Dark Days and Other Tales

Greetings friends,

After many months of drawing, fiddling, crises of faith and ultimate resignation, my first ever small press book of comic strips titled 'Dark Days and Other Tales' is finally released today. It contains 25 comic strips which feature ruminations on death, hatred, space, skulls, quests and more. It even comes with an exclusive 'I DON'T WANT TO DIE!' badge, so the world knows you have a healthy and debilitating fear of death. Let us have a peek inside before I explain what on earth possessed me:

See the full gallery on Posterous

INFO:

Dark Days and Other Tales

Written and Illustrated by Luke Drozd

Full colour cover, black and white inside.

25 comic strips including such hits as: The Glue Factory, Judgment Day, The Pummelling, The Burial, Ugly Child, Found In Space, Four Famous Skulls, Greetings For Enemies, Cats, The Worm's Turn and Dark Days.

Comes with exclusive 'I DON'T WANT TO DIE!' badge/button. 

It is available from my online shop HERE for £5 plus postage.

Looks alright, huh?

Well, it nearly didn't exist. I certainly never set out to make a book of comic strips. It all started when Crispin Parry from British Underground and I decided to have a 'Funnies' section in the first issue of UKPA's Flood magazine. People liked it so we did it again in issue 2 (which featured Four Famous Skulls, the only previously published strip in the book). I had long been baffled by the amount of truely awful and genuinely unfunny and uncreative strips that get published in UK papers and decided that I could do better, or at least as bad. I soon realised I wasn't massively funny either but I did enjoy making them so I carried on. Every once in a while I would have a vaguely dumb idea that may work as a strip, and slowly but surely I created a small stack of them. I decided they were probably not worth publishing, but showed them to my good pal and art advisor Graham Pilling. He told me I had to release them and I have a legal document that says I must do as he says, so I made a chunk more and they in turn formed the contents of Dark Days, which is what it is...

So basically, what I'm saying is, it's all Graham's fault. 

Now go and buy it. It's HERE, get your eyes all over it.

Luke

Dark Days and Other Tales

Greetings friends,

After many months of drawing, fiddling, crises of faith and ultimate resignation, my first ever small press book of comic strips titled 'Dark Days and Other Tales' is finally released today. It contains 25 comic strips which feature ruminations on death, hatred, space, skulls, quests and more. It even comes with an exclusive 'I DON'T WANT TO DIE!' badge, so the world knows you have a healthy and debilitating fear of death. Let us have a peek inside before I explain what on earth possessed me:

See the full gallery on Posterous

INFO:

Dark Days and Other Tales

Written and Illustrated by Luke Drozd

Full colour cover, black and white inside.

25 comic strips including such hits as: The Glue Factory, Judgment Day, The Pummelling, The Burial, Ugly Child, Found In Space, Four Famous Skulls, Greetings For Enemies, Cats, The Worm's Turn and Dark Days.

Comes with exclusive 'I DON'T WANT TO DIE!' badge/button. 

It is available from my online shop HERE for £5 plus postage.

Looks alright, huh?

Well, it nearly didn't exist. I certainly never set out to make a book of comic strips. It all started when Crispin Parry from British Underground and I decided to have a 'Funnies' section in the first issue of UKPA's Flood magazine. People liked it so we did it again in issue 2 (which featured Four Famous Skulls, the only previously published strip in the book). I had long been baffled by the amount of truely awful and genuinely unfunny and uncreative strips that get published in UK papers and decided that I could do better, or at least as bad. I soon realised I wasn't massively funny either but I did enjoy making them so I carried on. Every once in a while I would have a vaguely dumb idea that may work as a strip, and slowly but surely I created a small stack of them. I decided they were probably not worth publishing, but showed them to my good pal and art advisor Graham Pilling. He told me I had to release them and I have a legal document that says I must do as he says, so I made a chunk more and they in turn formed the contents of Dark Days, which is what it is...

So basically, what I'm saying is, it's all Graham's fault. 

Now go and buy it. It's HERE, get your eyes all over it.

Luke

Django Django Django...Django

DJANGO!

It's a fun word to say, huh? Ok, onwards! For the second year running, Push & Pull have organised a series of screenprinted posters in collaboration with Into The Great Wide Open for some of the bands playing at the festival. For those of you not familiar with the festival, it's an amazing tiny festival, on an little island off the coast of the Netherlands called Vlieland. It sort of feels a bit like what a festival would be like if it were organised by the Moomins. But whatever, I digress. The poster series is now complete and will be exhibited and copies of each print sold at the festival. I was asked to make one for the UK's very own Django Django which you can see below:

The whole series, which includes the work of Graham Pilling, Mara Piccione, Doe Eyed & Talkseek can be viewed at the following link HERE. A great selection of artists I'm sure you will agree. I have copies of the Django Django print to sell and these will be online after the festival HERE.

