Breaking the Ton.

A couple months ago, I received a call from Steve "Carpy" Carpenter. If you love motorcycles and know anything about café racing, you know who Carpy is. My problem was, when he called, I didn't—and he knew it.

Steve Carpenter

For the most part, cars are my thing. And though I've been fascinated by motorcycles since I was a kid, I didn't have any chops when it came to bike banter with the big boys. He'd seen my website and was interested in working together on a tee shirt design for his upcoming interview with The Speed Channel. Rotten luck, I was booked solid for several weeks out and couldn't help him.

"Sure," I say. "I'm a bit busy right now, so I'll put you on the list."

I'll wait a minute to let that sink in.

Okay, read on ...

See, here's the deal: Carpy is one of the most talented bike builders around (he recently built a Honda CB750 café bike for Green Day), and I'm talking on the telephone with him with no better idea about his identity than if he were Mr. Joe Everybody himself. If clueless were water, I'd be flailing in the deep-end wearing concrete underbritches.

But even through my blundering, I have to say, you just can't ask for a friendlier fellow than Carpy. He called me "mate" at least two dozen times, and though my stunted development in the topic of café bike building was glaring, we chatted for fifteen minutes or more about bikes, art, and the possibility of negotiating a gig.

He didn't hire me, and I can understand why. But I've reached a fortunate point in my freelance career where from time to time I can take on special work as a personal project. (I call it fortunate because I know of many freelancers who simply can't afford to take time away from commissioned work to pursue individual projects.) So when the opportunity arises, I'm on it. And this was one of those opportunities.

Café racing is a British invention of the 1960s in which the riders started from a café—typically the Ace Club in London—and raced around the block back to the same cafe before a song on the jukebox could end. Whether they break it, crack it, or just plain "do" the ton, it all meant the same thing: café racers hitting the 100 mph mark. If you want to learn more, check out these links: The Tonup Club, The Ace Cafe and The 59 Club.

Because I didn't have any direction from a real client other than our brief conversation, this project is a bit phony; great illustration or design is always because of a great client. But if Carpy wasn't going to hire me, I was going to hire myself. I wanted to learn what might have come from the project if he had told me, "anything goes." What the heck, if I fall flat on my face, no one needs to know but me. But if I'm happy with the results, I'll offer him a signed print of the piece.

Using some photos from his web site for inspiration, and borrowing heavily from Marvel's Ghost Rider comic, here's what I came up with:

Now back to the drawing board.

Read the full post...

Living History: WWII Engineer and B-17 Top turret Gunner D.B. Dickson

This has nothing to do with illustration or web design. But it has everything to do with respect and gratitude.

This unassuming gentlemen said very little during the July 15th vintage WWII airshow at the Lawrence Municipal Airport in Lawrence, KS. He could easily have been mistaken for one of the many bystanders who shuffled around and through perfectly restored and completely flight-worthy WWII era bombers. But through casual conversation, one friendly visitor chatted with him long enough to discover that this man, Mr. D.B. Dickson, flew over three dozen missions in a B-17 Flying Fortress nearly identical to the one we were admiring.

"One time, I had to release the bombs by hand because the catch was stuck. I stood in the bay with the doors open on a walkway that was only ten inches wide, and we were 25,000 ft up. I wasn't tethered, and there wasn't room to wear a parachute. The air temperature was 40 below. We had to unload the bombs because we were headed down, and they're set to go off at 150 ft. whether they were in the plane or not."

D.B. Dickson, Engineer and B-17 Top turret Gunner

Some of us tried to impress him with our limited knowledge of WWII airplanes, but Mr. Dickson (rank unknown) would softly reply with a smile, "Yeah. Tell me about it." And after some prodding, he relayed the above story to me and about a dozen others who stood by with wide eyes and a deep sense of admiration and respect.

Thank you Mr. Dickson for your stories and your service.

Read the full post...

News Flash! Killer Badger's New Flash Site

Why are illustrators and graphic designers so afraid of Flash? Same reason they're afraid of spiders, floppy armed robots, and those vaguely naughty personal hygiene commercials: misunderstanding. If we could only clear up the great prejudices that surround Flash and Flash Player, and if we could just shed light on all the advances the enslaved code-gnomes at Google and Adobe have made in overcoming the early problems with integrating Flash and interwebs, we could all put aside our phobias and hatred. We'd still have those creepy commercials, but at least rich media applications would be more widely accepted.

To wit, I submit the Killer Badger Illustration Studio Flash web site:



Read on...


So you might ask, what exactly are all the prejudices of which I speak? First, I'd tell you that it's okay to end a sentence in a preposition. Then I'd enumerate each one:

Flash Prejudice No. 1: You can't assign a unique URL to individual rendering states (or "pages" if you insist), making it impossible to send others a link that directs them to that page view.

