Steve Lafler Catalog Update: New Series, Old Faves, and Cool T-Shirts

First and foremost, I'm delighted to offer my brand new comic book set in my adopted home town of Oaxaca, Mexico. But there's more, I've peppered this post with links to the major works from my entire comics career. Thanks for visiting! I can honestly guarantee a fun, weird and unusual ride from all of these here comic books and graphic novels.

Steve Lafler 

My new comic book Death in Oaxaca is here! You can get it from the publisher Alternative Comics or from Amazon at this link for $4.99.

The mundane, the sublime and the bizarre show up in their best party attire in the new comic book series from the creator of Dog Boy and Bughouse. Two expats move to remote Oaxaca, the fabled highland city in southern Mexico. Rex, earnest yet duplicitous, flees from mid-life crisis and fear of death. Beautiful Gertie, cynical but honest, is just plain bored and craves adventure. They contend with Lucha Libre wrestlers and an ancient vampire who prefers chicken, and enjoy the best fresh corn tortillas on the planet.

And of course you need the Death in Oaxaca T-Shirt to complete the experience! OK, so it's in Spanish, so it's really a "Los Muertos de Oaxaca" T Shirt. Here is the Design:

 Available at this link from my Redbubble shop for $26.97. Visit my entire line of shirts at Redbubble here.

My back catalog books El Vocho and 40 Hour Man are available from Wow Cool, the mail order arm of my new publisher. You can also order these titles from my Lulu shop. Here's the books:

 El Vocho. Love at the twilight of oil. Rosa the Latina hottie inventor and Eddie the geek artist meet in a fender bender. Tempers flare but sparks fly and they fall in love. Working together, they create the perfect clean energy motor while being tracked by goons working for big oil.

40 Hour Man. Is it a career, or a series of really lame jobs? Stephen Beaupre (author) and Steve Lafler (cartoonist) pose this timeless question in Forty Hour Man, a hilarious saga of one working stiff's three-decade journey into the minimum wage heart of the American Dream. It's all here - from scrubbing a steakhouse floor with a toothbrush to going bust in the Internet boom. Every bad boss. Every crazy co-worker. All the more shocking because it's true!

 Wait a Minute! What about Bughouse and Dog Boy?

Don't worry, I did not forget about the work I am best known for! I've published two huge legacy volumes with CO2, collecting every page of both series!

Ménage à BUGHOUSE collects the funky jazz noir BUGHOUSE trilogy by Steve Lafler in one volume. Tenor saxophone maestro, Jimmy Watts, leads his talented band of bugs from the swing era into the uncharted maelstrom of Bop. And as he and his band mates claw their way to the top of the jazz world, they must fight the temptation to be consumed by addiction to a substance known as "Bug Juice".

Read Bughouse online at CO2

Doggie Style: The Complete Dog Boy. Imagine an enthusiastic, ambitious young artist of the 1980s who happens to have an enormous golden retriever head on a human body. Given to flights of fancy and the odd meditation on the truly mundane, this Dog Boy searches for meaning, all too often via a six pack of Rainer Ale pounders! 

Steve Lafler sat down from 1882 to 1988 and drew nearly 500 pages of Dog Boy. Most of the time, he drew with no script, and in fact looked to emptying his mind before putting pencil to bristol board. 

The entire results are collected here in in the 488 page omnibus, DOGGIE STYLE The Complete DOG BOY! Now you can pay witness to the genius that flowed from Steve's streaming consciousness as he created one of the most truly independent comic works of all time!

Read Dog Boy online at CO2

AND, one more thing! We've looked at my print books and T-Shirts, lets go ahead and buy a copy of my Ebook, Cat Suit!

CAT SUIT. What kind of whack job would put on a mask and a skin-tight suit and head out into the city after midnight? I mean, what is this guy really up to? What pathology, what perverse proclivity are we dealing with here? Is he fighting crime? Of course not, he’s just going clubbing—and he’s frankly perplexed when the aggressive bar flies & drunks single him out. The guy in question is Manx, a costumed cat man. Available digitally!

Steve Lafler's 2014 Comic Art Sale

I'm offering these select pages of original comic art from my new title Death in Oaxaca for $200 each. 

These gorgeous works are 11" x 16.5", executed in brush & india ink on bristol board.  I picked my favorite ten pages to feature in this offer.

Here is a historic chance to get some early art from my next major work, indeed each purchase is an investment in the ongoing production of the eventual publication of the Death in Oaxaca graphic novel.

I'm in the states through August 4th, and on August 5th I'm returning to my home in Oaxaca. So I can process any order that comics in up to the morning of August 5. Payment via paypal preferred, but checks and cards are a possibility. 

