CharCon...here we come!

Just a little plug. We'll be packin' up and headed to the gaming con CharCon in Charleston WV this weekend. We'll be in good company because Larry Elmore is scheduled to be there. Come to see me, come to see Larry, come to play games...Whatever! Just be there, ya goobers!

WHEW!

Gotta take a minute to catch my breath! We're in the midst of the Halloween rush with one more "away game" to go and the rest of our shows are here in our backyard. That seems nice but I really do enjoy traveling. And I love driving. Heather doesn't...Anyway...

Last weekend we drove up to ZombieConX in Milwaukee WI. Our first time in that area. The people were so nice we thought we had made a wrong turn and ended up in Tennessee! Except for the fact that the accents were a little different. And it was colder than a witch's tit. And there was cheese everywhere. Other than that it was just like being in the South!

This first year event held some firsts for me as well. This was the first time I/we had:

...shared Southern accent stories with Edwin Neal.

...Sid Haig eye-hump my art.

...Scout Taylor Compton mutilate one of my shirts.

...Scott Reiniger call me a talented bastard.

...drinks with Joe Pilato, Gary Klar, Jonathan Breck. That was an interesting conversation!

...made some new friends such as Chris from Hop Comics, T. Glenn Bane & Theresa Bane and all the great staff at the event!

This past weekend we headed down to Nashville for the Comics & Horror Fest. Not sure where to start with this one! This one was chock full of weird-os, freaks and ne'er-do-wells! And they're all folks we call friends, both old and new!

I'm just going to run down this list: Daniel & Ami Taylor, Jim O'Rear, Ben & Stacey Dixon, Bobby Nash, Sean Taylor, Samantha Newark, Traci & Ben Eller, Mark Swafford & Renee Mack, Jason Crowe & Roni Jonah, Scott Blair, UrbnPop, Sam Flagel, Mark Kidwell, Jeff Preston, Jeff Gaither, Mike Christopher, Cypography, Garret Blair, Robert Freese and Joel Robinson. The highlight had to be meeting Richard Harrison Green. An animator for Disney he worked on The Rescuers and Beauty and the Beast. A wonderful guy! We bought the Creature sketch from him. Can't wait to get it framed and hang it up!

It was Ami Taylor's birthday so after a raucous dinner we headed out to celebrate. Scott Blair graciously allowed us in his home...and he will never be the same again!

A great show with some great folks. Thanks to Marc Ballard for the hospitality!

Some new self-promotion

Greetings,
I'm just finishing up my trip preparations for ZombieConX in Milwaukee where I'll be Artist Guest of Honor. This will be our first time in that neck of the woods and we're really looking forward to it.

Anyway, before we headed out I just wanted to do a little self promoting. First a couple of online interviews. Vault of Horror did a little piece as part of their new Visceral Visionaries series. If you're not familiar with VoH it is a Rondo nominated blog about...well, horror.

Next, head over to Zombie Info. I met the headless honcho Kevin at GenCon. Great guy and a great blog with a lot of info on...well, zombies.

Lastly but not leastly Zombies and Toys. I finally got to meet Jason at Horror Realm. Another great guy with a high quality site about...well, zombies & toys! (I don't know how these guys come up with these names!)

And now....The video interview! A while back I did a show at Southgate House in Newport KY. It just so happened that J. Gray and his band of merry minions were filming a documentary on said house. Now for the back story: It was 90 degrees that day, the gallery was on the 3rd floor and not many 200 year old houses have elevators, it took me 5 or 6 trips carrying all my merchandise and paintings up the hundreds and hundreds of steps, I was jacked up on coffee, exhausted and, since this was my first video interview, pretty damned nervous! That explains why I fidget a lot in the beginning...and middle...uh, and end...heh.

ZombieConX Milwaukee costume contest

Back from Dark Carnival Film Fest in Bloomington IN. Even thought the show was small it was big on quality. The hospitality was top-notch. The movie lovers and movie makers alike were some of the best. Got to hang out with our booth neighbors George Bonilla and his wife Tammy, an interesting chat with Michael Berryman and had to contend with Tiffany Shepis' kleptomaniacal tendencies ;-)

Up next: ZOMBIEConX in Milwaukee WI!! Guests include Dee Wallace, Sid Haig, Ari Lehman and myself. You won't want to miss it! This will be our very first trip to the state and we are really looking forward to it.