While we are on the subject of poster series', I can't remember if I posted about the full Screenadelica and Bestival 2012 series. If I didn't, that is also now up in full and can be seen HERE.

More news soon about other posters, new fine art work and most importantly my comic strip book 'Dark Days & Other Tales'.

Ta-ra, Luke

 

New Studio Works

Hello all

My solo show Everything Is Present Tense opens later this week at York College Gallery (more info on the show here) so I thought maybe it was about time I posted up some new works from the studio in celebration. Some of these works will no doubt be in the show, whilst others will be in different, real world places ready for human interaction some time soon. Enjoy:

Trim

See the full gallery on Posterous

Paradise

See the full gallery on Posterous

Marker

Stop It

Everything Is Present Tense

Hello all

Have been meaning to do a quick blog with the info about my upcoming exhibition in York but for some reason I have failed to do so. Well not today my friends, or here is all the information you may need to go and visit my solo show 'Everthing is Present Tense', where you will have your eyes and minds filled with sculptures, drawings and prints from inside my mindtrap. Alongside some slightly older works will be brand spanking new pieces, never before seen by actual humans. Hope to see you there:

Everything is Present Tense

An exhibition of works by Luke Drozd

York College Gallery
1st September - 27th September
...

Evening opening and drinks: Thursday 13th September, 5-7.30pm

Luke Drozd’s works are ultimately about making and looking, of a reinvesting in things and materials
that may well fall by the wayside. They could perhaps be seen as totems for the seriously frivolous
or the courageously silly.

The show will feature a selection of works made over the last few years alongside new pieces purpose-made for the exhibition.

Location:
York College Gallery is located on the first floor
of the Atrium at the front of the College:
York College, Sim Balk Lane, York, YO23 2BB.

Open to the public
Monday - Friday (9am - 5pm)
Saturday (9am - 12noon)
Admission FREE
Please make bookings for group visits by emailing the
Exhibitions’ Organiser at exhibitions@yorkcollege.ac .uk

Facebook page for the show is here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/events/101228953356015/

No More Posters Please, We're British

Hello denizens of the internet in these halcyon days!

It was been many moons since I last transposed a message from my mind onto this internet, but as the month of international poster insanity has drawn to a close and we are now firmly embedded in the misery of June I felt I should let you all know that I survived. 

First off a massive hello and thank you to all the people that came by the UKPA debut INK & PAPER exhibition in London. It was great fun and super busy throughout and we are already plotting new, fun ventures for you poster-loving peoples. A big thank you to our sponsors at Brooklyn Brewery for the generous boozy support too. For those of you who were unable to attend or unable to remember your attendance, here be some pictures for you:

See the full gallery on Posterous

Secondly I will extend those good wishes to everyone who came to one of the other poster shows I was in attendance of in May/June. So if you were at Poster Roast in Camden, Screenadelica in Liverpool, Flatstock at Primavera Sound in Barcelona or the mini pop up Poster Roast at V22 in London, I salute you. It was fun, wasn't it? Yes, it was...

Finally, throughout these fun times I actually did some work too and as a result I have a few new prints available on my webstore. So here for your eyeballs delectation are my new prints for The Wedding Present, Dry the River and Andrew Bird:

See the full gallery on Posterous

If you like them I suggest you treat yourself to a copy here: http://lukedrozd.bigcartel.com/

That is all for now. More info soon about upcoming sculpture show and new artworks, as well as Yo La Tengo and Lightyear prints. 

Good bye digital persons,

Luke

International Poster Month

Hello all,

Ok, so International Poster Month doesn’t actually exist BUT if it did (which it doesn’t) it would be May 2012...but its not. 

Basically there's a mega-ton of poster shows coming up in the UK and Euroland throughout May and I am about to tell you about them. Here we go!

First out of the proverbial kitchen will be Poster Roast at Camden Crawl 2012. This is the third year running PR has been at Camden Crawl exhibiting UK poster supremos and this time round they will be doing it alongside the wonderful Alternative Press and Lexington Record Fair in the epic Camden Church. All taking place from 5th-7th May, 1-8pm, so come and say hello.

