Cavemen in Paradise

About Things

joeylabartunek — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:23:50 +0000

Hey Blog, remember when I was talking about making this piece of art? I consider this to be the equivalent of drawing calisthenics, a precursor stylistically to what we’re rockin in the graphic novel now, but I still had a lot of fun building it and working out some of the stylistic choices I would continue in my current art.

So here’s the thing, I know it’s big, that’s intentional, click on it and zoom in. Don’t be lazy, it’s the only way you’ll be able to read it right. Anyway, enough babble, here’s “About Things”.

Tom Sparks, Atomic Detective - About Things

The Harryhausen Monster Mash

joeylabartunek — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:45:35 +0000

Thanks to BB for linking to this awesome collection of every Ray Harryhausen monster ever animated.

As someone who grew up being fascinated, entertained, and inspired by his otherworldly creations (and even meeting the man once!) this warmed a tiny corner of my black heart.

Summer Scheming or Why we put up with the traffic, pretentious shittiness, & gouging rent prices so we can have lovely sunsets.

joeylabartunek — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:56:57 +0000

Today was the first day of summer, and Los Angeles wasn’t going to let us forget. Here are some photos from the Girl’s new area of residence Echo Park, showing the glorious post-June-Gloom burnoff.

Top of The Girl's head looking out on Echo Park

Sunset - First day of Summer 2011

The Girl, The Dems, & the 2011 Pride Parade

joeylabartunek — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:04:05 +0000

My girl is fairly active in politics, and certainly more so than I. So when she got an invitation to march with the Democratic party in the 2011 West Hollywood Pride Parade, she jumped at the chance and pulled me along for the ride. Little did I know that several hours after agreeing to do it, that I would be holding a sign and marching down the middle of Santa Monica Blvd. And while I may not be 100% on board with the party anymore, and I certainly have some issues with the Dems and maybe more pointedly the President and all of their lack of spines, I didn’t really mind holding a sign while the Obama chants went out around me.

Ahh, the things we do for love and entertainment. I realized after the fact that holding a sign and trying to take pictures with my phone was a really bad idea, and most of the pictures I took were complete shit. But here are a couple photos from the parading side of things, if only to say, ‘Yes, bastards, I was there’. Cheers.

Gearing Up

Marchin' in the Streets

Spray Paint (the walls)

joeylabartunek — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:16:07 +0000

The Entry

I took a trip down to Little Tokyo this weekend to check out the current show at the MOCA, ‘Art in the Streets” – a gorgeous and exhaustive exhibit on street art (embarrassingly, this was my first trip to the gallery since moving out to LA-Four years ago…).

Jess standing in front of a bus-turned-giant piece outside the gallery.

Ranging from crude spray paints, Fab 5 Freddie and Blondie, to 80′s skateboard art from Powell Peralta, low rider culture, biker gangs, and all the way to the modern wave of street artists turned pop-culture icons like Banksy and his ilk. The show was a brilliant collection of history and diversity of the art that has really surrounded and been ingrained into those of us who grew up and lived as street urchins most of our lives.

The latest fashion in golfing wear, no more will you be forced to wear plaid.

Sadly, a few hours wandering the halls was not nearly enough time, so The Girl and I are planning a return trip to soak in it all, but in the meantime, here are some photos from visit 1, and a bunch more photo-flotsam in the flickr stream link below. Enjoy.

Art in the Streets @ MOCA, a set on Flickr.

Reel World: Los Angeles

joeylabartunek — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:45:13 +0000

Oh hey, guess what? No, not I didn’t cut off my toes and try to join a fish cult in Bali, but that’s not a bad idea. No, what really happened is, I finished a new copy of my reel. So here it is:

Shivering Primates: an evening.

joeylabartunek — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:40:31 +0000

Speaking of adventures not in paradise, Jess and I drove back to Pomona for the second time in two weeks to catch the Arctic Monkey show at the Fox. I remembered the Fox mainly from my raving days as a worn down shithole that’s only claim to fame in my memory is a close proximity to the location I first ingested some pills of questionable origin at a party called Opium II, waaay back in ’98-’99.

But it’s much nicer now. We saw The Kills there not two weeks back with some of The Girl’s friends and I was surprised at how they had renovated the place. Anyways. Good show, I love the Monkeys, good old fashioned, snotty britpop-punk in the vein of Caveman faves Supergrass and the Buzzcocks. Here are some pictures from the rooftop bar:

Sold Out.

From the rooftop.

Jessica taking a picture of the Fox sign. How very meta. Or something.

Forgetful Things

joeylabartunek — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:55:24 +0000

Oh blog, how I miss you. Here, have an update for old time’s sake.

On work.

joeylabartunek — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:38:45 +0000

In order to save myself the trouble of ranting and raving about how work’s been day in and day out, I figure I’d share this instead, it describes things all too perfectly, and much quicker than I could have written it out:

It’s a Bad Bad Universe

joeylabartunek — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:48:51 +0000

They just released a promo for the new show I work on, and I felt this is a perfect new thing to share with my ghost town of a blog. For the record, I work on the animated graphic novel bits of the show, drawing backgrounds, colorizing, etc. Enjoy!