Half Price Books has just released their official 2011 calendar in stores and online, featuring 12 of the Literary Pet portraits.
Category: News
Quizzical Look
Characters from a selection of the Literary and Artistic Pets have been combined to make a new fun quiz on Sporcle, a site chock full of memory testing, trivia inducing fun.
A big thanks goes out to Dave Hejmanowski for putting the quiz together.
Artistic Pets Trading Card Set
Introducing”Artistic Pets,” a look into the lives of famous artists with canine and feline personalities. Test your knowledge of this alternative universe of four-legged art history.
Take the Artistic Pets Quiz:
1. This artist is famed for his fresco work on the walls and ceiling of the Sistine Chapel’s dog house.
2. American abstract expressionist painter made famous by his “Action Litter Box” drip and splash experiments.
3.Diminutive French painter known for documenting Parisian night life, especially the characters associated with the Meowlin Rouge cabaret.
4. American painter and printmaker who was a leader in the Pup Art movement. He achieved a portion of his more than 15 minutes of fame with his silkscreen portrait of Elvis Hound Dog.
(answers at the end of this post)
20 card set with full color portrait of each artist with biographical info on reverse. Each card measures 2 1/4″ x 4″ printed on sturdy 14 pt.cover stock and packaged in hand crafted paper portfolio.
Available For Purchase-Click Here To Visit The Etsy Shop
Answers to the quiz: 1.MichelangeLab 2.Catson Pollock 3.Henri de ToyFox-Lautrec 4.Andy Warhowl
Update: Now you can play a combined Literary Pets and Artistic Pets Quiz online at Sporcle.com. Click THIS LINK or the image below to start.
Monk Jagger
But I’ve been bit and I’ve been tossed around
By every she-rat in this town
Have you, babe?
Well, I am just a monkey man
I’m glad you are a monkey woman too.
-Mick Jagger/Monkey Man
Just added to the monkey section of the Etsy shop: Mick Jagger as a rock and roll chimp.
Literary Pets
Think you know your famous literature? Take the “Literary Pets” quiz!
(Answers below)
- What author was famed for creating the epic struggle between Captain A. Lab and “Moby Poodle,” the great white lap dog?
- This writer’s play, “Pugmalion,” was later musically adapted to “My Fair Labradoodle.”
- Considered one of the greatest authors of fantasy and science fiction, this writer is known for such classics as “The Illustrated Dog” and “Something Wagging This Way Comes.”
- Famed author of “Fancy Feast at Tiffany’s” and was a childhood friend of Harpurr Lee.
Learn more about these author’s lives and great works included in the entire set of 24 cards titled Literary Pets 2, the second volume of famous literary luminaries as cats and dogs. Each card measures 2 1/4″ x 4″ on sturdy 14 pt.cover stock and presents a full color portrait on one side with biographical information on the reverse. Card sets and individual signed portrait prints available in the Etsy shop.
Click here for more info and to shop.
Answers to the quiz:
1.Bloodhound author of dark romanticism, Herman Smellville 2. George St. Bernard Shaw 3. Stray Bradbury 4. Truman Catpote
Monkey Monday-Big in Japan
Next month the International Primatological Society will convene in Kyoto, Japan for their 23rd Congress. ChetArt’s monkey business will be a part of the festivities, thanks to the efforts of Laura Marsh. I met Laura last month in San Diego during our Comic-Con event. She runs the comic shop and gallery True Believers in Santa Fe and is also a director of the Global Conservation Institute. As a participate in next month’s Primatological Congress, she will be a presenting a symposium and teaching a pre-congress course. Perhaps most importantly, she’ll be exposing her colleagues to a variety of my monkey personalities in the form of Sinister Simian and Steampunk Monkey buttons that she purchased to re-sell while she’s there. Perhaps this will spark the idea for a future lecture on the migratory habits of evil, death ray wielding, megalomaniac chimps. Stay tuned…
(Above portrait from the beautiful and fascinating photo series by James Mollison.)
Literary Pets
Coming this fall from Half Price Books: a “Literary Pets” calendar. Twelve of my dog and cat as famous author portraits will adorn the interior, complete with the accompanying text I wrote for each. A calendar cover was commissioned however the above color cover will be relegated to a sepia version for their final product.
Cover Art for The Mercury Pills
Just released on iTunes this week, a new album by The Mercury Pills featuring my Space Race artwork.
ChetArt Key Chains
San Diego Comic Con Wrap Up
So we’re back in the studio, a.k.a. the real world, after an amazing 5 days in San Diego. So many wonderful experiences and connections happened for us and we’re hoping to make it all happen again in 2011. Our paperwork is in for another Small Press table for next year. I’ll be spending some time over the next day or so compiling the huge stack of new mail list subscribers and following up with some interested parties for a variety of new business connections. We were especially happy with the area that we were in and thankful for getting to know a great selection of talented, helpful and friendly booth neighbors. I managed to record just a few in our immediate area with their info after the break below. We hope to see them all next year.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth to laugh together, visit and purchase!
