Billy Tackett's DEAD WHITE & BLUE

Input needed

2012-01-07T02:44:00.001-05:00

Hey there kiddies, I have a favor to ask you. As most of you know I am working on the Dead White & Blue Comics. The first part is nearing completion. Yeah, yeah, I k now it was supposed to have been here before now but I picked up some really cool commissions in the last couple months of 2011 that had some really tight deadlines so here we are. Money talks, right? Anywhooo...

The comic is going to be an homage to the comics I grew up with in the 70s, mainly Marvel and DC with some Charlton thrown in for good measure. It is going to be the entire package with simulated shitty printing and all. Here's where you guys come in; I'm adding what Marvel called the Bullpen Bulletins. If you're not familiar this is how the page is described on Wikipedia:

"Bullpen Bulletins" was the news and information page... it included items such as previews of upcoming Marvel publications (the "Mighty Marvel Checklist"), news about and profiles of Marvel staff members, occasional references to real-world trends and events, and perhaps most famously, "Stan's Soapbox" (alternately known as "Stan Lee's Soapbox"), a monthly column written by Stan Lee.

With "Bullpen Bulletins," Lee created the friendly, chatty editorial voice of Marvel Comics — "a style that could be characterized as High Hipster — two parts Lord Buckley, one part Austin Powers,"^[1] putting "himself on a first-name basis with the readership at a time when the rival DC editors generally came across... as... stodgy adults."^[2]

The "Bullpen Bulletins" page was where Lee rhapsodized about the Marvel "bullpen," the stable of in-house creators who produced the company's comics. He often bestowed colorful sobriquets on Marvel staffers and creators; nicknames such as Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby permeated into mass culture. The fictional Marvel staffer Irving Forbush also appeared regularly — as the butt of Lee's humor. Similarly, phrases like "Excelsior!", "'Nuff said," "True Believer," and "Make Mine Marvel," as well as other company mainstays like the No-Prize, were popularized there as well." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullpen_Bulletins

I'm gong to emulate this as well as adding a small 'letters to the editor' section. And that is you come in my friends. I need questions! Since this is the first issue there won't be and comic related questions of course so just ask me something. Serious, not-so-serious, it doesn't matter. I'll pick a couple three or four and answer them in the column. So feel free to leave them here or on my Facebook page or email billy@billytackett.com Thanks!

If you want to get an idea about the comic I have 14 pages online to sample. These are pages I pulled that makes a single narrative kinda giving some back story. It's a little wordy but rest assured there's plenty of brain-eatin', Nazi-stompin' action! http://comics.billytackett.com/dwbsample1.html

If you need a visual as to what the Bullpen Bulletins looked like here is a good example:

2011 Year in Art

2011-12-30T18:18:00.000-05:00

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for supporting us in 2011. Whether you commissioned a piece, bought a print or t-shirt, 'liked' one of my pieces on Facebook, sent a friend to my site, stopped by the booth at a con to say hi or are just reading this blog. This year has had a lot of personal ups and downs that have had me a bit unfocused at times that I haven't talked about publicly but I know you want zombies and I want to deliver them! It's that symbiotic relationship that helps regain my focus when I need it. Thanks! Here's to remembering the good things about 2011 and leaving the bad behind as we move on to 2012. Cheers!

I thought I'd try something new this year. I'm going to show most of the art that I did over the last year, I'm missing some photos of some con sketches though. There also may be a piece or two here that I haven't shown yet. Look closely!

Gov't taking steps to protect creators?

2011-10-27T15:25:00.004-04:00

I call bullshit!

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.64f335a63a0a239e61cf0891c65a0c44.a81&show_article=1

"US lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday that would give US authorities more tools to crack down on websites accused of piracy of movies, television shows and music and the sale of counterfeit goods."

"House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas,said the bill "helps stop the flow of revenue to rogue websites and ensures that the profits from American innovations go to American innovators."

"Howard Berman, a Democrat from California who co-sponsored the legislation, said it is "an important next step in the fight against digital theft and sends a strong message that the United States will not waiver in our battle to protect America's creators and innovators.""

I tried to wade through the legalese in the bill but I don't have the time. You can here:

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/112%20HR%203261.pdf

I think the most insightful article on the bill can be found here:

http://www.businessinsider.com/stop-online-piracy-act-2011-10

So basically the bill really does nothing but allow the 'victim' to have offending websites shut down. Sounds good but as the article points out there are drawbacks. But all that is beside my point...

...which is; has anyone noticed all these bills written to prevent pirating and protect creators seem to be geared toward movies, music and the like? You know, industries that rake in billions of dollars a year that can afford to lobby our government to write bills that would protect their creations and innovations...all the while every couple years the Orphan Works Bill rears its ugly head. The Orphan Works Bill would essentially strip the automatic copyright laws away making it open season on creations by independent artists. The bill is backed by some big names like Google who stand to make a shit ton of money by legally stealing any art or photography they find online. And everytime the bills comes up we have to fight tooth and nail to stop it.

But when was the last time a bill was written that could potentially strip away the copyrights of Disney or Time-Warner? It just really pisses me off to hear these douchebag politicians use phrases like "our battle to protect America's creators and innovators" when I know it's all bullshit propoganda. Lip-service. When was the last time an FBI SWAT team busted down a door because someone was illegally printing art they stole off of DeviantART? My guess is never...

So, for all the independent artists out there whose livelihoods hang in the balance every time Google decides it's tired of being tethered by the 'antiquated' copyright system I offer our duly-elected politicians a whole-hearted "Fuck You" and the largest middle finger I can come up with! Forget Occupy Wall Street. We need a movement FYW, Fuck You Washington, for that is where the real problem lies.

*Note* As a practicing capitalist I'm all for big corporations because not all are necessarily evil and they only are allowed to go as far as the letter of the law allows. I am currently working on becoming stinking rich myself and believe one can do so without being greedy...

Bad news for Horrorhound Weekend Cincinnati

2011-09-19T14:56:00.002-04:00

We were so busy with our summer con schedule that we neglected to procure our table at Horrorhound Weekend Cincinnati this November before they sold out. Which means we will not be attending the event unless there is an act of God or someone cancels and our number comes up. We apologize to everyone.

Anyone that has attended either GenCon or Dragon*Con knows that both shows eat up a lot of time and effort. Doing both, which are less than a month apart, is a feat that requires all your energy, attention and money. In the mad rush we just didn't get around to getting our tables and now it's too late.

For anyone that was planning on buying a copy of Dead White & Blue Comics at Horrorhound Weekend, you will still be able to get them online. We are also planning on doing some local signing events at places like Rockin' Rooster Comics as well as other cities, so all is not lost.

Once again we apologize and hope you forgive us.

Billy & Heather

Dragon*Con re-cap

2011-09-09T21:48:00.000-04:00

Back from Draon*Con. It was great hanging out with everyone and meeting all the new folks. I'm running behind so I'm not gonna name drop a soul but I will cut to the chase:

Top 10 things that shall not be elaborated on (now enhanced with pictures!)
1. My costume was either Jose Eber, Lemmy or some dude's Uncle Rick...who is dead now but was a good guy.
2. Do you wanna party? It's party time! And I might be lending a hand...
3. In order to find good customer service at a restaurant around Dragon*Con one must search out a Burger King on the edge of the rough side of town...take note T-H-O-M-A-S of Max Lager's...
4. We must have parked way out in the Rape Section...
5. The taint is the Bigfoot of the human anatomy.
6. Food for thought: All those gross people who are covered with body paint had to have help...

8. Just because you feel sexy doesn't mean that you are...
9. I shaved my pink bag for this?
10. Ain't nothing cooler than an overweight Captain America.

I haven't downloaded all my photos but I will post them later. Thanks!

Dragon*Con baybeee!

2011-08-31T13:38:00.001-04:00

If anyone decides they want to seek me out at Dragon*Con we'll be in the Comics Artists Alley in the Grand Hall East of the Hyatt Regency. We'll be booth B18 and we're listed as William Tackett in the program for some reason. I'll be bringin' some original paintings including my newest two of my newest ones.

A quick word on zombification

2011-08-13T16:01:00.000-04:00

The only difference between me and [that other zombie artist] is that he's a hired gun. He only draws zombies when he is paid to do so whereas I (along with a bunch of other guys and gals) was drawing zombies a long time before I anyone paid me to do so. I did it because I was, and still am, a fan. I happen to be blessed because I now get paid to do what I love.

Next time you happen to chat with [that other zombie artist] ask him if he will still be drawing zombies when he is no longer paid to do so and then ask me the same question.

New show!

2011-07-27T10:10:00.000-04:00

First off thanks to Fright Night Film Fest/ Fandom Fest for having us out last weekend. It was great seeing some familiar faces and meeting new folks.

Like Melissa from Walking Dead...who apparently hides Scooby Snacks in her bra!

Infernal Dreams' David Rupp and Daniel Emery Tatlor

The Taylors again, Adam Thomas, Shane & Tracy Moore and horror costuming genius Wickedbeard

And then there was this guy...

Second, I'm a little late in announcing this but this weekend we'll be attending Lexicon at Al's Bar, 601 North Lime St. Lexington KY. Mark Kidwell, Mike Holman, RD Hall along with others that I'm forgetting at the moment. C'mon, art, comics, beer and an auction that benefits cancer research? You can't beat that with a stick!

And don't forget that I'll have my newest prints available...

Fourth of July weekend!

2011-06-30T16:10:00.000-04:00

I added some new events to my calendar. First off is the Northside Rock n Roll Carnival held this Saturday & Sunday in Cincinnati. A great time with good music, good food and good beer. I hear rumors that the Pickled Brothers Sideshow will be there Sunday. The booth will be manned...er, or womanned, perhaps, by my wonderful wife but I won't be there until Sunday evening. Why not? Because I will be in Olive Hill participating in an art show honoring my high school art teacher, Larry Carroll.

We added Dragon*con to our schedule as well as the Nashville Comic and Horror Fest.

A big thanks to Dave and the Con-tamination crew for a great show in St. Louis last weekend. Thanks to everyone that stopped by.

Origins and Con-tamination and free shit!

2011-06-21T19:12:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to put out a couple things going on this weekend. First off I'll be at Origins Game Fair in Columbus this Thursday only! I won't have a booth but I will be at the Charcon booth helping promote their event coming up in October. Since I won't be selling stuff there I wanted to do something so I think I will be giving away a limited number of hand drawn sketch cards. The exact number is unknown because I'll just give 'em away until my pack runs out. Also, you have to actually stop by the booth. I won't be handing them out to any old Joe Schmoe. As for the booth; we believe that the booth will not be in the vendor area but will be out in the main hall. So stop by the Charcon booth and get some free shit!

We'll be leavin' early Friday morn for St. Louis for the always fun and entertaining Con-Tamination. The Fantastic Four will be there along with a Jason, a Leatherface, a Candy Man, a couple a barbarians, some zombies, a porn star and a jack-ass. Artists include myself, Johnny Bopp, Dick Starr and Joel Robinson. There's also some cool vendors like World of Strange. Come get screwy in St. Louie with us!

Contagion, Contagion, Contagion!

2011-06-15T14:25:00.001-04:00

I know it's been a while but things have been pretty crazy but we just got back from Contagion in Omaha Nebraska and had such a great time that I had to dust off the old blog and write about it...I am also bringing back the Top 10 List of Things That Will Not Be Elaborated Upon.

First off I wanted to thank everyone involved for making out trip simply phenomenal. First year shows can have bumps and stops but from our perspective everything was pitch perfect. So kudos to the staff of Contagion!

Secondly, big thanks to the folks of the Omaha Chapter of the Zombie Research Society who were instrumental in getting us out there and took care of us. We owe you! Special thanks to Pat for taking the time to shuttle us around and show us the great city of Omaha.

Lastly, the attendees and fans we met were super nice and welcoming. Omaha has a great fandom community in place that really seems to be on the same page and works together to make things happen. Omaha could be a great destination to get your convention fix in the very near future...

We had a great time hanging out with the head of Zombie Research Society, Matt Mogk, and all the Omaha Zombie Research Society. On Saturday the ZRS presented Matt and me with some special art, caricatures by local artists. Mine was a zombification by Eric White who you can find at www.geekywhiteguy.com

Eric giving presenting me his zombification of the zombificator

Me & Matt Mogk of the ZRS

We also got to hang out with a couple of the Walking Dead zombies, Sonya Thompson and Melissa Cowan...and while I'm writing this I realize that we didn't get ANY pictures of the extra-curricular activities so you'll just have to take my word for it. I mean we spent half the day Monday hanging out with them and our unofficial tour guide Logan and have nothing to show for it...except this photo of me and my new hat...

Out with tha old and in with tha new!

But we did get the self-shot...

And this shot at the con...

And this one...

Heather & Sonya @ the airport

And these from my panel on the popularity of zombies...

On my left was Sonya Thompson (Walking Dead), Matt Mogk and Pat (both from the ZRS)

...on my right was Joe Schrieber (author Star Wars: Death Troopers), Melissa Cowan & Joe Giles (both from the Walking Dead), and Mike of the ZRS just to name a few...

This was quite possibly the largest gathering of zombie insiders I have been a part of. A great panel...(not pictured are Tim and The Spider & The Fly...I think...)

Now for the Top 10 List of Things That Will Not Be Elaborated Upon....

