Michiel Walrave

An artist from Netherlands who has been doing really awesome stuff for years. He has a truly distinct style whether it's a T shirt, a poster or cover artwork.
He also sings in two great bands,  The Real Danger and Nothing Done.
Michiel Walrave's website
The Real Danger's myspace

Interview with almighty Brian Walsby

I think there's no need to introduce Brian Walsby and explain what he does. Anyway, the reason for doing this interview now (besides my personal respect for his work) is  his latest book of Manchild series which came out a couple of days ago.

Hi, Brian. What have you been up to lately? 

-I have a baby daughter. Willow was born December 14 and she is now over two months old. So that is taking up a good deal of time for me and especially my girlfriend. She does the loins share of the work being the mother. It has been really neat. I sort of wish I was a little bit younger for something like this but other than that, it is cool. I haven't been able to do a whole lot lately but the MANCHILD 5 book just came out and the band is slowly getting back into the swing of things.

 What's special about this part comparing to previous Manchild issues? 

-Well, there is less of me and more of a story that features other people that I have known and even admired for years and years. There is still assorted artwork but it weaves in and out of the overall story. I have been working on it off and on for years and I am really happy how it came out. It is my favorite book out of all of them right now. I would like to think that it would still be a good read even if you have no idea what I am talking about in the book.

What was your soundtrack while creating Manchild 5? 

-Mainly local music from that time period that could of or should have made up the cd that almost happened: Days Of.., Honor Role, No Labels and Stillborn Christians. All four of these bands were big favorites of mine. Honor Role made the best music of anyone from back then, the most timeless music. Days Of.were really good, a “revolution Summer” influenced band that was more brick heavy and punk rock sounding. Stillborn Chirstians were like this atonal quirky sort of Minutemen/Gang Of Four hc sounding band with Jello Biafra type singing..really good. No Labels were the first hc band from Raleigh, they were amazing and shared members with COC. If we had found some good COC live stuff we would have done it. I wish we did regardless of not finding that stuff, the other bands were all great.

Manchild series became very popular. What was your initial idea for it when you started doing the first one? 

-I had no master plan I was just happy that someone wanted to foot the bill for making a book of some of my stuff. I never thought I would be able to have a book out and now I have five. I am pretty happy of that fact.

 Your work has been always influenced by your personal life. The comic I Quit is about "people experiences with quitting shitty jobs", so is there any your story behind that? 

- I seem to always find a way to be unhappy about any job I have ever had no matter what it is. But I try and put these things into perspective. I have never worked in a coal mine for forty years so how tough have I had it? I think the main thing about my sometimes shitty attitude about work is that I have a lot of frustration behind it. I somehow have made myself think that I am “too good” for most of the work I have done. I would rather make a living doing my stuff. Sometimes I have made a bit of money, and I freelance when I can so money does trickle in. But it is not anything I can count on in terms of steady work.
For the “I Quit” segment, I just asked people on the internet that if they had any good stories about quitting thier jobs, to please write them out and send them to me. The best stuff is what i illustrated. I think it came out fine.

Being a drummer and an artist, is there something else you do? How do you keep up with everything? 

- Man, it is tough..especially now with a daughter. I have to fight to find the time and it can be a all consuming selfish sort of thing. I am one of those people that has to be creative and if I go longer then a couple days without doing something I start to get really batty. It has always been that way. Trying to juggle all of this stuff is a tough chore at times. With Double Negative, I am going to have less time to devote to the band. In fact, a good buddy of ours is going out with them in June while I stay home to attend to matters. I would have loved to go but it isn’t in the cards. Perhaps next time when things calm down.

What's going on with Double Negative? 

We recorded four new songs that will be coming out in some form soon. I think they might be our best material. We recorded a PIL cover too, from thier first record. That came out real good. We will play some shows around here and in July those guys are going on a week long tour, to Texas and some other places. Since I won’t be able to make it, our freind Ira is going to fill in.
I am trying to set up something where we go back to Canada at the end of the year, maybe we will play with Pulley. We shall see...

 What would you say to be your main influences in artwork? 

-These days, my main influence is to find the right brush at the right moment. Sometimes you have to wait for the right moment!

 Any project which are you the most proud of?

