Month: March 2007

Yesterday’s interview on Inkstuds: host Robin McConnell and I talk about drugs, lust, and string art. Thank you, Robin, for laughing at all my jokes, and for saying “aboot” instead of “about” (charming!).

1.

See me: I’ll be at Emerald City ComiCon, Saturday, March 31, 3 – 5pm.

Seattle hosts this increasingly popular comics convention, and I have the honor of sitting next to Jim Woodring at the Fantagraphics booth, where we will sign books, shake hands, and drink from water bottles. There will also be a party that evening at the Fantagraphics store, and although I expect it will be a total fucking madhouse involving at least one Star Trek costume, I’ll be there, too.

2.

Hear me: I’ll be interviewed on “Inkstuds” radio program, Thurs. March 29, 2 – 3pm.
www.citr.ca
In Vancouver at 101.9 fm
Podcast will be posted at www.inkstuds.com

March 8 is International Women’s Day (and my birthday, thank you) so Robin McConnell, host of Inkstuds, is featuring women cartoonists for the month. This will be the second time I am publicly referred to as an “inkstud” (a thrill!).

In addition to being “obsessed” with Frida Kahlo, this woman mentioned an interest in Karada, a kind of Japanese bondage, so that’s what I used for the rope corset. (Step-by-step instructions on that link. It doesn’t look too hard, actually!)

“Lustlab Ad of the Week” is a comic adaptation of one of the week’s kinky personal ads in Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger, and I post them here every Wednesday. See it on their site here. The “Lustlab Ad of the Week” book collection is scheduled to be released with Fantagraphics in early 2008.

Et voila, my Fifth Annual Seattle Erotic Art Festival paintings (with many thanks to my fabulous intern, Morgan, for cleaning up my dimly- and unevenly-lit photos) – all 4′ x 4′, matte acrylic on Sintra. Sintra is a really thick, durable, rollable, plastic posterboard, with a nice sheen. It’s one of those wacky new plastics with a number of different properties (freeze it! heat it! shred it!) and apparently you can make a suit of armor out of it, too.

Big Fuckin’ Hands, No. 1

Big Fuckin’ Hands, No. 2

Big Fuckin’ Hands, No. 3

For a foot model, I used a photo from The Rotenberg Collection, Taschen’s awesome collection of 50’s amateur cheesecake photography.

“Lustlab Ad of the Week” is a comic adaptation of one of the week’s kinky personal ads in Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger, and I post them here every Wednesday. See it on their site here. The “Lustlab Ad of the Week” book collection is scheduled to be released with Fantagraphics in early 2008.

Another smashing weekend of sexy art and performances! SEAF‘s gala opening (pun) last night was a blast. I submitted three 4′ x 4’ paintings for the show, and two of them were hung (pun) flatteringly prominently at the end of the red carpet, in front of the stage:

Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s art critic Regina Hackett did a feature on SEAF, including this vote of confidence:

“The great Ellen Forney … was in the show with her powerful graphics: big hands in black outline on red ground. In an evening gown and spike heels, nothing she wouldn’t wear out on an ordinary day and with her smoking, green/yellow eyes, she stopped traffic, just being herself. ”

Gaw! Well. Dressing up is half the fun of the whole festival. I wore the little black dress Ariel bought for me on her last trip to New York, and Kelly O loaned me bling-y earrings then pushed me into her kitchen to take a few sexy-momma pre-party photos:

I’m going back tonight for the art auction and performances, and to actually check out the art (most of which I missed last night, it being a big party of shmoozing and costumes). Here’s my piece for the auction, “Licks”, a 16″ x 16″ Giclee print:

This past Saturday, the Fantagraphics store hosted Filthy Beasts, featuring artwork by close-personal-friend-of-mine Jim Blanchard and a h-h-hot set from hard-soul band the Dt’s (featuring close-personal-friend-of-mine lead singer Diana Young-Blanchard. Her name is Di Young. Is that a rock star name or what??). Everyone drank beer and marvelled to Jim’s new book Beasts and Priests and the Dt’s new CD Filthy Habits (song samples on that link). Stranger videographer Kelly O (close-personal-friend-of-mine) asked me to interview them for Slog, the Stranger’s blog. I managed to come up with some terribly witty questions (“How long have the two of you been married?”) and here are the results.

I interview Jim and Di:

Crotch-grabbing: sexy? or stupid?

“Lustlab Ad of the Week” is a comic adaptation of one of the week’s kinky personal ads in Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger, and I post them here every Wednesday. See it on their site here. The “Lustlab Ad of the Week” book collection is scheduled to be released with Fantagraphics in early 2008.

In 2001, I was flown over to Porto, Portugal, and put up in a hotel, and fed meals, to participate in the XI Salão Internacional de Banda Desenhada do Porto. In the exhibition hall, the rooms were kind of like a big honeycomb, and in “my” room they’d painted the walls with the flower motif and cover drawing from Monkey Food, and packed it with my original comic art. It was pretty overwhelming and lovely, the whole thing. The whole trip was a blast, actually.

Paulo Patricio, one of the organizers, just interviewed me for his online mag, Mundo Fantasma, and you can read the interview here. It includes such thought-provoking gems as this:

MF: What was the last place you went out for dinner? Did you followed the chef’s suggestions?

EF: Last night, sushi. The chef’s suggestions? I’m not sure what you mean. I didn’t ask for anything special or off the menu.

He’s going to ask all the same questions of a number of cartoonists, so we can find out in a few weeks if Gary Panter also followed the chef’s suggestions, and etc.

March 6 Radar Reading show at the SF Public Library was cool – doing my show with a bunch of writers and a literary audience made for a very different, thoughtful tone. March 7 show at Booksmith on Haight was spiritied and fun. I forgot to take photos! and will try to track some down. Hence, short post.