10. The Walking Dead don't smell nearly as bad as one would think.

9. Hop Bomb!

8. Waitresses with math skills are a must.

7. Cripple Pimpin' is an idea whose time has come!

6. Decepticons are rude and don't mind stealing your limelight.

5. We met a one legged man on his way to an ass kicking contest.

4. That smell you're smelling isn't chocolate, it's mulch!

3. It's a nice day, we'll walk. No, seriously, we don't mind. Really. We kind of prefer to walk. Seriously, it's OK. We'll walk. Really.

2. In Omaha you have to finger bang the street lights to get "walk" signals to work...

1. I'm replacing Ron Jeremy!

Witch's Ball Battle of the Bands!

2011-05-20T17:04:00.000-04:00

We'll be settin' up Saturday evening to support our buds Pagan Holiday at the Second Annual Witch's Ball Battle of the Bands and Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder
The contestants are:
Curse Icon
Second Chance at Eden
Spires of Altum
Der Meister
Pagan Holiday
(they will appear onstage in that order)

If you aren't familiar with Bobby Mackey's Music World it is considered the most haunted night club in America. They offer tours of the basement which is pretty creepy cool
http://bobbymackey.com/

We'll be there from 4-9pm. See you there!

Free Comic Book Day 2011

2011-05-06T10:29:00.000-04:00

I'll be at Heroes Realm 1624 Old Paris Rd. Lexington, KY all day tomorrow. Just puttin' that out there...

Fandom Fest Cincy...& new art!!

2011-04-11T21:26:00.000-04:00

Here's a big announcement to all my zombie lovin' friends in the Cincinnati area: You CANNOT afford to miss Fandom Fest Cincinnati this weekend, April 16 & 17! At the Radisson in Covington KY, $5 admission and and ass load of zombie related guests!! Including myself guests include two Walking Dead zombies, Walking Dead artist Tony Moore, '68 artist and Bump Creator Mark Kidwell, '68 and Heroes writer RD Hall. Not into zombies you say? How about Freddy vs. Jason artist Jason Craig? Horror not your thing? How about Kabuki and Daredevil artist and Eisner award winner David Mack? Not into comics? How about Jackass' Mike Holman? Not into Mike Holman? Playboy's Megan Mooney will be there. If you're not into drop dead gorgeous ladies I can't help you...

In related news; I just completed a Walking Dead piece for the show.

In related related news; I just finished a piece for Ari Lehman. Ari played Lil' Jason Voorhees in the first Friday the 13th movie and fronts the rockin' metal band First Jason. He'll be offering prints at his concerts and appearances.

In related related related news; I just completed a new set for my Dead White & Blue series. You might recognize these zombies...

I don't get it...

2011-04-03T00:17:00.000-04:00

Maybe someone can explain this to me in a way that actually makes sense;

Independent musicians- Many musicians and bands go out and pound the pavement, playing gigs, making fans, and producing & releasing their own music in the hopes to getting a recording contract with a major label. And some actually become successful with any ties to a major recording label. There are even radio stations dedicated to indie and unsigned musicians. Indie music is accepted.

Independent movies- Many filmmakers shoot their own flicks on shoestring budgets in the hopes of getting a shot at making a big budget movie. And some indie become blockbusters themselves.Why, indie films have their own film fests and awards ceremonies. Indie music is accepted.

Independent comic books- Many comic book creators toil at their craft in the hopes of getting some attention from fans and/or major publishers. Some creators leave major publishers to start up their own publishing ventures. Indie comics are accepted.

Independent artists- Many artists and illustrators are not attached to a single company but depend on freelance work. We are constantly looking for new markets and clients. Many of us go on to work for companies full time and many of us leave companies to freelance. Some of the most influential artists and illustrators were freelancers. Indie artists are accepted.

Independent authors- Considered by many the bottom of the barrel. The only reason an author self-publishes is because said author sucks and cannot get a "legitimate" contract with a "legitimate" publishing house. An author that has self published is tainted and can no longer be considered a candidate for "actual" publishing through a "real" publisher. Self published authors are dirtying up the waters and must be stopped by any means, preferably through humiliation or bullying. Indie authors are NOT accepted.

Why?

Horrorhound Weekend and new stuff!!

2011-03-24T13:53:00.000-04:00

Hey fellow travelers! I know my posts have been few and far between but I'm an artist, not a writer. Having said that I want to see each and every one of you at Horrorhound Weekend in Indianapolis IN this weekend!

We'll be joined by our friends Johnny Bopp, Dick Starr, Sam Flegal, Nathan Thomas Millner, Scottra, Joel Robinson, Dave Conover and Daniel Horne. Stop by our booth and take a gander at all of our new art and t-shirts!

Show TONIGHT!!

2011-03-11T13:49:00.000-05:00

I've been a little slack but I wanted to give a heads up. We're setting up a merch table at the 13 Pagan Holiday 13 / Quiet Riot concert tonight at WALHILL FARMS IN BATESVILLE INDIANA! Be there or be square!

Stan Lee Foundation's Create A Superhero contest & me!

2011-02-09T13:07:00.001-05:00

So I entered a contest to create a new superhero. The contest is sponsored by the Stan Lee Foundation, Todd McFarlane & Prismacolor. I know a lot of folks bitch and moan about comic books today so here's your opportunity to do something about it! Vote for me! All you gotta do is go here:

http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a20424afbff0e1a5bdc5c2afc9099d87/154

and click the blue "Vote with Facebook" button on the right or the green "Vote with SMS" button. Feel free to leave a comment and to share. All the links are there. Easy peasy!

Here's the really cool part: When you vote for me you are also voting for Rockstar Roni Jonah! Roni was kind enough to be the model for ZRU:7083 and she is perfect!

When you vote for me, Roni and ZRU:7083 this is what you'll get:

"During the Corpse Wars Marine Corporal Jonah was nearly torn apart by the living dead. Her near dead body became and experiment for the military, a cyborg zombie killin' machine! The only one as a matter of fact! After the government's collapse she decided the death and destruction was too much so she searches for peace and her humanity. But the dead keep coming and she is the only one that can stop them!"

VooDoo Carnival this Saturday

2011-02-03T15:23:00.001-05:00

VooDoo Carnival is taking place at the historic Southgate House in Newport KY Saturday starting at 8 pm. Switchblade Syndicate, Pickled Brothers Sideshow and others will put on a show that won't be soon forgotten! We'll be set up along with other vendors and we'll have some brand spankin' new stuff to peddle. Any night spent at Southgate House is a good night. VooDoo Carnival will push it over the top!

In other news: We had a great time with the Lexington KY Comic Creators Group. Did some life drawing with a Silent Hill nurse. After that they forced me to sing for our supper and Heather and I gave a talk about art as a business. The postmortem report can be read here: http://lexkyccg.blogspot.com/2011/02/2011-february-01-postmortem-report-on.html Dinner afterwards with Jonathan and Justin Stewart was a great wrap up. Lexington is my place of birth and I really enjoy taking part in the arts and fandom culture there.

News of the self indulgent kind: I haven't added it to the calendar on my site yet but as some of you know we have been invited to Omaha Nebraska's Contagion: Outbreak Pop Culture Expo in June. Our trip will be sponsored by the good folks at the Omaha Chapter of the Zombie Research Society. We had the opportunity to meet a lot of these folks on our trip to ZomBcon in Seattle and I gotta say I'm really looking forward to this trip.

Speaking of...One of those good folks I mentioned, Lisa Bolton, did a super nice write up about my zombification art. You can read it and some of her other zombie related articles here http://www.examiner.com/zombie-culture-in-national/billy-tackett-zombie-artist

One more: Jessica over at Zombieslam did a little feature on my art and asked me to explain my process a little. You can read that here: http://zombieslam.com/?p=318

For all those that pre-ordered For The Love Of Monsters, those are being sent out! First round went out today and the last round will go out tomorrow. Thanks to everyone that had enough faith in me to spend their hard earned bucks on my project sight-unseen! I know they're a little late but there was a problem with the printer. Not sure what that problem was but books are here now. I couldn't be happier with the quality and I hope you guys are too.

Lastly, not leastly but a little beastly: I completed the art for Nashville's Full Moon Tattoo & Horror Fest where we'll be guests in May. I'm going to add some text for the official poster but in the meantime you can gander a bit at Famous Zombies Wolfman!

Lexington KY Comic Creators Group

2011-01-29T18:42:00.001-05:00

That's where I'll be tomorrow and I'll be talking about stuff. Y'know, stuff like the business end of art. And I'll probably talk about zombies and other stuff. Silent Hill nurses will be there too. We'll be doing some ~~life~~ undeath drawing too! All the info is here: http://lexkyccg.blogspot.com/p/jan-30th-2010-meeting.html Hope you can make it out. 1:30 to 4:30 at the Lexington Public Library's Beaumont Branch.

Gallows Pole

2011-01-22T02:17:00.000-05:00

Haven't done an evolution of music post for a long while so I thought I would remedy that right quick. How's about some Gallows Pole?

Bella

John Jacob Niles - The Maid Freed From The Gallows

Raymond Crooke - Hangman, Slack on the Line

Leadbelly

Peter, Paul & Mary - Hangman

Kingston Trio

Odetta

Led Zeppelin

Alvin Youngblood Heart

Rootdogs

Great Big Sea

From the film Mr. Lonely

Unnamed band - The Maid Freed From The Gallows

Re-caps - Toronto & Seattle

2011-01-20T18:08:00.001-05:00

Catching up a little here. I realized I hadn't done my little re-cap for SFContario so I'll take a moment to do that. SFContario was our first time out of the country and it went surprisingly well. I was a little nervous with a van load of merchandise but everything was OK. Toronto is a beautiful city.

Every evening we stood in front of the hotel and chose a direction we would walk and pick a restaurant at random. This plan worked extremely well because I think we had one of the best food trips ever. Every place we ate was phenomenal! I do have to give a shout out to the best one, Papa Pasta on 76 Gerrard St. East. A small hole-in-the-wall in the basement of a town house. The food was truly Italian and made right in front of you. The guys behind the counter were great! If you're in Toronto drop by Pasta Papa.

We had a great time at the con. It was well ran. It was a first year event and if you're into fandom I think this event will be one to watch. Thanks to Paul and the staff for taking care of us and making us feel welcome. I have waited so long to post this that I forgot what I had wanted to say about the con so I'll just leave it at thanks.

Me, AD Paul and the sketch I did at one of my panels

On the way home we took a minor detour and stopped by Niagara Falls. It was off season so we pretty much had run of the joint.

On to Rustycon. Our second time in Seattle. Unfortunately this time the event was held at a place that didn't allow us to go exploring like we did at ZomBcon which was held in an artsy district of Seattle. But that's OK because this hotel was amazing!

They really filled up my dance card with panels but most were well attended and those that weren't were still interesting and informative. I guess that speaks well of my co-panelists who were awesome. Did I mention that on some of these one of my co -panelists was NY Times bestselling author and the Author Guest of Honor Patricia Briggs?

With our new friends and booth neighbors Lisa & Daniel

Closing ceremonies with Patricia Briggs

Thanks to all that made us feel welcome and supported us. I have to say that if anyone says anything bad about the staff at SFContario or Rustycon they haven't been there!

The downside to our trip was the flights. On the way there and back they were bumpy. But the real kicker was the airline lost a piece of our luggage on Monday...Which ended up in Amsterdam! But I have to say the airline was really accommodating and we had our luggage by Wednesday sage and sound.

2011 is off to a great start! Next stop is a talk with the Lexington KY Comic Creator's Group on Jan 30. And breaking news is that we just sealed a deal which will have us as Artist Guest of Honor at Contagion: Outbreak in Omaha Nebraska in June. Never been to Nebraska and we are really lookin' forward to it.

B

China is the new Nigeria

2011-01-19T02:01:00.000-05:00

I just got an email today and I wanted to give anyone that owns a domain to take note. This one is obviously a scam but the first one I received a couple months back sounded legit enough to fool me...I checked into it anyway. I don't remember the details on how they scam you but all you need to know is that they scam you.

Here is the email:

(This is very urgent, Please forward this to your CEO.)
Dear CEO,
We are the department of Asian Domain registration service in china, have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on January 18, 2011. one company which self-styled "Gasty Investment Co. Ltd " were applying to register "billytackett" as Brand Name and following domain names:

billytackett.asia
billytackett.cn
billytackett.com.cn
billytackett.com.hk
billytackett.com.tw
billytackett.hk
billytackett.in
billytackett.net.cn
billytackett.org.cn
billytackett.tw
After our initial checking, we found the brand name were similar to your company's, so we need to check with you whether your company has authorized that company to register these names. If you authorized this, we will finish the registration at once. If you did not authorize, please let us know within 7 workdays, so that we will handle this issue better. Out of the time limit we will unconditionally finish the registration for "Gasty Investment Co. Ltd".

Best Regards,

Andy

Senior Consultant

Been a long time

2011-01-12T12:09:00.000-05:00

Yep, been kinda quiet around here. Nothing to report really. I have been working on the Dead White & Blue Comics graphic novel. I'm happy to report that it WILL be out this year! Yay!

We are working on filling up our event schedule for 2011. So far it's pretty bare but I do have two dates to post ans we're working on another that will get us out west again! Speaking of going out west...

This weekend we're headed back to beautiful Seattle where we'll be guests of Rustycon! We hope to see some our friends from ZomBcon while we're there.

Short but sweet! We're flying out tomorrow morning and I still have to pack AND finish up a commission piece!

Looking back @ 2010

2010-12-26T18:33:00.000-05:00

Yeah, it's been a while since my last post. We've been a bit busy. I'm going to do a post about our trip to Canada for SFContario but I know there is a lot of folks wondering how the Who ARTED? 2010 event went. It was a huge success! I'll be putting together a post with all the numbers and stuff so stay tuned!