San Diego Comic Con-Day 5
Expecting Sunday, the last day of the convention, to be a little flat and slow proved to be wrong. Some suggested that since most people attended panels and autograph signings on Saturday, they used the last day to browse and shop the exhibit floor exclusively. Once the doors opened it was practically non-stop till the end of the day at 5. Around mid-morning our booth neighbors at Curio & Co. recommended I visit with Bud Plant at his booth and show him what I had been up to. This proved to be a great idea, as Mr. Plant showed a true interest in my Sinister Simian book and the various card sets I had brought. He purchased my remaining 40 copies of Sinister paperbacks for his catalog and also chose a healthy selection of card sets to sell at some of his future shows. It was a fun and exciting way to round off the week with a productive and energizing last day. Sales continued through the “closing bell” and we bid all of our surrounding booth mates a fond farewell. We signed up for next year’s show and hope to have them as neighbors again!
We ended our last evening with a delicious seafood dinner by the bay.
San Diego Comic Con-Day 4
The fourth day of our Comic Con fun started out quietly. Expecting Saturday to be a non-stop busy day, it had a slow start. But by noon the crowds grew and started spilling down our aisle non stop. Met lots of new and friendly attendees and the sales were great by the end of the day.
San Diego Comic Con-Day 3
Friday was a very exciting day for us. Around mid-morning a fellow strode up to our booth and asked for details on my various monkey projects. He introduced himself as a Director of Development for Jerry Bruckheimer Films and told me he was very impressed by the characters and the universe I had created for The Society of Sinister Simians. He went on to say that he thought it was one of the most interesting directions for development that he had found within the Small Press area. Of course I gave him a copy of the book and business cards for him to take back to work for future reference and meetings. Whether or not it goes any further than this point, it was wonderful validation of my efforts.
San Diego Comic Con-Day 2
Our second day of selling at the Con had a slow start to the day. It gave us some time to catch up some from yesterday and also visit with some of our booth neighbors. The couple from Vienna next to us, Curio Co, are now great friends and are promoting a wonderful book they’ve just completed. On our right we have 4 seasoned convention pros that have been loads of help and great fun to visit with. I’ll include info about them in a future post along with links to their great work. As the day progressed the sales kicked in and we received lots of interest and sales with the Society of Sinister Simians book, primarily from a great group of Steampunk characters. Julie’s hand bound version is a big hit and selling fast.
Here are a few photos from the day, including some of our customers who were kind enough to pose for pictures after their purchase…
San Diego Comic Con-Day One
Our first day in San Diego was a busy one, to say the least. After arriving, getting set up in the hotel, doing the badge line dance and hauling our first couple of days worth of stock to the table to set up, it was enough to call things a full day. But wait, there was more! Preview night for 4 day badge holders began at 5:30 and ran till 9. Once the doors opened, it was a real “release the hounds” experience. Never saw so many people running with so much purpose, all the while dragging huge Warner Brothers bags from their shoulders. It took a while for people to filter down to our area, but once they did we made lots of new friends, enjoyed lots of laughter and pointing at our booth (that’s a good thing, right?) and sold quite a few things. After hearing stories that Preview Night was usually considered a “Lookie Lou” event, we were glad to see some wallets come out to air. Thursday will be the first big full day and we’re looking forward to letting the monkey business continue…
San Diego Comic Con
The big week is almost here! Next Wednesday kicks off The 2010 San Diego International Comic Con with preview night and runs through Sunday the 25th. I will have a booth in the Small Press Pavilion, Booth P-13 and it’ll be chock full of monkey bidness. The recently released “Society of Sinister Simians” book, both in paperback and signed limited edition hand bound hardback, “Monkey Color!” coloring books, “Twilight of the Tiki” book, “13 Incomplete Chapters of Mysterious Circumstances” book, Wrestle Pets book, signed posters and prints, a variety of pinback buttons(shiny!), stickers and trading cards representing The Society of Sinister Simians, Steampunk Monkey Nation, World War Monkey, Literary Pets and Wrestle Pets. Monkey hope to see you there!
MailChimp 5.2 and Etsy
The release of MailChimp 5.2 has added an “Autoconnect Etsy Template” that allows users to automagically design an email template with news about your shop or latest items. The folks at MailChimp used my Monkey-centric Etsy shop as an example for this new and exciting feature in their announcement video and their “Let’s Get Social Guide.”
“Twilight of the Tiki” Limited Edition Book
“Twilight of the Tiki” limited edition book, written and illustrated by Chet Phillips. Lettered edition- limited to 26 books. Each signed and lettered.
Discover the mystery and supernatural origins of this collection of unique Tiki figures. 36 portraits and lore, printed in glorious Tiki Colorvision. Book measures 4.5″ x 6.75″ and is hand bound by Julie Sullivan using an exposed spine sewn boards binding. The cover utilizes an attractive beige olive wood grain patterned paper and the spine construction uses hand-dyed linen thread.
Monkey Color! Coloring Book
Just released into the wild… Monkey Color! Coloring Book. This 8.5″ x 11″coloring book offers a collection of 24 monkey and ape portraits from both the Steampunk Monkey Nation and Society of Sinister Simians series.
(Coloring Book Back Cover)
Each portrait is printed in rich black lines on 80 lb opaque text paper, just begging for your artistic genius. Below is a small sample from the series of 24. Get out your crayons, markers or colored pencils and monkey around! Available here.
Thrillist-Monkey Madness
A tip of the hat to Mike over at Thrillist for the great spotlight on my work today.