I'll be holding my God Guns & BRAAINSSS!! costume contest there as well. All you gotta do is dress up as Fannie the Flesheater, Zombie Sam or Sgt. Rot. You can win an original drawing of you as a zombie!! It's perfect! ZombieConX...zombie costume contest...zombie portrait...It's like we planned it or something!!

Anyway, just go to http://contest.billytackett.com for details.

See you this weekend.

Dark Carnival & new stuff

Just a little update on what's going on. I'm headed to Dark Carnival Film Festival this weekend in Bloomington IN. Guests include Michael Berryman, John Dugan, Tiffany Shepis & Goerge Bonilla of ZP International...I think it's going to be an interesting weekend. You really shouldn't miss it!

Since we're going to Dark Carnival we won't be at Mid-Ohio con but we'll be there in spirit...and merchandise! The folks at World Of Strange will be there with some exclusive t-shirt designs and a couple of old favorites. I think they will have a special surprise...Cannibal Claus Christmas ornaments!! Stop by, say hi and buy some shit.

I will have a section in the upcomingnon-fiction book Vampire Hunters and Other Enemies of Evil by Jonathan Maberry that consists of an interview and some art. I had the opportunity to chat with Jonathan at Horror Realm in Pittsburgh a few weeks back. The man's got some great stuff coming out that includes Marvel Zombies Return! Ha!

In other interview news a new one was just posted at The Vault of Horror. This is an award winning horror blog and I have the distinction on being the first interview in their new series on artists in the horror field.

Something else in the mix is an art exhibit and sale being sponsored by Billy Tackett Studios and being held at Leapin' Lizard Gallery in Covington KY on Dec 5. We're looking for artists to participate so go to the site and check it out. I'll be posting more next week. New art on the way. Just swamped and a little unfocused lately. It seems as though I'm doing so much but nothing's getting completed. Ugh!

Until next time...

Zombies invade Pittsburgh...

...Oh, dang it! They're already there!

Anyway, we'll be bringin' Dead White & Blue to Horror Realm this weekend and this time we got goodies!

I will be taking part in Horror Realm's Hockey Painting Contest and will be donating my mask to charity. Not sure if they will raffle or auction it off but someone will take it home.

Secondly, I am re-animating my God, Guns & BRAAINSSS!! Costume Contest. For those of you unfamiliar with it you come to Horror Realm dressed as one of my Dead White & Blue zombies: Zombie Sam, Fannie the Flesheater or Sgt. Rot., get your pic taken and I'll announce the contest winner later in the week. Prizes are a print of your choice, t-shirt of your choice and grand prize is an original pencil portrait of you all zombified up! You can go here http://contest.billytackett.com for all the details.

See you there!

Scarefest re-cap

So, back from Scarefest. Always love being in Lexington. I was born there, lived 1 hour's drive east of there and now reside 1 hour's drive north of there. Scarefest has become a bit of a homecoming for me and it amazes me how many people come to see me. KY folks love KY talent and the success of Scarefest and and some of the other KY shows like W.I.F.E. are going a long way in proving this.

This show was a struggle from the get-go but in the end all was well.

Upside: We were set up beside George Bonilla & company of ZP International, down the aisle from old friends like Jason, T.J, Roni & Avri of Feathered Italian Films, the ever entertaining Eric & Jerry from Goat Boy Films, B-Movie Man Nic Brown and Mark Kidwell & R.D. Hall at the ComicMonsters.com table. The company could have been worse!

We also got to hang out with our old friend Jim O'Rear and chat with some others like Kayla Perkins, Billy Blackwell & his wife, Cherokee Hall, David Rupp from Infernal Dreams, Lance Crank, Lizayne Whitaker & Adam Campbell, Jason from Apex Books, the guys from Horrorhound, author Michael West and some guys I went to high school with not to mention tons of people I had met and chatted with last year...and I know there's more that I'm forgetting...

Some new folks i met everyone should check out: The awesomely gruesome Dick Starr, the classicly awesome Scott Ra, and the ass-kickingly kick ass Juggulator who I'll be doing some art for in the very near future. We finally got to meet Morgan, the director of My Bloody Wedding which you'll be seeing my movie poster for very soon, and we also confirmed a spot at next year's Dark Woods Con in Pikeville KY. Whew! Now on to the top 9 events at the show!