But for now a bit of end-of-year stuff: First off we want to thank all of you for supporting Billy Tackett Studios. It is a great warm and fuzzy like feeling when one can do what one loves to do and the public approves. And that's what happens every time one of you orders a print online or at a con, commissions me for a portrait of book cover or just stops by and looks through the portfolio and gives me some sort of "thumbs up".

Secondly, thanks to all the event promoters and gallery curators that invited to their events and establishments. Again, you gave us that warm and fuzzy feeling by rolling out the red carpet!

During 2010 we had the opportunity to:

Climb the Sears Towers

Visit Graceland

Climb the St. Louis Arch

See Niagara Falls

Climb the Seattle Space Needle

Visit Sun Records

Climb the Toronto CN Tower

See the Pacific Ocean for the first time

Leave the U.S. for the first time

Publish my first book

Met some wonderfully awesome folks!

Without your support we wouldn't have the opportunity to travel to travel country...scratch that! ...travel the continent! And your support to me is important...to me! But just as important is your support of the zombie/horror genre. For so many years we have been on the outside looking in at mainstream but now we are mainstream so let's keep it up and look out for each other!

And just as important if not more so is your support of the arts including art, literature, film, music and especially the independent arts. The arts are being cut from our school systems so it's up to you parents, siblings, family, friends and neighbors to educate the younger ones and to expose them to the things that you loved when you were young...and still love today!

So what will 2011 have in store for Billy Tackett Studios? The Dead White & Blue graphic novel will be completed and you can be damned sure there will be an ass load of Dead White & Blue art! I'm looking into some really cool merchandise to tie in with the graphic novel but that's all in the R&D stages right now. There could possibly be some new publications from Billy Tackett Studios as well. We are also planning on bringin' our ooey gooey zombie goodness to some new cities around the US! We may be invading to new countries as well...you have been warned!

Thanks to all and Happy 2011!!

Billy & Heather

Who ARTED?

2010-12-01T12:13:00.000-05:00

One more big promo! Who ARTED? is almost here and I wanted to share a video from our friend Phil Hepfinger that he shot at last year's event.

This Saturday, 6 to 10, Art on the Levee at Newport on the Levee. Wine tastings, refreshments, art, art, art!

go to whoarted.billytackett.com for more details

Who ARTED? is almost here!!!

2010-11-29T14:08:00.000-05:00

Yes, our charity event is this Saturday! For those that don't know Who ARTED? is our way of accomplishing a few things:

First, it's a way for us to get those that may not feel artsy to get creative and art for a good cause.
Second, we take vinyl records that will probably find their way into a landfill and give them a new lease on life.
Third, by keeping the prices at a minimum it's possible to get original art into the hands of art lovers that don't necessarily have a ton of cash to shell out for art.
And lastly, we are raising money for a worthy cause and having a blast doin' it!

The charity this year is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the money raised will be donated in memory of Heather's mother Connie Perry.

The event will take place at Art on the Levee which is located at Newport on the Levee in Newport KY 6 until 10 pm. Stonebrook Winery will be offering wine tastings for a small fee. Other refreshments will be available free of charge.

We have some great artists lined up this year. Some of the talented folks that have donated their time and creative juices this year include:
Survivor's Rupert
Jim O'Rear
Mark Kidwell
Sam Flegal
Travis Fessler
Dick Starr
Daniel Emery Taylor
Rob Meyer
Bobby Nash
Black-N-Bluegrass Roller Girls
...and tons more! Will give a full list of contributing artists with links as well as photos next week.

Zombies of the Universe Christmas sale!!

2010-11-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

For a limited time I'm making the Zombies of the Universe print available online! Nov. 26 through Dec. 3!

http://billytackett.bigcartel.com/product/zombies-of-the-universe

Horrorhound Cincy etc...

2010-11-15T12:51:00.000-05:00

Horrorhound Cincy is over and it was a blast. Got to hang out with our friends Dick Starr, Twilight Creations, Jason Crowe, Mike Holman, Rondo award winner ScottRa, Nathan Thomas Milliner, Joel Robinson, and so on and so forth. Thanks to Aaron, Nathan and the crew for a great show and thanks to everyone that stopped by and supported us and the event.

This comin' weekednd we're headed up to Toronto for SFContario. If you're in the area stop by and say hi.

And now for some housecleaning:
We met some of the folks from the Zombie Research Society while at ZomBcon (some of which we were supposed to have shared some air time with on National Geographic's Truth Behind Zombies but we haven't been able to confirm whether they used any of my art or not...). Anyway, they bought some prints and have showed us some love on their site: Debbie Does Zombies by Billy Tackett. And yes, Debbies Does Zombies will be a t-shirt in the near future.

Speakin' of ZomBcon; I did an interview with Undead Air podcast. Check it out!

While at the Memphis Comic & Fantasy convention I sat with friend Jon Klement for an interview on Dragon Talk Radio.

Promo for Macabre Mansion's The Fall of the House of Usher audio book starring Kevin Sorbo and Jim O'Rear featuring art by yours truly.

And lastly but not leastly Ghost Walk did a write up on me for their Haunted Path ezine.

I zombified Survivor's Rupert! The art will be auctioned off at the Rupert's Kids charity event Tuxes & Tennies.

Free Speech?

2010-11-11T18:41:00.003-05:00

Hell yeah! I'm sure EVERYONE has heard about the Amazon fiasco. If not read it here on USA Today's blog. This has raised issues. Free speech issues. Personally I think the book should have been removed. Yet I am pro-free speech. How's that possible?

Firstly, without free speech this blog would never exist. Nor would my career.But I do understand that although I have the freedom to say something I do not have the right to be heard. And if heaven forbid I say something controversial my right to say is also the same right that protects those to disagree with me. And that goes both ways. I don't agree with flag burning but it free speech protects those that do. I think it's biting the hand that feeds you but oh well.

I have tons more I'd like to say but I want to get to the point which is the deal with Amazon wasn't a matter of free speech. The perv can write and say what he wants but free speech does not protect him from the repercussions of what he says or writes. (I'll try not to get into any personal feelings on the subject and stick with the facts of what happened.) Amazon's removal of the book is a type of censorship.But people forget that if you want free speech online you have to make it yourself. For instance I have heard of several people getting their Facebook profiles deleted for something they said or some photo they uploaded. "Free speech!" they cried. Wrong. Facebook owns the servers that you are storing this information on. Facebook is allowing you to use there software, hardware etc for free. They own it. So they get final say on what goes on on Facebook. You have no rights. Especially since you agreed to their terms when you signed up. It's basically like if you came to my house and started insulting me or something so I boot your ass out. Or you rent an apartment and get evicted because you have loud parties every night. The same goes for Amazon. And Yahoo. And so on. If you truly want free speech online you must have your own servers. So if this guy truly wants to spread the gospel of pedophilia he will have to self publish and sell it on his own website otherwise he is subject to censorship.

There were a lot of people screaming about this issue. But I don't think I heard anyone ask for him to be censored. Most of what I heard was for Amazon to remove the book. And there was lots of talk about boycotting Amazon. There were those that condemned this action. I don't understand why. Companies get boycotted all the time when there is a group of people that think the company's policies are wrong. Check this out:
Boycott Target for giving money to an "antigay' candidate
Boycott BP for, well, you know...
Boycott Shell for something going on in Nigeria (I tried to figure it out but the website is pretty damned convoluted)
Boycott Exxon for any number of things apparently
Boycott Chevron because they support a Burmese dictatorship(?)
Boycott Home Depot because they are pro gay apparently
Boycott The Hobbit Because-er-never mind. That one's over...
Boycott Red & Black Cafe because cops in their store makes them really nervous for some reason
Boycott the circus I dunno about this one. I love the circus but I also love a naked woman...lemme think about this one a bit...
Boycott Wal-mart because they are an instrument of the devil...that rolls back the prices on a regular basis!
Boycott Walgreens for any number of reasons whether you're liberal or conservative
Boycott Wikipedia for some reason
Boycott Real Housewives DC because there are some attention whores on the show. Go figure...
Boycott Lebron James for getting another "job" with another "company" that pays better
Boycott Dr. Laura because she said something bad or wrong about Tourettes ..THAT STUPID BITCH!!
Boycott Mel Gibson for being a dick
Boycott YouTube because they don't believe in free speech (see paragraphs above)
Boycott Mars because now vegetarians can't get their chocolate fix...wait a minnit, isn't it milk chocolate? In that case boycott Mars because vegetarians don't have enough products and companies to boycott. (Imagine my dismay when I typed "boycott ma" into google and the headlines "Boycott Mars" pops up and it turns out to be a frickin' candy bar)

All these were found by typing "boycott" and then a letter or two and letting Google do the rest. Speaking of Google: 10 Reasons to Boycott Google.

So the uproar about Amazon censoring an "alleged" pedophile is lost on me. It was a type of protest. And this country has a long history of fixing things society deems wrong by protests and boycotts. Especially when it comes to companies that are looking for a profit. How many people that want to give the pedo guy his free speech want to take it from Glenn Beck? Or the Dixie Chicks?

Granted are lots of gray areas when it comes to freedom of expression and free speech. Being an artist I try to keep up with what's going on especially the big cases. Sometimes I agree with the outcomes, sometimes I don't. But I do think that a how-to guide to something illegal such as murder, rape, pedophilia, etc. crosses a line. Writing about those subjects are OK but instruction manuals are not. That may be an opinion. And if so it is protected speech ;-)

Just for the record, I could moderate all comments to my blog but I refuse. That's my way of giving you free speech here. If you disagree with me let me know. All comments are posted unedited. That's not to say I wouldn't delete something but it would have to be pretty bad...And I don't want to have my Blogger account deleted because this is their property after all.

Keep my free speech alive! Buy my book!

And for what seems to be a good dissertation on free speech click here.

For The Love Of Monsters pre-orders

2010-11-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

We finally got our galley copy of our book and we are ready for pre-orders! We will be taking pre-orders until Nov. 31. When you pre-order you get free shipping, free autograph and free sketch on the inside cover! That's a whole lotta frees in there. You may ask "Billy, how can you afford to give away free autographs like that?" It's true that in this economy ink is very expensive and with the all the social upheavals in the ink rich countries it's kinda hard to come by. But I do it because I love you. I love each and every one of you. In a brotherly way of course. And not in a creepy way. Because I'm not like that. Not since the therapy...

Anyway! Go to www.billytackett.com/fortheloveofmonsters and get your copy for only $35. It's not just a book but a little auto-biography. And it not only contains what may be the oldest surviving piece 'o art by me it also has pictures of my in Mickey Mouse ears and a McDonalds hat! Not at the same time of course.

I'll also be taking pre-orders at Horrorhound Weekend Cincy this weekend!

And while I'm at it: I discovered some photos from Darkwoods 1.5 that I had neglected to upload...so I did.

Ami & Heather

Me & my David Fultz art challenge: Draw a zombified single celled organism

Sam Flegal and his David Fultz art challenge: Draw a zombified single celled organism...I can't compete with color!

David Fultz, me & Sam Flegal

And just to prove that Sam and I are NOT the same person as some of you have suspected

Sam, Mike Holman, Adam Thomas, Daniel Emery Taylor, Ami Taylor & Heather

Back row: Sam, Nightmare on Elm Street's Ken Sagoes, Adam, Daniel, Ami

Front row: Matt Essary, Heather

Stalkin' in Memphis

2010-11-08T10:28:00.000-05:00

So after rollin' in from Memphis at around 6am Sunday morning I think I'm back on track. We had a great time at the Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention.We had the opportunity to meet some old friends from Mid South Con and make tons of new ones.

First a big thanks to Carlin Stuart for driving us around for dinner! I only wish we had had more time to spend on Beale St.... And thanks to Shorty for being our "handler"...Holy crap, that sounds creepy! Anyway, some highlights...

So Denise Crosby approaches me at the VIP party and introduces herself and tells me she's a fan! For those that don't know Denise is known for her roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Pet Sematary, X-Files, and Dexter! How cool is that! Also I found out that her ex-father-in-law is Blake Edwards! Blake is the director of the classic Pink Panther movies as well as Breakfast At Tiffany's! I couldn't let the opportunity pass so I gave her a copy of my Breakfast Is Tiffany print with the inscription : "Denise, Yeah, I think I dismembered the film" which is in reference to the song. I asked her how she thought Blake would feel about my zombification of his creation she replied that he would most likely love it because he has a pretty twisted sense of humor! There is now one degree of separation between Breakfast At Tiffany's and Breakfast Is Tiffany!

We also had the pleasure of meeting Suzanna Leigh who has been in films such as Paradise Hawaiian Style with Elvis, Lust for a Vampire, Deadly Bees and Son of Dracula. We also got to hang out with Sean Taylor, Bobby Nash, Adam Shaw, Sam Flegal, and some guy named Marc Ballard.

We were set up across from Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich. We've been to a few shows with Gary but I never really had the opportunity to check his stuff out. Man, was I surprised to learn that in addition to Ghost Rider Gary also wrote some of my favorite comics like Captain America, Monster of Frankenstein and Sgt. Fury and his Howlin' Commandos! I had no idea! During my down time I did a sketch of Ghost Rider and got Gary to sign it along with a copy of page #1 script of Ghost Rider's first appearance. Sweet!

I also sat down with Jon Klement and did a half hour interview for his podcast Dragon Talk Radio.

