Nathan Fox and Tristan Eaton showed at Comic Con, last week in San Diego, CA. The annual convention showcases comic books, science fiction/fantasy and film/television as well as horror, animation, toys, video games, and anime. It took place this past Thursday through Sunday at the San Diego Convention Center.

Nathan Fox attended the convention to support several projects. He sold original art, books, prints, sketches, and did commissions at the Artists Alley table. For two days, Wednesday and Friday, he signed copies of Stay Tuned!, a 30 postcard book, at the Chronicle Books table.  He spoke on the Creepy & Eerie: Comics That Still Scare You panel on Thursday. Additionally, Fox is part of a new creative team for the series Haunt. He joined the rest of the team: creator Todd McFarlane, and Joe Casey for a group signing on Thursday. A limited-edition litho, created by Fox, was also given away at the Haunt signing.  Fox says the signing created a lot of new fans for the series. Finally, Boom! displayed the cover art, logo, and poster print design that Fox created for the new series “Key of Z” with the Evil Ink Kids. T-shirts and prints were made from the poster design in addition to harmonicas engraved with the logo, modeled off the harmonica used by the lead character.

Eaton attended the convention to promote two recent ventures. On Thursday he signed copies of his book The 3D Art Book at the High Fructose booth. The first ten guests to purchase a book received a free 3D art print, “The Geisha and the Swan,” (below) by Eaton. Buff Monster and Travis Louis, who contributed to the book, were also on hand to sign copies. On Friday, Eaton joined Plastic City to release limited-edition prototypes of their collaboration, the B-Bot action figure. The action figure, which comes in two editions, Blank or Mascot, is based on Eaton and Peter Cortez’s hit iPhone app. It is scheduled for a wide release this December.

See more of Nathan Fox’s work here.

See more of Tristan Eaton’s work here.

Rolling Stone has updated their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in a special collector’s edition. The original list was published in 2004 as part of Rolling Stone’s yearlong celebration of the 50^th birthday of rock & roll. For the new 2011 edition, Olaf Hajek, Nathan Fox, and Chris Kasch contributed illustrations of 7 of the artists on the list.

Hajek’s colorful and vibrant illustrations depict funk, soul, and rock music collective Parliament and Funkadelic (#58), doo-wop group The Drifters (#81), rock band Talking Heads (#100), and rock and soul band Sly and the Family Stone (#43). Chris Kasch illustrated rock bands AC/DC and The Kinks (#65), while Nathan Fox drew heavy metal band Metallica (#61) in his signature graphic novel style.

The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time is on sale now.

Nathan Fox and Rod Hunt have created illustrations for AIDES’ latest campaign to promote safe sex. AIDES is the first French HIV/AIDS prevention non-profit organization. Their latest campaign aims to promote safe sex, awareness and behavioral changes through innovative and provocative imagery.

Fox created a comic strip inspired by the swamp thing Creature from golden age comics. Fox’s creature is shown demonstrating that wearing a condom makes one not a monster. Fox’s illustration appeared recently in the Bay Area Reporter, a San Francisco-based newspaper for the LBGT community. Hunt’s illustration is of a “World of Sex” theme park. The tagline reads “The safer you play, the longer you stay.”

See the full illustration by Nathan Fox here. See Rod Hunt’s illustration here.

Artist: Nathan Fox, Rod Hunt
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Client:  AIDES
Art Buyer: Britt Gardner

Last week Nike launched its Athletics West microsite to honor the original Athletics West Running Club. Founded in the 1970s, it comprised of a dozen runners that trained in Eugene, Oregon under the sponsorship of Blue Ribbon Sports, known simply today as Nike. With their unorthodox methods, the Athletics West would establish the groundwork for track and field performance in America.

Nathan Fox worked with agency Opolis, creating the illustrations for the Athletics West microsite. The illustrations were then animated for the website and the teaser trailer. Fox’s images capture the intensity and passion of the athletes. The full story of the Athletics West can be found here.