Interested parties can email me here, or call 503-213-3671.

Pages are shipped insured.

Steve

The serious collector (or institutional collector) may want to consider purchasing the original art for the entire 34 page story for $5500.00

Copyright 2014 Steve Lafler

New T-Shirts Designs from Steve

 Here's a couple new T-Shirt designs I just put in my Redbubble Store (here). If you order them, I can eat!

Rots of Rove, Steve

Steve Lafler Bay Area Appearances July 2014

Dog Boy & Keith on Ebay

 

My wacky Dog Boy & Keith Painting is up on Ebay at this link...

It's a 9" x 12" acrylic. 

Guitars and Rock Stars are fun to paint. Actually, so are cars and monsters. All these images stuck in my head, pop culture from 1963 and on. It's not profound but it looks cool!

Steve Lafler

New Music: The Skinny

Andy Keith and Steve Lafler comprise The Skinny (so far.)

We are a couple of guitar slinging guys with a fresh batch of our own tunes, working up our sound in the city of Oaxaca de Juarez in southern Mexico.

Andy is a midwestern son of Minneapolis, bringing his cracker-barrel Buddha, country infused songs to life with a warm, familiar voice and an ingenious signature rhythm all his own.

Steve is a longtime Californian by way of Western Massachusetts with a penchant for short bursts of surreal country punk narrative.

We went into the studio in Oaxaca in April, 2014 and laid down basic tracks for a bunch of our original tunes. Our ten song initial release is available from Amazon at this link for $7.99

Death in Oaxaca: The New Comic Book From Steve Lafler

Cartoonist Steve Lafler (Bughouse, Dog Boy) is back with a new comic book series set in Oaxaca, the magical city in the remote highlands of southern Mexico.

Death in Oaxaca will be a six issue miniseries and subsequent graphic novel published on the Alternative Comics imprint. 

The surreal adventure serves up Lucha Libre wrestlers and an ancient vampire who prefers chicken to human blood. Rex and Gertie are expats, moving to remote Oaxaca. Rex, earnest yet duplicitous, flees from mid-life crisis and fear of death. Beautiful Gertie, cynical but honest, is just plain bored and craves adventure. Their son Myles is simply in love with Oaxacan food.

Comics Retailers can order Death in Oaxaca from the June 2014 Diamond Previews comics distribution catalog. The book ships in August. Here is a copy of the catalog listing: 

 Death in Oaxaca is a 36 page comic book (plus covers) retailing at $4.99. There will also be ebook versions available in English and Spanish.

Weekly Bughouse Page

Here is the Thursday Weekly update of Bughouse at this link.

Bughouse is my graphic novel about the birth of Be-Bop jazz set in an insect-noir, indigo toned Manhattan of the early 1950s. CO2 comics is posted a page per week on their great webcomix site. They also have published a handsome book of the entire 400 page Bughouse saga.

This week's page focuses on the rationalization of the addict, "just one little taste surely is OK!"

Steve Lafler

Manx Media Offers Great Pricing on 100 Tshirts

Manx Media is offering great pricing on orders of 100 custom printed Tshirts through June 6. Details here.

Spring 2014 Custom T-Shirt Printing Price list.

Manx Media of Portland, OR Custom Screen printing prices this season. Email Steve Lafler for more info. Visit the Manx Media Custom Screen Printing blog.

Minimum 50 shirts.

Includes 1/c print, add .40 2/C, .65 3/C, .90 4/C, 1.10 5/C,

2/C .40

3/C .65

4/C .90

5/C 1.10

6/C 1.35

PRICES INCLUDE PRINTING in one color ink.

Add amount indicated above for multi-color printing.

Gildan 5000

$4.95

cotton T

Quantity Discounts:

Gildan 2000

$5.50

100 shirts, less .35 per shirt. 200 shirts, less.55 per shirt. 300 shirts, less .65

Hwt cotton T

2X, 3X, 4X shirts slightly more expensive.

Gildan 5000B

$4.75

child cotton T

Gildan 2000B

$5.20

WHITE TSHIRT slightly less – prices indicated are for color shirts.

Child T Hwt

Gildan 2400

$8.75

LongsleeveT

SALE ITEMS: When our supplier offers us special pricing, we pass it on to you.

Gildan 5400

$7.75

Check at time of quote for special offers.

LonsleeMdWt

Gildan Hoodie

$17.95

Prices based on print-ready jpeg, Photoshop or Illustrator files.