We rounded out our weekend when Carlin took us to Beale Street for dinner. Us consisted of Sam Flegal, Arne Starr, Heather and myself. This was the first time I had met Arne. He has worked for DC and Marvel and is probably best known for his work on the Star Trek comics. He now acts and has been on My Name is Earl, Mad Men, Medium and CSI as well as parts in Flags of Our Fathers, Blades of Glory, Spiderman 3, Transformers, Rush Hour 3, Iron Man and Star Trek. The man had some interesting tales to tell and we look forward to meeting up with him again.

Jon Klement

Pull My Finger is a great game to play while on the radio!

Sean Taylor just wanted to know what it's like to be me.

Dinner!

Beale Street

Dinner with Carlin, Sam, me, Heather and Arne

Gary signing my sketch

Heather and Arne

Memphis Comic & Fantasy Convention

2010-11-04T13:27:00.000-04:00

That's where we're headed this weekend! Get all the details here www.memphiscfc.com/. Guests include Jerry Lawler, Martheus Wade, Gary Friedrich, Jason Craig, Bobby Nash, Sam Flegal and Sean Taylor.

Here's the Big Announcement: We will have a copy of my book For The Love Of Monsters on hand and will be taking pre-orders. When you pre-order and the convention I will not only sign your copy but I will also sketch, doodle, or otherwise deface it before I send it out at no extra charge! And to think there was a time when I got in trouble for drawing in books. Take that, high school librarian!

ZomBcon re-cap

2010-11-03T13:49:00.000-04:00

We're back! Our first event in Seattle WA was a huge success. The staff was awesome, the guests were awesome and the fans & attendees were awesome! First a big thanks for Ryan, Kimberley and everyone that coordinated and/or volunteered for the hospitality.

So first off we shared space with Stephen Romano, the author and designer of Shock Festival. Great guy who does some great work. I got to meet Chuck Palahniuk who stopped by the booth and flipped through the portfolio. We did some red carpet-y stuff towards the end of the event and I was introduced to George Romero! Photos were taken and I'll be postin' those babies when I get 'em!

The event was in an area that was full of great restaurants and pubs. We were just a couple blocks from the Space Needle which we visited of course. It was a great trip and we're really looking forward to returning in January for Rustycon at which I'll be the artist Guest of Honor.

My art on our right, Stephen Romano's on our left

Me & Hello Kitty are tight

From the Needle

Under the Needle

Green screen photo. The dude taking the pic kept telling me that my hat was covering my eyes and finally I snapped "Just snap the photo!"

He captured my frustration beautifully I think...

Tis the season...

2010-10-28T21:42:00.000-04:00

Halloween is here! I am also here...and there...and everywhere! "Here" means I have original art hanging in the "Of Switzerland County" gallery in Vevay IN now through November. They also carry a selection of my Matted & Splatted™ prints. The gallery will be hosting a reception at which we will be present on Nov. 3rd. If you've never been to Vevay you really must do so. We spent a few hours there after hanging the art and I think it has become my favorite little town.

"There" means Seattle WA. I'll be a guest at ZomBcon this weekend. Guests include Chuck Palahniuk, Max Brooks, Malcolm McDowell, Jeffrey Reddick, Ben Templesmith, George Romero and Bruce Campbell among a slew of others!

"Everywhere" means National Geographic's The Truth Behind Zombies Saturday at 10pm. The producers asked for some of my art to be used in the program so they may have used all, some or none of my stuff. It will be like playing Where's Waldo...only with zombies!

Vevay, IN

Halloween music...week 4

2010-10-27T16:04:00.000-04:00

Last week! Halloween is almost upon us. For the final installment I thought I would showcase some bands that I have some connection which whether they are friends or clients or what ever.

Goblin Queen Impaler
Listened to these guys back in the day and recently had the honor of having them as booth neighbors at a local show. I believe their music is better than ever. www.myspace.com/impalerhorrorrock

Soul Seller First Jason
Ari Lehman is pretty awesome. High energy on and off stage. We do several shows a year with him and he never fails to entertain. He is also working on Abyss Walker inspired music so keep your eyes peeled for that! www.firstjason.com for more info.

Sick Things Alice Cooper
I did t-shirt designs for both the US and UK chapters of Alice's unofficial fan clubs, both called Sickthings.

What's the Count Jack? Eerie Von
Chatted with Eerie online numerous occasions and just waiting for the opportunity to meet him in person. The guy is also a great artist. Stop by www.eerievon.com to see for yourself.

Changed Switchblade Syndicate
Some great friends of ours. I did the cover art for their debut CD. I only wish there was a better quality video of them but stop by www.switchbladesyndicate.com for samples of their music.

Devilution The Reanimated
I've met some of these cats a few times. Check the out if you get the opportunity.

Sex Drugs & Formaldehyde Pagan Holiday 1313
Lastly but definitely not leastly, great band who musically is equal parts 80s metal, punk and Italian horror! And any band with a song called Dead White & Blue is pretty fuckin' cool in my book! www.myspace.com/paganholiday1313

Halloween music...week 3

2010-10-24T15:49:00.000-04:00

Undertaker Batlord

Creature with the Atom Brain Roky Erickson

Entrance of the Devil Zior

Munster's Theme Surfin' Lungs

Black Ju Ju Lydia Lunch

Hot Rod to Hell Elvis Hitler

I Believe in Halloween The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black

Day trip!!

2010-10-23T02:10:00.002-04:00

On Saturday we'll be heading out to Vevay IN to set up for a gallery showing. I'm gonna be the featured artist in the "Of Switzerland County" Stores for November...and the showing just happens to overlap with Halloween! How's that for coincidence! I'll have a ton of original art on display as well as Matted & Splatted™ prints available for purchase. You can go here for more info! Unfortunately we won't be there for the opening this time but we will be making plans for a show there in 2011! The reason we can't make the opening is because we'll be knockin' 'em undead at...

ZomBcon!!

You know. The con out in Seattle that is featuring Chuck Palahniuk, Max Brooks, Malcolm McDowell, Jeffrey Reddick, Ben Templesmith and a couple up and comers named George Romero and Bruce Campbell!

I'll have more to say about that later but until then I will leave you with this:

...and this: Some of my art should be featured in a National Geographic documentary called The Truth Behind Zombies. It's scheduled to air Oct. 30th at 10 pm est. They asked for a bunch of images but I don't know what made the cut so it will be a surprise for all of us I guess!

Halloween music...week 2

2010-10-13T03:22:00.000-04:00

Short 'n sweet.

Bloody Hammer Roky Erickson

Little Demon Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Riboflavin 45 Grave

This House is Haunted Alice Cooper

Nightmare/Dreamtime Motorhead

Bad Moon Rising 16 Horsepower

Teenage Werewolf The Cramps

Halloween music...week 1

2010-10-08T01:12:00.000-04:00

Here some songs for Halloween or Amateur Night as I like to call it! Making a Halloween playlist can be pretty easy. Misfits, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper etc. But I'm not gonna take the safe 'n easy route. I'm gonna turn lay some shit on you that will either leave you wanting more more or turnin' yer Fruit o' the looms into a fudge factory! Muahahahaha!

Jack the Ripper Screamin' Lord Sutch
I've never heard Alice Cooper refer to this underrated performer as an influence but the seeds are here...especially for the mid-70s Alice

Night of the Vampire Entombed
Great cover of a Roky Erickson classic

I Walked With A Zombie Roky Erickson
If you ain't familiar with Roky's work please check him out...because he's just passin' through our reality...

Murderdolls She was a Teenage Zombie
B horror movies, eyeliner, perfect mixture of punk and 80s metal & they like to say fuck...Perfect!

Bela Lugosi's Dead Bauhaus
The perfect goth band

Monster's Holiday Buck Owens
One of the first records I ever owned.

Nosferatu Blue Oyster Cult
Tryin' to decide which BOC song to add is a bitch!

Next week I'll have seven more!

Please don't touch

2010-10-04T16:39:00.000-04:00

Song evolution installment! The classic Please Don't Touch originally recorded in 1959. Never heard it you say? You were missin' out but I have remedied that. You're welcome.

Versions to check out: Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, Girlhead, The Downing Street Years & Hastyfishbone

Johnny Kidd & the Pirates

Girlhead (Motorhead & Girlschool)

Stray Cats

Uberwensch

Throwrag

Kidd Kane & the Pirates

The Downing Street Years

Tom White & His Friends

The Meteors

Las Furias

Rachel Stamp

The Housewreckers

Hastyfishbone(?)

Darkwoods Con 1.5

2010-10-01T11:20:00.000-04:00

Darkwoods Con 1.5
Lebanon KY
This friggin' weekend!

Survivor's Rupert, The Honky Tonk Man, Tiffany Shepis, Daniel Emery Taylor, Sam Flegal, World of Strange, Ari Lehman, Al Snow and on and on and on!

This is gonna be one helluva weekend!

Walkin' the Dog

2010-09-28T12:27:00.000-04:00

I'm gonna try to chronicle the evolution of some of my favorite songs for better or for worse. For some reason I have always been a sucker for a cover song and have tried to collect them as much as possible. Thanks to the internet that is so much easier now! I'm gonna try to keep these in chronological order but that can be difficult. I'm also staying away from most concert recordings because 90% of them suck! The only time I'll break this rule is if the quality is exceptional or the content is rare and/or unusual. And if you have any that I missed send 'em along!

I also recommend looking into some of these more obscure musicians. There's some great music out there just waiting to be rediscovered. I would link to the bands listed but I'm kinda lazy and why should I anyway? I gave you the band and the song. Do some work for yourself for once! I ain't gonna hand you everything on a blood splattered platter , y'know!

Startin' off with the classic Walkin' the Dog written by Rufus Thomas and released in 1963. I find it rather odd that after almost 40 years of being re-interpreted by mostly white singers the song has evolved into a more bluesy composition than the original.

My recommended versions:
The original by Rufus Thomas of course, The Sonics because it just rocks your f*ckin' face off, The Everly Brothers because it was more hip and garage sounding than what I expected, Aerosmith because early Aerosmith = good Aerosmith, The Roosters because those Japanese guys know how to do it, Green Day just so you can hear what they could have sounded like, Joe Deninzon because electric fiddles are awesome, Dizzy Cats to see how the Russians do it and Sweet Jam because...well...just because ;-)

Rufus Thomas

Jackie Shane

Rolling Stones

Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames

PJ Proby

Johnny Rivers

The Dennisons

The Sonics

The Everly Brothers

Davy Graham

Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Randy California & Spirit

The Jam

Roger Daltrey

Aerosmith

The Roosters

Ratt (this EP was my first exposure to the song)

Steve Marriott & the DTs

Chris Wilson

Green Day

Dumpy's Rusty Nuts

Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius

Aerosmith Unplugged

Jörgen Falk and Inge Josephson

Hans Theesink

The Dizzy Cats

Sweet Jam

And if you think this is a lot just wait'll I get to Louie Louie!

Zombie Portraits!!!

2010-09-24T13:04:00.000-04:00

Hey gang! We'll be in Newport at Art on the Levee, which is ironically (?) located at Newport on the Levee, tonight and tomorrow night. We are celebrating the Twisted & Talented Halloween Art Exhibit. That ain't the big news. The big news is that I'll be doing zombie caricatures while you wait, shop or drink! you'll get stuff like:

Stop by after 6 to get your zombie on!!

Also in other news: The Cincinnati Comics Expo was friggin' fabulous! It was a great turn out and thankfully they are doing another next year.

We were actually having a better time than we look like we are

Arthur who?

We just got back from Chicago. This time we had time to do some touristy shit...and we have the photos to prove it!

Indiana Dunes

I got to pull the finger of a dude named Octave

Sears Tower...103 stories up!

They call me Sunshine...

Zombies are comin!! re-revisited

2010-09-16T21:38:00.000-04:00

Several months ago, shortly after the earthquake in Haiti, I posted a blog that in part gave Haiti credit for the zombie phenomenon and in part made light of conspiracy theorists. You can read it here. A few folks took me to task for it telling me it was too soon to be getting a jolly at the expense of anothers pain and suffering. So in my defense I clarified my intentions here. I made a short list spelling out who I was making fun of in my original post.

Please make note of entry #7 where I take a poke at authors and screenwriters. I ask "How long before zombie themed screenplays and stories start showing up using the quake as a backdrop if not a cause for the apocalypse? 6 months? A year?" Well ladies and gents we have our answer! 8 months.

In Las Vegas the Rainbow Company Youth Theatre is putting on a play called "The Zombies Walk Among Us". www.mynews3.com says "Written and directed by Brian Kral, the play is set in post-earthquake Haiti. The daughter of an aid worker dreams she has seen her sister walking with the zombies, and sets out on a mysterious adventure to discover the truth about the vodoun culture and zombification." The website uses what looks like an actual earthquake photo as a promo.

So for the record, if you want to exploit, fictionalize, monetize or make fun at the expense of the suffering of another 8 months is the appropriate amount of time to wait.

Honestly I don't care what others think and I see nothing wrong with the play. I just wanted to point out that I was pretty accurate in my prediction. If the play is holding auditions now it has probably been in the writing stages for a couple months which puts it firmly in the 6 month period. I'm like a Nostradamus or some shit. Tell your friends...

It ain't always about me...

2010-09-15T13:47:00.000-04:00

Cincinnati Comic Book Expo, Cintas Center, Cincinnati OH, Sept 18! Be there!

