Words and Drawings by Phil McAndrew
Hello, friends!
First thing: I’ll have a piece in an upcoming show at Gallery Nucleus, Oootopia: An Artgebraic Tribute to Adventure Time. More info on the show and when it opens can be found over here! You can click on my piece up above to get a closer look.
Second thing: My friends Nathaniel MacDonald and Danny Djeljosevic recently interviewed me for their awesome podcast, Comics You Can Dance To. You can give it a listen over at Comics Bulletin!
Hello friends!
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Zack Soto for the amazing Study Group blog. It’s one of the larger interviews I’ve done. Here’s the little introduction that Zack wrote:
I’ve been following Phil McAndrew’s career with interest for several years. I think he was still in art school in New York when I found his drawings on LiveJournal. His funny, comfortable illustrations were consistently one of the highlights of my LJ feed then. He’s only gotten better, adding a proficiency with watercolors to his artistic arsenal and refining his “voice.” I caught up with Phil to talk about drawing, pizza, the short story, Mad Magazine, the life of the freelance artist, and his upcoming comics collection. -ZS
Oh! Also! That Dr. Seuss tribute show I contributed to is opening this weekend at Gallery Nucleus. I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it up to LA for the opening, but I wish I could. It’s going to be pretty awesome. You should go and take a bunch of pictures for me.
And just so this blog post isn’t totally without images, here’s a peek at something I’m working on. My first animated GIF ever, and it’s for an actual job!
I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute to an upcoming show at Gallery Nucleus, Look At This, Look At That: A Tribute to Dr. Seuss. My contribution, up above, was inspired by the great Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? (click the image to see a larger version)
As I’m sure is the case with literally millions of people, Dr. Seuss has a special place in my heart. I have very distinct memories of laying on the floor and reading Dr. Seuss books with my dad as he taught me how to read. My brothers and I used to play Hop On Pop for real and I spent a lot of time obsessively drawing imaginary creatures after reading If I Ran The Zoo (I still have my extremely tattered copy here on the shelf next to my desk). And of course the illustrations of Seuss have had a huge impact on me throughout my life. When I moved to San Diego a little over a year ago, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this was the city that Dr. Seuss called home (after having been here for a while I can’t help but see the influence of this area’s bizarre landscapes in his work).
I’m not yet sure if I’ll be able to make it up to L.A. for the opening, but you should definitely go!
Two things!
First thing: Broken City Lab recently interviewed me for their HI, 5 interview series. Check it out over here.
Second thing: I had the honor of being asked to act as the juror for an upcoming comic and storyboard art exhibition that will be happening at Foundry Art Centre in Saint Charles, MO later this year. So I get to decide what pieces make it into the show and which ones will be awarded prizes (money!). That’s pretty neat. I hope some of you will enter the show. Make it really hard for me to pick the winners. You’ve got until June 18th to get stuff in!
My alma mater, Daemen College, is opening its new International Center for Excellence in Animation on Saturday (the 7th). I’ll have some work hanging at the opening, including the drawing up above. If you’re in or near Buffalo, NY, go check it out! It’s in Buffalo’s Tri-Main Center and it’s happening from 6-9 pm. There’s a ton more info here.
Hey there!
My body will be attending some meetings in Los Angeles on Friday but some of my art will be hanging out in Minneapolis! I had the honor of being asked to contribute to a special edition of the Cloudy Collection which will be making it’s debut at a huge Cloudy Collection gallery show which opens on Friday at Pink Hobo Gallery in Minneapolis. Here’s some info from the Cloudy Collection website:
Coinciding with the Mpls Indie Xpo (MIX), Pink Hobo Gallery is showing the entirety of prints produced by Cloudy Collection. The reception hosted at the gallery on November 4th, 2011, runs 7pm - 11pm, and (un)officially kicks off Minneapolis’s second annual small-press comics convention. Come out to see almost 100 prints created by 80 different artists from all over the world, and stay to Drink & Draw with MIX exhibitors and other local artists in Pink Hobo’s back room. We’ll be at 507 E. Hennepin!
So that’s pretty exciting. And hey, if you’re in Minneapolis then be sure to check out the Minneapolis Indie Xpo as well. Loads of my cartoonist friends will be there! I recommend picking up some books from Grimalkin Press (publisher of my upcoming book) and Koyama Press.
Hello! How are you?
