Known for his nearly obsessive attention to detail, Wes Anderson has a penchant for including zany, oddly appropriate paintings in his film sets. (Think of the “Aggressively Mediocre/Mentally Challenged/Fantasy Island (circle one)” paintings by Miguel Calderon in Eli’s apartment in The Royal Tenenbaums). Pretty awesome.

With this in mind, I couldn’t wait to see what Anderson would do in the upcoming Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Check out some pics here (note the badger painting in the second image down). Also, don’t forget to watch the official trailer. It looks, well, fantastic!

Have a great weekend!

After spending the entire day speaking with students Halloween Eve at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, Scape Martinez recalls one of his favorite student questions of the day: What’s crucial for aspiring artists?

Check out Scape’s blog to get his answer.

How would you answer the question?

Click here to check out Scape’s book, GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti.

Where does creativity come from?

Next stop on the Scape Martinez GRAFF creativity tour…Roosevelt Community Center. Stay tuned for dates!

IMPACT author Steve Ellis is having a busy month in publishing — he’s got two books hitting the shelves within thirty days.

Book #1: The Harvey Award-winning online comic High Moon illustrated by Steve and written by David Gallaher recently printed in bound graphic novel format. Check out this stylish promo or buy it on Amazon.

Book #2: The ultimate guide to drawing Ellis’s trademark werewolves as well as other vicious, blood-sucking, brain-gobbling creeps appropriately titled Scream. It includes 23 complete step-by-step demos for vampires, witches, zombies, mummies, ghosts and other classic horror characters such as this part bat, part demon WEREBAT:

Or this evil, rotting ZOMBIE PIRATE.

Click on the book cover below to buy a copy online, just in time for Halloween 2009.

No need for templates when you are a deviant artist! For this Halloween’s sampling of treats, check out the pumpkin art gallery at deviantART.com.

What are you carving this Halloween?

Celebrate the amazing feminal strengths of Princess Diana of Themyscira this weekend to benefit Domestic Violence Awareness month. This Sunday, October 25th, two comics shops in Portland, Oregon and Fleminton, New Jersey are raising money for the cause through awesome festivities and Wonder Woman silent art auctions. Don’t worry, you don’t have to live on either coast to participate, you can bid online by proxy up until tomorrow at midnight EST.

IMPACT authors Scott Tipton and Chris Ryall write at length about the Amazon princess on their website, www.comics101.com, and in their introductory guide to comics, Comic Books 101. Check ‘em out!

Astro Boy opens in theaters tomorrow. Check it out!

Fantasy artist and IMPACT author Chuck Lukacs has created a Facebook fan page for his upcoming IMPACT book FANTASY GENESIS! Connect with other friends (including yours truly, IMPACT Books) and get sneak peaks of art and the latest updates.

• Visit the Fantasy Genesis page
• Look inside Wreaking Havoc, the book Chuck wrote with this friends, Jim Pavelec, Chris Seaman, and Thomas Manning

IMPACT author Steve Ellis and his High Moon collaborators David Gallaher and Scott O. Brown have won a 2009 Harvey Award for best online comics work. The prestigious award ceremony, named after comic great Harvey Kurtzman, was held Saturday at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Steve won’t have time to rest on his laurels anytime soon. He has a new intrigue-style comic called Box 13 coming out for the iPhone this week, and he’s working on a Marvel Winter Guard project, due out this December. If you’re in the Brooklyn area this Saturday, stop by Bergen Street Comics for a High Moon and Scream book signing.

Happy Friday everyone! We’re wrapping up the week with a fourth installment of super-awesome designer Wendy Dunning’s exploits at Mid-Ohio-Con:

With a Little Help from Your Friends
Comic Art Collaboratives and Groups
I found that Columbus has a couple of groups of folks that get together to share their art with each other. One of these is Sunday Comix, founded by Max Ink. Sunday Comix meets once a month (on a Sunday) so that members can share works in progress and get feedback. It’s open to artists, writers and readers. Their website is www.sundaycomix.blogspot.com. They are sponsoring Comix from the Crypt, a haunting art show of member’s works, now through the end of the month of October. A couple of members are pictured here.

Also in Columbus is a group called PANEL. This is a writers and artists collaborative that publishes anthologies with Ferret Press. The anthologies come out twice a year, with the current one being number 14, PANEL of Horror. I stopped to talk to Brent Bowman, who did the cover art for PANEL of Horror.

Q: How long have you been doing this?
A: So long, I can’t remember. But more in the last 4 years since I’ve been with PANEL.

Brent is working on a comic called Allied Powers (www.alliedpowerscomic.com). The writer is Craig Bogart, who has his own comic called The Ineffables (www.theineffables.com). I picked up a couple of issues of both. The Ineffables is kooky fun from the two issues I’ve read so far, and I have not yet broken into Allied Powers.

PANEL website: www.ferretpress.com/weblog
Ferret Press: www.ferretpress.com

The moral of the story: hook up with some of your comic buds to keep the comics dream alive.

Here’s a book by some comic artists that work together: Wreaking Havoc. Written by Jim Pavalec, Chris Seaman, Chuck Lukacs and Thomas Manning, this book shows you how to draw the characters and creatures that wreak havoc and their weapons of destruction. And if October has you in the mood for some horror, check out Jim Pavalec’s Hell Beasts or Steve Ellis’s Scream.

If you love Michel Gondry, you’ll definitely want to … umm … buy some Michel Gondry toilet paper? Yes, that’s right, you can get plush, 2-ply toilet paper printed with the notes, sketches and random thoughts of the writer and director of The Science of Sleep and Be Kind Rewind. Unfortunately, this item is currently out of stock, so you might have to wait for your roll.

In the meantime, find an artistic outlet for your own ideas and thoughts. Check out Graff by Scape Martinez for ways to get your message on the wall.