OK, I got that outta the way I can get to the point which is this: I've noticed that my blog posts have become about where I was last weekend, who I hung out with, where I'm going next weekend and who I'll hang out with. That's all well and good but it leaves my blog lacking any substance or personality. That's about to change! Time permitting I'm going to be sharing some stuff that I find interesting. Stuff like music, art and so on.

Jack Kirby's birthday was on Aug. 28th and to commemorate this I thought I'd share this interview. Keep in mind that this interview took place at about the time the whole Marvel fiasco was coming to a legal ending so the wounds are still pretty fresh for Kirby. The interviewers did a good job of skirting the subject but the animosity is pretty evident in some of Jack's responses to caller's questions.

Note- When I'm asked why I chose a career in art my reply is a very honest "Because that was the only thing I was good at". My wife always rolls her eyes at this, telling me it minimizes what I do and why. In the interview Jack is asked the same question. His answer? "It was what I was good at"!

Chicago, St Louie, I been a lotta places, man!

2010-09-13T12:04:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to get this blog out for a while but have either been too busy or under the weather so here goes:

First of all I want to plug our next show which is the Cincinnati Comic Expo Sept. 18 at the Cintas Center. There will be folks like Josh Medors, David Michael Beck, Mark Kidwell, Mike Maydak, Jeff Preston, Tony Moore and legends like Allen Bellman, Murphy Anderson, Russ Heath and Craig Boldman. And if you don't recognize these names you owe it to yourself to go to the bio page and see exactly how much today's comics industry actually owes to these guys.

A few weeks back we headed up to Chicago for Wizard World's Comic Con. We met a lot of great folks and they really kept me busy! The first commission was from a group of guys that stopped by, one of which was holding a copy of a well known comic book. When I asked if he had the cover artist sign the book he kinda rolled his eyes and showed me the sketch and signature he had paid for. The following ad came from that interaction:

Here's how I feel about the situation: If a fan, or anyone for that matter, is going to pay you for a sketch you should at least give them something that resembles your style. Now if this had been a freebie? I still think one should do more but hey, you get what you pay for, right? But this guy was willing to shell out some bucks and this is what he got. And what are you gonna do, ask the artist to give you your money back for a crappy half-assed sketch? It kinda burns my ass to see someone treat their fans like that.Now that I got that off my chest...

Below are some of the sketches I did while I was there:

One of the more unusual requests, a book full of Strawberry Shortcake getting what she's got coming to her...my method of demise? Being eaten by zombies of course!

Cap was a favorite...this one turned out looking a lot like Tar Man!

Batman!

Zombie Catwoman and her camera shy owner!

Re-sketch of my classic Born To Lose pic

The Force is strong...just not very fresh!

Another Cap!

Oh, and then there were these guys! They didn't buy anything though.

And these last two are collages of sketches I did during some down time.

Zombie JLA...I discovered that a zombie Superman image just doesn't have the impact if you don't show at least his chest too.

And one more Cap for the road!

Lots of people we knew there like Chris Kuchta, Menton J. Matthews III, Mike Maydak, Marc Ballard, Nigel Sade, Mark Kidwell, RD Hall, Mike Holman, Morgan Mead, and...and...crap! I know there were more but I just can't remember. Unfortunately there wasn't much time to hang out but it was a great time...except that the hotel was out of Fat Tire...bastards!

The next weekend we headed to St. Louis for a mini vacation. Visited City Museum and the Arch. Stopped for a bite to eat on a great little street before we left and had this little incident:

Heather shoots a great photo of the street we were on, carriages and everything! Except that just a few short moments later I hear someone call my name...

The carriage driver just happened to be our old friend Alicia!

Heather's Big Brown Beaver...I never get tired of saying that!

Finally! A Fat Tire!

Ruby's first encounter with a horse.

If you've made it this far I shall give you your reward. I hereby present to you...

Justin ZOMBIEber

You're welcome...

Filler

2010-08-31T15:13:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd post this filler blog while I gather the photos from the Chicago Comic Con and our shenanigans during out mini-vacation.

First I'd like to give a sneak peek and the almost finalized cover for the upcoming book The Call of Lovecraft from Papercut Books.

Here is the list of the astounding authors taking part in this anthology:
Ramsey Campbell
John F.D. Taff
William Meikle
John B. Rosenman
Carol MacAllister
J. Travis Grundon
Jacqueline Seewald
Lee Clark Zumpe
Brian Barnett
Gregory L. Norris
H. David Blalock
Scott Lefebvre
H.P. Lovecraft

Next up in the Shameless Self Promotion Agenda is Jonathan Maberry's new book is out. Wanted Undead or Alive: Vampire Hunters and other Kick Ass Enemies of Evil is the latest non-fiction book by the NT Times best-seller and multi-Bram Sotker Award winning author. It was co-authored by Janice Gable Bashman features interviews and art by some of the best in the business like Menton J. Matthews III, Sam Flegal, Chad Michael Ward, Mike Mignola, Peter Straub, Jack Ketchum, Don Maitz and more. Oh, I'm in there too!

In the Who Knew? section I have this tid bit: I was contacted by a person asking if I was related to someone who was big into sci-fi by the name of Roy Tackett. All Tacketts are pretty much from the same stock which makes us all cousins to an extent but no, I am not closely related to this gentleman. But to find this out I did a Google search on him. lo and behold he had a Wikipedia article on him. He didn't just found a convention or two. He didn't just write short stories and reviews. He is credited with introducing science fiction to Japan! And for his work with Japanese fandom he was one of only two Americans awarded the "Nippon SF Fandom" award, Forrest J. Ackerman being the other. So a Tackett is in some way responsible for Godzilla...and anime...Who knew?

Chicago Comic Con

2010-08-17T15:52:00.000-04:00

I'm in the process of packing for Chicago Comic Con. There will be tons of phenomenal artists in attendance like Arthur Suydam, Mark Kidwell, Jason Craig, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mark Texiera, Menton J. Matthews III or Chris Kuchta. This will be our very first show in Chicago so I'm really anxious the get on the road. We'll have some new prints in stock as well as our new-ish shirt designs. Stop by booth # 3431 and say "Hey, ain't you the zombie guy?".

In other zombie related news I have a small spot in NY Times best selling author and multi-Bram Stoker award winner Jonathan Maberry's new non-fiction book Wanted Undead or Alive: Vampire Hunters and other Kick Ass Enemies of Evil. Below is the page in which I appear. I blurred out the text so you'll have to find a real life copy in order to read it! I'm such a dick...

What's right with anime?

2010-08-16T17:02:00.000-04:00

Before I get into it I want to say that Gencon 2010 was pretty damned awesome! Thanks to everyone that stopped by and supported us. It was great seeing everyone again. I got some cool commissions so the next few months should be interesting as far as art goes. I was also approached for a project that I'm pretty jazzed about although I can't say anything about it. Yet. And as always one of the highlights was dinner with Abyss Walker author Shane Moore and Tracy...and the other Shane ;-)

Now, on to the topic:
I think maybe the best way to get to what is right with anime and manga is to show what is wrong with...uh..er..OK, so what is anime exactly? Anime is "is animation originating in Japan...(characterized by) large eyes...a "vein" or "stress mark" effect, where lines representing bulging veins will appear on their forehead (to denote anger)...a massive sweat-drop (which has become one of the most widely recognized motifs of conventional anime) or produce a visibly red blush or set of parallel (sometimes squiggly) lines beneath the eyes (to show stress or embarrassment)" and so on. From Wikipedia. So anime describes an art style...Hmm. So lets look at manga.

"The genre includes a broad range of subjects: action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality, and business/commerce, among others". Also from Wikipedia. The article seems to describe manga as a type of creative medium. Maybe that's how I'll approach the subject...

To get to what is right with anime and manga is to show what is wrong with us, the western world. We have to label everything! It has to fit into some sort of genre in order for our brains to process it. For instance there are the genres of fantasy, sci-fi and horror (and never the twain shall meet according to some!). And these genres are further divided into sub-genres. For instance under the horror umbrella we have gothic, splatter punk, torture porn, slasher etc which can be further divided into or grouped under vampires, zombies and so on and on and on. The same holds true for sci-fi and fantasy. And when you have a movie like Alien come along it causes many (usually laughable) debates.

My art is usually categorized as zombie art, horror art, and the new and frustrating mash-up. I hate the term mash-up, BTW. The others I don't really mind even though it irks me a little when someone walks up to me and says "Hey, you're the zombie guy". Yes, yes I am but I am also much more than that. I consider myself a fantasy artist. Why? I don't do many dragons or elves or unicorns. But what I do is make shit up. I create scenes and creatures that didn't exist until I came along. It's all fantastical therefore it's fantasy.

I know there are some out there that are hardcore fantasy fans and that the whole zombie/horror things is "beneath them" or "too gross" or whatever. Fantasy is full of undead creatures and horror is full of magic! Fantasy and horror should go hand in hand! And that, kiddos, is what is wrong with us.

The Japanese and the creators of anime and manga have none of the hangups we do. Whatever it takes to make an interesting story will be thrown in there. There is no steampunk or horror or sword and sorcery or post-apocalyptic anime. It's just anime that may have a little bit of each thrown in there. There are no explanations (apologies) either. The story just happens. And the reader/viewer just goes with it. But we here in the west feel the need to explain (apologize) by calling it alternative history. Or a parallel dimension. or a mash-up. So why do we not have genres that are just based upon art styles alone instead of subject? Good question. One that I don't have an answer to.

Granted labeling stuff by subjects makes it easier for us to find what we like but are we missing something? I think we are. I know as a creator (yes, I think I am going to lean towards the term "creator" more than artist) trying to create something within a specific genre can be stifling so I'm not going to do it anymore. Not that I really worried too much about it in the past but I am now going to worry about it even less. I may even take to the streets with my message...which will be..."Down with labels"?...or "Genre specificity is for those that can't think outside the box"...Too wordy? Perhaps. Maybe I'll work on that but you get the picture.

And for what it's worth I am not a fan of anime or manga generally speaking. There's a few good additions to the genres here and there but I am not a fan. But I think we can learn a lot.

And speaking of mash-ups...Egad! I hate that term! So speaking of non-genre specificity here is the cover to the epic final installment to Shane Moore's Abyss Walker series. Fantasy and horror. This proves the point I made earlier.

GenCon and more...

2010-08-03T14:29:00.000-04:00

First of all I would like to say that we know there is a major retail chain selling Zombie Sam t-shirts that look a whole lot like mine. We're looking into it now and I'll give more info when I can. Secondly: A big rotten thanks to everyone who gave us the heads up. When we get an average of one message a day for over a month it means only one thing: You love us! You really, really love us!! But seriously it does mean that not only do we have fans but we have fans who care enough about us to watch our backs which makes them friends as well! Thanks everyone!

We're gettin' geared up for Gencon which starts Thursday. Love this show. This will be our third or fourth year for this show and it keeps getting better and better for us. We'll have a bunch of new prints and shirts available that we didn't have last year so stop by and say hi. We'll be in the art show somewhere.

Abyss Walker author Shane Moore will be in the author's alley so make sure you stop by his booth and give him shit. And my friends are screening the film My Bloody Wedding there so if you like horror and comedy mixed up together check the schedule for the show time.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Zombiestock.....

2010-08-01T11:38:00.002-04:00

Friday I took part in Zombiestock and it was great! Usually Friday afternoons are slow for conventions but this one was pretty well attended. Met some cool people and got to hang out with some old friends. Thanks goes out to Jason and everyone involved. Look forward to next year's event.

Afterwards I got to hang out at the Fright Night Film Fest's after parties. Not sure if there are words to describe the shenanigans that went on but suffice it to say I returned to my room at around 3:30 am! Too many folks to list but it was cool hanging out with everyone. Can't wait to do it again.

But I will share my highlight of the night: Being called a "wanker" buy Jason Carter...

Next stop: GENCON!!!

New news!

2010-07-29T00:51:00.000-04:00

First up: Zombiestock. This Friday. 12 noon - 7. Check out my last post for all the gruesome details http://billytackett.blogspot.com/2010/07/zombiestock-dead-white-blue-and-you.html or go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106427192729697&ref=ts. And just to clarify: Zombiestock is taking place inconjunction with Fright Night Film Fest but is separate. I will be at Zombiestock on Friday but I will not be set up at Fright Night.

Next: I just scheduled a new show here in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Comic Expo on September 18. It's a one day event with a ton of guests. For a $7 admission you can't go wrong!

Thirdly: New art! Again! This one may end up being an oil painting...maybe...

Zombiestock, Dead White & Blue and YOU!

2010-07-26T23:14:00.003-04:00

Salutations! A little plug for my upcoming show in Louisville KY, ZOMBIESTOCK! Zombiestock runs in conjunction with Fright Night Film Fest from noon to 7 pm this Friday. The event is free, did'ja catch that? FREE!! And if that wasn't enough if you come dressed as a zombie you will get to be in Feathered Italian Films' next movie which is called Zombie Movie for some weird reason... And if THAT wasn't enough to make you want to get yer zombie on get a load of the guest list:

Friday the 13ths FIRST Jason Voorhees ARI LEHMAN
WWF/WWE/ECW legend AL SNOW
Award winning zombie artist BILLY TACKETT
Deadlands director GARY UGAREK
5 time MMA champ and Hall of Famer DALE MILLER
Wrestling Diva/ actress & director RONI JONAH
The Crow's ROCHELLE DAVIS
PLAYBOY models/actors APRIL HUNTER and MEGAN MOONEY
Dead Moon Rising stars TUCKY WILLIAMS, JASON CROWE and many more including special guests like TJ Moreschi, David Fultz, Cory Stringer, David Pollard, The Wingman cast & crew, Madhouse productions and more!
Don't forget music and performances by Ari Lehman's FIRSTJASON, SACRED SORROW, TRISTA RAY and DJ LEPREKON

Zombiestock runs from 12 noon to 7pm Friday July 30th at the INN PLACE HOTEL in Louisville KY. After "ZOMBIESTOCK" attend the FRIGHT NIGHT FILM FESTIVAL and meet all your favorite STARS! FNFF does charge a fee for entry to their festival. Zombiestock is FREE. But if you donate you can get some cool crap. Check the info here: http://www.indiegogo.com/zombiestock

Oh, And I mentioned new art didn't I? I didn't? Oh well. Here's my newest piece title Zombies of the Universe anyway!

