Bopcats

The Bopcats (1995) in pen and ink

Inkbites T-shirts

A new venture has been launched. Due to popular demand and the modern miracle of cafepress.com, I am happy to announce that various semi-necessary products -- T-shirts, coffee mugs, postcards, etc. -- imprinted with images created by yours truly are going to be available at F.T. Rea’s Inkbites.

To get the venture underway, the 'toon above, which mocks George Allen's Macaca gaffe, is the first image that you can order from cafepress. As a T-shirt it is available on a variety of models. The whole transaction can be done online -- quick and easy.Here's the art for the first SLANT T-shirt to be available in over 15 years. The oil painting was done in the mid-'90s, it appeared on a SLANT calendar. My goal for that piece was to figure out how to paint eyes that would follow the viewer, no matter where he stood. We've all seen those paintings in galleries/ museums, where the eyes seem to do that. It was an interesting challenge.

Click here to go to F.T. Rea's Inkbites to learn more about that T-shir, or any of the designs below.
The painting was done in 1974 for a poster for a staff art show. The lettering "Biograph" is from a Biograph program, No. 59, in the spring of 1982.

Dr. StrangeRove, or how...

Dr. StrangeRove gasped, "It would not be difficult, Mein Führer! Nuclear reactors could easily provide, heh... I'm sorry, Mr. President."
Apologies to Stanley Kubrick, et al

'toons

In the summer of 1994 a four-way race political race developed in Virginia, as three candidates challenged the incumbent Chuck Robb for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Republican Ollie North was nominated by a convention at the Richmond Coliseum. Former governor Doug Wilder, a Democrat, threw his hat in as an independent. Marshall Coleman, a Republican former attorney general and failed gubernatorial candidate, ran as an independent, too.

Naturally, both Wilder and Coleman were seen as spoilers by many observers. The national press was all over the circus-like story of the four heavyweight candidates. In late August I issued what was then my fourth set of collectable cards -- “Campaign Inkbites: The ‘94 VA Senate Race.”

'Toons

Upon quitting my longtime job as manager of the Biograph Theatre, 23 years ago, my very first sitting at the totally independent cartoonist’s drawing board resulted in a rather dark vision of the West Grace Street neighborhood I knew so well and had just fled. Bad mood? What was up?

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Well, the street itself had recently been switched from one-way traffic to two-way. That was an extremely unusual thing to do -- city planning-wise and a big mistake, in my book, both then and now. Yes, I still think it was a goof and it's fun to have been right. Plus, it seemed to me then that local popular culture, in general, had hitched a ride in the absolute wrong direction, too. Disco, Heavy Metal or Hardcore? That was suddenly the choice, scene-wise.

Ah, times were changing and I had moved on, or so I thought. Perhaps, in truth, I was sitting still while all else moved on.

'toon:

This "zism" (my name for it) was done in 1987 for the first two-color tabloid edition cover of SLANT. I started drawing this image -- the twisty part in the middle -- in the early '80s, as a cartoon attempt to symbolize time passing. I had been looking at a lot of European early-1900s abstract art then, especially that of Russians and Germans. I've used this as SLANT's logo from its 1985 beginning.

political 'toon

This was the cover art for the Summer 2003 issue of SLANT

caricature

This portrait of Chuck Wrenn was done using mixed media for the invitation to his 40th birthday party (1985).

photo: Motordrive Kitty

In the spring of 1985 I visited New York City. While there I bought a 35 mm Nikon, to replace a camera that had been stolen, and something I'd wanted for a long time -- a motordrive. For the first month or so back in Richmond, I took the Nikon with me all the time, aiming my new lens at whatever I came across.

These two almost identical prints of a sleepy cat sunning itself in a storefront window on Main Street -- taken a fraction of a second apart -- probably made better use of the rapid fire capability of the motordrive than most of what I shot then.