-It's impossible to narrow down. I am not very sentimental with what I do for whatever reason so I think that influences my feelings on that. When I am done with something, I am done with it and just want to move on to the next thing. I will let others decide what was good cause i don’t really know!

What's the story behind you doing your legendary 7 Seconds Walk Together, Rock Together cover. What was the conflict with them? 

-Oh, this is a ancient story. I was pen pals with them and gave them that artwork and was pretty amazed that it ended up being the cover but then later we had a falling out because of all that. I wanted to get some financial compensation for it even though I just gave them the artwork and made no arrangements or signed a contract, so it is my personal “punk rock artist rip off” story. My feeling about it now is “oh well” and that at the end of the day they know they should have done something for me. To this day i haven’t received one single cent for that. Life goes on.

Is it true that guys from Youth Of Today asked you to play drums for them when they were in North Carolina? 

-From what I remember, this really happened. Youth of Today were real nice guys..Ray and Porcell..I used to write to Porcell years before all of that. I have always talked badly about YOT, but mainly as a reference point to when I jumped off of the HC boat. I knew it was over when they were huge but at the same time I completely understood why that happened: a cartoon version of hardcore! However, they were cool people. Obviously I wasn’t into thier thing so it wasn’t like being asked to join Black Flag or something like that.

ORDER MANCHILD 5 AND MELVINS T SHIRT. LIMITED! 

BRIAN WALSBY BLOG

Mike Bukowski

Mike Bukowski has been doing design and drawing for records, posters, ads, logos, flyers etc. for many hardcore and punk bands and labels from all over the world. Most of his work is for DIY punk community but he also did stuff for Comeback Kid ( Turn It Around album cover) and Fat Wreck Chords ( Rock Against Bush compilation and Regaining Unconciousness EP for NOFX).

He's also a huge fan of horror movies and comics which you can see in his work.

For the start, here are some of his works I admire the most. Expect more from Mike soon along with some interview...

More info and contact:
lastchanceillustration

Artcore zine

Artcore is one of the longest running zines from UK which has been around since 1986. Besides band interviews, reviews and political commentaries, Artcore has a specific emphasis on the graphic art of hardcore  and punk movement.

 Welly, the man who is behind this great zine explains the best how and why he has started Artcore zine :
"I had no idea what I was doing. The premise was that I was into hardcore and art, and wanted to give it an art/design edge. I was big into art in school and all my work was basically hardcore stuff pretending to be projects. The first couple of issues were a real mess. I was finding my feet big-time. I borrowed my mother’s typewriter and undertook a steep learning curve at the local copy/xerox shop. Back then, I had no idea about design and print, and even photocopying was like some kind of alchemy. The buzz I got out of it made me realize that it was this is what I wanted to do. The school careers guy asked me what I wanted to do, when I said ‘something to do with art,' he said ‘don’t bother.' In retrospect, as a career choice, he was right, ha ha. But I ended up doing four years of graphic design at art college, and I still make the zine and do graphic design all the time all these years later." (whole interview on hcmorethanmusic)


Although it's not exactly sxe hardcore zine, I just love every issue's cover artwork and it's so great it's been coming out for 25 years. Check out the covers of the first 10 issues.

  You can order Artcore #27 here:
www.artcorefanzine.co.uk

Brotherhood - Words run... As thick as blood

As thick as blood was released in 1989 on German Crucial Response Records. This is one of the greatest hardcore records with legendary layout and strong attitude against racism, sexism and homophobia which was typical for Brotherhood. Legendary Seattle overview photo on the cover  has been imitated many times by bands, labels and people.

React! records photo taken on the same place as the Brotherhood one. Great.
I don't know who took it.

Can't just sit back, it's time to react!

A classic one.

Photo by: Dennis Boiling Point

Evan Wivell

Here are some posters done by Evan Wivell from Mindset.

Besides designing work for Mindset, he does stuff for React! records as well and some bands like Sacred Love, Police & Thieves, Give, Praise etc.


More to come.

XSLABAX

xslabax is well known artist in straight edge scene and he's definitely my favorite. He did logos, covers and T shirts design for Right Idea, Face Reality, True Colors, Clearsight, Envision, xbrightx etc.
Here are some of my favorite Slaba's works, but I'm not done with it, so expect a lot more.

You can see the rest of it on his myspace and check out his skateboard company too.

http://www.cycoskates.com/
http://www.myspace.com/xslabax