Garamania

2.04.2012

More GARAMANIACAL

Jim Groman:

Chauskoskis:

Greasebat/Jeff Lamm:

zapatoloco/Benoit Robitaille:

Bob Eggleton:

Koji Harmon:

1.31.2012

GARAMANIACAL Coloring Contest updates

A few updates on the Coloring Contest:

-Deadline has been extended to Wednesday, 2/08; entries must be received at FOE or mailed to reach me here in VT by that time.

-The random prize drawings will now take place on Friday, 2/10 at the opening night festivities!

-I still don't have a pic to share (hopefully soon), but I wanted to announce that the fourth item in the prize pool will be a one-off Garamon tribute Ojisan and Karakuri pair from Grody Shogun!

Click here to check out some of the amazing entries that have already rolled into FOE directly! Remember, all entries will be for sale during the run of GARAMANIACAL, with 100% of the proceeds going to benefit the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children!

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your entries, Gara-fiends!!!

1.30.2012

It's getting more & more GARAMANIACAL

PLASEEBO/Bob Conge:

hellopike/Phil Staszkiw:

Robert Decastro:

Prometheum5/Ben Mininberg:

Michael Skattum:

Leecifer/Lee Gajda:

Mutant Vinyl Hardcore/Rich Montanari Jr.:

Ralph Cosentino:

MUCH more to come....

1.26.2012

GARAMANIACAL previews & teasers

Matt Sesow:

Gorilla Mouth/Troy Stith (work in progress):

Toybot Studios/Kirkland Jue:

GUUMON/Brian Mahony:

Munktiki/Miles Nielsen:

PaulKaiju:

Much, MUCH more to come... stay tuned!

1.24.2012

Garamania & GARAMANIACAL stickers are here!

These fantabulous 11” vinyl stickers (made by the good people of Sticky Brand) of Walter Parenton’s two terrific Gara-logos are now available for $4.00 each, mailed anywhere in the world. Paypal can go to manordstrom@gmail.com; be sure to specify in the body of your Paypal message which of the three styles (Garamania, Garamania Diecut, or the amazing two-for-one goodness of GARAMANIACAL) you are ordering, and quantity of each. Due to the insane level of busy-ness in prepping for all things GARAMANIACAL, I ask that online buyers allow 2 to 4 weeks for shipping. These stickers will also be available at GARAMANIACAL!

1.23.2012

Mr. Atom Gray enters the GARAMANIACAL coloring contest

Two beauteous hand-colored GARAMANIACAL coloring contest entries received from Atom today (you gotta embiggen):

YEAH!

1.22.2012

omg. omg. OMG.

Standing on the verge...

See more on The Becoming update page... and please help me rally to the goal!
Just four days to go!
We can do it!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, GARA-SUPPORTERS!!!

1.20.2012

Thanks, Gara-backers!

We are up and over the halfway mark with The Becoming, with six rally-days to go!

THANK YOU, Gara-backers far and wide!
I will not let thee down!

The Garamike face sculpt is still in its earliest stages, only roughed-in; Mike Ridge and I are keeping in very close communication on it, discussing and refining, but he’s doing a terrific job, and I can’t resist sharing a progress shot here:

More to come soon!

1.19.2012

Douglas Adams told us…

… that the ultimate answer is 42; Garamon famously did a version of one of his favorite 80s pop hits, Level 42’s “Something About You” on his (sadly out-of-print) 1995 covers collection, Just Smashing; and we currently have 42 artists on board for GARAMANIACAL*.
Prefect.

*Yeah, I know, the show poster's not up to date w/ the full list of names... working on it!

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled GARAMANIACAL programming...

... to let you know that Miyazaki-san at Atragon G-K has pretty much finished his Garamon kit and it is, unsurprisingly, wonderful. He really dialed in on some true-to-the-suit details, and also made some very unique interpretive decisions. Check out the shape of the nose overall, and the nostrils in particular- real grotesque elegance going on. The strange vertical seam-like impression running down the torso is something I have never picked up on before, and it makes me want to rewatch the Ultra Q Gara-eps again soon, to see if I can discern it. As ever, he's included the heavy-duty zipper up the back, and the placement of the spikes to the left and right of it is exceptionally well-done, obscuring this great detail just enough to make your eyes want to dig in and find it. Can't wait to see his paint-up of this beast!

Check out these pics from his recent posts, then head on over to his site to check out the rest.

1.17.2012

New GARAMANIACAL coloring contest entries & new prize pics!

