THE DAILY MONSTER

THE TAX MONSTER TRILOGY (a shameless rerun)

Good morning. On the occasion of Tax Day Eve, allow me to once again present the TAX MONSTER TRILOGY! Enjoy! As much as you can, please put the EZ into your 1040 day, and know that 344 LOVES YOU

 

 

 

VILLAGE SCHOOL MONSTER EXPLOSION

Good afternoon. Hey, remember when I told you about drawing Monsters at the Village School in Pacific Palisades a few weeks ago? Well, teacher Margot Mandel and her students took one of those Monsters, made it into a big honking banner -- which they're submitting to Katherine Josten's  "Global Art Project" at the Tucson Art Center where they know me -- and added Monsters of their own to it. How many Monsters? Conservative estimates put it in the bazillion range. 

And what an amazing job they did of it, too!
You can click on the image for a larger version:

Check out the great effect they got! I never would've thought of putting small Monsters on the big guy's face. It looks like a porcelain pattern! A Delft Monster! (Oooh, in fact... take a look!) And how about those great little details?

Incredible, right? I mean... just mind-blowing!

And speaking of porcelain -- oh, see, it's all coming together now -- when I visited the school, we were joined by Ms. Sidman's class from Palisades Elementary, where I had given a drawing demo a few years back. They made Monsters of their own, and friend of the Monsters Karen Linderman painted them onto a class platter! (You may remember Karen as the person who invited me to make the Topanga Film Festival Monster.)

That's a hell of a platter right there! I love the colors, too! Nice to see that not all Monsters are black and white purists.

Thank you to the whole Pacific Palisades Monster Enclave! You made my day! 344 LOVES YOU

 

THE LEASON ELLIS MONSTER

Good afternoon. How are you? Thank you to everybody who's joined the site over the last few weeks. I'm sorry the updates are so sporadic right now. New Monsters are very much in the works, along with a new book, and lots of new graphic design. But today I'd like to introduce you to a new Monster I made for my friends at Leason Ellis, a group of intellectual property lawyers in White Plains, New York, just down the road from a great friend of the Monsters, animation god J.J. Sedelmaier. 

About a year ago one of the partners, Peter Sloane, contacted me about helping the firm with a graphic design project, which has led to a lovely exchange of ideas and skills. For one thing, Peter has given me a great education in intellectual property law by helping me file trademarks on the Daily Monster™ and 344 LOVES YOU™. With a little luck, I'll soon be the proud owner of my very own ®.

It ain't as easy as it looks. I didn't realize, for example, how strictly trademark law binds you to protect your intellectual property. You're basically forced to send out onerous cease and desist letters to anybody who comes near your trademark --- not because you're a mean corporation bent on destruction, but because you risk losing the protection of the law if you don't. It's an odd setup, and I'll write about it in more detail down the road.

This post is about a new Monster that Leason Ellis commissioned for their conference room. Wrap your head around that: A law firm with a custom Daily Monster™ in their conference room! You don't see that every day. A Belgian ad agency, sure. But a law firm? Whoda thunk it? They're cool guys!

And it is a tie-wearing Monster, of course, but one of loosened knot. (The tree with fallen apple in the background is their Newtonian logo.) You can click on the image to see a larger version:

Once we had the art approved, my friends at Typecraft made a glorious 72" x 24" print, and the guys at Fine Art Solutions took a break from handling Jill Greenberg and John Baldessari pieces to mount our guy. Take a look:

They even made a custom crate for him:

And here he is, properly installed in New York,
in the company of his legal guardians:

(Yuval H. Marcus, Peter S. Sloane, David Leason, Edward J. Ellis)

Thank you to David Leason and Peter Sloane and everybody at Leason Ellis for letting me play, and for giving a great new home to this Monster.  It's a good day at work! And, I hope, a further reminder that 344 LOVES YOU