I’ve been extremely busy! Working on a few different TOP SECRET things. The image up above is just a tiny glimpse at part of something much larger. Something TOP SECRET.
I wanted to let you guys know, especially my Toronto friends, about an art show coming up really soon. My Krampus illustration will be included in the KRAMPUSNACHT 2010 show at the Resistor Gallery. It opens this Thursday (December 2nd). All the information on that is here! You should definitely check it out if you can! And maybe buy my painting! That would be so cool!
Hot dog! It’s been a crazy month!
First, let’s have a little SPX recap: SPX was, as always, a lot of fun. A million thanks to JP Coovert, Joe Lambert, and Alexis Frederick-Frost for letting me table with them. Thanks to everyone that stopped by and said hello. Thanks to my travel buddies Kate Beaton, Scott C, Nathan Stapley, Maré Odomo, Mike Stevens, Katie Turner, Zan Czyzewski, and Ryan Pequin. Thanks to hotel roommates Natasha Allegri and Pen Ward. Thanks to Annie Koyama for adding to the fun from a distance. I posted a bunch of my own pictures over on my flickr thing, but here are some better pictures. STOLEN PICTURES. With me in them!
Hanging at the table with Joe Lambert. Photo stolen from the amazing Nate Beaty!
Having my butt fondled by Britt Wilson through a glass window. Photo stolen from the unforgettable Dustin Harbin!
An epic bro hug with Steve Wolfhard, Pen Ward and Scott C. Photo stolen from Kate Beaton!
Dinner! Ryan Pequin and I are amazed/disgusted by something! Probably something Vicki Nerino is drawing! Photo stolen from Kate Beaton!
On to the next thing: something new for Picture Book Report!
I decided to retire From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and move on to a new book, having done pretty much everything I wanted to do with my first choice. I’m moving on to Holes by Louis Sachar, another old favorite of mine. Check out my first Holes update over on Picture Book Report. I’m really excited about drawing stuff from this book.
Next thing: The Portrait-Dex!
My pal Steve Wolfhard (pictured above in the epic bro hug at SPX) started a fun little project. Cartoonists drawing themselves as Pokemon! Here’s my contribution…
(click to see larger)
Last thing: I’ll have two paintings in a big group show soon! The show is called Monsterbation and it’s happening at the Pony Club Gallery in Portland, OR. It’s a dirty, sexy, scary art show. Lots of naked drawings and monsters. You can get all the info on the show here.
Here’s a glimpse at one of my paintings. Click on it to see the whole thing, but watch out. There are naked boobies.
A new Feral Pizza comic for you!
I may or may not continue posting the comics on this blog. I haven’t decided quite yet. I did manage to get an rss feed set up for the Feral Pizza website. We’ll see what happens I guess!
In other news, I’m going to have some stuff in a big benefit/art show/rock show/costume party here in Syracuse soon. If you’re in the area, swing by Spark Contemporary Art Space on the 30th. The gallery opens at 1:00 pm and bands start playing at 7:00 pm. More info can be found here!
A while ago I got an email asking if some of my comics could be included in a curated web-exhibit of comics. I just noticed that the exhibit has “opened”! It’s pretty neat and there are some really great comics featured in it and some that look really cool that I hadn’t previously heard of (though I’m pretty out of the loop these days when it comes to comics on the internet). Here’s a little blurb that the curator, John Mitchell, wrote about me:
In “Are You Man Enough?” cartoonist Phil McAndrew gets to the point — dads don’t want your daughters to marry you because they like you, they want them to marry you so they have competition in their never-ending quest to one up everyone around them and prove something. Continually. Into infinity. At least the guy in this story does and his disdain for artists is something that plenty of other guys share. McAndrew hints that an artist not only has to play the game, but the make the game his own. Personal experience?
All this is related through McAndrew’s art style, which is both precisely primitive and often larger than life at the same time.
There’s a little Jules Feiffer in the guy, as exhibited in his strip “The Secret Thoughts of Harold Lawrence Windcrampe,” and its hilarious expression of romantic self-loathing. Cruel to the point of hilarity, his “That Darn Cane” wastes no time in some old fashioned ageist humor that echoes an an earlier sincere slapstick era in magazine cartooning.
McAndrew’s site is well-worth a dive into.
There’s a nice little interview with each of the featured artists too. Mine can be found here. I think this is one of the better interviews I’ve had! I don’t think I come off as too much of a doofus.