9. Todd's magician like "mis-direction"...thanks Todd!

8. What would Scarefest be without being serenaded by Jerry Williams?

7. If one does not eat regularly one gets cranky...

6. It's OK if small girls covered in blood and carrying large axes are scared of zombies...I guess

5. Urination loves company.

4. Apparently a bird in the tree is worth a bird turd on the arm in Lexington

3. Lot's of folks will be arting this winter...

2. Chattin' with Leatherface

1. Kane Hodder's Official Grab Ass Game

Tomorrow: Horror Realm re-cap

Scarefest and the Halloween event schedule!

Greetin's! Just an update on what's going on for the Halloween schedule. This weekend, Sep. 11-13 we'll be in Lexington KY for the awesomely awesome Scarefest. Tons of horror guests like Pinhead, Leatherface, Jason as well as some of friends such as these names I'm dropping: Jim O'Rear & Horrorhound mag & R.D Hall & Mark Kidwell & George Bonilla &...well, just be there!

Then on the 18th we're headed to Pittsburgh for Horror Realm, formerly known as the Zombie Fest, with Bill Mosely, Tony Todd, Ken Foree and so on and so forth...

In October we'll be attending the Cincinnati premiere of the flick Zombieland (details coming soon), Dark Carnival Film Fest in Bloomington IN, ZombieConX in Milwaukee, Nashville Comics & Horror Show in, well, Nashville, Charcon in Charleston WV, and then there is the just announced Covington KY Zombie Crawl on Halloween Night which I'll be writing about in the near future but you can hit them up on Facebook in the meantime.

Oh, and there's this little show coming to Cincinnati in November called HorrorHound Weekend featuring some wannabes named Elvira and Tom Savini or something. I dunno...check it out...

Billy

Artists as art thieves

Back in June I posted a blog about image thieves (which you can read here). I talked about the fact that most image thieves are non-artists, most are making no money off the theft and that most are ignorant of copyrights and the impact their theft has on the livelihood of artists.

But there is an increasingly alarming trend happening and that is artists stealing the works of others. Those people I will refer to as cannibals from here on out.

Before I continue I just want to say that I'm not judging or trying to call anyone out. I'm trying to educate. It became painfully obvious that education is needed after a recent issue with a Facebook app designer using art without permission or compensation. Some of the comments left on a forum during the debate showed me that most people don't understand copyrights.

On to the cannibals: The theft I'm referring to is the highly unethical practice of taking the work of another, be it a photograph, painting or drawing, and painting over top of it and calling it your own. With the growing popularity of digital painting this technique is becoming a big problem and I think a lot of that comes from ignorance of copyrights or more specifically a widely circulated copyright myth which is if you change X% of the picture it becomes an original. Wrong! This misconception is shared by laymen and amateurs alike and it is 110% FALSE!

Again I don't think most of the guilty cannibals out there are committing this act maliciously. Although there are a few unscrupulous artists running around I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say most mean well.

The "paint over" technique has become a very popular tool with art directors and instructors but has become a crutch for others. Using references, photos or otherwise, is perfectly acceptable. Even painting over your own work or photographs is OK (Tim Bradstreet, best known as a Punisher cover artist, has this technique down to an art...no pun intended!). It's the act of lifting someone elses hard work that makes it cannibalism. It's hard enough as an artist to make eke out a living. That's why it is such a No-No when another artist commits such a grievous act regardless of intent.

And if you are an artist trying to make a name for yourself cannibalizing others works tells potential clients some very important information about you, none of which are good:

1. You are lazy

2. You lack creativity

3. You lack ethics

4. You are a cease & desist letter waiting to happen!

Again, not passing judgement. Just putting things out there the way they are. And please note that I am not referring to collage art, digital or otherwise. That is an entirely different thing and one that I know nothing about.

Think before you art!

Billy

Dragon*Con

Alas, Billy Tackett Studios won't be there this year...but wait! There's still hope! As some of you know we have joined forces with World of Strange to offer more of my images on t-shirts. World of Strange will be at Dragon*Con selling tees with Cannibal Claus, Sgt. Rot, Gone with the Dead, Heartthrob Zombie and Nosferatu! And as a Dragon*Con exclusive they will also be offering Zombie Sam and Fannie the Flesheater!