Billy Tackett Studios' ToZ (Terms of Zombification) first draft

2010-07-22T01:46:00.000-04:00

This may come as a surprise to some of you but a lot of people know me for my depictions of zombies. I know, I know. This day and age it seems as though everybody and their retarded brother is jumping on the zombie meatwagon. "Zombie this, zombie that, I can do zombies! Zombie stories, zombie movies, zombie clothes, zombie art, blah blah blah". Yes, zombies are everywhere. Unfortunately there's more bad than good and that goes for zombie art.

The trend seems to be that the good gets better while the bad gets worse. Now don't get me wrong, just because I think some art is bad doesn't mean the rest of the world should think it's bad as well. Art is truly in the eye of the beholder. Zombies on the other hand...

The influx of people trying to cash in on the popularity of zombies has muddied up the waters terribly. Those of us who are and have been in love with the genre for years or, as in my case decades, are being pushed to the side by fly-by-nighters.

In order to show my sincerity to you, the general zombie-lovin, gore-whorin', freaky-speakin' general public I have decided to create my own TOS (terms of service). I will call them my Terms of Zombification (ToZ) and they will consist of my own little code of ethics that pertain to zombies in general and zombie art in particular. The ToZ here is just the beginning. I will be adding to these as the need arises.

1. The Zombie Genre is not a fad and I will not treat it as such.

2. I will not take the Zombie Genre too seriously but I will treat it with the respect it deserves. And I, as a Zombification Specialist, ask to be treated with respect as well.

3. I will not use Photoshop to add textures or otherwise manipulate photos to make zombies. All my zombies will be lovingly handcrafted.

4. I will strive to make each zombie a unique and interesting creature.

5. Zombification involves more than just removing lips, adding blood to the face or clothing, making someone look like they were on the business end of either a shotgun or great white shark.

6. I will strive to make my zombies appear to obey the laws of physics yet I realize that at times artistic license must be taken for the greater good.

7. I do not compete with other zombie artists. There is enough room for all of us.

8. In my eyes the Zombification process is not a form of derision but a sign of respect. I hold all subjects of the process in the highest regard. After all, there ain't nothing cooler than a zombie.

9. Gore will not be used gratuitously. All gore will have a purpose.

10. Slow zombies vs. fast zombies is a dumb argument and I will not take part in it.

Billy Tackett

my monsters are more FAMOUS than your MONSTERS CON!

2010-07-12T21:16:00.005-04:00

Famous Monsters of Filmland. Those words are legendary. Taking part in Famous Monsters Con in Indy was a great honor and I feel as though the magazine is back with a vengeance! It was pretty freakin' awesome to be around such legends as Basil Gogos and William Stout. I missed my chance to meet them properly but sharing the same room with them was a humbling experience. And the sheer number of horror movie icons roaming the building was staggering. I won't go down the list but here's a rundown of some of the folks that made FMC a great weekend:

We had great booth neighbors with Cinema Wasteland and Pirate Pictures with the folks from Kitbuilders Magazine across the way. On Friday we had dinner at Chili's with a group that included Jim O'Rear, Bryan Wilson, Cerina Vincent (I didn't know at the time but Cerina was a Power Ranger!), Danielle Harris, and William Forsythe.

Saturday was an awesome day which concluded with dinner with Sam Flegal, Matt Essary, Johnny Bopp and Dick Starr at a restaurant called Indy's, which I would not recommend if you like draft beer...long story. After that we headed to the hotel to check out the after hour shenanigans...of which included witnessing the star of a classic zombie movie make a girl in a tutu get outta his chair, sharing a beer with the write of Night of the Living Dead, hanging out with the great conversationalist Eric Butts, the discovery that one of William Stout's entourage has a wet ear, finding out the Billy Gram is a hoot and a half and Dragonfly is a damned good IPA!

Some other folks that we got to hang out with over the weekend was Jason Crowe, Roni Jonah, Bob East, Bradd Parton, Lydia Burris, Chris Kuchta, Mike Christopher, Terrance Z'dunich, Dave from Con-tamination, Marc Ballard, Sal Lizard and the tons of friends that stopped by the booth. Thanks to Gypsy and the volunteers for the hospitality and we look forward to next year.

Dinner @ Chili's

Dinner@ Chili's

Cerina, Danielle, Angela & Heather outside Chili's
Photos courtesy Wickedbeard

Don't forget: this weekend we're going to be hanging out at Loveland Castle for the Masked Cabaret and then the next week Zombiestock! Get you VIP pass for $100 and up and get some cool stuff! Tell 'em I sent you.

New shows

2010-07-06T15:22:00.000-04:00

I'm gonna try to stay caught up on updates but things are pretty crazy. So many zombies, so little time. Anyway, here's a rundown of some upcoming events we'll be attending including two recently confirmed one night shows that should kick ass.

This weekend we're headed to Indy for Famous Monsters Con. There's a couple of guests there that I am pretty stoked about: artists Basil Gogos and William Stout. The show boasts Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Lost Boys reunions. Other guests include friends Jim O'Rear, Mike Christopher, Dick Starr, Johnny Bopp, Sam Flegal and Kane Hodder as well as Bela Lugosi Jr, Charles Band, Karlos Borloff, Sal Lizard, Tony Todd and more. Looking forward to this one.

On July 17 you will find us at the Loveland Castle for the Masked Cabaret that will feature our friends Pickled Brothers Sideshow as well as vaudeville acts and belly dancers.

On July 30 we'll be taking part in Zombiestock. The event is being sponsored by our buds at Feathered Italian Films and Fright Night Film Festival in Louisville KY. Zombiestock will not just be another zombie walk. It will be a movie set where you can take part in Feathered Italian Films' newest flick, Zombie Movie. Ari Lehman's First Jason will be performing and My Bloody Wedding's David Fultz will be there.The event is free but if you purchase a VIP pass of $100 or more tell 'em I sent you for some cool swag and special deals.

And then we have GenCon on Aug. 5-8 and Chicago Comic Con Aug. 19-22 as well as some local shows in September but more on those later!

Congrats on the Red White & Dead Zombie Walk in Seattle for bringing the Guinness World Record for the largest Zombie Walk back to the U.S.! My Zombie Sam was the official mascot for the event and we'll be attending ZomBcon out there for Halloween.

And the beaten goes on... Part 1

2010-07-05T15:28:00.001-04:00

Been a little while since I last posted. May has been pretty busy. First we had the wedding of a family friend. Great wedding. Congrats to Claire and Brian.

The next weekend we traveled to Illinois for the wedding of Abyss Walker creator Shane Moore and Tracy in which I was a groomsman and shared best man duties. The wedding was interesting for a number of reasons. First it was held in a historic courthouse in which Lincoln practiced law. Then, a well known Star Wars actor was in attendance and an animator for numerous Disney movies was also a part of the wedding party. Another interesting thing was that all the groomsmen and the groom wore armor. We wore Greek or Roman style armor. Which means no pants. I always wear pants. Because I have the internal temperature of a 90 year old woman. Also sandals. Nice. We looked good. But did I mention the temperature was just above freezing? Well, it felt like it to me anyway. But it was cold as shit! And rainy. And windy. Did I mention I didn't have pants on? But we looked good and we had a great time. And we made memories! Did I mention we looked good? Judge for yourself:

Next weekend we packed up and headed to Birmingham AL for Imagicon. It's always great seeing our old friends. Thanks to Tom, Tom, Joe, Kelly, Abby and the whole Imagicon crew for their hospitality. Also thanks to Larry Elmore, Sam Flegal, Jim O'Rear, Daniel &; Amy Taylor, Nigel Sade Christina Lynn Meyers, Ash Evans, and Kevin &; Farra from Macabre Mansion for helping make it a fun weekend. Check out the Macabre Mansion interview with me here. Oh, special thanks to Kelly for the bottle of vino. Next time we drink together!

The photos above courtesy Macabre Mansion

Next up, Marcon in Columbus where I was artist Guest of Honor. Our first time at this show but considering this was year number 45 you better believe they know what they're doing! It was great hanging out with Shane and Tracy, something we don't get to do often enough it seems.Thank to Linda Winks for her assistance and to the staff for having us. And thanks to the attendees of both events for their support. We didn't get any photos at the event but highlights included watching the drunken festivities with Abyss Walker author Shane Moore & Tracy, Barfleet party, dinner with Sam Flegal and dinner with Beef & Tamara of TB Gallery.

Weekend after that: Our youngest's graduation! (Photos coming soon!)

After that we headed to Knoxville for the Knoxville Comic & Anime Con. Attendance was low on Sunday which was bad for sales but good for getting the opportunity to hang out with friends like Ben & Tracy from World of Strange, Richard Ewell, Roni Jonah, Jason Crowe, Sam Flegal (again), Rob Brown, fez wearin' Jan,. I also met a cool artist by the name of Brandt Hardin. He does some cool lowbrow stuff that you need to check out. Seriously.

And that brings us to this past weekend. Northside Rock n Roll Carnival just across the river in Cincinnati. This has to be one of Cincinnati's best kept secrets. The crowd is awesome but yet there are few vendors other than food and beverage peddlers. Despite the long hours and the heat we look forward to this show every year. We always meet some great folks and get the opportunity to hang out with friends. Like the folks from Horrorhound Magazine who was set up right beside us and Pickled Bros. Sideshow.

This year our youngest tried her hand at vending and shared our booth with some of her drawings and really cool duct tape wallets. And she had pretty good success. This was also the official debut of the t-shirt emblazoned with the image of a Godzilla-like monster destroying the Cincinnati skyline. We sold out! Apparently word got out and folks would run up to the booth, ask for the Cincinnati shirt and go away without bothering to look at anything else. Pretty amazing!

Now that you're up to speed stay tuned for some pretty cool announcements!

Cincinnati celebrates 4th of July ZOMBIE STYLE!!

2010-06-30T22:28:00.003-04:00

www.northsiderocks.com

We're bringin' Dead White & Blue to the Northside 4th of July Festival in Cincinnati Friday and Saturday. Along with our usual zombie fair we will also have unusual zombie fare! T-shirts, prints, buttons, greetin' cards. And if zombies ain't your thing check out our newest t-shirt:

And we'll be carryin' Big Dead Machine shirts and prints as well.

Also scheduled to take part in the festivities are our good friends Pickled Bros. Sideshow, The Long Gones, The Sundresses - You, You're Awesome, The Kiss Me Everlasting, The Tempers, Queen City String Band, State Song, Brian Olive, Daniel Martin Moore, The Tigerlillies, Baoku Moses & The Image Afrobeat, Cletus Romp, Ricky Nye Inc and more!

Friday 6 -1am

Sat 1-1am

Knoxville Comic & Anime Con

2010-06-23T21:49:00.001-04:00

Come see what happens when they let the inmates out!

Be amazed at guests like Sean Taylor, Bobby Nash, Roni Jonah, John Dugan, Jason Crowe, Sam Flegal, Richard Green, Cypography, Richard Ewell and some good lookin' chap by the name of Billy Tackett.

See the astounding feats of dealers like World of Strange & DVD Bob...I would name more but I don't know any...

Go here to see for yourself!

I'll have a bunch of new merchandise including a brand new set of buttons, greeting cards, t-shirts and prints of the brand spankin' new paintin' featurin' the indomitable Rockstar Roni Jonah as ZRU: 7083

Gettin' our zombie on in Columbus

2010-05-27T09:31:00.000-04:00

We're going to be Artist Guest of Honor at Marcon in Columbus OH this weekend so you really need to get your asses out for this event. Abyss Walker author Shane Moore will be there as well as Sam Flegal and T.B. Gallery. I'll be doing an autograph session on Saturday morning (but I will sign stuff all weekend long if you want) and a Quick Draw session that afternoon and wrapping up the day with portfolio reviews early that evening. Sunday I'll be taking part in a panel called Monster vs. Monster... The annual zombie walk will be taking place at Goodale Park at 5pm too. There's gonna be more zombies in Columbus than you can shake a stick at!

Imagicon, suckas!

2010-05-19T18:15:00.001-04:00

We're headed down to Birmingham AL for Imagicon. Guests include Larry Elmore, Sam Flegal, Bobby Nash, Jim O'Rear, Daniel Emery Taylor, Chris O'Donnell impersonator Cherokee Hall, James Hill, Sean Taylor, Lou Anders, Buck Rogers and that hot brunette with the blue eyes.

I'm taking part in several panels including WebSite Development, Art Business Basics, Protect Your Art on the Web and an undisclosed horror track with Daniel Emery Taylor and Jim O'Rear that doesn't seem to be on any of the schedules...hmmm....

It's gonna be the most fun you can have with your hands outside of your pockets!