Adult 185

Gildan Hoodie

$16.95

Art & design services available

Child 185B

Am Ap 2001

$6.90

cotton T

AmAp BB301

$7.30

50/50women

AmApBB401

$7.50

50/50 Men

Am Ap 4400

$8.20

cotton rib T

AmAm 4305

$6.75

ScoopNeckT

AmAp 4321

$6.75

CapSleeveT

AmAp 4311

$6.50

Spagetti T

Portland Oregon T-Shirt Printing

David Perkin and I are still handling custom screen printed T-Shirt jobs in Portland, Oregon. Get the full scoop at this link.

Call me at 503-213-3671 or email me for a quote.

Steve Lafler

CAT SUIT new Steve Lafler Ebook

My New comic Ebook Cat Suit is out today! It's a hilarious 50 page super hero parody.

You can buy it at this link.

This is my first project with my new publisher, Alternative Comics.

Steve Lafler Paintings on EBay

I've put a bunch of my acrylic paintings up on EBay at great prices. Here's an opportunity to get a sweet piece of art that won't break the bank.

Here they are--each image is followed by a link to it's EBay auction page for the piece. The starting prices for each auction are listed.

 Cave Vocho Mandala, 9"x12", $89.00

 

Drinking Dennnis, 8" x 10", $115.00 

Yes, when Dennis is bombed, there are three letter "n" in his name...

 Rockabilly Werewolf, 10" x 12", $125.00

 

Wild Little Pig, 8" x 10",  $115.00

Mr. Fantastic in Drag, 11" x 14", $195.00

Cat Suit, 11" x 14", $195.00

Steve Lafler

Caveat emptor: My scanner is not the best, the colors are more vibrant that depicted here.

Lafler Art on Ebay: Bughouse and More

I've just put four separate art auction pages up on EBay. I'm reproducing the all the art here, with a link to each auction. 

Whew, you can buy the original cartoon art of my Oaxaca Running Skeleton at an incredible price! Have I lost my mind? (Maybe a bit, but in truth I'm bent on financing some dental work.)

Or, you may want to proceed directly to an art auction featuring a set of three animal drawings, as follows:

The next item is a color collage/acrylic painting with a Bughouse theme executed on canvas (not on stretcher bars.) It's a unique item and a real deal.

Now we get to the top flight item on offer today -- the inside front cover art from Bughouse #3, published in the summer of 1995. This is a really fine example of brush and ink classic comic art from my Bughouse series.

Go ahead and treat yourself to some great original art at a fantastic price. You just can't get high-falutin' culture like this at these rates!

Steve Lafler

Bughouse and Dog Boy: Steve Lafler's Legacy Collections from CO2

With the help of publisher CO2 Comics, I've realized a long held dream over the past two years with the publication of two legacy volumes collecting my two long running comic book series, Dog Boy and Bughouse. I've spent three decades pushing at the limits of the comics medium, challenging myself to create works that expand the range and possibilities of narrative art. I'm delighted that Gerry Giovinco and Bill Cucinotta of CO2 have collaborated with me to produce two spectacular volumes celebrating my contributions to the comics form thus far.

Back in 1981, I published my first comic magazine Mean Cat at the dawn of alternative comics. I thought myself happy to push this one comic book into the world, claiming my own small corner of comics immortality. Really, I knew better. I'm just as gung-ho now, some 32 years later, to produce outrageously great comics work and proselytize until I've won over the entire universe!

I worked furiously throughout the '80s on my Dog Boy series, ultimately producing a good 500 pages of comics. Along the way, Dog Boy #1 from Fantagraphics in December 1986 garnered orders of more than 10,000 copies, signaling the arrival of Dog Boy as a force to be reckoned with.

This past summer, CO2 put it all together in Doggie Style: The Complete Dog Boy, a 488 page collection. It's a walk through some of the best alternative comics of the day, delivered in a classic brush style with my singular improvisational narratives, sometimes psychedelic, at turns overtly political.

In the summer of 2012, CO2 published Menage a Bughouse, the 400 page collection of my Bughouse comics. Bughouse covers the career of the all insect band of the same name as they rise through the ranks, bringing Be-Bop jazz to life at the end of the swing era. The lead character Jimmy Watts is the avatar of the new style with his sublime tenor saxophone work, but struggles for survival as he battles addiction to "bug juice."
Bughouse began as a series on my own Cat-Head Comics imprint before moving to Top Shelf for a trilogy of graphic novels.

These two books promise an entertaining and unusual journey, delivering highlights from the fringe of three decades of alternative comics. No devotee of alternative and independent comics should miss these!

Ordering Links:

Menage a Bughouse

Doggie Style: The Complete Dog Boy

copyright 2013 Steve Lafler

Steve Lafler Catalog: Comics and T-Shirts

I've just updated my comics and T-Shirt catalog at his link.