They will be in the Artist's Alley at Bob Burden's booth. If you're going stop by and say hi and buy tons of stuff! If you're not going you can always visit them online at www.worldofstrange.com. They offer tees from Michael Whelan, William Stout, Donato Giancola, Fred Hembeck, Steven Gilberts and the legendary Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell!

Remember there are only a few places to get Billy Tackett Studios merchandise:

World of Strange

7th Street Gifts in Newport KY

and us!

Anything else is bootleg!!

Conquering Gen Con

I'm behind schedule and will have to make this a quick one. We've been going to GenCon for 3 years now. The first 2 years we were in the dealer's area but this time we gave the Artist's Alley a whirl. That made me a little nervous because history has shown that we usually do better with a dealer's booth. And I hadn't realized that the artist's tables are very, very small. Most of you may know that I have a pretty good sized display and with all the shirts we have tons of storage bins. Oh, and the banner. We barely had room for the bins. Very frustrating. And once we were settled I sat down to enjoy a bottle of Coke, which happened to be room temperature...and shaken up a bit. It exploded. On my shirts. And me. Not a good start.

We share a room with Abyss Walker author and good friend Shane Moore (whose new website is now up BTW www.abysswalker.com). Those of you that read his blog know about some of the misadventures he encounters during most of his travels. Apparently his luck rubs off because Thursday night as I get ready for bed I discover, to the dismay of myself and others, that I have forgotten to pack my underwear! Really not a good start!

Fortunately the rest of the show went very well. One of the highlights was Saturday night dinner with Shane & Shane from Icon in IL. We had planned on a large gathering but everyone flaked on us after the tables were set up so our server had to tear them down. Then we got word some were coming so she had to set them back up! Our poor, wonderful Dawn. I hope she forgives us! But dinner turned out to be great. We were joined by the Great Luke Ski and his fiancee', John Klement, the Harlan brothers and Gil from I-con in NY. Food, drinks & plenty of beaver for all!

Over the weekend I got to meet several people that I have known online.

One is the incredible fantasy artist Stan Morrison. Others included fellow classic monster aficionado Chris Kuchta and local (to me) fantasy artist Joe Slucher.

I had a couple of interesting on-the-spot commission requests. First there was the couple that brought me a shirt with a speech balloon on the back. It was for some sort of contest. They had a saying and wanted me to write it for them. I obliged. They won first place. All in a days work. Another was the request to draw a pic on someones head. I obliged. He creeped people out. All in a day's work.

Back by popular demand: Top 10 events I refuse to explain any further -

10. Not everyone that should know stuff about art does.

9. The streets of Indianapolis are crawling with unshaven beaver.

8. Football is a lot gayer than I first thought.

7. Yoplait should get into the porn business.

6. For the second year in a row my art is worth committing a misdemeanor for.

5. Men are not pieces of meat and should not be treated as such, unless it's by drunken MILFs.

4. 70 year old, crossed-eyed men cannot make eating ice cream look sexy.

3. Indy does not have enough department stores.

2. The "Who-Shit?" round table guessing game is fun to play with people you have just met.

1. Baking is full of comical analogies for having a bowel movement...*DING* Poop ovens ready!

Thank to everyone @ GenCon for a wonderful show!

Now on to the photos!!

Dog Faced Corpse

Yeah, I haven't been around much of late. Busy gettin' caught up on some work and we've got our niece here for the weekend. So while I recuperate from our day of fun in the sun at the zoo I thought I'd do an update I've been meaning to do for a little while.

This project has been a little on the strange side (in a good way) from before the beginning. Let me explain: A couple months ago we were on our way back from a convention and I mentioned to my wife Heather how sometimes American artists and musician will get a huge following in other countries and get little or no recognition here. A great example is rocker Suzi Quatro. I felt it would be a great stroke of irony if that happened to me, especially since I am known for my Americana zombie series of paintings I have dubbed Dead White & Blue. We had a chuckle and that was that. Or so we thought...

I check my email the next day and there is a message to me with the subject "Dog Faced Corpse!" from an address that looked a lot like a spammer. But reading it revealed otherwise. It was from a guy named Lateef who was the drummer and founding member of the death metal band Dog Faced Corpse based in Baghdad Iraq. Yes, Baghdad. Iraq. They are working on their debut CD and wanted me to do the cover. According to Lateef, thanks to the internet I have a bit of a fan base in Baghdad. As I had unknowingly foreshadowed just a day earlier.