Not true! Asual.com offers a free application download for Flash developers called SWFAddress. In Asual's words:

SWFAddress is a small but powerful library that provides deep linking for Flash and Ajax. It's a developer tool, allowing creation of unique virtual URLs that can point to a website section or an application state. SWFAddress enables a number of important capabilities which are missing in today's rich web technologies including: bookmarking in a browser or social website; Sending links via email or instant messenger; Finding specific content with the major search engines; Utilizing browser history and reload buttons.

The Killer Badger web site uses SWFAdress in its navigation. I'll admit that I haven't gotten it to work perfectly yet. But I've seen several sites out there that use it successfully (Nissan's web site, for example), so the issue in my case is probably PEBCAC.

Flash Prejudice No. 2: You can't dynamically re-size a flash page to accommodate the user's browser window.

Wrong again! A javascript application called swffit fixes that problem quite easily. I needed just such a fix because the the Killer Badger web site was designed for full-screen viewing. I knew this going into the design, and I knew that viewers looking at the site on the smaller screens you'd find on laptops might not be able to absorb the full resplendent glory of my dashboard navigation metaphor. But swffit sniffs out the browser window dimensions and re-sizes the entire swf file to fit. Brilliant.

Flash Prejudice No. 3: Google's spiders can't crawl - and consequently can't index - the contents of a .swf file.

What? Who told you that? Seriously, who? Why, I oughtta... It might have been true in the past, but not so much anymore. Here is an article that describes just how well Google can extract text and link information from a .swf file and index it right along with all the other html files out there. The technology still has a way to go, but with the growing popularity of Flash, Google is going to continue developing it. Give those code-gnomes a cookie.

Flash Prejudice No. 4: Flash Player is not available for mobile devices. It also poses security risks on other devices.

I'm shocked! SHOCKED, I say! Actually, this one may have some truth to it. But at the time of this writing, Flash Player 10.1 is due to be released within a few months (Spring '10), and it is reportedly able to render swf files to many kinds of mobile devices and tablets. Adobe's admitted security holes are also going to be stitched up, too. This article sums up the promised breakthroughs in this area. Time will tell, the pudding will be proven, and every dog will have his day. In time, the dog may even eat the pudding.

EDIT: A prerelease version of Flash Player 10.1 is available as of April 5, 2010.

Flash Prejudice No. 5: Flash applications are, well, flashy; designers too often rely on attention-hogging animations of dancing hipsters with multicolored dots swirling around their heads as screeching emo bands assault your ears with implorations to sign up for your free thirty-day trial of vaguely naughty personal hygiene products.

Oh, and I suppose all html web sites out there are tasteful and dignified? Pshhh... Truth is, the designer and the client are the ones who should be held responsible - or rewarded - for the outcome of any design. Flash isn't inherently distasteful. In the hands of truly talented designers, astoundingly effective, creative, and downright sublime results are possible. Check out level2D's Flash site. Simply breathtaking.

Read the full post...

Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

Ubuntu is a free, open-source operating system for personal computers. It kicks the pants off of Windows, if operating systems have pants, that is. If Windows did have pants, it doesn't anymore. Now it just stands around in its virtual underwear looking like a drunk and confused Peter Griffin from Family Guy with his paunch hanging over his joy toy. I just made that up.

Unauthorized and possibly unwanted commentary aside, the folks who publish Ubuntu User Magazine absentmindedly invited me to illustrate the Discovery Guide portion of the latest version of their software, dubbed Karmic Koala. Here are the spots I drew for them:

End of Post

Read the full post...

Illustration and Pit Bull Breed Advocacy

I get a lot of requests from my readers for pit bull illustrations. Some are pretty creative ideas, and I'll always consider rendering these animals in a manner that reflects their dignity, strength, dedication, and yes, even playfulness. But sorry folks, I will not depict a pit bull - or any dog, for that matter - engaging in violent behavior. Even implied violent behavior is off limits.

And in that spirit, I am proud that Game Dog Guardian has been a long-time client of mine. My business partner, Justin "Jud" Kite, and I designed the logo and all the apparel for this newly formed pit bull advocacy organization, headed by Anthony Barnett. Here's a slideshow of the current designs we are preparing for sale on the upcoming Game Dog Guardian site. For several of the tees, the original dog head was designed by Scott Murray.

It's been a few years in the making, but it appears from this recent article in my local paper that Anthony and Game Dog Guardian are getting the props they deserve.

Read the full post...

KC Geargrinder for 2010

Yeah, it's on allright.

The 2nd annual KC Geargrinder hot rod show is taking over Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City April 23-24.



This poster was designed in collaboration with my business partner, Jud Kite, from Killer Kite Productions. It's our tribute to the SoCal Speed Shop style.
End of post.

Read the full post...

Rev It Up! Hot Rod Show and Music Fest

Do you like hot rods? What about live music? Food? Well, of course you do. And if you happen to be anywhere near the Lawrence, KS area on September 26th, you can get a heapin' helpin' of all three at the first annual Rev It Up! Hot Rod Show and Music Fest. Vehicle registration and admission are both free, but donations to the sponsor, GaDuGi Safecenter, are encouraged. Visit their MySpace page for more info.



