Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards on Variety.com

If Variety wants to blog about us, we'll blog about them blogging about us. Neat.

"This also is a very sharp looking book, with a fantastic cover by “Xenozoic Tales” creator Mark Schultz and art by Big Time Attic, which includes Zander Cannon, Shad Petowsky and Kevin Cannon, that’s clear, compelling and beautiful. Grade: A"

Variety.com blog

If you're ever in Reading, UK...

You say tornado I say...

It's being said that anywhere from one to three tornados hit north Minneapolis/suburbs last night. I didn't see one, but I DID see a cloud spinning around and then didn't see anything but sideways rain, lightning, and hail for and hour or so.

I saw these things in from the window of Office Max, where I was trapped with the staff and a guy who was angry to be inconvenienced by weather.

"Look, you guys are over-reacting," He said "it's just rain."
(and 75 mph winds that just ripped the front doors off of the Best Buy across the parking lot) "I want to check out, I'm leaving."

The employees advised him to stay indoors but then said they could check him out..even with credit card...without a problem...despite his insistence that they couldn't..but SHOULD. "Ok, but I still need to get more stuff, If I don't get my stuff I'm OUT OF BUSINESS TOMORROW. OUT OF BUSINESS!"

"Ok, OK, What do you need," The clerk asked.

"Magic markers."

-----------------------------------------------

I watched the storm from a comfy office chair until a manager called and told the staff to get everyone away from the windows and into the stockroom. Stockrooms are a little too "Night of the Comet" for me, so I decided to risk the drive home. Nearly all the trees in the parking lot were uprooted, and the drive home was a slow one through partly flooded roads and around tree limbs. I ran into a dangling wire too, but I guess the juice was gone. Except for in my freaked out face.

This tree around the corner took out the power and internet on our block.


All of our plastic lawn furniture stayed put.

UPDATE:

Zander's neighbor's tree just missed their house:

Little Smiler

Our new computer makes me laugh. At first I was bothered by the combo 80's alarm-clock-microwave look...until I saw the smiley face.

Welcome friend.

Grand-er Opening

Around the corner from our house is a blind intersection that strikes fear into the hearts of everyone on the street, except me....until today.

No one was hurt, they crashed and ran away.

Even the Timeless have birthdays...

...like Shad. Who turned 31 today.

Shad, in honor of your birthday, Zander and I wrote you a song to the tune of Of Montreal's "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)"

It begins as follows:

Let's have birthday celebrations
Let's forget dates forget times forget schemes
We'll have birthday celebrations
I'll place thirty-one candles in a cake made of dreams

Okay, that's all we could do, because I wouldn't let Zander change any of the lyrics about Antarctica (which is pretty much all of the rest of the song). Happy birthday, Shad!

Book Release Party

The party was great! Thanks to everyone who came! We got to see a lot of old friends who we haven't seen while we locked ourselves away to finish this book. People ate all the food and drank all the beer, so there was practically nothing to clean up...THANKS!


Bret, Tim, and Shawn looking at something...not our book as far as I can tell.


Zander acts cropped and blurry while Kevin holds A SODA POP KIDS!


Writer/Publisher Jim Ottaviani and my wife Anna discuss nuclear engineering.

A little tape, rubber cement, and foam core

This friday..can't miss it!

The books are HERE!

The truck pulled up, we have them!

Big Time Warehouse Loft

WE'RE MOVING!


The Attic is great!..but with the addition of Max and interns, we end up playing musical chairs, and need a little more room.

Below are some camera phone shots of our new digs in Northeast Minneapolis. There is a great coffee shop in our new building, and we're just down the halls from mimi design and Eight Hour Day.

All the stuff in there is from the current tenant.

Good News Monday

We've been asked to do a super cool project that we're VERY excited about.

AND

Our cartoonist pal Phil Redmon really helped us out. THANKS Phil

ANDDDDD...

We just started a deal that is hinted at in this phone cam photo but will have to leave you guessing for a few days...New gallery show perhaps? Any ideas?

Sunday Crunch Time...

The weekend didn't end with Action City and the comic show...we had to zip home to finish one of two government projects. This is one for NOAA is a comic to teach kids about satellites called "Space Junk" a sequel to "Space Weather."

A BIG thanks to comic colorist S. Steven Struble for helping us prep the files for coloring. Without him we would be days behind!


Zander puts the final touches on page three...all of the art and lettering is done by hand with ink and paper, but the coloring is much easier to do on a computer.


...while Kevin calls out changes and corrections from notes on the proofs.


Sometimes Kevin's notes can be a little discouraging.

Action City Tourists

It was a busy work weekend for BTA, but that doesn't mean we didn't have fun! On Friday we went to Wisconsin to work on-site at the family fun center we're designing, Action City.


Here are Zander and Kevin at our branch office in Action City, it's about 52,000 square feet larger than the attic we're working in now. In two months, they're replacing our office with an indoor GoKart track. BUT! We get to keep our stapler.


Concerned that one day isn't enough for the work that needs to be done, Zander and Kevin devise a time travel scheme...


IT WORKS! Another Big Time Attic production secret let out of the bag, email us to ask about teleportation to keep convention costs down.


But who needs teleportation when you can...bound.


We didn't mess around the entire time though, here is Zander "beeeeing the wall." That's themeing!

After our day at Action City, we stayed another day to attend a Comic, Gaming, Model Kit show hosted by Rob at Eau Claire Comics. What a great host! The show was well attended by children, and while I expect to be driven nuts at cons by 45-year-olds certain about who would win in a fight between Spider-man and Aquaman*, three-year-olds make it bearable.

*"spidor-man and aja man would not fwight! day are fweinds!" - Devlin

Leia Bell

Posting other people's art on a blog confuses people, but to heck with it...

Leia Bell is an artist out of Salt Lake city who draws and prints posters for rock bands. I'm drawn to her work over many posters artists and print-makers as she creates touching scenes rather than devil girls or rock-animals-of-the-moment. Weezer fans probably already know her work, and she's Brian Bell's sister and has done designs for the band. I picked up this Shin's poster from her, I love it, it's framed...but my well known hang-o-phobia is in full effect.

She saw one of of my photographs and I was HONORED that she'd use it for one of her prints!


The original photo taken on a trip back home to Montana.


Leia Bell's print.

Most of her hand-pulled prints are limited to 100 or less and you're sure to find something that's sexy, touching, poppy, or outsider enough for your tastes.

http://www.leiabell.com/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!

Sept 4. Yep. And maaaaannnny mooooore...