Now these guys are true Iraqis. Born and raised. And they really are part of a growing underground metal scene that exists there.

You can read more here on ABCNews.com and (now here's a website I'll bet you didn't think you'd be reading today!) IslamOnline.net. So these guys are the real deal.

Before I accepted the offer I did a little soul searching. I am not a hardcore political activist but I am a hardcore patriot. I love my country, what it stands for and what it allows me to do for a living. Regardless of what my opinions are of the war in Iraq, which can differ from day to day, I know a few people that have served there. An old friend was injured during one of his tours. Also in my travels I have met a lot of soldiers. I have had the opportunity to speak with them at length. And some of these guys and gals have become fans of Dead White & Blue. (One soldier told me that if he were allowed he would love to have a Zombie Sam painted on the side of his tank!) For one thing I didn't want to do anything to undermine what our guys are doing over there and I also didn't want to do anything that could reflect badly on me later on.

So I read the articles closely. I read Lateef's emails closely. Just to try to get some ulterior motive. My conclusion was that these guys are just guys that want to rock. They don't give a shit about the sectarian differences. They just want to play the music that they want to play. They have said that their music does not touch upon religious themes but deals with reality. That may mean that their lyrics will be blunt and to the point. And I'm sure Americans will be referenced in some of their lyrics, for better or for worse. But by them asking an American artist to do their debut CD cover, which for a band is a very important thing, shows that they don't hate us. They like what they like regardless of where I am, who I am, who I worship, what color I am, etc. Some of us could learn a thing or two from them.

The more I "spoke" with Lateef the more I realized that not everyone over there is hell-bent on seeing America go up in flames. Most people over there just want to get on with their lives just like we do. It's the violence driven minority you see on the news everyday. Everyone else just ain't news worthy I guess.

So here I am, one of the most non-activist artists out there deciding that by doing their CD cover I could play some small part in spreading the news that Iraqis are not all that different than us. I mean, how different can we all be? The U.S. military loves my Dead White & Blue as well as these Iraqi metal heads. I know a lot of soldiers that are into metal as well.

The more I worked with Lateef the more I liked him. It was clear that he was a good guy. Just like most of the metal heads I know here. And in our conversations the terrible environment they live in became clear.

The perfect example is their name: At some point during the sectarian violence a guy was kidnapped, tortured and beheaded. The head of a dog was sewn onto the corpse which was then dumped onto a street corner to serve as a message. The kidnappers hid down the block and shot anyone that came near the body. This story is what Lateef wanted to depict on the CD cover which is below.

Another example is the death threats: One sect dislikes them because of their black clothes which is something their enemies wear. Another sect dislikes them because of their goatees which is something their enemies wear. So on these grounds they receive death threats on a regular basis. Y'know, growing up a headbanger in a small rural, conservative Kentucky town was pretty tough. Or so I thought at the time. But I never got one death threat. We have it pretty damned easy here.

So below is the completed CD cover, sans logo.

After we completed the project I really wanted to get the band's views on what we were doing over there. I won't post them here because I don't know if they would want me to but I will say that things aren't as black or white as people here would have you believe. There seems to be a lot of choosing the lesser of two...or more...evils there.

If you want to see just how alike we really are go the the IslamOnline.net article I mentioned above and read the comments below. All you have to do is replace all the references to Islam with references to Christianity and they could be talking about any number of bands anywhere in the world!

I wanted to take a minute to give a little backstory on this project. I've had several questions about it so far and I felt that maybe everything should be put out there by me before rumors began to fly. The war in Iraq is a pretty touchy subject and there are a lot of people on both sides that love to stir the pot. This project has the potential to do just that. But this wasn't about if what we're doing over there is right or wrong. It's about showing that even though we're different in a lot of ways we are alike in a lot of ways as well. And we as a global society need to focus and build bridges from those similarities. We'll be better off when we do.

Below are a couple of videos from Dog Faced Corpse. Enjoy.

Black Devil Doll this weekend!

First off I'd like to thank everyone at the Chattanooga Tattoo Arts Fest for a great show last weekend. We loves us some Chattanooga!