Client: Nike
Agency: Opolis
Producer Pam Siffert
Creative: Lael Tyler
Artwork: Nathan Fox

Nathan Fox designed a custom 10 x 40 foot installation for a vehicle display at the Horton Plaza Mall during Comic-Con in collaboration with WIRED and Subaru. Says Lindsay Speros, Senior Integrated Marketing Manager at WIRED and WIRED.COM, “The display at the Horton Plaza Mall was a HUGE success and attracted thousands of people.” WIRED also hosted the VIP WIRED Cafe in the Omni Palm Terrace that featured Nathan’s custom mural and a contest to win an original 16 x 20″ Nathan Fox work of art. Fox signed posters of his mural for guests and fans at the VIP WIRED cafe.

Fox also had a table in artist’s alley, debuting the new Fluorescent Black graphic novel through Heavy Metal magazine. He signed copies at his booth as well as Heavy Metal’s. An exclusive hardcover version was available through pre-order that sold out quickly. This is Fox’s 3rd year exhibiting at Comic Con. Says Fox, “It’s always a pleasure to meet fans and critics alike and this year there were more than ever so I am glad for the great turnout.”

Visitors check out what’s underneath the hood of the Subaru WRX STI

The special hardcover version of Fluorescent Black.

Comments Fox, “Fluorescent Black as a book has been growing legs in the Heavy Metal magazine for the past 3 years so we were really amazed that subscribers and first time readers were there waiting for it or stopping by to make sure they picked it up before they left the con. It was a blast to see how may people enjoyed it and how far reaching it got through the magazine and pre-sales.”

Fluorescent Black by Nathan Fox

Nathan Fox signing Fluorescent Black

Communication Arts juror and design director of ALM Media Joan Ferrell says, “Illustration still has the power to communicate, inspire and, yes, sell in a more innovative and effective way, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.” Bernstein & Andriulli artists Josh Cochran, Dan Craig, Nathan Fox, John Hendrix, Kristian Olson, and Yuko Shimizu continue to inspire and innovate. Their work appears in the 51st issue of the Communication Arts Illustration Annual.

Pictured above: Nathan Fox
Art Director: Brian Anstey
Designer: Jackie Blum
Client: Entertainment Weekly
“Heroes and Villains” debates whether the effect of pop icons are positive, negative, or somewhere in between.

Illustrator: Yuko Shimizu
Art Director: SooJin Buzelli
Client: Asset International

Shimizu created a series of illustrations for the covers and interiors of PlanSponsor and PlanAdviser investment magazines. Shimizu’s wrap-around cover illustration for Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s The Beautiful and the Grotesque is also honored in the “Unpublished” category. The novel will be published July 2010.

Illustrator: Kristian Olson
Art Director: Jay Dea
Design Director: Joan Ferrell
Client: The American Lawyer/ALM Media

Olson’s series looks at five emerging legal markets – Abu Dhabi, Brazil, India, Russia, and Singapore.

Illustrator: John Hendrix
Art Director: Matthew Lenning
Client: American Illustration

Hendrix’s drawing appears on the front and back cover of American Illustration 28, a publication containing winning works from a jury selection.

Illustrator: Dan Craig
Art Director: Colin Jones
Ad Agency: BBDO London
Client: Birdseye

Craig gave fish a posh life in an advertisement, poster, and bus stop image promoting a high-end line of frozen fish. The tagline reads “A Better Class of Fish.” His advertisement for the Grand Victoria Casino “You Rule” also appears.

Illustrator: Josh Cochran
Art Director: Sonia Chaghaztbanian, Lauren Rille
Client: Simon & Schuster

Cochran captures unicorns and zombies at war for the cover of a young adult book of short stories that will be released September 2010.

In the latest issue of New York Magazine, the cover story details the dissension that went on behind the scenes of John Edwards’ camp during the 2008 presidential election. Titled “Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster,” the story is an excerpt from the book Game Change by New York Magazine’s John Heilemann and Time magazine’s Mark Halperin.