Death of a legend

2010-05-17T18:01:00.000-04:00

As most of you know Frank Frazetta passed away last week and now it is Ronnie James Dio. Luckily these two had long, full lives and I hope they got to say what they came to say. Yet it is still hard to let go of your heroes.

Like 99.99% of artists in the horror, fantasy or sci-fi genres, especially in the over 30 generation, I was inspired by Frazetta. Growing up in the 70s I was witness to the maturation of comics. Publishers had figured out the way around the Comics Code was to put out magazines. The art on and between these covers was like none that had been seen before. Gogos, Frazetta, Larkin, etc. They created comic art that was more than comic art. It was fine art for people that didn't like fine art. Masterpieces we could enjoy. And in the days before the internet it was impossible to get the inside scoop on the creators. Everything was in its own context. And the artists were these mysterious shadowy figures that lived in caves or castles and wore hooded robes...Or so I thought.

Frazetta inspired me artistically. But he was not the one I wanted to emulate. Even though his work had a subliminal influence on me there were others that I wanted to emulate. It was until the early part of this century that Frazetta's paint stained hand truly guided me to the path I needed to be on.

I came across an article on a website that told of how at some point the Frazettas, Frank and Ellie, got tired of publishers selling prints of his work and keeping the bulk of the profits. Ellie took things into her own hands and started up a publishing company just to handle Frank's reproductions. It also told how Ellie had taken control of Frank's career acting as agent and business manager and hoe successful their venture was. That's where the big loud "click" came in.

For years I had struggled as an artist, trying to break in through the tried and true venues. Reading this story made me realize that as an artist I didn't need anyone to make my career for me. I didn't need that lucky break. I'd make that lucky break myself! If I wanted it done right I had to do it myself. And then my wife stepped up to act as business manager and things have been great ever since.

The Frazettas showed me that as an artist I needed to take a more active part in my career. That no one gave a rat's ass about my career than me and my family and that's who should be in charge.

My career owes a lot to Frank and Ellie. Not because he showed me how art should be done but because they showed me how my career should be done. I think others should take a moment and look past the art at the people behind it. That is the legacy that could possibly be lost for future generations. Decades from now the art will overshadow these creators and entrepreneurs behind the dragons and swords and scantily clad ladies. We should hold on to it while it is still here.

Frank and Ellie ~~will be missed~~ are being missed.

What's been goin' on

2010-05-12T15:19:00.000-04:00

Haven't updated in a little while so i thought I'd give a run down. The St. Louis show, Con-Tamination, was pretty freakin' awesome! Tons of friends were there. Got to meet fans new and old. Plus that is Abyss Walker author Shane Moore's stompin' ground so there were a lot of folks there that were familiar with my work through him. We went to City Museum with Dick Starr, his wife Heidi and Johnny Bopp on Saturday night. All I can say is that if you're in the area you must go to this place!

Some storms came through the area Friday and Saturday nights but nothing major. But some of the folks at the show live in Nashville and we began hearing the first reports of flooding. We didn't know how bad it was until Monday. It was on Tuesday that I started to hear that my hometown of Olive Hill KY was hit hard as well. But then the reports kept getting worse and worse until the realization that this was the worst flooding there for decades. Every building downtown was apparently flooded and many many people lost everything. All the homes, history and hard work that the waters washed away in both towns is heart wrenching!

Thanks for the birthday wishes. If you didn't know about the birthday don't sweat it. It's not something I announce. Had a good birthday with the family. Except for the fact that my (once) favorite restaurant, The Pub, is now on my shit list! The last three times I have tried to eat there they have been closed. Apparently they aren't open for lunch until 3, they close at 9 and on May 5 they are closed because they rent out the place for a charity. Odd hours and closed to the public in the middle of the week? I'll take my business elsewhere.

My gallery show in Covington at Swayne on Main was pretty good. Threat of bad weather kept people away I think. I hope. I'm also getting a sneaking suspicion that people that are fans of my stuff and stuff like my stuff don't visit galleries. If this is true you guys have to come out and support our gallery shows. The more successful these shows are the more it shows the powers that be that art is more that flowers and landscapes and abstractions!

Nice wedding of some friends on Saturday. Congrats Claire and Brian. It was great when the father of the bride gave a D&D reference in his speech!

Cool news: Confirmed our first show outside the USA! We'll be Artist Guest of Honor and SFContario in Ontario in November. We are really excited about this. Along with out Guest of Honor spot in Seattle at ZomBcon this fall is going to be rockin!!

This weekend we'll be headed to Illinois for the wedding of our friends Shane Moore and Tracy. This may be the wedding of the year so we'll have pictures to share!

After that our next shows are Imagicon in Birmingham AL and MarCon in Columbus OH. Hope to see you at one...or both of the shows!

Zombifying Mainstrasse

2010-05-05T16:36:00.000-04:00

A quick note: I will be displaying art for Covington KY's First Friday Gallery Hop. I'll be at Swayne on Main on Mainstrasse! I think we'll be putting the banner up so keep yer eyes peeled for the ginormous Zombie Sam! Festivites start around 6:30.

Downgoing & upcoming

2010-04-29T01:13:00.000-04:00

Back from a great show at the Full Moon Tattoo & Horror Fest. Thanks to Ben, Stacey and Marc for giving us the opportunity to darken Nashville's doors once again. This is always a great show with lots of friends in attendance. You'll have to take my word for it because we didn't take photos...except this one:

Me & Roni Jonah with the sketch of my next painting featuring Roni

This weekend we're headed to St. Louis for the first time for the city's first horror, sci-fi and pop culture convention, Con-Tamination. Guests? The 60s Batmobile, Seka, William Forsythe, Mike Christopher, cast and crew from Night of the Living Dead & Day of the Dead, Dee Wallace, Brinke Stevens, Ari Lehman and his band First Jason, Alex Del Monacco, April Hunter, J. Travis Grundon, and fellow artists Cypography, Joel Robinson, Dick Starr and Johnny Bopp. Methinks St. Louis will never be the same...

Some big news: Just found out where we'll be spending Halloween...Seattle WA! We're hammering out the details for my Artist GoH spot for ZomBcon Oct. 29 - 31. This will be our first trip to Seattle...I hope they have good coffee there...

New art, Rock 'n Roll Frankenstein:

Nashville's Full Moon Tattoo & Horror Fest

2010-04-22T22:32:00.003-04:00

I'm gonna be there this weekend. So will Dee Snider, Doug Bradley, Scout Taylor Compton, Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams, Ken Foree, Bill Johnson, Ari Lehman, Stacey Dixon, Al Snow, Jim O'Rear, Alex Del Monacco, Daniel Emery Taylor, Samantha Newark, Edward Holsclaw III, George Bonilla, Jason Crowe, Roni Jonah, World of Strange and fellow artists Jeff Preston, Jeff Gaither, Cypography, Sam Flegal & Joel Robinson. Will you?
http://www.fullmooninc.net/fr_home.cfm

Conspiracy theories...

2010-04-21T17:33:00.001-04:00

I love conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories, cryptozoology, histories mysteries, Forteana. All of it. That doesn't mean I believe in them. Just that they fascinate me. Especially the grand-daddy of all conspiracy theories, the Illuminati. dunh-dunh-duuuunnnhhhh!

As far as conspiracy theories go the one(s) pertaining to the Illuminati is/are the most diverse, far reaching, provable and disprovable of them all. If I had to put all the Illuminati myths in a nutshell it would go something like this: The Illuminati refers to a group of individuals that are involved in clandestine ventures of a global nature. The group was formed in pre-history and/or ancient Sumeria and/or ancient Egypt and/or medieval Europe and/or Renaissance-era Europe and/or Victorian-era Europe by aliens and/or sorcerers and/or keepers of an ancient technology and/or Jewish bankers and/or decedents of Jesus Christ and/or Freemasons and/or...well, you get the picture. The Illuminati may or may not be connected to organizations such as the New World Order, Knights Templar, OTO, Freemasons, the Catholic Church, CIA, Priory of Sion, Wicca, Bohemian Club, Skull and Bones, Satanism and so on, depending on which theorist you're listening to. Famous people with ties to the Illuminati range from Jesus Christ to Jay-Z and Lady Gaga with any and all world leaders included in this list.

One of the aims of the Illuminati is to rule the world. To achieve this the Illuminati use governments and/or banks and/or military and/or religions etc. Simple enough, right? Another tool used by the Illuminati are Manchurian Candidates, people brainwashed to perform an action, usually an assassination, when a code-word or some other trigger is given to them.

"Famous" Manchurian Candidates include Booth, Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan, Hinkley and Charles Manson, which brings me to my point. There are websites out there that go into great detail connecting the Book of Revelations, the Beatles, Charles Manson, and everything connected with them to the Illuminati, or CIA. Or the New World Order. Or whatever. Manson's "teachings" are analyzed under a microscope in order to find these connections. And found they are. Everything from his quotes to the number of times a certain victim was stabbed. Everything has meaning. Interesting but do I buy into it? Not really. But I can't stop reading about it. (side note: Sharon Tate's death date is Aug. 9, 1969. If you turn all the 9s upside down you get 666! Eerie!)

The other day while browsing Wal-Mart (which is connected to Satanism and the Masons), I found that they had DVDs for $3! A lot of crappy ones to be sure but there was one with a documentary about Manson on it. A $3 DVD = my DVD. (I wonder if I should thank Satan or the Masons for the affordable entertainment?) During the documentary the image of Manson victim Leno LaBianca comes on screen. You know the one with the word "WAR" carved in his stomach?

I've seen this image dozens, if not hundreds of times, but as it flicked on my TV and back off something struck me as odd. The "W". Something about the "W" seemed over the top. Contrary to popular belief I have never carved into human flesh but I have carved into other soft materials and this seems like overkill to me. Could the flesh had been softer than the killer had thought? That would explain one or two legs of the letter but not a seemingly mirror or reflected image. And it seems as though great pains were taken to connect the two lines at the bottom. Why? My first thought was that they were trying to carve two "X"s but then my knowledge of conspiracy theories kicked in and it hit me:

Of all the weird and seemingly out in left field theories I have read no one has ever made this "connection". Why is that? It seems like a no-brainer to me. I am not going to theorize or speculate on anything. I am just putting this out there because I find it extremely strange that this hasn't been brought up. And I wanted to be the first to bring it to the public. I am also aware of the unfortunate side effect that putting this out there also puts out there the fact that I know a lot about a lot of crazy/stupid/weird shit. But I'm OK with that.

Again, I'm not associating Manson and the Masons. I just think that people that do have missed an important piece of their "puzzle". And is it just me or does anyone else find it strange that there is only one letter difference in Manson and Mason? I'm just sayin'...

Talk amongst yourselves about the evils of Freemasonry, hippies, rock music, the CIA, and sex magick cults. And in the meantime enjoy these fun links:

Illuminati run detention camps

Manson's numerological connection to the DC sniper

Manson's interpretation of Revelations
Evil Beatles
Manson, the Process Church and Son of Sam
Manson: Programmed assassin for the CIA
The Reptilian Agenda (I didn't mention them but read up on the Reptilians before reading their agenda)

Copyrights? Again?

2010-04-12T20:02:00.005-04:00

So my wife tells me I'm beginning to be preachy. Some of my friends now look at me as though I am ringing a bell and wearing a huge placard that reads "The End Is Near!" whenever I mention the subject. I don't care. I feel that intellectual rights are in mortal danger right now. As I type this evil forces are gathering together, preparing for the next wave of attacks on our rights as creators. A little dramatic? Maybe. But it's true.

The other day a link was passed around on Facebook. Not one of those links shared by your friends and family but one of those links that are passed among industry professionals like top-notch illustrators, art directors, publishers etc. The link was to the blog of artist Chris Buzelli and the title of the post was "I need a web posse!". I recommend reading the blog for yourself but the short of the story is a guy that writes a blog for a CBS website used one of Chris' pieces as an illustration without permission, which as we all know is illegal. The thief goes through great lengths to defend himself. His various defenses include:
1. I gave credit so it's OK.
2. I'm doing the artist a favor by getting his work "out there" for potential clients to see.
3. It's covered under Fair Use clause of the Copyright Law.
4. It was a small image so that doesn't count as art.
5. It was the artist's fault because he didn't take the necessary precautions, i.e. watermark, disable right click-save as, etc., to prevent me from taking it.
6. I'm in a hurry to write so I can make money so I don't have time to ask for permission to use art or to find copyright free stock art.
7. Copyright laws are outdated therefore need to be broken.
8. I'm not making any money from it so it's OK...

...and there's more! He then writes an article teaching artists how to prevent their art from being used without permission! And after CBS chastises and publicly apologizes for his behavior he goes on to write two more articles on his personal site. One talking about how if it's OK to use art that is copyright free all art should be free and a suggestion on how to grant usage permissions for art online or some such nonsense. I stopped reading. But the real education came from the comments left on his articles. Out of the literally hundreds of comments there have been less than 10 defending him. All have been trying to get him to see the error of his ways. The real heartwarming part is realizing that here is an issue that everyone that has a stake in agrees on! What do we agree on? Copyright laws are necessary for the protection of artists and creators. Period.

Before I go into my rant any further let me add this little anecdote.After reading about this for the first time I decided to run a little search for some of my stuff. So I go to www.tineye.com which is a reverse image search engine. You type in an image URL or upload an image and TinEye will find other instances of that image on the web. It ain't perfect but it is getting better. And I have caught numerous art thieves in the act using this little gem, not just stealing my art but the art of others.

