Gallery of the Absurd

The Courtney Love Fungus

Crazy Courtney Love is one of my favorite celebrity tabloid subjects to paint. This time around, I noticed there was something fungus-like about her. I'll often hike in the woods after the rain and am amazed at the variety of colorful, wonderland-like fungus sprouting up among the rotting logs and lush moss. They are brightly colored, alien-like, dangerous and scary - just like Courtney. Her neck appears a thick, milky white stalk. A large scarlet mass of pillowy, shiny growth sprouts menacingly off her face. Her hair, a tangled mess of mildewed, ghostly filaments blowing in the howling wind. I find fungus to be quite beautiful in its own way, but like Courtney, is best observed from a distance. Medium: graphite on paper, digital color, done for Caricaturama Showdown 3000.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane....It's WEINERMAN!

Anthony Weiner is resigning from Congress today, but I'm sure the mainstream media will continue to feast upon Weiner's weiner (ewww, I know) while ignoring the backlog of real news.  And why not, it's fun! There's porn stars, an underaged girl, a pregnant wife, cross-dressing and hot coeds - an insta- comic book. Weinerman is today's media superhero as he valiantly plays the role of disgraced politician/puppet to distract and dazzle us from such inconvenient truths as our declining economy,increasing dangers to our food supply, worldwide rioting, all of which could to sneak up and bite us when we least expect it. Ah, but rest your minds, Weinerman will make it all go away. Medium:  Illustration and concept by Chuck Frazier. Inked by Chuck, digital color by 14.

Random Portrait of the Week: Buddy Hackett

My friend and frequent GOTA contributor Bob Lizarraga and I decided to pay a little homage to the late great comedian Buddy Hackett. I always wanted to start a band called Buddy and the Hacketts, but I suppose I'll have to make due with drawing him. Medium: Image above by 14, pen and ink wash. Image below by Bob, acrylic.

Feathers Fly as Paris Hilton Pecked By Frantic Hens on The View

A reader of mine had been begging me to draw Paris Hilton and because I'm such a sucker for sweet talk, I went ahead and did it. I told him she no longer holds my interest and quite honestly, focusing on her for more than 5 minutes drains me of my essential life force...but sure, I'll scrawl a little something together in under an hour. I watched the clip of Paris being grilled by head hen Barbara Walters on The Frantic Hen Coop The View and this is my hurried interpretation.  For Drew. Medium: Colored pencil on paper, digital color, wine.

Karl Lagerfeld Wearing His Own Murban

When I read about Karl Lagerfeld urging men to slap a turban on their heads in the name of high fashion, I wanted to see what Karl himself would look like wearing one.  The turban, errr "Murban" shown on the sleek male model in the accompanying article wasn't the sort you'd see on a handsome Sikh riding a fine stallion into the sunset, nope, it looked more like something granny would wear to keep her hair dry while she swam her morning laps at the local YMCA. Medium: Ink and acrylic on paper. SOLD

The Miley Cyrus Bong Bunny Makes A Profitable Pet

Continuing with the Critters Weekly magazine concept, we examine the profitability of the Bong Bunny as a rewarding family pet.  Economic times are tough these days, so that's why more families are considering bringing a Bong Bunny into their home.  For maximum results, plan to adopt your little Bong Bunny while it's still young enough to be a useful money-generating commodity for Disney. They'll carefully cultivate a squeaky clean image for it, teach it to sing and dance, then slap its brand image all every conceivable trinket your kid could ever want. Once your Bong Bunny grows older, it loses its baby fur and soon grows scraggly and rebellious.  Fear not however, there is still plenty of money to be made through scandal as long as you enthusiastically encourage your Bong Bunny to engage in lucrative activities such as pole dancing, leaking sexy photos (complete with duck face of course!) of itself on the Internet, bong smokin' and displaying its shapely bunny tail to old drooling baboons in the audience. The Bong Bunny doesn't require much parental supervision, so it makes an easy pet for busy families.  Medium: digital illustration.

The type of family best suited for a Bong Bunny is one that chases fame and enjoys basking in the glare of media attention.  Ideal parents might include a groupie mom paired with a melancholy country music star/stage dad who spends hours flat-ironing his highlighted hair while crying tears of sadness over his cash cow daughter's wild antics.  A heavily made up, skilled pole dancing younger sister who shills trashy clothing to kids while pursuing her own aspirations for fame is a favorable sibling for the Bong Bunny and is highly likely to become a Bong Bunny herself. A horse in the barn is also a nice touch.  Medium: digital illustration.