New York Magazine called on Nathan Fox to tell the story in the style of a graphic novel. Fox’s images illustrate some of the most appalling moments in the book, revealing the tawdry side of the carefully crafted image of the presidential candidate and his retinue.

The graphic representations of John Edwards’ infidelity and his wife Elizabeth’s angry outbursts have raised impassioned responses. Political blog “The Bag” wrote that the illustrations are a “thoroughly soap opera-style demolition of (Ego Monster) John and (Saint) Elizabeth Edwards.”

Jezebel, a blog with a large female audience, commented, “The comic-book art is apt: these characters are drawn in broad strokes and primary colors. Heroes! And villains! And politicians who are – shocker! – not exactly what they seem! Whited sepulchres are always good on a Monday, but there’s a lot to be said for shades of gray.”

As soon as Fox read the excerpt, he knew he had a “terrifically inflammatory” piece on his hands. The story left him frustrated with politicians and constantly wondering how much of Game Change was based on fact. When it came to editorial pieces, he always tried to remain as objective as possible, but it would be difficult this time due to the very nature of the piece and his own mixed emotions regarding the content.

Says Fox, “The whole thing is a suspension of disbelief to begin with… it’s a very weird response when something that is simple in tone and strong in emotion gets put out there, and the debate is started. I wanted to simplify it so that anyone looking at the images could track who the characters were and where they’re going; and then once you read the piece you would understand where the characters were in context.”

Of the narrative pieces that Fox prepared for New York Magazine, careful editing was done to balance the attention between all of the characters. Specific frames of Elizabeth Edwards or Rielle Hunter were scaled back to prevent placing too much emphasis on one person instead of the whole scandal.

Furthers Fox, “I would’ve loved to elaborate the imagery – I took out a lot of lines in the faces that would’ve aged or emoted a stronger visual in terms of emotion.”

With a topic as controversial as the no-longer private lives of politicians, there were bound to be varied interpretations of Fox’s illustrations. What he saw as boiling down to simplicity, others saw as supercharged with vilification or executed with dramatic gusto. Either way, the illustrations do exactly with what they were meant to do – capture the audience’s attention, lure the reader into the story, and letting the words fill in the blanks.

-Helen Shih

The blog will resume January 4th, 2009. Cheers!

Animation and direction by:
12 foot 6

Art By:
Andrew Rae
Andrew Bannecker
Stan Chow
Am I Collective
Josh Cochran
Nishant Choksi
FriendsWithYou
Nathan Fox
Big Chief
Tatiana Arocha
Tristan Eaton
Sarah Coleman
Ben Wachenje
12foot6

Sound, Music, and Voice:
Expansion Team

One Show Entertainment is now accepting submissions until December 11th. A division of The One Club, One Show Entertainment “recognizes outstanding creative work in the realm of entertainment, including television programs, films, both documentaries and commercial releases, games and all other forms of electronic and online entertainment.” Agency 72andSunny approached Nathan Fox for creating the 2010 call for entries artwork. His narrative style brings an epic car crash to life as the worlds of Hollywood and advertising collide.

The theme of the poster is west coast meets east coast. Director Brett Ratner and advertising executive David Droga collide at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Madison Avenue. Peter Jackson faces off against the Burger King, and Jaws squares off against Scorsese riding an inflatable Alfred Hitchcock. Nathan Fox has assembled a mad mish-mash of industry titans in a frenetic array.

When it came to creating the poster, Fox explains “I draw a lot of inspiration from Hollywood and advertising so it was really fun to collide the two in one concept. Even as a kid growing up the commercials were my favorite part of television. So it was doubly pleasurable to work on this project and give a ‘tip-o-the-hat’ to all of these icons and characters.”

Nathan Fox’s illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, Interview, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Wired, ESPN Magazine, Mad Magazine, DC Comics and many other publications. He is currently wrapping up graphic novel Fluorescent Black, and starting a new one called Dogs of War for Scholastic. Look for more of his upcoming work in Business Week and Rolling Stone.