But now I want to plug next weekend's show. The Black Devil Doll Cincinnati premiere! The show will be held at the Know Theatre in Cinci and is sponsored by the kick ass folks at Hell In A Handbasket. The show features artist Rob Meyer from It Came From The Basement, horror masks by Ghastly Productions, bands Season Of The Witch, Pumpkin Sluts & De Los Muertos. This could possibly turn out to be the most...uh...interesting show of the year!

If you're not familiar with the movie Black Devil Doll you owe it to yourself to check out the traliers so that you, too, can be just as offended as the rest of the nation!

Hell yes!

Number of the Beest?

This is just some goofy little thing that I shouldn't have noticed but I did:

I have an art gallery on Epilogue.net, http://billytackett.epilogue.net. They give me my gallery ranking and picture views and crap like that. Guess what I was ranked last time I checked?

Horror Rot & Roll Show

What a weekend! First off we headed down to the Fountain Square T-shirt Fest where I had planned on displaying but wasn't. That is another story and I'll be posting about that incident later in the week.

Afterwards we had our final gallery showing at the Southgate House. And once again it was a successful night. The entire show was awesome and the staff was fantastic. I want to thank everyone for a wonderful event and we can't wait to show there again!

On Saturday we did a little mini-horror con and concert. Tri-state Paranormal, Hell In A Handbasket, Kemper and Impaler all had booths set up. Kemper, Pagan Holiday 13 and Impaler supplied the entertainment.

Hell In A Handbasket were there promoting the Black Devil Doll Cincinnati premiere at which I will be set up along with some other horror themed artists and bands. We watched the trailer and I gotta say I am truly lookin' forward to this flick!

Kemper is a dark and gloomy band with an early Danzig influence. He has some great creepy stuff. I didn't get to chat with him as much as I would have liked to but I'm sure our paths will cross again soon enough.

Pagan Holiday 13 are an 80's glam rock throwback with a heavy dose of monsters, zombie strippers and blood! These are some great guys that really have fun with their horror. And c'mon, they have a song called Dead White and Blue so they can't be that bad!

Here's a little history: Being a teenager in the 80s I admittedly was a metal-head. W.A.S.P., Megadeth, Mercyful Fate, anything that wasn't glam! And the more shocking the better. Impaler, who has been around since '84 or so, was one of those. They got a boost in publicity when Tipper Gore put them on her PMRC "hit-list". And like a lot of bands from that era I kind of lost track of them. But lo-and-behold they're undead and well, putting out albums every couple of years or so. And from watching the show they are as brutal, bloody and disgusting as ever!

When I first met Bill Lindsey, the lead singer, I really didn't recognize him. It had been years since Impaler had last been on my radar. And plus he is such a nice guy that it took me several minutes to make the connection. We discussed how some people in the horror biz are waay to serious and need to lighten up. Horror should be fun. The horror kids from the 60s have it right: Scare the shit outta people and have a blast doin' it!

We had a great time hanging out with these guys. But I'm having this weird Twilight Zone thing going on in my head because of the fact that people that I have been a fan of for 20 years or so are now asking for my autograph! That's a little much to wrap my head around but being accepted by my horror idols and role models is great for a feller's ego!

Getting to hang out with these local horror fans has shown me that the genre ain't dead here. We're going to do our part to make sure there are more horror themed events in the Northern KY and Greater Cincinnati area. And with folks like Hell In A Handbasket, Pagan Holiday 13 and some other monster enthusiasts that seem to have risen from out of nowhere lately I can assure you that things are going to get a lot creepier here in the mid-west!

Me & Bill from Impaler

Heather is now a groupie!

Impaler

Mike Torok of Impaler sportin' a Dead White & Blue shirt

A fan!

Mykill von Pagan from Pagan Holiday 13

Me, El Rey and Amber Wave of Hell in a Handbasket

Me & Commander Court of Impaler

Impaler makes me look small and less scary than I really am!

Me & Mykill from Pagan Holiday 13

Me & Mike of Impaler

Impaler

And if you get a minute check out this petition I'm sponsoring:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cinci_tshirt_fest/

The details are there and I'll be posting more to the story in a few days.