Yours truly designed the poster along with all the promotional materials.
End of Post

Read the full post...

The Birth of a New Badger

Yes, a new badger is born: a Killer Badger.

The popularity of my hot rod and muscle car illustrations has grown faster than I could have imagined when I started freelance work four years ago. It's become so strong that I've recently decided to split out that part of my business into its own entity.

The result? The Killer Badger Illustration Studio.



It just makes sense to me that my traditional illustration work should be marketed separately from the rather specialized field of hot rod and custom car illustration. I'm not going to sacrifice one for the other - in fact keeping both segments operating at full tilt is what makes the Agile Badger so agile.

The image you see here marks the new look of my hot rod business. In the next month or so, I'll be launching a new website with my snarling little friend here as the gate keeper on the landing page. It's going to be a showcase of full-throttle, tire-smokin', red-line-revvin' hot rods.

Now back to the drawing board.

Read the full post...

14 Jaunty Jackalopes for Ubuntu User Magazine

One of the more fun aspects of my job is the surprise - no, astonishment - that comes from the bizarre variety of subjects I'm sometimes hired to illustrate. Who'd a-thunk when I started freelance work nearly four years ago that one day I'd get paid to draw a pit bull with an Afro? Or a donkey standing in a Mexican restaurant?

And the fun just keeps on coming. I've just finished a series of spot illustrations for the first print issue of Ubuntu User Magazine. Sound normal so far? Did I mention that each one was a cartoon jackalope engaged in various computer software activities?

This one is "Burning CDs."



The theme for the Ubuntu release featured in this inaugural issue was Jaunty Jackalope. The editors asked me for twelve drawings that would illustrate several of the functions and activities featured in this free OS for home computing. They liked them enough to ask me for two more!

Here's a slideshow of all 14 illustrations.

(click on image for slideshow)

END OF POST

Read the full post...

The Best Vector Text Effects, Ever.

Although the Vandelay Design blog is primarily geared towards tutorials for web designers, there's a heapin' helpin' of valuable information for illustrators and graphic artists as well. Like this post about text effects using Adobe Illustrator.

There's also a top 20 list of the most valuable Photoshop tutorials on the web. That's a pretty bold claim, but I think they may be right.

Now, back to the drawing board.

End of Post

Read the full post...

Everyone Loves Freebies

Seems everyone is offering free Photoshop textures and backgrounds these days. It's a shameless gimmick, actually, and I'm dismayed and disheartened by all the attention-grubbing hacks out there who resort to such blatant panderism.

But then I thought, "Wait a sec. I'm an attention-grubbing hack, and I love blatant panderism!" So decided to join the others of my ilk and post my own hi-res textures and backgrounds, free for your personal or commercial use.

There are nine images in all, and they're available in jpeg format in sizes up to 1024 x 768 pixels.

Read on...

All of these photos were taken in one location: Big Brutus in West Mineral, Kansas. Big Brutus is the second largest electric shovel in the world. It's out of commission now, but in its day, it could load and unload 90 cubic yards of what coal miners call "overburden" - that 65-foot-deep layer of inconvenient stuff that the rest of us call dirt - in under a minute.

Now, I don't know if you can form a mental image of 90 cubic yard of dirt, but I'll give you hint: it's about the same volume as four Dodge Caravans stacked 2 by 2, soccer moms not included. Take it from me, that's a lot of dirt. I just planted a peach tree in our back yard, a task that required the removal and replacement of about 1/8th cubic yard of "overburden." It took me a half-hour, and my back is killing me.

The folks at the Big Brutus Visitor's center allow you to climb inside this thing. They even let you sit in the operator's seat, a good 30 feet off the ground. They won't let you climb up the 150 ft boom, however. Something about falling and dying, I think. They're funny about that.

But inside, it's a wonderland for machine junkies like me. They've removed the giant, half-dozen or so electric motors from inside the big orange box, but all the cables, wheels, brackets, and electrical connection doohickey thingies are still there, still greased up and rusty, just like I like it. Don't take that the wrong way.

If you're ever swinging through the southeast portion of our state (hey, it could happen) it's worth the visit just to feel the jaw-dropping immensity of it all. Even my mother-in-law had fun.

So pop on over to my Flikr account for a heapin' helpin' of some lovin' from the Badger's oven. If you use any of these images in your work, I'd love a comment or email.

Now back to the drawing board.

Read the full post...

Lawn Care with Flair

Those good-lookin', hard-workin' boys at Fiske Brothers Yardworks in Centennial, Colorado added a new Dodge Ram pickup truck to their fleet. Co-Owner Tim Fiske asked if I would commemorate the occasion with a tee shirt design for his employees.



I never thought of myself much of a truck guy, but this was a fun gig. The Dodge Rams are really tough looking, and I love the 18-wheeler-look to their hood and grille.

I also couldn't help but put some fatties on the mower, just for fun.

Now back to the drawing board.

End of post.

Read the full post...