by Alex Deuben
“My ambition at the moment is to stay home and draw.”
– Dave McKean
Dave McKean’s first love was comics, but the artist, designer and writer has branched into other fields, creating book and album covers, publishing multiple books of his photographs and paintings, and has even drawn stamps for the Royal Mail. He’s the illustrator of Arkham Asylum, the landmark 1989 graphic novel written by Grant Morrison. He worked with John Cale on multiple books and collaborated with Heston Blumenthal on the memoir and cookbook, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.
McKean is probably best known for his many collaborations with writer Neil Gaiman. McKean was the cover artist on The Sandman, illustrated Coraline and The Graveyard Book and the pair have created a series of graphic novels and picture books including Violent Cases, Signal to Noise and Mr. Punch. One of their collaborations was the film Mirrormask, which McKean co-wrote, designed and directed. It’s led to another career as a filmmaker, with two films currently in progress.
Working on his own, McKean has crafted dozens of short comics, many of which were collected in the book Pictures That Tick. He also authored Cages which is widely considered one of the most acclaimed and ambitious graphic novels ever created. McKean’s new book is Celluloid which was published by Delcourt in France and was just released by Fantagraphics in the United States.
Read our exclusive interview with Dave McKean on SuicideGirls.com.
by Keith Daniels
“This is the power of my Twitter account, motherfuckers…”
– Wayne Coyne
After 30 years together the Flaming Lips are still among the best and most interesting bands in the world. Blessed with a rabidly loyal fanbase and the pockets of indulgent major label patrons, the Lips have been able to pursue just about every project that struck their interests: recently including covering Pink Floyd’s entire Dark Side of the Moon album, releasing an EP every month for a year in forms as diverse as Youtube videos and USB drives embedded in gummy fetuses. This summer their always unforgettable live shows will even mix Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of the Oz in a way that seems almost inevitable.
SuicideGirls recently spoke with frontman Wayne Coyne about his new art gallery, The Wizard of Oz, and the power of Twitter.
Read our exclusive interview with Wayne Coyne on SuicideGirls.com.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
“I was going through a transition in my life.”
– Money Mark
Money Mark was money before money was a popular expression. Money’s work as the keyboardist for the Beastie Boys has made him a highly regarded figure in the hip-hop world. Its always a shock when he puts out a solo album and it is so radically different from the live and album work he has done with the Beasties. That shock was even more apparent when his new album, Brand New By Tomorrow, was released through Jack Johnsons label Brushfire Records.
Read our exclusive interview with Money Mark on SuicideGirls.com.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
“I just rolled a joint”
– Zach Galifianakis
The landscape of standup comedy on television has taken a surprising turn in the past few years. People like Artie Lange, Patton Oswalt and Paul Mooney are doing these amazing standup shows and are videotaping them in a very cool verite way. In the wake of the success of The Comedians of Comedy, Zach Galifianakis and director/editor Michael Blieden have teamed up again to bring Zach Galifianakis – Live at the Purple Onion to DVD. Besides Galifianakis hysterical set at the world renowned venue, we also get to see his brother Seth get interviewed by NPRs Brian Unger and get some real personal moments with Zach.
Read our exclusive interview with Zach Galifianakis on SuicideGirls.com.
by Alex Deuben
“It’s probably slightly more meandering.”
– Neil Gaiman
When the novel American Gods was published ten years ago, Neil Gaiman went from being a writer primarily known for comics like The Sandman and Mr. Punch and novels like Neverwhere and Good Omens to one of the most successful and acclaimed writers of his generation. In addition to his novels, short stories, picture books, and movies, in the past decade Gaiman has also become one of the most beloved children’s writers of our time, his novels Coraline and The Graveyard Book having become modern classics.
He also penned an episode of Doctor Who, much to the delight of both Gaiman and the long running sci-fi show’s fans. More recently, it was announced that Gaiman will be working with HBO and the director and cinematographer Robert Richardson on a series based on American Gods. Now Harper Collins is releasing the tenth anniversary edition of of the book in a hardcover edition that contains what Gaiman referres to as “the preferred text.”
SG reached out to Gaiman by phone for a brief conversation at the beginning of his book tour.
Read our exclusive interview with Neil Gaiman on SuicideGirls.com.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
“[Spartans] throw their kids off cliffs”
– Zack Snyder
300 is such a blast. There will be no other movie ever that is able to combine killing children, stabbing half dead Persians and guys with swords for arms in such a cool way. Gerard Butler has teamed up with visionary director Zack Snyder to bring the ultimate historical graphic novel by Frank Miller to life.
Butler plays King Leonidas, who declares war on the invading Persians, after they insult his queen and his city. Without permission from Spartas high courts, Leonidas gathers 300 of his best soldiers to battle Xerxes army of 10,000 Persians. 300 takes what Robert Rodriguez did with Sin City to the nth degree creating a colorful and sometimes even horrifying story of courage.
I got a chance to talk with Snyder at the 300 press day in Los Angeles about what it takes to inspire an army, making fun movies for adults, and his upcoming film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Watchmen.
Read our exclusive interview with Zack Snyder on SuicideGirls.com.
by Erin Broadley
“We wanted to show that drummers could become front men.”
– Adam Alt, Street Drum Corps
There are drummers, and then there are street drummers, the guys who truly aren’t afraid to get down and dirty with their craft. The musicians in Street Drum Corps are both, having played traditional drums in rock bands for years before lending their sticks to something decidedly more free-form and experimental.
Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman once dubbed Street Drum Corps the punk-rock Stomp, and the name stuck. The band is an apocalyptic, voodoo-rock revolution born from smog stained, litter strewn Los Angeles sidewalks and has grown into a full-force, stage production that now brings its battery of sound to the masses.
Since SDCs start in 2004, drummers Bobby Alt, Adam Alt and Frank Zummo have used found objects to create their elaborate beats and have toured the worldleaving a trail of broken drumsticks, battered trash cans and busted tail pipes in their wake. They’ve gone from drumming in downtown junkyards (which they still do), to recording an album with DJ Lethal for Warcon Records, to performing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien to, last fall, having their gear inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of a Warped Tour display.
SuicideGirls met up with the guys before a recent gig at Hollywood’s famed Goth club, Bar Sinister.
Read our exclusive interview with Street Drum Corps on SuicideGirls.com.