I do a search of my Color Zombie Sam. One of the hits is from a horror blog. I click the link and thinking I will find an article about me or my image or t-shirt as I stumble across from time to time I actually find a blog post in which the author is proclaiming the he is now on Twitter and everyone should follow him. My Zombie Sam is just stuck there. No mention of him. No link back to me. No mention of my name. Below is the cease and desist email I sent (identities have been altered because I do not believe in promoting those who steal from me):

*******************************

Dear Mr. Doe

I, Billy Tackett, am the proprietor of all copyright in a artistic work entitled Zombie Sam 2 (The "Work"). I have reserved all rights in the Work, which was first expressed in material form on 2005 and can be seen in its original form at http://www.billytackett.com/piczombiesam2.html

It has come to my attention that you are displaying this Work in one of your blog posts http://insert_offending_web_page_here. Image is hosted here: http://insert_offending_image_url_here_webzombiesam2.jpg.

Permission was neither asked nor granted to reproduce my Work and your Work therefore constitutes infringement of my rights. In terms of the Copyright Statutes, I am entitled to an injunction against your continued infringement.

In the circumstances, I demand that you immediately remove all infringing content and notify me in writing that you have done so.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Billy Tackett

Billy Tackett Studios

www.billytackett.com

*******************************

His (unexpected) reply:

*******************************

You can stop with the legal mumbo jumbo Billy. I wasn't trying to rip you off and I certainly wasn't making any money off your zombie image. I came across that particular image online and really liked it. That's it. I also wanna repeat that my website is completely free and I HAVEN'T MADE ANY MONEY off your image.

The image of concern has been removed from my website on April 7, 2010 @ 2:10pm.

No offense was meant.

*******************************

This response is coming from someone who 1. is a novelist, 2. is a fervent "supporter" of indie horror 3. displays advertisements on the offending blog. Which one of these should I tackle first? Since this is a post about copyrights let's do #s 1 and 3. Number 2 is a whole different issue that I will post about in the near future.

I was amazed that here in two different instances with two different artists dealing two different image thieves in similar career fields (writing) with some of the exact same attitudes towards art. What the hell?? As a writer One would think that these two individuals would be a little more sympathetic to copyright laws. I mean the very same laws that protect their intellectual works also protects mine. Could it be that these guys just see themselves and their careers as a little better than us and ours? That would have to be it because they HAVE to know copyright laws. It's part of their jobs to know these things. Copyright laws are the one mighty weapon creators have against large unscrupulous companies and other ne'er-do-wells. They are our safety net. Copyrights laws are the reason I and others can put our art online.

I have written about copyrights before. The first time was my feelings about image stealing that I won't re-hash here but if you want to read them go here http://billytackett.blogspot.com/2009/06/open-letter-to-those-image-thieves.html

The second time was concerning artists as image thieves here http://billytackett.blogspot.com/2009/09/artists-as-art-thieves.html

Here is my (restrained) reply to the offender:

*******************************

As a professional artist whose images are stolen often the legal mumbo jumbo is an unfortunate necessity. I appreciate that you like my image but the facts are if you use my image without permission it is copyright infringement whether money is made or not. As a writer you should be appreciative to the intellectual rights of creators. I make my living from my art. People pay me to use my art. It isn't fair to them that you get to use it for free. Maybe you didn't make any money from it but you obviously saw some quality in it that made you want to associate it with you. It is my art, I own the copyright. That image is my trademark image. I get to choose how it is used. My art is free to view but not free to use.

Would you want someone to copy and paste your blog comment onto theirs without credit?

Thanks for understanding.

*******************************

Several weeks ago I posted an update on the Orphan Works legislation and got into a discussion with someone who was pro-Orphan Works. Their argument was that all information on the internet should be free for all. A noble ideal. But if everything belongs to everybody then that is really freakin' close to Communism. And we all know how that turned out. Plus I don't like to work my ass off just so someone else can enjoy the fruits of my labor. That, my friends, is bullshit.

"The information age is making all copyright laws obsolete. Digital information belongs to everybody. Open-source is the way of the future. Utopia is not far off. Unicorns are just around the corner. I poop rainbows." Bullshit. How do I know it's bullshit? Because very large companies, like Google, and very influential lawyers from very expensive universities, like Stanford, and highly paid lobbyists are fighting for the passage of the Orphan Works legislation (which will effectively render copyrights useless and allow free use of all art, in a nutshell). If there wasn't some way for someone to make money from our art they wouldn't be trying so hard. I think this is the fifth or sixth year in a row they have tried to get this passed. Our art has value to them, they just don't want to pay us. My art had value to this horror blogger, he just didn't want to pay me.

The stars and rainbows commies think that the internets should be free needs to wake up. Nothing is free. The very large companies, like Google, will hire very influential lawyers from very expensive universities, like Stanford, and highly paid lobbyists to figure out a way to make money from it. Making money is what makes the world go 'round. It's the modern day version of hunting and gathering. It's survival. I need to make money to live. I do that by making art. I put the art online. You can look at it for free but if you want to use it you have to pay me for it. So the internets is free after all ;-)

And don't give me shit about be a capitalist schmuck! Artists have been making money from their art since the dawn of civilization. In ancient times artists, sculptors and the like were held in high regard. Right up there with high priests and physicians. And art was an industry right up until the mid-1800s when some dumbasses decided to propagate the whole idea of art for art's sake. True, I love making art so much that I would still do it if I didn't make money from it but I can make money from it! And I will. And I don't feel bad for it. Carpenters do it. Mechanics do it..make money from doing something you're good at and love doing, that is.

The whole money making issue aside, if our art becomes free for anyone to use that means it becomes free for anyone to use...for any purpose. Take my Zombie Sam for instance (everybody else does ba-da-boom!), when I painted I had a specific idea in mind behind the painting. My own motivations for doing it. Mainly I love America and I love zombies. I am very patriotic by the way. If copyrights are done away with I would have no say in who uses this image for what purpose. So our local KKK could use this on their website to further their cause. Or some local faction of Al Qaeda could use it in their propaganda. Or any number of people or groups that I wish to have absolutely no connection with whatsoever could use it. Bullshit.

And just because someone isn't making money with my art doesn't mean I'm not. And I reserve the right (there's that word again," right") to do so. And if that someone is allowed to use my art for free it really isn't fair to those that actually pay to use it. But copyrights just don't pertain to money. Copyrights are just what they sound like, the rights to make copies. Money doesn't factor into copyrights unless a lawsuit is filed against an infringer.

The pro-Orphan Works person told me "If I ever created anything of value I would give it away for free". I'm not against giving your shit away for free. After all, it is your shit and you get to decide who does what with it. I love free shit, myself. Open-source software rocks. I use a couple programs myself. But don't begrudge me because I don't give my shit away.

I hear people bitch about Metallica. "They lost so much street cred when they took Napster to court. Corporate douchebags!" Why? Because they expect to get paid for services rendered? Why shouldn't some really talented guys make money from doing what they do best? Fortunately the musicians have the music industry behind them. We artists are not lucky enough to have an entire multi-billion dollar industry fighting for us. True, we don't have to deal with the corporate greed but it would be nice to have some very well paid lawyers at my fingertips.

When it comes down to it we just want to get paid for our hard work. We aren't divas. We aren't jihadists, nor are we drama queens and kings or cry babies. We don't want to use the "legal mumbo-jumbo" but because our rights aren't being respected we have to. We are in a struggle. I feel we are on the verge of some major changes. I just want to make sure the changes are for the best. And what is best for the artist is best for the arts. If the internet becomes a free-for-all copyright free stock image provider we professional artist will take our images down. That isn't some threat. It's what will happen. Once we're gone all you will have to choose from is half-assed anime fan-art by seventh grade special ed students and none of us want that.

Gallery Opening Saturday night!

2010-04-06T17:57:00.000-04:00

As some of you know I was part of the More Than Ink show at Art on the Levee in Newport.

Bad news: The show is over. Thanks to everyone that stopped by, and keeps stopping by, to buy prints. My zombie art is gone...

Good news: The gallery has asked me to display some of my fine art! That means new art that most of you have never, ever seen! It also means that my prints with the one-of-a-kind, hand-splattered mats will still be there.

Better news: The official opening is this Saturday from 4pm to 9pm...And we'll be there!

Best news: If you buy a print with a one-of-a-kind, hand-splattered mat on Saturday I will also remarque it for free! For those that don't know a remarque is a little sketch. So I will draw on your crap for free!

Art on the Levee
1 Levee way
Newport, KY, 41071
(859) 2615770

Horrorhound re-cap

2010-04-06T16:33:00.001-04:00

We do a lot of shows. Last year we did 27 events which included horror conventions, tattoo fests, gaming expos, concerts and so on. And without fail, regardless of how successful our outing were, you ask your fellow vendors and artists how the event was for them and you get everything from "This sucked!" to "So-so" to "Seen better" and even the occasional "This rocked!". Most of the time you get all those comments from the same event! Horrorhound Indy was an exception. Every single person I talked to said the same thing: "This rocked!". But for us the event had a rocky start...

It was one of those days when everything you touch turns to shit. Not in a bad way but in a bunch of little ways. Like when you pick up a box and the bottom falls out or you open your car door and smack the Lexus next to you by accident. Crap like that. But we did get to have eats with Jim O'Rear and Cameron Scott before the show opened. And after the doors opened it was all a big blur...
The attendees were awesome! People were buying stuff and laughing and having a good time. It had a very festive atmosphere. It could have had something to do with the Horror Host tribute to Vampira that HH was hosting. Or maybe it was the Maskfest going on there as well? I don't know what it was but magic was happenin'!

We had the opportunity to meet up with some old friends like Dick Starr and Heidi, Johnny Bopp, Mike Christopher, Cherokee Hall, Jeff Preston, Dave Dyer from Con-tamination, Robert from Cypography, Dr. Ivan Cryptosis, Hellga from The It's Alive Show, Ari Lehman, J. Travis Grundun, the good folks from Night of The Living Podcast, Joel Robinson, TB Gallery, Elizadeth Hetherington, animator Donald Stout (with whom I am working on a top secret project...ssshhh!) among others.
We made some new friends this round as well. Most notably was Menton J. Matthews III. If you aren't familiar with Menton you really need to go to his site. Do it now! I also had the honor to finally meet Daniel Horne. This guy is a master, literally and figuratively. He was set up in the Maskfest showing off his sculpting abilities. The things that this man does is unbelievable! And the really cool thing? He recognized me and knew me by name (insert fan boy squeal here). But seriously, he was super nice and it was unfortunate that we were so busy that I didn't have time to talk with him more. Also had the opportunity to exchange a few pleasantries with another master, Tom Savini.

And there were tons of fans. Most notably was Dawn who, after telling me I was her favorite artist, asked me to sign her foot which she had permanently tattooed the next day! I can't even get Heather to do that!
I wish I had time give a play by play but I got deadlines! So here's a few pictures instead...

Dude loves him some Big Dead Machine!

Me and Hellga

Me and Menton

Jim O'Rear finds a long, lost sibling.

And my autograph tattooed on a fan's foot!

Billy Tackett's DEAD WHITE & BLUE

Input needed

2011 Year in Art

Gov't taking steps to protect creators?

Bad news for Horrorhound Weekend Cincinnati

Dragon*Con re-cap

Dragon*Con baybeee!

A quick word on zombification

New show!

Fourth of July weekend!

Origins and Con-tamination and free shit!

Contagion, Contagion, Contagion!

Witch's Ball Battle of the Bands!

Free Comic Book Day 2011

Fandom Fest Cincy...& new art!!

I don't get it...

Horrorhound Weekend and new stuff!!

Show TONIGHT!!

Stan Lee Foundation's Create A Superhero contest & me!

VooDoo Carnival this Saturday

Lexington KY Comic Creators Group

Gallows Pole

Re-caps - Toronto & Seattle

China is the new Nigeria

Been a long time

Looking back @ 2010

Who ARTED?

Who ARTED? is almost here!!!

Zombies of the Universe Christmas sale!!

For a limited time I'm making the Zombies of the Universe print available online! Nov. 26 through Dec. 3!

Horrorhound Cincy etc...

Free Speech?

For The Love Of Monsters pre-orders

Stalkin' in Memphis

Memphis Comic & Fantasy Convention

ZomBcon re-cap

Tis the season...

Halloween music...week 4

Halloween music...week 3

Day trip!!

Halloween music...week 2

Halloween music...week 1

Please don't touch

Darkwoods Con 1.5

Walkin' the Dog

Zombie Portraits!!!

Zombies are comin!! re-revisited

It ain't always about me...

Chicago, St Louie, I been a lotta places, man!

Filler

Chicago Comic Con

What's right with anime?

GenCon and more...

Zombiestock.....

New news!

Zombiestock, Dead White & Blue and YOU!

Billy Tackett Studios' ToZ (Terms of Zombification) *first draft*

my monsters are more FAMOUS than your MONSTERS CON!

New shows

And the beaten goes on... Part 1

Cincinnati celebrates 4th of July ZOMBIE STYLE!!

Knoxville Comic & Anime Con

Gettin' our zombie on in Columbus

Imagicon, suckas!

Death of a legend

What's been goin' on

Zombifying Mainstrasse

Downgoing & upcoming

Nashville's Full Moon Tattoo & Horror Fest

Conspiracy theories...

Copyrights? Again?

Gallery Opening Saturday night!

Horrorhound re-cap

Billy Tackett Studios' ToZ (Terms of Zombification) first draft