Billy

In case you missed the Southgate House show

After 2 great nights in the Southgate House gallery we've been asked back! As of now we'll be there Wednesday and Friday nights. Saturday we'll be at Shimmers in Ft. Wright KY for the Impaler concert. Unfortunately our show at the Fountain Square T-shirt Festival has been cancelled but I'll write about that later.

Both nights we met some great folks. After traveling so much it's good to meet some local zombie freaks. Maybe you can make it out as well?

Below are some photos from the weekend showings.

Held over by popular demand!!

Last night's show at Southgate House was great...So great that I'll be there tonight as well!! And maybe a few nights throughout the week!! If you plan on coming out tonight be forewarned that there will be a cover charge just to get through the door. Good news though is there will be 13 bands playing.

THE BOMB
Knife The Symphony
Bearclaw
Trophy Wives
Arms Exploding
Caterpillar Tracks
The Read
1,000 Arms
Karl Hendricks Trio
Kyle Sowash
Swear Jar
The Serfs
Mack West

Ass-Kickin', Zombie-Lovin' Local Shows...

Hey kiddies! I want to promote some local shows I'll be doing in the next few weeks. I'm really excited because this year is the biggest for me here in the Northern Kentucky/ Cincinnati area thus far and it all kicked off with the 7th Street Gifts Fearie Fest back in May and was followed by the Northside Rock n Roll Carnival last weekend.

Next up is the Rumble Club CD Release Party at Southgate House in Newport KY on June 10th. If you're into psychobilly you'll love these guys. We'll be upstairs in the gallery with tons of originals on display and prints & shirts will be available to buy and Rumble Club will be downstairs in the Ballroom.

On July 17th we're almost confirmed for the Fountain Square T-shirt Fest. I'll let you know when that's 100%.

The next night, the 18th, we'll be at Shimmers in Ft. Wright KY for the Impalers concert. If you're an old school metal head you may remember that Tipper Gore had a hard-on for these guys back in the day. They're still around spreading their gore-rock tentacles across the globe. Also playing will be my friends 13 Pagan Holiday 13 & Kemper.

On August 1st we'll be displaying at the Hell In A Handbasket sponsored Black Devil Doll premere at the Know Theatre in Cincinnati. If you're into B horror flicks I probably don't have to elaborate much on this one except that fellow lowbrow artist will be present. Rob Meyer of It Came From The Basement. Check his stuff out. You won't be disappointed.

And then we'll be at the Covedale Arts and Crafts Fair in Covedale (Cincinnati) OH on August 22.

Jump ahead a few months and we'll be at the first Horrorhound Weekend in Cincinnati. That's right, Horrorhound in comin' to Cinci on November 20 - 22! Elvira will be there. Need I say more?

Below is an updated calendar with events we'll be attending into May of 2010.

July 10, '09 - Rumble Club CD Release Party @ Southgate House, Newport KY 

July 17, '09 - Fountain Square T-shirt Fest, Cincinnati OH 

July 18, '09 - Impalers Concert @ Shimmers, Ft. Wright KY 

Aug. 1, '09 - Black Devil Doll Premiere, Cincinnati OH 

Aug. 13-16, '09 - GenCon, Indianapolis IN 

Aug. 22, '09 - Covedale Arts Fair, Cincinnati OH 

Sep. 11-13, '09 - Scarefest, Lexington KY (Guest of Honor) 

Sep. 18-20, '09 - Horror Realm, Pittsburgh PA (Guest) 

Oct. 3-4, '09 - Dark Carnival Film Fest, Bloomington IN (Guest) 

Oct. 10-11, '09 - ZombieConX, Milwaukee WI (Guest) 

Oct. 17-18, '09 - Nashville Comics & Horror Show, Nashville TN 

Oct. 23-25, '09 - CharCon, Charleston WV (Guest of Honor) 

Nov. 20-22, '09 - Horrorhound Weekend, Cincinnati, OH (Guest) 

Feb. 19-21, '10 - Con Nooga, Chattanooga TN (Guest) 

Mar. 12-14, '10 - Mid-South Con, Memphis TN (Guest of Honor) 

Mar. 26-28, '10 - Horrorhound Weekend, Indianapolis, IN (Guest) 

May 28-30, '10 - MarCon, Columbus OH (Guest of Honor)

Rock n Roll Carnival & a new show announcement...

...The Good, The Bad & The Wet!

