The Diabolical Botanical Garden

If you're a fan of horror and/or horticulture, you can order an 11"x17" print of this drawing. Email me at gsnider11@gmail.com or visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/incidentalcomics for details.

Like most of my work, I can't quite pinpoint where the idea for this one came from. I remember taking a trip to Botanica, The Wichita Gardens as a kid, then drawing one of its fountains the moment I got home. But instead of sketching a regular fountain, I turned it into an fountain-shaped alien! Another possibility: my grandfather was a retired landscape architect for the National Park Service, and he had a backyard that was a forest of Ponderosa Pines. He told us that the piles of rocks scattered throughout the forest were old Indian graveyards. The idea fascinated and terrified me. I didn't quite believe him, but I was still afraid to peek out the window into the dark forest at night.

The New Building

The new building, for non-local readers, is the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. It's scheduled to open this September. If you're a fan of architect Moshe Safdie or the Kansas City skyline (or if you just like buildings with personality), you can order a print at http://www.flickr.com/photos/incidentalcomics.

Summer Vision

The Shakespearean Heckler

This week marks the beginning of Kansas City's Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, a free professional production held yearly at a park next to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. It's always spectacularly done, and you have to marvel at the actors for braving the Missouri heat and humidity in full costume. A couple years ago, my wife and I were kicked out of "Othello". Not for drunken heckling, but for smuggling in a small poodle. We were escorted out of the park during intermission, four-pound dog in hand.

Why I Draw

Special thanks to sculptor Tom Otterness (a fellow Wichita, KS native), Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and anyone who's managed to snap a photo of the elusive Bigfoot. 

Is this why you draw? You can pick up a print in my new and improved poster shop.

Literal Concert Flyers

Caution: do not try to attend any of these shows. The venues are real (some of the finest drinking establishments in Kansas City, MO and Lawrence, KS), but the dates are fictional. As for the bands, well... I think you may have seen many of them in concert yourself. 

Monsters!

This Friday, I'll be drawing ferociously (alongside a formidable group of local artists, architects, and designers) for a great cause: The 2nd Annual Monster Drawing Rally, sponsored by Women in Design-Kansas City. All proceeds from the sale of drawings will benefit Synergy Services, a non-profit violence-prevention program. Here are the details, straight from the Facebook event posting:

Location:

360 Architecture
300 West 22nd Street in the Crossroads
Kansas City, MO

Schedule:
6:30pm happy hour
7:00pm live drawing session begins
8:00pm drawing session ends; silent auction begins
9:00pm silent auction closes; winners are announced (bidders must be present to win!)

Productive Snow Day

Inspiration: The Great Midwestern Blizzard of 2011, Calvin & Hobbes, High School English, and The Mighty Quinn.

Details on ordering a print.

Calendar Illustration

This is my contribution to a 2011 calendar featuring the work of twelve Kansas City illustrators and cartoonists. For the month of April, I imagined some intrepid oral surgeons hunting the great white maxillary molar. For fellow dental nerds, they're wielding a Molt 9 periosteal elevator, 150 forceps, and 301 elevator. Anatomically correct teeth lurk just below the surface. Cartoonist Bryan Stalder was responsible for corralling and motivating the featured artists in the calendar, which is available for purchase here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/63426488/2011-calendar. 

Getting Older