New shots of the prizes (all but one that is... the fourth prize I haven't received pics of yet... but I can tell you it's very Grody):

Download your images to Gara-color here!
Rules and details here!
Thanks in advance for your entry!

1.16.2012

The Becoming of Garamike: Rally Time!

I want to make a special offer to anyone who donates $10 or more to the project over the next 10 days: in addition to items from the first two Backer Rewards packages (shout-out on Garamania and stickers), you will receive the following from the $200 level: have Garamike speak, sing or chant any message of 222 words or less in a video to be broadcast via Garamania and YouTube, or sent privately.

Don’t miss this opportunity to severely delight and/or vex your family, friends and enemies! Years of singing and doing voiceover work have left me with an incurable case of golden throat! Even the barracuda-like sawtooth dental veneers in the mouth of Garamike won’t stop my sonorous tones from coming through (well, if sonorous is what you want… we could go with guttural or grating, too)!

What could induce a “WTF!!” fugue-state more efficaciously than a close-up vid of a grotesque meteorite monster croaking out the Bee-Gees’ “More Than a Woman”, reciting a passage from Ulysses, or giving Gara-voice to your own original song or word-creation!

Operators are (not) standing by… act now!

THANK YOU!!!

1.15.2012

The Becoming... 11 days left...

3 of about 222...

Getting down to the wire with the Kickstarter fundraising... huge thanks to those who have backed the project so far! I greatly appreciate it! Progress is being made, and Garamike is going to be nothing short of *AMAZING* in looks and performance (ultra-expressive and very durable)... but costs (latex, foam, epoxy resin, alginate, platinum silicone, special paints and thinners, Ultracal, labor costs for the mask-sculpting and painting) are mounting! Please have a look at the Kickstarter page; there are some great Backer Reward packages. I hope to have mock-ups of the two different t-shirts backers will be able to choose between very soon. Any bit of help in bringing this thing to life would be greatly appreciated; thank you very much in advance for your support!

1.12.2012

Two new prizes added to GARAMANIACAL coloring contest!

Pics coming soon, but two great new prizes have been added to the coloring contest:

M1-GO Semi-Ningen (dapper green-suited version, brand new (from 1991) in unopened bag!
One-of-a-kind GARAMANIACAL exclusive Grody Shogun Ojisan and Karakuri pair!

Get crackin', Gara-fiends!

1.11.2012

Edmiston does Garamon

Jason's painting for GARAMANIACAL...

I have... no words...

1.10.2012

Four more great additions to the GARAMANIACAL roster!

Amazingly, the show roster has grown a bit more!
We're now up to 40 contributing artists!
Toybot Studios/Kirkland Jue and Michael Skattum both got on board almost a month ago now; I added their names to the original GARAMANIACAL announcement, but just wanted to bring it up here, too.

Last week, we added Northampton's own Rob Kimmel (have a look at his great father-son daily comics blog, Wander Monster, too) and rising street art phenom Street Grapes (maybe you've seen his stickers in any given East Coast city... or in Sao Paulo...).

Stay tuned, Gara-fans!

1.04.2012

Oh... have I mentioned...

...that there's a GARAMANIACAL COLORING CONTEST?

There's a GARAMANIACAL COLORING CONTEST!!!

WIN AMAZING GARAMON TOYS!!!

HAVE YOUR GARA-ARTWORK ENTRIES SOLD AT FOE DURING THE RUN OF GARAMANIACAL, WITH ALL PROCEEDS SUPPORTING THE GREAT AND CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT WORK OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN!!!

GO!!!

Sorry for yelling, dudes.
I'm just excited...

1.03.2012

Double Walters On The Dime

I have to take a minute to mention that there are two great Walters participating in GARAMANIACAL: header card/video art master Walter Parenton, and someone who just got on board in the last few days, the esteemed sculptor Walter Chauskoskis.

The severely kickass new Garamania header logo above? Walter Parenton delivered that magic, as well as a GARAMANIACAL version that you’ll see here and @ FOE, as we get closer to the show. Full Garamonic salute to Mr. Parenton; awesome work, man.

Chauskoskis has been on fire for a while now; he is perhaps best known for being the clay-pusher being the figural realization of Jeff Lamm’s Greasebat. (Have you seen his recent Kung Fu-stance, betailed Greasebat custom? WOW…) Walter C. is a major fan of Garamon, I’m delighted to have him on the roster, and I can’t wait to see what he does!