More info available here: http://posterroast.com/site/2012/01/26/camden-crawl-2012/

If Poster Roast is the starter of our poster banquet, then the next UK show is certainly the main meal, and what a main meal it is. It's the sort of main you have when someone else is paying. That's right folks, next up is Ink & Paper, the first show from the UK Poster Association (UKPA) and one of the biggest gig poster shows these shores have seen, and certainly one of the largest featuring predominantly UK poster peoples. It will be a great show, with a shed load of affordable and amazing posters plus excellent booze from Brooklyn Brewery at the opening. There's even a Q&A with some of the artists on the Sunday. Blimey! Here's all you need to know:

INK & PAPER
The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, London, E1 5LJ
11th-13th May 2012

Opening hours
11th May opening event -18.00 – 21.00
12th May – 11.00 – 18.00
13th May – 11.00 – 18.00 (panel discussion/Q&A at 16.00)

INK & PAPER is a major exhibition of gig posters by some of the world's best poster artists taking place May 11th-13th off London's Brick Lane at The Rag Factory. One of the first shows to feature many of the UK's current crop of poster designers alongside some of the best from Europe and the US, INK & PAPER will feature a vast array of limited, screenprinted gig posters for bands across the musical spectrum. 

Featured artists include: Adam Pobiak (UK/US), Brag Collective (UK), Comet Substance (CH), Damien Tran (FR), Dan Stiles (US), Diego Mena (UK/ES), Drew Millward (UK), Fugscreen Design (US), Graham Pilling (UK), Guy Burwell (US), Horse Design (UK), Jacknife (UK), Justin Santora (US), Kate Prior (UK), Lil Tuffy (US), Luke Drozd (UK), Mara Piccione (NL), Petting Zoo (UK), Sean Mort (UK), Switchopen (UK), Telegramme Studio (UK), Tiny Little Horse (IRE), Tom Lacey (UK), Twoducksdisco (UK), Michael Cowell (UK), Monkey Ink/John Howard (US) & WeThreeClub (UK).

For more info see www.ukposterart.com
or email info@ukposterart.com 

Then, if we are intent on keeping this food metaphor going, which we are, we will move onto poster dessert in the form of Liverpool's amazing Screenadelica exhibition, founded by Liverpool designer Horse 

Now in it's third year at Liverpool's Sound City festival, Screenadelica plays host to a massive dollop of the world's finest poster artists alongside a programme of excellent music, and it's also one of the few mainly non-wristbanded events at the festival. 

Featured artists include: Adam Pobiak (UK/US), Brag Collective (UK), Comet Substance (CH), Damien Tran (FR), Dan Stiles (US), Diego Mena (UK/ES), Drew Millward (UK), Fugscreen Design (US), Graham Pilling (UK), Guy Burwell (US), Horse Design (UK), Jacknife (UK), Justin Santora (US), Kate Prior (UK), Lil Tuffy (US), Luke Drozd (UK), Mara Piccione (NL), Petting Zoo (UK), Sean Mort (UK), Switchopen (UK), Telegramme Studio (UK), Tiny Little Horse (IRE), Tom Lacey (UK), Twoducksdisco (UK), Michael Cowell (UK), Monkey Ink/John Howard (US) Toby Whitebread (UK), Handcooked Posters (UK), Error Design (ES), Craig Robson (UK) & WeThreeClub (UK).

For more info see: http://www.screenadelica.com/ 

Phew, I feel tired already. But that is not the end of International Poster Month, no no. Following on from Screenadelica's rich, poster-based desert, we move through to the lounge for some after-dinner drinks in the form of Flatstock 34 at Primavera Sound on May 31st, and June 1st & 2nd 2012 at Pare del Forum, Barcelona, Spain. There is a bag-load of amazing poster stars from around the Life Sphere we call Earth.

Here is a list of their names of those in fleshy attendance for you to read: Michael Hacker (AUT), The Red Can Company (DE), Douze (DE), Grace Helly Graphics (DE), Damien Tran (DE), Mitchum D.A. (DE), Clockwork Pictures (IT), The Impossible Machine (NL), Comet Substance (CH), Sean Mort (UK), Horse (UK), Luke Drozd (UK), Adam Pobiak (UK), Michael Cowell (UK), Army Of Cats (UK), Tiny Media Empire (US), Justin Santora (US), Fugscreens Studios (US), The Decoder Ring (US), Crosshair (US), Voodoo Catbox (US), Ink Monkey (US), Clint Prints (US), Michael Michael Motorcycle (US)Guy Burwell (US), Casey Burns (US), Lil Tuffy (US), Shawn K. Knight (US), Boss Construction (US), Penhead (US) & Weathermaker Press (US)

After that I will return to the UK weary and sick of posters and will promptly go on holiday, which will actually just be me sitting in the studio in the dark in my pants. Dark, dark pants for dark, dark times…

Maybe see some of you at one of the shows. Come and say hello, I desperately crave company,

Bestest, Luke