Yep, that's about the long & short of it. Set up for what was our first real outdoor event. Yeah 7th Street's Faerie Fest is outdoor but it's one day, ends before dark and we can rent everything we need from them. The Northside Rock n Roll Carnival was different for us. We had to supply everything.

We bought our tent thingy on Thursday and since the event would last way into the night we had the problem of lighting to be solved so we set up the shelter in the front yard and wait until dark to light it. Not sure what our neighbors thought but our idea of lighting with white Christmas lights worked better than we had imagined!

The weather on Friday was awesome! The crowds were out in full force, the bands were top-notch and the beer was nectar of the gods (Christian Moerline O.T.R. really is the shit!)

Some of the folks from Hell in a Handbasket Zine stooped by and dropped off the fliers for the Black Devil Doll premiere where I'll be displaying. Nathan from HorrorHound also stopped by. The festivities rolled on until around 1 AM!

Below is a pic of the daytime booth. We were going to take one after dark to show all the awesome lights but we forgot. So our plan was to grab a photo on Saturday night. Man what a horrible day Saturday was! We set up in the light rain. Had a few sales after the parade but the rain sent most people home. There were several hardcore revellers they stuck around and braved the rain which wasn't a downpour but just a steady, run of the mill rain all day long. So we decided to pack up around 7. I really hated to leave but Heather was feeling under the weather, traffic was slow and we were all pretty moist. Alas, no nighttime pic. Maybe next time.

All in all it was a great weekend. The people of Northside dug my art, made some new friends and fans and drank good beer. Can't ask for more than that!

Now for the new show: I'll be displaying at the Southgate House in Newport KY during the Rumble Club CD release party on Friday, July 10! If you like you some psychobilly come check it out!

An open letter to those image thieves...

The above image, the original black & white version of Zombie Sam, is all over the freakin' internet now. Unfortunately the version floating around is one that amateur has hacked up and added some crappy text, see below.

Pretty shitty, eh? So when I began finding this image around I started asking for credit. Just a link back to my site. All I'm askin'. Nobody would respond! Nuthin'! So lucky for me image hosting sites like Photobucket, Flickr and MySpace can be held responsible for images on their servers and all it takes is a strongly worded email and the offending image is gone. Poof!

There are times when I still ask for credit. Looking over the site you can usually tell who's got enough class to stand up and give it. One of these sites is Zombies & Toys. Turns out he's actually a great guy and you should check out his site if you like...well, zombies and toys!

I'm seeing the tide is turning. More people are willing to give the credit and that's fine. But I shouldn't have to ask for it. When I approach these thieves the response I get 99% of the time is "I didn't know you did it. I just found it on somebody else's page and decided to use it". There are a couple things wrong with this excuse:

1. You found it on somebody else's page and decided to STEAL it...Yes, steal is the correct term. It's on their page, you thought it would make you look cool and you took it. Maybe it belonged to the owner of the page you stole it from. You didn't credit them either. You gave credit to nobody! Even crediting an image to the wrong person shows that you tried. You stole it!

2. Even if you knew the image didn't belong to the person you stole it from if they didn't credit anyone that means...Class? That's right, they STOLE it too! Because they did it doesn't mean it's OK for you to do it. If everybody walks by and punches your mother in the face does that make it OK for me to do it too? Maybe that's a bad analogy because she did raise a thief afterall but you get my drift. The point is someone drew that picture. And there's a chance that that someone is trying to make a living by drawing those kick-ass images you love to put on your MySpace page. Oh, and those really cool animated and glittery images that say "Happy B-Day" or "Thanks for the add!" someone out there drew those too.

I'm a professional artist. That means art is how I pay my bills. That doesn't mean I'm rich and famous and all that crap. Most professional artists are just like you, living paycheck to paycheck. And it's getting harder to be successful at what we do because of douche bag thieves laying claim to something that took hours of our time. Granted most thieves mean no harm. Most people don't realize what goes on behind the scenes. Thus the reason of this blog.

So just remember, that nifty little piece of art you want to use as your background is there because someone spent many, many years honing their skills and talent and because they took the time to sit down and dream it up and took even more time to make that vision a reality. They didn't do it for you, mind you, but for their families. That image helped keep bread on their tables and when you take it without giving proper credit that artist ceases to exist in the eyes of the public.

Don't be part of that.

Billy