GARAMANIACAL opens Friday, February 10th at FOE Shop & Gallery in Northampton, MA.
Be there as this cozy little corner of the Northeastern US becomes the center of the Garaverse!

1.02.2012

The Becoming of Garamike: Lifecasting Session

rrrrmmmmmfffff...

More pics and info on the Kickstarter page!

I'll be adding an update later this week which will preview some of the Backer Reward merch, including the t-shirt image and some ephemera... stay tuned!

Also... now that the presents are all unwrapped... all turkey and ham and champagne and chocolates and ham-flavored champagne chocolates have been consumed... laffs have been had... don't slip into a downcast post-holidaze slump... let the fun continue with the GARAMANIACAL COLORING CONTEST!!!
WIN GARAMON TOYS!!!
SUPPORT THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN!!!
GO!!!

12.27.2011

Coloring contest entry

Here's one your ol' pal The Proprietor did; of course, I can't win my own prizes, but this one (and any more I can squeak out before opening night, as time allows) will be going in the show to benefit the MSPCC.

This one's all paint markers and spray cans and wrapping paper, for fong's sake! As I said, ANYTHING GOES!!! And you could win AWESOME GARAMON TOYS for your submission!

Work it any way you wanna... keeping your finished piece half a standard page in size is the only rule!

12.25.2011

ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Noel.

12.21.2011

GARAMANIACAL coloring contest!

WIN TOYS!
SUPPORT THE MSPCC!

Want a chance to win some amazing Garamon toys? Want to have a piece of your own art in the GARAMANIACAL show at FOE? Want to help the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children continue to do great work?

DER ROOLZ
please read carefully

Download the entry form here, featuring two images of Garamon stomping through Tokyo. Contestants will print hard copies of the image(s); printing may be done on paper, cardstock, acetate, cloth… whatever you wish. Each image will count as one entry; in other words, the file linked above has two entries, one with Garamon facing left, the other facing right. You may submit as many entries as you wish.

Contestants will artistically enhance the image in whatever way they wish. It may be simply colored in by hand, with paint, markers, crayon, etc; it may be electronically altered, and then printed; it may be cut up and rearranged/collaged… the ONLY requirement is that the total area of each entry be no bigger than ½ standard page size, or 8.5” x 5.5”. Check out FOE's Facebook gallery of entries they've received so far!

Contestants will mail their entries, with an enclosed entry fee of $2.00 USD per entry*, to:

FOE Shop & Gallery
28 Pleasant Street
Northampton, MA 01060

*Please no personal checks; cash or postal money orders are fine.
Entries may also be dropped off at FOE (28 Pleasant St, Northampton MA) in person!

Contestants may enter as many times as they wish during the contest period, from Monday, 12/19/2011 through Thursday, 2/08/2012, and may include multiple entries/entry fees in one mailing. PLEASE NOTE: You can also send in entries any time you wish during the duration of the show (through 3/04); though you would not be entered in the contest, your piece would still be offered for sale, and all funds would still go to the MSPCC.

TWO WAYS TO WIN!

1. On Friday evening, 2/10/2012, the names of four entrants will be drawn at random at the opening night of GARAMANIACAL! These lucky weirdos will each receive an awesome Garamon toy: Yamanaya’s 2002 Event Exclusive pearlescent red Garamon and blue Semi-Ningen set; the new Garamon figure from Buta No Hana (regular version); a green-suited M1-GO Semi-Ningen; and a one-off Garamon tribute Ojisan and Karakuri pair by Grody Shogun! All prizes are new, in mint condition! Each entry will generate one instance of the contestant’s name being entered in the random drawing pool; more entries = more chances to win!
All prizes will be mailed to winners during the week of 2/13/12.

PRIZE PICS!!!

(pic of Grody pair coming soooooon!)

BUTA NO HANA GARAMON!
Chunky!

M1-GO SEMI-NINGEN!

Dapper!

LTD EDITION YAMANAYA GARAMON & SEMI-NINGEN SET!

Feel the Pearlescence!

GARA-CHARITABLE GIVING!

100% of each $2.00 entry fee will go to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In addition, for the duration of the show (Friday, 02/10/2012 through Sunday, 3/04/2012), the entries will be on sale in the gallery for $2.00 each. This is your incentive to do your artistic best: 100% of the proceeds from sales will go to MSPCC. Make a little piece of Gara-art that will move someone to buy, and you will have helped MSPCC to do their incredibly valuable work!

Garamania readers who would like to support the organization but do not wish to enter the contest may visit this page for information on how to give.

Questions?

Email garamaniac@gmail.com.