - some things in flat files, some things not. They were just WAITING to be re-released so I'm so glad that they are. Sean was a huge influence on me, both professionally and as a friend. He even trusted me to take over his legacy of designing for Cinema 21. Forgive my sappiness, I know I'm talking about him likes he's dead. He's not. He lives in Los Angeles now and I feel great joy imagining him tan and with fake boobs. I'll always be grateful for the time I worked with him and the things he shared with me.
Image from Crap Hound 6: Death, Telephone and Scissors
They need a mere $12,500 to get this project going and in return you will get fun things, including Crap Hound 4: Clowns, Devils and Bait. Join Chloe's kickstart project HERE.