I have a whole new line of really great shirts, including this:

Drop on by and do some Holiday shopping, why don'tcha?

Cheers
Steve

A Night on the El Conjuro Terrace

By design, I'm a casual enthusiast of Mezcal, the distilled agave spirit at the center of Oaxacan culture. See, if I was a true devotee, I'd be in trouble. The best mezcal goes down too darn easy, smooth as silk with a bouquet of subtle flavors blossoming on the pallet. It's distilled in small batches in hundreds of country palenques (alembics?) by true artisans, each with their own ideas about how to pit-roast their agave and more. It's incredibly seductive stuff, created in an array of styles each with it's own signature taste, such as anejo, joven and tobalá.

.

The complete mezcal experience involves visits to country stills with knowledgeable guides such as Oaxaca resident Alvin Starkman. You can chat with the mezcalero as you sample their wares, and pick up a few bottles of delicious, top grade stuff for a low price.

Recent years have seen an alternative tasting experience cropping up--the Oaxaca centro (city center) has seen a spate of cozy mezcal tasting rooms and bars opening up, serving top quality mezcals. I recently attended a Dia De Muertos craft fare and chatted with the guy at the El Conjuro mezcal booth. He gave me a taste of a smooth, potent "Joven" style mezcal, along with a flyer for the El Conjuro mezcaleria on the terrace of Lokal, a new bar at Constitucion 207 in Oaxaca Centro.

My friend Carrie was visiting for Dia De Muertos, a fellow cartoonist who enjoys a tasty mezcal. Last friday evening, we headed to Lokal for a taste before checking out the Muertos holiday Comparsa in the Jalatlaco neighborhood (a sort of roving costume performance/parade/party with a Muertos theme.)

The entrance to Lokal is dramatically marked by a sculpture carved from a big dead tree stump on the sidewalk, executed in a cross between Oaxaca and Tiki style. You can't miss it! We tumble into the cozy interior and make our way up a steep stairway to the El Conjuro terrace. There is a little stage and seating on one side and a bar on the other. A great spot! Immediately I think, "My band should play here!"

El Conjuro Mezcaleria, Photo: Carrie McNinch

The barkeep Antonio greets us and he's the man, the El Conjuro expert. He explains the offerings to us, certainly too many artisan mezcals to sample in one visit! We taste a tobalá, a variety of mezcal made from wild agave. It's a generous pour for 35 pesos, not too shabby for something very unique and flavorful.

A trio of virtuoso musicians strike up a funky mix of Latin flavored R and B while we taste a couple more varieties, and they are even more delicious than the tobalá. Here is where I admit to being an amateur reporter, I did not write down the names of the other varieties. They were new to me; I'm not sure if they were obscure types of mezcal, or proprietary brand names created by the crafty El Conjuro marketing staff.

Carrie and Steve sample the El Conjuro

It's hard to describe their tastes. Carrie said it's like flowers. It is not perfumey however, it was more earthy than that. Suffice it to say, the art of the mezcalero was all there; the decisions in selecting and roasting the agave, the set up of the palenque (still) be it copper, clay or what-have-you, and the dozens of steps in their distilling process. It all adds up to a complicated, subtle mix of flavor and potent distilled spirits experience.

Reluctantly, we depart the El Conjuro terrace--after all, we don't want to miss the Jalatlaco Comparsa! And it's just as well, mezcal is delicious indeed, but it's a tricky buzz, floaty and mildly psychedelic. Fair to say a little bit goes a long way!

Art Workshops in Oaxaca

I just got word today about an exciting opportunity to study art in Oaxaca for winter 2014. Photographer Mari Seder and painter Humberto Batista are offering a workshop in photography, art and painting the first week of March.

Mari Seder is a celebrated photographer who divides her time between Worcester, Massachusetts and Oaxaca. She is a lecturer at the Worcester Art Museum.

Photo by Mari Seder

Humberto Batista was born in Mexico City and has lived in Oaxaca for three decades. He has established a reputation as a world class painter and collage artist.

Collage/painting by Humberto Batista

Both Mari and Humberto are steeped in the cultural heritage and contemporary artistic scene of the jewel-like city of Oaxaca.
I highly recommend the workshop with these master teachers who know Oaxacan art and culture inside out. It's a rare opportunity; not only to experience Oaxaca from insider eyes, but to expand your artistic horizons guided by the sure hands of Mari and Humberto.

Complete information about the 2014 Winter Art Workshops in Oaxaca can be seen here.

Steve Lafler